US09073366B1

The printing head module includes a bracket, a plurality of cartridges, a first piston, a pivot shaft, and a control unit. The bracket includes a plurality of through holes. The cartridges coaxially aligned with each other, each of the cartridges includes a leaning portion and contains the modeling material and a nozzle for extruding the modeling material. The leaning portion is leaning against the bracket when the cartridge is located at the printing position. The first piston is configured to slide along an extensional axis of the cartridge and drive the cartridge to move toward the printing position. The pivot shaft is connected to the bracket and adapted to rotate the cartridge to a working location. The control unit is coupled to the pivot shaft and the first piston for controlling the first piston and the rotation of the bracket.
US09073361B2

A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a liquid ejection head; a first conveyor for conveying a recording medium in a first direction to a recording position; a second conveyor disposed downstream of the recording position; a third conveyor for returning the recording medium to the first conveyor; and a dryer disposed at a drying position located downstream of the recording position in the first direction. A controller controls: image recording on a first surface of the recording medium opposite its second surface (first processing); the second conveyor to convey the recorded recording medium in the first direction until its upstream edge portion reaches a downstream side of the drying position in the first direction (second processing); the second conveyor to convey the recording medium in a second direction (third processing); and image recording on the second surface (fourth processing). The dryer dries the recording medium in the second processing.
US09073358B2

The present invention provides an inkjet ink including at least 50% by weight of organic solvent based on the total weight of the ink, a radiation curable material, a photoinitiator and a colorant. The invention also provides an apparatus for printing the ink wherein the apparatus includes at least one printhead, a means for evaporating solvent from the printed ink and a source of actinic radiation. Furthermore, the invention provides a method of inkjet printing including i) inkjet printing the inkjet ink as defined above on to a substrate; ii) evaporating at least a portion of the solvent from the printed ink; and iii) exposing the printed ink to actinic radiation to cure the radiation curable material.
US09073356B2

Disclosed is a liquid treatment agent coating device including a coating roller that coats a recording medium with a liquid treatment agent; a pressing roller that cooperates with the coating roller to nip and convey the recording medium; a first container that holds the coating roller and the liquid treatment agent, wherein the first container has an opening portion in the vicinity of a nip portion between the coating roller and the pressing roller; a second container that accommodates an amount of the liquid treatment agent held in the first container, wherein the second container has second airtightness that is greater than first airtightness of the first container; a removal channel extending from the first container to the second container; a first on-off valve disposed in the removal channel; and a return channel extending from the second container to the first container.
US09073355B2

A recording apparatus includes: a transport path for transporting a recording medium; a cover that is capable of being opened and closed and that covers the transport path when the cover is in a closed state; and a blowing unit, provided in the cover, that is capable of blowing air toward the recording medium that is on the transport path when the cover is in a closed state and that retracts from the transport path when the cover is in an open state.
US09073352B2

In a printer, a continuous paper is conveyed using a suction force of a fan brought to a first suction force, the continuous paper supplied to a platen is stopped on a support surface, a recording process is conducted on the continuous paper stopped on the support surface with the suction force of the fan changed to a second suction force greater than the first suction force, and the continuous paper is conveyed after the suction force of the fan has been reduced below the second suction force back to the first suction force during the recording process.
US09073342B2

A recording apparatus includes: a recording head having a recording element row in which multiple recording elements are disposed, with recording elements at dispersed positions in the recording element rows as blocks; a scanning unit configured to scan the recording head in a main scanning direction; a time-division driving unit configured to drive the recording elements in increments of blocks; a storing unit configured to store recording data; an obtaining unit configured to obtain information relating to the inclination of the recording element row relative to the main scanning direction; and a changing unit operable to change, in increments of individual recording elements, the storage position in the main scanning direction of recording data stored in the storing unit that is to be provided to recording elements of a group, which is configured of consecutive recording elements in each block in the recording element row, based on the obtained information.
US09073336B1

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid flow path connecting a liquid containing unit that contains a liquid to a liquid ejecting unit that ejects the liquid. The liquid flow path includes a supply flow path which connects the liquid containing unit to the liquid ejecting unit and a return flow path which connects the liquid ejecting unit to the liquid containing unit. When the liquid is not ejected by the liquid ejecting unit, the liquid contained in the liquid containing unit is circulated between the liquid containing unit and the liquid flow path by allowing the liquid to flow in order of the supply flow path, the liquid ejecting unit, and the return flow path. When the liquid is ejected, the liquid contained in the liquid containing unit is supplied to the common liquid chamber via both of the supply flow path and the return flow path.
US09073329B2

There is provided a liquid droplet jetting apparatus, including: a liquid droplet jetting head in which a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of individual channels are formed; a purge mechanism; a judgment mechanism which judges whether or not a defective nozzle in which a jetting failure occurs is included in purge target nozzles; a heating mechanism which heats a liquid in the plurality of individual channels; and a controller which controls the purge mechanism and the heating mechanism. In a case that the judgment mechanism judges that the defective nozzle is included in the purge target nozzles, the controller controls the heating mechanism and the purge mechanism to heat the liquid in a part of the plurality of individual channels, which include an individual channel communicating with the defective nozzle, and to execute the purge operation for the purge target nozzles.
US09073328B2

An inkjet marking module includes an inkjet marking device adapted to jet droplets of an inkjet marking material to form an image on recording substrate; and an evaporation device arranged for evaporating a solvent to a gaseous medium. The evaporation device includes an aerosol generator for creating an aerosol of the solvent in the gaseous medium; and a droplet eliminator for removing droplets from the aerosol, the droplet eliminator being arranged downstream of the aerosol generator. A printing system includes such an inkjet marking module and a method is disclosed for controlling the relative degree of saturation of a solvent vapor in a gaseous medium in an inkjet marking module.
US09073319B2

According to one embodiment, an inkjet head includes a substrate, a nozzle plate, and an actuator incorporated in the nozzle plate. The nozzle plate includes a nozzle provided to communicate with an ink pressure chamber, and a vibrating plate exposed to the ink pressure chamber. The actuator displaces the vibrating plate in the thickness direction to pressurize ink in the ink pressure chamber via the vibrating plate and eject the ink from the nozzle. The ink pressure chamber has a first dimension in the thickness direction of the substrate and a second dimension in a direction orthogonal to the thickness direction of the substrate. The first dimension is larger than the second dimension.
US09073304B2

A conveying apparatus for conveying an object, the object having at least a non-opaque portion, including a light source, an optical detector and a backing measurement apparatus, the light source for illuminating the object, the optical detector for acquiring information at least relating to at least one chromatic characteristic of the non-opaque portion, the backing measurement apparatus including a backing material, a backing support and a plurality of rollers, the backing material exhibiting at least one of determined chromatic characteristics and determined optical characteristics, the backing support for supporting the backing material, the plurality of rollers for rolling the backing material over the backing support, wherein light emitted by the light source optically interacts with the backing material consistently through the non-opaque portion.
US09073301B2

A screen printing machine configured to move a squeegee by a squeegee moving device along a mask to print solder on a substrate through a through hole of the mask is improved in size and usability. A squeegee-device main body is fixed to a mask frame receiver for holding a mask frame, and a squeegee slide, a squeegee head, and a squeegee-slide driving device are provided on the main body. A position adjusting device including two front/rear-direction adjusting units, one right/left-direction adjusting unit, and one floating support unit is provided between a main body frame of the screen printing machine, and the mask frame receiver and the squeegee-device main body to adjust relative positions of the mask and the substrate by moving the mask frame receiver and the squeegee-device main body together with each other.
US09073300B2

An imager apparatus useful for a digital lithographic printing system includes imaging roll configured to be heated to a first temperature. The imager apparatus may include one or more heating elements for heating the imaging roll to the first temperature within one revolution. The imaging roll may be about the same width as an imaging plate in a cross-process direction, the imaging plate and the imaging roll being configurable for forming an imaging nip in a digital lithographic ink printing system. The imager apparatus may include a solution ejecting mechanism such as a printhead for ejecting fountain solution or water at ambient temperature onto a surface of the imaging roll according digital image data.
US09073297B2

The present invention provides a process for producing a transparent heat-resistant gas-barrier film capable of exhibiting a good gas-barrier property and maintaining good properties even after heat-treated at a temperature of 250° C. or higher, in a simple manner at low costs without need of a large size facility and a number of steps. The process for producing a transparent heat-resistant gas-barrier film according to the present invention includes the steps of coating a polysilazane-containing solution onto at least one surface of a transparent polyimide film formed of a polyimide containing a specific repeated unit; and calcining the coated solution at a temperature of 180° C. or higher to laminate a silicon oxide layer obtained by the calcination on the transparent polyimide film.
US09073295B2

An extruded composite adapted for use as a building material includes a core having a base polymer and a natural fiber in a substantially homogeneous mixture and an ionomer capstock. To improve adherence of the ionomer to a base polymer, the ionomer can be mixed with a similar or substantially similar base polymer prior to coextrusion with the core. Additionally, various additives may be mixed with the capstock material to improve visual aesthetics of the product and performance of the building material, especially over time.
US09073291B2

Glass articles for use as covers in electronic devices and methods for forming the same are described herein. The glass articles generally include a shaped glass substrate comprising a first face, a second face and a perimeter edge. The shaped glass substrate may be formed from strengthened glass such that the shaped glass substrate has a compressive stress layer which improves the ability of the glass article to withstand surface damage without cracking. A polymer overmold is coupled to the attachment feature of the perimeter edge of the shaped glass substrate thereby protecting the perimeter edge of the shaped glass substrate from damage. In one embodiment, at least a portion of the perimeter edge of the shaped glass substrate comprises an attachment feature offset from the first face. In another embodiment the polymer overmold is integrally formed with at least one connector.
US09073284B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided a method of forming a pattern, including forming a thermally crosslinkable molecule layer including a thermally crosslinkable molecule on a substrate, forming a photosensitive composition layer including a photosensitive composition on the thermally crosslinkable molecule layer, chemically binding the thermally crosslinkable molecule to the photosensitive composition by heating, selectively irradiating the photosensitive composition layer with energy rays, forming a block copolymer layer including a block copolymer on the photosensitive composition layer, and forming a microphase-separated structure in the block copolymer layer.
US09073277B2

A method for controlling the discharge of fluids during a process for vulcanization and molding of a green tire includes the steps of: building at least one portion of a radially internal surface of a green tire by winding of a continuous elongated element of elastomeric material into a plurality of coils confining circumferential grooves along the rolling direction of the tire; disposing the circumferential grooves into fluid communication with discharge channels present in the radially external surface of a pressing bladder disposed in a radially internal cavity bounded by the green tire.
US09073276B2

Method, process and plant for building tires for vehicle wheels wherein: in a service position of a carcass structure building line, a forming drum is associated with a pair of support elements including a first support element and a second support element; the forming drum is moved, associated with the pair of support elements, in a deposition line in the carcass structure building line; and the forming drum is transferred from the deposition line to a subsequent work station of the carcass structure building line. The transfer from the deposition line to the subsequent work station includes dissociating the forming drum from the second support element, keeping the forming drum associated with the first support element; transferring the forming drum, associated with the first support element and dissociated from the second support element, to the subsequent work station; dissociating, in the subsequent work station, the first support element from the forming drum, leaving the forming drum in the subsequent work station; and transferring the first support element, dissociated from the forming drum, into the service position.
US09073266B2

A method and apparatus for welding members formed of thermoplastic resin material, with high welding strength and small strength variations. A laser welding apparatus 1 brings a first member 2 formed of a transmissive thermoplastic resin that transmits a laser beam into contact with a second member 3 formed of an absorptive thermoplastic resin that absorbs the laser beam, and joins the thermoplastic resin members by melting their contact surfaces 4 with the laser beam. The laser welding apparatus 1 further comprises a laser beam generator 10 for irradiating the contact surfaces with the laser beam shone from the side of the first member 3 so as to melt at least one of the contact surfaces of the first member and the second member. The apparatus also comprises a clamp mechanism 20 for pressing the first member and the second member together, a temperature sensor 31 as an adjusting means for adjusting the pressing force applied to the first member and the second member, and a personal computer 32 for calculating the pressing force based on the output of the temperature sensor. The clamp mechanism is controlled with the calculated pressing force.
US09073257B2

A film stretching machine includes a clip chain for holding a lateral edge of a film and stretches the film while transporting the film with the clip chain holding the film and traveling, and includes an upper reference rail disposed at an upper side for guiding the clip chain; a lower reference rail disposed at a lower side for guiding the clip chain; a plurality of clips that constitutes the clip chain; an interval adjusting rail for adjusting intervals of the plurality of clips; and interval adjusting links that couple neighboring clips among the plurality of clips and contact with the interval adjusting rail to adjust the intervals of the plurality of clips. According to the film stretching machine, a stretch degree of a film can be adjusted with a simple configuration and little man-hours.
US09073256B2

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a composite material part from a preform of fibers pre-impregnated with resin. The method includes laying the preform on a laying surface of a tool with a peripheral shoulder, covering the preform with a conforming plate delimited by a peripheral edge which extends beyond the peripheral flank of the preform over the entire periphery of the preform, using shims calibrated to position the conforming plate, the shims being arranged between the support surface of the peripheral shoulder and the peripheral edge of the conforming plate, removing the calibrated shims, arranging a seal connecting the conforming plate and the tool all around the preform, and polymerizing the preform.
US09073253B2

The invention relates to an apparatus and method for heating containers and in particular preforms. The apparatus comprising a microwave heating device which has a microwave generator and a microwave conductor, and a transport device which transports the containers. The apparatus can further comprise a further heating device which heats the containers, wherein the further heating device is a pre-heating unit which is arranged upstream of the microwave heating device in the transport direction of the containers.
US09073251B2

A facility and process for processing containers includes a container production device for producing containers and at least one processing device which is disposed downstream from the container production device, for further processing of the containers. The container production device is synchronized with the processing device during regular operation. However, upon recognition of a malfunction in the processing device, synchronization of the container production device with the processing device is at least temporarily canceled.
US09073249B2

An actuator for an injection mold is provided and may include a housing, a projection rotatably supported by the housing and movable between an extended state and a retracted state, and a cam supported by the housing. The cam may selectively move the projection between the extended state and the retracted state relative to the housing.
US09073246B2

A coinjection molding apparatus is disclosed that provides first and second material melt streams to a nozzle. The nozzle defines a first material melt passage for receiving the first material melt stream, a second material melt passage for receiving the second material melt stream and an outer layer melt passage, which receives a portion of the first material melt stream from the first material melt passage. The first material melt stream from the first material melt passage forms an inner layer of a molded article, the second material melt stream from the second material melt passage forms a core layer of the molded article, and the first material melt stream from the outer layer melt passage forms an outer layer of the molded article, wherein the three melt streams combine prior to entering a mold cavity.
US09073237B2

A granulating device for producing pellets from a plastic material can have a die plate, a cutting chamber housing adjoining the die plate, and a cutting device with a cutter. The cutting device can be driven via a cutter shaft by a cutter drive device located in a cutter drive housing. The cutting chamber housing can have a cutting chamber housing flange section connected with a cutter drive housing flange section of the cutter drive housing by a connecting element. The connecting element can have a clamping collar arranged to enclose at least one section of the flange sections, and an eccentric closure element. The eccentric closure element can be connected to the clamping collar, and can have an index opening. In a closure position, the index opening can be located in alignment with a locating pin that passes through the index opening.
US09073234B2

There is disclosed cutting means of a honeycomb dried body in which cracks are not easily generated in the honeycomb dried body, even when a grindstone continues to be used for a long period of time, a cutting speed is raised and a cutting object is a honeycomb dried body having a large diameter. There is provided a cutting method of a honeycomb dried body to cut the honeycomb dried body while applying a force Pm which resists a thrust force Pt required for the cutting and a weight Pw of a cutoff section, to a portion which becomes the cutoff section.
US09073230B2

A method for controlling a conveyance speed of a sheet comprises the steps of: setting a reference rotation angle; rotationally driving a drive motor (8) and a rotary cutter (15); detecting a marker (2a) of a backsheet (2); detecting a rotation angle of a rotary blade of a cutting member when the marker (2a) is detected; ascertaining an angular difference between the detected rotation angle and the reference rotation angle; and controlling rotational driving of the drive motor (8) to reduce the angular difference.
US09073228B2

A cutting tool includes a tool unit including an electric motor, a fan and a rotary cutting blade. The fan and the rotary cutting blade are rotatably driven by the electric motor. A blower includes a blower duct introducing a flow of air produced by the fan toward a cutting point where a workpiece is cut by the rotary cutting blade.
US09073224B2

A foldable box opener is securable to a writing or pointing implement and has a blade mount having a collar attachable to a top portion of the writing implement and a portion adjacent the collar, with the offset portion including an opening extending through the offset portion, a blade including a first blade edge and a second blade edge opposite the first blade edge, and a pin attached to the blade and the collar allowing rotation of the blade about the collar. The blade first edge is tapered to have a smaller thickness than the second edge, with the first edge thickness being sufficiently narrow to cut a cardboard box or packaging tape while being sufficiently wide to prevent a user's skin from being pierced or lacerated.
US09073216B2

In a joint mechanism having at least one joint member connected to a connectable member via a joint to be rotatable in a range between an extended position and a bent position, it is configured to have a movable cover constituting a part of a joint member cover that covers the joint member and the movable cover is moved into interior of remaining portion of the joint member cover as the joint member is rotated relative to the connectable member about the joint from the extended position to the bent position. The joint mechanism can be suitably used in fingers of a hand of a humanoid robot.
US09073215B2

A robot system includes: a robot including a camera unit shooting an object in a container, a hand gripping the object, and a contact detector detecting that the hand contacts the container; and a robot control device, which includes a control unit causing the hand to contact the container; a contact detection unit detecting by the contact detector that the hand contacts the container, and finding a contact position thereof; a first processing unit calculating a position of the container from a stereo image of the container acquired by the camera unit; a second processing unit calculating a difference between the position of the container calculated by the first processing unit and the contact position found by the contact detection unit as a correction amount; and a third processing unit correcting information on a position in a height direction of the object in the container based on the correction amount.
US09073208B2

A gripper apparatus and its control method are provided. The gripper apparatus includes at least one gripper unit, and each gripper unit is configured with a first connecting rod and a second connecting rod. In addition, there is an elastic part disposed at the joint of the first and the second connecting rods, an encoder and a controller. Thereby, the controller is enabled to control the gripper apparatus to move toward an object in a first mode so as to enable the gripper unit to engage the object and thus exert a force upon the object. Consequently, the elastic part is deformed and the deformation of the elastic part is measured and encoded by the encoder into a force information to be transmitted to the controller for enabling the controller to switch the control of the gripper apparatus into a second mode according to the force information.
US09073204B2

An output member is connected with an input member through three sets of link mechanisms for alteration in attitude. The link mechanism includes end portion link mechanisms on an input side and an output side, respectively, and an intermediate link member. The link mechanism is such that a geometric model of each of the link members expressed by lines represents such a shape as an input side portion and an output side portion relative to a center of the intermediate link member are symmetrical with each other. By actuating two or more sets of the link mechanisms by means of a link mechanism drive source, the attitude of the output member is controlled. Through the inside of an arrangement of the link mechanisms, a flexible wire is provided for transmitting a rotational force in a direction of arrangement of the input and output members.
US09073200B2

A grip for a handheld airbrush is described. The grip comprises pliant material piece having a first cylindrical passage that includes an open axial seam and a second cylindrical passage that is closed, where the second substantially cylindrical passage intersects the first substantially cylindrical open passage opposite the open axial seam. The pliant material piece fills area between ends of the first substantially cylindrical passage and of the second substantially cylindrical passage. The grip is installed with the second substantially cylindrical passage over the airbrush handle or stem and the first cylindrical passage around the cylindrical body with the airbrush toggle extending through the open axial seam. Depressed regions on opposite sides of the pliant material piece aid a user's grip. The grip may be employed with a secondary toggle grip for a toggle button of the airbrush.
US09073198B1

A flexible utility handle comprising a handle, an upper tubular section having a female threaded first end and a recessed second end, a lower tubular section having a recessed first end and a male threaded second end, a coiled spring flexibly connecting the upper tubular section and the lower tubular section, and a tension cable operationally connecting the handle and the lower tubular section. The handle includes a cable tension bolt which is operationally designed to engage the female threaded first end of the upper tubular section. Rotating the handle to increase the overall length of the invention decreases its flexibility at the coiled spring. Rotating the handle to decrease the overall length of the invention increases its flexibility at the coiled spring.
US09073197B2

A vibration reduction handle includes: a handle body attachable to a disk grinder; a grip portion which extends in a first direction defined as a longitudinal direction of the grip portion and is pivotably movable in a second direction crossing the first direction; and a first vibration reduction rubber and a second vibration reduction rubber which are respectively provided between the handle body and the grip portion.
US09073196B2

In an electric disc grinder, there is provided, between a driven gear and a spindle in a torque transmission system, a C-shaped spring member capable of elastic deformation in a diameter enlarging direction. With respect to the rotating direction, the spring member is engaged with a driving protrusion of the driven gear and a driven protrusion of a joint sleeve of the spindle; when transmitting the rotation of the driven gear to the spindle, the spring member undergoes elastic deformation in the diameter enlarging direction depending on the driven side load, thereby mitigating the starting shock. An abutment surface of the driven protrusion is formed as an inclined surface causing an end portion of the spring member contacting with the abutment surface to slide radially outwards. As a result, the spring member can easily undergo elastic deformation in the diameter enlarging direction.
US09073182B2

A screwing tool includes an engaging member adapted to be gripped as a handle including a first inserting member. A biasing member is received within the engaging member. A driving member includes a driving head and a guiding groove at two different ends. The guiding groove receives the first inserting member. The first inserting member interconnects the engaging member and the driving member. The biasing member is disposed between the driving member and the engaging member. A control ring receives the driving member and is selectively movable between a first position disposed at a first relative position with respect to the engaging member and in which the screwing tool becomes an impact screwdriver, and a second position disposed at a second relative position with respect to the engaging member and in which the screwing tool becomes a regular screwdriver.
US09073176B2

The cost for shot-peening is intended to be reduced. The method for shot-peening of the present invention comprises a first step for processing a work by shot-peening by projecting shots onto the work, and a second step for processing the work by shot-peening by projecting the shots onto the work at a speed for projecting the shots that is slower than the speed in the first step, wherein the second step uses the same shot-peening machine and same shots that have been used in the first step. By this method, an intended distribution of compressive residual stresses is obtained by the processes in the first and second steps and the surface roughness of the work is decreased by the process in the second step wherein the shots are projected at the speed that is slower than that in the first step. Further, no removal or supply of the shots and no re-setting of the conditions for the process that are related to the removal and supply of the shots are required. Multiple shot-peening machines do not need to be installed. Thus the cost for shot-peening is reduced.
US09073173B2

A polishing pad shape measured by a polishing pad shape measuring apparatus is modified into a target shape of a polishing pad by using a dressing tool so that a wafer has a desired surface shape. The invention is a method for shape modification of a polishing pad 14 for polishing a workpiece into a desired surface shape, comprising: a measurement step S9 of measuring a polishing pad shape in a state of being attached to a plate 12 by using a polishing pad shape measuring apparatus 10; a condition determination step S10 of selecting a dressing recipe capable of polishing the workpiece into a desired surface shape from a plurality of pre-provided dressing recipes based on the measurement result in the measurement step S9; and a shape modification step S11 of dressing the polishing pad 14 by using the dressing recipe determined in the condition determination step S10.
US09073168B2

An eccentric seat of an automobile grinding machine has a base, a grinding device, and a linking-fixing unit. The base has a base hole formed in the base. The grinding device is mounted in the base and has a grinding head. The grinding head has a head hole aligned with the base hole. The linking-fixing unit is mounted in the base hole and can move along the axial direction of the base hole and can be engaged the base. The linking-fixing unit has an inserting end that can be engaged in the head hole. When the inserting end is inserted into the head hole, the grinding head is fixed relative to the base, such that it is easy for the grinding head to combine with a grinding body, and the eccentric seat is suitable for polishing a surface of an automobile.
US09073167B2

A rail profiling device for a railway crossover includes a frame having first and second rail-side members laterally spaced from each other and two longitudinally spaced support members extending therebetween; a plurality of wheels positioned on the rail-side members, wherein the rail-side members are laterally spaced a distance, such that wheels on opposite rail-side members are configured to be mounted on laterally spaced rails of the railway corresponding to an axle width of a rail vehicle of the railway, the wheels including a wheel profile corresponding to a rail vehicle wheel profile; and a planing device positioned on the first rail-side member and configured to provide, in a single set-up pass, a precisely located continuously levelly supported crossover wheel contact surface profile along the entire length of one side of the railway crossover.
US09073160B2

A suction device with a hand-held power drill is disclosed. The suction device has a housing and a locking mechanism for fastening the housing to a housing of the hand-held power drill. The suction device furthermore has a fan motor and a controller for the fan motor. The controller contains a sensor for detecting the operating state of an electric motor of the hand-held power tool. The controller is configured to activate the fan motor when the electric motor is in a rotating state of operation.
US09073147B2

The invention relates to a laser machining head for a laser machining machine, comprising a mount (2) for a sensor part (3) formed from electrically conductive material, an outer insulation part (4) made from electrically insulating material, preferably made from plastic, for electrical shielding and an inner insulation part (5) inserted within the outer insulation part (4) as radiation shield, wherein the inner insulation part (5) is formed from metal and is electrically insulated from the sensor part (3).
US09073145B2

An impeder for use in an electric induction welding process is provided. A cooling medium is circulated around the exterior of the impeder's magnetic material with the impeder entry and exit passages for the cooling medium located on opposite sides of the impeder.
US09073138B2

Arc welding systems, methods, and apparatus that provide dual-spectrum, real-time viewable, enhanced user-discrimination between arc welding characteristics during an arc welding process. Welding headgear is configured to shield a user from harmful radiation and to include a digital camera or cameras to provide dual-spectrum (i.e., both visible spectrum and infrared spectrum) real-time digital video image frames. The welding headgear is also configured with an optical display assembly for displaying real-time digital video image frames to the user while wearing the headgear during an arc welding process. Image processing is performed on the visible and infrared spectrum video image frames to generate dual-spectrum video image frames providing an integrated and optimized view of both the visible and thermal characteristics of the arc welding process which can be viewed by the user on the optical display assembly in real time.
US09073135B2

A method for slicing wafers from a workpiece includes providing wire guide rolls that each have a grooved coating with a specific thickness, providing a fixed bearing respectively associated with each wire guide roll and providing a sawing wire including wire sections disposed in a parallel fashion. The wire sections are tensioned between the wire guide rolls and are moved relative to the workpiece so as to perform a sawing operation. The wire guide rolls cooled and the fixed bearings are cooled independently of the wire guide rolls.
US09073129B2

A rotary cutting tool includes a replaceable cutting tip having a cutting portion structured to perform cutting operations on a workpiece and a first threaded portion disposed generally opposite the cutting portion. The cutting tool further includes a generally cylindrical tool body disposed about a central longitudinal axis. The tool body has a first end portion adapted to be coupled to a machine tool and an opposite second end portion having a second threaded portion cooperatively engaged to the first threaded portion. The second threaded portion is moveable with respect to the tool body in a manner that selectively couples the cutting tip to the tool body.
US09073122B2

Disclosed is a method for preparing silver nanowire. The method includes: providing a first solution and a second solution; mixing the first solution and the second solution to obtain a third solution including a plurality of silver nanowires; and performing a purification procedure on the third solution to obtain the silver nanowires. Particularly, the first solution includes a capping agent dispersed in a first alcohol solvent, and the second solution includes a silver salt and a metal precursor dispersed in a second alcohol solvent, wherein the metal precursor has a formula: MXn or MXn.m(H2O) wherein M is Cu2+, Sn4+, or Ni2+, X is Cl−, Br−, I−, SCN−, SO42−, NO3−, or C2O42−, n is 1-4, m is 1-6, and M has a valence equal to the absolute value of the product of n and a valence of X.
US09073119B2

A receptacle for handling molten metal is provided. The receptacle has bottom and side walls and includes a refractory defining a cavity within which the molten metal is conveyed or contained. The receptacle has at least one channel extending within at least one of its walls. The channel has an inlet and an outlet. The inlet is connectable to a source for circulating a fluid within the channel. The outlet allows the fluid to be expelled from said channel. The channel allows, when the fluid is circulated in it, to regulate the temperature of the refractory and thereby of the metal conveyed or contained. A casting assembly and a method for casting the refractory are also provided.
US09073115B2

A method of casting a metal ingot with a microstructure that facilitates further working, such as hot and cold rolling. The metal is cast in a direct chill casting mold, or the equivalent, that directs a spray of coolant liquid onto the outer surface of the ingot to achieve rapid cooling. The coolant is removed from the surface at a location where the emerging embryonic ingot is still not completely solid, such that the latent heat of solidification and the sensible heat of the molten core raises the temperature of the adjacent solid shell to a convergence temperature that is above a transition temperature for in-situ homogenization of the metal. A further conventional homogenization step is then not required. The invention also relates to the heat-treatment of such ingots prior to hot working.
US09073102B2

A method for cleansing a mold of the present invention suppresses generation of damage is a method for cleansing a nanoimprinting mold, in which a mesa type mold is immersed in cleansing fluid and ultrasonic cleansing is performed in a state in which a mold release layer containing a fluorine compound is provided on a patterned region of the mesa type mold.
US09073094B2

Methods, systems, apparatus and machine readable media are disclosed to reduce biological carryover. An example method includes generating an alternating electromagnetic field and introducing an aspiration and dispense device into the electromagnetic field. The example method also includes inductively heating the aspiration and dispense device with the electromagnetic field to at least one of denature or deactivate at least one of a protein or a biological entity on a surface of the aspiration and dispense device.
US09073093B2

The invention relates to a label separating apparatus in which, of labels formed in rows and columns on a continuous substrate being transported along a line of transport, labels found good and labels found defective upon determination of their quality are transported separately. The invention seeks to ensure that all of a plurality of defective labels possibly extant in any one of the rows can concurrently be transferred without fail selectively onto a different line of transport.The apparatus includes a primary conveyer in which a continuous substrate 21A is transported having labels 22A-22D, which are spaced apart from each other by a given distance and arranged in rows and columns, formed thereon and peelably adhered thereto. The primary conveyer includes a transport turn-back member 12A for permitting labels 22A-22D for each row concurrently to peel off the continuous substrate 21. In the apparatus, a label peeled off by the transport turn-back member 12A and found defective is subjected to an air blast by an air-blasting member 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D and is thereby oriented in transport towards a conveyer for defective labels 14 and adhered to on the conveyer for defective labels 14 while it is held by a label holding member 16 formed with an air draining vent 16C.
US09073091B2

A system for detecting oil contaminated product and foreign matter within a product stream is provided. The system includes a first conveying means for delivering a product stream; a first detection apparatus for detecting oil contaminated product, the first detection apparatus positioned proximate the product stream, the first detection apparatus including a high intensity infrared light source directed at the product stream; and a high speed NIR spectrometer sensor tuned to detect a reflected signal from a taggant disposed in the oil of the oil contaminated product; a second detection apparatus for detecting foreign matter within a product stream, the second detection apparatus positioned proximate the product stream, the second detection apparatus including a light source for illuminating the product stream and a detector for detecting light reflected from the product stream; and a controller for determining whether the product stream contains oil contaminated product or foreign matter.
US09073086B2

A probe for an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus includes a backing layer including backing members, a first connector bonded between the backing members and including electrodes spaced from each other in an arrangement direction, and a piezoelectric member electrically connected to the electrodes. A method of manufacturing the same is also disclosed. The piezoelectric member is connected to the first connector or to first and second connectors via an electrode layer instead of using a complicated and laborious soldering operation, thereby enabling easy connection between the piezoelectric member and the connector while preventing deterioration in performance caused by defective connection therebetween and deterioration in performance of the piezoelectric member caused by heat during manufacturing operation.
US09073076B2

A liquid ejection device, includes: a drive waveform signal output circuit which outputs a drive waveform signal to serve as a reference for the drive signal; a modulator which pulse-modulates the drive waveform signal and thus generates a first modulated signal and a second modulated signal having a different phase from the first modulated signal within a range from greater than 90 degrees to smaller than 270 degrees; a first digital power amplifier; a second digital power amplifier a first low pass filter which performs low pass filtering of the first amplified digital signal and thus generates a first demodulated signal; and a second low pass filter which performs low pass filtering of the second amplified digital signal and thus generates a second demodulated signal; wherein the first demodulated signal and the second demodulated signal are combined and applied as the drive signal to the capacitive load.
US09073066B2

A foam assembly connectable to a liquid container includes a main pump body, a resiliently deformable piston dome, an air chamber, a liquid chamber, a mixing zone and a porous member. The main pump body has an exit nozzle with the porous member therein. The air chamber and the liquid chamber are each defined by the piston dome and the main pump body. The liquid chamber has a liquid inlet valve and a liquid outlet valve. The mixing zone is in flow communication with the air chamber and the liquid chamber. The volume of the air chamber and the liquid chamber are each dependent on the position of piston dome and during an activation stroke the piston moves from the at rest position to the depressed position and responsively the volume of the air chamber and the volume of the liquid chamber are reduced.
US09073064B2

An apparatus for separating a fluid mixture includes a uniaxial cyclonic separator (2) having a separation chamber (18) for separating the fluid mixture by cyclonic action into a first fluid and a second fluid. An inlet (16) is located at a first end of the separation chamber (18) for receiving a fluid mixture, while a first outlet (22) for the first fluid and a second outlet (26) for the second fluid are located at a second end of the separation chamber. A gas injection means (12) is provided for injecting a gas into the fluid mixture to aid separation within the separation chamber (18). The gas injection may also be through an annular chamber surrounding the separator chamber (18). The gas in this case is introduced through a porous medium 130 via a gas supply line 136.
US09073059B2

The invention relates to the dynamic separation of particles such as those resulting from crushing and grinding extracted minerals or recycled materials (glass, plastic, etc.). The separation is carried out by multi-stage dynamic separators (2, 3), a regulation being carried out therebetween by feeding a fluid. This latter can be a dense medium similar to that feeding the stages, and can have a rotational component with respect to the axis of the separator.
US09073058B2

A wood chipper with an air entrainment system. The wood chipper includes a chipping drum in a drum chamber and a discharge fan in a fan chamber. The chipping drum and fan are conjointly driven by a common shaft. The discharge fan draws air from the drum chamber through a chamber air inlet and potentially also from the ambient atmosphere through an external air inlet. The volume of air drawn from the drum chamber is sufficient to offset or overcome the negative air flow created by the spinning drum in the drum chamber to reduce blowback. Air entrained with the chipped material moves toward the discharge chute and away from the material inlet. A deflector may be include near the mouth of the discharge chute to further guide air flow from the fan chamber toward the discharge chute and prevent the backflow of air into the chipping chamber.
US09073055B1

A mill assembly for processing product comprises a mill housing assembly, at least first and second port assemblies defining an exterior inlet opening and an exterior outlet opening, at least one collection assembly, an air guide assembly, and a grinding assembly. In one form, a feed/collection ratio of the exterior inlet opening to the exterior outlet opening is at least approximately 1.5:1. In another form, seals are formed between the port assemblies and the mill housing assembly. In another form, the mill assembly operates in a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode, a ring plug plate and a wall plug plate are detached from the mill housing. In the second mode, the ring plug plate and the wall plug plate are attached to the mill housing to prevent air from flowing out of the third housing port.
US09073054B2

The present invention relates to a fluid-controlling device (10) for incorporation into a microchip (100). The fluid-controlling device (10) of the present invention includes: a glass substrate (1b) having a hollow part (3) provided therein, the hollow part (3) having a first opening (3′) extending to a top surface of the glass substrate (1b) and a second opening (4) extending to a bottom surface of the glass substrate (1b); and a glass sheet (2) being 1 to 50 μm in thickness and sealing the first opening (3′), the glass sheet (2) changing a volume of the hollow part (3) when a position of the glass sheet (2) is displaced by and according to a pressing force applied toward the hollow part (3). With use of the present invention, it is possible to provide a versatile microchip system being usable under a high pressure and being usable with an organic solvent.
US09073052B2

A laboratory liquid handling system includes a pipetting module, a lab member, and a drive system. The pipetting module includes a pipettor including a pipettor shaft and a pipetting tip extending from an end of the pipettor shaft. The lab member includes a body and at least one adapter structure including an interlock feature configured to laterally receive and interlock with the pipettor shaft to releasably secure the lab member to the pipettor shaft. The drive system is operable to: selectively move the pipettor shaft laterally relative to the interlock structure to engage the pipettor shaft with the interlock structure to secure the lab member to the pipetting module; move the pipetting module to transport the lab member secured thereto; and selectively move the pipettor shaft laterally relative to the interlock structure to disengage the pipettor shaft from the interlock structure to thereby release the lab member.
US09073051B2

A heating device for single cylindrical laboratory vessels (e.g., laboratory test tubes), the heating device including a clamp-like element using a force-fit to encompass at least a part of each cylindrical laboratory vessel, one or more electrical resistance heating circuits located at the interior of the clamp-like element, and grab handles to open and close the clamp-like element, thereby to insert or release the cylindrical laboratory vessel from the heating device.
US09073042B2

The present invention relates to a process for hydrogenating feedstock comprising acetic acid in the presence of hydrogen to product comprising ethanol in a reaction zone under hydrogenation conditions over a catalyst composition promoted with cobalt, rhodium, cesium or a combination thereof on a previously calcined composition comprising at least one Group VIII metal and tin on a support material.
US09073031B2

The present invention relates to a channel plate comprising a number of rows of units, at least one inlet and at least one outlet, at least one turning box, wherein turning boxes being connections between two adjacent rows of units in the channel plate, that fluid may flow from one row to the other in the created room. The present invention relates further to flow sections and flow module.
US09073022B2

A system for producing emulsions includes a liquid supply system, an emulsification system in liquid connection with the liquid supply system to receive a first liquid and a second liquid from the liquid supply system while in operation to be used to produce an emulsion therefrom, and a surfactant recovery system connected to the emulsification system to receive the emulsion when produced from the first and second liquids. The second liquid is immiscible with the first liquid, and the surfactant recovery system recovers at least a portion of surfactant from the emulsion when the emulsion is received from the emulsification system.
US09073019B2

A food processing vat is provided with blade assemblies that extend from opposing sides of a rotating shaft. The blade assemblies may be curved or otherwise face different directions at different locations along their respective lengths. The vat may have a pair of rotating shafts and the rotation of the shafts may be timed so that the blade assemblies of the shafts simultaneously travel through a common swept volume. The blade assemblies may be positioned on the shafts so that they intermesh through each other while simultaneously moving through the common volume.
US09073016B2

The rotating disc aerator is a portable aeration device utilizing atmospheric air, rather than using a compressor for its air supply. The aerator includes a motorized base having a rotary shaft and diametrically opposed, oppositely reciprocating rods extending therefrom. A plurality of discs are disposed along the shaft and are connected to the ends of the rods. The discs are free to slide along the shaft as the rods reciprocate, but rotate with the shaft. A plurality of resilient absorbent elements (sponges, etc.) are installed along the rotary shaft between the discs. The aerator assembly is buoyant, about one-half of each absorbent element extending above the surface of the water when the aerator is placed therein. The upper portions of the absorbent elements absorb air as they rotate above the surface, and are compressed to expel the air into the water as they rotate beneath the water surface.
US09073008B2

A wet gas scrubber liquor and method of using the same to remove mercury from flue gases. The wet gas scrubber liquid is an alkaline liquid suspension of ferrous sulfide particles that can be prepared by combining together a ferrous ion source such as ferrous chloride, a sulfide ion source such as sodium hydrosulfide and an alkalinity source such as sodium hydroxide. When used to scrub flue gases to remove mercury from flue gases the mercury reacts with said alkaline liquid suspension of ferrous sulfide particles and can be removed by at least one of: i) adsorption onto said ferrous sulfide particles; ii) adsorption onto iron (hydr)-oxides that form in said alkaline liquid suspension of ferrous sulfide particles; and iii) absorption by reacting with sulfur formed in alkaline liquid suspension of ferrous sulfide particles and forming mercuric sulfide as a precipitate.
US09073007B2

A separation membrane including an alloy wherein the alloy includes at least one Group 5 element and at least one Group 14 element, wherein the at least one Group 5 element and the at least one Group 14 element of the alloy define a body centered cubic structure.
US09072993B2

A filter medium includes a porous film and a support material supporting the porous film. The porous film includes polytetrafluoroethylene, has an average pore diameter of at least 2.5 μm, and has a porosity of at least 95%. A pressure loss is less than 100 Pa when air is passed through the filter medium at a velocity of 5.3 cm/sec. A collection efficiency of NaCl particles is at least 95% when air including NaCl particles with a particle diameter of 0.3 μm is passed through the filter medium at a velocity of 5.3 cm/sec. A PF value is at least 30, where PF={−log [(100−collection efficiency (%))/100]/pressure loss (Pa)}×1000. A dust holding capacity of polyalphaolefin particles held in the filter medium is at least 15 g/m2 when air including polyalphaolefin particles with a count median diameter of 0.25 μm is continuously passed through the filter medium at a velocity of 5.3 cm/sec and pressure loss reaches 300 Pa.
US09072987B2

A method for desorption of one or more gases from a liquid stream in which a liquid stream containing at least one gas is provided to the feed side of a porous membrane and a trans-membrane pressure drop from the feed side to the opposite gas side of the membrane is created, resulting in a portion of the liquid stream filling at least a portion of the pores of the porous membrane and desorption of at least a portion of the at least one gas from the liquid stream to the gas side of the porous membrane.
US09072983B2

(1) A vinyl sulfonic acid, having a double bond content of 95 wt. % or more, and (i) a sodium (Na) content of 1 ppm or less, and (ii) a content of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of alkali earth metal and first row transition metal of 1 ppm or less. Alternatively, (2) a vinyl sulfonic acid, having a double bond content of 95 wt. % or more, and (i) a sodium (Na) content of 100 ppb or less, and (ii) a content of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of alkali earth metal and first row transition metal of 100 ppb or less. Further, a homopolymer or copolymer thereof, a production method thereof, or a thin-film distillation apparatus suited for the production thereof.
US09072978B2

The present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising a flexible polymeric sheet having first and second sides and an anchoring device including a tab element, a pressure-sensitive adhesive element, and a stake element.
US09072976B1

Systems and methods to update virtual trading card characteristics are described. In some embodiments, a method initiates a game played with multiple virtual trading cards, each of which represents a real-world character. Initial characteristics of each virtual trading card are determined based on historical performance data associated with the real-world character. Current performance data is accessed for each real-world character. The characteristics of each virtual trading card are updated based on the current performance data for the represented real-world character. The game is played based on the updated characteristics for the multiple virtual trading cards.
US09072967B2

Trajectory-based games of chance are described that may be implemented on a video gaming machine. In a trajectory-based game of chance, a trajectory of a game object may be generated in a 3-D gaming environment. A wager may be made on an aspect of the game object's trajectory in the gaming environment such as a termination location for the trajectory of the game object. The aspect of the game object's trajectory may occur according to a known probability. Hence, an award for the trajectory-based game of chance may be proportional to the probability of the aspect of the game object's trajectory occurring.
US09072960B1

A game apparatus involving launching and catching of a game piece includes a pincer tool having first and second opposed members that are articulatable with respect to one another to capture the game piece between the articulatable members, and to also accelerate the game piece radially outwardly from a pivot region. The pincer tool of the game apparatus therefor acts to launch the game piece merely through relative articulation of the opposed first and second members toward one another while the game piece is in contact with both of the first and second members.
US09072959B2

A binding for a sliding board includes a stationary part connected to the board, forming a rotating body, and provided with a retaining and fastening arrangement; and a moving part provided with an attachment and retaining arrangement for attaching and retaining same in relation to the retaining and fastening arrangement of the stationary part. The retaining and fastening arrangement of the stationary part are formed by peripherally arranged flanges separated from the board, as well as including portions with no flanges. The moving part includes a boot securing arrangement including a cavity, which can also rotate, provided with internal ridges, the cavity having a diameter approximately equal to that of the rotating body of the stationary part together with the flanges, such that the connection between the stationary part and the moving part takes the form of a bayonet coupling obtained by insertion and rotation.
US09072956B2

A wakeboarding system and pool are provided. The wakeboarding system includes a deck, a pool of water adjacent the deck, a pad having a top surface and a bottom surface, the pad being fixedly coupled to the deck and protruding therefrom over a portion of the pool of water, the bottom surface of the pad being in contact with the pool of water and the pad being configured to float, and a flow of water over the top surface of the pad. The pad has an outer edge that opposes the deck, the outer edge being configured in a semi-circle. The pad further includes protrusions on the pad, the protrusions being configured on the top surface of the pad to allow a wake boarder to engage the protrusions. The apparatus further includes a towing mechanism and a tow device coupled thereto for towing the wake boarder.
US09072945B2

A golf ball includes a single core formed from a substantially homogenous rubber composition, an inner cover disposed about the core, and an outer cover. The inner cover includes an ionomeric material and has a hardness of about 60 Shore D or greater. The outer cover layer is disposed about the inner cover layer, is formed from a castable polyurea or polyurethane, and has a material hardness of about 60 Shore D or less. The outer surface of the core has a trans content of about 12% or less and a hardness of about 71 to 88 Shore C, the geometric center of the core has a trans content of about 10% or less and a hardness of about 70 to 80 Shore C, and the core surface hardness is greater than the geometric center hardness by about 1 to 10 Shore C to define a shallow positive hardness gradient.
US09072942B2

An integrated flywheel set for exercise equipment includes a base plate, a flywheel that is coaxial with the base plate and arranged such that an accommodating space is formed between the flywheel and the base plate, a magnetic damper unit that is deposited on the base plate and received in the accommodating space and provides magnetic attraction to hinder the flywheel from rotation, and a transmission that is received in the accommodating space and configured to drive the flywheel to perform an inertial motion. Thereby, the integrated flywheel set has the magnetic damper unit, a driving wheel set, a driven wheel set, and a multiplying wheel set integrated on the base plate, allowing exercise equipment to have its internal space used more effectively, and making the production and maintenance of the integrated flywheel set easier, thereby providing economical advantage.
US09072938B2

As shown in FIG. 1 the exercise machine of the preferred embodiments includes a mechanical force input interface 1 designed to interface with a user 5 and allow the user 5 to input force 4 into the exercise machine; a force resistor 2 that functions to resist force input into the mechanical force input interface 1 by the user 5; and a trigger mechanism 3 that functions to cause a sudden change in the resistance provided against the force input 4 by the user 5. The exercise machine of the preferred embodiments is designed to exercise muscles in a way that improves muscle speed, explosiveness, or both.
US09072933B1

An apparatus for exercising intrinsic muscles of the lower and upper body includes a base having an elongate track mounted thereto. A pair of carriages carrying respective stirrups are adjustably mounted to the track. A pair of outer connector hooks are mounted to respective ends of the base and at least one inner connector hook is mounted to the base between the outer hooks. A height adjustable vertical post carries a horizontal hanger. Resilient athletic bands are connected to the apparatus and manipulated by a user to exercise intrinsic muscles.
US09072928B2

An exercise apparatus may include an elongated tube disposed between a pair of handles. The elongated tube may be stretchable and flexible, making the exercise apparatus ideal for use in resistance training, amongst other sports and activities. The elongated tube may be attached to each handle by a grommet, a gasket, and an insert. An end of the elongated tube may be threaded through the gasket and may receive the insert, which prevents the end of the elongated tube from retreating back through the gasket. The grommet may be arranged on the gasket and affixed to a strap defining a portion of the handle.
US09072925B2

A valve for a pressure vessel of an automatic fire extinguishing system comprises a valve housing with a valve output opening for connecting an extinguishing line, a valve input opening for connecting the valve to the pressure vessel, a valve seat arranged between the valve output opening and the valve input opening, a low pressure chamber for connecting a triggering device and a high pressure chamber connectable with the low pressure chamber, wherein arranged in a the valve housing is a closing piston comprising a valve seat seal, which can be moved between a closing piston closed position and a closing piston open position, a pressure control unit in pressure connection with the valve input opening and the low pressure chamber for controlling the low pressure in the low pressure chamber relative to a vessel pressure of the pressure vessel and a control piston which can be moved between a control piston closed position and a control piston open position, wherein the closing piston is arranged in the closing piston closed position with the valve seat seal on the valve seat in a fluid-tight manner so that the valve output opening is sealed relative to the valve input opening, wherein the closing piston is arranged in the closing piston open position spaced apart from the valve seat, so that the valve output opening and the valve input opening are in pressure connection, wherein the control piston in the control piston closed position seals a pressure channel between the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber in a fluid-tight manner, and wherein the control piston in the control piston open position releases the pressure channel, so that the high pressure chamber and the low pressure chamber are in pressure connection.
US09072922B2

Disclosed is a safety ladder for protecting a lineman or firefighter from a flash fire. The ladder has the appearance of a conventional ladder but includes interlocking plates positioned in between the rungs along the rails. Attached to the plates are fluid conduits that allow for the dispensing of a hydrated super absorbent polymer having superior fire suppression to be sprayed over an individual using the ladder should a fire erupt. The mounting plates have spray nozzles attached to the conduit located along the rails of the ladder so as to not infer with normal use of the ladder. A pressurized container of hydrated super absorbent polymer is coupled to the ladder. The hydrated super absorbent polymer is discharged through a solenoid valve which can be operated by the individual using the ladder with a button attached to the ladder or activated by a heat sensor attached to the ladder.
US09072921B2

A fire suppression system for an aircraft includes an air separation module configured to receive exhaust air and ram air, conditioned compressor bleed air, and any combination thereof. The air separation module is also configured to provide nitrogen-enriched air and inert gas. The nitrogen-enriched air flows into a nitrogen-enriched air distribution network for fuel tank inerting. The inert gas flows into an inert gas distribution network for fire suppression in areas of the aircraft other than fuel tanks.
US09072916B2

The invention relates to a cosmetic formulation with improved effectiveness and reduced stickiness, comprising at least one activated aluminum antiperspirant active ingredient, at least one alpha-hydroxycarboxylic acid and water.
US09072913B2

A leadless cardiac pacemaker comprises a housing, a plurality of electrodes coupled to an outer surface of the housing, and a pulse delivery system hermetically contained within the housing and electrically coupled to the electrode plurality, the pulse delivery system configured for sourcing energy internal to the housing, generating and delivering electrical pulses to the electrode plurality. The pacemaker further comprises an activity sensor hermetically contained within the housing and adapted to sense activity and a processor hermetically contained within the housing and communicatively coupled to the pulse delivery system, the activity sensor, and the electrode plurality, the processor configured to control electrical pulse delivery at least partly based on the sensed activity.
US09072908B2

One aspect relates to a method for connecting a housing of an active implantable medical device to a head part, whereby an uncured joining agent that is arranged, at least in part, between the housing and the head part is transitioned into a cured joining agent to attain a firmly bonded connection. In one embodiment, the uncured joining agent includes monomers of a (meth)acrylic acid alkyl ester, and the cured joining agent includes at least one polymer of the (meth)acrylic acid alkyl ester.
US09072899B1

The application describes a diaphragm pacemaker that uses an implanted CO2 sensor to constantly monitor CO2 in the body and adjust the pace of breathing based on the amount of CO2. The sensor is preferably placed in tissue such as fat or muscle to sense CO2. The CO2 sensor and diaphragm pacemaker unit are preferably implanted in the shoulder or neck area so that the entire device may be implanted and connected to the body without invading the stomach or diaphragm area.
US09072897B2

A system for restoring muscle function to the lumbar spine to treat low back pain is provided. The system may include electrodes coupled to an implantable pulse generator (IPG), a handheld activator configured to transfer a stimulation command to the IPG, and an external programmer configured to transfer programming data to the IPG. The stimulation command directs the programmable controller to stimulate the tissue in accordance with the programming data. The system may include a software-based programming system run on a computer such that the treating physician may program and adjust stimulation parameters.
US09072896B2

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a substantially rigid base and a flexible substrate. The substantially rigid base has a first protrusion and a second protrusion, and is configured to be coupled to an electronic device. The flexible substrate has a first surface and a second surface, and includes an electrical circuit configured to electronically couple the electronic device to at least one of an electrode a battery, or an antenna. The flexible substrate is coupled to the base such that a first portion of the second surface is in contact with the first protrusion. A second portion of the second surface is non-parallel to the first portion.
US09072895B2

A system and method for accurately locating and tracking the position of a target, such as a tumor or the like, within a body. In one embodiment, the system is a target locating and monitoring system usable with a radiation delivery source that delivers a selected doses of radiation to a target in a body. The system includes one or more excitable beacons positionable in or near the target, an external excitation source that remotely excites the beacons to produce an identifiable signal, and a plurality of sensors spaced apart in a known geometry relative to each other. A computer is coupled to the sensors and configured to use the beacon measurements to identify a target isocenter within the target. The computer compares the position of the target isocenter with the location of the machine isocenter. The computer also controls movement of the patient and a patient support device so the target isocenter is coincident with the machine isocenter before and during radiation therapy.
US09072894B2

Techniques for radioablation of sympathetic nerves include positioning a subject on a support in view of a volume imaging system and an ionizing radiation source; and collecting volume image data. Location of a treatment portion of a sympathetic nerve in the subject is determined based on the volume image data. Movement of the source is determined to apply a therapeutic radiation dose to the treatment portion based on the location of the treatment portion and relative location of the source to the volume imaging system. The source is operated to deliver the therapeutic radiation dose. An apparatus includes a mounting structure, an X-ray source and a shield. The source produces an X-ray beam with photon energy above one million electron volts (MeV) and not above six MeV. The shield is mounted in opposition to the source to block the X-ray beam with photon energies not greater than about six MeV.
US09072890B2

An electrical lead for a cardiac device includes a body having a distal end sized for insertion through a catheter, first and second electrodes extending through the body, with each electrode terminating in a tip having proximal and distal ends and arranged to extend to an area of cardiac tissue. The tips include a fully insulated portion on the proximal and distal ends measuring in a range between 5 percent and 40 percent of the lengths of the tips, and further include an uninsulated intermediate section. The tip of the second electrode includes a helical section surrounding the first electrode and has an insulated portion on an inwardly facing portion surface facing toward the first electrode. The tip of the second electrode also includes a fully insulated portion on the proximal and distal ends measuring in the same or similar percentage range.
US09072874B2

Medical devices and methods for making and using the same are disclosed. An example medical device may include a guidewire. The guidewire may include a core wire having a distal portion. A tubular member may be disposed over the distal portion. The tubular member may have a plurality of slots formed therein. The tubular member may have a distal section with a heat transfer region and a heat sink region. A solder tip member may be attached to the tubular member. The solder tip member may include a portion extending through the heat transfer region of the tubular member to the heat sink region.
US09072864B2

A catheter assembly for intracranial treatment of a patient for facilitating concurrent electrical sensing and fluid flow is provided and includes an outer flexible tube having a proximal end, a principal lumen extending therealong to the proximal end, and at least one radial aperture through the wall communicating with the lumen as well as a secondary lumen adjacent to the tube outer-wall surface and extending therealong. The catheter assembly including a depth electrode within the secondary lumen, extending along the length thereof. The depth electrode having electrical contacts exposed to brain tissue along the flexible tube.
US09072863B2

A catheter assembly for intracranial treatment of a subject that includes an outer tube that may be connected to an infusion or osmotic pump and delivered through a bendable catheter to the target brain site of the subject. The assembly facilitates regular accurate placement of drug or compound delivery at the tissue region without additional contact and minimizes trauma to the subject.
US09072862B2

A vapor hydrated packaged catheter assembly and method of manufacturing and distributing same includes a gas impermeable package housing a catheter within a catheter-receiving cavity. The catheter assembly has a hydrophilic coating applied to at least a portion of the outer surface of a catheter tube or shaft which may be surrounded by a sleeve to provide a no-touch, sure grip feature. The catheter assembly is disposed within the catheter receiving cavity of the package together with a limited amount of a vapor donating liquid provided as a source of vapor to activate the hydrophilic coating. The amount of vapor donating liquid is less than the amount that would otherwise be sufficient to cause a spill hazard. It may be loose liquid as a desired percentage of the volume of a tube-receiving portion of the catheter receiving cavity of the package, or it may be contained in a liquid sequestering element. The activation of at least some of the hydrophilic coating occurs solely by reason of exposure of the outer surface of the catheter to a vapor produced by the vapor donating liquid. The distribution of the catheter following manufacture is delayed for a time sufficient to permit the vapor to complete hydration of the entire hydrophilic coating on the surface.
US09072860B2

A flow generator and humidifier construction is described, including a flow generator construction adapted to reduce noise output compared to known flow generators of comparable size. The flow generator includes a chassis forming first and second muffler volumes and a venturi-shaped connection portion, and a metal/polymer composite material blower enclosure which suppresses noise from the blower. The flow generator may be programmed to include a reminder system including a menu from which the user may request a reminder to take specific action, e.g., replace a component, call a physician, and/or enter patient data card, etc.
US09072857B2

A delivery device (20, 22) for and a method of delivering a substance to the nasal airway (1) of a subject, in particular the posterior region of the nasal airway, the delivery device comprising: a closure unit for causing the closure of the oropharyngeal velum of the subject; and a delivery unit for delivering a gas flow entraining a substance to one of the nostrils of the subject at such a driving pressure as to flow around the posterior margin of the nasal septum and out of the other nostril of the subject, wherein the delivery unit comprises a nosepiece (30, 40, 58, 82, 102, 132) which includes an outlet through which the gas flow is in use delivered to the one nostril and a sealing member for sealing the one nostril to the outlet such as in use to prevent the escape of the gas flow through the one nostril.
US09072854B2

A breathing system is provided that employs a reservoir for holding oxygen or an oxygen and medicine mixture while the patient is not inhaling. The reservoir generally prevents waste and reduces cost and helps prevent the patient from re-inhaling the previously exhaled gases.
US09072843B2

A renal therapy system includes: a filter; an arterial blood flowpath in fluid communication with the filter; a venous blood flowpath in fluid communication with the filter; extracorporeal circuit including the filter, the arterial blood flowpath and the venous blood flowpath; a renal therapy fluid flowpath in fluid communication with the extracorporeal circuit; a plurality of renal therapy fluid valves; and first and second renal therapy fluid pumps, wherein the system is configured to operate the plurality of renal therapy fluid valves so that (i) the first renal therapy fluid pump pumps renal therapy fluid through the renal therapy fluid flowpath to the extracorporeal circuit for a number of first pump actuations and (ii) the second renal therapy fluid pump pumps renal therapy fluid through the renal therapy fluid flowpath for a number of second pump actuations.
US09072832B2

Apparatus and method detect a detection cluster that is associated with a neurological event, such as a seizure, of a nervous system disorder and update therapy parameters that are associated with a treatment therapy. The occurrence of the detection cluster is detected when the maximal ratio exceeds an intensity threshold. If the maximal ratio drops below the intensity threshold for a time interval that is less than a time threshold and subsequently rises above the intensity threshold, the subsequent time duration is considered as being associated with the detection cluster rather than being associated with a different detection cluster. Consequently, treatment of the nervous system disorder during the corresponding time period is in accordance with one detection cluster. Treatment therapy may be provided by providing electrical stimulation, drug infusion or a combination. Therapy parameters may be updated for each mth successive group of applications of the treatment therapy or for each nth detection cluster.
US09072822B2

A radiation shield for use in treating spinal metastatic disease is formed of a body that is configured to surround the spinal cord and includes a section that can be axially extended for increasing the surface area of the shield.
US09072821B2

Described herein are material compositions including various textures which when implanted in a mammal encourage an optimal biological response.
US09072816B2

A composition for reconstruction, replacement or repair of damaged or diseased biological tissue comprising an extracellular matrix (ECM) composition that includes an ECM scaffold component derived from a mammalian source and at least one additional bioactive component selected from the group consisting of a statin and a chitin derivative.
US09072810B2

The present invention relates to uses of resorbable medical implants that are metallic or semi-metallic, to produce soft tissues, membranous tissues, organs or organ parts within the body by fibrosis. The present invention further relates to such uses when the implants are made of specified alloys or metals, e.g. magnesium and its alloys. The present invention further relates to such uses when the implant is surface modified. The present invention further relates to such uses when the implant is pre-implanted at another part of the body before implantation into the target site.
US09072805B1

An apparatus for decontaminating a region within an enclosure. The apparatus comprises a conduit having a passageway therethrough that defines a path for a carrier gas. A plurality of tube sections, each of the tube sections having an opening extending therethrough, is selectively movable into and out of a gap in the conduit. A heating element is disposed in one of the tube sections and is operable to heat the carrier gas flowing therethrough. A destroyer is disposed in another of the tube sections and is operable to destroy sterilant in the carrier gas. A controller controls movement of the tube sections into and out of the gap.
US09072803B2

To allow uniform and efficient sterilization of facilities selected from clean rooms, cell processing centers for human use (CPCs), medical-supply-manufacturing facilities, animal-rearing facilities (SPF animals), biohazard rooms, food processing facilities, and medical facilities, where walls, floors, ceilings, device surfaces, and spaces, including equipment interiors, can be sterilized while minimizing effects such as corrosion and using the smallest amount of chemical agent as possible, and whereby sterilization can be carried out without problems with residual toxicity and without the need for wiping operations subsequent to sterilization. In addition, an operator can initiate, monitor, and control sterilization from outside the sterilization zone and thus respond to unexpected circumstances such as damage to a sprayer during a sterilization operation. Moreover, a suitable sterilization environment can be produced and maintained automatically, and reliable sterilization can be carried out by a remote operator along with a main controller located at a distance that allows control.
US09072799B2

Certain embodiments disclosed herein relate to compositions, methods, devices, systems, and products regarding frozen particles. In certain embodiments, the frozen particles include materials at low temperatures. In certain embodiments, the frozen particles provide vehicles for delivery of particular agents. In certain embodiments, the frozen particles are administered to at least one biological tissue.
US09072797B2

The present invention relates to the use of radioimmunoconjugates for the treatment of haematological malignancies, particularly multiple myeloma.
US09072794B2

Disclosed is a novel long-acting glucagon conjugate in which glucagon or its derivative is covalently linked to a polymer carrier via a non-peptide linker, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same as an effective ingredient useful for the prevention and treatment of obesity. Since the long-acting glucagon conjugate of the present invention shows improved in vivo durability and stability, when used in combination with an anti-obesity drug, it is possible to induce synergistic effects on the loss of body weight and decrease in food intake without causing any side-effects such as fluctuation in blood glucose level. Accordingly, the long-acting peptide conjugate of the present invention is very effective for the prevention and treatment of obesity.
US09072792B2

A generic structure for the peptides of the present invention includes A-X-B-C, where C is a cargo moiety, the B portion includes basic amino acids, X is a cleavable linker sequence, and the A portion includes acidic amino acids. The intact structure is not significantly taken up by cells; however, upon extracellular cleavage of X, the B-C portion is taken up, delivering the cargo to targeted cells. Cargo may be, for example, a contrast agent for diagnostic imaging, a chemotherapeutic drug, or a radiation-sensitizer for therapy. X may be cleaved extracellularly or intracellularly. The molecules of the present invention may be linear, cyclic, branched, or have a mixed structure.
US09072783B2

A method for the selection of pharmaceutically acceptable excipients that allow for the production of highly dispersible powders produced by spray drying.
US09072775B2

The invention relates to a fluorescent emulsion, to a diagnostic reagent containing the same, and to the use thereof in the preparation of a diagnostic reagent for in vivo fluorescence imaging.
US09072768B2

This invention is a composition containing prebiotics, Lentinula edodes mycelia extract, and Litchi chinensis fruit polyphenol and use of the same in increasing the effectiveness of radiation or chemotherapy and in the prevention, mitigation and/or treatment of colorectal neoplasia.
US09072762B2

The combination of gallic acid, ellagic acid, and rubusoside was shown to inhibit angiogenesis by inhibition of pro-angiogenic factors. These three compounds were shown to be absorbed from the intestine making the compounds orally bioavailable. The ratio of the three compounds in the composition was a weight ratio of approximately 1:1.7:17.0 of gallic acid, ellagic acid, and rubusoside, respectively, resulting in a composition with 5% w/w gallic acid, 9% w/w ellagic acid, and 86% w/w rubusoside. This combination was also shown to reduce weight gain, fat accumulation, and serum cholesterol in mammals fed a high fat diet. It also reduced serum triglycerides and tended to reduce blood glucose in mammals on both normal and high fat diets. This three-compound composition (“GER”) can be used to treat diseases associated with angiogenesis and to decrease effects of a high fat diet.
US09072760B2

The present invention relates to methods of treating infectious, inflammatory and post-traumatic disorders by administering various compounds newly discovered to have TLR4 inhibitory activity. In addition to methods of treatment, the present invention further provides for pharmaceutical compositions comprising said compounds, together with a suitable pharmaceutical carrier. Because TLR4 is the most upstream receptor in the pro-inflammatory LPS signaling cascade, treatments of the invention, which inhibit or antagonize TLR4 action, may avoid the pitfalls associated with other cytokine inhibitors that act further down the pathway and accordingly play a less specific (and perhaps non-critical) role.
US09072755B2

An aqueous composition for application in a method for surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body or in a diagnostic procedure which is practiced on the human or animal body, the composition comprising osmotically active particles and containing less than 70 μl−1 of amniotic cells, the osmolarity of the composition being in the range from 240.0 mosm/l to less than 308.0 mosm/l, and the chloride ion concentration in the composition being not more than 130.0 mmol/l. An aqueous composition for application with an amniotic infusion, the composition containing less than 70 μl−1 of amniotic cells and comprising at least one surfactant, is also disclosed.
US09072751B2

Methods and compositions for detecting, treating, characterizing, and diagnosing interstitial lung and/or fibrotic diseases are described.
US09072749B2

Methods and compounds are disclosed for treating dry age-related macular degeneration, and preventing or delaying the onset of wet age-related macular degeneration.
US09072748B2

Disclosed are compounds which inhibit the activity of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL proteins, compositions containing the compounds and methods of treating diseases during which are expressed anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein.
US09072744B1

Methods and compositions relating to TIC10 are described according to aspects of the present invention. The compositions and methods have utility in treating disease, particularly cancer in a subject in need thereof, including a human subject as well as subjects of other species. The compositions have utility in treating brain cancer in a subject in need thereof.
US09072735B2

A proteinase therapy has been invented to eliminate solid tumors by destroying tumors' solid structure and killing cancer cells by cleaving vital extracellular matrix proteins C-terminally, N-terminally or both with cell membrane intact and limited adverse effects. The micro-scale intratumoral proteinase K therapy is tumor specific but not cancer type specific. Proteinase K therapy can be operated on multiple tumors on multiple occasions, if necessary. It may be employed to eliminate any solid tumor to prolong a cancer patient's life span.
US09072731B2

Disclosed is a compound of formula (I), wherein Z, m and R1-R6 are as described herein, as a modulator of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors particularly the α7 subtype, in a subject in need thereof, as well as analogs, prodrugs, isotopically substituted analogs, metabolites, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, polymorphs, solvates, isomers, clathrates, and co-crystal thereof, for use either alone or in combinations with suitable other medicaments, and pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds and analogs. Also disclosed are a process of preparation of the compounds and the intended uses thereof in therapy, particularly in the prophylaxis and therapy of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, senile dementia, and the like.
US09072727B2

Effective treatments of pain and/or inflammation from degenerative disc disease and/or facet joint are provided. Through the administration of an effective amount of at least one alpha adrenergic agonist at or near a degenerative disc and/or facet joint, one can reduce, prevent or treat pain and/or inflammation caused by the degenerative disc disease and/or facet joint.
US09072720B2

A bone graft composition includes a biologically-resorbable cement and a plurality of processed bone particles, where each of the bone particles have a shape configured to interconnect with adjacent bone particles. A method for treating a bone defect using the bone graft compositions includes providing the bone graft composition and administering an effective amount of the bone graft composition to a site of a bone defect in a subject. Kits including a biologically-resorbable cement powder and a plurality of processed bone particles are also provided.
US09072718B2

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVEDThe present invention is intended to provide a burdock fruit extract comprising arctigenin and arctiin at a definite ratio and a method for producing the same. More particularly, the present invention is intended to provide a method for producing a burdock fruit extract comprising arctigenin and arctiin at a weight ratio of approximately 1:1.SOLUTIONA method for producing a burdock fruit extract comprising arctigenin and arctiin at a weight ratio of arctigenin/arctiin=0.7 to 1.3 is provided, including the steps of: cutting a burdock fruit and converting arctiin which is inherent in the burdock fruit into arctigenin by enzymatic conversion by beta-glucosidase which is inherent in the burdock fruit, wherein the enzymatic conversion includes reaction at a temperature from 20° C. to 50° C. Also provided is the method further including a step of extracting an extract comprising arctigenin and arctiin by adding an organic solvent and heating to reflux.
US09072714B2

The invention relates to fatty acid stimulation of rectal mucosa initiating the process of defecation, acting as a laxative. Furthermore, the invention relates to the usage of free fatty acids, fatty acid mixtures and fatty acid extracts from marine lipids in pharmaceutical formulations such as suppositories, ointments, tablets and gelatin capsules for treatment and prevention of multiple disorders like constipation, hemorrhoids, bacterial infections (e.g. helicobacter pylori), viral infections (e.g. herpes simplex virus infections) and inflammations, as well as against fissura ani and pruritus ani.
US09072707B2

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for inhibiting angiogenesis comprising an isolated peptide comprising the heparin-binding domain of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-5 (IGFBP-5), a method for inhibiting angiogenesis using the peptide, a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention or treatment of cancer comprising the peptide, a method for treating cancer using the peptide, a novel angiogenesis-inhibiting peptide derived from heparin-binding domain of IGFBP-5, a polynucleotide encoding the peptide, an expression vector comprising the polynucleotide and a transformant comprising the vector.
US09072703B2

A series of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide analog compounds, pharmaceutical compositions, and the use of the GIP polypeptide analog compounds as GIP-receptor agonists or antagonists for the treatment of GIP-receptor mediated conditions, such as non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and obesity.
US09072698B2

The present invention relates to a method for screening an anticancer compound and an anticancer compound screened using the method, and more particularly, to a method for screening an anticancer compound, the method comprising: culturing cancer cells expressing the oncogenic protein transmembrane 4 L6 family member 5 (TM4SF5), expressed as the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 2, treating the cancer cells with an anticancer candidate, and determining that the anticancer candidate is an anticancer substance when the candidate exhibits antagonistic activity against tumor formation and metastasis based on several events through the molecular mechanism of TM4SF5. The present invention also relates to chalcone compounds screened to have anticancer activity using the method, and an anticancer composition comprising the compound as an effective ingredient.
US09072696B2

The present invention provides a compound of formula I; or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein the variables R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, and A-B are defined herein, which are non-immunosuppresive, cyclophilin-binding, mPTP blockers and are therefore useful for the prevention or treatment of diseases or disorders such as HCV infection, stroke, multiple sclerosis, HBV infection, HPV infection, asthma, cancer, muscular dystrophy, sepsis, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and heart failure.
US09072695B2

Provided is a material safely promoting the production of estrogen in a living body. The invention relates to use of a compound represented by the following formula (I) or a solvate thereof for producing an aromatase activator. The invention relates to an aromatase activation method comprising administering a compound represented by the following formula (I) or a solvate thereof (wherein the dashed line indicates that the bond may be a double bond, provided that a and b in the formula (I) do not simultaneously represent a double bond).
US09072694B2

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for treatment of microbial infections and for the enhancement of resistance to infection. The invention comprises administration of an effective amount of a protein isolated from bacterial lysate compositions for the treatment of pathological conditions of microbial infections. The present invention can also be used to enhance the immune system to prevent infections by the administration of an effective amount of the compositions.
US09072687B2

The present invention relates to oral compositions, comprising select polyethylene oxide-polypropylene oxide block copolymer surfactants. Methods for using the compositions are also disclosed.
US09072679B2

Particles containing a tetracycline or one of its pharmaceutically acceptable salts and an antioxidant, formulations containing the same and their use in the treatment of infectious diseases are described. Methods of encapsulation of a tetracycline or one of its pharmaceutically acceptable salts and an antioxidant are also disclosed.
US09072676B2

The present invention relates to the cosmetic, dermatological or therapeutic use of certain cyclohexyl carbamate compounds of formula (I) given below, preferably as skin and/or hair lightening (whitening) actives. The invention further relates to compositions and cosmetic, dermatological or therapeutic products comprising one or more compounds of formula (I) suitable for lightening human skin and/or hair and corresponding methods. The invention further relates to compounds of formula (I) as a drug, their use for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition for lightening human skin and/or hair and to novel compounds of formula (I) wherein A denotes wherein X, Y and Z independently of one another denote hydrogen, C1-C4-alkyl or C2-C4 -alkenyl, wherein optionally two of the radicals X, Y and Z are covalently bonded to one another under formation of a bicyclic ring system, in such a bicyclic ring system two of the radicals X, Y and Z together preferably form a radical having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, preferably a hydrocarbon radical having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, B denotes NR1R2, wherein R1 denotes hydrogen or an organic radical having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, R2 denotes an organic radical having 1 to 14 carbon atoms, and wherein optionally R1 and R2 are covalently bonded to one another, preferably so that B is a 3 to 8 membered ring.
US09072673B2

A composition for measurably improving oral health, a system including the composition, a method of using the composition and system, and a method of forming the composition and system are disclosed. The composition is a gel that maintains contact with a portion of an oral cavity for an extended period of time to, for example, prevent or reduce plaque and calculus buildup. The system includes a composition and a container encapsulating the composition. The composition is applied by rupturing the container and applying the composition through the ruptured portion of the container. In exemplary embodiments, the methods, systems and kits disclosed herein are suitable for measurably reducing an amount of gingivitis, periodontitis, bleeding, plaque and/or tartar.
US09072660B2

Methods of transdermally delivering a therapeutic amount of a triazole-triazolone compound are provided, e.g. for the prevention or treatment of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in a subject. A therapeutic level of a triazole-triazolone compound such as itraconazole is delivered transdermally to a subject. Also provided are topical triazole-triazolone compositions that find use in practicing the subject methods.
US09072658B2

Toothpaste compositions are disclosed. The toothpaste composition comprises a binder; a surface active agent; an abrasive; a humectant; and water, in which: (1) the abrasive is silica, the composition additionally comprises a silica thickener, and the composition comprises 1 to 7 wt % of the silica thickener, less than 15 wt % of the silica abrasive, 45 to 70 wt % water, 0.8 to 3.0 wt % of a surface active agent; 0.05 to 3.0 wt % the binder, or (2) the abrasive is silica, the composition additionally comprises a silica thickener, the composition comprises 2 to 22 wt % total silica, 0.8 to 3.0 wt % of a surface active agent; 0.05 to 3.0 wt % the binder, and the composition additionally comprises about 0.1 to 8.0 wt % of non-colloidal microcrystalline cellulose, colloidal microcrystalline cellulose, or a mixture thereof; or (3) the binder is a calcium based abrasive, the binder is a cellulose gum, and the composition comprises 25 to 55 wt % of the calcium based abrasive, 35 to 60 wt % water, 0.8 to 3.0 wt % of the surface active agent, and 1.0 to 3.0 wt % of the binder.
US09072651B1

An apparatus and method for sexual stimulation that includes a handheld driving member and an insertive member that is tipped with an insertive sexual device that moves in response to a user's movement of the driving member. The two members are coupled by a rotating or tilting coupling mechanism with which a user may control the motion of the insertive device with great precision. The coupling device couples the driving member to the insertive member in such a way as to translate a movement of the driving member to an analogous movement of the insertive member that the two movements are equivalent or proportional in amplitude, acceleration, and velocity, but mechanically out of phase. Variations allow the apparatus to be used simultaneously by two users, or provide features by which a user may customize the scale or direction of the insertive device's motion.
US09072650B2

The present invention relates to a system and method for guiding the walking directions of a blind person using RFID blocks and, more particularly, to a system and method for guiding the walking directions of a blind person using RFID blocks, wherein an RFID reader wirelessly senses RF tags embedded in the blocks so as to guide walking directions by means of vibrations, buzzer sounds, and voice messages for guiding entry/exit directions, according to the types of pedestrian zones when a blind person walks along the blocks. The guiding system comprises: RFID tags for guiding the walking of a blind person; a plurality of blocks embedded in sidewalks which are divided into a junction zone block, a junction neighboring zone block and a general pedestrian zone block; a walking cane for receiving pedestrian zone information from the RFID tags in the plurality of blocks and outputting vibrations, sound effects and voice messages for guiding walking directions. The walking cane comprises: an antenna for receiving the pedestrian zone information by means of the RFID tags and a wireless transceiver; and a control part for generating vibrations when the blind person passes a general pedestrian zone block, generating vibrations and buzzer sounds when the blind person passes a junction neighboring zone, outputting vibrations and a voice guiding message for indicating a junction zone block when the blind person passes, and outputting vibrations and a voice guiding message for entry/exit directions when the blind person passes the junction neighboring zone block via the junction zone block.
US09072646B2

A patient support for use with a foundation frame is disclosed. The foundation frame includes a first column and a second column. The patient support includes a base beam, a leg support, and a guide. The base beam is coupleable to the foundation frame to be supported by the first column and the second column. The leg support has a first end pivotably coupled to the base beam and a second end spaced apart from the first end. The, guide is coupled to the base beam and to the second end of the leg support. The guide is configured to guide the second end of the leg support along an arcuate path when the leg support pivots relative to the base beam.
US09072642B2

A treatment device (1) for use in a massage treatment, cosmetic treatment or wellness treatment, has a plate element (3) with a seat surface (5), a support area (7) and a support part (9). In a use position of the treatment device (1), a user sits on the seat surface (5) and a body part of a person being treated rests on the support part (9).
US09072639B2

A pad, in particular for a mattress in the nursing care and hospital sector has a liquid-impermeable and elastic lower layer and a liquid-permeable and elastic upper layer arranged on the lower layer. The lower layer and the upper layer are surrounded by an outer casing, which has a liquid-impermeable outer casing lower part facing the lower layer and a liquid-permeable outer casing upper part facing the upper layer. The pad is very comfortable to lie and/or sit on and has a high degree of breathability. Moreover, the pad is easy to clean and can accordingly be reprocessed frequently. The pad can be easily and economically retrofitted to improve the lying comfort and the breathability of existing mattresses.
US09072635B2

An absorbent article is formed by interposing superabsorbent polymer particles between overlapping two sheets. The pad-shaped absorbent article is composed of superabsorbent polymer particles bonded to the sheet with a hot melt adhesive, absorbing areas where the sheets are not bonded and sealing areas where the sheets are bonded together and surrounding the absorbing areas. Opposed two adjacent bonding areas of the absorbing areas have the sealing areas in between and facing edges which has the sealing areas in between. One of the facing edges is defined by a wavy line having crest and trough portions.
US09072630B2

A method of applying structural elements to an absorbent article is disclosed. The absorbent article includes a top sheet and a back sheet. The expandable ink is applied to the top sheet, and the expandable ink is activated to obtain three-dimensional structural elements on the top sheet. An absorbent article is disclosed and includes a top sheet provided with structural elements. The structural elements consist of expandable ink that has been applied to the top sheet and has been subsequently activated to form three-dimensional structural elements.
US09072628B2

An apparatus for compressing a material includes a plurality of levers and a plurality of jaws, wherein each jaw is attached to a lever, and wherein each jaw has a compression surface having an area. The apparatus also includes a compressing mechanism configured to move each lever in a non-linear motion such that the area of a compression surface exposed to the material decreases with the inward movement of that compression surface. Each jaw can be attached to a lever such that a gap is defined between adjacent jaws, the gap having a gap centerline. The compressing mechanism can be configured to move each jaw in a non-linear motion such that the gap centerline of the gap between adjacent jaws is predominantly tangential to an apparatus central longitudinal axis.
US09072623B2

A method of deploying a stent includes providing a delivery system with the stent loaded in a reduced diameter configuration between an inner catheter and an outer sheath, the stent including a covering positioned on a luminal wall surface thereof, the inner catheter including a radially outwardly extending protrusion that extends into the covering but does not intersect a plane along the stent luminal wall surface, advancing the delivery system to a stenting site, and withdrawing the outer sheath to deploy the stent at the stenting site.
US09072615B2

A prosthetic device having a housing, an axle, at least three housing vanes, a flow medium and a valve. The axle is disposed within the housing and moveable independently of the housing. The axle has an axle reservoir and at least three axle vanes extending from the axle to contact the chamber wall. The three housing vanes extend from a chamber wall and contact the axle. A first opening and a second opening are formed in each axle vane. The flow medium is contained entirely within the chamber and the axle reservoir. The valve is disposed in the axle and operable in response to movement of the axle in a first direction relative to the housing to allow the flow medium to enter the axle reservoir from the chamber for storage under pressure.
US09072611B2

The sealing sheath is for use with a prosthetic socket and associated liner. The sealing sheath includes a textile tube for surrounding at least a portion of a liner that is configured to wear on a residual limb. An annular seal, e.g. an elastomeric or silicone seal, is positioned adjacent a proximal end of the textile tube and continuously extends from an inside of the textile tube configured to be adjacent the liner, through the textile tube to an outside thereof configured to be adjacent an inside of the prosthetic socket. The annular seal may include a first wing on an inside of the textile tube configured to be adjacent the liner, a second wing on an outside of the textile tube configured to be adjacent an inside of the prosthetic socket, and a base connecting lower ends of the first and second wings to define a v-shaped cross-section of the annular seal.
US09072605B2

A knee arthroplasty prosthesis includes a femoral component having multiple pieces with engagement means provided for engaging various pieces of the femoral component to one another following their insertion in the incised area of the femur. A tibial component includes multiple pieces designed for assembly following positioning in the incision. The tibial component includes a Morse taper cavity on one piece of the tibial component and a Morse taper extension on another member of the component for receipt therein.
US09072597B2

Methods and devices for treating nasal airways are provided. Such devices and methods may improve airflow through an internal and/or external nasal valve, and comprise the use of mechanical re-shaping, energy application and other treatments to modify the shape, structure, and/or air flow characteristics of an internal nasal valve, an external nasal valve or other nasal airways.
US09072587B2

A variable-angle, wide-angle illuminator is disclosed, one embodiment being a small-gauge, variable-angle illumination surgical system comprising: a light source for providing a light beam; an optical cable, optically coupled to the light source for receiving and transmitting the light beam; a handpiece, operably coupled to the optical cable; an optical fiber, operably coupled to the handpiece, wherein the optical fiber is optically coupled to the optical cable to receive and transmit the light beam; an optical assembly, optically coupled to a distal end of the optical fiber, for receiving the light beam and providing the light beam to illuminate a surgical field; and a cannula, operably coupled to the handpiece and optical assembly, for housing and directing the optical assembly to illuminate a selected area, such as a surgical site. The optical assembly can comprise, for example, a fiber/polymer-dispersed-liquid-crystal (“PDLC”) diffuser optically coupled to an optical needle or a nested compound parabolic concentrator (“CPC”) cone. In the PDLC diffuser/needle embodiment, the fiber can be a standard endo-illuminator optical fiber with 0.50 NA or similar value. The light beam from the light source is emitted from the distal end of the optical fiber and provided to the PDLC diffuser for further transmission. The degree of diffusion of the light beam at the PDLC diffuser can be electrically controlled and can be varied from no diffusion to very high degree of diffusion. After passing through the PDLC diffuser, the light beam is provided to a needle or fiber, such as a glass needle or fiber, that transmits the light beam to the surgical site in the eye.
US09072584B2

A medical retrieval device of an embodiment of the present disclosure includes an assembly for positioning a medical device includes a sleeve having a lumen configured to accept a medical device, and a tab. The tab includes a distal portion and a proximal portion. The distal portion is configured to receive the sleeve for positioning the sleeve proximate the proximal portion. The proximal portion is configured such that severing the tab along the proximal portion maintains the tab in one piece.
US09072577B1

A cooling assembly is provided for cooling selected parts of the body of a patient to treat hyperthermia or to induce mild hypothermia in the treatment of strokes. The assembly includes a self-contained cooling unit containing a water supply, a battery operated refrigeration unit and circulating pump. A cooling member is connected to the cooling unit and is adapted for receiving cooled water and contacting selected parts of the patient to cool the patient. The cooling member can be a vest, wrap, blanket, chair, hood or cap.
US09072576B2

Provided is a linear actuator which is simple in structure, inexpensive to manufacture, in addition, has small magnetic leakage, and can provide a large inertial force without increasing the number of parts and weight.The linear actuator is provided with an output shaft 12 which is supported on a supporting case 11 so as to linearly reciprocate freely, an elastic member 13 which biases the output shaft 12 toward a middle position of the linear reciprocation thereof, a permanent magnet 14 which is fixed to the output shaft 12, a coil 15 which linearly reciprocates the output shaft 12 by having a variable magnetic field act on the permanent magnet 14 and is fixed to the supporting case 11 such that the coil 15 faces one of magnetic poles of the permanent magnet 14, a yoke 16, which is composed of a magnetic material, has a midway portion tightly secured to the other magnetic pole of the permanent magnet 14, extends to the exterior of the coil 15 along the exterior of the permanent magnet 14 with a space from the permanent magnet 14, and has an end portion disposed close to the exterior of the coil 15, and power supply means for forming a variable magnetic field on the coil 15.
US09072568B2

A support member for correcting tooth irregularities is provided. The support member includes: a main body that extends in a longitudinal direction and includes a hook portion formed on an end portion thereof; and a plurality of leg portions each of which extends in a radial direction from a central portion of the main body and has a through-hole formed in an end portion thereof, wherein each of the plurality of leg portions is obliquely formed with respect to a line perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the main body. The support member may be simply fixed to a palatine bone by fixing a fixing screw to the palatine bone without cutting a mucus membrane and may maintain a stable fixed state because the plurality of leg portions are fixed in an area other than a midpalatal suture area.
US09072567B2

A dental superstructure attaching system for use with a dental implant includes a longitudinal member being connectable with an implant or an implant connecting member via an at least partially curved interface area. The longitudinal member includes a main member forming the lingual part of said longitudinal member, and a lever member forming the buccal or labial part of said longitudinal member. The longitudinal member includes means for urging said lever member and said main member away from each other, such that said longitudinal member is secured to said implant or implant connecting member. The system includes a casing (200) for attachment to a dental superstructure on the outer surface of the casing (200), said casing (200) having a cavity (201) for housing the longitudinal member (102), such that when urging said lever member (102b) and said main member (102a) away from each other, the longitudinal member (102) is secured in said cavity (201).
US09072564B2

An implant is disclosed including an elongate threaded portion and a blade portion extending from the elongate threaded portion. The blade portion has a taper terminating at a point.
US09072553B2

The present invention demonstrates and improved interlocking nail and screw combination to repair fracture bones. The preferred combination uses an hourglass shaped intramedullary nail wherein the larger ends of the nail have holes capable of receiving screws. The holes may, or may not be conical. Further, the holes may or may not be threaded. The surgical screws have a variety of thread patterns, or lack threads. A non-threaded end is believed to improve healing because of a larger core diameter as compared to a comparably sized threaded screw end.
US09072551B2

A surgical instrument includes an implant, which may include a cannulated pedicle screw having a screw head, a tulip connected to the screw head, an extension connected to the tulip, an ini threadedly engaged with at least one of the tulip and the extension, and/or a guide wire disposed in at least one of the extension, the tulip, and the implant.
US09072546B2

A spinal construct for implantation in a patient to provide stabilization to spinal structure with improved load sharing includes a flexible spinal rod having a first end and a second end, the spinal rod being configured to provide stabilization to spinal structure. It also includes a first bone fastener configured to securely attach to the flexible spinal rod and a second bone fastener configured to securely attach to the flexible spinal rod. The second bone fastener is a dynamic fastener arranged to provide motion in one direction more than another direction. The flexible spinal rod and the second bone fastener are oriented to cooperate in a manner that achieves load sharing by dynamically flexing under applied loads in a manner that distributes stresses and strains between the flexible spinal rod and the second bone fastener.
US09072545B2

A rod-shaped implant for the dynamic stabilization of the spine includes at least a portion having a flexible first material forming a matrix in which a flexible structure having at least one fiber made of a second material is embedded. The rod-shaped implant can be compressed and extended along the longitudinal axis of the rod-shaped implant while it provides a high torsional stiffness.
US09072544B2

The a device is provided for dynamic posterior stabilization. The device combines includes a mobile piston rod with a piston head at an end thereof; a viscoelastic shock-absorbing unit having a convex surface; a fixed rod defining an angle relative to an axis of a casing and the fixed rod including, at an end thereof, a concave surface; a viscoelastic ring; and wherein the viscoelastic components are contained within the casing.
US09072543B2

Kits carrying various components and devices are provided for use in obtaining access to a patient's vascular system. Various methods and procedures may be used to treat both emergency and more routine conditions using the contents of such kits. For example, such kits may contain various types of intraosseous (IO) devices including, but not limited to, drivers, penetrator assemblies, IO needles and other related components. Intravenous (IV) devices such as syringes, needles, IV bags, tubing and other related components for use in obtaining access to portions of a patient's vascular system may be included. Various types of connectors for communicating fluids with and/or monitoring a patient's vascular system may be provided. Such kits may contain medications, drugs and fluids used to treat a wide variety of both acute and chronic diseases and conditions.
US09072542B2

Embodiments include a fiducial deployment system with a handle configured for actuation of same. A fiducial may include one or more protuberances configured to engage one or more slots in a needle of the system. The needle may be configured to deliver a plurality of fiducials to a target location in serial fashion, one at a time. In certain embodiments, echogenic placement of fiducials may present certain advantages. The handle may include structures configured for incrementally or otherwise controlledly deploying one or more fiducials by advancing a stylet through and/or retracting the body of a needle in which fiducials are disposed.
US09072541B2

A surgical scalpel handle with illuminator allowing the surgeon to use the illumination to light the surgical field while holding the scalpel handle is disclosed. A surgical scalpel handle with an illuminator comprises a scalpel handle that contains, a structural strut, that serves to attach light emitting diode (LED) cartridge with the strut terminating into a bayonet fitting attachment for the blade element; and a light emitting diode (LED) cartridge with a series of light emitting diodes embedded in the cartridge. The LED cartridge is attached to the scalpel handle by sliding the bayonet fitting of the strut through the central axis of the light emitting diode cartridge and then by screwing LED cartridge onto the strut in order to attach to scalpel handle and expose at least a part of the LED cartridge.
US09072536B2

Differential locking systems for a surgical instrument that includes a surgical end effector that is powered by a rotary drive shaft assembly that is movable between a plurality of discrete axial positions. In various forms, at least one retention formation is provided on the rotary drive shaft assembly that corresponds to each one of the discrete axial position. At least one lock member is operably supported relative to rotary drive shaft assembly for retaining engagement with the at least one of the retention formations when the rotary drive shaft assembly is moved to the discrete axial positions associated therewith.
US09072521B2

A device including a combined energy applicator including RF electrodes spaced apart that are operable in a bipolar mode for application of RF energy, one or more thermal energy elements for application of thermal energy, and one or more optical energy elements for application of light energy, a temperature sensor assembled in the combined energy applicator for detecting a temperature generated to a skin of a patient, and control circuitry programmed to select which of the RF energy, optical energy and thermal energy is applied to the skin, the temperature sensor being operative in a control loop with the control circuitry to control the energies in accordance with sensed feedback temperature.
US09072520B2

A clip unit for ligating a biological body includes: a clip body having a pair of arm parts; and a fastening ring arranged in an outside of the clip body, and configured to fasten the arm parts, in which: the fastening ring includes a flap part configured to expand diametrically outward from the fastening ring, and a flap retaining unit configured to retaining an expansion extent of the flap part at a given extent.
US09072519B2

An anti-retropulsion device comprising: an expandable segment; a distal collar positioned distally of the expandable segment; and a proximal collar positioned proximally of the expandable segment; wherein the expandable segment has a corresponding plurality of expandable members, and wherein each of the expandable members is configured to expand or contract radially and circumferentially in correspondence with a change in spacing between the distal collar and the proximal collar.
US09072505B2

An improved flexible endoscopic instrument to precisely and efficiently obtains samples of flat polyps and multiple polyps from a patient by debriding one or more polyps and retrieving the debrided polyps without having to alternate between using a separate cutting tool and a separate sample retrieving tool and may be used with an endoscope. In one aspect, the cutting tool is coupled to a flexible torque coil or torque rope that is configured to transfer rotational energy from a powered actuator through the length of the endoscope onto the cutting tool.
US09072495B2

A combination of an ultrasonic scanner and an omnidirectional receive transducer for producing a two-dimensional image from received echoes is described. Two-dimensional images with different noise components can be constructed from the echoes received by additional transducers. These can be combined to produce images with better signal to noise ratios and lateral resolution. Also disclosed is a method based on information content to compensate for the different delays for different paths through intervening tissue is described. The disclosed techniques have broad application in medical imaging but are ideally suited to multi-aperture cardiac imaging using two or more intercostal spaces. Since lateral resolution is determined primarily by the aperture defined by the end elements, it is not necessary to fill the entire aperture with equally spaced elements. Multiple slices using these methods can be combined to form three-dimensional images.
US09072494B2

In a computerized method and system to generate visualization command data for two-dimensional visualization of a vascular tree of a vascular system from tomography data acquired via an imaging system, tomography data of the vascular tree are registered in the form of prepared tomography data that include acquired tomography data of the vascular tree in which said vascular tree is segmented at least in a region of surrounding structures, and in which are present a number of curve lines of vessels of the vascular tree that branch with one another. Inlets are shaped between curve lines that are adjacent and/or connected with one another via node points. Representation data are generated in which the inlets are arranged flat, adjoining one another in a two-dimensional presentation plane. The visualization command data are derived from the representation data and presented as an output.
US09072489B2

A medical image diagnostic apparatus of the present invention includes: an image display unit that displays a medical image including a target part of an object; an input unit that inputs feature points of the target part; a contour position estimation unit that estimates a contour position of the target part to generate an initial contour; a contour extraction unit that extracts a contour along the shape of the target part using the feature points and the initial contour; and a control unit that displays a composite image, which is obtained by combining the extracted contour and the medical image, on the image display unit.
US09072485B2

A cassette holder of an imaging stand is provided with first and second catch members for catching and holding an electronic cassette from above and below. The first catch member has a multi connector connected to a multi terminal of the electronic cassette. The multi connector is offset with respect to a center line of an imaging surface of the cassette holder. The multi terminal is offset with respect to a center line of an irradiation surface of the electronic cassette in the same direction by the same amount as those of the multi connector. In a state where said electronic cassette mounted on a tray is loaded into the cassette holder, the center line of the irradiation surface coincides with the center line of the imaging surface.
US09072484B2

A radiation image capturing system including a CR cassette and a FPD cassette, and when the radiation image capturing is started without either of the cassettes being loaded, the radiation generating apparatus is set for the CR cassette and when the icon of the FPD cassette is selected, the radiation generating apparatus is set for the FPD cassette.
US09072481B2

A system for assessing vestibulo-ocular function includes a motion sensor system adapted to be coupled to a user's head; a data processing system configured to communicate with the motion sensor system to receive the head-motion signals; a visual display system configured to communicate with the data processing system to receive image signals from the data processing system; and a gain control device arranged to be operated by the user and to communicate gain adjustment signals to the data processing system.
US09072480B2

A laparoscopic suturing device includes a handle and a shaft mounted to the handle. A toggle knob is adapted to rotate the shaft about its longitudinal axis. A pair of opposed jaws, each having a hollow structure, open and close relative to one another. A needle carrier and a needle holder are respectively slideably disposed in a lumen of a first and a second jaw. A needle has first and second pointed ends and is adapted to be press fit into the lumen of the first jaw with the first pointed end exposed and alternatively into the lumen of the second jaw with the second pointed end exposed. A spring-loaded pusher advances and retracts the needle carrier when the toggle knob is in a first position and advances and retracts the needle holder when in a second position. The tool assists a surgeon in suturing tissue captured between the jaws.
US09072478B1

A system and method for improving social and presentation skills of persons with a social communication disorder such as Autism. Social anxiety or a lack of confidence, the method including: rendering and displaying on a display device a presentation script for an oral presentation to be made by a user; monitoring eye movement of the user during the oral presentation to measure a user's pupil movement and/or a user's gaze direction; displaying an indicia on a separate display screen and/or an upper portion of the display device; periodically displaying within the presentation script a visual prompt to cue the user to look at the indicia; measuring eye movement using eye tracking software and/or an eye tracking device, at occurrence of the visual prompt; and evaluating whether the user made eye contact with the indicia when prompted.
US09072474B2

Access is provided to certain pulse oximetry systems utilizing a keyed sensor and a corresponding locked sensor port of a restricted access monitor. In such systems, the keyed sensor has a key comprising a memory element, and the monitor has a memory reader associated with the sensor port. The monitor is configured to function only when the key is in communications with the locked sensor port, and the memory reader is able to retrieve predetermined data from the memory element. The monitor is accessed by providing the key separate from the keyed sensor, integrating the key into an adapter cable, and connecting the adapter cable between the sensor port and an unkeyed sensor so that the monitor functions with the unkeyed sensor.
US09072469B2

In an endoscopic device insertable into a body cavity attachable elements are moved over one another to move forwardly of each other and to leave each other behind, and to move along different paths so as not to be attached to the same areas of a wall of the body cavity.
US09072466B2

A kit, an apparatus, and method are provided for developing a latent print. The apparatus comprises a pellet comprising a substrate impregnated with a sublimation compound, a receptacle, an adapter, and an end cap. The receptacle is open at a first end and detachably connected to a heat source at a second end. The receptacle is designed to receive and accommodate the pellet through the first end of the receptacle. The adapter defines an annular space for transmission of heat from the heat source to the pellet. The first end of the adapter is connected to the second end of the receptacle and the second end of the adapter is in communication with the heat source. The end-cap comprising a mesh window in an annular space of the end-cap allows passage of the fumes released from the pellet through the open end of the end cap towards the latent print for development.
US09072463B2

Parameters related to use of a prosthesis by a patient with a limb amputation are monitored using a tool that includes one or more piezoelectric force sensors. The resulting data are processed for use both in short and long term management of amputee patients. The sensor is a small modular unit that fits within or between traditional prosthetic components, e.g., below a prosthesis socket. The data produced by the tool are collected, processed, and stored. Optionally, the data are periodically communicated to a remote site via a network, e.g., over the Internet. The device and associated software used to process the data can be used to characterize activities conducted by a prosthesis user, to determine pistoning or threatening interface stress distributions between the limb and socket, mal-alignment of the socket, use of improper components, and other possibly undesired conditions that the amputee patient using the prosthesis may be experiencing.
US09072457B2

A cam face 303a of a cam 303 has a shape depending on the distribution of the light amount in the cross-section of reference light LR. When the cam 303 is rotated by a stepping motor 302, an abutment 312 moves following the displacement of the cam face 302a with the rotation of the cam 303. A light-blocking link 310 rotates about the axis of rotation 311 with the movement of the abutment 312. A shield 313 moves in a first direction with the rotation of the light-blocking link 310 to change the shielding region of the reference light LR. A light-blocking plate 400 can shield the reference light LR from a second direction different from a shielding direction (first direction) by an attenuator 300. The light-blocking plate 400 is moved by a drive mechanism 410 and changes the shielding region.
US09072452B2

An illuminated suction apparatus including a hand-held surgical device combining a high-performance non-fiber optic optical waveguide with suction. This device is useful in a wide array of surgical procedures including open and minimally invasive orthopedics.
US09072445B2

A method and apparatus for imaging features of a CBD in a patient introduces a fluorescent contrast agent into the CBD. A light source transmits both a visible light and a fluorescent light into a patient's abdominal cavity via the laparoscope. Cameras attached to or integrated into the laparoscope detect visible light images and fluorescent emission light images. The visible light image and fluorescent image signals are processed to combine the fluorescent emission light image signals and visible image signals into a single display signal. The system adjusts the display characteristics, such as color, of the fluorescent emission light image so it contrasts well with the visual light image so the surgeon can easily distinguish between the two images. The display signal is sent to a video monitor where the surgeon views the visible light image and the fluorescent image as a single overlaid image.
US09072444B2

A method for coupling an ECG monitor with an incompatible ECG lead set includes the steps of providing an ECG adapter including an adapter body having at least one monitor connector adapted for coupling to an input of an ECG monitor and at least one lead set receptacle adapted for coupling to a connector of an ECG lead set incompatible with the input of the ECG monitor, coupling the at least one monitor connector of the adapter body with the input of the ECG monitor and coupling the at least one lead set receptacle of the adapter body with the connector of the ECG lead set to thereby electrically couple the ECG lead set with the ECG monitor.
US09072432B2

A multi-port manifold includes an instrument port, bronchoscope inlet, entrance for air and common exit. It is proposed to position the instrument port in line with the exit. The bronchoscope inlet is positioned at a very small angle with respect to the instrument port, while the air entrance extends at right angles to the plane defined by the axes of the port and the inlet.
US09072427B2

The invention provides surgical or diagnostic tools and associated methods that offer user control for operating remotely within regions of the body. These tools include a proximally-located actuator for the operation of a distal end effector, as well as proximally-located actuators for articulational and rotational movements of the end effector. Control mechanisms and methods refine operator control of end effector actuation and of these articulational and rotational movements. An articulation lock allows the fixing and releasing of both neutral and articulated configurations of the tool and of consequent placement of the end effector. The tool may also include other features. A multi-state ratchet for end effector actuation provides enablement-disablement options with tactile feedback. A force limiter mechanism protects the end effector and manipulated objects from the harm of potentially excessive force applied by the operator. A rotation lock provides for enablement and disablement of rotatability of the end effector.
US09072420B2

A cleaning tool that includes a cleaning element. The cleaning element includes two insert holes which receive two holding elements and extend in a first direction, a first sheet and a second sheet which are formed of nonwoven fabric, a first inner bonding part and a first outer bonding part by which the first and second sheets overlaid one on the other are bonded together and which define the first insert hole, a second inner bonding part and a second outer bonding part by which the first and second sheets overlaid one on the other are bonded together and which define the second insert hole, an intermediate region which is formed between the first inner bonding part and the second inner bonding part, and a fiber element formed by a plurality of fibers which extend in a second direction transverse to the first direction and are bonded to the first sheet in the intermediate region. When the two holding elements are inserted into the associated insert holes, the two insert holes are moved toward each other, so that the fiber element in the intermediate region is pushed out in a direction in which the fiber element is located with respect to the two insert holes.
US09072413B2

A storage container that contains bathroom cleaning utensils such as a plunger and toilet brush. The storage container may include an internal compartment, with a notch on the bottom surface of the bottom end. The notch may be shaped to fit around the edge of a toilet bowl. A channel may lead into the internal compartment. Therefore, a user may secure the storage container to the edge of the toilet bowl and either plunge or clean the toilet. Then the user may place the plunger or toilet brush into the compartment over the channel. Therefore, any dripping water may be caught by the channel.
US09072411B2

Air-vented liquid dispensers are disclosed herein, including refill units for use in connection with such dispensers. A rigid container holds a liquid and has a neck portion. A manifold is secured to the neck portion underneath the container, and includes an air passage for air to enter into the container and a liquid passage for air to exit the container. A gasket member is located between the container neck and the manifold, and has a flexible and resilient flap portion which acts as a check valve for the air passage. An air tube carries the air up into the rigid container.
US09072405B2

In order to create a fully automatic electric coffee maker, at least comprising a housing (1) having a water tank (12), a water pump, a brewing unit (2), controls, an electrical controller (3), and a collecting container (4) for coffee remains (5) or used coffee grounds, possibly having a bean container (6) and a grinding assembly (7), wherein the formation of mildew is substantially or completely prevented, the fully automatic electric coffee maker being cheap and easy to produce and having a long operating life, at least one UV light source (8, 11, 13, 14, 15) is arranged on the housing (1) or inside the housing (1) in such a way that the parts of the fully automatic coffee machine in contact with used coffee grounds or coffee remains (5) and/or the coffee remains (5) or the used coffee grounds and/or the bean container (6) and/or the grinding assembly (7) and/or the water tank (12) and/or a connecting line between the water tank (12) and the water pump or the brewing unit (2) is or can be irradiated with ultraviolet light beams.
US09072391B1

A portable maternity mat is provided. The portable maternity mat includes at least a first pad and a second pad. Each of the pads has an upper surface and a lower surface. Further, each pad includes a compressible material, such as mattress material. The first pad and the second pad are connected together by a hinged connector. The first pad, the second pad, or a combination of the pads may include a cutout portion through the upper surface. Therefore, a pregnant woman may use the portable maternity mat to lay on their stomach, and may fold the portable maternity mat to move and store the portable maternity mat.
US09072390B2

A foam spring for use in pillows, cushions, mattresses or the like, the foam spring having a tubular resilient body made of foam with holes extending inwardly from an outside surface to an inside location, wherein the holes extend at a non-perpendicular angle relative to a line perpendicular to the outside surface of the spring at the position of the hole. The foam spring is manufactured by a method which comprises providing interrupted slits along lines extending in the longitudinal direction of a foam layer; cutting a transverse strip out of this foam layer; bending two opposite ends of the strip towards each other; and fixing the two opposite ends into a tubular shape to form the tubular resilient body, wherein the slits are made in a direction forming an angle with the direction perpendicular to the surface of the foamed layer.
US09072382B2

A collapsible and portable chair for storage in a container. The chair includes two separate components: a seat portion and back portion. The back portion is received within an aperture of seat portion and supported by a collar. The back portion and the seat portion are connected with a tether and sized to be placed within a standard bucket during storage and for placement on the top of the bucket during use.
US09072380B2

A bracket/strut assembly that is connectable to wood or metal wall studs is described that when used in at least a pair provide a support structure for holding a flat board, such as drywall or plywood, in a horizontal or near horizontal orientation. In a typical application, embodiments of the bracket assemblies are used in combination with the board as a blueprint table at a construction site.
US09072373B2

A modular furniture building block for providing a modular furniture unit that can be combined with other units to construct or reconstruct any piece of furniture or structure. The modular furniture building block generally includes modular block panels that have a plurality of slots on the surface and/or sides and a plurality of cartridges to connect multiple block panels together at their slots. Multi-port receivers may be attached to the slots and the block panels may be connected by the cartridges via the multi-port receivers.
US09072371B2

An oral care system and method for applying a fluid to an oral surface, including a method of manufacturing the same. In one embodiment, the invention can be an oral care system comprising: a toothbrush; and a dispenser detachably coupled to the toothbrush, the dispenser comprising: an internal reservoir containing a fluid; and a conduit in fluid communication with the reservoir and terminating in an orifice for dispensing the fluid; and a plug having a proximal plug portion disposed within the conduit and a distal plug portion disposed within a socket of the toothbrush.
US09072366B2

A utility bucket backpack apparatus having an upper strap and a lower strap may have each of the upper and lower straps connected to two backpack straps. The lower strap may further be connected to a bottom strap. The upper strap may further be connected to two handle straps. The upper strap and the lower strap may also be removably connected to the outer circumference of a utility bucket.
US09072364B2

An item holder includes a hanger and a holder. The hanger includes a hanger body, a protrusion and one or more apertures. The holder includes a holder body, a receiving slot, a securing mechanism, tabs, a holder member and an end-piece. The holder is configured to detachably couple to the hanger. In some embodiments, the securing mechanism includes fingers/wedges which secure the protrusion in place and are released using the tabs. The holder, specifically the holder member, is also configured to hold an item.
US09072347B2

A slider for a slide fastener includes a stopper mechanism formed for “forward use,” in which the surface where coiled fastener elements are attached on a fastener tape is the front surface, can be used for “reverse use,” in which the surface where the coiled fastener elements are attached on the fastener tape is the back surface. The inner surface of the lower blade of the slider body of a slider has a protrusion that extends in the forward-reverse direction from a guiding bar towards a posterior opening. The protrusion has a first horizontal upper surface on the guide bar end of the protrusion that is highest and a second upper surface on the posterior opening end that is lower than the first upper surface.
US09072338B1

A convertible interchangeable post assembly for sandals/flip flop footwear. The post assembly allows for a variety of decorative toe post to be selectively available for a sandal toe post flip flop configuration by using an interchangeable toe post assembly that is removably inserted into a fixed receptacle within the sole of the footwear.
US09072332B2

A helmet grille for a sport helmet having a shell and an inner shock absorbing arrangement, the helmet grille including at least one elongate grille member extending from a rear helmet portion forwardly operatively along a first side of a wearer's face, across a front of the wearer's face, and rearwardly towards the rear helmet portion, substantially to extend at least partially around a wearer's head, and at least one attachment formation attached to at least one end of the at least one elongate grille member and attachable to any one of the shell and the inner shock absorbing arrangement.
US09072321B2

An electronic smoke comprising an inhale detector and a smoke effect generating circuitry. The inhale detector comprises an air-flow sensor which is arranged to detect direction and rate of air flow through the smoke apparatus, and the smoke effect generating circuitry is arranged to operate the smoke effect generating circuitry to generate smoking effect when the air flow direction corresponds to inhaling through the apparatus and the air flow rate reaches at predetermined threshold. Such an electronic smoke alleviates the problem of inadvertent triggering due to environmental vibration or noise or children playing by blowing into the device.
US09072320B2

A blank configured to form a multi-compartment package is provided. The blank may include a rear panel, a rear side panel connected to the rear panel, a first side panel connected to the rear panel, a front panel connected to the first side panel, a second side panel connected to the front panel, and a dividing panel connected to the second side panel. The blank may be formed into a multi-compartment package including front and rear compartments in accordance with a related method. A first item may be inserted in the front compartment and a second item may be inserted in the rear compartment to form a related assembly. A width of the first side panel may be greater than a width of the rear side panel.
US09072318B2

A pre-portioned moist product comprising a portion of plant material and a coating is disclosed. Preferably, the plant material comprises tobacco. The coating includes a soluble, non-cross-linkable component and an cross-linkable component which becomes substantially water-insoluble upon crosslinking. The soluble component of the coating dissolves upon placement in the mouth, while the insoluble component disintegrates and/or loses structural integrity once the soluble component has dissolved to release and disperse the plant material in the user's mouth.
US09072317B2

Disclosed herein is a transformation system for at least one component of a single or multi-component nutritional substance. The transformation system obtains information regarding the nutritional substance to be transformed, the desired transformation, and the desired properties, including nutritional content, of the transformed nutritional substance, and dynamically modifies the transformation in response to this information.
US09072316B2

An alkaline sports drink that utilizes phosphate buffer to achieve a pH of 7.4(+/−0.3) for the purpose of preventing dental caries, improving physical performance, and benefiting overall health, is disclosed. This beverage product is stable at an alkaline pH, which is beneficial for oral health and the use of phosphate buffer increases physical performance by increasing muscle oxygen availability. The product is beneficial to overall health by buffering harmful acidic metabolites and aiding in their excretion from the body.
US09072299B2

The present invention relates to an insect repellent composition containing the following active insect-repellent material in a physiologically acceptable medium: at least 1-methylpropyl(2-(2-hydroxyethyl)piperidine-1-carboxylate, said active material being used with at least one copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone and of a linear alkyl, having at least 16 carbon atoms, as a film-forming agent.The invention also relates to an insect-repelling method using said composition.
US09072293B2

Disclosed is a method for directly preparing in situ cyclopropenes for inhibiting ethylene action facilitating ripening and aging of plants via reaction of a cyclopropene precursor such as a compound of Formula (2) or Formula (3) with a fluoride (F−) and immediately applying the same to plants, and an aryl group-containing 1-alkylcyclopropene of Formula (6) effective for inhibiting the action of ethylene.
US09072288B1

A pest deterrent system including a deterrent assembly having a housing (having a head portion including at least two eyes, at least two ears, and a beak); a body portion; a left wing; a right wing; a left foot; a right foot; at least one motion sensor; at least one speaker; a plurality of illuminators; a powerer; electrical wiring; at least one power storer; an adjustable mounting plate; a plurality of fasteners; an elevated stand assembly (having a crossbar; an elevating-rod; at least one mounting lug; and a through-pin). The deterrent assembly is useful to emit audible sounds via speaker(s), and illumination via the illuminators and appear as a bird of prey such that pests are visually and sound deterred from remaining within a vicinity of a location of the deterrent assembly, the deterrent assembly adjustable, and operated via natural ambient sources.
US09072287B2

A device to hold a fishing rod or a similarly-shaped object. The holder has a generally cylindrical shape with a longitudinal upper opening, whereby the edges of the opening can be drawn together and the diameter of the cylindrical holder decreased, so as to hold generally cylindrical-shaped objects, such as a fishing rod, of varying diameters. The holder can have a stem which can be received by a bore in a mounting bracket that allows the holder to rotate. A nub on the stem fits into slots in the bore, so that the holder can be fixed in one position.
US09072285B1

A fishing lure comprises a spinning blade that rhythmically changes its direction of rotation. One or more unique link members limit the cyclical amount of blade rotation in either direction. As the wound up link members pause the rotation of the blade, a hydrodynamic force still trying to turn the blade causes the lure body to undergo a slight twist motion. The wound up link members then begin to unravel from a remaining hydrodynamic force still incident on the moving lure. This is sufficient to start the blade spinning in the opposite direction until it is again rotatably limited by the link members and again imparts a twitch motion on the lure body. This cycle continues to repeat indefinitely as the lure moves at a generally constant speed. The cyclically rhythmic alternating blade rotations and the corresponding body twitch motions create lure behavior that better mimics real life prey.
US09072276B2

A chemically modified animal litter that is comprised of at least one acid-activated liquid absorbing material and at least one peroxide, wherein the litter provides a surprisingly steady and consistent malodor inhibition.
US09072272B2

A milking installation includes first and second fluid systems (S1; S2) and a coupling arrangement for connecting and disconnecting the first fluid system (S1) to and from the second fluid system (S2). In a connected state, the first and second fluid systems (S1, S2) are in fluid communication with one another, and in a disconnected state the first and second fluid systems (S1, S2) are not in fluid communication with one another. The coupling arrangement includes a common cavity (CC) configured to be alternately included in the first fluid system (S1) or in the second fluid system (S2) for through passage of fluid while the first and second fluid systems (S1, S2) are disconnected from one another. The first fluid system (S1) also has a by-pass arrangement configured to allow fluid in the first fluid system (S1) to circulate independently from the passage of fluid through the common cavity (CC) when the common cavity (CC) is included in the second fluid system (S2).
US09072266B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH623554. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH623554, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH623554 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH623554.
US09072260B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH813265. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH813265, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH813265 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH813265.
US09072255B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH129909. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH129909, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH129909 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH129909.
US09072253B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH636476. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH636476, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH636476 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH636476.
US09072252B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH971321. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH971321, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH971321 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH971321.
US09072240B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the corn variety designated CV991653. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CV991653, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CV991653 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to corn seeds and plants produced by crossing plants of variety CV991653 with plants of another variety, such as another inbred line. The invention further relates to the inbred and hybrid genetic complements of plants of variety CV991653.
US09072236B2

A novel soybean variety, designated XR33A13 is provided. Also provided are the seeds of soybean variety XR33A13, cells from soybean variety XR33A13, plants of soybean XR33A13, and plant parts of soybean variety XR33A13. Methods provided include producing a soybean plant by crossing soybean variety XR33A13 with another soybean plant, methods for introgressing a transgenic trait, a mutant trait, and/or a native trait into soybean variety XR33A13, methods for producing other soybean varieties or plant parts derived from soybean variety XR33A13, and methods of characterizing soybean variety XR33A13. Soybean seed, cells, plants, germplasm, breeding lines, varieties, and plant parts produced by these methods and/or derived from soybean variety XR33A13 are further provided.
US09072230B2

Provided is a method for producing a rice F1 seed including crossing a rice male sterile line of Koshihikari containing one or more genes selected from the group consisting of the Pb1 gene derived from a rice (Oryza sativa L) cultivar Modan and the Cr1 gene derived from Oryza nivara, as a seed parent, with a rice fertility restorer line as a pollen parent, and collecting the first filial generation seed (F1 seed) from the post-crossing seed parent; a rice F1 seed which is obtained by the above-described method for producing a rice F1 seed; and a rice cytoplasmic male sterile line including one or more genes selected from the group consisting of the Pb1 gene derived from rice (Oryza sativa L) cuitibar Modan, and the Cr1 gene derived from Oryza nivara.
US09072227B2

A method for the debottlenecking of grain harvesting and grain bagging comprises a set of steps. Grain is transported in a grain cart from a harvester at a harvesting location to an accumulation site. Grain is bulk unloaded crop from the grain cart at an accumulation site by, for example, gravity dumping through a rear door of the grain cart. The cart returns to the harvester; and the grain at the accumulation site is transferred into a silo storage bag. The steps of transporting the grain, bulk unloading the grain, and returning the cart comprise a first process. The step of transferring the grain from the accumulation site into a bag comprises a second process. The first process and second process proceed in parallel.
US09072225B2

Produce with a core planted in a field can be harvested and decored using a mechanical harvester. The mechanical harvester includes a chassis, a positioning apparatus, a decoring device, and a transport assembly. The method includes moving the mechanical harvester through the row in the field; positioning the produce in the ground using the positioning apparatus; severing a substantial portion of the core of the produce while the produce is in the ground using the decoring device; lifting the produce from the ground; and transporting the produce to a processing unit or a storage unit using the transport assembly.
US09072215B2

An agricultural implement frame having at least one beam welded to additional components is formed by cutting the beam into a first tube member and a second tube member having an overlaying portion formed by overlaying ends of the first and second tube members. Each overlaying end has an overlaying wall and a base wall connected by opposing interface side walls. The laser cut forms interface surfaces in the interface side walls. The cut forms a plurality of interlocking load transfer teeth in the interface surfaces. Micro tabs are left uncut in the interface side walls to keep the first and second tube members aligned. The beam is then welded to other components of the implement frame. The micro tabs are broken to separate the first and second tube members so the frame may be folded. When joined, the interface surfaces contact and the interlocking load transfer teeth mesh.
US09072214B2

An agricultural implement is provided that includes a hitch assembly configured to couple the agricultural implement to a tow vehicle. The agricultural implement also includes a carrier frame pivotally coupled to the hitch assembly by a main pivot joint such that the main pivot joint resists substantially all lateral loads between the carrier frame and the hitch assembly. The agricultural implement further includes a pair of wheel assemblies each rotatably coupled to the carrier frame by a respective knuckle pivot joint, and an actuator assembly configured to rotate each wheel assembly about the respective knuckle pivot joint while the agricultural implement is in both a working and transport position.
US09078384B2

A wiring substrate includes a structure in which a plurality of wiring layers are stacked through insulating layers intervening therebetween, and which has a first surface side and a second surface side, the first surface side where a semiconductor element is to be mounted, the second surface side being located at an opposite side to the first surface side, an interposer buried in an outermost one of the insulating layers located at the first surface side, and electrically connected to the semiconductor element to be mounted, and a sheet-shaped member buried in an outermost one of the insulating layers located at the second surface side, wherein, the interposer and the sheet-shaped member are disposed at symmetrical positions symmetrical each other.
US09078377B2

An air volume control device determines whether or not a cooling capacity of an electronic device fulfills a predetermined cooling capacity. Then, if it is determined that the cooling capacity of the electronic device is failing to fulfill the predetermined cooling capacity, the air volume control device decreases the number of revolutions of a fan for cooling the electronic device. For example, the air volume control device compares a temperature of a heating element provided in the electronic device before a change in the number of revolutions of the fan with that after the change in the number of revolutions of the fan. If the temperature of the heating element is increased when the number of revolutions of the fan is increased, the air volume control device determines that the cooling capacity of the electronic device is failing to fulfill the predetermined cooling capacity.
US09078376B2

A power conversion device includes: a cooling base 5 in which a flow passage 51 through which a cooling medium flows is formed and an opening portion 50 which is communicated with the flow passage 51 is formed; a power module 1; and a flow passage control portion 16b. The power module 1 has a bottomed cylindrical portion 13a in which a power semiconductor element is housed and which is inserted into the flow passage 51 through the opening portion 50, a flange portion 13b which is formed on an opening of the cylindrical portion 13a and is fixed to the cooling base 5 so as to close the opening portion 50, and a group of radiator fins 144 which are mounted on an outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical portion 13a with a gap of a predetermined distance formed between the flange portion 13b and the group of radiator fins 144. The flow passage control portion 16b is arranged in a gap formed between the flange portion 13b and the group of radiator fins 144, and introduces the cooling medium into the group of radiator fins 144 while preventing the cooling medium from flowing into gaps 51c.
US09078375B1

A hardware plane providing improved cooling air flow is disclosed herein. The hardware plane includes one or more minor planes extending from a major plane so that a gap or opening is formed for air flow. A cooling unit moves air through the gap and across the surface of hardware cards connected to the hardware plane in order to cool the hardware plane and the hardware cards. The hardware plane allows for both improved cooling air flow and for space-efficient and cost-efficient positioning of hardware cards, data buses, and control buses.
US09078367B2

Provided is an electronic controller which enables visual identification of a portion applied with a small amount of a sealing material, which has a high possibility of air leakage from an area in which a joint is to be established. The electronic controller includes: an electronic circuit board; and a casing including a cover (1), a base (4), and a lid sealed with a sealing material (20) applied to surfaces thereof at which the cover (1), the base (4), and the lid are to be joined together. An area in which the cover (1), the base (4), and the lid are to joined together is provided with a space (16) thereto for enabling an application state of the sealing material (20) to be observed with a naked eye.
US09078359B2

The electronic component has a resin electrode which constitutes an external electrode on a face of a ceramic base body. At least a tip portion of a resin electrode region extended around another face of the body is bonded to the ceramic base body, and further a relationship between Rz1 and Rz2 satisfies the following requirement: Rz1>Rz2, Rz1>3.3 μm, and Rz2<3.2 μm, wherein Rz1 is a ten-point average surface roughness of a first region of a surface of the ceramic base body to which the tip portion is bonded, and Rz2 is a ten-point average surface roughness of a second region of the surface of the ceramic base body where the external electrode is not formed.
US09078345B2

An enclosure for enclosing a flat panel display. A bezel includes a peripheral surface defining an enclosure area and an inner edge defining a display opening. A substantially transparent front cover operatively connects to the bezel and covers the display opening. An enclosure housing includes a front opening and an access opening substantially opposite the front opening. An access opening cover is configured to cover the access opening. A sealing member receiving region is defined by one of the enclosure housing and the access opening cover, and a sealing member is operatively connected to the sealing member receiving region. When the access opening cover is operatively connected to the enclosure housing, an interface between the enclosure housing and the access opening cover is substantially sealed and is resistant to liquid ingress.
US09078327B2

Exemplary systems, methods and apparatuses for providing dimming in a distributed solid-state lighting system are disclosed. An exemplary dimming signal generator is coupleable to a controller or a current generator for a plurality of LEDs, and includes a first resistive voltage divider to sense an input DC voltage; a current sensor to sense a current level of the plurality of LEDs; a first operational amplifier to compare the sensed input DC voltage to a reference voltage level and to provide a comparator output signal; and a current path to combine the comparator output signal with the sensed LED current level to provide a combined signal for current level feedback for control of the LED current level. The dimming signal generator may optionally include other components to generate a PWM signal and also to provide a resistive network to divert LED current in response to the comparator output signal.
US09078312B2

A multichip package structure includes a substrate unit, a light-emitting unit, a control module, a frame unit and a package unit. The substrate unit includes a first chip-placing region and a second chip-placing region. The light-emitting unit includes a plurality of light-emitting chips electrically connected to the first chip-placing region. The control module includes at least one current-limiting unit and the rectifier unit electrically connected to the second chip-placing region and the light-emitting unit. The frame unit includes a first annular colloid frame surrounding the light-emitting chips and a second annular colloid frame surrounding the current-limiting unit and the rectifier unit. The package unit includes a first package colloid body surrounded by the first annular colloid frame to cover the light-emitting chips and a second package colloid body surrounded by the second annular colloid frame to cover the current-limiting unit and the rectifier unit.
US09078300B2

A display-driving structure for driving a display panel is disclosed. The display-driving structure includes a first circuit board, a second circuit board, a transmission wiring, a first circuit, a second circuit, first source driver circuits and second source driver circuits. The transmission wiring is connected between the first circuit board and the second circuit board. The first circuit is disposed on the first circuit board for generating a first signal. The second circuit is disposed on the second circuit board for generating a second signal. The first source driver circuits receive the first signal from the first circuit board, and further receive the second signal via the transmission wiring and the second circuit board. The second source driver circuits receive the second signal from the second circuit board, and further receive the first signal via the transmission wiring and the first circuit board.
US09078296B2

A tray for holding a food product includes a plurality of panels extending around an interior of the tray. The plurality of panels includes at least a central panel, at least one side panel foldably connected to the central panel, and at least one end panel foldably connected to the central panel along an arcuate fold line. The central panel forms a curved bottom surface of the tray.
US09078290B2

The present invention relates to the communication field, and discloses an uplink transmission method, a downlink transmission method, and a convergence device. The convergence device selects user plane UDP packets compliant with a multiplexing condition among the user plane UDP packets that come from at least one Node B, multiplexes the selected user plane UDP packets, and sends the packets to a RNC. The multiplexed UDP packet received from the RNC is demultiplexed into at least two user plane UDP packets which are sent to corresponding Node Bs or a corresponding Node B respectively.
US09078280B2

A first communication station connects to a higher-order station or a lower-order station in a communication path of multi-hop wireless communication, and performs wireless communication with a mobile terminal in an access area in predetermined wireless resources that differs from a relay area used for wireless communication with the higher-order station or the lower-order station in the wireless resources. A second communication station that constitutes a communication path different from the foregoing communication path of multi-hop wireless communication and that can use wireless resources to perform wireless communication with a mobile terminal acquires information indicating the relay area in the wireless resources.
US09078277B2

A method for mobile data transmission are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A request for data is received from a mobile device. A determination is made whether a data transmission over a mobile data communication network in response to the request can be delayed, forming a time-shifting determination. A determination is made, responsive to the time-shifting determination being affirmative, a delayed schedule for the data transmission in response to the request such that the data transmission is completed by a deadline. The data is transmitted over the mobile data communication network according to the delayed schedule.
US09078276B2

Devices and methods for scheduling and interference cancellation that consider the interference cancellation capability of user equipment (UEs) are disclosed. Using reduced-rate sub-frame (or resource block) strategies, the transmission data rate to a scheduled user in a given cell may be reduced to ensure effective interference cancellation performance at the receiver of a co-scheduled user in another cell. By taking advantage of interference mitigation at one or more terminals, a scheduler may improve network spectral efficiency compared to existing inter-cell interference cancellation schemes, including almost blank sub-frame (ABS), further enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (FeICIC), and other resource partitioning schemes, such as reduced power sub-frames or frequency domain resource partitioning.
US09078272B2

A base station dynamically changes a CQI report format of a communication terminal under control thereof. A base station 1 according to the present invention handles an OFDM system and includes a reception unit 10 configured to receive channel quality information and a QoS request from the communication terminal under control of the base station 1, a scheduler 21 configured to schedule, based on the channel quality information and the QoS request, transmission data and a subband for each communication terminal, a determination unit 22 configured to determine, based on the channel quality information and the QoS request, a channel quality information format that satisfies the QoS request from the communication terminal under control of the base station 1, and a transmission unit 30 configured to transmit an order to change to the channel quality information format to the communication terminal under control of the base station 1.
US09078268B2

A method of transmitting/receiving signals at a terminal in a communication system is provided. The method includes determining at least one first reception path with a lowest path loss from among first reception paths that receive a first reference signal from a base station, receiving a second reference signal through second paths set up based on the at least one first reception path, and transmitting an uplink access signal with a second uplink transmitting beam that corresponds to a second downlink receiving beam corresponding to a second path having a lowest path loss.
US09078264B2

The present invention discloses a method for reporting a power headroom report and a user equipment, which are applied in the field of communications. The method includes triggering reporting of a first power headroom report and determining that a condition of sending the first power headroom report is satisfied. The condition of sending the first power headroom report includes a determination that uplink data channel transmission occurs in a current transmission time interval. The first power headroom report is obtained. The first power headroom report includes a first power headroom value that includes a difference between maximum transmitting power of a carrier and a sum of transmitting power of a control channel of the carrier and transmitting power of a data channel of the carrier.
US09078262B2

An apparatus and a method are described by which a request for providing aperiodic channel information with respect to a selected downlink component carrier of a plurality of component carriers is received, the selected downlink component carrier is determined, channel information with respect to the selected downlink component carrier is established, and the channel information with respect to the selected downlink component carrier is sent.
US09078254B2

A method of processing control information in a mobile communication system is disclosed, by which an RRC connection setup can be quickly completed and by which control information can be processed without an unnecessary standby of a mobile terminal. The present invention includes the steps of receiving a plurality of protocol data units transmitted plural time from a transmitting side via one common logical channel by an RLC (radio link control) entity operating in a UM (unacknowledged mode) and having a receiving window and a timer, re-ordering a plurality of the received protocol data units using sequence numbers of a plurality of the received protocol data units, the receiving window and the timer, reassembling at least one service data unit by processing a plurality of the re-ordered protocol data units, and delivering the at least one service data unit.
US09078248B2

An apparatus and method are provided for intermittent communication over at least one of a plurality of channels. The method includes receiving by the apparatus a reservation request from a user, detecting an available channel, generating a reservation signal on the available channel, receiving an activation request, and handing said available channel over to the user.
US09078245B2

A method of transmitting control information in a WLAN system using a multi-channel obtained by aggregating a first sub-channel and a second sub-channel is provided. The method includes transmitting, by a transmitting station, a first physical (PHY) preamble over the first sub-channel, transmitting, by the transmitting station, a second PHY preamble over the second sub-channel, and transmitting, by the transmitting station, data symbols using N spatial streams transmitted over the first sub-channel and M spatial streams transmitted over the second sub-channel, wherein the first PHY preamble comprises control information necessary to demodulate and decode the data symbols transmitted over the N spatial streams, and the second PHY preamble comprises control information necessary to demodulate and decode the data symbols transmitted over the M spatial streams, and the first PHY preamble and the second PHY preamble are simultaneously transmitted, and the N and the M are different natural numbers.
US09078244B2

Disclosed is a method for receiving E-MBS service by performing a carrier switching operation in a multi-carrier system, the method comprising: performing carrier switching from primary carrier to secondary carrier; checking whether the uplink HARQ retransmission process is performed when the carrier switching is performed; and terminating or suspending the performing uplink HARQ retransmission process if the uplink HARQ retransmission process is performed.
US09078240B2

The present disclosure presents methods and apparatuses for carrying out a wireless call at a small base station via one of multiple available phones, which may include a fixed phone and a cellular phone. For instance, some example methods described in the present disclosure may include establishing communication with a cellular phone and a fixed phone and transmitting a connection command message to each of the cellular phone and the fixed phone commanding the cellular phone and fixed phone to establish a communicative connection. Furthermore, such example methods may include receiving a cellular phone call indication message from a network indicating the existence of an incoming call request for the cellular phone, transmitting a paging message associated with the incoming call request to the cellular phone, and executing a voice call, wherein the call is conducted by one of either the cellular phone and the fixed phone.
US09078237B2

Logic may implement an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system operating in the one gigahertz and lower frequency bands. Logic may detect new long training sequences that are differentially orthogonal to each other for a first bandwidth mode of operation such as a one megahertz mode as well as differentially orthogonal to half of the long training sequence for a second bandwidth mode of operation such as a two megahertz or greater mode. Logic may implement two or more long training sequences for the first bandwidth mode of operation to transmit information based upon the selection of the particular long training sequence for the transmission. Logic may implement a new acknowledgement packet comprising a short training sequence and a long training sequence without a signal field and without a payload. And logic may implement bandwidth detection logic to classify a transmission based upon orthogonal properties of the long training sequences.
US09078235B2

An apparatus and method for configuring Enhanced Multicast and Broadcast Service (E-MBS) Scheduling Intervals (MSIs) in a communication system are provided. The method includes selecting a number N of MSIs, and selecting a periodicity of each of the N MSIs. By selecting a number N of MSIs and a periodicity of each of the N MSIs, a communication system is able to more efficiently decode E-MBS data.
US09078230B2

Methods, program products, and systems for selective location determination are described. A mobile device can determine a location of the mobile device using various techniques. When there is a conflict between the locations determined using different techniques, the mobile device can select a most trustworthy location from the locations, and designate the most trustworthy location as a current location of the mobile device. The mobile device can determine a first location of the mobile device (e.g., a coarse location) using a cell identifier (cell ID) of a cellular network. The mobile device can determine a second location of the mobile device (e.g., a fine location) using one or more media access control (MAC) addresses of a WLAN. The first location and second location can be associated with confidence values that can indicate trustworthiness of the first location and second location.
US09078226B2

A method for determining a transmission power in a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system based on a cooperative transmission is provided. The method includes setting a power constraint condition of a transmitter and target quality information of a receiver. The method further includes determining the transmission power to be allocated to the transmitter to transmit the data to the receiver based on the power constraint condition and the target quality information.
US09078224B2

The specification and drawings present a new method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) for a power control (e.g., at least for DL power control) in a cell using a concept of a relative load in a network such as a wireless network. The relative load may be a ratio of cell's own load relative to an average load in a cluster of neighboring cells for scaling a nominal power value (or a function of the power value). The load can be measured, for example, either as a number of UEs in the cell, a RB utilization in the cell, a DL information traffic in the cell, or any other metric that's representative of the load in the cell. The resulting computed power for a DL signaling can be either on a per cell basis or on a per UE basis.
US09078223B2

A system and method for inter-cell interference mitigation in FDM systems is provided. The system provides for increased efficiency with load metric data generated per subband for both serving and neighboring non-serving cells. The system robustly provides for sharing load metric date per subband through a backhaul channel as well as directly from cell to adjacent cell. Furthermore, a UE based communication system allows UE reduction of assigned load controls based on directly reading a neighboring cells' load metrics. The system thus robustly handles various cell types (e.g. synchronous or asynchronous) and a variety of UE capabilities while providing increased efficiency in managing inter-cell interference.
US09078220B2

A method and apparatus for User Equipment (UE) power class adaptation for coverage extension in Long Term Evolution (LTE) includes setting a maximum transmit power to a predefined level that is below a maximum capability of a high power UE (HPUE); responsive to determining, based on detected operating conditions local to the HPUE, that an increase in transmit range is required, raising the maximum transmit power towards or to the maximum capability of the HPUE; and subsequently transmitting at an operating transmit power at or below the maximum transmit power as a function of the detected operating conditions local to the HPUE. The method and apparatus allow the HPUE to infer how to configure its maximum power to mitigate interference to the same class of cells, without assistance from an Evolved Node B (eNB) and within the existing 3GPP LTE framework.
US09078218B1

Gain measurement of distributed antenna system (DAS) segments during active communications employing autocorrelation on a combined test signal and communications signal is disclosed. In one embodiment, a test signal is injected into one or more DAS segments in a DAS. The test signal power is measured at the input and output of the DAS segment(s) for which gain measurement is desired. The difference in power of the test signal between the input and the output of the DAS segment is the gain of the DAS segment. The frequency of the test signal is provided to be within the frequency band of the communications service signals supported by the DAS segment. To allow for gain measurement of a DAS segment during active communication periods when the DAS segment is actively transmitting communications service signals, autocorrelation is employed to separate the test signal from combined test signal and communications service signals.
US09078216B2

The present invention relates to methods and arrangements in a wireless communication system, and in particular to uplink outer loop power control. A Node B identifies if a UE from which the Node B receives data is in a predetermined set of power challenged situations. The Node B transmits to the RNC an indication to hold the SIR target of the UE if the UE has been identified to be in a power challenged situation. As a consequence, the uplink outer loop power control (OLPC) procedure in the RNC will not change the SIR target of the UE. This implies that the output power level of the UE remains unchanged as long as the UE remains in the power challenged situation. Thus, user and network performance are improved in the wireless communication system.
US09078208B1

Various aspects of this disclosure are directed to setting, by a computing device including a group of electronic components, the group including at least an audio input device, a first time that indicates when the computing device transitions from a first power mode to a second power mode. Operation of the electronic components in the first power mode may use a first amount of power. Operation of the electronic components in the second power mode may use a second amount of power that is less than the first amount of power. The computing device may receive an audio input at a second time prior to the computing device transitioning from the first power mode to the second power mode. Responsive to receiving the audio input, the computing device may adjust the first time that indicates when the computing device transitions from the first power mode to the second power mode.
US09078206B2

A method and device are provided for synchronizing data transmission of multicasting/broadcasting services (MBS) by a plurality of Base Stations. Meanwhile, each of the Base Stations receives the MBS data to be transmitted and determines whether any of the MBS data has not been properly received. If so, the respective Base Station may initiate a process to recover the missing MBS data and/or to obtain information regarding the missing data to determine the duration of the time period that would have been required for transmitting the missing MBS. If the missing data has not been timely recovered, the respective Base Station determines a starting point and the duration of a silence period based on the information obtained, and refrains from transmitting signals along a communication channel allocated for transmission of MBS data, during that silence period.
US09078204B2

A base station includes an obtaining unit and an instructing unit. The obtaining unit obtains, from another base station that communicates with a mobile device, a propagation delay amount between the other base station and the mobile device. When a propagation delay amount between the base station and the mobile device which is based on the propagation delay amount obtained by the obtaining unit is present within a predetermined range from a boundary of a detecting window that is used in detecting a preamble sequence transmitted from the mobile device, the instructing unit instructs the mobile device to stop the transmission of the preamble sequence corresponding to another detecting window that lies adjacent across the boundary.
US09078199B2

Methods, a radio base station, and a second user equipment are provided. The second user equipment is served by the radio base station and sends a first request for granting a first user equipment access to at least one service. A transfer of a first access code between the second user equipment-and the radio base station-takes place. The radio base station-receives, from the first user equipment, a second request for access to said at least one service and the code information based on the first access code. Then, the radio base station-sends, to the first user equipment, an access grant for granting the first user equipment-access to the at least one service in response to the second request and the code information, when the code information matches the first access code.
US09078197B2

A method of handling an access network discovery and selection function (ANDSF) for a network of a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method comprises determining a first plurality of closed subscriber group (CSG) cells of the wireless communication system with a first CSG identity, for a mobile device of the wireless communication system to communicate with an evolved packet core (EPC) network of the wireless communication system via the first plurality of CSG cells, after the network determines the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as an access technology for the mobile device; and configuring an inter-system mobility policy (ISMP) node such that a value of an AccessTechnology leaf of a PrioritizedAccess node is configured as the 3GPP, and a value of a first AccessId leaf of the PrioritizedAccess node is configured as the first CSG identity of the first plurality of CSG cells.
US09078192B2

Balancing client load on an access point in a wireless digital network. An access point tracks the number of connected users and accepts new connections only if the number of connected users is below a preset threshold. The number of connected users may be tracked on an access point wide basis, a per-band basis, a per-BSSID basis, or a combination. Similarly, accepting new connections may be done on an access point wide basis, a per-band basis, a per-BSSID basis, on the basis of client 802.11 capabilities, or a combination.
US09078191B2

To control allocation of a portion of a shared channel to use for control information, a base station determines an amount of resource elements of the shared channel to use for the control information in place of traffic data. The base station sends, to a mobile station, an indication relating to an offset parameter, where the indication is provided to allow the mobile station to compute a value for the offset parameter such that the mobile station can determine the amount of the resource elements of the shared channel to allocate for the control information.
US09078184B2

An apparatus and method for performing handover in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. A communication method includes broadcasting, by a Base Station (BS), a neighbor advertisement message including neighbor cell information through each Frequency Allocation (FA); analyzing the neighbor cell advertise message by a plurality of Media Access Control (MAC) processors of an Mobile Station (MS) to obtain FA configuration information of each neighbor cell; independently determining handover by the MAC processors of the MS; generating the start of handover by one MAC which first determines handover; and determining a handover target by the remaining MAC processors so that handover is performed to different FAs of the same BS of the MAC processor which generates the start of handover by using the FA configuration information of each neighbor cell.
US09078176B2

Provided is a system and method for configuring a multi-hierarchical cell in which a large-scale mobile backhaul technology and a small cell technology are combined. A mobile backhaul may increase a transmission capacity of a wireless backhaul using a super high frequency (SHF)/extremely high frequency (EHF) band, rather than a cellular band having a limitation in extending frequency resources, and a small group cell to be formed at a final end of the mobile backhaul may be configured by fixed group cells or mobile group cells depending on a radio environment, using a moving relay, wireless fidelity (WiFi), femto-cells, and the like, whereby cells may be miniaturized effectively, and a relatively great capacity of a wireless system may be provided to a subscriber.
US09078174B2

Calls are established with a single mobile terminal through either a wireless network or via a terminal adaptor over the PSTN or a packet network. The terminal adaptor and mobile terminal communicate via a local wireless interface. The mobile terminal may facilitate cellular calls via the wireless network as well as PSTN or packet-based calls via the terminal adaptor. The mobile terminal may initiate a handoff when it is involved in a call through the wireless network and within a communication zone of the terminal adaptor. The handoff will establish a connection between the wireless switch, which is currently supporting the call, and the mobile terminal through the terminal adaptor. Once the connection with the mobile terminal through the terminal adaptor is established, the call is transitioned to the new connection and the mobile terminal will transfer to the local wireless interface to support the call.
US09078163B2

A method and apparatus for performing communication in a wireless communication system are provided. The method includes identifying a transmission mode configured for a serving cell by a Base Station (BS), by a User Equipment (UE), identifying an antenna configuration of the BS by the UE, determining the number of bits for a Rank Indication (RI) representing the number of layers based on the transmission mode and the antenna configuration, and generating an RI using the determined number of bits and transmitting the RI in transmission resources of the serving cell to the BS by the UE.
US09078161B2

A method, apparatus, computer program, and system is provided that includes handling traffic management in a communication network system. One example may include activating a communication link, obtaining traffic management rules to handle the traffic flow on the communication link, and transferring the traffic management rules to at least one network element configured to implement the traffic management rules. The traffic management rules are configured to perform traffic management by transferring at least a portion of the network traffic to a different communication network.
US09078160B2

Method, apparatus and software configured to detecting a radio coverage hole and providing a confidence information of a detected radio coverage hole. A coverage hole detection signal and confidence information may be received and evaluated, deciding on a potential coverage hole reducing or closing process depending on the evaluation.
US09078157B2

Communication sessions with mobile devices may be suspended, in a wireless communications network, after failure of one or more backhaul network links In one implementation, a device may detect failure of a backhaul network connecting a cell site to a core portion of a wireless network; and suspend, based on the detected failure, communication sessions with mobile devices connected to the cell site through radio interfaces, the suspending of the communication sessions including preventing loss of the communication sessions despite the failure of the backhaul network. The device may further detect cessation of the failure of the backhaul network; and resume, based on the detected cessation of the failure of the backhaul network, the communication sessions with the mobile devices.
US09078156B2

A user equipment is configured to operate in an idle mode according to an MDT configuration. When receiving an activation signal from a base station, the user equipment is configured to execute one or multiple logged MDTs in the idle mode according to the activation signal and the MDT configuration.
US09078149B2

Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method and an apparatus for improving call quality for a user, which relate to the field of communication technologies and are invented for improving call quality for a user while improving frequency spectrum utilization. The method for improving call quality for a user includes: obtaining an interference suppression parameter and frequency band interference information of a target carrier; determining an interference suppression coefficient according to the interference suppression parameter and the frequency band interference information; and suppressing interference on the target carrier by using an interference suppression apparatus having the interference suppression coefficient.
US09078138B2

A system and method are provided wherein one or more femtocell base stations are deployed within a range of a cellular base station and utilize substantially the same frequency band as the cellular base station. Each femtocell base station may be configured to employ one or more interference avoidance techniques such that coexistence between the cellular and the corresponding femtocell base station is enabled. The interference avoidance techniques employed may include use of randomized time or frequency hopping; randomly selecting a predetermined number, or identifying one or more unutilized, frequency subchannels for signal transmission; using two or more transmit and two or more receive antennas; nulling one or more transmissions in a direction of a nearby cellular base station user; handing off at least one cellular user to one of the femtocell base stations and vice versa; and/or reducing the transmission power of at least one femtocell base station.
US09078134B2

A method of and system for receiving a communication is disclosed. A receiving device receives the communication. The method and system classify user information into a set of security levels. A caller from a source of potential callers is associated with a security rating within the set of security levels. Using at least one caller-identification resource, the communication can be identified as being related to the caller with the security rating. The method and system determine a recommendation for providing user information. The recommendation may be based on the security rating within the set of security levels. The determined recommendation for providing user information in response to the communication is issued.
US09078130B2

In a first configuration, a UE receives, from a service provider, a certificate authority list. The certificate authority list is at least one of integrity protected or encrypted based on a credential known by the UE and the service provider and stored on a smartcard in the UE. The UE authenticates a server using the received certificate authority list. In a second configuration, the UE receives a user service discovery/announcement including a reception report configuration and an address of a server. The UE sends a protected reception report to the server based on the reception report configuration. In a third configuration, the UE receives a protected broadcast announcement and communicates based on the broadcast announcement. The broadcast announcement is at least one of integrity protected or encrypted based on a credential known by the UE and stored on a smartcard in the UE.
US09078128B2

A system and method for securely processing identity information. For example, in one embodiment of the invention, a first user is registered on an identity service with one or more identification (ID) codes and a token. In response to a query from a second user to connect with the first user, a query signature is generated using the one or more ID codes and token of the first and second users, and a timestamp. The query signature is usable by network services to authenticate communication between the first and second users on the network over a specified period of time. In another embodiment, user ID codes and tokens are cached on mobile devices and/or a system cache to improve performance. The validity of the cached data is determined by calculating a fingerprint which, in one embodiment, is a hash of the ID code, token and a timestamp.
US09078126B2

Disclosure relates to a method of sharing a session key between wireless communication terminals using a variable-length authentication code. The method includes: generating a public key by using an own private key; generating a message including the public key and a first random number and encoding the message using an own secret key to exchange an encrypted message with the other terminal; decoding the encrypted message of the other terminal by receiving a secret key of the other terminal; generating an authentication code by calculating the first random number and a second random number included in the decoded message; obtaining a medium value from the authenticated code; and generating a session key by using a public key included in the decoded message of the other terminal.
US09078125B2

Methods and systems are provided for vehicle data communications. The system includes a vehicle communication component configured to receive data, encode the data to be transmitted, and transmit the encoded data wirelessly. A data delivery unit is configured to receive the encoded data, decode the encoded data, and present data in at least one format. A wired communication link couples the vehicle communication component and the data delivery unit. The wired communication link is configured to relay decoding information from the vehicle communication component to the data delivery unit such that the data delivery unit may decode the encoded data.
US09078108B1

A wireless medium often supports communications of multiple devices on different respective channels of the wireless medium. In some aspects described herein, a first frame is transmitted on a first channel of a wireless medium effective to prevent a member device of a peer-to-peer group from attempting to access the wireless medium, a second frame inviting a wireless device to join the peer-to-peer group is transmitted on a second channel of the wireless medium, and the first channel of the wireless medium is returned to thereby enabling a next attempt of the member device to access the wireless medium.
US09078106B2

Disclosed herein is a location information providing method generating a map image in itself for a current position of a protectee terminal, when a protector terminal requests current position related information of a protectee terminal, in which the protectee terminal directly transmits the map image besides a picture image of a protectee terminal user to a protector terminal.
US09078097B2

A mobile router comprises: a valet mode program to provide valet mode functionality in a vehicle in which the mobile router is disposed; a processor operable to execute the valet mode program; a predetermined distance limit; and a predetermined speed limit. The mobile router responds to externally generated commands from a predetermined source to activate or deactivate the valet mode. The processor is operable to determine if the predetermined distance limit is exceeded from the location of the vehicle when the valet mode is activated; and the processor is operable to determine if the vehicle exceeds the predetermined speed limit when the valet mode is activated.
US09078089B2

Computationally implemented methods and systems include detecting presence of one or more electronic devices near a wearable computing device, the wearable computing device being a computing device designed to be worn by a user; determining which of the one or more electronic devices that are detected as being near the wearable computing device are at least designed to provide one or more specific functionalities that are being sought by the wearable computing device; and acquiring, by the wearable computing device based at least, in part, on said detecting and said determining, one or more specific functionalities that are available through at least one electronic device that was detected as being near the wearable computing device and that was determined to provide the one or more specific functionalities. In addition to the foregoing, other aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text.
US09078088B2

An application programming interface (API) is disclosed for interfacing a vehicle electronic component with a smartphone, wherein the vehicle electronic component and the smartphone each make use of a short range wireless transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the other, and wherein the smartphone includes an application running thereon. The API has an interconnect API disposed in the electronic component. The interconnect API also has a software library of command and function definitions that are able to be implemented by the API. A connect library is also used which resides within the smartphone and which is configured to communicate with the application running on the smartphone. The interconnect API and the connect library cooperatively operate as a translation mechanism to implement a plurality of functionalities when communicating with the application, according to the electronic device's capabilities.
US09078068B2

A MEMS microphone has a backplate with a given backplate aperture, and a diaphragm having a diaphragm aperture. The given backplate aperture is substantially aligned with the diaphragm aperture.
US09078067B2

An insulated sounder assembly may include: a) a sounder cup having a bottom and a sidewall; b) a piezoelectric element positioned in the bottom of the cup; c) a potting layer within the sounder cup and spaced apart from the piezoelectric element so that the potting layer contacts the cup sidewall for a distance of at least 3 mm around the entire circumference of the cup, and so that a gap exists between the piezoelectric element and the potting layer, with the gap being sufficient to allow vibration of the piezoelectric element in the sounder cup without restriction by the potting layer; and d) an electrical contact wire attached to the piezoelectric element to provide a voltage to the piezoelectric element, wherein the electrical contact wire passes through the potting layer so that at least 3 mm of bare wire is completely embedded in said potting layer.
US09078059B2

A transducer includes a housing, a magnet unit, an elastic diaphragm, a vibration unit, and a coil. The housing has a first housing and a second housing to form a storing space. The magnet unit is secured in the first housing. The elastic diaphragm is a thin layer and disposed between the second housing and the vibration unit. The spiral coil is mounted on the vibration unit and has two electrical connecting points for inputting electric signal of alternating current. Hence, the coil can generate continuous vibration caused by alternating attraction/repelling force of the magnet unit. When the frequency of the electric signal is within 20˜20000 Hz, the elastic diaphragm generates sound signals within earshot. When it is within 10˜20 Hz, it can generate vibration signals. So, signal unit can produce sound and vibration. In addition, it saves space for effectuating the thickness minimization of a product.
US09078047B2

Provided is a content reproduction device which enables a user watching or listening to a content on a given content reproduction device to discontinue the watching thereof or listening thereto and then easily resume the watching of the same content or listening thereto from a discontinued state on another content reproduction device. When reproduction of a content is discontinued, discontinued state information indicating a reproduction state of the content at a time point of the discontinuation is transmitted to a watching/listening history management server (20) and the discontinued state information stored in the watching/listening history management server (20) is received from the watching/listening history management server (20), and the reproduction of the content is started from a state determined based on the received discontinued state information.
US09078043B2

A content processing device selectively queries at least one remote device in response to a message received from a user device. The message includes an instruction to modify information in at least one user data set stored on a remote device. Modifying information includes providing an award to one or more users associated with the one or more data sets.
US09078039B2

Aspects of a method and system for customized acquisition of content by a broadband gateway are provided. A broadband gateway may be operable to determine options for acquiring particular content. The broadband gateway may be operable to rank the determined options. The ranking may be based on one or more characteristics of the options and based on user-specified criteria. The broadband gateway may be operable to select one of the options for acquiring the content based on results of the ranking. One or more of the options may be available via a first physical layer connection and one or more of the options may be available via a second physical layer connection. The gateway may rank the determined options based on attributes of one or more devices via which the particular content will be consumed.
US09078035B2

A profile provider: (i) associates a primary online device (OD1) with a set-top box (STB); (ii) a location of OD1 at some point in time is estimated to be “near” the STB, thereby establishing a STB proxy location; (iii) one or more secondary online devices (OD2s) are observed to be located “near” the STB proxy location and are associated with the STB; and (iv) a television advertisement is selected to be directed to the STB, which selection is based at least in part on profile information linked to one of the associated OD2s. The method can be particularly advantageous in situations wherein: the STB is not connected to any computer network; the STB is not ever connected to the same local area network as OD1 or OD2; or television service (used by the STB) and online access (used by OD1 and OD2s) are provided by different service providers.
US09078029B2

An image projection kit and an imagery content distribution system and method. In one aspect, the invention can be a system for mapping and/or projecting imagery onto non-coplanar surfaces of a three-dimensional architecture comprising: a projection device configured to be secured in a fixed orientation at a location from which a line of sight exists to one or more desired surfaces of the architecture; a computer device having a display module and a video compositing application, the computer device operably coupled to the projector; the video compositing application comprising a composition window; the computer device configured to transmit content of the composition window to the projector device for display on the architecture; and the video compositing application configured to facilitate: (1) insertion of a matte into the composition window; and (2) adjustment of the size, shape, position, orientation, or any combination thereof of the matte within the composition window so that edges of a projected image of the matte are aligned with at least one of the desired surfaces of the architecture.
US09078025B2

The present invention provides techniques relating to rich media advertising. Techniques are provided in which an advertiser-provided image-based component of an advertisement creative is matched with an advertiser-provided audio component of the advertisement creative. A rich media advertisement may be served that includes the image-based component and a synchronously presented audio component. The image-based component and the audio-based component may be elements of a companion advertisement.
US09078022B2

A method includes identifying a current time that at least one video program is viewed by at least one device associated with at least one user account. An initial billing time that the at least one video program is to be billed associated with the at least one user account may be identified. The method may include determining whether the current time is equal to the initial billing time. At least one coefficient associated with the at least one video program at the current time may be identified in response to a determination that the current time is equal to the initial billing time. The method may include determining a usage based billing for the at least one user account based on the current time that the at least one video program is viewed and the at least one coefficient associated with the at least one video program.
US09078014B2

A method and an apparatus are used to target interactive virtual objects to subscribers in a television delivery system. Programs are selected and virtual object locations are defined in the selected programs. The virtual objects available for targeting are categorized and the categories are correlated to subscriber information to determine the optimum targeting of the virtual objects. Upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software, and corresponding features in a user's terminal are used to accomplish these functions.
US09078009B2

A method of compressing a video signal. The method comprises: for each of a plurality of image portions, transforming from a spatial domain representation into a transform domain representation; and for each of a plurality of target image portions to be encoded, determining a respective reference portion, determining a prediction of the target image portion based on the reference portion, and encoding the target image portion based on the prediction. The prediction comprises predicting a non-lateral motion of the target image portion relative to the reference portion based on processing of their transform domain coefficients. The encoding comprises generating an encoded bitstream comprising information about the non-lateral motion for use by a decoder.
US09078002B2

Coding techniques for a video image compression system involve improving an image quality of a sequence of two or more bi-directionally predicted intermediate frames, where each of the frames includes multiple pixels. One method involves determining a brightness value of at least one pixel of each bi-directionally predicted intermediate frame in the sequence as an equal average of brightness values of pixels in non-bidirectionally predicted frames bracketing the sequence of bi-directionally predicted intermediate frames. The brightness values of the pixels in at least one of the non-bidirectionally predicted frames is converted from a non-linear representation.
US09077996B2

A video encoder includes an entropy encoder that computes a predicted motion vector (PMV) for each of a plurality of macroblocks in a video frame based on motion vectors of multiple other macroblocks. The video encoder also includes a motion estimator that determines a predicted motion vector for a given macroblock by reusing, as the predicted motion vector for the given macroblock, only the PMV computed by the entropy encoder for a macroblock immediately on top of the given macroblock.
US09077995B2

A video processing system includes a video transcoder that receives a independent video layer stream and a first dependent video layer stream that requires the independent video layer for decoding, the video transcoder generating a transcoded video signal based at least one of the independent video stream and the dependent video layer stream.
US09077992B2

A method and apparatus for processing a video frame is provided. The method includes dividing the video frame into pixel blocks each including a reference pixel; calculating difference values between the reference pixel and pixels neighboring the reference pixel; converting the calculated difference values into values that belong to a bit depth range; and performing entropy coding by using the converted difference values as symbols.
US09077986B2

An improved method and/or system to generate depth data for a 2D image for subsequent display on an MLD or other volumetric display. A multi-layered display (MLD) includes first and second display layers with one said display layer overlapping the other said display layer. The first display layer displays a first image and a second display layer displays a second image. The second image is synchronised with said first image such that an alteration of at least one image property of said first image triggers an alteration of at least one image property of said second image.
US09077980B2

A correction value calculation apparatus that includes circuitry configured to: acquire a relative position of a feature point to a reference point in a left/right image formed by a left/right lens as a left/right pixel position in the case where the left/right lens is moved in a coordinate system constructed with a pitch axis and a yaw axis; detect a relative position of the left/right lens to a reference position as a left/right lens detection position; generate a characteristic representing a relationship between the left/right pixel position and the left/right lens detection position; set each of the left/right lens detection position as a correction object position and determine an adjustment position which is a position on a straight line connecting the left and right pixel positions; and calculate correction values which are differences between the left and right lens detection positions.
US09077978B2

This invention relates to capturing an image of a subject as a three-dimensional image using a single image-capturing apparatus. The image-capturing apparatus includes a first polarization means, a lens system, and an image-capturing device array having a second polarization means. The first polarization means includes first and second regions arranged along a first direction, and the second polarization means includes multiple third and fourth regions arranged alternately along a second direction. First region transmission light having passed the first region passes the third region and reaches the image-capturing device, and second region transmission light having passed the second region passes the fourth region and reaches the image-capturing device. Thus, an image is captured to obtain a three-dimensional image in which a distance between a barycenter BC1 of the first region and a barycenter BC2 of the second region is a base line length of parallax between two eyes.
US09077976B2

Present invention provides a single-eye stereoscopic image capturing device which can reduce the discomfort of a photographer by constantly maintaining a parallax quantity of a left-eye image and a right-eye image that are stereoscopically-displayed even if a focus lens is moved. The single-eye stereoscopic image capturing device comprises, a photographic optical system, pupil division part, imaging part, focus lens driving part, parallax correction quantity calculation part, parallax correction part, and output part.
US09077966B2

Systems and low bandwidth methods to encode and broadcast a video multiplex that allows a receiving device, e.g., a set-top box, to select and decode half resolution split screen stereo video, full resolution two-dimensional video and full resolution stereo video is provided. The systems and methods provide for receiving a data signal, the data signal including a first video signal representing a two-dimensional image at a first video resolution and a second video signal representing a three-dimensional image at a second resolution; decoding the first video signal if an output display type is a two-dimensional display type; decoding the second video signal if the output display type is a first three-dimensional display type; and decoding the first video signal and second video signal simultaneously if the output display type is a second three-dimensional display type.
US09077954B2

An image processing apparatus according to the present disclosure includes: an image processor configured to generate movie data based on image capturing data obtained in response to a shooting instruction that has been given by a user; and a controller configured to write the movie data on a storage medium. When any movie file has already been written on the storage medium, and when the movie data is related to the existent movie file or when the user decides to add the movie data, the controller adds the movie data to the existent movie file.
US09077952B2

A method of scanning content comprises receiving an input signal indicating that content being displayed is to be scanned, sensing a duration of the received input signal, and scanning the content at a rate based at least in part on the sensed duration of the received input.
US09077951B2

The present invention relates to a television program selection system, a recommendation method for recommending a selected television program and a recording method for recording a selected television program. Therefore, in a storage face data of one or more users and preference data associated to the face data are stored, wherein said preference data indicating preferences of the user. A camera captures an image of a user. A recommendation device then searches the attribute data of television programs currently available and selects in case that the captured image corresponds to one of the stored face data at least one television program having attribute data matching the associated stored preference data for display, recommendation, recording or other processes.
US09077933B2

Example methods and apparatus to generate relevance rankings for use by a program selector of a media presentation system are disclosed. An example method comprises tabulating a plurality of occurrence counts for respective ones of a plurality of terms of a program guide, each of the occurrence counts indicating a corresponding number of times each of the terms appears in the program guide, computing a plurality of relevance ranking scores for respective ones of a plurality of programs listed in the program guide based on the plurality of occurrence counts, selecting a list of programs from the program guide based on the relevance ranking scores, and outputting the list of programs.
US09077926B2

An image processing method includes estimating corners of a contour of an object area in an obtained image, searching for contour lines of the object area between every two points which are offset from the estimated corners within a predetermined degree or distance along a direction away from the object area respectively, and determining intersection points of the contour lines as final corners of the contour of the object area, and determining contour lines between the final corners as a final contour of the object area.
US09077921B2

An image pickup apparatus includes a plurality of comparators. At least two analog signal outputs from a pixel are input to the plurality of comparators, and the plurality of comparators perform comparison operations in an overlapped period.
US09077900B2

A method and an apparatus are provided for capturing a moving image and a still image. Moving-image capturing is ceased, when a still image-capturing request is generated. Still-image capturing operation parameters are set in the image sensor. The image sensor is exposed to generate still-image data. Moving-image capturing operation parameters are set in the image sensor, when generation of the still-image data is complete. The image sensor is exposed to generate the moving-image data. The still-image data is quality-processed and compressed to generate still-image frame data. Moving-image frame data generated by quality-processing and size-adjusting the moving-image data are connected and compressed to generate a moving-image stream. Quality-processed virtual moving-image frame data is generated using the still-image data. The quality-processed virtual moving-image frame data is inserted into a loss section of the moving-image stream corresponding to a period in which the moving-image capturing is ceased.
US09077896B2

A mobile terminal and controlling method thereof are disclosed, by which a capture image is created or various side functions are performed in accordance with a user's command input in a specific mode in the course of playing a video. The present invention includes playing a video on a touchscreen, entering a capture mode, detecting a touch input to a 1st point of a 1st region of the touchscreen with a pointer, displaying a capture user interface (UI) on a 2nd region including the 1st point while the touch input is maintained, removing the touch input from a 2nd point of the capture user interface, and capturing an image at a timing point corresponding to the 2nd point in the video.
US09077895B2

A processor (30) of a mobile terminal (10) that is one example of a camera apparatus detects a face image of a person image (58) in an object image displayed on a display (14) prior to an imaging key (26) is operated, and displays a face mark (60) at a portion of the face of each person image. A user selects arbitrary one or more person image out of the person images onto each of which the face mark is displayed as a zoom processing target by operating an operating portion such as a GUI. A selection mark (62) is applied to a person image that the user selects. A zooming-up and/or down (zoom processing) is performed such that the object image including the person image onto which the selection mark is applied is rendered to a predetermined composition.
US09077893B2

A camera array, an imaging device and/or a method for capturing image that employ a plurality of imagers fabricated on a substrate is provided. Each imager includes a plurality of pixels. The plurality of imagers include a first imager having a first imaging characteristics and a second imager having a second imaging characteristics. The images generated by the plurality of imagers are processed to obtain an enhanced image compared to images captured by the imagers. Each imager may be associated with an optical element fabricated using a wafer level optics (WLO) technology.
US09077885B2

An information processing apparatus may include at least one processor, at least one interface from the at least one processor to at least one sensor configured to detect an orientation of the apparatus, and at least one interface from the at least one processor to at least one display. The at least one processor may be configured to, in response to receiving input from the at least one sensor that indicates a change in the orientation of the apparatus within a time limit from an occurrence of an event, cause the at least one display to display one or more previously created photographs. An information processing method may include detecting an orientation of an apparatus having a display, and in response to detecting a change in the apparatus's orientation within a time limit from an occurrence of an event, displaying one or more previously created photographs on the display.
US09077876B2

An optical imaging lens set from an object side toward an image side along an optical axis in order includes: a first lens element with positive refractive power, a second lens element with negative refractive power, a third lens element having an image-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of the optical axis, a fourth lens element having an object-side surface with a concave portion in a vicinity of the optical axis, and a fifth lens element having an object-side surface with a convex portion in a vicinity of its circular periphery.
US09077874B2

Disclosed is a memory card having a central processor, a wireless transceiver module operatively connected to the central processor, a storage module operatively connected to the central processor, and a movement sensor operatively connected to the central processor. The movement sensor is configured to provide operational signals to the central processor as a result of a detection of movement of defined characteristics.
US09077866B2

A multiple camera video system and methods for operating such a system. The system may include a plurality of cameras located around a stadium, athletic playing field or other location. The cameras are remotely controlled in a master-slave configuration. A camera operator at a master pan head selects one of the plurality of cameras as the current master camera and utilizes the master pan head to adjust the telemetry and zoom of the master camera to follow the target object. The telemetry and zoom parameters of the master camera are then used to calculate corresponding telemetry, zoom and/or other parameters for each of the plurality of slave cameras. Video captured by each of the cameras is stored for the production of replay video feeds or for archiving. The replays may be capable of “spinning” through the video feeds of adjacent cameras in order for the viewer to get the sensation of revolving around the target object. The multiple camera video system also includes methods for calibrating the system.
US09077863B2

System and method for management of location based video services may allow a management server to receive information such as geographical location, from one or more mobile devices and to transfer data, such as video data or other multi-media data, from a plurality of cameras or other media sources to the mobile devices based on the received information.
US09077853B2

Systems and methods for conducting a multi-endpoint video signal conference are provided. Conferencing endpoints are linked by pairs of a reliable and a less reliable communication channel. Conference video signals are scaleable coded in base layer and enhancement layers format. Video signal base layers, which correspond to a minimum picture quality, are communicated over reliable channels. The video signal enhancements layers may be communicated over the less reliable channels. A conference server mediates the switching of video layer information from transmitting endpoints to receiving endpoints without any intermediate coding or re-coding operations. The video conference can be integrated with an audio conference using either scalable coded audio signals or non-scaleable coded audio signals.
US09077848B2

A side channel, networked with a real-time video conference feed, includes descriptive audio commentary. The side channel also includes an adjustable data handler for adjusting amount of the descriptive audio data correlated to audio commentary regarding the real-time video conference; and a means for prioritizing associated conversation links tied to the real-time video conference.
US09077844B2

A multi-screen video playback system includes: a video playback device having a main display to playback a target video; a portable communication device having a screen; and a multi-screen display controlling server configured to operably establish a device group relationship between the video playback device and the portable communication device, to transmit the target video to the video playback device via a network, and to transmit an auxiliary video to the portable communication device via the network. The multi-screen display controlling server receives a notice information generated by the video playback device while the video playback device playbacks the target video, and instructs the portable communication device to begin displaying the auxiliary video on the screen according to the notice information.
US09077843B2

A video playback system for jointly displaying video with multiple screens, includes multiple portable communication devices each comprises at least one screen; a location detection circuit for dynamically detecting respective portable communication device's spatial location and orientation; and a multi-screen display controlling server for dynamically generate multiple partitioned videos respectively corresponding to multiple non-overlap image areas of a target video according to detection results of the location detection circuit. The multi-screen display controlling server respectively transmits the multiple partitioned videos to the multiple portable communication devices. The multi-screen display controlling server controls the multiple portable communication devices to respectively display the multiple partitioned videos on the multiple screens to jointly display at least a portion of a visible area of the target video.
US09077842B2

An image pickup apparatus includes a lens apparatus attached to a camera apparatus detachably, and a camera apparatus separating a beam into color beams of three colors and displays an image synthesizing first, second and third image signals, wherein the lens apparatus includes a memory unit storing correcting data in an image height direction of the second and third image signals on the first image signal for correcting aberration of the image taking optical system, and a lens controlling unit extracting the correcting data of the image taking optical system state, wherein the camera apparatus includes a camera controller moving the second and third image signals in the image height direction, and displaying an image obtained by superimposing the color image signals, wherein the image pickup apparatus includes a controller, and wherein the lens controlling unit adjusts the correcting data, and the memory unit stores the adjusted correcting data.
US09077820B2

During voice communication between multiple telecommunications devices, a shareable application facilitates concurrent sharing of data and processes between the devices. The application may be configured to monitor the voice communication and execute a predetermined function upon detecting a predetermined condition in the voice communication. The application may further facilitate sharing of functionality and user interface displays during the voice communication. In some implementations, a server computing device on a communications network may facilitate functions of shareable applications on one or more telecommunications devices.
US09077818B2

A system, method, and computer readable medium for remotely migrating from a first service to a second service, comprising sensing a ring wire state, sensing a tip wire state and switching a switch device to a direct current termination based upon a difference between the ring wire state and the tip wire state.
US09077815B1

A computerized method of customizing hardware for a mobile phone is provided. The method includes receiving shell selection information from a user input device, identifying a set of hardware components, the set of hardware components generated based on a compatibility between the hardware components and the shell selection information, and outputting the identified set of compatible hardware components.
US09077811B2

A method and apparatus for enabling interoperability of touch devices. The method comprises establishing communication between a master device and one or more slave devices, wherein the master device and the one or more slave devices each comprise a touch screen, and wherein the master device and slave device are each running an application; registering, with the master device, at least one capability for each slave device of the one or more slave devices, communicating a selection made on a slave device of the one or more slave devices to the master device; and implementing the selection from the slave device in the application running on the master device.
US09077810B2

Provided is an apparatus and method for managing an application in a wireless terminal, in which data of an application is managed and displayed according to an input type of a password for unlocking the wireless terminal, wherein the apparatus includes a memory for storing a plurality of passwords and a controller for classifying and managing data of each of a plurality of applications according to a password type.
US09077807B1

The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, a stereo audio data output implementer, a device vibration implementer, a multiple language mode implementer, and a remote control implementer.
US09077804B2

A company/organization is enabled to optimize sessions from an agent's perspective across multiple channels. Actions may be performed, such as monitoring the journey of a user across a self service application, raising alerts to the agent based on the journey, selecting an appropriate agent to whom a session may be routed, raising alerts for a supervisor, enabling the supervisor to track sessions and intervene if required, enable the agent to run commands from an interaction window, push links to launch applications to supplement the primary interaction through appropriate mechanisms, show appropriate responses to the agent on analyzing the session, and providing shortcut keys for the agent to allow the agent to insert appropriate responses into a chat session. Analysis is provided for the sessions, data is extracted from the sessions, and appropriate forms are populated with the data from the session and with agent information.
US09077795B2

Latch mechanism devices for attaching components within a device and methods of use are provided herein. In one aspect, the latch mechanism includes a pair of deflectable members between which a protruding latch member, such as a latch pin, is inserted thereby separating the deflectable members. A latch pin can have a distal insertion portion and a proximal locking portion, the locking portion having a reduced profile so as to resiliently receive the deflectable members displaced by insertion of the latch pin so as to couple the latch pin between the cords. The latch pin can have insertion faces and locking faces angled so as to control the force required to insert and retract the latch pin from the cord pair. The latch mechanism may utilize releasing mechanisms for separating or reducing tension in the deflectable members to facilitate retraction of the latch pin.
US09077782B2

The disclosure relates to systems and methods of burning, snapshotting, streaming and curating geofeeds, each geofeed including a plurality of geofeed content items that are aggregated from a plurality of content providers using respective requests formatted specifically for individual ones of the plurality of content providers, where each individual set of a plurality of content is relevant to one or more geographically definable locations. Archives of a geofeed may be generated by burning portions or all of the geofeed content items and/or generating snapshots of geofeeds at different times. A real-time geofeed may be streamed by continuously or periodically obtaining newly available geofeed content items and updated a geofeed stream in real-time. Collections of geofeed content items may be curated in order to organize and follow geofeed content items of interest.
US09077777B2

A forwarding node decapsulates and encapsulates data. The decapsulation may be performed using pattern matching techniques and the encapsulation may be performed using pattern insertion techniques. The decapsulation and encapsulation are preferably performed by hardware devices such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) to enhance the speed of such operations. The decapsulation and encapsulation may be independent of each other and performed on a per virtual circuit basis.
US09077767B2

Common interests of at least two different groups of users are captured and analyzed to create a proposal for an event that would satisfy the interests of each group of users. One group of users may be consumers of content, another group of users may be providers of content and a further group of users may, for example, be venue providers. Once an event is proposed, ownership of the event may be prompted for.
US09077755B2

A device receives a connection from a user device, and provides, to a database, connection information associated with the user device. The device receives, from the database, user device information based on the connection information, where the user device information includes a location associated with the user device. The device also receives a trigger instructing the device to provide the user device information to a content provider device, and provides the user device information to the content provider device when the trigger is received.
US09077754B2

This disclosure is directed to systems and methods for handling the processing of a next protocol negotiation extension for a transport layer security (TLS) session. A device, intermediary to a client and a server, may receive a client hello message from the client in a handshake to establish a transport layer security (TLS) session with the server. The client hello message may include a next protocol negotiation extension. The device may include a first TLS processor that is software based and a second TLS processor that is hardware based. The device may determine that the client hello message includes the next protocol negotiation extension. The device may establish, responsive to the determination, the TLS session using the first TLS processor. The device may process, upon establishment of the TLS session using the first TLS processor, encrypted data for the TLS session using the second TLS processor.
US09077750B2

A forum service that is hosted by a server in an enterprise service bus receives a message from a client, the message being directed to a service in the enterprise service bus. The forum service acts as a message transport in the enterprise service bus. A thread is generated in a forum managed by the forum service for communications between the client and the service. The message is stored in the thread. The service is notified of the message, wherein the service to receive the message, process the message and post a response message to the thread.
US09077749B2

Methods and apparatus are provided for identity verification for at least one user to a text-based communication. An identity of at least one user to a text-based communication is verified by obtaining a plurality of characteristic features of at least one prior text-based communication between the at least one user and at least one additional user; comparing the plurality of characteristic features to a current session of the text-based communication; and verifying the identity of the at least one user based on a result of the comparison. The text-based communication can optionally be suspended if a user is not verified and/or an alarm can be generated.
US09077744B2

Disclosed here are methods, systems, paradigms and structures for determining fraudulent content in a social network. The methods include identifying a plurality of users of the social network who perform a plurality of tasks within the social network in a lockstep manner. In the method, the plurality of users are determined to be performing a given task in the lockstep manner when the plurality of users each perform the given task within a predefined duration of time, where the predefined duration of time is associated with the given task. The method further includes identifying content data generated by the performance of the plurality of tasks by each of the plurality of users. The method further includes determining at least a portion of the content data generated by the performance of the plurality of tasks as fraudulent content.
US09077739B2

In one embodiment, a system can comprise an interface that receives data related to a communication session and a messaging security device component that evaluates the data and enables a security measure for preventative monitoring of a threat based on the evaluation, the security measure can be universally applied to two or more messaging formats.
US09077732B2

A system and method for selectively updating remote devices is described herein. A method incorporating at least some of the present teachings may include, for example, receiving a communication from a client application executing on a remote device. The communication may indicate a condition of a game character being played in a massively multi-party online game. The method may also include developing a filtered manifest that includes a list of files needed by the client application and associated with the condition. A portion of the collection may be identified for communication to the client application, and communication of the portion may be initiated.
US09077731B2

Cross-environment rendering and user interaction support provide a seamless computing experience in a multi-operating system computing environment. The multi-operating system computing environment may include a mobile operating system and a desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a mobile computing device. The mobile operating system may be associated with a first user environment and the desktop operating system may be associated with a second user environment. Real-time display of applications running in the mobile operating system within the second user environment is provided by rendering the application through an extended graphics context of the mobile operating system. Application graphics for multiple applications are rendered into portions of a single graphics frame. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.
US09077722B2

A method of regulating traffic in a telecommunications network, including the following steps: after the network receives an initial registration request, and if the network is capable of processing said initial registration request, it prescribes for the terminal that sent the request a registration refresh period randomly selected from a range defined by a predetermined minimum value (PREImin) and a predetermined maximum value (PREImax), and after the network receives a registration refresh request, it prescribes for the terminal that sent the request a registration refresh period equal to the value (PRE) provided for normal operation of the network.
US09077711B2

A one time password (OTP) associated with a client device, and a padding rule, of a plurality of possible padding rules, associated with the client device may be determined. A padded OTP that includes the OTP and additional data may be formed based on the padding rule. The padding rule may be associated with at least one of a position of the OTP within the padded OTP, a characteristic of the additional data, or a characteristic of the padded OTP. The padded OTP may be provided to the client device. A selection of a portion of the padded OTP may be received from the client device, and the client device may be authenticated when the selected portion of the padded OTP corresponds to the OTP. If the selected portion of the padded OTP does not correspond to the OTP, other actions may be performed based on the selected portion.
US09077710B1

To better protect passwords used for authentication or for generating cryptographic keys, methods and apparatuses may store password data on multiple storage devices. For each password, each subset of multiple distinct subsets of a data set may be sufficient to authenticate a trial password or generate a cryptographic key. A first subset enables a quick method for authenticating the trial password or generating the cryptographic key. The first subset may be stored in a distributed manner to make it more difficult to steal. If the first subset is unavailable, then a second subset, which is stored centrally, may be used to authenticate the trial password or generate the cryptographic key, but with a method that is an order of magnitude slower than the quick method. Brute force and dictionary attacks based on the second subset may take much longer than such attacks based on the quick method.
US09077703B1

A computer-implemented for protecting user accounts may include: 1) identifying a credential that a computing device uses to log in to a user account of an online system, where the online system is configured to perform an adverse security action in response to a number of failed attempts to log in to the user account, 2) determining that an old version of the credential is no longer valid for logging in to the user account and that a new version of the credential is required to log in to the user account, and 3) taking a remedial action that prevents the adverse security action in response to determining that the old version of the credential is no longer valid. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.
US09077699B1

A method and system for determining which online banking customers of a financial institution may be invited to chat with available customer service representatives or agents. Additionally, after a customer is invited to text-chat with a customer service representative or agent, the customer may be allowed to communicate via text-chat with one or more customer service representatives or agents without redundantly inputting the customer's identification information, advantageously saving time and improving customer satisfaction.
US09077694B2

A client device comprises: (a) a memory, (b) an application program, and (c) a signal processing configuration. The memory is configured and arranged to facilitate a connection of the client device with a target device over a secure communication link created based on (i) an address request generated by the client device, and (ii) a determination as a result of the address request that the target device is a device with which a secure communication link can be established when the requested address is identified in an address lookup. The application program is configured and arranged so as to allow participation in audio/video communications with the target device over the secure communication link once the secure communication link is established. The signal processing configuration is arranged to execute the application program.
US09077692B1

Techniques are described for blocking unidentified encrypted communication sessions. In one embodiment, a device includes an interface to receive a packet, an application identification module to attempt to identify an application associated with the packet, an encryption detection module to determine whether the packet is encrypted when the application identification module is unable to identify an application associated with the packet, and an attack detection module to determine whether the packet is associated with a network attack, to forward the packet when the packet is not associated with a network attack, and to take a response when the packet is associated with a network attack, wherein the encryption detection module sends a message to the attack detection module that indicates whether the packet is encrypted, wherein when the message indicates that packet is encrypted, the attack detection module determines that the packet is associated with a network attack.
US09077691B2

A digital content distribution system uses a Digital Rights Management Controller that performs a set of arbitrary tests against the transfer request from one user to another such as user A to user B. Assuming these tests are successful, the DRM sends an encryption key to transferring user A. This encryption key E is taken from a table of encryption key/hash pairs which have been provided to the DRM Controller by an external authority such as the content rights holder. User A encrypts the content using they key provided by the DRM controller and then optionally calculates a hash over the encrypted form of the content E(X) and returns this value to the DRM Controller. On checking the returned hash against the hash from the table the DRM controller knows that user A does indeed have the digital content X in good condition. The DRM Controller then instructs both users A and B that the transfer may proceed. The encrypted form of the content E(X) is transferred from A to B. Once the content transfer has completed B ensures that the received content has been physically written to non-volatile storage (to account for crashes etc. during the next step). B then calculates a hash over the received content and returns this value to the DRM Controller. If this value matches the value previously given then the transfer has been successful and the DRM Controller updates whatever central records are appropriate, while also returning a decrypt key to B to allow it to decrypt the content.
US09077687B2

Embodiments of the present invention include a method for providing a secure domain name system (DNS) for machine to machine communications. In one embodiment, the method includes storing policy information for machine to machine communications in a global DNS registry database server. The method further includes communicating the policy information for machine to machine communications from the global DNS registry database server to a machine DNS registry server located in an Internet service provider (ISP) network, wherein a control signaling gateway located in the ISP network is configured to utilize the policy information for machine to machine communications to allow only registered controllers associated with a machine to communicate with the machine.
US09077678B1

Embodiments generally relate to facilitating photo sharing among users of a social network system. In one embodiment, a method includes recognizing one or more people in a photo captured by a user. The method also includes sending a copy of the photo to at least one person recognized in the photo. The method also includes receiving, from the at least one person recognized in the photo, an indication of whether the at least one person approves the photo.
US09077675B2

The disclosure relates to systems and methods for monitoring content, generating alerts, determining trends, and communicating notifications related to geofeeds, including content related to geographically definable locations that is aggregated from a plurality of social media or other content providers. The system may monitor the content based on one or more alert parameters that specify alert conditions that when satisfied cause the system to generate an alert, including trending alerts. The system may track an activity as it moves over time. Content may be associated with the activity and monitored such that the activity may be tracked based on the monitored content. Various alerts may be generated based on the tracked activity. The system may communicate notifications that include the alerts, thereby leveraging content from social media or other providers to convey real-time information on subject matter, trends, activities, and/or other information.
US09077657B1

A device, system, and method include receiving via a first network, by a remote computer server, a customized application from a user. The customized application is transmitted, by the remote computer server, to one or more intelligent cellular communications gateway devices. The customized application can be automatically installed and configured. Each intelligent cellular communications gateway device can receive local information from a device. The local information is analyzed and the local device can be controlled by the intelligent cellular communications gateway device based on the analyzed local information. In addition, the intelligent cellular communications gateway device can filter and/or compress the local information, and transmit via a cellular network, the filtered and compressed information, to the remote computer server. The filtered and compressed information includes a portion of the local information that is less than a total amount of the local information received, thereby conserving bandwidth of the cellular network.
US09077654B2

A data center security system and method are provided that leverage server systems on a chip (SOCs) and/or server fabrics. In more detail, server interconnect fabrics may be leveraged and extended to dramatically improve security within a data center.
US09077651B2

A distributed fabric system has distributed line card (DLC) chassis and scaled-out fabric coupler (SFC) chassis. Each DLC includes a network processor and fabric ports. Each network processor of each DLC includes a fabric interface in communication with the fabric ports of that DLC. Each SFC includes at least one fabric element and SFC fabric ports. A fabric communication link connects each SFC fabric port to one DLC fabric port. Each fabric communication link includes cell-carrying lanes. Each fabric element of each SFC detects connectivity between each SFC fabric port of that SFC and one DLC fabric port over a fabric communication link. Each SFC includes program code that reads connectivity matrix from fabric element chips and sends connection information corresponding to the detected connectivity from that SFC to a central agent. A network element includes the central agent, which, when executed, constructs a topology of the distributed fabric system from the connection information sent from each SFC.
US09077645B2

A Multiple Registration Protocol (MRP) advertisement control capability is provided. A method includes receiving an MRP advertisement at a device configured as an interface between a core domain and a local domain and determining handling of the MRP advertisement at the device using at least one MRP policy stored on the device. The core domain may be a Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) network or other suitable core network. The local domain may be one of a PBB network, a Provider Bridging Network (PBN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), and the like. In one case, when the MRP advertisement is associated with a local service of the local domain, the MRP policy indicates that the MRP advertisement is not to be forwarded via the core domain. In one case, when the MRP advertisement is associated with an inter-domain service supported by the local domain, the MRP policy indicates that the MRP advertisement is to be forwarded to the core domain when received from the local domain and is to be forwarded to the local domain when received from the core domain.
US09077641B2

A method for operating a ring network includes the steps of configuring the ring network with static configuration information and then deterministically exchanging operational data between a plurality of nodes on the ring network, while operating the ring network in accordance with the static configuration information. This system facilitates communications that meet the high reliability and performance requirements of vehicle communications, in particular in aircraft data networks (ADNs), while reducing the cost, weight, and complexity of conventional implementations.
US09077638B2

A system and method changes a rate at which routing information is sent to increase it upon the detection of one or more events, maintaining the then current rate for an amount of time, or dropping it, otherwise.
US09077631B2

A network device is configured to receive information relating to factors associated with quality of experience issues. The network device is configured to analyze the information. The network device is configured to predict that a quality of experience factor associated with a particular type of communication will exceed a threshold level a future time. The network device is configured to send a message to the device, the device generating a rule or policy; and the rule or policy instructing one or more other network devices to increase a capacity of the network to prevent the quality of experience factor from exceeding the threshold value at the future time.
US09077620B2

In a method for monitoring a network of process automation technology, wherein the network includes a number of field devices, which are connected via a fieldbus with a superordinated unit, there is created for a network application, which analyzes the network, a network description, which corresponds to a device description for field devices. Therewith, the network application can be integrated in a simple manner into a plant monitoring application and status information of the network can be output via the plant monitoring application.
US09077614B2

An exemplary embodiment of the present invention provides a method and system for prioritizing network failures. The method includes assigning a category to a network fault. The method also includes determining an incident score for the network fault within the category. The method also includes generating a normalized score by normalizing the incident score with a plurality of other incident scores in the category. The method further includes using the normalized score to rank the network fault among a plurality of other network faults of other different categories.
US09077612B2

A method and system for managing an alarm of an outsourced part and a method for managing configuration information of an outsourced part are provided, so as to solve the problem in the prior art that the maintenance operation in a Business Operation Support System (BOSS) for the alarm function of the outsourced part is complex. The method for managing configuration information of an outsourced part is applied to a system for managing an alarm of an outsourced part, and the system comprises a client side and a server side. The method comprises: the client side receives a request of a user for operating configuration information of the outsourced part; the client side performs a corresponding operation on the configuration information of the outsourced part that the client side stores according to the request for the operation, and sends an operation result to the server side according to the type of the operation; and the server side performs an update processing on the configuration information of the outsourced part that the server side stores according to the operation result. With the technical is solution of the present invention, the maintenance operation of the BOSS on the alarm function of the outsourced part could be simplified.
US09077611B2

Systems, software, and methods for managing networks of connected electronic devices are described. In one example, network management policy and network management applications are downloaded automatically upon detection and identification of a new device on the network. In another example, information related to at least one aspect of the network is obtained by a network management device, and at least one applicable management policy is identified by the device; and the identified policy is used to manage at least one aspect of the network's operation.
US09077608B2

The present invention provides a route calculation method and a master node device in a virtual network element. The method includes: receiving and storing, by the master node, topology information; performing, according to a topology type of the VNE, topology verification for all topology information locally stored on the master node; and calculating, after the topology verification is passed, internal paths in the VNE and weights of the internal paths, generating and storing an internal routing entry, and sending the internal routing entry to nodes except the master node in the VNE. Therefore, in various topology structures, such as a dual-homing tree, a ring, and a half ring, calculation of the internal routes in the VNE and load balancing within the VNE can be implemented.
US09077607B2

A BGP capable packet network device is located at the boundary of an autonomous network and in communication with a peer BGP capable packet network device in a neighboring autonomous network. The BGP capable packet network device is comprised of one or more line cards for receiving and, processing and sending packets of information, and for receiving and forwarding routing update information to a route processor comprising the packet network device. The route processor runs a border gateway protocol which is configured with one or more policies that operate to filter the routing update information received from the line card. The routing update information filter is comprised of at least one variable length path attribute and the filter operates such that it only applies the variable length path attribute one time to the routing update information.
US09077605B2

A method for supporting Time-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (TQAM) in a wireless communication system includes generating a transmission symbol identified by a combination of a QAM symbol and a position of a time resource to which the QAM symbol is mapped, shifting at least one QAM symbol among QAM symbols contained in the transmission symbols with respect to a time axis, and readjusting a constellation point of the QAM symbol on the basis of a shifting quantity. A method for operating a receive end comprises receiving a reception symbol identified by a combination of a QAM symbol and a position of a time resource to which the QAM symbol is mapped, restoring at least one QAM symbol shifted in a transmit end for uniformizing of the time-axis distribution of QAM symbols contained in the reception symbols, generating decoding metrics for the reception symbol, and performing decoding the reception symbol using the decoding metric.
US09077601B2

User equipment is provided for receiving an OFDM signal. The user equipment includes a plurality of carrier processing chains and a carrier aggregation module, aggregating the signals received on each carrier processed by the plurality of carrier processing chains. The aggregation module delivers a set of aggregated signals of the plurality of carrier processing chains at the input of a Fast Fourier Transform module of a PHY layer processing subsystem of the user equipment. The Fast Fourier transform module is able to process a size of data according to a predetermined rate depending on the aggregated bandwidth of the set of aggregated signals of the plurality of carrier processing chains, and the carrier aggregation module includes at least one frequency shifter for frequency shifting carriers.
US09077595B2

Provided is a sequence allocation method capable of reducing inter-cell interference of a reference signal when a ZC sequence is used as the reference signal in a mobile communication system. In the sequence allocation method, R×M sequences specified by a ZC sequence number r (r=1 to R) and a cyclic shift sequence number m (m=1 to M) are divided into a plurality of sequence groups X (X=1 to R) in accordance with the transmission band width of the reference signal, so that the ZC sequence is allocated to each cell in each sequence group unit. When it is assumed that R=9 and M=6, the number of sequences is 54. Each of the sequence groups is formed by two sequences. Accordingly, the number of sequence groups is 27. The 27 types of sequence groups are allocated to each cell.
US09077593B2

A receiver circuit includes: a data interpolation switched capacitor circuit which samples a data signal and outputs a voltage value interpolated from a sampled voltage value in correspondence with an interpolation code indicating an interpolation ratio; a comparator which performs comparison between the voltage value outputted from the data interpolation switched capacitor circuit and a threshold value; a phase detection circuit which detects a boundary based on an output of the comparator and decides whether to advance or delay a phase; and an interpolation code generation circuit which generates an interpolation code corresponding to an output of the phase detection circuit, wherein a phase offset related to sampling is imparted and an offset corresponding to an amount of the phase offset is imparted to the threshold value of the comparator.
US09077591B2

A method and arrangement in a multimedia gateway connected to a multimedia service network, for providing access to multimedia services for communication devices connected to a private network. In the multimedia gateway, a communication unit receives a request from a device in the private network for a public identity associated with the multimedia gateway. An identity manager then selects and allocates an associated public identity from a pool of public identities associated with the multimedia gateway which have been predefined as valid in the multimedia service network. The communication unit then registers the device by activating the allocated associated public identity in the multimedia service network. Thereby, the multimedia gateway can establish a multimedia session on behalf of the device, using the allocated associated public identity.
US09077585B2

The fully integrated DC offset compensation servo feedback loop is an integrator that measures the output signal DC component, and then feeds back and subtracts the measured DC component from the input signal. A larger integrator time constant lowers the high pass corner frequency, which must be very small in order to minimize the loss of the low frequency component of the desired signals. The large time constant is achieved on an integrated circuit by the use of a class-AB fully differential opamp in conjunction with an R-2R ladder as a circuit element to accomplish an integrated large time constant integrator. The R-2R ladder is configured as a digitally programmable resistor.
US09077580B1

A preferred node is selected for a specific functional role in a cluster. Dynamic and static parameters concerning the nodes are measured, including connectivity to shared storage. A user preference value is gleaned for each node, quantifying the user's preference of each corresponding node for the functional role. A preference rating is calculated for each node, based on the measured parameters and the gleaned user preference value. The preference rating indicates the node's suitability for the specific functional role, relative to the other nodes. Connectivity to shared storage in the cluster can be weighted more heavily than other parameters. Examples of specific functional roles in the cluster include becoming the master node, becoming a failover target for a specific application, or remaining in operation with access to shared cluster storage, in response to an occurrence of split brain.
US09077572B1

A receiver applies a calibration method to compensate for skew between input channels. The receiver skew is estimated by observing the coefficients of an adaptive equalizer which adjusts the coefficients based on time-varying properties of the multi-channel input signal. The receiver skew is compensated by programming the phase of the sampling clocks for the different channels. Furthermore, during real-time operation of the receiver, channel diagnostics is performed to automatically estimate differential group delay and/or other channel characteristics based on the equalizer coefficients using a frequency averaging or polarization averaging approach. Framer information can furthermore be utilized to estimate differential group delay that is an integer multiple of the symbol rate. Additionally, a DSP reset may be performed when substantial signal degradation is detected based on the channel diagnostics information.
US09077568B2

A receiving apparatus applied to a receiving end of a communication device having an equalizer is provided. The receiving apparatus includes a filter and a channel estimator. The filter filters a received signal to reduce a multipath effect of the received signal and outputs a filtered signal. The channel estimator performs channel estimation on the received signal to generate an estimation result. The estimation result is for determining which of the received signal and the filtered signal is to be selected and sent to the equalizer.
US09077566B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for authenticating caller identification in VoIP communication. A VoIP device receives an incoming call from an originating calling device; wherein the incoming call includes (1) a caller identification and (2) a unique identifier associated with the originating calling device. The VoIP device verifies that the caller identification in the received incoming call matches an entry in a trusted directory, wherein the trusted directory includes one or more entries of previously verified caller identifications. Upon verifying that the caller identification in the received incoming call matches a caller identification entry in the trusted directory, the VoIP device sends an inquiry to a unique locator associated with the matching caller identification in the trusted directory.
US09077558B2

The transmission of data is accomplished across a network having wireless and wired interfaces. Data is transferred through a wireless interface from an Access Point to a Client/Bridge and then to one of a Intelligent Electrical Device (IED) connected to the Client/Bridge through a wired connection. Data is transferred from the Access Point to the Client/Bridge through a 4 address mode wireless interface having originator, transmitter, receiver and destination address fields. The Client/Bridge determines context cache information representing the media access control numbers of each of the IEDs connected to the Client/Bridge through the wired interface and transfers this context cache information to the AP. In the event of a failure of the Client/Bridge, the context cache information stored at the AP can be transferred to the Client/Bridge using the wireless interface to facilitate recovery of the Client/Bridge.
US09077546B1

Methods and apparatuses for authenticating a secure sockets layer certificate (SSL) certificate are described herein. The methods include receiving the SSL certificate associated with a website, identifying a chain of trust associated with the SSL certificate, transmitting, to a security manager, a validation request based on the SSL certificate and a certificate in the chain of trust, receiving a validation response from the security manager, and presenting an indication of trustworthiness, to a user, based on the validation response. The apparatuses are provided to implement the methods.
US09077544B2

Methods and systems of automatically provisioning authentication credentials on a plurality of network devices. The method may include determining a process for provisioning the authentication credentials for the plurality of devices. The process may include steps of gaining access to a network device, entering a command to reach a network service interface associated to the network device, indicating a location of the authentication credentials, and initiating installation of the authentication credentials. The method may also include providing a computer program to follow the process. The computer program may be a script that is automatically executed without a user intervention. The method may further include developing a list of the plurality of devices that need to be provisioned, associating the list of the plurality of devices to the computer program, executing the computer program for each device, and outputting whether each of the plurality of network devices has a successful authentication credential update.
US09077542B2

Methods and a system are provided for confirming that a user of an electronic device is an authorized user of a vehicle. The method comprises receiving a request regarding the vehicle from the electronic device in response to a user action, verifying that the user is able to cause the vehicle to perform a predetermined operation, and permitting the request to proceed only if the vehicle performs the predetermined operation.
US09077530B2

Methods and nodes in a communication system for conveying N additional bits with a block of data. A method in an encoding node involves determining the respective value of the N additional bits, and selecting a code based on the N values. The block of data is then encoded by use of the selected code. A method in a decoding node involves determining which code, from a predetermined set of candidate codes associated with different possible combinations of values of the N additional bits, that was used for encoding the block of data. The respective values of the N additional bits are then determined based on the determined code. The methods and nodes enable that the N additional bits may be conveyed and determined in the decoding node in an efficient way, without decoding the block of data and at low computational complexity.
US09077517B2

Embodiments of the invention provide a method, distributed antenna system, and components that generate a jitter reduced clock signal from a binary encoded data stream transmitted over a communication medium. The method includes receiving a modulated signal that includes the binary encoded data stream and generating a recovered clock signal that is phase locked to the binary encoded data stream. The method further comprises generating a stable recovered clock signal by filtering the recovered clock signal to remove jitter, while allowing the clock signal to track long-term drift.
US09077516B2

A method for equalizing a frequency-selective transmission channel (103) with N inputs and MR outputs is shown, the transmission channel representable in a transformation domain based on N orthogonal sub-carriers, and wherein the transmission characteristics from the MT inputs to the MR outputs for each of the N respective orthogonal sub-carriers are represented by N respective sub-carrier channels (201), the method using (904) equalization filters (301, 302) for at least two of the N sub-carrier channels, wherein at least one set (501) of sub-carrier channels comprising at least two of the N sub-carrier channels is formed (901), wherein for at least one sub-carrier channel, a first-type equalization filter is used that is determined (902) based on a representation of at least one sub-carrier channel, and wherein for at least one sub-carrier channel, a second-type equalization filter is used that is derived (903) at least partially from the first-type equalization filter.
US09077513B2

The invention relates to a method for wire bound, high precision, temporal synchronization of measured value acquisition in a measurement system designed as a space coordinate measurement apparatus having a plurality of measurement sub-units with signaling of a time for triggering the measured value acquisition by means of a trigger signal and with the respective acquisition and intermediate storage of a measured value in the measurement sub-unit at the time determined by the trigger signal. Each acquisition of the measured value is carried out in the measurement sub-units in a time quantified manner with a local timing signal of the measurement sub-unit. A phase synchronization of the local timing signals of the measurement sub-units is then carried out using a synchronization signal in order to ensure simultaneity of the acquisition of the measured value in the measurement sub-units with a temporal uncertainty which does not exceed a phase jitter of the synchronization, and which is in any case less than 90% of a period duration of the local timing signal.
US09077508B2

An adaptive coding scheme for nonlinear channels improves reliability and an efficiency in digital communication networks. The method monitors channel statistics to analyze an extrinsic information transfer chart of the channels. The channel statistics are fed back to the transmitter to adapt forward error correction coding. A parametric analysis method uses a Gaussian mixture model. The statistical information feedback can adapt an ARQ sheme by adding a weighted received signal to the original coded signals to reduce nonlinear distortion. Trellis shaping can make the transmitting signal preferable for nonlinear channels.
US09077505B2

A signal receiving apparatus and method adapted for receiving a MIPI signal are disclosed. The signal receiving apparatus includes a signal receiver, a selector, a decoding apparatus and a byte boundary searcher. The signal receiver receives a clock signal, and obtains an input data stream according to the clock signal. The selector outputs the input data stream to a first or second output terminal according to a decoding error signal. The byte boundary searcher operates a boundary searching operation on the input data stream for generating a byte tuning information, wherein, the signal receiver adjusts the clock according to the byte tuning information for adjusting the input data stream.
US09077493B2

A method, wireless communication network, and transmitting device that detects that one or more carrier frequencies have crossed a threshold, selects one or more helping transmitting devices to transmit the detected carrier frequencies, transmits the data assigned to the detected carrier frequencies to the selected helping transmitting devices, wherein the selected helping transmitting devices transmit the data over the detected carrier frequencies.
US09077490B2

In a method for transmitting a channel quality information on the quality of a communication channel in a radio communications system the system includes a regular cycle for transmitting the channel quality information in an uplink direction from a communication unit to a network, and the method including suppressing in the communication unit the transmitting of the channel quality information based on a pre-defined condition.
US09077485B2

A mobile communications device, method, and computer program product for providing security on a mobile communications device are described. In accordance with one example embodiment, the mobile communications device comprises: a processor; a communications subsystem connected to the processor operable to exchange signals with a wireless network and with the processor; a storage element connected to the processor and having a plurality of application modules and data stored thereon, the data comprising at least user application data associated with the application modules and service data including data for establishing communications with the wireless network; and a security module operable to determine if a battery level falls below a predetermined threshold and perform a security action comprising erasing or encrypting at least some of the data on the storage element if the battery power falls below the predetermined threshold.
US09077479B2

An approach is provided for adjusting network interface metrics to optimize transmissions across a network. A measurement of performance of a network interface is made, wherein the network interface is configured to provide traffic across an optical network. A determination is made regarding whether the measured performance satisfies a predetermined threshold. A network metric value of the network interface is adjusted if the measured performance of the network interface satisfies the predetermined threshold.
US09077478B1

Techniques are described for wavelength and spectrum assignment within a packet-optical transport system. A controller, for example, dynamically controls wavelength and spectrum assignment to suppress or generally avoid optical effects that can degrade communication performance. For example, the controller provides closed-loop control over dynamic partitioning of the spectral range of an optical transport system into channel groups and assignment of the groups to respective packet-optical transport devices based on current or future bandwidth requirements at each device. Moreover, for each packet-optical transport device, the controller controls assignment of individual wavelengths within each channel group so as to balance channel utilization around a center of the spectral range associated with each channel group and to maintain spectral separation of the channels within the channel group.
US09077477B2

A continuous-mode wavelength converting apparatus, a burst-mode wavelength converting apparatus, a remote termination apparatus and a central office termination apparatus for converting a burst-mode upstream wavelength signal into a continuous-mode upstream wavelength signal, and thereby transmitting the signal to a long distance and increasing link capacity. The continuous-mode wavelength converting apparatus may convert a received burst-mode upstream electric signal into a continuous-mode upstream electric signal by inserting a first frame at the front of the signal as an indicator of a start of the signal, inserting a second frame at the end of the burst-mode upstream electric signal as an indicator of an end of the signal, and inserting an idle signal into at least one remaining region of the burst-mode upstream electric signal.
US09077475B2

An optical packet switching system includes an optical packet transmitter, an optical packet switching apparatus, an optical amplifier, an optical packet receiver, an information gathering unit, and a peak power calculation unit. The information gathering unit collects the packet density, time-averaged power and extinction ratio from the optical packet transmitter, collects the packet density, time-averaged power and noise figure from the optical amplifier, collects the packet density, time-averaged power, switch on/off time ratio and extinction ratio from the optical packet switching apparatus, and collects the packet density and time-averaged power from the optical packet receiver. The peak power calculation unit calculates the peak power of an optical packet signal outputted from each apparatus/device based on the collected information. The device control unit control each apparatus/device based on the calculated peak power such that the optical packet signal having a peak power according to a predetermined optical level diagram is outputted.
US09077473B2

Optical network apparatus comprises an optical add drop multiplexer (10) comprising an optical signal input (11) and an optical signal output (12). An add input path (15) is connected to the optical signal output (12) for receiving a wavelength channel to be added. A drop output path (16) is connected to the optical signal input (11) for outputting a wavelength channel to be dropped. A through signal path (18) is connected between the optical signal input (11) and the optical signal output (12). An optical filter (20) is positioned in the add input path (15) for filtering an optical signal received on the add input path (15) from an optical terminal (40). A reflective device (30) in the add input path (15) is arranged to form an optical seed signal by returning at least a portion of the filtered optical signal. The optical seed signal is for use in seeding an optical transmitter at the optical terminal (40). The reflective device (30) is positioned between the optical filter (20) and the optical signal output (12). The drop output path (16) and the through signal path (18) bypass the reflective device (30).
US09077469B2

The present invention discloses an adapting apparatus and method, the apparatus comprises: an adapter pool, wherein the adapter pool is located between an optical data unit (ODUk) layer and an optical channel (OCh) layer, and the adapter pool comprises one or more adapters which are respectively connected to an OCh layer link and an ODUK layer link; the information that the adapter pool used for managing comprises: information for indicating connectivity of the adapter with the OCh layer link and with the ODUk layer link, and information for indicating an adapter capability of the adapter. The adapting information between MRNs can be described more accurately through the present invention, and the correctness of the route calculation results is guaranteed.
US09077465B2

Portable fitness monitoring methods are disclosed. In an embodiment, a portable fitness monitoring method includes a method for providing audible output to a user during an athletic activity using a portable fitness monitoring device. The method includes the steps of receiving an audio feedback file package that includes a first audio feedback file, updating the audio feedback file package, and processing the updated audio feedback file package to provide audible output to the user through an audio output device during the athletic activity.
US09077464B2

It is provided a method for providing a service guide in a network providing a plurality of multicast services, said network comprising at least one client device connected to a first device, wherein a subset of said plurality of multicast services is being multicast to said at least one client device via said first device, and the service guide provides a list of the plurality of multicast services in a second order; and at the side of a client device, the method comprises the steps of determining a list of the plurality of multicast services in a first order, wherein the order is changed from the second order to the first order based on the multicast services of the subset; and presenting said list of multicast services in said first order.
US09077461B2

The present invention achieves wireless delivery of media streams to portable devices for providing media information related to a show or attraction for the purposes of captioning, language translation, and assistive listening. As a person moves about a venue, the device receives infrared or radio signals from transmitters at venue locations. The device decodes each signal as venue location, event time, or device trigger for presentation on the device. The device memory contains audio, text, graphics and device playback may contain one or many of these stored contents. The stored content is synchronized with the user's location, time of travel, time of day, time of a show, or an event in a show and may be in one or many languages. Presentation of stored content on the device may also be altered by user preference, stored logic constraints, automatic learning of user behavior, or user interaction with other devices.
US09077459B2

A dynamic broadcast system as well as a terminal and a control device for use in such a dynamic broadcast system are presented. Transmission parameters, transmission times and transmission paths used for broadcasting and providing content, either via a broadcast network or a broadband network to terminals used in the dynamic broadcast system are dynamically controlled. Further, a decision logic is provided that dynamically decides transmission parameters, transmission times and transmission paths used for broadcasting and providing content based on monitoring data carrying information on user specific content usage and/or transmission quality data carrying information on the quality of a transmission link between a broadband server and a terminal and/or of a reception of content broadcast by a broadcast transmitter.
US09077458B2

Embodiments related to selecting advertisements for display to targeted viewers are disclosed. In one example embodiment, an advertisement is selected by, for each of a plurality of advertisements, aggregating a plurality of emotional response profiles from a corresponding plurality of prior viewers of the advertisement to form an aggregated emotional response profile for the advertisement, wherein each of the emotional response profiles comprises a temporal record of a prior viewer's emotional response to the advertisement. The method further includes identifying a group of potentially positively correlated viewers for the targeted viewer, filtering the aggregated emotional response profiles based on the group of potentially positively correlated viewers, selecting a particular advertisement from the plurality of advertisements based on a correlation of the filtered aggregated emotional response profiles, and sending the particular advertisement for display to the targeted viewer.
US09077454B2

An optical detector for detecting an optical signal beam (OSB) modulated in a way that it includes an in-phase and/or a quadrature component, includes: a polarization beam splitter arranged to split the OSB into two polarized OSBs; a non-polarization beam splitter arranged to further split each of the two polarized OSBs into two split polarized OSBs; at least one birefringent element providing a phase shift, the birefringent element being arranged in a path of at least one polarized OSB and/or in a path of at least one split polarized OSB so that an in-phase and quadrature phase offset between two split polarized OSBs originating from the same polarized OSB is formed in output signal beams; and at least two detection means arranged to receive at least one output signal beam that includes a in-phase and/or quadrature component of the OSB.
US09077452B2

Techniques are provided for sending and receiving data communications between an enhanced Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable (QSFP+) transceiver module and an enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) transceiver module. An adapter device is provided that has a first set of signal pins configured to interface with an SFP+ transceiver module and a second set of signal pins is provided that is configured to interface with a QSFP+ host port. A retimer unit is also provided that is configured to modify a 10G signal of a first electrical signal standard associated with the SFP+ transceiver module to a 10G signal of a second electrical standard associated with a QSFP+ transceiver module and to enhance a 10G signal of the second electrical signal standard to a 10G signal of the first electrical signal standard.
US09077451B2

An inline optoelectronic converter configured to convert electrical signals to optical signals and to convert optical signals to electrical signals. The converter is external to the avionic computer and connected to the avionic computer at a location spaced apart from the avionic computer. The converter is configured to be integrated into an existing wiring bundle of the avionic computer. Also disclosed is a method of retrofitting an avionic computer by connecting an optoelectronic converter to the computer. The method comprises connecting the converter to an existing wiring bundle of the avionic computer at a location spaced apart from the avionic computer.
US09077447B1

Signal filter designs and techniques use a signal filter of a given order to achieve a higher order filter operation than what the filter is designed for. In various implementations, the present signal filter designs and techniques allow achieving desired high order filter operation without using a high order filter. Specific examples are provided to use a double pass configuration to feed a once filtered signal by a filter back to the filter to filter the feedback signal for the second time and a Sagnac interferometer configuration to cause interference between two once filtered signals.
US09077442B2

A method of operating a transmitter (FIGS. 3A and 5A) is disclosed. The method includes receiving a sequence of data bits (DATA), wherein each data bit has a respective sequence number. A first data bit of the sequence is spread (508) with a first spreading code (504) determined by the sequence number (502) of the first data bit. A second data bit of the sequence is spread (508) with an inverse of the first spreading code (506) determined by the sequence number (502) of the second data bit. The first and second data bits are modulated (510) and transmitted (516) to a remote receiver.
US09077441B2

A method and system for storing and transmitting data using variable pulse characteristics to represent ASCII or UNICODE characters, of the value of a string of data using a number base higher than 2. Pulse characteristics are modified to correspond to different data values. Pulse characteristics can include pulse durations, pulse spacings, pulse amplitudes, pulse phases, pulse polarities, pulse shapes and/or other pulse characteristics.
US09077432B2

A two-way relay, a wireless apparatus and a signal processing method thereof are provided. The two-way relay comprises a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver receives a relay receiving signal including a first terminal transmitting signal transmitted by a first wireless apparatus and a second terminal transmitting signal transmitted by a second wireless apparatus. The processor, which is electrically connected to the transceiver, uses a mapping function to transform the relay receiving signal into a relay signal and enables the transceiver to broadcast the relay signal.
US09077426B2

Embodiments are directed to a transceiver comprising a first section and a second section, and a controller configured to: receive an uplink reflected power measurement and a downlink power measurement at the same time, calculate an impedance associated with the first section based on the uplink power measurement and the downlink power measurement, and provide a tuning parameter to the second section to match an impedance of the second section with the impedance of the first section.
US09077423B2

A user equipment and a wireless radio frequency assistant in a communication system that supports multiple input multiple output. The wireless radio frequency assistant and the user equipment operate together as a single system. The user equipment controls and activates the wireless radio frequency assistant to transform a first frequency of a radio frequency signal transmitted to the system of user equipment and the wireless radio frequency assistant to a second frequency. The wireless radio frequency assistant transmits the second frequency to the user equipment.
US09077422B1

A method includes receiving a signal via multiple receive antennas. A noise covariance matrix, which indicates noise correlations between pairs of the receive antennas, is estimated. A stability criterion defined over the noise covariance matrix is evaluated, and the noise covariance matrix is modified when the stability criterion is violated. The received signal is processed using the modified noise covariance matrix.
US09077417B2

Multiple antennas employed at transmitting and receiving nodes can significantly increase a MIMO system capacity, especially when channel knowledge of link(s) between the transmitting and receiving nodes is available at the transmitting node. Channel knowledge may be acquired through feedback provided by the receiving node based on a plurality of common pilots transmitted by the transmitting node. The common pilots may include legacy and non-legacy pilots. If the feedback indicates that data demodulation at the receiving node can be enhanced, the transmitting node may also transmit demodulation pilot signal(s), which may coincide with the transmission of data. The receiving node can use the demodulation pilot signal(s), alone or with the common pilot signal(s), to demodulate data received from the transmitting node. The transmitting node may notify the receiving node to monitor for the demodulation pilot signal(s) through higher layer signaling and/or scheduling orders over a control channel.
US09077407B2

Geometrical closed loop line of sight (LOS) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO). Singular value decomposition (SVD) processing for a LOS communication channel into respective channel matrices, and appropriate processing of signals within transmitter and/or receiver communication devices operate to support very high data throughput, including approaching or converging to the Shannon limit channel capacity (e.g., bits/sec/Hz). Certain communication systems operate with multi-antenna communication devices, and sometimes, the optimal spacing between those respective antennae cannot be achieved. Appropriate processing can recover most, if not all, of any performance degradation as may be incurred by a deviation from the perfectly optimal spacing between those respective antennae. In addition, any deleterious effects of phase noise among the antennae may be mitigated by driving the antennae using a common or singular local oscillator, or tracking the communication channel (e.g., channel estimation, tracking, etc.) and updating the respective SVD channel matrices based upon such phase noise.
US09077404B2

The disclosure discloses a method for coordinating downlink MIMO precoding among multiple BSs, including that: each BS first performs independent resource allocation to allocate resources to users of each BS, then receives PMI information fed back by a time-frequency resource block occupying MS in a respective cell, wherein the PMI information includes optimal and recommended or restrained PMIs corresponding to an MS; adjacent BSs perform information interaction with each other to acquire PMI information of MSs occupying the same time-frequency resource block in adjacent cells; and it is determined whether there is any conflict between MSs occupying the same time-frequency resource block in adjacent cells according to PMI information fed back by an MS in the current cell and interaction information from adjacent BSs, and a new PM is generated in a corresponding manner. The disclosure also discloses a device for implementing the method. The coordinating method and device of the disclosure can reduce or eliminate interference among users at a border through downlink resource allocation and precoding coordination between adjacent cells, thereby enhancing performance of the entire network.
US09077400B2

A method for supporting Interference Alignment (IA) in a wireless communication system includes multiplying a plurality of input symbols by precoding vectors for Interference Alignment (IA) to generate a plurality of signal vectors, mapping the signal vectors to subcarriers having unequal spacings to perform Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), in which each signal element of the signal vector is mapped to two subcarriers among the subcarriers, converting the IFFT-transformed signal into a wireless signal and transmitting the wireless signal from a first transmitter to a receiver, and transmitting, to the receiver, information regarding precoding vectors used in the first transmitter and in second and third transmitters that communicate using the same frequency resource as the first transmitter for the IA.
US09077395B2

Provided is a base station including a plurality of branches that perform CoMP transmission with another base station, a multiplying unit that multiplies a transmission signal from each of the plurality of branches by a calibration coefficient of each of the plurality of branches, wherein the calibration coefficient is a coefficient obtained by adjusting an individual calibration coefficient acquired by branch calibration between the plurality of branches in the base station based on a branch calibration result between a branch of the base station and a branch of the other base station.
US09077391B2

The invention relates to a transmitter front-end device for generating output signals representing a digital stream, wherein the device has at least one first input for a first input signal and at least one second input for a second input signal, with the first input signal and the second input signal representing a complex data signal of the digital stream and being intended to influence an output signal of the transmitter front-end device. Furthermore, the transmitter front-end device has at least one phase generation device which generates at least one additional phase signal on the basis of the first input signal and the second input signal, with at least 3 phase signals being outputted by the phase generation device with different phases with respect to each other, at least one modulator that is set up such that it generates a complementary phase signal pair from a received phase signal, with each of the at least 3 phase signals being processed by an associated modulator into a corresponding complementary phase signal pair. Furthermore, the transmitter front-end device has at least one frequency converter that is set up such that it converts phase signals of a complementary phase signal pair with a high-frequency signal in order to form an output signal.
US09077388B2

A system for near field communication (NFC) and frequency modulation (FM) communication includes a NFC microchip, a FM microchip, a control microchip, a switch module. The switch module switches between the NFC matching module and the FM matching module under control of the control microchip. A NFC matching module electronically connected to the antenna modulates working frequency of the NFC microchip to match with an antenna. A FM matching module electronically connected to the antenna modulates working frequency of the FM microchip to match with the antenna.
US09077385B2

The present invention relates to a method and a device for receiving a downlink control signal in a wireless communication system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a device and a method for receiving control information, the method comprising the following steps: receiving a subframe which includes two slots; executing a blind decoding for a first control channel in the control channel search region within a first slot; decoding a second control channel using a specific resource within a second slot when the first control channel has been detected; and executing a blind decoding for the second control channel in the control channel search region within the second slot when the first control channel has not been detected.
US09077384B1

Methods and apparatus are described for reducing memory storage cells in a turbo decoder by storing only half the state metrics generated during a scan process. States associated with each bit transmission may be divided into couples and only one state from every state couple may be stored. In one example embodiment, only the state metric for a losing state of every state couple is saved, along with a single bit, e.g., 1 or 0, indicating whether the upper state or lower state of the state couple was the winner. The winning state may be reconstituted at a later stage. In this manner, for a code rate 1/3 and constraint length 3 turbo code, instead of storing 8*10=80 bits of state metrics for each systematic bit, only (4*10)+(4*1)=44 bits of scan state metrics data need be stored, a savings of nearly 50% regardless of the transistor technology used.
US09077383B2

An encoding method generates an encoded sequence by performing encoding of a given coding rate according to a predetermined parity check matrix. The predetermined parity check matrix is a first parity check matrix or a second parity check matrix. The first parity check matrix corresponds to a low-density parity check (LDPC) convolutional code using a plurality of parity check polynomials. The second parity check matrix is generated by performing at least one of row permutation and column permutation with respect to the first parity check matrix. An eth parity check polynomial that satisfies zero, of the LDPC convolutional code, is expressible by using a predetermined mathematical formula.
US09077371B2

Methods and apparatus for a successive approximation register analog to digital converter are provided. In an example, provided is a method for digitally representing an analog input signal. A bit of the digital output signal is generated by altering a test voltage by an amount comparable to a weight afforded to the bit, comparing the altered test voltage with the analog input signal to create a comparison output, switching a two-to-one multiplexer to select the comparison output instead of a preceding shift-successive approximation register block output, storing the comparison output in a flip-flop, inhibiting clocking of the flip-flop, and outputting the comparison output from the flip-flop as the bit of the digital output signal.
US09077358B2

In a successive approximation AD converter, a noise generator outputs the output of a ΔΣ modulator as a noise signal. A selector circuit can output the noise signal, in place of a digital signal for generating a comparison-target voltage for the next bit, to a capacitor element of a capacitance DAC. During sampling of an analog input voltage, the noise signal is supplied to the capacitance DAC via the selector circuit, and thereafter normal successive approximation operation is executed.
US09077356B2

Various embodiments of the invention provide for cancellation of a residue amplifier output charging current at the reference voltage source of the reference buffer thereby preventing the charging current from altering the effective reference voltage of a reference buffer. In certain embodiments, current cancellation is accomplished by subtracting a current of the same magnitude.
US09077355B2

A system includes a first capacitor group to facilitate determination of a first bit, and a second capacitor group to facilitate determination of a second bit in combination with the first capacitor group. The system further includes a delayed clock switch to engage the second capacitor group after determination of the first bit.
US09077352B2

A clock regeneration circuit includes: a signal input terminal; a D flip-flop circuit; a reset signal generation circuit; a delay circuit; a comparator; a first capacitor; and a feed back circuit. The signal input terminal is inputted with a pulse width modulation signal. The D flip-flop circuit includes a clock terminal, an output terminal, and a reset terminal. The reset signal generation circuit is configured to input a reset signal generated in synchronization with the pulse width modulation signal to the reset terminal at a first time. The delay circuit is configured to delay the pulse width modulation signal. The feedback circuit includes a current source having a control terminal. The feedback circuit is configured to change one of charge rise time and discharge fall time in response to the signal of the comparator to control duty cycle of the signal of the comparator.
US09077351B2

A method of operating an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) includes detecting a phase change in a feedback signal of the ADPLL using a search window and controlling a closed-loop bandwidth of the ADPLL based on a detection result. The closed-loop bandwidth when the phase change is detected outside the search window is greater than the closed-loop bandwidth when the phase change is detected within the search window.
US09077345B2

A capacitive sensing apparatus is described that incorporates a light guide having a light scattering means for illumination of the apparatus. The apparatus has a capacitive sensor mounted on a substrate that provides a capacitive sensing area for generating an electric field that emanates from the apparatus. A light source is arranged in optical communication with the light scattering means via the light guide. This arrangement acts to mitigate the effects of interference between the capacitive sensor and the light source. When an opaque substrate is employed an air gap is located between the substrate and the light guide so as to provide a substantially uniform illumination across the light guide. Appropriate selection of the refractive indices of the light guide, ng, and a transparent substrate, ns, provides the same desired uniform illumination in alternative embodiments. The capacitive sensing apparatus finds particular application within a touch sensitive display.
US09077342B2

A circuit assembly for processing an electrical signal of a microphone is provided. The microphone has an inherent impedance. The circuit assembly comprises an impedance circuit, a signal processing unit, a first electrical signal path, and a second electrical signal path. The first electrical signal path is coupleable to a first electrical output of the microphone and is furthermore coupled to a first input of the signal processing unit. The second electrical signal path is coupleable to a second electrical output of the microphone and is furthermore coupled to a second input of the signal processing unit via the impedance circuit. An impedance value of the impedance circuit is selected based on an impedance value of the inherent impedance of the microphone.
US09077338B1

A cross-point switch having stacked switching dies on a component die is disclosed. The cross point switch allows scalability by adding switching dies. The switching dies include ingress switches that are coupled to multiplexers to a middle stage switches. The inputs and outputs of the ingress switches are connected to the switching interface region via through silicon vias (TSVs). The outputs of the ingress switches are also coupled by TSVs to multiplexers for routing to middle stage switches on a switching die above. If the switching die is stacked on another switching die, the outputs of the ingress switches are coupled by TSVs to the multiplexers for routing to the middle stage switches of the switching die below. By adding switching dies, the switch is configurable to increase the number of ports as well as the width of the ports.
US09077332B2

An impedance control circuit includes a pull-up code generator configured to generate pull-up impedance control codes using a voltage of a first node, a pull-up impedance unit configured to pull-up-drive the first node in response to the pull-up impedance control codes, a plurality of dummy impedance units enabled in response to respective select signals and each configured to pull-up-drive a second node in response to the pull-up impedance control codes, a pull-down code generator configured to generate pull-down impedance control codes using a voltage of the second node, and a plurality of pull-down impedance units enabled in response to the respective select signals and each configured to pull-down-drive the second node in response to the pull-down impedance control codes.
US09077328B1

Reference-less repeating circuits provide significant advantages over repeating circuits requiring external frequency references. These repeating circuits eliminate the need for external frequency references provide significant power, layout, and physical isolation advantages. Digitally controlled reference-less repeating circuits have a relatively narrow frequency detection range, but typically consume significantly less power than analog repeating circuits while providing data rate flexibility, particularly at lower data rates. Due to the narrow frequency detection range of digitally controlled reference-less repeating circuits, efficient frequency estimation techniques allow these circuits to quickly lock to an input signal, and provide an accurate repeated output signal.
US09077327B2

A method of peak detection applicable to complex in-phase and quadrature phase signals in a digital radio receiver where the incoming signal is divided into a plurality of frames. Each frame is then further divided into a plurality of smaller blocks, and the signal peak is determined in each block individually followed by selecting the peak signal value from the said blocks.
US09077320B2

An offset adjustment circuit of a dynamic comparator has a detection unit and a control unit. The detection unit detects whether a comparator offset possessed by the dynamic comparator is deviated from a target offset setting, and accordingly generates a detection result. The control unit adjusts a voltage setting of at least one input received by the dynamic comparator when the detection result indicates that the comparator offset is deviated from the target offset setting.
US09077313B2

Disclosed are new approaches to Multi-dimensional filtering with a reduced number of memory reads and writes. In one embodiment, a filter includes first and second coefficients. A block of a data having width and height each equal to the number of one of the first or second coefficients is read from a memory device. Arrays of values from the block are filtering using the first filter coefficients and the results filtered using the second coefficients. The final result may be optionally blended with another data value and written to a memory device. Registers store results of filtering with the first coefficients. The block of data may be read from a location including a source coordinate. The final result of filtering may be written to a destination coordinate obtained by rotating and/or mirroring the source coordinate. The orientation of arrays filtered using the first coefficients varies according to a rotation mode.
US09077310B2

A power combiner includes a primary winding and a secondary winding, wherein at least the primary winding comprises a center-tap; and a termination module operably coupled to the center-tapped primary winding and arranged to provide harmonic terminations on a plurality of frequencies. In addition, there is provided a radio frequency transmitter having a power combiner, where the power combiner includes a primary winding and a secondary winding, wherein at least the primary winding includes a center-tap; and a termination module operably coupled to the center-tapped primary winding and arranged to provide harmonic terminations on a plurality of frequencies.
US09077308B2

In a method for manufacturing a quartz crystal unit, a metal film is formed on a quartz crystal wafer which is then etched to form a quartz crystal tuning fork resonator having first and second tines vibratable in flexural and fundamental modes. A groove is chemically etched in a first main surface of both tines such that a first surface of the groove is opposite a first side surface of the corresponding tine. The width of the groove is greater than a distance in the width direction from the groove first surface to the first side surface of the corresponding tine. An electrode is formed on each groove first surface and on the first side surface of both tines with the electrode on the groove first surface of the first tine having the same electrical polarity as the electrode on the first side surface of the second tine.
US09077307B2

A two-stage, passive, RC polyphase filter for mm-wave quadrature LO generation is presented. The filter features an innovative, symmetrical layout structure, which is more robust to parasitics than the conventional layout. Layout parasitics which become important at mm-wave frequencies are identified and a compensated. Impedance variations and transfer functions are evaluated considering these dominant parasitics. More than 15 dB improvement in image rejection ratio is achieved in comparison with conventional layouts. Using the inventive techniques more than 35 dB of image rejection ratio over a bandwidth of 6 GHz is demonstrated in an outphasing transmitter at 60 GHz in 40 nm CMOS.
US09077306B2

In order to provide a mixer capable of extracting a high multiplication signal and which has a reception band-pass filter function, a magnetoresistance effect element is provided that includes a pinned magnetization layer, a free magnetization layer, and a non-magnetic spacer layer disposed between the pinned magnetization layer and the free magnetization layer. This allows for a frequency converter which implements a desired band-pass filter by controlling a magnetic field applied by a magnetic-field applying unit to be provided.
US09077302B2

Amplifier (6) for a wireless receiver, the amplifier comprising a voltage amplifier module having a voltage gain switchable between a first voltage gain value and a second voltage gain value higher than the first gain value, and a resistance module having a resistance switchable between a first resistance value and a second resistance value higher than the first resistance value, an output of the voltage amplifier module being connected to an input of the resistance module, the amplifier further comprising a set of switches configured to set the voltage gain value and the resistance value, the amplifier being operable in:—a nominal mode of operation in which the voltage gain value is set to the second voltage gain value, the resistance value being set to the second resistance value, and—a high linearity mode of operation in which the voltage gain value is set to the first voltage gain value to improve linearity of the amplifier, the resistance value being set to the first resistance value to have the same ratio of the voltage gain value to the resistance value as in the nominal mode of operation.
US09077297B2

An embodiment of the invention is a time-delay invariant predistortion approach to linearize power amplifiers in wireless RF transmitters. The predistortion architecture is based on the stored-compensation or memory-compensation principle by using a combined time-delay addressing method, and therefore, the architecture has an intrinsic, self-calibrating time-delay compensation function. The predistortion architecture only uses a lookup table to conduct both the correction of non-linear responses of a power amplifier and the compensation of any time-delay effects presented in the same system. Due to the time-delay invariant characteristic, the predistortion design has a wider dynamic range processing advantage for wireless RF signals, and therefore can be implemented in multi-carrier and multi-channel wireless systems.
US09077295B2

A controller 103 that conducts various controls corresponding to input information selects target voltage information and target dead time information corresponding to input audio signal level information from data table information, outputs the target voltage information to a variable power supply unit 104, and outputs the target dead time information associated with the target voltage information to a dead time generator 105, to thereby set an output supply voltage and a dead time corresponding to an input audio signal level in a half bridge circuit 107. Accordingly, there can be provided a class D amplification device that can minimize the dead time and reduce distortion while suppressing the amount of heat generation caused by a through-current.
US09077281B2

The oscillator circuit 10 comprises a crystal oscillator 20, a transistor 30, whose base is connected to the crystal oscillator 10, a first resonance circuit 40 that is between the emitter of the transistor 30 and the ground, the first resonance circuit 40 having a first inductor 42 and a first capacitor 44, a second resonance circuit 50 that is between the emitter and the ground, the second resonance circuit 50 having a second inductor 52 and a second capacitor 54, and a third capacitor 60 that is between the base and the emitter. The first resonance frequency of the first resonance circuit 40 is higher than the overtone frequency of the main oscillation of the crystal oscillator 20, and the second resonance frequency of the second resonance circuit 50 is lower than the overtone frequency of main oscillation of the crystal oscillator 20.
US09077279B2

A load drive control system for a hybrid vehicle includes a zero current control execution device and an error compensating device. The zero current control execution device is configured to control a converter to output a substantially constant raised voltage that is higher than an inductive voltage generated in an electric motor. The error compensating device is configured to compensate for an attachment error of a first position detector based on a d-axis voltage command value for the electric motor calculated during zero current control.
US09077271B2

The starter motor circuit (1) comprises a combination (10) of a starter motor and of a device (LPF) for stepping up the battery voltage. The device for stepping up the battery voltage is intended to prevent a drop in battery voltage caused by a current spike that appears in a power circuit of the starter motor when power is applied thereto. The starter motor in the conventional way comprises an electric motor (DCM) and an electromagnetic contactor (EC). The device for stepping up the battery voltage is a filtering device of the inductive type which is mounted in series with the electric motor in the power circuit and comprises a casing made of magnetic material, a primary winding circuit intended to be inserted in series in the power circuit, and a secondary winding circuit mounted as a short circuit.
US09077270B2

Disclosed herein is a motor position and velocity detecting system capable of accurately detecting a position and a velocity of a motor without adding a hall sensor or the number of poles of the motor. The motor position and velocity detecting system includes: a hall sensor outputting hall signals from rotation of a motor; an edge detector detecting edge signals for the hall signals to output edge pulse signals; a peak detector detecting peak signals for the hall signals to output peak pulse signals; a position outputter connected to the edge detector and the peak detector and outputting a position of the motor; and a velocity outputter connected to the edge detector and the peak detector and outputting a velocity of the motor.
US09077269B2

Fluctuations in output of an AC electric motor are restrained without increasing electromagnetic noise of a boost converter. When subjecting the AC electric motor to rectangular wave voltage control, output torque T is controlled by varying a voltage phase φv. In a region where a voltage phase is large (φv=θ2), fluctuations in torque T relative to changes in a DC voltage VH corresponding to the amplitude of a rectangular wave voltage are larger than in a region where the voltage phase is small (φv=θ1). The AC electric motor is controlled such that the rectangular wave voltage control in a region where voltage phase φv is larger than a limit-phase line PLN indicated by a set of limit phases set for each DC voltage VH is avoided.
US09077261B2

A wireless power transmission system includes: a power transmitting section that converts DC energy input from a DC energy source into AC energy of a frequency f0; a transmitting antenna; and a receiving antenna. The power transmitting section includes: a class-E oscillator circuit including a switching element and a capacitor which are connected in parallel to the DC energy source, for converting the DC energy into the AC energy; and a switching control section that inputs a control signal for controlling a conduction state of the switching element to the switching element. The switching control section switches the switching element from a non-conductive state to a conductive state when a preset time period has elapsed or when a potential difference across the switching element takes a local minimum value after the switching element is switched from the conductive state to the non-conductive state.
US09077257B2

A power supply arrangement for a single ended class D amplifier, including a first primary winding connected in series with a first switch between the positive supply rail and ground, a second primary winding in phase with said first primary winding and connected in series with a second switch between the negative supply rail and ground, and a controller adapted to apply a control signal to said first and second switches, said control signal (Q) having ON-pulses of a predefined pulse time separated by a dead time. In use, the primary winding connected to the supply rail with the highest numerical voltage will transform the rail voltage difference to the supply rail with the lowest numerical voltage through the opposite primary winding thus reducing any voltage unbalance between the windings.
US09077255B2

A multilevel LLC resonant converter comprises a resonant tank connected in series with a primary side of a transformer, a first switch and a second switch connected in series, wherein a common node of the first switch and the second switch is coupled to a mid-voltage point through a first isolation switch and the resonant bank and a third switch and a fourth switch connected in series, wherein a common node of the third switch and the fourth switch is coupled to the resonant tank.
US09077244B2

A DC/DC converter configurable for operating as a multiphase DC/DC. A controller produces a master drive signal for controlling a primary power switch to produce the output DC signal at a desired level. Multiple secondary power stages are coupled between the input and the output nodes for producing an output DC signal. Each of the multiple secondary power stages has at least one secondary power switch responsive to the input DC signal for producing the output DC signal. An expander system configures the DC/DC converter for operation in a multiphase DC/DC conversion mode. The expander system is responsive to the master drive signal for producing multiple slave drive signals respectively supplied to the multiple secondary power stages for controlling secondary power switches. The slave drive signals have phases shifted with respect to the master drive signal and with respect to each other.
US09077243B2

A method for balancing an electrical parameter (e.g, a current or a voltage) between phases in a multi-phase interleaved circuit includes sensing the electrical parameter, demultiplexing the electrical parameter in accordance with a phase-select signal, sampling the demultiplexed components into a plurality of digital signals, generating an error signal based on a difference between the digital signals, and modulating the phase-select signal, as applied to the phases, in accordance with the error signal.
US09077242B2

In accordance with an embodiment, a DC-DC converter is provided comprising a single regulation loop that drives a control circuit, wherein the control circuit selects between operation in a pulse width modulation operating mode and a pulse frequency modulation operating mode, the single regulation loop including a compensation loop, and wherein biasing of the compensation loop is maintained in response to selecting between the pulse width modulation and the pulse frequency modulation operating modes.
US09077235B2

A brush motor includes a commutator fixed to a shaft, a pair of brushes in a sliding contact with a circumferential surface of the commutator, a first and a second torsion springs respectively pushing and pressing the pair of the brushes to sides of the commutator, a supporting plate attached with the springs, and a screw supporting the supporting plate. The supporting plate 10 is configured to be rotatable about the screw as a center or a supporting position by the screw is capable to be changed, in such a way that the pushing pressures by the springs to the pair of the brushes become to be equalized. Thus, insulation between the brushes can be secured while noise reduction and durability are improved.
US09077227B2

An electric motor assembly includes a stator having a first set of electrical windings. The motor assembly includes a rotor assembly rotatable about an axis of rotation and that has a rotor with first and second rotor segments. Each of the rotor segments has a respective set of magnets spaced therearound. The motor assembly has a phaser that includes a phaser actuator and a phaser gear mechanism. The phaser gear mechanism has a plurality of members. The phaser actuator and the first and second rotor segments are each operatively connected to a different respective one of the members. The phaser actuator is activatable to change an angular position of the member to which the phaser actuator is operatively connected, moving one of the rotor segments about the axis of rotation relative to the other of the rotor segments to reduce back electromotive force in the first set of stator windings.
US09077221B2

One embodiment of the present is may include a gas turbine engine having an electrical machine for generating electrical power. Other embodiments may include other gas turbine engines having electrical machines for generating electrical power. Still other embodiments may include apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for gas turbine engines having electrical machines for generating electrical power.
US09077218B2

A brush holder assembly for an alternator having a rotational axis includes a pair of brushes each having a contacting surface defining a width and a height, and each having a shunt wire extending laterally from the brush in the widthwise direction. The brush holder assembly includes a housing having first and second brush chambers, corresponding first and second wire cavities each defining a cavity height, and first and second slots respectively interposed between the corresponding chamber and cavity. The respective shunt wires extend through the first and second slots then through the first and second wire cavities. The cavity heights are each at least approximately 0.9 times the height of one of the brushes. The height of the first wire cavity is less than approximately 0.97 times ((A/2) plus B), wherein A is the brush height and B is the distance between the brushes.
US09077212B2

An apparatus and method for cooling the rotor in an electromechanical machine such as a wind turbine generator is disclosed. Fluid cooling passages may be formed in the rotor, defined at least in part by a support member for magnets mounted on the rotor. Cooling fluid intake may be through the stator surrounding the rotor.
US09077210B2

A stator (1) and a method for manufacturing such a stator for an electric machine. Windings of the stator (1) protrude in the longitudinal direction beyond a cylindrical stator body (3) in the form of end windings (17, 19) on end faces (13, 15) of the stator body (3). In this case, a complementarily designed accommodating region (31) is provided on a housing (21), with the result that, when the housing (21) is assembled with the stator body (3), the windings of the end winding (17) can be pressed. As a result, good thermal contact can be effected between the end winding (17) and the housing (21), which is cooled via a cooling apparatus (25), for example.
US09077207B2

In a parallel running control apparatus for inverter generator A having first, second and third inverters adapted convert alternating current outputted from windings wound around an alternator into direct/alternating current by driving switching elements, and CPUs to control turning ON/OFF of the switching elements, it is configured so that the generator A runs in parallel with at least one inverter generator B, which is configured to be same as the inverter generator A, to output a three-phase alternating current, and one of the CPU determines that the generator B was stopped when at least one of phase differences between a phase of an output from the first inverter and phases of outputs from the second and third inverters becomes greater than or equal to a predetermined value.
US09077197B2

A battery residual amount measurement system including includes a current detection section that detects a current value of current discharged from a battery that is an object of measurement; a first storage section that stores reference undischargeable amounts that are determined in advance in accordance with ambient temperatures of the battery and current values of current discharged from the battery; and a calculating section that, when a discharging operation is carried out at the battery, acquires, from the first storage section, the reference undischargeable amount that corresponds to an ambient temperature of the battery and the current value detected by the current detection section, and calculates a battery residual amount on the basis of a undischargeable amount that is calculated and computed on the basis of the acquired reference undischargeable amount and a nominal battery capacity of the battery.
US09077187B2

An apparatus is electrically connected to a battery unit consisting of multiple batteries, an energy conversion system, and power-driven equipment. The apparatus sets number requirements of batteries to be connected to a discharge unit and a charge unit of the battery unit. When the power-driven equipment is started, the apparatus receives an open-circuit voltage of each battery detected by a sensor connected to the battery, and establishes connections of the batteries with the discharge unit or the charge unit according to the open-circuit voltages of the batteries and the number requirements. During the discharge unit supplying power to the power-driven equipment and the energy conversion system charging the charge unit, the apparatus monitors variations of the open-circuit voltages of the batteries, and switches the connections of batteries with the discharge unit or the charge unit according to associations between open-circuit voltages, cut-off discharge voltages, and nominal voltages of the batteries.
US09077179B2

A battery pack includes a battery module including a battery cell and configured to perform a first identification function for enabling a device outside the battery module to recognize characteristics of the battery cell, and a battery management system for controlling operations of the battery cell and configured to perform a second identification function for enabling a device outside the battery management system to recognize a type of the battery management system.
US09077176B2

A flyback-based power conversion apparatus and a power conversion method thereof are provided. By switching first and second detection switches disposed in a control chip and coupled to a multi-function pin of the control chip at different timings, the present invention applies a collocation of a voltage-current detection auxiliary circuit and a current detection circuit at a certain timing to execute a detection of the AC input voltage received by a flyback power conversion circuit, and the present invention applies a collocation of the auxiliary voltage-current detection circuit, an over temperature protection unit and an over voltage protection unit at another timing to execute detections of an over temperature protection and an over voltage protection. As the result, a single multi-function detection pin of the control pin is corresponding to a plurality of related function detections, so as to reduce the production cost of manufacturing the control chip.
US09077173B2

Disclosed herein is a common mode filter. The common mode filter includes a main body that includes a coil electrode, first and second external electrodes connected with both ends of the coil electrode, respectively, and a ground electrode, and an electro static discharge (ESD) protection layer that includes a switching member formed therein, and is provided on any one surface of the main body. Here, one end of the coil electrode is connected with the second external electrode, the other end thereof is connected with the first external electrode through the switching member, and the switching member is disconnected from the coil electrode in accordance with a switching operation when a surge current is applied and connected with the ground electrode. Therefore, it is possible to protect the common mode filter from a surge current by ESD.
US09077172B2

Systems and method for detecting potentially harmful harmonic and direct current signals at a transformer are disclosed. One system includes a protection circuit electrically connected to a transformer neutral, the transformer electrically connected to a power grid, the protection circuit including a DC blocking component positioned between the transformer neutral and ground and one or more switches selectively actuated to form a path between the transformer neutral and ground in the event of unwanted DC current at the transformer neutral. The system also includes a control circuit electrically connected to the protection circuit and positioned to selectively actuate the switches based on observed conditions within the protection circuit. The system further includes a plurality of test connections disposed within the protection circuit and useable to test electrical properties of the protection circuit.
US09077171B2

A reference voltage loss monitoring circuit having a first and second reference node. The reference nodes are connected to a voltage reference. A first connection device is connects the first reference node to the second reference node, and includes a first diode to allow a current flowing from the first reference node to the reference ground node and not conversely. The first diode includes a first main transistor. A second connection device connects the second reference node to the first reference node, and includes a second diode to allow a current flowing from the second reference node to first reference node and not conversely. The second diode includes a second main transistor. Each of the first and second connection devices further includes a secondary transistor mirrored with the main transistor of the connection devices. The secondary transistor has an output coupled to a diagnostic circuit, for delivering to the diagnostic circuit a signal indicative of a loss of voltage reference on a respective reference node.
US09077162B2

A holding structure is provided for an option connector that is mounted at an end of a branch line of a wire harness of a vehicle. A fixing part is defined at an area of the branch line separated from the option connector by a predetermined distance. A holding part is provided on a peripheral component of the vehicle that is in a vicinity of the wire harness. The holding part is configured for releasably holding the fixing part of the branch line so that a tip area of the branch line that begins at the fixing part and includes the option connector extends out from the holding part.
US09077161B2

An electric power switch suitable as a capacitor, line and load switch for transmission and distribution voltages includes an external actuator controlled by current transformers (CTs) mounted on live tanks comprising insulators forming dielectric containers that house the contactors of the switch. The CTs are located on the outside of the insulators in the regions of the insulators overlying the internal contactors between the upper and lower high voltage line taps. The actuator and controller may also be located outside the dielectric container, as desired. This configuration minimizes the size of the dielectric container and removes the severe size constraint inherent in design conventional “live tank” switch designs, while also avoiding the need for separate line-mounted CTs. This design also avoids the need for a separate grounded “dead tank” to house the CTs, which are more conveniently located in the outside of the insulators.
US09077152B2

The laser device includes an amplifier including a III-V heterostructure arranged to generate photons, and a waveguide which forms a loop and is optically coupled to the amplifier. The amplifier is arranged facing the waveguide only in the region of a first section of the waveguide.
US09077140B2

The invention refers to a laser device comprising a plurality of linear resonator tubes (12) for a gas to be excited, the resonator tubes being in fluidic communication with each other and forming a common tubular space, connecting elements (20) arranged in corners between adjacent resonator tubes of a common tubular space, excitation means (50) for the resonator tubes for exciting the gas in the resonator tubes for generating a laser light, mirrors (22) arranged in the connecting elements for reflecting laser light between the resonator tubes, and a partially reflecting output coupler (42) for coupling out a laser beam. The resonator tubes are arranged in the shape of a helix, surrounding a free central space. The invention also relates to a method for generating laser light with such a laser device.
US09077138B2

A semiconductor laser device having stable heat dissipation property is provided. The semiconductor laser device includes a semiconductor laser element, a mounting body on which the semiconductor laser element is mounted, and a base body connected to the mounting body. The base body has a recess configured to engage with the mounting body and a through portion penetrating through a part of a bottom of the recess. In the specification, the remainder, which is a part of the bottom of the recess except for the through portion has a thickness equal or less than half of the largest thickness of the base body. The lowermost surface of the mounting body is spaced apart from the lowermost surface of the base body through the remainder.
US09077137B2

A laser assembly (12) for providing an output beam (18) includes a gain medium (16) and a laser housing (20) that retains the gain medium (16). The gain medium (16) generates the output beam (18) when electrical power is directed to the gain medium (16). The laser housing (20) includes a reference redirector (20A) that is used to a reference datum to check the alignment of the output beam (18) relative to the laser housing (20). The reference redirector (20A) can be a mirror that is integrated into the laser housing.
US09077123B2

An electrical connector assembly mounted on a printed circuit board, includes a socket and a connector. The socket mounted on the printed circuit board, has an insulative housing with upper body and lower body formed with a receiving room. A number of contacts respectively received in the upper body and lower body with a same structure. The contacts have spring portions extending into the receiving room and soldering portions extending beyond the upper body and the lower body. The connector is mounted on the printed circuit board. A linking element mechanically and electrically connects the socket and the connector.
US09077119B2

The present invention uses connectors to connect different electronic equipments for data transference. With coordination of metal cover layers and metal layers, interferences between cable and electronic equipments are prevented. Thus, interference of electromagnetic leakage from electronic equipments is prevented; signal transmission is stabilized; and, wireless devices are prohibited from electronic radiation of cable for receiving excellent signals.
US09077103B2

An electrical card (100) connector includes an insulative housing (1), a set of contacts (2) received in the housing and a locking portion (17) retained in the housing (1). The housing (1) defines a receiving cavity (10) for receiving an electrical card. The locking portion (17) has an elastic arm (171) connected with the housing (1) and a latching portion (172) extending forwardly from the elastic arm (171) and extending into the receiving cavity (10) to retain the electrical card. The locking portion (17) can deflect along a left to right direction under stress, so the insertion and extraction force of the electrical card insert in and eject out of the receiving cavity (10) moderately, it can not only ensure the electrical card connector (100) lock the electrical card firmly but also ensure the electrical card not be damaged easily.
US09077100B2

A receptacle connector includes an insulative body, conductive terminals mounted therein, and a seal covering a central portion of the body. The receptacle connector mates with at least one mating electrical connector. The seal prevents the intrusion of dust into the joint between the receptacle connector and the mating electrical connector(s). The seal and the body have locking features provided thereon to secure the seal to the housing.
US09077098B2

An electrical accessory for a vehicle includes a housing having a connector portion having a connector cavity therein, and a plurality of terminals that electrically connect at a circuit element in the housing and that protrude at least partially into the connector cavity. The housing has at least one fill port and at least one channel for receiving a sealant material through the fill port, whereby the sealant material flows along the at least one channel and at and around at least one terminal to substantially seal the at least one terminal relative to the housing. The fill port is accessible from outside of the housing after the electrical accessory is assembled.
US09077093B1

An electrical power adapter employs a magnetically coupled mechanism to retract and deploy prongs used to interface with an electrical receptacle. The magnetically coupled mechanism is linearly displaced by a user, converting the linear displacement to rotary motion, pivoting the retractable prongs between a deployed position and a retracted position. When the retractable prongs are in the deployed position the adapter may be mated with a receptacle and when in the retracted position the adapter has a reduced physical size.
US09077092B2

The invention relates to an electrical spring clamping means for an electrical connection device (1), in particular a connection device (1) for a photovoltaic solar module (4), with an electrical contact section (111, 511) and a clamping spring (120, 520) which cooperates therewith, wherein the clamping spring (120, 520) in its open position (O) is arranged under mechanical pre-stress on/in the electrical spring clamping means (100), and an electrical contact tongue (415) of an electrical mating contact element (412) can be pressed against the electrical contact section (111, 511) by means of the clamping spring (120, 520), in the closed position (S) thereof. Further, the invention relates to an electrical lead frame or an electrical conductor bar for an electrical connection device (1), in particular a connection device (1) for a photovoltaic solar module (4), with an electrical spring clamping means (100) according to the invention, with a contact cage (110) of the electrical spring clamping means (100) being a constituent of the lead frame (150) or of the conductor bar (170) and the lead frame (150) or the conductor bar (170) optionally being encapsulated. Furthermore, the invention relates to an electrical connection device, in particular a connection device (1) for a photovoltaic solar module (4), with a electrical spring clamping means (100) according to the invention or with an electrical lead frame (150) according to the invention or an electrical conductor bar (170) according to the invention.
US09077091B2

An electrical receptacle includes a detent for holding a terminal clamp in an open position. A terminal assembly having a terminal clamp, a terminal plate, and a terminal fastener. The terminal fastener can move the terminal clamp toward the terminal plate. The terminal clamp includes a tab that fits in a tab pocket formed in a middle housing of the receptacle. The tab pocket includes a detent for retaining the tab adjacent to a first end of the tab pocket. With the tab in this position, the terminal assembly is in the open configuration so that a space is formed between the terminal clamp and the terminal plate. In the open configuration an electrical wire can be disposed between the clamp and plate. To clamp the wire, the fastener is rotated to move the clamp toward the plate, and the detent releases the tab under application of force.
US09077085B2

A communication device including a ground element and an antenna system is provided. The antenna system is adjacent to the ground element. The antenna system includes at least a first antenna, a second antenna, a connection element, and a resistive element. The second antenna is adjacent to the first antenna. The connection element includes a first portion and a second portion, wherein the first portion is coupled to the first antenna, and the second portion is coupled to the second antenna. The resistive element is coupled between the first portion and the second portion of the connection element. The connection element and the resistive element increase the isolation between the first antenna and the second antenna.
US09077084B2

A multi-band multi-antenna system and a communication device thereof are provided. The multi-band multi-antenna system includes at least one ground, two antenna units, a coupling conductor line and a grounding conductor line. Both of the two antenna units have at least one conductor portion, a low-pass filtering portion and an extending conductor portion. Each antenna unit generates at least one higher and lower operating bands. The low-pass filtering portion is electrically coupled between the conductor portion and the extending conductor portion, and effectively decreases dependent relationship between the higher and lower operating bands. The coupling conductor line is disposed nearby the two antenna units and has a first coupling portion and a second coupling portion. The grounding conductor line is disposed between the two antenna units and connected to the ground.
US09077082B2

A patch antenna includes a capacitive radiating patch, a ground plane, and vertical coupling elements electrically connected to defined portions of the capacitive radiating patch and the ground plane. The capacitive radiating patch includes an array of conductive segments along the periphery and within the interior of the capacitive radiating patch. Capacitors are electrically connected to specific conductive segments in a defined pattern. Vertical coupling elements electrically connect specific conductive segments along the periphery of the capacitive radiating patch to the ground plane. Vertical coupling elements can be conductors or defined combinations of resistors, inductors, and capacitors. Various embodiments of the patch antenna are configured for linear polarization and circular polarization. Relative to a conventional patch antenna of a similar size, a patch antenna with a capacitive radiating patch has a broader operational bandwidth and a broader radiation pattern in the forward hemisphere.
US09077078B2

A reconfigurable monopole antenna is described which includes a radiator element coupled to a feed point through at least two different current paths. The current paths are of different lengths to accommodate different frequency bands. To change the current paths, a feed-point switch is positioned at the antenna feed point for selectively supplying current along either a first current path or a second current path. The current paths share a majority of the radiator element so that separate radiator elements need not be used.
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