US09251242B2

Provided are a data relatedness assessment device, a data relatedness assessment method, and a recording medium that stores a program, which calculates relatedness between two or more pieces of data relevant to a task of a worker. A display area acquirer (13) acquires display area information that denotes respective display areas of two or more pieces of data displayed on the screen of a display (3). A line of sight information acquirer (11) acquires a line of sight position that is the position of the line of sight of a worker on the screen of the display (3). A gazing data generator (14) generates gazing data information that denotes data that the worker is gazing at based on the line of sight position and the display area information. An operation information acquirer (16) acquires operation information that denotes a content of an operation that the worker has executed on the displayed data. A data relatedness calculator (18) calculates mutual relatedness between the two or more pieces of data in the task of the worker according to a predetermined rule based on the gazing data information and the operation information.
US09251241B2

Provided are techniques for self-provisioning a teamspace instance. A teamspace template including one or more teamspace characteristics and one or more user roles is generated. A teamspace instance is provisioned from a snapshot of the generated teamspace template using the one or more teamspace characteristics and the one or more user roles.
US09251240B2

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for portal user data access in a multi-tenant on-demand database system. These mechanisms and methods for portal user data access in a multi-tenant on-demand database system can enable embodiments to provide portal-specific user accounts to the multi-tenant on-demand database system which have reduced configuration requirements than users directly accessing the multi-tenant on-demand database system. The ability of embodiments to provide portal-specific user accounts can reduce processing requirements of the database system.
US09251239B1

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for applying a public tag to information. These mechanisms and methods for applying a public tag to information may enable embodiments to allow a user to apply a public tag to the information once. Further, applying a public tag to information may enable users with access to the information an ability to view the public tag applied to the information by the user.
US09251236B2

A method for synchronizing a database with displayed data, includes providing a data feed to receive data from the database to provide displayed document data, detecting a database change to the data within the database by a database synchronizer to provide a change event, polling the database synchronizer using an HTTP message to detect the change event, and pushing the database change to the displayed document data to update the displayed document data in accordance with the database change and the polling. The polling includes long polling and short polling. A polling servlet within the database synchronizer performs the polling by the database synchronizer. The database synchronizer updates the displayed document data by way of a data structure. The data structure is a queue.
US09251219B2

Embodiments include methods, systems and computer program products for performing a composite sort on a tunable hardware sort engine includes determining desired sort performance parameters, configuring a composite sort engine based on the desired sort performance parameters, and receiving a plurality of keys having a payload associated with each of the plurality of keys. The method also includes reserving DRAM storage for each of the payloads, generating a tag for each of the plurality of keys, the tag identifying the DRAM storage reserved for each of the payloads, and storing the payloads in the portions of the DRAM storage. The method further includes generating a composite key for each of the plurality of keys, sorting the composite keys by the composite sort engine, and retrieving the payloads associated with the sorted composite keys from the DRAM storage. The method also includes outputting the payloads associated the sorted composite keys.
US09251217B2

Systems and methods for searching for information within social networks are described. In some examples embodiments, a search assist system receives a query, such as a partial query, identifies two or more categories of data that include information satisfying the query, ranks the identified categories of data based on various selection criteria, and presents suggested search terms based on the rankings.
US09251213B2

Techniques are disclosed to determine error propagation for a query optimizer component of a database management system for a database. A database query is received that specifies one or more query conditions. Measures of actual and estimated selectivity of the one or more query conditions are determined. A measure of estimated deviation between the measures of actual and estimated selectivity is determined. A query execution plan is generated or selected based on the measure of estimated deviation.
US09251207B2

A query that identifies an input data source is rewritten to contain data parallel operations that include partitioning and merging. The input data source is partitioned into a plurality of initial partitions. A parallel repartitioning operation is performed on the initial partitions to generate a plurality of secondary partitions. A parallel execution of the query is performed using the secondary partitions to generate a plurality of output sets. The plurality of output sets are merged into a merged output set.
US09251204B2

In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method for tuning queries for a multi-tenant database system is provided. A processor retrieves actual statistics associated with data stored on one or more servers in the multi-tenant database system. The data may be associated with one or more tenants of the multi-tenant database system. A subset of the actual statistics is selected, wherein the subset of the actual statistics is related to tenants having a data trait targeted for optimization. The processor determines synthetic statistics based on the subset of the actual statistics. An original query is received at the multi-tenant database system, wherein the original query operates upon data associated with a tenant that has the data trait targeted for optimization. The processor determines an optimal query plan based on the original query and synthetic statistics. Finally, the processor executes the original query based on the optimal query plan.
US09251200B2

A method and a system execute database insert calls in a MES system. The data to be stored into the database are represented in XML tree formats according to the S95 hierarchy model. The method includes: a) receiving as input a given XML tree corresponding to a given S95 hierarchy data to stored into the database; b) processing the given XML tree in order to generate a corresponding parallel structure; c) getting a given S95 entity type and its given set of node references from the given parallel structure; d) if the given set of node references is not empty, composing a database insert call passing the information of the given set of node references; e) if the given set of node references is not empty, executing the composed database insert call; and executing items c) to e) for all the S95 entity types of the given parallel structure.
US09251198B2

Systems and methods are provided for an asynchronous data replication system in which the remote replication reduces bandwidth requirements by copying deduplicated differences in business data from a local storage site to a remote, backup storage site, the system comprising: a local performance storage pool for storing data; a local deduplicating storage pool for storing deduplicated data, said local deduplicating storage pool further storing metadata about data objects in the system and which has metadata analysis logic for identifying and specifying differences in a data object over time; a remote performance storage pool for storing a copy of said data, available for immediate use as a backup copy of said data to provide business continuity to said data; a remote deduplicating storage pool for storing deduplicated data; and a controller for synchronizing the remote performance storage pool to have the second version of the data object using deduplicated data.
US09251191B2

Embodiments of a system and method for indexing of geospatial data using three-dimensional Cartesian space are generally described herein. In an aspect, such example methods may include calculating endpoints of a segment, wherein the endpoints are specified in Cartesian coordinates and are located on a substantially spherical surface, defining a boundary of a polygon according to the segment, computing one or more normals corresponding to one or more planes, wherein each of the one or more planes contain a test point and a boundary point associated with the boundary, obtaining a boundary sine value of an angle defined by an arc subtended by the endpoints, summing each of a group of angle values derived from the boundary sine value to obtain an angle sum, wherein the group contains the boundary sine value, and determining whether the test point is inside the polygon based on the angle sum.
US09251189B2

Example embodiments provide various techniques for updating an old data structure configured to store metadata associated with database systems. In this method, a temporary data structure is created. Additionally, a new data structure representing an update of the old data structure is created. The metadata from the old data structure are copied to the temporary data structure, and the temporary data structure is transformed to match the new data structure. The metadata from the transformed temporary data structure are copied to the new data structure. The transformation of the temporary data structure instead of the old data structure may enable an application that is not being updated to be operational and to access the old data structure during the update. After the metadata is copied to the new data structure, a new version of the application is then able to access the new data structure.
US09251186B2

A storage system according to certain embodiments includes a client-side signature repository that includes information representative of a set of data blocks stored in primary storage. During copy or backup operations, the system can use the client-side signature repository to identify data blocks located in primary storage that are new or that have changed. The system can also use the client-side signature repository to identify multiple locations within primary storage where different instances of the data blocks are located.
US09251184B2

Database schema changes are managed in a database management system by identifying and marking one or more database objects for a database schema change, identifying and processing accesses to identified database objects and storing information pertaining to the identified accesses, where the identified accesses are processed with respect to the database schema without the change, evaluating the stored information to determine a frequency with which identified objects are referenced by the identified accesses over a select time period, and implementing the database schema change in response to an indication that the frequency is below a threshold value.
US09251181B2

A method, system and computer program product for dynamic map template discovery and map creation may include determining a frequency of use of a data object in a database and discovering a dynamic map template corresponding to the data object based on the frequency of use of the data object. The method may also include creating a dynamic map from the dynamic map template in response to discovering the dynamic map template.
US09251179B2

In managing a relational database, a relational manager sets a foreign key lookup value to an unavailable state in a source table row containing each of a foreign key value and the foreign key lookup value in a source table in a relational database, wherein the foreign key value references a primary key value in a referenced row in a separate destination table in the relational database. The relational manager, responsive to looking up, for the foreign key value, in a data structure separate from the source table, a location of the referenced row in the relational database, when the foreign key lookup value is set to the unavailable state, updating the foreign key lookup value with the location, wherein the foreign key lookup value in the source table is looked up for identifying the location of the referenced row for subsequent retrievals of the referenced row for the foreign key value.
US09251177B2

Technologies are generally described for systems, methods and devices effective to remove information from a network such as the Internet. In some examples, a device may include a memory including instructions and a processor configured in communication with the memory. The processor may be configured effective to receive user information relating to a user and search the network using the user information. In response to the search, the processor may find additional information relating to the user stored in the network. The processor may receive a first request to remove particular information from the network. The particular information may be part of the additional information and the particular information may be removable by a second user. The processor may send a second request to remove the particular information from the network.
US09251173B2

Systems and methods for image organization are provided. An image organization method in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure includes, at a user computing device, receiving an image set comprising a plurality of images, and comparing a portion of each image in the image set with a verified cue library including a plurality of visual cues that correspond to different geographic place tags. The method may further include displaying a recommendation panel including a recommended place tag corresponding to a visual cue that matches the portion.
US09251171B2

Methods, systems and apparatus for identifying modified images based on seed images that are known to be modified images. In an aspect, a method includes accessing data identifying a set of first seed images; for each first seed image, determining a respective first set of similar images from images in an image corpus, each similar image having a visual similarity score that is a measure of visual similarity of the similar image to the first seed image based on the image content of the similar image and the first seed image that satisfies a first seed image similarity threshold; and for each similar image in each respective first set of similar images, attributing to the similar image signal data of each first seed image for which the similar image has a respective visual similarity score satisfying the first seed image similarity threshold.
US09251164B2

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database. These mechanisms and methods for using a database to access content stored outside of the database can enable embodiments to provide a database system which can be used to access content when the content is incapable of being stored in the database system, or is otherwise not stored in the database system. The ability of embodiments to provide access to such data via the database system can improve the usability of the database system.
US09251163B2

In a computer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, a first slave server includes copy management information associating a master file system identifier with an identifier of a slave server including a copy of the master file system identified by the master file system identifier. The first slave server acquires a copy of a part of a master file system. The copy includes a stub-state object (file or directory). The first slave server searches the copy management information for a slave server to be queried regarding information for materializing the stub-state object. If the slave server to be queried includes the information for materialization, the first slave server materializes the stub-state object using the information for materialization acquired from the queried slave server.
US09251162B2

The present invention provides a storage management system and method for managing access between a plurality of processes and a common store. According to the invention, each individual process comprises data processing means, a cache for the temporary storage of data generated by the data processing means, and a control unit for managing the transferral of data between the cache and a common store. The control unit comprises a manager for monitoring the availability of storage locations in the store to receive and store data and for allocating data to available storage locations, an interface for transferring the allocated data to the available storage locations, and a locking arrangement for locking the store during data transfer in order to ensure exclusive access and thereby preserve data integrity.
US09251160B1

Various systems and methods for migrating data between deduplication systems. For example, one method involves receiving a fingerprint, where the fingerprint is received from a source computing device at a destination computing device, and the fingerprint is associated with a data segment stored at the source computing device. The method also involves identifying a fingerprint type associated with the fingerprint. The method also involves performing a migration operation from the source computing device to the destination computing device. The migration operation involves determining whether the fingerprint is stored in a fingerprint sub-index. The migration operation also involves determining whether a second fingerprint that corresponds to the data segment is stored in a second sub-index, where the second fingerprint is of a second fingerprint type.
US09251155B1

A database system maintains table data in sorted order. The table data becomes unsorted over time due to add, delete, and update operations. These operations are performed such that the table comprises an initial sorted region followed by an unsorted region. The database system performs an incremental operation to rewrite the table in sorted order. The database system partitions the unsorted region into a plurality of partitions comprising sorted rows within each partition. The database system iteratively merges rows from the partitions to the sorted region of the table. The database system selects a set of lowest tanked rows from the partitions. The database system merges these lowest ranked rows with the sorted region while maintaining the sort order of the sorted region. The database system repeats these steps until all the partitions are processed. The database may store data in columnar fashion.
US09251154B2

A method and system for determining priority is provided. The method includes generating a list defining specified data objects stored within a back-up/archived data storage system and applying importance levels to the specified data objects. Reliability urgency levels for the storage devices are determined and in response groups of data objects of the specified data objects are generated. Required reliability levels for each group of data objects are determined and associated erasure encoding rates are calculated. Fragment sets for the groups of data objects are generated and numbers of parity objects required for the fragment sets are determined. An erasure code algorithm is executed with respect to the groups of data objects and in response parity objects are computed on demand.
US09251153B1

A computer-implemented method for populating and maintaining a local cache with archived data items is described. A request to organize archived data items into one or more bundles is sent. The one or more bundles of archived data items are downloaded to the local cache. Each of the archived data items are organized in the one or more bundles according to a time period associated with each archived data item. An index file is extracted from each of the one or more bundles. The extracted index file is inserted into a master index file.
US09251149B2

Specified data sets may be tracked from creation to end-of-life (e.g., deletion). Between creation and end-of-life, data set storage changes may be recorded (i.e., when additional storage is allocated or when some storage is released). During a subsequent allocation cycle, this information may be used in conjunction with user-specified allocation rules to manage or control the data set's initial allocation.
US09251129B2

A system and method may be disclosed for facilitating the creation or modification of a document by providing a mechanism for locating relevant data from external sources and organizing and incorporating some or all of said data into the document. In the method for reusing data, there may be a set of documents that may be queried, where each document may be divided into a plurality of sections. A plurality of section text groups may be formed based on the set of documents, where each section text group may be associated with a respective section from the plurality of sections and each section group includes a plurality of items. Each item may be associated with a respective section from each document of the set of documents. A selected item within a selected section text group may be focused. The selected item may be extracted to a current document. The current document may be exported to a host application.
US09251128B2

A method, system and computer program product for providing scoping editing operations in a document using a document editing computer application. The method, program system, and computer product may include tagging each incidence of editing with the identity of the author responsible for the applicable incidence, the date, the date and time, document phase, author role, or any combination thereof. The method, program system, and computer product may further include presenting a mechanism for designating a scope of tagged content by author, date, date and time of day, document phase, author role, or a combination thereof, and locating a selection of at least some of the tagged content according to the designated scope of the tagged content.
US09251116B2

A circuit arrangement, method, and program product for compressing and decompressing data in a node of a system including a plurality of nodes interconnected via an on-chip network. Compressed data may be received and stored at an input buffer of a node, and in parallel with moving the compressed data to an execution register of the node, decompression logic of the node may decompress the data to generate uncompressed data, such that uncompressed data is stored in the execution register for utilization by an execution unit of the node. Uncompressed data may be output by the execution unit into the execution register, and in parallel with moving the uncompressed data to an output buffer of the node connected to the on-chip network, compression logic may compress the uncompressed data to generate compressed data, such that compressed data is stored at the output buffer.
US09251110B2

Techniques for reducing the spectral content of a data bus are described herein. An example of a device in accordance with the present techniques includes logic to obtain a present bit of data to be transmitted over a data bus and estimate a spectral energy contribution of the present bit at a frequency of interest. The device also includes logic to determine what effect inverting the present bit will have on a net spectral energy of the data bus at the frequency of interest when the present bit is transmitted over the data bus. The device also includes logic to invert the present bit to generate an inverted bit and transmit the inverted bit over the data bus if inverting the present bit reduces the net spectral energy of the data bus at the frequency of interest.
US09251102B2

A computing system includes a guest domain access control register (DACR), and guest first and second level page tables, the page tables containing domain identifiers used to obtain domain access information and access permission information, and the domain access information and the access permission information providing an effective guest access permission. The computing system provides a shadow page table, in which domain identifiers are used to identify domain access information in a processor DACR that are mapped from domain access information in the guest DACR, and in which access permissions are mapped from effective access permission information in the guest page tables and guest DACR. A memory management unit in the processor traverses the shadow page table, accesses the processor DACR, and combines the mapped domain access information in the processor with the mapped access permission in the shadow page table to reflect the guest intended effective access permissions.
US09251094B2

A processor including logic to execute an instruction to synchronize a mapping from a physical address of a guest of a virtualization based system (guest physical address) to a physical address of the host of the virtualization based system (host physical address), and stored in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB), with a corresponding mapping stored in an extended paging table (EPT) of the virtualization based system.
US09251093B2

A mechanism is provided for managing the translation look-aside buffer (TLB) of an emulated computer, in which an extension to the TLB is provided so as to improve virtual address translation capacity for the emulated central processing unit (CPU).
US09251090B1

Remote computing resource service providers allow customers to execute one or more applications in a virtual environment on computer systems provided by the computing resource service provider. The virtual machines may be managed by a hypervisor executing on computer systems operated by the service provider. The virtual machines' memory may be protected by a memory obfuscation service and the hypervisor. The memory obfuscation service may enable the virtual machines to maintain at least a portion of sensitive information in an obfuscated format. The virtual machines may request access to the virtual machines' memory, the memory obfuscation service may obtain the requested memory in an obfuscated format and un-obfuscate the memory such that it may be used by the virtual machines.
US09251086B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing a cache. A cache interface module provides access to a plurality of virtual storage units of a solid-state storage device over a cache interface. At least one of the virtual storage units comprises a cache unit. A cache command module exchanges cache management information for the at least one cache unit with one or more cache clients over the cache interface. A cache management module manages the at least one cache unit based on the cache management information exchanged with the one or more cache clients.
US09251085B2

Optimizations are provided for frame management operations, including a clear operation and/or a set storage key operation, requested by pageable guests. The operations are performed, absent host intervention, on frames not resident in host memory. The operations may be specified in an instruction issued by the pageable guests.
US09251083B2

A microprocessor includes a first and second hardware data prefetchers configured to prefetch data into the microprocessor according to first and second respective algorithms, which are different. The second prefetcher is configured to detect a memory access pattern within a memory region and responsively prefetch data from the memory region according the second algorithm. The second prefetcher is further configured to provide to the first prefetcher a descriptor of the memory region. The first prefetcher is configured to stop prefetching data from the memory region in response to receiving the descriptor of the memory region from the second prefetcher. The second prefetcher also provides to the first prefetcher a communication to resume prefetching data from the memory region, such as when the second prefetcher subsequently detects that a predetermined number of memory accesses to the memory region are not in the memory access pattern.
US09251079B2

A cache memory device includes a plurality of cache areas, each the cache area comprising a plurality of entries. The cache memory device is configured to maintain a separate lock attribute for each the cache area and temporarily assign possession of a lock attribute for a particular the cache area to a processor thread attempting to update the particular the cache area, the processor thread being unable to update the particular the cache area without possession of the lock attribute for the particular the cache area.
US09251078B2

Methods, parallel computers, and computer program products for acquiring remote shared variable directory (SVD) information in a parallel computer are provided. Embodiments include a runtime optimizer determining that a first thread of a first task requires shared resource data stored in a memory partition corresponding to a second thread of a second task. Embodiments also include the runtime optimizer requesting from the second thread, in response to determining that the first thread of the first task requires the shared resource data, SVD information associated with the shared resource data. Embodiments also include the runtime optimizer receiving from the second thread, the SVD information associated with the shared resource data.
US09251068B2

Systems, devices, memory controllers, and methods for initializing memory are described. Initializing memory can include configuring memory devices in parallel. The memory devices can receive a shared enable signal. A unique volume address can be assigned to each of the memory devices.
US09251062B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for implementing conditional storage operations. Storage clients access and allocate portions of an address space of a non-volatile storage device. A conditional storage request is provided, which causes data to be stored to the non-volatile storage device on the condition that the address space of the device can satisfy the entire request. If only a portion of the request can be satisfied, the conditional storage request may be deferred or fail. An atomic storage request is provided, which may comprise one or more storage operations. The atomic storage request succeeds if all of the one or more storage operations are complete successfully. If one or more of the storage operations fails, the atomic storage request is invalidated, which may comprise deallocating logical identifiers of the request and/or invalidating data on the non-volatile storage device pertaining to the request.
US09251057B2

Disclosed is a nonvolatile cache memory including a nonvolatile memory part and a cache controller. The nonvolatile memory part is configured to store cache data. The cache controller is configured to control reading and writing of the cache data with respect to the nonvolatile memory part. Further, the cache controller is configured to perform, as a preparation for an interruption of power supply, standby preparation processing to generate standby state data and store the generated standby state data in the nonvolatile memory part. Further, the cache controller is configured to perform, at resumption of the power supply, restoration processing of the cache data stored in the nonvolatile memory part using the standby state data.
US09251054B2

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing enhanced reliability of memory subsystems utilizing a dual port Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) configuration. The DRAM configuration includes a first buffer and a second buffer, each buffer including a validity counter. The validity counter for a receiving buffer is incremented as each respective data row from a transferring buffer is validated through Error Correction Code (ECC), Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) logic and transferred to the receiving buffer, while the validity counter for the transferring buffer is decremented. Data are read from or written to either the first buffer or the second buffer based upon a respective count value of the validity counters.
US09251053B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for managing configuration parameters of a non-volatile storage device. The method includes storing a first set of configuration parameters for a non-volatile recording device. The first set of configuration parameters are configured for a storage operation on a storage element of the non-volatile recording device. The method also includes storing a second set of configuration parameters for the non-volatile recording device during execution of the storage operation on the storage element. The second set of configuration parameters are configured for a second storage operation on the storage element of the non-volatile recording device.
US09251052B2

A cache module leverages a logical address space and storage metadata of a storage module (e.g., virtual storage module) to cache data of a backing store. The cache module maintains access metadata to track access characteristics of logical identifiers in the logical address space, including accesses pertaining to data that is not currently in the cache. The access metadata may be separate from the storage metadata maintained by the storage module. The cache module may calculate a performance metric of the cache based on profiling metadata, which may include portions of the access metadata. The cache module may determine predictive performance metrics of different cache configurations. An optimal cache configuration may be identified based on the predictive performance metrics.
US09251051B2

A system for capacity forecasting for backup storage comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to determine a selected statistical analysis from the set of statistical analysis for subsets of a set of capacities at points in time; forecast a full capacity time based at least in part on the selected statistical analysis; and determine that the full capacity time is qualified. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.
US09251042B2

A method, apparatus, and/or computer program product protects a managed runtime from stack corruption due to native code condition handling. A native condition handler, which is associated with a managed runtime, percolates a condition. A condition handler of the managed runtime receives notification of the condition in a native code portion, and the condition handler of the managed runtime marks a thread associated with the condition. Responsive to a determination by the native code handler to resume execution of the marked thread by either call back into or a return to the managed runtime, the managed runtime determines whether a request is associated with the marked thread. Responsive to a determination that the request is associated with the marked thread, the managed runtime performs diagnostics and the managed runtime is terminated.
US09251036B2

Disclosed herein is a system for monitoring high speed interchip (HSIC) universal serial bus (USB) signals in a device comprising a USB controller configured to output first USB transceiver macro-cell (UTMI+) signals, an HSIC PHY transceiver configured to receive first UTMI+ signals from the USB controller and to convert and transmit received first UTMI+ signals as first HSIC signals, and to receive second HSIC signals and transmit them as second UTMI+ signals to the USB controller, a UTMI+ conversion block configured to receive first and second UTMI+ signals and to transform the received first and second UTMI+ signals to corresponding first and second ULPI signals, and transmit first and second ULPI signals, the first and second ULPI signals being equivalent to the first and second HSIC signals, and a ULPI PHY transceiver configured to receive the first and second ULPI signals and transmit corresponding first and second USB signals.
US09251030B2

Implementations for downloadable cartridges for a multi-tenant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) system are disclosed. A method of the disclosure includes receiving, by a processing device of a multi-tenant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) system, a location of a cartridge manifest corresponding to a cartridge that is maintained outside of the multi-tenant PaaS system, downloading the cartridge manifest from the received location, parsing the downloaded cartridge manifest to determine a source location of files of the cartridge, the source location separate from the multi-tenant PaaS system, and causing the files of the cartridge to be obtained from the determined source location for use by at least one node of the multi-tenant PaaS system that is hosting an application requesting the cartridge.
US09251028B2

A method, system, and/or computer program product manages code instrumentation in a production computer program. Performance data from instrumentation code associated with a portion of code of a production computer program is received. One or more processors compare the performance data to a predetermined performance threshold. In response to the performance data meeting the predetermined performance threshold, one or more processors remove the instrumentation code for the portion of code.
US09251016B2

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a storage system for storing data from a host device, comprising: a plurality of storage units for storing data, in a manner to enable recovery of data stored in one of said storage units by the use of data stored in the rest of storage units; an extra storage unit; and a controller for controlling said storage units and said extra storage unit according to a process comprising: receiving information indicative of fault prediction in one of storage units, recovering data stored in said one of said storage units by the use of data storage in the rest of said storage units, and writing the recovered data into said extra storage unit.
US09251015B2

Provided is a memory system and wear-leveling method. A memory system includes a flash memory device and a memory controller. The flash memory device includes a plurality of memory blocks, each including a plurality of memory cells. The memory controller is configured to control the flash memory device based on erase event information and error checking and correction (ECC) event information of each of the memory blocks such that use of the memory blocks is distributed more uniformly.
US09251013B1

A system, method, and apparatus of social log file collaboration and annotation is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method identifies a log file of importance, centralizes storage of the log file of importance and generates a social profile of the log file of importance. The method sets an access privilege associated with a user accessing the social profile of the log file of importance and permits the access the social profile of the log file of importance. The method processes a comment and/or an annotation in the social profile of the log file of importance of the user accessing the social profile of the log file of importance using a processor and a memory.
US09251009B2

A data center for data backup and replication, including a pool of multiple storage units for storing a journal of I/O write commands issued at respective times, wherein the journal spans a history window of a pre-specified time length, and a journal manager for dynamically allocating more storage units for storing the journal as the journal size increases, and for dynamically releasing storage units as the journal size decreases.
US09251004B1

A system, method, computer program, and/or computer readable medium for providing application isolation and live migration to one or more applications and their associated resources. The computer readable medium includes computer-executable instructions for execution by a processing system. The computer-executable instructions may be for creating a new isolated environment, for creating a copy of an isolated environment, live migrating applications within and between isolated environments, and for deploying an isolated environment Further, the instructions may be for launching one or more applications within one or more isolated environment, for terminating one or more applications within one or more isolated environments, for configuring resource mappings, exceptions and policies, for triggering a live migrate, and for delivery of one or more applications within isolated environments over the network.
US09251003B1

A database system may implement database cache survivability across database failures. In various embodiments, a database cache may be maintained independent of a failure of a database. A database cache may be maintained in a non-volatile memory device or maintained in a shared memory segment of system memory. Upon recovery from a database failure, a recovery point may be determined that indicates a consistent state of the database. Cache entries of the database cache inconsistent with the consistent state of the database may be invalidated, and the database cache may be made available for access requests directed toward the database. Valid cache entries from before the database failure may be made available without accessing a back-end data store for the database.
US09250994B1

Data storage systems may include a solid-state memory array configured to store encoded data units and a controller configured to decode the encoded data units. Decoding the encoded data units may include updating a check node of a plurality of check nodes associated with a parity check matrix by identifying first and second sets of variable nodes in a plurality of variable nodes associated in the parity check matrix with the check node and constructing a trellis based on the second set of variable nodes. The trellis may be used to determine a message and, based at least in part on the message, a first set of messages to be sent from the check node to the first set of variable nodes may be determined. A second set of messages to be sent from the check node to each variable node in the second set of variable nodes also may be determined.
US09250992B1

In some implementations, a built-in self-test (BIST) circuitry of a memory device is configured to perform an execution of a test sequence to test the memory device, wherein performing the execution comprises generating addresses of the memory device in accordance with the test sequence and advancing a value of a modulo counter as each of the addresses is generated, enable error logging when a generated address and a value of the modulo counter corresponding to the generated address match an address and a value of the modulo counter stored for a previously detected error, detect an error in data read from the memory device after enabling error logging, and store information associated with the detected error.
US09250987B2

Administering incomplete data communications messages in a parallel computer that includes a plurality of compute nodes, with each compute node including a processor and a messaging accelerator, includes: transmitting, by a source messaging accelerator to a destination messaging accelerator, a message, including processing a messaging descriptor describing the message and setting, in the message descriptor, a flag indicating the message has been sent; transmitting, by the source messaging accelerator to a destination messaging accelerator responsive to processing an acknowledgement request descriptor corresponding to the message, a request for acknowledgment of receipt of the message; receiving, by the source messaging accelerator from the destination messaging accelerator, a negative acknowledgment (NACK) indicating that the message was not received at the destination messaging accelerator; and clearing, by the source messaging accelerator in the message descriptor, the flag indicating that message has been sent.
US09250976B2

In an embodiment, a lock command is received from a thread that specifies a resource. If tier status in a nodal lock indicates the nodal lock is currently owned, an identifier of the thread is added to a nodal waiters list, and if the thread's lock wait indicator indicates that the thread owns the nodal lock, then a successful completion status is returned for the lock command to the thread after waiting until a next tier wait indicator in the nodal lock indicates that any thread owns a global lock on the resource. If the tier status indicates no thread holds the nodal lock, the tier status is changed to indicate the nodal lock is owned, and if a global waiters and holder list is empty, an identifier of a node at which the thread executes is added to the global waiters and holder list.
US09250973B2

An apparatus and associated method of generating a multi-core communication topology. The topology corresponding to a predetermined number of cores of a multi-core computer, is generated with an application programming device. A number of nodes are described for mapping to the predetermined number of available cores of the multi-core communication topology. Properties of each of the number of nodes are specified. Communication between each of the nodes of the multi-core communication topology is specified using a dedicated multi-core communication library of an electronic memory of the application programming device. A validated output file is generated for the multi-core topology at the application programming device. The output file to is processed to generate a multi-core communication capable executable application program interface (API) for the multi-core computer.
US09250953B2

A method for scheduling tasks from a program executed by a multi-processor core system is disclosed. The method includes a scheduler that groups a plurality of tasks, each having an assigned priority, by priority in a task group. The task group is assembled with other task groups having identical priorities in a task group queue. A hierarchy of task group queues is established based on priority levels of the assigned tasks. Task groups are assigned to one of a plurality of worker threads based on the hierarchy of task group queues. Each of the worker threads is associated with a processor in the multi-processor system. The tasks of the task groups are executed via the worker threads according to the order in the hierarchy.
US09250950B2

Methods, parallel computers, and computer program products for conditionally updating shared variable directory (SVD) information in a parallel computer are provided. Embodiments include a runtime optimizer receiving a broadcast reduction operation header. The broadcast reduction operation header includes an SVD key and a first SVD address. The first SVD address is associated with the SVD key in a first SVD associated with a first task. Embodiments also include the runtime optimizer retrieving from a remote address cache associated with the second task, a second SVD address indicating a location within a memory partition associated with the first SVD, in response to receiving the broadcast reduction operation header. Embodiments also include the runtime optimizer determining that the first SVD address does not match the second SVD address and updating the remote address cache with the first SVD address.
US09250944B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a set of algorithmic methods that can be used to select which partially and/or pre-provisioned virtual machines (VMs) should be used as a base platform to satisfy a new workload (e.g., provisioning) request received in a networked computing environment (e.g., a cloud computing environment). Specifically, when a workload request is received, a set (e.g., at last one) of software programs needed to process the workload request is identified. Then, a set of VMs is selected from a pool of pre-provisioned VMs having the set of software programs. In general, multiple methods and/or factors can be followed to select the set of VMs. Examples include a length of time to install the set of VMs, a probability of the set of VMs being in demand, and/or or a quantity of the set of VMs having the set of software programs. Once the set of VMs has been selected, the set of VMs may be installed, and the workload request can be processed using the set of software programs.
US09250937B1

A system-wide service can simultaneously harden multiple running JITs, for example by hooking into the memory protections of a target operating system and randomizing newly generated code on the fly when marked as executable. Some embodiments preserve the contents of the calling stack, presenting each JIT with the illusion that it is executing its own generated code.
US09250935B2

System and methods are provided for loop process suspension. One or more loop instructions associated with a loop process are loaded in a code cache. One or more branch instructions associated with a branch of the loop process in the code cache are determined. A suspension event is detected. The branch instructions are replaced with one or more jump instructions in the code cache upon the detection of the suspension event. If the jump instructions are executed in the code cache, the branch instructions in the code cache are restored, and the loop process is suspended. One or more suspension instructions associated with the suspension event are executed in an interpreter.
US09250933B2

An information processor has an older version program and a latest version program of the same application software installed thereon. The information processor includes: an older version detection unit that detects the older version program installed on the information processor; a path name modification unit that modifies a first path name of a file storing the older version program to a second path name if the older version detection unit detects the older version program; and a start program file generation unit that generates a start program file storing a start program. The start program file generation unit generates the start program file as a file having the first path name, after the path name modification unit executes the path name modification.
US09250930B2

A method implemented by an electronic entity including a nonvolatile rewritable memory and a read-only memory, the method comprising: reception of at least one write command for writing to the nonvolatile memory, and en response to the command, writing configuration data to the nonvolatile memory, wherein the configuration data are obtained based on so-called prerecorded data read in the read-only memory.
US09250929B2

A method and apparatus are provided for determining the layout of a form automatically to accommodate text in the form. Under the method and apparatus, a set of parameters define the sizing and alignment of elements of the form. Sizing and positioning instructions that are separate from the sizing and alignment parameters set the sizing and positioning of elements of the form based on the sizing and alignment parameters. The instructions determine the minimum size for the form, based in part on text in the form. The difference between the minimum size for the form and a desired size for the form is then distributed across the form to size and position the elements in the form.
US09250918B2

A request handler may receive an image capture request for an operating system (OS) executing on a server. A pre-boot image handler may generate a pre-boot image, based on the image capture request and on the executing operating system. An image handler may capture an image of the operating system, based on the pre-boot image.
US09250916B2

Embodiments include a method for chaining data in an exposed-pipeline processing element. The method includes separating a multiple instruction word into a first sub-instruction and a second sub-instruction, receiving the first sub-instruction and the second sub-instruction in the exposed-pipeline processing element. The method also includes issuing the first sub-instruction at a first time, issuing the second sub-instruction at a second time different than the first time, the second time being offset to account for a dependency of the second sub-instruction on a first result from the first sub-instruction, the first pipeline performing the first sub-instruction at a first clock cycle and communicating the first result from performing the first sub-instruction to a chaining bus coupled to the first pipeline and a second pipeline, the communicating at a second clock cycle subsequent to the first clock cycle that corresponds to a total number of latch pipeline stages in the first pipeline.
US09250908B2

A multi-processor cache and bus interconnection system. A multi-processor is provided a segmented cache and an interconnection system for connecting the processors to the cache segments. An interface unit communicates to external devices using module IDs and timestamps. A buffer protocol includes a retransmission buffer and method.
US09250906B2

Methods, apparatus and systems for virtualization of a native instruction set are disclosed. Embodiments include a processor core executing the native instructions and a second core, or alternatively only the second processor core consuming less power while executing a second instruction set that excludes portions of the native instruction set. The second core's decoder detects invalid opcodes of the second instruction set. A microcode layer disassembler determines if opcodes should be translated. A translation runtime environment identifies an executable region containing an invalid opcode, other invalid opcodes and interjacent valid opcodes of the second instruction set. An analysis unit determines an initial machine state prior to execution of the invalid opcode. A partial translation of the executable region that includes encapsulations of the translations of invalid opcodes and state recoveries of the machine states is generated and saved to a translation cache memory.
US09250902B2

The invention relates to determining the status of run-time-instrumentation controls. The status is determined by executing a test run-time-instrumentation controls (TRIC) instruction. The TRIC instruction executed in either a supervisor state or a lesser-privileged state. The TRIC instruction determines whether the run-time-instrumentation controls have changed. The run-time-instrumentation controls are set to an initial value using a privileged load run-time-instrumentation controls (LRIC) instruction. The TRIC instruction is fetched and executed. If the TRIC instruction is enabled, then it is determined if the initial value set by the run-time-instrumentation controls has been changed. If the initial value set by the run-time-instrumentation controls has been changed, then a condition code is set to a first value.
US09250893B2

A software automation build system including a one or more source code repositories, the one or more source code repositories including source code of a software product and a source code for a build system. The source code for the build system stores a configuration specifying a build and test environment as a configuration file that can be accessed remotely by users to replicate a consistent virtual build and test environment for developing and testing code of the software product at different locations, using virtual machines. The system may include one or more instances of the build system based on the configuration. The system may save versions of the configuration so that multiple versions of the build system can be accessed and built virtually.
US09250878B1

A method includes receiving, by a processing device executing a compiler, source code of a function associated with a compiler prompt, in which the function includes at least one variable to be allocated in a memory space on a stack, determining that the compiler prompt indicates to retain at least a portion of the allocated memory space on the stack after execution of the function, and compiling, in view of the compiler prompt, the source code to generate a prologue function and an epilogue function associated with execution of the function, in which the prologue function is to allocate the memory space for the function, and at least one of the prologue function or the epilogue function is to cause to retain the at least a portion of the allocated memory space on the stack after the execution of the function.
US09250872B2

In one set of embodiments, methods, systems, and apparatus are provided that include presenting, by a computer system, a task flow in a popup component of an application user interface executing in a user interface layer, where the task flow executes in an application layer of the computer system, and also include communicating, by the computer system, a first notification from the application layer to the user interface layer in response to normal completion of the task flow, and updating, e.g., closing, the component in the application user interface based upon the first notification. A second notification may be communicated from the user interface layer to the application layer in response to a user interface event that is associated with the popup component and causes an abnormal termination of the task flow. Presenting may include displaying the task flow in a region component in the popup component.
US09250871B2

A method and apparatus for processing a rich media user interface composed of a plurality of component objects that is capable of transferring information from a group of component objects having a specific function but not supporting the export of information to a group of component objects importing information only through predetermined paths through unpredictable path are provided. The method for processing content composed of user interface component objects includes receiving content including a plurality of user interface component objects, extracting exportable information which is defined to be exportable outside the content, and transferring the extracted exportable information to a target object.
US09250870B2

A computing device determines a first set of functions in a first file having a first bit length. The computing device performs a first test, which includes executing a first test program capable of testing each function in the first set of functions. The computing device determines whether the first test was successful, and based on determining that the first test was successful, creates a shim program based on the first set of functions. The computing device creates a second file based on the first set of functions, the second file having a second bit length. The computing device performs a second test, which includes executing a second test program capable of testing each function in the second file. The computing device determines whether the second test was successful, and based on determining that the second test was successful, publishes one or more of the shim program and second file.
US09250862B2

Embodiments of an improved Galois multiplication route are described. In some embodiments, the Galois multiplication routine looks up and retrieves a first value corresponding to an address in the Galois table, exclusive ORs the retrieved value with a data value from a data set to generate an intermediate address for the Galois table, wherein the data value is at a location associated with an index, and looks up and retrieves a second value in the Galois table by the intermediate address.
US09250859B2

One embodiment relates to a method for determining a latency of a FIFO buffer. A highest-order bit is provided from FIFO write and read counters to input-comparison logic that distinguishes between the highest-order write and read bits having a same logic level and the highest-order write and read bits having different logic levels. The occupancy level, and hence the latency, of the FIFO buffer is determined based on the output of the input-comparison logic. Another embodiment relates to a FIFO buffer having write and read counters that each have a length in bits that is one bit longer than is needed to address the FIFO buffer. Another embodiment relates to a method of tuning a latency of a FIFO buffer. Other embodiments and features are also disclosed.
US09250857B2

Managing buffers in a hybrid system, in one aspect, may comprise selecting a first buffer management method from a plurality of buffer management methods; capturing statistics associated with access to the buffer in the hybrid system running under the initial buffer management method; analyzing the captured statistics; identifying a second buffer management method based on the analyzed captured statistics; determining whether the second buffer management method is more optimal than the first buffer management method; in response to determining that the second buffer management method is more optimal than the first buffer management method, invoking the second buffer management method; and repeating the capturing, the analyzing, the identifying and the determining.
US09250853B2

An adhesive display system includes at least one adhesive display panel including a flexible display unit and an adhesive layer, at least one connector connected to the at least one adhesive display panel to apply a data driving signal thereto, and an external device configured to apply data to the at least one connector. The at least one adhesive display panel is connected to each other using the at least one connector.
US09250849B2

A printing system includes an identification part configured to identify a printing protocol to be used with respect to an image processor in creating a print queue for displaying a status of the image processor and a reflection part configured to reflect, in the print queue, a definition of a communication setting used for bidirectional communications between an information processor and the image processor, the definition corresponding to the identified printing protocol.
US09250847B2

An image forming apparatus having at least one of print, scan, copy, fax, and web browsing functions, the image forming apparatus including a near field communication (NFC) module to detect a mobile terminal through NFC, a touch panel to display an interactive screen on which at least one object appears and to receive an input of a gesture with respect to the object from a user, and a control unit to interpret a gesture from the user based on a relative position relationship between the NFC module and the touch panel and to transmit the object to the mobile terminal according to a result of the interpretation of the gesture.
US09250846B2

The invention is directed to a print service providing apparatus which is disposed on a network and connected to at least one printer through a communication line so as to provide print service, the apparatus including: a storage unit that stores, in advance, conversion data which have been converted into a bitmap format; and a supply unit that acquires, in accordance with a print instruction, the conversion data stored in the storage unit and supplies the conversion data to the printer connected through the communication line.
US09250845B2

The present invention is directed to, even when dividing an image arranged between a plurality of pages constituting facing pages before bookbinding printing, preventing different results of correction processing of images on the facing pages after bookbinding printing. An editing system lays out images on facing pages, divides an image laid out on facing pages to generate division images for respective single-side pages, and inserts the division images into the respective single-side pages to generate respective document data. Then, a printing control system extracts division images from the document data, combines the division images, performs correction processing on the combined image, divides the corrected combined image, inserts the division images into the respective document data to update it, and performs print processing based on the updated document data.
US09250844B2

In a system in which communication between an information processing apparatus and a printing apparatus is possible, the information processing apparatus detects that communication with the printing apparatus has become possible and, in response to detection that such communication has become possible, generates print data based upon data that the information processing apparatus is displaying on a display unit connected to or built in the information processing apparatus, and transfers the generated print data to the printing apparatus. The printing apparatus prints the data received from the information processing apparatus.
US09250842B2

An image forming apparatus includes a data storage unit, a plurality of data processing units, and an assignment unit. The data storage unit is configured to store data of pages onto a plurality of storage devices. The plurality of data processing units are configured to perform parallel processing on the data of the pages, wherein the data for each of the pages is assigned to one of the plurality of data processing units. The assignment unit is configured to assign the data of each of the pages to be processed by one of the plurality of data processing units, wherein the assignment of the data of each of the pages to one of the plurality of data processing units is determined by a transfer rate of each of the storage devices for the data of the pages stored on the plurality of storage devices.
US09250841B2

When a print server according to the present invention receives a printing cancellation request from a load balancer, the print server acquires information of a print job as a target of the printing cancellation request and information of a printing device. Then, the print server determines whether a status of the acquired print job is a first status where printing cancellation processing is to be executed by a print server in charge of the printing device, a second status where the printing cancellation processing is to be executed by the printing device, or a third status where the printing cancellation request is to be handled as an error. Thereafter, the print server executes the printing cancellation processing according to the determination result.
US09250840B2

Provided is an image forming apparatus that allows information to be shared between applications, while lowering the security risk. With this image forming apparatus, a service acquisition portion references the class information of applications at the time of installation of them to acquire services from a server, or the like. A service registration unit associates the services acquired by the service acquisition portion with the respective applications to store them in a service registry. Upon one of the application being executed, an information sharing control portion uses the shared data to cause the information to be shared with the other services on the basis of the management information of the services associated with the applications by the service registration portion.
US09250839B1

Example systems and related methods may relate to handling a plurality of data transmissions from printing devices. Namely, a system may include a primary server and a secondary server. The primary server may include a primary processor and a primary storage device. The secondary server may include a secondary processor and a secondary storage device. The primary processor may be configured to receive and store a plurality of data transmissions from a corresponding plurality of printing devices. The data transmissions may be stored in an active database associated with the primary storage device. Metadata corresponding to the data transmissions may be generated. Some or all of the data transmissions may be archived as secondary data at a secondary server. The secondary data may be pre-processed to form a normalized database. In some embodiments, the metadata and/or the normalized data may be subject to search queries or statistical analysis.
US09250837B2

An image forming system according to an embodiment comprises a data creation section configured to create document data, and a print instruction section configured to send instructions to print the document data. The image forming section further comprises a printing mode determination section configured to determine a printing mode of the document data based on property information of the document data, and a selection section configured to select for printing the document data with one of a non-erasable image forming section and an erasable image forming section based on the determined printing mode.
US09250829B2

A processor of a distribution device included in a storage system is configured to manage an initial write position and a current write position for each of a plurality of storage apparatuses. The initial write position varies for the storage apparatuses. The processor is configured to receive a write request and give an instruction for writing data to each of the storage apparatuses in accordance with the current write position by distributing the write request to each of the storage apparatuses. The processor is configured to manage offset information indicating a write position relative to a top of a storage device corresponding to the current write position for each of the storage apparatuses. The processor is configured to receive a read request and select, based on the offset information, one of the storage apparatuses so as to send the read request to the selected storage apparatus.
US09250828B2

A memory system including parent data and clone data is disclosed, where the clone data represents a clone of the parent data. The system determines whether clone data to be accessed is different from corresponding data in the parent. The system also determines a physical location of the data to be accessed based on whether the data to be accessed is different from the corresponding parent data. The system also accesses the data based on the physical location.
US09250815B2

A method for selection of a DRAM refresh timing in a DRAM memory system is disclosed. The method may include running a workload for a first number of refresh intervals using a first DRAM refresh timing and making a first workload throughput measurement for the first number of refresh intervals. The method may also include running the workload for a second number of refresh intervals using a second DRAM refresh timing and making a second workload throughput measurement for the second number of refresh intervals. The method may further include deciding if the first throughput measurement is greater than the second throughput measurement, and then selecting the first DRAM refresh timing as a selected DRAM refresh timing, or deciding if the second throughput measurement is greater than the first throughput measurement, then selecting the second DRAM refresh timing as the selected DRAM refresh timing.
US09250812B2

Dynamic allocation of memory in a hybrid system is provided. In particularly, a method and system is provided to leverage a hybrid infrastructure for dynamic memory allocation and persistent file storage. The method includes a method comprises dynamically allocating a file or its part or to cache a file or its part between different storage technologies and respective memory technologies in a hybrid infrastructure.
US09250807B1

Embodiments of the present invention generally provide for multi-dimensional disk arrays and methods for managing same and can be used in video surveillance systems for the management of real-time video data, image data, or combinations thereof.
US09250806B2

An information processing device causes a computer to count the number of data having a predetermined relation on data included in a first data group. Further, when the counted number is N (N is a natural number) or more, the information processing device outputs a plurality of data having a predetermined relation to an output destination. Further, the information processing device counts the number of data having a predetermined relation on data included in the first data group and a second data group different from the first data group. Further, when the number of data having a predetermined relation which is counted on the data included in the first data group and the second data group is N or more, the information processing device output the data included in the second data group among a plurality of data having a predetermined relation to the output destination.
US09250798B2

An electronic device with a display, a touch-sensitive surface, one or more processors, and memory detects a first portion of a gesture, and determines that the first portion has a first gesture characteristic. The device selects a dynamic disambiguation threshold in accordance with the first gesture characteristic. The dynamic disambiguation threshold is used to determine whether to perform a first type of operation or a second type of operation when a first kind of gesture is detected. The device determines that the gesture is of the first kind of gesture. After selecting the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device determines whether the gesture meets the dynamic disambiguation threshold. When the gesture meets the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device performs the first type of operation, and when the gesture does not meet the dynamic disambiguation threshold, the device performs the second type of operation.
US09250794B2

An interactive touchscreen system comprising a conductive panel having a surface portion adapted to receive touch interactions, the conductive panel operatively coupled to a tomograph configured for determining conductivity of the conductive panel and further adapted for incrementally improving a reconstructed tomogram estimation by integrating the output of a tomographic reconstruction algorithm having as input a unreconstructed tomogram delta, the reconstructed tomogram estimation being representative of the panel conductivity properties at locations spatially correlated to a plurality of regions notionally defined over the surface portion and therefrom indicative of the touch interactions, the tomograph further processing and outputting said reconstructed tomogram estimation and an indication thereof.
US09250791B2

A display control device according to the present invention includes a detection unit for detecting contact of an operating object on a display surface of a display unit, a position calculation unit for calculating a contact position, on the display surface, of the operating object whose contact has been detected by the detection unit, an operation process determination unit for determining, from a plurality of operation processes associated with a motion of the operating object, one operation process to be performed, according to a length of a contact time of continuously contacting the display surface within a first area including a reference contact position which is a contact position of the operating object at a time of the operating object being made to contact the display surface after a state of separation from the display surface, and an operation processing unit for changing display of the display unit by the operation process that is performed, based on a motion of the operating object that is further continuously in contact with the display surface.
US09250788B2

Techniques for manipulating graphic objects in response to gestures provided with a user interface device are disclosed. The technique includes indicating when a gesture associated with the graphics objects is to use a determined action. Others gestures are locked out from using the determined action with other graphic objects. Graphic objects are manipulated on the display based on the indication that the gesture associated with one of the graphics objects is to use the determined action.
US09250787B2

A playback control method of a multimedia device is provided for setting playback position and repetitive playback section of a multimedia file playing on the multimedia device intuitively with multi-touch behaviors on a touchscreen. The method includes sensing a multi-touch event on the touchscreen, extracting two contact points of the multi-touch event, determining coordinates of the contact points, calculating a distance between the coordinates, monitoring a variation of the distance, moving a playback position of a current playing multimedia file according to the variation of the distance, and restarting playback of the current playing multimedia file from the playback position when the contact points are released from the touchscreen.
US09250786B2

Example systems and methods of performing a snapping operation in a graphical user interface are presented. In one example, a first user input indicating an initiation of a dragging operation in the graphical user interface is received, wherein the first user input indicates a first location. A source feature corresponding to a source object is determined based on the first location. Also received is a second user input during the dragging operation in the graphical user interface, in which the second user input indicates a current location. A current target feature corresponding to a current target object is determined based on the current location. The source feature corresponding to the source object is snapped to the current target feature corresponding to the current target object.
US09250780B2

An information processing method and an electronic device are disclosed. The method includes: acquiring a triggering instruction for starting a first application program of the M application programs; executing the triggering instruction, and obtaining a first parameter; generating a first window interface of the first application program based on the first parameter; and displaying the first window interface, where a display area of the first window interface is less than a full-screen display area of the first application program on the display region.
US09250777B2

Aspects of the present invention may be found in a system and method to effectively schedule and configure video and audio conferences. In one embodiment, the system comprises a server and one or more audio/video conferencing devices interconnected through a public or private data network. In one embodiment, a graphical user interface (GUI) provides for an intuitive means to graphically view and configure one or more conferences, participants, and conference call configuration settings.
US09250776B2

A system, method and computer program product for controlling information to be displayed on a display device may be provided. The system may display on a first display view, electronic data which includes interactable data. The system may detect that the interactable data is selected by a user. The system may identify redundant data between the electronic data and content to be rendered responsive to selecting the interactable data. The system may hide the identified redundant data from the content to be rendered or the original content of the electronic data. The system may display, on a second display view, the content without the identified redundant data.
US09250772B2

A method for monitoring an industrial process with a graphical user interface of an operator panel. The graphical user interface is adapted to change between a default mode in which it presents a plurality of objects related to the industrial process, and a user-adapted mode in which a subset of the plurality of objects is presented. The subset of objects is selected based on a parameter value which is associated with each object of the plurality of objects. The graphical user interface enters the user-adapted mode by the method determining whether a time of inactivity of the operator panel exceeds a threshold value, and, provided that the threshold value has been exceeded, removing those objects of the plurality of objects on the graphical user interface which are not included in the subset of objects.
US09250771B1

A computer network for asynchronously ingesting media content into a content management system (CMS) is disclosed. The network includes a client computer located in a first geographical location, a server computer located in a second geographical location and a liaison computer located in a third geographical location. The client computer communicates with the server computer by way of a substandard network connection that is subject to frequent interruptions and/or low bandwidth. The liaison computer communicates with the server computer by way of a reliable network. The client computer includes a user interface wizard component that edits and bundles media content and prompts a user to select between uploading content to the server computer by way of the substandard network (e.g. piecemeal between interruptions) or storing the content in a local mobile storage device for uploading from the liaison computer.
US09250770B2

A portable terminal having display buttons for displaying images corresponding to specific functions through keys pressed by a user, and a method of inputting functions of the portable terminal using the display buttons. The portable terminal includes: a controller which receives signals corresponding to a user key pressed from the plurality of input buttons and outputs image data to be displayed on each of the plurality of input buttons using the received signals; and a plurality of buttons for inputting a key from a user and outputting a signal corresponding to the key pressed, and for receiving the image data from the controller and displaying the received image data. Accordingly, by using the display buttons for displaying variable images corresponding to specific functions as well as an essential function of inputting keys from a user when a specific function is input in the portable terminal such as a cell phone, a plurality of functions can be input with only a limited number of buttons, providing speed and convenience to the user for function input.
US09250768B2

A tablet may include a display to display information and to receive information, and a controller to control the display to display a user interface on the left of a display area of the display in a right-hand user mode in which the information is input using a right hand and to control the display to display the user interface on the right of the display area in a left-hand user mode in which the information is input using a left hand.
US09250763B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide an intuitive method for the specification of a design as follows. A widget is added to the design at the direction of a user. The widget has an event and an event handler. A second widget is added to the design. The design is exported from a design program and an instantiation of the design is created that is capable of being rendered by an external player. Executing the event handler adds a second event handler to a second widget in the instantiation of the design.
US09250762B2

An apparatus includes a computerized appliance having a processor, persistent storage storing one or more executable programs, and Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) accessible by the processor, and caching software (SW) executing on the processor from a non-transitory medium, the SW providing a process: storing Logical Block Address (LBA) tables associated with individual ones of existing programs executable on the processor, tracking program launch and close, managing caching of data for any program launched according to the associated LBA, tracking data usage during execution of any program launched, on closing a program, removing any unused LBAs from the associated LBA table, adding any LBAs accessed not on the table; and saving the resulting LBA table for the program closed.
US09250757B2

The present invention relates to a capacitive-measurement device for touch-sensitive and/or contactless interfaces, including at least one capacitive-measurement electrode and electrode-switching unit capable of electrically connecting the at least one electrode, either to a capacitive-measurement unit or to a guard potential, the at least one capacitive-measurement electrode and the electrode-switching unit being provided on a single detection surface according to a technique for manufacturing planar electronic components. The invention also relates to an apparatus implementing the device.
US09250746B2

According to various embodiments, a position capture input system uses a camera to capture an image of a displayed graphical user interface that may be partially obstructed by an object, such as a user's hand or other body part. The position capture input system also includes a software component that causes a computing device to compare the captured image with a displayed image to determine which portion, if any, of the graphical user interface is obstructed. The computing device can then identify any user interface elements with which the user is attempting to interact. The position capture input system may also include an accelerometer or accelerometers for detecting gestures performed by the user to, for example, select or otherwise interact with a user interface element. The position capture input system may also include a haptic feedback module to provide confirmation, for example, that a user interface element has been selected.
US09250729B2

A method for manipulating graphical user interface elements includes displaying a plurality of elements on a touch screen of an electronic device. Based on a first touch screen contact detected on a first side of the electronic device and a slide contact detected on a second side of the electronic device, a first touch screen element is selected and the non-selected touch screen element(s) are manipulated relative to the first element. The slide contact can be interpreted by the electronic device as a drag, push, or rotate relative to the first element. Various features of the slide movement, such as the speed, the length, the pressure, the direction, and/or the pattern may affect the manipulation of the non-selected elements.
US09250724B2

Provided is an information management system, esigned not to sense a hand holding a writing tool at the time of writing on a sheet. The information management system is provided with a personal computer which has a display, and an electronic underlay which is laid under a sheet to perform writing. The electronic underlay is provided with: a sheet-like optical waveguide formed by sandwiching lattice-like cores between a sheet-like under cladding layer and a sheet-like over cladding layer; a light emitting element connected to one end surface of the cores; and a light receiving element connected to another end surface of the core. An elasticity modulus of the core is larger than an elasticity modulus of the under cladding layer and of the over cladding layer.
US09250718B2

A “self-addressing” writing surface, such as paper, includes an encoded identifier that is uniquely associated with the recipient or a group of recipients. A pen-based computing system is used to capture writing made on the writing surface. The captured writing and the recipient identifier are sent electronically to a routing system, which identifies the recipient to which the content is to be routed based on the recipient identifier. The routing system forwards the message to the identified recipient, thereby enabling communication from the writer to the recipient associated with the writing surface.
US09250717B2

A computer input device (e.g. a mouse) with a finger-triggered sensor is described. The sensor generates input signals in addition to the conventional mouse signals generated by click buttons, tracking device and scrolling wheel. The sensor may be an optical sensor, a touch-sensitive sensor or other types of sensors. The signals generated by the sensor, either alone or in combination with other signals generated by the buttons, tracking device or scrolling wheel, may be interpreted to generate various messages for the operating system and/or application programs. The interpretation may be performed by a circuit on the input device, by a driver program on the host computer, or both. The sensor may be provided on a mouse, a laptop keyboard that has a pointing device, an external keyboard equipped with a pointing device, or on a stand-alone device that can be electrically connected to a computer through its available ports.
US09250712B1

A barcode scanning application is provided for a smartphone. The barcode scanning application includes a custom software input panel, which includes a barcode scanning key and a keyboard wedge capable of translating barcode data into keyboard strokes. The barcode scanning application, once initialized, is configured to cause the custom software input panel to be removed from the first portion of the visual display and to open a barcode viewfinder on the portion of the visual display previously occupied by the custom software input panel. The barcode scanning application is configured to scan a barcode in the viewfinder, close the viewfinder, decode the scanned barcode, and send the barcode information to the keyboard wedge. The keyboard wedge is configured to translate the decoded barcode information into keyboard strokes and send the keyboard strokes for displayed within a different application running and displayed continuously on the second portion of the visual display.
US09250698B2

An image processing apparatus includes a usage state determination portion determining a usage state of a camera portion; and an object detection portion detecting an object from an image captured by the camera portion using a plurality of methods, in which the object detection portion detects the object from the captured image by prioritizing the plurality of methods based on the usage state.
US09250697B2

A method and an apparatus for a parallel computing program calling APIs (application programming interfaces) in a host processor to perform a data processing task in parallel among compute units are described. The compute units are coupled to the host processor including central processing units (CPUs) and graphic processing units (GPUs). A program object corresponding to a source code for the data processing task is generated in a memory coupled to the host processor according to the API calls. Executable codes for the compute units are generated from the program object according to the API calls to be loaded for concurrent execution among the compute units to perform the data processing task.
US09250678B2

An information processing apparatus includes a nonvolatile memory, a volatile memory, and a process control section. A startup program to be required when starting up the information processing apparatus has previously been stored in the nonvolatile memory. When a command to start up the apparatus is received, it is determined whether or not the startup program is present in the volatile memory. When the startup program is absent, the startup program is loaded from the nonvolatile memory into the volatile memory. Thereafter, when a command to turn off the power of the information processing apparatus is received, supply of power to other components of the information processing apparatus than the volatile memory is stopped while maintaining supply of power to the volatile memory, thereby to shutdown the power of the information processing apparatus.
US09250673B2

Presented herein are techniques for storing parameter values determined by a power sourcing equipment (PSE) device during a Power over Ethernet (PoE) detection process. More specifically, in one example, a voltage is applied to an end device connected, via an Ethernet cable, to a port of the PSE device. The PSE device measures the current drawn by the end device and calculates, based on the measured current, a resistance and/or a capacitance value for the end device. The resistance and/or capacitance values are then stored in a memory of the PSE device.
US09250667B2

A method is provided that monitors the odor within the physical enclosure of a computing device that includes one or more components. The method includes determining whether the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device. Determining whether the odor within the physical enclosure may include an artificial neural network (“ANN”) to determine whether the odor is indicative of an overheating component. The method includes initiating an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component. The method may, for example, alert the user and/or applications that a component is overheating.
US09250666B2

A system with scalable data collection for system management comprises a plurality of local data collectors and a system collector. Each of the local data collectors is coupled with a corresponding subsystem of the system. Each of the local data collectors is configured to periodically collect power management related data from the corresponding subsystem, and to format the collected power management related data for conveyance along any one of a plurality of channels between the local data collector and the system collector. The system collector is coupled with the plurality of local data collectors via the plurality of channels. The system collector selects from the channels between the system collector and each of the local data collectors based, at least in part, on channel states, and retrieves the power management related data collected by each of the local data collectors along a selected channel for the local data collector.
US09250664B2

An IHS includes an IHS chassis. A processor is located in the IHS chassis. At least one fan is located in the IHS chassis and in fluid communication with the processor. A temperature sensor is located in the IHS chassis. A fan controller is coupled to the processor, the at least one fan, the temperature sensor, and a storage device that includes a plurality of processor target temperatures that are each associated with a different ambient temperature. The fan controller is operable to receive a first ambient temperature from the temperature sensor, determine a first processor target temperature that is associated with the first ambient temperature, receive a temperature of the processor, and operate the at least one fan in order to reduce the temperature of the processor to the first processor target temperature.
US09250653B2

Techniques for presenting content provided by a mobile device on a second communication device are presented. A content enhancer component (CEC) connects via a wired or wireless communication connection to the second communication device to communicate content to the second communication device, which has a larger display than or superior audio to the mobile device. The CEC captures content and interaction between the user and mobile device in a capture region of the CEC. The CEC reconstructs the content and the user-related interaction for presentation on the second communication device. The second communication device can have a 2-D or 3-D display. If a 3-D display, the CEC can convert captured video content into a 3-D format to provide 3-D perception when content is displayed on the second communication device. The captured audio signal can be processed to provide an enhanced stereo or 3-D sound effect.
US09250650B2

A computer *display is pivotally connected to at least one *display arm, which in turn is pivotally connected to a base. When the *display arm(s) points upward from the base, the *display may hang in a vertical position. When the *display arm is lowered a torque is exerted on the *display to tilt the *display away from the base. When the *display reaches a *horizontal position an open space will exist under the *display that can be used to place items such as a mouse, keyboard, notepad, pens or other low profile devices. One or more feet are attached to the *display such that that when the *display is in the horizontal position the foot or feet contact a stable surface such as a desk, table or other suitably stable object, and further provides for such open space.
US09250646B2

Methods and systems may provide for a sink module that receives packets from a source module, wherein each of the packets has a source timestamp corresponding to a source module packet arrival time. A reference timestamp may be associated with the source timestamp of the most recent packet having a program clock reference. A sink counter may be synchronized to a broadcaster transmit counter based on a current source timestamp and the reference timestamp. The sink counter and the source counter may be driven by asynchronous clocks, wherein the current source timestamp may be inferred based on a current value of the source counter. The packets may include video data and/or audio data. The sink counter may be synchronized by adjusting the frequency of a source clock and/or adjusting the sink counter.
US09250644B2

A power conversion system in an electronic device is utilized for converting an input voltage of a power source terminal to a required voltage of a load circuit to provide power to the load circuit. The power conversion system includes a first voltage conversion circuit for converting the input voltage to the required voltage of the load circuit according to a first control signal; and a power control module for generating the first control signal according to a starting signal or a load voltage of the load circuit; wherein the load circuit receives the voltage outputted from the first voltage conversion circuit to perform operations.
US09250643B2

Embodiments of circuitry, which includes power supply switching circuitry, a first inductive element, and a second inductive element, are disclosed. The power supply switching circuitry provides a first switching output signal to the first inductive element and a second switching output signal to the second inductive element. The first inductive element has a first inductor current and the second inductive element has a second inductor current. The second switching output signal is delayed from the first switching output signal by a switching signal delay. The first inductor current and the second inductor current combine to provide a combined inductor current, which has a frequency response with a group of notches, such that frequency locations of the group of notches are based on the switching signal delay.
US09250642B2

A constant current generating circuit and constant current generating method applied to a chip are provided, where the chip includes a first current generating circuit and a second current generating circuit, the second current generating circuit includes a transistor and an adjustable resistor. The constant current generating method includes: connecting an external resistor to the first current generating circuit to make the first current generating circuit use the external resistor to generate a first current; utilizing the second current generating circuit to generate a second current; adjusting the adjustable resistor in accordance with the first current and the second current to make the second current substantially equal to the first current, where the second current serves as a constant current of the chip.
US09250640B1

A controller for a DC-to-DC converter includes a control signal generator and an oscillation prevention subsystem. The control signal generator is adapted to control one or more switching circuits of the DC-to-DC converter such that the DC-to-DC converter transfers power from an input power source to a load. The oscillation prevention subsystem is adapted to shift a switching frequency of the DC-to-DC converter away from a frequency of an alternating current component of a load current flowing between the DC-to-DC converter and the load.
US09250638B1

A control circuit for controlling a switching regulator that converts an input voltage to a regulated output voltage. The control circuit has an input-output comparator configured for comparing a difference between the input voltage and the output voltage, and producing a first sleep signal for placing the regulator into a sleep mode, when the regulator operates in a dropout mode, and the difference between the input voltage and the output voltage becomes less than a first predetermined value.
US09250636B2

Cooling control methods include measuring a temperature of air provided to a plurality of nodes by an air-to-liquid heat exchanger, measuring a temperature of at least one component of the plurality of nodes and finding a maximum component temperature across all such nodes, comparing the maximum component temperature to a first and second component threshold and comparing the air temperature to a first and second air threshold, and controlling a proportion of coolant flow and a coolant flow rate to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes based on the comparisons.
US09250633B2

An air conditioning control device and a method thereof are provided, and the air conditioning control method includes the following steps. A plurality of predetermined state information and a current state information are generated according to environment states of a physical space, and a target state information is selected form the plurality of predetermined state information according to a minimum energy consumption. Moreover, the current state information and the target state information are utilized to generate a current effective temperature value and a target effective temperature value, and a set temperature value and a return-air temperature value are extracted from an air conditioning controller. The current effective temperature value, the target effective temperature value, the set temperature value and the return-air temperature value are utilized to execute fuzzy inference to generate a temperature fine-tuning value. The temperature fine-tuning value is utilized to adjust the set temperature value.
US09250630B2

A modular vehicle management system is described, comprising a controller module configured to control different types of carrier modules. The controller module includes a computer system and optionally one or more sensors. The computer system is configured to perform operations comprising detecting whether a carrier module is connected to the controller module. If the carrier module is connected to the controller module, the carrier module is authenticated. If the authentication fails, operation of the vehicle is inhibited. The control module is configured to determine carrier module capabilities including information regarding a navigation processing device, and/or a radio modem. The controller adapts to the capabilities of the controller module. Using information from the sensors and the navigation processing device, the vehicle management system navigates the vehicle.
US09250623B2

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for semiconductor fabrication. In one embodiment, a method of semiconductor fabrication includes performing a process on substrates with an equipment unit to form processed substrates, communicating processing data from the equipment unit to a local scheduler and a universal scheduler, determining a priority of the processed substrates, and scheduling removal of processed substrates from the equipment unit and delivery of unprocessed substrates to the equipment unit by the local scheduler based on the processing data and the priority of the processed substrates.
US09250615B2

A method for parametering a field device of process automation technology, wherein the field device has a certain number of device parameters, and wherein the method comprises the steps of providing a plurality of parametering modules, wherein at least one of the parametering modules specifies values for parameters of a first portion of the device parameters for parametering the field device; registering with an auxiliary module data, which relate to the application, in which the field device is to be applied; and selecting by means of the auxiliary module one of the parametering modules for parametering of the field device.
US09250612B2

An embodiment is a device including a control circuit, a time-to-digital converter circuit coupled having a first output coupled to a first input of the control circuit, and a gating circuit having a first input coupled to a first signal, a second input coupled to a second signal, and an output coupled to a first input of the time-to-digital converter circuit, an output of the control circuit coupled to a second input of the time-to-digital converter circuit and to a third input of the gating circuit.
US09250604B2

An image forming apparatus (1) includes, as working sections, a paper output tray (16), a paper feeding cassette (13), and attachment sections to which toner cartridges (71) through (74), a waste toner container (69), and a unit assembly (11) are attached. Out of the working sections, a high-frequency working section with a high working frequency is provided on a front surface of the image forming apparatus, and a low-frequency working section with a low working frequency is provided on a side surface of the image forming apparatus.
US09250597B2

A foreign matter removing apparatus includes: a removing plate disposed above a recording medium carriage path, a first sensor and a second sensor which interpose the removing plate therebetween at equal distances in a carriage direction of the recording medium and are disposed on both sides of the recording medium carriage direction, a first plate and a second plate which come in contact with each other at a position below the removing plate, and are disposed at positions opposed to the first sensor and the second sensor while interposing the recording medium carriage path therebetween so as to be opened and closed in a direction perpendicular to the recording medium carriage direction, a first driving roller disposed between the first sensor and the removing plate, and a second driving roller disposed between the second sensor and the removing plate.
US09250596B2

An image forming apparatus includes a vibration adjustment unit which adjusts a natural frequency of an optical system, a measuring unit which measures vibrational information indicating change in vibration, and a controller which individually drives each unit. The measuring unit measures the vibrational information after the natural frequency is adjusted to a drive frequency of each unit at an initial state. The controller stores this vibrational information as initial vibrational information. The measuring unit measures the vibrational information after the natural frequency is adjusted to a drive frequency of a unit to be checked. The controller compares this vibrational information with the initial vibrational information measured after adjustment of the natural frequency to the drive frequency of the unit to be checked. The controller determines abnormality in the unit to be checked according to the comparison.
US09250594B2

A system and method are provided for implementing an asynchronous buffering module and/or scheme employing an integrated registration function, particularly for in-line printing in an image forming system. Multiple simplex marking engines are arranged in series and provided with a mechanism that includes an asynchronous buffering module with the capacity to modify the timing of individual sheets of image receiving media passing between the in-line marking engines. The buffering module is augmented with an integrated registration function for the in-line duplex printing. The combined mechanism provides a capacity between the multiple marking engines to effect timing synchronization and re-registration for the sheets exiting the first serial marking engine allowing them to be properly timed and registered for feeding to the second serial marking engine. An asynchronous nature of the combination of media marking engines is synchronized in the feed of the sheets between the media marking engines.
US09250582B2

A fixing apparatus configured to heat a recording material having a toner image formed thereon and fix the toner image fixing on the recording material comprising: a film; a heater configured to contact the film, the heater including a substrate and a heat generation resistor formed on the substrate; a thermal conduction member configured to contact a surface of the heater opposite to a surface of the heater that contacts the film, the thermal conduction member having a thermal conductivity higher than that of the substrate; and a pressurizing roller configured to form a pressing portion with the heater via the film, wherein the thermal conduction member contacts the heater so as not to overlap with an end region of the heat generation resistor in a longitudinal direction of the heat generation member.
US09250573B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a developer carrying member (sleeve) including a magnet and grooves; and an image bearing member (drum). The electrostatic image on the drum is developed with a developer. When a linear speed of the sleeve is Vs, a linear speed of the drum is Vd, a peripheral speed ratio of the sleeve to the drum is α=Vs/Vd, a radius of the sleeve is Rs, a radius of the drum is Rd, a distance of a rectilinear line connecting a most upstream point and a most downstream point in the developing region with respect to the circumferential direction is Lnip, a pitch of the grooves of the sleeve is p, and an arbitrary natural number is n, the following relationship is satisfied: (1−0.05)×np≦2[α×Rd×arcsin(Lnip/2Rd)−Rs×arcsin(Lnip/2Rs)]≦(1+0.05)×np.
US09250572B2

A sealing device includes a base member configured to attach to an ink developer unit, a sealing member having a sealing surface configured to at least one of limit an unwanted flow of ink outside of the ink developer unit and conform to an outer surface of a respective roller, and a compliant member disposed between the base member and the sealing member such that the compliant member is configured to vary a sealing force along the sealing surface of the sealing member.
US09250570B2

A developing device includes: a developer carrying member; first and second feeding paths; a first screw member; a second screw member; and a discharge portion. When a ratio of a developer feeding speed in a first region to a developer feeding speed in the second region is α, a screw blade pitch of the first screw member in the second region is p1, a screw blade pitch of the first screw member in the third region is p1′, a rotational speed of the first screw member is ω1, a maximum of a cross-sectional area of a flow path lower than a lower end of the discharge opening in an axially vertical cross section including the discharge opening of the first feeding path is R″, and an opening area of an opening is S′, the following relationship is satisfied: R″αp1/p1′≦S′≦R″p1/p1′.
US09250559B2

Provided is a printing apparatus including: a photosensitive drum; a substrate including multiple formable regions in each of which corresponding one of multiple light emitting elements is formable; and a lens array, in which the substrate is arranged in a manner that a longitudinal direction of the substrate is parallel to a rotary shaft of the photosensitive drum, in which the substrate includes m formable region rows, where m is an integer number equal to or greater than 2, each of the m formable region rows including n formable regions, where n is an integer number equal to or greater than 1, arranged in a line along the longitudinal direction of the substrate, and in which one of the multiple light emitting elements formed in any one of m formable regions that are located in a predetermined column of the m formable region rows is turned on.
US09250555B1

Provided is a charging roll, including a core body, and an elastic layer that is disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the core body, wherein, with respect to an approximation curve that extends an outer curve of the axial direction of the core body of an outer circumferential surface in a region other than both end portions of the outermost layer up to both end portions of the outermost layer, a maximum increase amount of the outer curve in both end portions of the outermost layer is equal to or less than 60 μm, and wherein a coefficient of friction of the outer circumferential surface at a position showing the maximum increase amount of the outer curve in both end portions of the outermost layer is equal to or less than 0.3, and a variation amount of the coefficient of friction is equal to or less than 30%.
US09250538B2

A method and apparatus for an efficient optical proximity correction (OPC) repair flow is disclosed. Embodiments may include receiving an input data stream of an integrated circuit (IC) design layout, performing one or more iterations of an OPC step and a layout polishing step on the input data stream, and performing a smart enhancement step if an output of a last iteration of the OPC step fails to satisfy one or more layout criteria and if a number of the one or more iterations satisfies a threshold value. Additional embodiments may include performing a pattern insertion process cross-linked with the OPC step, the pattern insertion process being a base optical rule check (ORC) process.
US09250537B2

An exposure apparatus which prevents the damage due to the liquid having flowed out from spreading and enables satisfactory performances of the exposure processes and the measurement processes is provided. An exposure apparatus (EX) includes a movable table (PT), a base member (41) having an upper surface (41A) that guides the movement of the table (PT), and a detecting device (60) that detects whether there is a liquid on the upper surface (41A) of the base member (41).
US09250532B2

There is provided a pattern forming method comprising: (i) a step of forming a first film on a substrate by using a first resin composition (I), (ii) a step of forming a second film on the first film by using a second resin composition (II) different from the resin composition (I), (iii) a step of exposing a multi-layered film having the first film and the second film, and (iv) a step of developing the first film and the second film in the exposed multi-layered film by using an organic solvent-containing developer to form a negative pattern.
US09250531B2

A method of forming a resist pattern including: forming a resist film on a substrate using a resist composition containing a base component (A) which exhibits decreased solubility in an organic solvent by action of an acid; exposing the resist film; and patterning by a negative-tone development using a developing solution containing the organic solvent, wherein the base component (A) contains a resin component (A1) having a structural unit (a0) which generates acid upon exposure and a structural unit (a1) derived from an acrylate ester which may have the hydrogen atom bonded to the carbon atom on the α-position substituted with a substituent and contains an acid decomposable group which exhibits increased polarity by the action of acid, and the developing solution contains a nitrile solvent.
US09250526B2

A composition for forming a resist underlayer film includes a polysiloxane, and an organic solvent composition. The organic solvent composition includes an alkylene glycol monoalkyl ether acetate having a standard boiling point of less than 150.0° C., and an organic solvent having a standard boiling point of no less than 150.0° C. In the organic solvent composition, a content of the alkylene glycol monoalkyl ether acetate is no less than 50% by mass and no greater than 99% by mass, and a content of the organic solvent is no less than 1% by mass and no greater than 50% by mass.
US09250523B2

A polymer capable of increasing alkali solubility under the action of acid, as a base resin is blended with a copolymer comprising recurring units derived from acenaphthylene, indene, benzofuran or benzothiophene and fluorine-containing recurring units, as a polymeric additive to formulate a resist composition. The photoresist film formed using the resist composition is effective for minimizing outgassing therefrom during the EUV lithography. The resist film has a hydrophilic surface and is effective for suppressing formation of blob defects after development.
US09250498B2

An apparatus and a method for performing an Auto Focus (AF) function in an electronic device which does not perform the AF function while performing a camcorder function are provided. The apparatus includes a camera for receiving a photographing data, a camera processing unit for performing any one of a still picture acquisition function and an AF function, a recording processing unit for performing a function for recording the photographing data, a camera driver for operating the camera under control of the camera processing unit and the recording processing unit, and a processor for controlling the camera processing unit and the recording processing unit when detecting an AF request while photographing a moving picture to focus on the photographing data automatically and to record the focused photographing data.
US09250493B2

An electronic device includes a camera module and a shielding assembly. The shielding assembly includes at least one window glass and a smart film mounted to the window glass. The shielding assembly covers the camera module by turning opaque. If the camera module is in use, the shielding assembly is provided with electricity, and changes transparent. If the shielding assembly is not being provided with electricity, the shielding module becomes opaque to blind the camera module. A shielding assembly is also provided.
US09250491B2

In a liquid crystal display device, a common electrode is formed on an organic passivation film, an interlayer insulating film is formed on the common electrode, a pixel electrode with a slit is formed on the interlayer insulating film, and a through hole is formed in the organic passivation film and the interlayer insulating film, so that the pixel electrode is connected to a source electrode of a TFT through the through hole. Further, the taper angle around the upper base of the through hole is smaller than the taper angle around the lower base. Thus, the alignment film material can easily flow into the through hole when the diameter of the through hole is reduced to connect the pixel and source electrodes, preventing display defects such as uneven brightness due to the absence of the alignment film or due to the alignment film irregularity around the through hole.
US09250482B2

A liquid crystal display device, includes a first substrate including a first insulating substrate, a first thin film positioned on the first insulating substrate, and a first alignment layer positioned on the first thin film and including a first exposing area that exposes the first thin film, a second substrate facing the first substrate and including a second insulating substrate, a spacer positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate and including at least a part that corresponds to the first exposing area, and a liquid crystal layer positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate.
US09250479B2

A liquid crystal display device includes: a TFT substrate having gate lines and data lines arranged thereon, the gate lines extending in a first direction and arranged in a second direction, the data lines extending in the second direction and arranged in the first direction; a counter substrate having a black matrix and a color filter; and liquid crystals put between the TFT substrate and the counter substrate. Columnar spacers are formed on the counter substrate. Pedestals are formed on portions of the TFT substrate, the portions corresponding to the columnar spacers. A convex portion and a concave portion are present at the top end of the columnar spacer. The pedestal is formed corresponding to the concave portion. The concave portion is opened at the ends thereof and connected to the lateral side of the columnar spacer.
US09250476B2

Provided are a liquid crystal display device that suppresses occurrence of drop marks during production without degrading various properties, such as dielectric anisotropy, viscosity, nematic phase upper limit temperature, rotational viscosity (γ1), and ghosting property, and a method for producing the liquid crystal display device.A liquid crystal display device 10 of the present invention includes a liquid crystal composition layer 13 sandwiched between a first substrate 11 and a second substrate 12 and vertical alignment films 16 and 17 formed of a cured product of a polymerizable liquid crystal compound. The liquid crystal composition constituting the liquid crystal composition layer 13 contains compounds represented by general formulae (I) and (II).
US09250464B2

A touch panel utilizing carbon nanotubes (CNT) includes a base a first CNT film, a second CNT film, and a flexible printed circuit (FPC). The base defines a first touch sensing region, a second touch sensing region, and a gap region. The first CNT film and the second CNT film are respectively positioned on the first touch sensing region and the second touch sensing unit. The FPC is mounted on the base. A plurality of first connection wires are formed on the base, and each first connection wire includes a first electrode, a first wire body and a second electrode. The first electrode is located at the gap region and is connected to both the first CNT film and the second CNT film. The second electrode is attached to the FPC, and the first wire body is connected between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US09250462B2

An image display device comprising an image display panel, a frame system including a framework operatively engaging the image display panel and a plurality of electronic components operatively engaging the framework, heat dispersion material operatively engaging the framework and in operative thermal contact with the electronic components, where the frame system exhibits a support factor of less than about 150 mm-W/m° K.
US09250455B2

The optical modulator includes optical modulation units. The plurality of optical modulation units is disposed in parallel on the same substrate. One input waveguide branches off to be connected to the Mach-Zehnder type optical waveguide of each optical modulation unit, and an entire optical waveguide is formed such that outputs from the Mach-Zehnder type optical waveguides are combined and output through one output waveguide. A modulation signal with the same intensity is applied to a modulation electrode of each optical modulation unit. In at least some of the optical modulation units, mechanical structures including the modulation electrodes of the optical modulation units are configured such that an amplitude value of an optical output modulated by the modulation signal of the optical modulation unit is ½n (n is a natural number) of a maximum amplitude value in other optical modulation units.
US09250453B2

An integrated optical linewidth reduction system includes a phase modulator adapted to modulate the phase of an incoming optical signal in response to a feedback control signal defined by a first electrical signal. The phase modulator is further adapted to generate a first optical signal travelling through a first optical path. The first electrical signal is representative of a phase noise of the first optical signal. An optical linewidth of the first optical signal is less than an optical linewidth of the incoming optical signal.
US09250449B2

A three-dimensional stereo display, and a system and method are provided for controlling the three-dimensional stereo display. The three-dimensional stereo display includes backlight, a first polarizer, a first liquid crystal panel, a second polarizer and a second liquid crystal panel which are sequentially arranged on the backlight source. The second liquid crystal panel switches the polarizing angle of the light travelling through and exiting from said second liquid crystal panel between a horizontal and vertical polarization. Due to the polarization direction of light could be changed by the liquid crystal panel, and makes the light for the left-eye image and the right-eye image are mutual perpendicular. The polarization direction of the light for the left-eye image is the same as that of the left lens, and the polarization direction of the light for the right-eye image is the same as that of the right lens. So the light belongs to the left-eye image or the right-eye image can pass through the left lens or the right lens respectively, then a stereo image will emerge in people's brain due to the effect of “fusion activity”. Further, there is no need to close the polarized spectacles, the displaying efficiency is improved compared with the “Active Stereo”.
US09250442B2

A method of controlling a head mounted display (HMD) device according to one embodiment of the present specification includes the steps of detecting whether the head mounted display device is in a wearing mode or a non-wearing mode, if the head mounted display device is in the wearing mode, displaying the digital information with a first user interface format, and if the head mounted display device is in the non-wearing mode, displaying the digital information with a second user interface format, wherein the digital information displayed with the second user interface format corresponds to the digital information displayed in a manner of expanding the digital information displayed with the first user interface format.
US09250440B2

An optical scanning device includes a plurality of light sources configured to emit a plurality of light beams, respectively; an optical deflector having a deflection-reflection surface that deflects and reflects the light beams, each of the light beams being incident on the deflection-reflection surface at an oblique incident angle, the oblique incident angles of the light beams being different from one another; and a flat glass arranged to be tilted at a tilt angle with respect to the deflection-reflection surface in a sub-scanning direction, the light beams being incident on the deflection-reflection surface via the flat glass, the tilt angle being smaller than a largest one of the oblique incident angles of the light beams. The light beams deflected and reflected by the deflection-reflection surface are incident on a plurality of scanned surfaces via the flat glass, respectively.
US09250429B2

An optical device includes: a focusing optic that focuses a light beam in a focal plane; at least two phase filters for selectively focusing the light beam and effecting a phase shift of the light beam; and a filter wheel supporting the at least two phase filters which are individually introducible along an optical axis of the light beam, where the filter wheel is rotationally adjusted in relation to the optical axis by a stepper motor and linearly adjusted in an r-direction along a plane of the filter wheel by a linear adjustment mechanism.
US09250421B2

A zoom lens includes, sequentially from an object side, a positive first lens group, a negative second lens group, a positive third lens group, and a positive rear lens group. During zooming from a wide angle position to a telephoto position, an interval between the first lens group and the second lens group increases, and an interval between the second lens group and the third lens group decreases. The rear lens group includes a positive first sub-group, a negative second sub-group, and a positive third sub-group, and focusing is performed by moving the second sub-group toward an image surface side. The zoom lens satisfies the following conditions: 0.2
US09250419B2

An imaging lens includes: a movable lens group with total positive refractive power, including first and second sub lens groups; and an ever-fixed lens group that is ever-fixed. The imaging lens has first and second focusing modes for focusing operation in first and second focus ranges, respectively. The first focus range covers from an object at an infinite distance to an object at a first finite distance, and the second focus range covers from an object at a second finite distance shorter than the infinite distance to an object at a third finite distance shorter than the first finite distance. The first sub lens group is configured to be fixed and the second sub lens group is configured to travel, during each of the first and second focusing modes. Traveling of the movable lens group toward object plane allows switching from the first to second focusing modes.
US09250417B2

The disclosure relates to optical arrangements in a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus. In accordance with one aspect, an optical arrangement has at least one mirror segment arrangement including a plurality of separate mirror segments. The mirror segments are connected to a carrying structure of the projection exposure apparatus via mounting elements. At least one of the mounting elements, which is assigned to a first one of the mirror segments, extends, on the opposite side to the optically active surface of the mirror segment arrangement, at least partly into the region of a second mirror segment of the mirror segment arrangement. The second mirror segment is adjacent to the first mirror segment.
US09250413B2

A voice coil motor (VCM) includes a fixing portion, a moving portion, a magnet assembly, a coil, and an elastic sheet. The fixing portion includes an upper plate and a sidewall extending from edges of the upper plate. The moving portion is received in the fixing portion, and includes a top surface and an outer surface connected to the top surface. The moving portion defines a plurality of glue receiving recesses in the top surface and a plurality of second connecting portions each extending from a bottom surface of each glue receiving recess. The magnet assembly is fixed on the inner surface. The coil is circled around the outer surface of the moving portion, and is opposite to the magnet assembly. The elastic sheet is connected between the first connecting portions and the second connecting portions.
US09250408B2

A telecommunications cabinet includes a cabinet housing; a fiber optic splitter; a plurality of spools disposed on a cable management surface; a panel oriented at a fixed angle relative to the access opening so that the panel extends laterally and rearwardly between the access opening and the cable management surface; and a plurality of adapters disposed on the panel.
US09250398B2

An optical fiber connector includes a ferrule, a fastening tube, and a cover plate. The ferrule includes a through hole and a breach. Front and rear parts of the through hole respectively include a pre-embedded optical fiber and a field optical fiber. A joint of the two optical fibers is located at the breach. A part of the through hole is exposed in the breach. The fastening tube includes a ferrule accommodating portion accommodating a part of the ferrule on which the breach is disposed, and an opening disposed thereon. The opening connects the ferrule accommodating portion, and is positionally corresponding to the breach. The cover plate passes through the opening, is disposed in the breach, and presses the joint. The ferrule is easily machined and can adopt a material hardly influenced by environment temperature. The joint is fixed, and an amount of joint loss is stable.
US09250395B2

A fiber optic plug, suitable for multi-core fiber (MCF), is structured to hold satellite cores of the MCF in a precise angular positions so as to attain suitable alignment with satellite cores of a mating connector. The plug includes features to permit a ferrule holding the MCF to move longitudinally relative to the connector's housing, so that a spring may control a mating force to an abutting ferrule of a mating connector. The ferrule may be held by ferrule barrel having splines projecting away from an outer peripheral surface. The splines may slide longitudinally within notches of the connector housing or a strength member attached to the connector housing. The notches and splines have a tight tolerance, so that the satellite cores remain in a desired, set angular position.
US09250392B2

An inlet guide for facilitating distribution of optical fibers into at least one duct is provided. The inlet guide includes a first portion, a second portion, a first end, a second end, a head, and a main body. The first portion includes a first opposing surface. The second portion includes a second opposing surface and is separable from the first portion. The head is disposed at the first end and comprises an outlet port. The main body is disposed at the second end. The first portion and the second portion cooperate to define a plurality of passageways for the optical fibers. The plurality of passageways extends between the first end and the second end.
US09250386B2

Disclosed is an optical fiber having a core with an alkali metal oxide dopant in an peak amount greater than about 0.002 wt. % and less than about 0.1 wt. %. The alkali metal oxide concentration varies with a radius of the optical fiber. By appropriately selecting the concentration of alkali metal oxide dopant in the core and the cladding, a low loss optical fiber may be obtained. Also disclosed are several methods of making the optical fiber including the steps of forming an alkali metal oxide-doped rod, and adding additional glass to form a draw perform. Preferably, the draw preform has a final outer dimension (d2), wherein an outer dimension (d1) of the rod is less than or equal to 0.06 times the final outer dimension (d2). In a preferred embodiment, the alkali metal oxide-doped rod is inserted into the centerline hole of a preform to form an assembly.
US09250384B2

A multicore fiber includes a first multicore fiber member and a second multicore fiber member, one end face of the first multicore fiber member being spliced to one end face of the second multicore fiber member, wherein at least two core end faces of multiple cores in the first multicore fiber member are spliced one-to-one to core end faces of multiple cores in the second multicore fiber member, and, among the cores in the first multicore fiber member and the cores in the second multicore fiber member spliced one-to-one at the core end faces, at least one core in the first multicore fiber member and one core in the second multicore fiber member spliced thereto have different effective core areas, and an open end face of the core having the larger effective core area is a face which light enters.
US09250369B2

A method for making a hollow-structure metal grating is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, forming a patterned mask layer on a surface of the substrate, applying a metal layer with a thickness greater than 10 nanometers on the patterned mask layer, and removing the patterned mask layer by a washing method using organic solvent. The patterned mask layer includes a plurality of first protruding structures and a plurality of first cavities arranged in intervals.
US09250368B2

Dual-sided daylight redirecting films include an optical substrate with two solar light redirecting layers disposed on the major surfaces of the optical substrate. The light redirecting layers are microstructured surfaces forming a plurality of prism structures. At least one of the microstructured surfaces is an ordered arrangement of a plurality of asymmetric refractive prisms, and the two solar light redirecting layers are not identical or mirror images. Articles may be prepared that include the dual-sided daylight redirecting film and one or more glazing substrates.
US09250357B2

The present invention relates to a method of reducing the amount of silicon on a surface of a contact lens, wherein the method includes reacting the surface of a contact lens containing at least one silicone component with a fluoride reagent.
US09250351B2

Born Scattering Inversion (BSI) systems and methods are disclosed. A BSI system may be incorporated in a well system for accessing natural gas, oil and geothermal reserves in a geologic formation beneath the surface of the Earth. The BSI system may be used to generate a three-dimensional image of a proppant-filled hydraulically-induced fracture in the geologic formation. The BSI system may include computing equipment and sensors for measuring electromagnetic fields in the vicinity of the fracture before and after the fracture is generated, adjusting the parameters of a first Born approximation model of a scattered component of the surface electromagnetic fields using the measured electromagnetic fields, and generating the image of the proppant-filled fracture using the adjusted parameters.
US09250349B2

Various embodiments include apparatus and methods of operation with respect to well logging. Apparatus and methods include a tool having an arrangement of transmitters and receivers to capture a signal from a first region relative to the tool such that signal contributions from a second region relative to the tool are cancelable, based on placement of the transmitters and receivers with respect to each other. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09250347B2

The present disclosure is direct to method of performing measurements while drilling in an earth formation. The method may include estimating a location of a seismic reflector using signals from one or more of seismic sensors located at a plurality of locations in a borehole and the drilling depth of the one or more seismic sensors in a borehole. The signals may include information about times when the seismic sensors detect a direct wave and a reflected wave. The method may include storing the information in a memory using a processor.
US09250340B2

Methods and apparatus for noise removal from seismic data. In one embodiment, a seismic data set comprising a plurality of traces is received, and noise metrics for the seismic data set are computed using a set of time and depth windows. The seismic data set is scanned to determine a first set of groups. Each group in the first set comprises at least a first minimum number of neighboring traces for which at least one of the noise metrics is outside a predefined specification. Noise attenuation is applied to the traces in the first set of groups. Other embodiments, aspects, and features are also disclosed.
US09250338B2

In various embodiments, a multilayer jacket for a seismic streamer is disclosed. The multilayer jacket comprises an outer layer comprising a water-resistant and wear-resistant material. The multilayer jacket further comprises an inner layer comprising a hydrocarbon impermeable material.
US09250326B2

A sensor for monitoring a monitored area, having a transmitting unit which emits radiation, wherein the sensor is capable of detecting objects in the monitored area. According to the invention, the sensor comprises means, using which the instantaneous and/or average power per unit area applied to a detected object of energy incident on the object, such as electromagnetic radiation of the transmitting unit, can be determined. In addition, adaptation means are provided in order to not let the instantaneous and/or average power per unit area of energy incident on the object, such as electromagnetic radiation of the transmitting unit, exceed a predetermined value during the detection of an object in the monitored area, the sensor being configured to first measure whether objects are located in a predetermined proximal area to the transmitter unit using a comparatively low power which can create no or no noticeable hazard potential for people.
US09250324B2

A system and method for providing target selection and threat assessment for vehicle collision avoidance purposes that employ probability analysis of radar scan returns. The system determines a travel path of a host vehicle and provides a radar signal transmitted from a sensor on the host vehicle. The system receives multiple scan return points from detected objects, processes the scan return points to generate a distribution signal defining a contour of each detected object, and processes the scan return points to provide a position, a translation velocity and an angular velocity of each detected object. The system selects the objects that may enter the travel path of the host vehicle, and makes a threat assessment of those objects by comparing a number of scan return points that indicate that the object may enter the travel path to the number of the scan points that are received for that object.
US09250319B2

A floodlight radar system includes a transmitter arranged to generate output waveforms at first and second centre frequencies, and at least one transmit antenna configured to illuminate a search volume constantly at the first and second centre frequencies. A sparse array of receive antennas is arranged in a common plane and configured to monitor the search volume constantly. The system includes a receive circuit arranged to extract target position information from return signals received by each antenna, and a signal processor circuit which is arranged to resolve ambiguity in the position information using a known relationship between calculated Doppler spectra, wavelengths and phase differences at the first and second frequencies, to calculate azimuth, elevation, range and velocity of a target identified in the search volume. The system is able to rapidly detect and locate multiple fast moving targets in three dimensions.
US09250317B1

Methods and apparatus for combining radar signals of a two-dimensional primary radar covering a surveillance area and a passive adjunct radar to provide three-dimensional data for targets and weather. In exemplary embodiments, high beam and low beam data from the primary radar and elevation data from the adjunct radar can be used to mitigate interference from clutter, such as wind farms.
US09250312B1

A method and system for determining the geolocation of a vehicle in the absence of a GPS signal includes determining the geodetic position of each of a plurality of airborne objects based on the relative position of at least one star and at least one satellite. The determined geodetic positions of each of the airborne objects is transmitted to the vehicle. A distance from the vehicle to each airborne vehicle is calculated. Based on the geodetic position determined for each airborne object and the distance from the vehicle to each of the airborne objects, the geodetic position of the vehicle is determined. A receiver receives the geodetic position of each airborne object, calculates a distance to each airborne object, and determines a current geodetic position based on the received geodetic positions of the airborne objects and the distance from the vehicle to each airborne object.
US09250311B2

The invention relates to an asynchronous wireless communication system, such as a UMTS system. The various base stations of an asynchronous wireless communication system do not typically have known timing offsets Tb(i), and these timing offsets vary with time. The invention allows the calculation of the difference dTb(i,j) between timing offsets Tb(i), Tb(j) for pairs of base stations B(i), B(j), using the timing of signals received by one or more wireless communication units. Having eliminated the timing offsets between the base stations as a variable, geo-location techniques from synchronous networks may then be used to locate wireless communication units in the asynchronous wireless communication system.
US09250307B2

In a magnetic resonance (MR) method and system for the generation of diffusion information, diffusion-weighted MR images of an examination subject are generated, each image being generated using an individual diffusion gradient. The diffusion gradients, and therefore the MR images, are sorted such that, after the sorting, a predefined number of diffusion gradients respectively forms a group. Each diffusion gradient belongs to at least one of these groups, and the diffusion gradients of the respective same group are all as linearly independent of one another as possible. The MR images whose diffusion gradients form a group are assembled into an MR result image. Spatial transformations between the MR result images are determined, and the MR images are modified using these spatial transformations. The diffusion information is formed with the aid of the modified MR images.
US09250302B2

An adapter for a local coil for a magnetic resonance tomography device is provided. The adapter is placeable on a patient support for the magnetic resonance tomography device. The adapter includes an adapter upper part that is removably connectable to the local coil. The adapter also includes an adapter lower part that is removably connectable to the patient support. The adapter also includes a tilt device, by which the adapter upper part is movable relative to the adapter lower part.
US09250296B2

A transmission line substrate includes at least an insulating layer of a predetermined thickness, a pair of conductor layers arranged in a state of being opposed to each other such that the insulating layer is interposed between the conductor layers, the pair of conductor layers functioning as a high-frequency transmission line, and a fault part formed so as to make the conductor layer on one side disconnected, into which a sample to be measured can be introduced.
US09250294B2

A switch is formed by a branch including a measurement resistance and a selectable one of switching resistances having different nominal values such that a switch position depends on which switching resistance is selected. The measurement resistance is connected through the selected switching resistance to a supply voltage whereby a voltage drop dependent on the switch position is across the measurement resistance. A controller identifies the switch position by comparison of a measured value (UM1) of the voltage drop with target voltage drops corresponding to switch positions, calculates a voltage drop (Uges) across the branch based on nominal values of the measurement and selected switching resistances and the supply voltage, forms a difference value (UDiff) between a measured value (UVcc) of the supply voltage and the branch voltage drop (Uges), and qualifies the identified switch position as faulty when the difference value (UDiff) exceeds a difference threshold value (UDiff-S).
US09250292B2

A testing system for testing semiconductor package stacking chips is disclosed. The system includes a testing socket, a testing arm, and a testing mechanism. The testing mechanism includes a probe testing device. The probe testing device has a testing chip inside and a plurality of testing probes electrically connected to the testing chip. The plurality of testing probes extends toward the testing socket for contacting a chip-under-test loaded on the testing socket. When the testing mechanism moves to an upper position between the testing socket and the testing arm, the testing arm moves downward in the vertical direction and presses down the testing mechanism thereby coercing the plurality of testing probes in the testing mechanism to closely abut against the chip-under-test, so that the testing chip inside the testing mechanism can electrically connect to the chip-under-test for forming a test loop.
US09250288B2

Disclosed is a wafer level testing method for testing a plurality of singulated 3D-stacked chip cubes by utilizing adjustable wafer maps to adjust the pick-and-place positions of the cubes on a carrier wafer. The wafer maps have a plurality of probe-card activated regions each including a plurality of component-attaching regions. Two wafer-level testing steps are performed on the cubes disposed on the carrier wafer according to the wafer maps. By analyzing the electrical testing results of the trial-run wafer-level testing step from the original wafer map, some prone-to-overkill component-attaching regions are confirmed and to create a corrected wafer map which the prone-to-overkill component-attaching regions are excluded from probe-card activated regions. Then, according to the corrected wafer map, cubes are disposed on the carrier wafer without disposing in the prone-to-overkill component-attaching regions. Accordingly, the real-production wafer-level testing step can be run smoothly without unnecessary shut down of adjustment or repair leading to the maximum productivity without overkill issues.
US09250284B1

A level shift circuit includes a level shift module and a voltage comparing module. The level shift module includes a plurality of stages of level shift units, each including a front-end circuit and an inverter circuit. The inverter circuit is electrically coupled to the front-end circuit and receives and inverts an output signal of the front-end circuit. The front-end circuit receives a clock signal, converts high/low voltage level of the clock signal into first/second voltage level, respectively, and outputs a respective signal with the first/second voltage level. The voltage comparing module is coupled to the level shift module and receives output signals of the inverter circuit of the first level shift unit and of the front-end circuit in the second level shift unit and compares the two output signals. The voltage comparing module outputs a short-circuit protection trigger signal when the two output signals have different voltages.
US09250272B2

A current measurement connector may include a first part and a second part. Each part may include a mount and a joint. The first and second part may be joined via the respective joints through a current transformer interposed between the first and second parts. The respective mounts may be configured to receive a current from a current source and pass the received current through the current transformer via the first and second parts inducing a current in the current transformer. The induced current may be useable to measure the current from the current source. Methods for fabricating the current measurement connector may include die casting the first and second parts and press fitting the first and second parts at the respective joints through the current transformer. Methods for use may include withstanding a fault current pulse and dissipating heat associated with the pulse via the first and second parts.
US09250264B2

Disclosed is a coaxial probe comprising, an internal conductor comprising an upper contact configured to contact a semiconductor device; a lower contact configured to contact a tester for testing the semiconductor device; and an internal elastic member configured to elastically bias at least one of the upper and lower contacts to make the upper and lower contacts distant from each other; an external conductor configured to surround the internal conductor; a plurality of gap members which is respectively inserted into opposite ends between the internal conductor and the external conductor to create a predetermined air gap between the internal conductor and the external conductor; and at least one external elastic member that is inserted into an external circumferential surface of the external conductor to elastically bias at least one of the semiconductor device and the tester to a direction that makes either the semiconductor device or the test distant from the external conductor.
US09250261B2

Techniques and mechanisms to provide for metering acceleration. In an embodiment, a microelectromechanical accelerometer includes a magnet, a mass, and a first support beam portion and second support beam portion for suspension of the mass. Resonance frequency characteristics of the first support beam portion and second support beam portion, based on the magnet and a current conducted by the first support beam portion and second support beam portion, are indicative of acceleration of the mass. In another embodiment, the accelerometer further includes a first wire portion and a second wire portion which are each coupled to the mass and further coupled to a respective anchor for exchanging a signal with the first wire portion and the second wire portion. The first wire portion and the second wire portion provide for biasing of the mass.
US09250254B2

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a biosample cartridge that includes radial slots for storing biosample carriers. The biosample cartridge has the same form factor as data tape cartridges used in automated tape libraries to allow the biosample cartridge to be handled by the same robotic mechanisms that handle the data tape cartridges. One aspect of the disclosure concerns a biosample cartridge that includes a rotatable biosample carrier holder. The biosample carrier holder includes radial slots for receiving biosample carriers which contain biosamples scanned and analyzed by automated tape libraries.
US09250253B2

A carrier strip having a plurality of areas for retaining anatomical pathology specimens may have a backing, a cover coupled to the backing along side regions located along opposite longitudinal edges of the carrier strip and along lateral intermediate regions positioned between each of the plurality of areas for retaining anatomical pathology specimens. The carrier strip may be configured to individually retain each of the anatomical pathology specimens in one of the plurality of areas for retaining anatomical pathology specimens between the backing and the cover. Diagnostic studies of anatomical pathology specimens may be facilitated by distributing a digital copy of an image of the specimen may be to a pathologist. A diagnosis may be received from the pathologist based on the digital image of the specimen.
US09250239B2

Provided herein are vaccine compositions for control of Trypanosoma cruzi infection and Chagas disease. The compositions comprise plasmids encoding o GPI-anchored genes ASP-2, TcG-1, TcG2 and TcG4 from Trypanosoma cruzi; plasmids encoding cytokines IL12 and GM-CSF; and plasmids encoding a gene expression system. Certain vaccine compositions comprise recombinant proteins, selected from TcG-1, TcG2 and TcG4 from Trypanosoma cruzi. In another vaccination strategy, the recombinant proteins are replaced by lysates comprising Trypanosoma rangeli cells. Further provided herein are diagnosis compositions comprising 1) recombinant proteins, selected from TcG-1, TcG2 and TcG4 from Trypanosoma cruzi; 2) antibodies that specifically binds the TcG-1, TcG2 and TcG4 proteins; 3) sense and antisense polynucleotide sequences that encode the TcG-1, TcG2 and TcG4 proteins. Said compositions can be used in diagnosing and/or evaluating efficacy of treatments against Trypanosoma cruzi infection. A diagnosis kit, and methods of diagnosing and/or treating Trypanosoma cruzi infection are also provided.
US09250234B2

Described are methods for detecting a target analyte in a test sample by providing a solid support comprising an electrode comprising: (i) a self-assembled monolayer (SAM), (ii) a covalently attached electroactive active moiety (EAM) comprising a transition metal complex comprising a self-immolative moiety and a peroxide sensitive moiety (PSM), wherein said EAM has a first E0; then contacting the target analyte and said solid support under conditions wherein said target analyte reacts with a peroxide generating enzyme to generate peroxide and said self-immolative moiety is removed such that said EAM has a second E0 test sample; and then detecting said second E0 as an indication of the presence of said target analyte. Also provided are compositions for use in the preceding methods.
US09250229B2

Systems and methods are provided for sample processing. A device may be provided, capable of receiving the sample, and performing one or more of a sample preparation, sample assay, and detection step. The device may be capable of performing multiple assays. The device may comprise one or more modules that may be capable of performing one or more of a sample preparation, sample assay, and detection step. The device may be capable of performing the steps using a small volume of sample.
US09250225B2

Biomarkers relating to insulin resistance are provided, as well as methods for using the same as biomarkers for insulin resistance. Also provided are suites of small molecule entities as biomarkers for insulin resistance.
US09250222B2

A method of calibrating a biological detector can include training a biological detector to detect a calibration compound, wherein the calibration compound has an odor that is detectable by the biological detector and is not used in an environment for which the biological detector is trained to detect odors, presenting the biological detector with a device comprising the calibration compound, and determining whether the biological detector will alert to the calibration compound.
US09250216B2

This disclosure relates to detecting fluid in medical tubing. In certain aspects, a method is performed by a data processing apparatus. The method includes controlling repetitive activation of the ultrasonic transmitter. The method also includes receiving a signal from the ultrasonic receiver during an activation of the ultrasonic transmitter. The method also includes determining that fluid is absent or present in a portion of the medical fluid tube based on a comparison between the signal and a threshold value.
US09250215B2

An ultrasonic wave detection apparatus includes a transmission unit which transmits ultrasonic waves at a first frequency and a second frequency, a reception unit which receives ultrasonic waves transmitted from the transmission unit, and a control unit which causes the transmission unit to transmit ultrasonic waves at the first frequency and causes the reception unit to receive the first frequency ultrasonic waves to obtain a detection timing of a peak value of a n-th wave of the received first frequency ultrasonic waves, causes the transmission unit to transmit ultrasonic waves at the second frequency and causes the reception unit to receive the second frequency ultrasonic waves to obtain a detection timing of a peak value of a n-th wave of the received second frequency ultrasonic waves, and specifies “n” of the n-th wave from which the peak value is detected based on a difference in the detection timings.
US09250207B2

A system of controlled translocation of macromolecules by gel electrophesis employs a funnel nanopore structure. A graphene portion is attached to a porous material layer including funnel-shaped pores such that the graphene portion blocks the side of the porous material layer having openings for smaller pores. A pair of electrical contacts is formed on the graphene portion. A dielectric material layer may be deposited to hold the graphene portion in place. A nanoscale hole is formed through the dielectric material layer and the graphene portion to provide a smallest opening in a funnel nanopore structure. The funnel nanopore structure is placed within a capsule configured for gel electrophoresis. A linear chain of molecules can pass through a funnel-shaped pore and the nanoscale hole during the gel electrophoresis. A graphene nanopore detector allows measurement of blockage current for sufficient resolution of base pairs in DNA's.
US09250202B2

A particle detector includes: a conductive nanolayer; insulating nanolayers attached to both sides of the conductive nanolayer; a nanopore formed to penetrate the conductive nanolayer and the insulating nanolayers so as to provide a migration path for a sample particle; a power supply unit configured to apply an electric field between both ends of the nanopore so as to apply a potential to the conductive nanolayer; and an electric signal measuring unit electrically connected to the conductive nanolayer and configured to measure the potential change in the conductive nanolayer induced by the sample particle as the sample particle migrates through the nanopore. The particle detector is capable of detecting a particle with high signal-to-noise ratio and resolution, scanning a sample without mechanical motion of the conductive nanolayer and analyzing DNA base sequences.
US09250198B2

A board inspection apparatus includes an irradiation unit, an imaging unit, and an image processing unit. The image processing unit includes a three-dimensional measurement unit configured to perform three-dimensional measurement of the surfaces of the solder and the resist film by a certain three-dimensional measurement method based on the image data, a virtual standard surface setting unit configured to set a virtual standard surface corresponding to a contacting surface of a certain component mounted in a certain area of the printed board, a protrusion amount calculation unit configured to calculate a protrusion amount from the virtual standard surface for each solder printed and formed in the certain area, and a determination unit configured to determine whether the printed state of the solder passes or fails based on each of the protrusion amounts of the solder.
US09250196B2

There are provided a susceptor having a recessed wafer mounting section, in which a semiconductor wafer is mounted and which is configured to include a circular bottom portion and a side wall portion, on an upper surface, a reaction chamber in which the susceptor is provided, an imaging unit that is provided above the reaction chamber and images the semiconductor wafer and the wafer mounting section, and an image analysis unit that analyzes the deviation of the semiconductor wafer from the wafer mounting section on the basis of an image captured by the imaging unit.
US09250195B2

An invention for making productive uses of normally undesirable whiskers is provided. Embodiments of the invention include a variety of apparatuses and methods associated with forming and using whiskers as well as forming whisker compounds is disclosed. For example, whisker detection modules can be created which provide a whisker surveillance capability. The whisker detection modules can further be coupled with a whisker response system such as an alarm or insulating material dispersing system. Another aspect of the invention is providing a variety of environments or microenvironments with regard to a whisker forming structure to affect whisker creation such as maximizing whisker formation. Another example includes provision of a variety of embodiments for manufacturing compounds of whiskers of various metal and metal alloys, including structures and methods is provided. Whisker compounds produced using various embodiments of the invention can be used for various applications.
US09250193B2

A system is described for obtaining images of a gemstone, and performing quantitative analysis on the images to obtain measures of properties of the gemstone. The system comprises a support structure for supporting the gemstone at an observation position. An illumination structure is arranged to illuminate the gemstone. The illumination structure comprises a plurality of radially dispersed directional light sources directed towards the observation position, the support structure and illumination system being rotatable relative to one another around a rotation axis so that the gemstone can be illuminated by one or more of the directional light sources at each of a plurality of rotational positions, the axis of rotation being normal to a selected facet of the gemstone. An imaging device is directed towards the gemstone for obtaining images of the gemstone at each of the rotational positions, the imaging device having an imaging axis parallel to or coincident with the axis of rotation. An image processor is provided for identifying sparkle regions in the images corresponding to reflections from individual light sources by individual facets and providing a quantitative measure of the gemstone on the basis of porperties of the sparkle regions.
US09250191B2

A method for analyzing one or more nitrogen-containing compounds, in which the one or more nitrogen-containing compounds are contacted with hydrindantin at an elevated temperature in a contact zone is provided. In the method ninhydrin is contacted with one or more reducing agents in a heating zone at a first elevated temperature to produce a hydrindantin-containing mixture. The hydrindantin-containing mixture is introduced into the contact zone and contacted with the nitrogen-containing compounds at a second elevated temperature. The method is particularly suitable for the analysis by visualization of amino acids.
US09250190B2

A ninhydrin reagent for use in a method for analyzing nitrogen-containing compounds, in particular visualizing nitrogen-containing compounds by a color forming reaction, is provided. The ninhydrin reagent contains ninhydrin; an aqueous buffer; and a temperature-dependent reducing agent, which agent is inactive in the reduction of ninhydrin at a first temperature and active in reducing ninhydrin to hydrindantin at a second temperature, wherein the second temperature is higher than the first temperature. The reagent is particularly useful in the analysis of amino acids.
US09250177B2

A urine analysis device includes a light emitting part, a light receiving part and a control part. The light emitting part includes a plurality of light emitting diodes. The light emitting diodes provide a light to an inspected object. The inspected object has a plurality of inspected areas. The light receiving part receives the light reflected by the inspected object. The control part drives the light emitting part and receives an electric signal from the light receiving part.
US09250175B1

In one embodiment, an improved multi-pass cell for a long path-length spectrometer is designed to include a perturbing mirror that causes a base pattern of reflections to be repeated multiple times, where each subsequent base pattern of reflections is rotated about the axis at an angle from a prior base pattern, to circulate the base patters about the cell. The base pattern may be a Herriott cell pattern. The improved multi-pass cell may be constructed with a concave front mirror centered along an axis of the cell, and a concave back mirror centered along the axis and facing the front mirror. The perturbing mirror may be centered along the axis, facing the front mirror and located at a perturbing mirror spacing in front of the back mirror or behind the back mirror, depending on the implementation.
US09250171B2

This invention is directed to a kit for performing adhesive audits and a method of doing the same. The kit and method can be used to improve the speed and ease with which adhesive audits are performed.
US09250162B2

The present disclosure provides apparatuses for collecting aerosol samples by ionizing an air sample at different degrees. An air flow is generated through a cavity in which at least one corona wire is disposed and electrically charged to form a corona therearound. At least one grounded sample collection plate is provided downstream of the at least one corona wire so that aerosol ions generated within the corona are deposited on the at least one grounded sample collection plate. A plurality of aerosol samples ionized to different degrees can be generated. The at least one corona wire may be perpendicular to the direction of the flow, or may be parallel to the direction of the flow. The apparatus can include a serial connection of a plurality of stages such that each stage is capable of generating at least one aerosol sample, and the air flow passes through the plurality of stages serially.
US09250156B2

One embodiment is a unique strategy for evaluating performance of a component of an internal combustion engine. More particularly, in one non-limiting form a method includes operating a component, such as a heating component, and measuring a first characteristic related to its operation. The method also includes operating an engine accessory and measuring a second characteristic related to its operation, and determining performance of the component by relating the first and second characteristics to one another. In one aspect, relating the first and second characteristics to one another provides a first value which is compared to a predetermined value, and performance of the component is determined from this comparison. Other embodiments include unique methods, systems, and apparatus for evaluating or monitoring the performance of a component of an internal combustion engine, and/or for performing a procedure for starting the internal combustion engine.
US09250155B2

An engine testing device for dynamic pressure loss and valve seal-tightness testing of a running four-stroke engine includes: a first pressure gauge detecting a pressure value in an air intake line to a cylinder of the engine and outputting a first output signal indicative of the pressure value detected; a second pressure gauge detecting a pressure value in an exhaust line of the engine and outputting a second output signal indicative of the pressure value detected; a trigger device detecting an electrical signal indicative of when a selected cylinder of the engine is the particular active cylinder; and a measured value detection device detecting the output signals of the first and second pressure gauges and an output signal of the trigger device, such that an association between points in time of the pressure measurements and the particular active cylinder is enabled.
US09250149B2

Retrievable sensor devices and methods are provided that can be easily installed and removed from a sub-sea system without the need to stop the flow of working/process fluid. In particular, a retrievable sensor is provided that can be configured to be located remote from the process fluid to allow for easy access. In other embodiments, an actuator is provided that allows for pressure adjustments to be made during installation and/or removal of the sensor so as to avoid damage to the sensor and/or other system components and to avoid any process fluid/material leakage. Methods are also provided for installing/removing a retrievable sensor, as well as for adjusting a pressure of a retrievable sensor.
US09250146B2

A strain sensor is provided having an annular collar. At least one sensor is movably coupled to the collar, the at least one sensor having a body with a plurality of silicon strain gages coupled thereto. A first soldering connector is coupled to the collar, the first soldering connector configured to provide an excitation voltage. A plurality of second soldering connectors are coupled to the collar. A plurality of first conductors electrically are coupled to the first soldering connector on one end, and one of the plurality of silicon strain gages on a second end. A plurality of second conductors electrically are coupled between one of the plurality of second soldering connectors and one of the plurality of silicon strain gages.
US09250138B2

A temperature detecting device for a power conversion device is provided in which the number of components can be reduced. An exemplary embodiment of the temperature detecting device includes: a plurality of temperature detecting elements that are provided in correspondence with a plurality of temperature detection objects, each temperature detecting element outputting a signal having a correlation with the temperature of the temperature detection object by being supplied power by a common power source; and a temperature detector that detects the temperatures of the temperature detection objects based on the signals having correlation with the temperatures of the temperature detection objects outputted from the temperature detecting elements. The temperature detector detects an average temperature of at least two temperature detection objects among the plurality of temperature detection objects or respective temperatures of the plurality of temperature detection objects based on the output signals.
US09250137B2

A method includes alternately coupling a selected one of a plurality of current sources and two or more of the plurality of current sources to a first terminal of a bipolar device during first and second phases of a modulator cycle of a plurality of modulator cycles. The method further includes providing sampled voltages from the first terminal of the bipolar device to a modulator to produce a modulator output signal, filtering the modulator output signal to produce a filtered output signal using a back-end filter having an impulse response, and determining a temperature in response to the filtered output signal.
US09250113B2

Provided herein are sensors and methods for determining properties of single cells, such as cell mass. Sensors disclosed herein include resonant sensors having a suspended platform designed to exhibit a uniform vibration amplitude. Methods are also disclosed for measuring changes in cell mass, changes in cell number, changes in cell viscosity and changes in cell elasticity.
US09250099B2

The present invention provides a computer-implemented method of producing a description of aircraft intent expressed using a formal language. The description may be used to predict aircraft trajectory, for example by air traffic management. Rules are used in association with information provided to generate a set of instructions describing both the aerodynamic configuration of the aircraft and the motion of the aircraft. These instructions are checked to ensure that they describe unambiguously the aircraft's trajectory. The instructions are then expressed using a formal language.
US09250096B2

A method and apparatus for browsing a map displayed on a device including a touch screen display. The method includes displaying the map on a full screen of the touch screen display; receiving a user input for setting a variation axis on the map; setting the variation axis according to the user input; dividing the full screen into a first area and a second area, using the variation axis as a boundary; receiving a first map shift command in the first area; and shifting a displayed portion of the map in the first area and maintaining a displayed portion of the map in the second area, in response to the first map shift command in the first area.
US09250095B2

An onboard display device includes multiple screen data that define plural types of screen designs including a character string display frame with equal size; plural types of font data; and multiple character string tables which record character strings to be displayed on a screen with one of the screen designs defined by the plural types of screen data, are each provided for one of the plural types of font data, and include character strings whose written forms are altered according to character size defined by the font data so that the character strings can be contained in the display frame, wherein the decision unit 12 decides a display type to be used for screen display on a display unit, and the display unit 6 displays the screen using the screen data, font data and character string corresponding to the display type decided by the decision unit 12.
US09250085B2

A method for geo-location services is described. In one embodiment, the method includes monitoring, via a sensor, a location of a service provider in relation to a predetermined location and receiving a request for a current status of the service provider. The current status includes a current location of the service provider and a current job-related status of the service provider. Upon determining the current status of the service provider, a notification including the current status of the service provider is generated.
US09250077B2

Methods, apparatus, and computer program products for producing a representation of a ground-transportation network from timetable information of transportation services. By means of a computer, routing locations are determined from the timetable information. The routing locations include end points of the transportation services. Tuples of directly-connected routing locations are formed. Network paths are generated by linking the directly-connected routing locations. The entirety of these paths forming the representation of the ground-transportation network.
US09250068B2

A rotation angle detecting device includes a resolver that outputs three-phase signals based on a rotation angle of a rotary shaft, and an R/D converter that acquires the three-phase output signals via signal lines corresponding to the respective phases. The R/D converter determines the rotation angle of the rotary shaft on the basis of the three-phase output signals. The R/D converter includes switching elements that change the potential of the first-phase signal line and the potential of the second-phase signal line, respectively.
US09250064B2

Improved methods and systems for inspection imaging for holographic or interferometric semiconductor test and evaluation through all phases of device development and manufacture. Specifically, systems and methods are disclosed for extending the range of optical holographic interferometric inspection for testing and evaluating microelectronic devices and determining the interplay of electromagnetic signals and dynamic stresses to the semiconductor material are provided in which an enhanced imaging method provides continuous and varying the magnification of the optical holographic interferometric images over a plurality of interleaved optical pathways and imaging devices. Analysis of one or more holographic interference patterns displays internal and external stresses and the various effects of such stresses upon the operating characteristics of features within the features, interior structures or within the internal surfaces of the semiconductor device at any stage of development or manufacture.
US09250063B2

A method for ascertaining a position of an object in surroundings of a vehicle. The method includes a step of input of a light signal from an optical sensor, the light signal representing a brightness, a degree of reflection of light emitted by a headlight of the vehicle from an object, and/or a sharpness of a boundary line of the object illuminated by light from a headlight. Furthermore, the method includes determining a distance of the object from the vehicle by using the light signal to determine the position of the object in the surroundings of the vehicle.
US09250062B2

The invention relates to an apparatus for determining a layer thickness on a tape moved along a feed direction, comprising: a movement unit for moving the tape along the feed direction, a light generating unit for generating illumination radiation, a beam shaping unit disposed downstream of the light generating unit for shaping at least one strip-shaped illumination beam for linear illumination of the tape transversely with respect to the feed direction, a detector unit for detecting illumination radiation reflected and/or transmitted at the tape, and an evaluation device for determining the layer thickness on the basis of the detected illumination radiation. The apparatus can also be used for determining a degree of contamination of a surface of the tape, the surface being contaminated by particles, by detecting illumination radiation scattered at the tape.
US09250052B2

A comprehensive welding gauge two or more of: a ruler, a weld height gauge, a protractor gauge, a Hi-Lo gauge, and a fillet height gauge, wherein each measurement device overlays a measurement scale on a main gauge plate and is riveted to the main gauge plate such that the measurement device may be extended beyond and retracted within the main gauge plate borders, either by sliding or rotating. The comprehensive gauge may thus be easily stored in and retrieved from a pocket by the user.
US09250048B2

An improved shotshell of the type having a hull, a head at the proximal end, propellant disposed in the hull, a wad disposed in the hull distal to the propellant, and a load disposed in the hull in distal to the wad. The improvement comprises the load including a plurality of individual shot, at least a portion of which are at least partially surrounded by a friable material that breaks up upon the firing of the shell to release to the shot and results in a reduced rate of dispersion of the plurality of individual shot compared to cartridges without the friable material.
US09250046B2

A detonator which includes a tubular body within which is located a detonator assembly which comprise a container (20) which houses a set explosive composition element in which is embedded part of a PCB (72, 76) which carries an ignition element (66).
US09250040B1

The invention relates to remotely controlling a number of devices on an instrument mounted on a rotating assembly without physical contact to the assembly. A series of infrared light-emitting diodes mounted in a stationary ring configuration are placed around (but not directly touching) the rotating assembly to send control signals to infrared receiver devices located on the assembly. The rotating assembly might be the turret of a conventional Common Remotely Operated Weapons Station (CROWS), the invention to replace convention internal slip-ring providing power and control to a gun on the CROWS. The infrared data links of this invention do not inhibit the movement of the rotating assembly, and further are not susceptible to radio-jamming by electronic warfare countermeasures. Additionally, the invention includes a mount that allows auxiliary devices with Picatinny Rails™ to also be attached to such a CROWS turret.
US09250039B2

A live-fire simulation system uses a position sensitive detector (PSD) in a weapon-mounted sensor to intercept emitted light from target emitters spatially distributed about a target. Each target emitter is modulated with a unique frequency. The system can thus not only determine the points of interception on the PSD but also determine which emitter caused which interception by using a frequency analysis.
US09250036B2

A method of sighting a target includes receiving an initial condition of an optical device. The initial condition includes a size of a ranging element and a range associated with the size of the ranging element. The method further includes receiving a ballistic information and receiving an image from an imaging sensor. At least a portion of the image is displayed on a display. The ranging element is overlaid on the displayed portion of the image. A first zoom input is received to set a first zoom value that corresponds to a first distance from the optical device. The method also includes determining a first projectile position based on the first distance and the ballistic information.
US09250035B2

A system for precision aiming of a weapon that has a rail, aligned with a centerline of its barrel, with a bus for supplying power to, and providing communication between, a plurality of modular system components that are mounted and precisely aligned in an array on the rail. A core component receives data from the sensor components via the rail and produces an output for display of aiming data which allows an operator to precisely aim the weapon at a selected target.
US09250030B2

A firearm safety system as well as a method associated with the firearm safety system capable of preventing a firearm from firing is described. By incorporating a control module into firearms, the presence by the firearm may be detected by a detecting device receiving signals sent by the control module. The detecting device may in turn transmit signals to an established signaling network, such as a mobile telephone network, which may then telecommunicate with the control module to disable the firearm and prevent it from being fired. Such a system and method may be most effective in gun-free zones, especially places such as schools and courthouses. Thus, both the system and the method may be used to reduce firearm violence.
US09250027B2

An example embodiment includes a thermal management system for an active cable connector. The system includes a shell and a back plate. The shell defines a cavity and includes multiple heat-transfer areas on an internal shell surface. A first heat-transfer area is positioned with respect to a first heat-generating component to absorb a first portion of thermal energy generated by the first heat-generating component. The back plate is positioned with respect to the first heat-generating component to absorb a second portion of the thermal energy generated by the first heat-generating component. The back plate is further positioned proximate to a second heat-transfer area to transfer the second portion of the thermal energy to the shell.
US09250024B2

A method of fabricating a cooling apparatus is provided to facilitate two-phase, immersion-cooling of one or more electronic components. The cooling apparatus includes a housing having a compartment within which dielectric fluid is disposed which facilitates immersion-cooling of the electronic component(s). A liquid-cooled heat sink is associated with the housing and cools a cooling surface exposed within the compartment. One or more pumps are disposed within the compartment and configured to pump dielectric fluid liquid within the compartment towards the cooling surface to facilitate cooling the liquid within the compartment below a saturation temperature of the dielectric fluid. The heat sink includes or is coupled to condensing and sub-cooling regions exposed within the compartment.
US09250009B2

With a domestic appliance comprising a carcass (1), a door (2) hinged to the carcass (1) and a frame (8, 9, 10) fastened to the carcass (1) and surrounding the edges of the door (2), a foliate anti-trap element (17) extends from the door (2) through a recess (12) of the frame (8, 9, 10) to a hinge-side side wall (11) of the carcass (1).
US09250005B2

An air conditioner for a vehicle includes a vapor compression refrigeration cycle switchable between a heat pump cycle and a cooler cycle, a heat core configured to heat air to be blown into a vehicle compartment by using coolant of an engine of the vehicle as a heat source, and a controller configured to control operation of the vapor compression refrigeration cycle. The controller controls the vapor compression refrigeration cycle to be operated as the cooler cycle so as to perform a defrosting control of the outdoor heat exchanger, and outputs an operation request signal to the engine, when the controller determines that the outdoor heat exchanger is frosted.
US09250002B2

A system for controlling an absorption chiller includes feedback control loops determining adjustments to system cooling and heating capacities and a controller for simultaneously adjusting positions of an energy input valve, a hot water valve, and a chilled water valve. The controller adjusts valves based on desired adjustments to system cooling and heating capacities and performance maps characterizing relationships between cooling capacity and heating capacities and valve positions. A method for controlling an absorption chiller includes the step of obtaining a performance map characterizing heat energy input to cooling and heating loops as functions of valve positions. To obtain the map, the hot water valve is held in a substantially constant position while the chilled water valve is modulated. Similarly, the hot water valve is modulated while the chilled water valve is held in a substantially constant position.
US09250000B2

During off-peak operation of a power plant operating on a thermodynamic cycle wherein heat is rejected to an ambient fluid, heat is removed from a cold temperature storage medium. The cold temperature storage medium is stored until the power plant is experiencing a peak period. During the peak period, the stored cold temperature storage medium is used to absorb heat from the ambient fluid prior to heat rejection from the thermodynamic cycle to the ambient fluid, to improve performance of the thermodynamic cycle. In another aspect, the stored cold temperature storage medium is mixed with the ambient fluid prior to heat rejection from the thermodynamic cycle to the ambient fluid. Corresponding systems, apparatuses, retrofit methods, design and control techniques are also disclosed.
US09249999B2

A magnetocaloric heat generator (10) comprising at least one magnetocaloric element (2) with a first and second ends (3, 4), a magnetic arrangement for subjecting the magnetocaloric element (2) to a variable magnetic field, alternately creating heating and cooling cycles in the magnetocaloric element (2), a mechanism for circulating a heat transfer fluid through the magnetocaloric element (2) alternately towards the first and second ends (3, 4) and vice versa in synchronisation with the variation of the magnetic field, and at least one energy exchange mechanism (15). This heat generator (10) is crossed in one direction by the heat transfer fluid entering the magnetocaloric element (2) through one of the ends (3, 4) during a heating or cooling cycle and to be crossed in the opposite direction by the heat transfer fluid exiting the magnetocaloric element (2) through the same end (3, 4) during the other cooling or heating cycle.
US09249993B2

A support system for a trough-shaped solar collector assembly includes a support arm comprising first and second curved rails and an interconnecting web structure. The web structure is secured along first and second opposite edges thereof to first and second web engaging structures, which are provided along facing surfaces of the first and second rails, respectively. Prior to fixedly securing the web structure to the web engaging structure of the first and second curved rails, the location and/or the orientation of the web structure are adjustable for supporting interconnection of the first and second curved rails with different rates of convergence between the first and second curved rails. The support arm further includes a plurality of mirror-attachment brackets coupled to the first rail for attaching the trough-shaped solar collector assembly to the support arm and structure attachment brackets for mounting the support arm to a structure.
US09249991B2

Insulating element for expansion compensation device and method for manufacture thereof, of the type used in solar energy collector absorber tubes, being formed by a single piece in the form of a ring and with a bellows-like end portion, which is filled with rock wool or other equivalent insulating material, so as to create a hot air chamber which minimizes heat losses.
US09249984B2

An air conditioning unit is provided including a base pan having at least one hole surrounded by a first embossment including a first inclined sidewall and a first top wall. A mounting plate is positioned adjacent a portion of the base pan. The mounting plate has at least one opening surrounded by a second embossment including a second inclined sidewall and a second top wall. The at least one opening is generally aligned with the at least one hole. The second embossment overlays the first embossment such that a gap exists between the second inclined sidewall and the first inclined sidewall.
US09249983B2

An air supply shutter for ventilating closed buildings includes a marginal frame with interconnected upper, lower and lateral frame members to define a centrally disposed air vent opening having inlet and outlet sides. A shutter flap is pivotally mounted on the frame for rotation about a generally horizontal axis between closed and open positions. A coupler is connected with the shutter flap and configured for engagement with an activator for shifting the shutter flap between the closed and open positions. The upper frame member includes an air guiding wall which is disposed on the outlet side of the air vent opening, faces the air vent opening, and extends upwardly at a predetermined angle to deflect the air flowing through the air vent opening.
US09249982B2

A device for altering the airflow pattern from a ceiling vent diffuser by obstructing openings in a region of the diffuser. The device comprises a flexible member that is secured to a diffuser vane by a hook member and two tabs. The hook member has two or more engagement regions which enable it to engage vanes on different manufacturer's diffusers. The first end of the hook member is either pivotally secured to the flexible member or is engaged in an adjustment mechanism thereon. The adjustment mechanism allows the second end of the hook to be situated in different positions relative to an interior edge of the flexible member so as to accommodate different diffusers. An extension detachably engages the flexible member to increase the size thereof to accommodate larger diffusers.
US09249981B2

A condensate overflow detection device includes a frame, a housing, an affixing device, a surface placement mechanism, a float and an actuator. The housing has a bottom and a plurality of pan engagement side surfaces extending upwardly from the bottom, each of which is disposed at a different angle relative to the bottom surface. The housing defines a vent structure passing therethrough that allows water to pass into the housing. The affixing device clamps a pan engagement side surface to a sidewall of a secondary condensate pan. The surface placement mechanism places one of the pan engagement side surfaces opposite from the affixing device. The float, disposed within the housing, has a first position when no water has entered the housing and a second position when a predetermined level of water has entered the housing. The actuator causes an event when the float is in the second position.
US09249972B2

A method for producing steam includes combusting a fuel and an oxidant to generate heat in a combustion stream, and injecting impure water into the combustion stream such that the heat produces a steam stream including particulate matter precipitated from the impure water. A steam generator includes a combustion chamber that has an initial section including an oxidant feed that is substantially free of nitrogen and a fuel feed, and downstream from the initial section at least one liquid water feed.
US09249962B2

A device (230, 1330, 1430) includes: a first electrode (232); an electro-statically movable second electrode (234, 1734, 1834); and an electrically insulating layer (233) disposed between the first and second electrodes. The electro-statically movable second electrode is configured to have a first geometric configuration in response to a first electrical potential between the first and second electrodes, and is further configured to have a second geometric configuration in response to a second electrical potential between the first and second electrodes. The device is configured to receive a time-varying voltage and in response thereto the electrostatically movable second electrode is configured to repeatedly transition between the first geometric configuration and the second geometric configuration to influence a flow of a fluid (235) for cooling at least one heat-generating element (310).
US09249961B2

A light-emitting device includes a substrate having a metal film on a first surface, a light-emitting element mounted on the first surface of the substrate and connected to the metal film, a heat sensitive circuit breaker mounted on the first surface of the substrate and connected to the metal film, a light-proof cover that covers the heat sensitive circuit breaker to block light emitted from the light-emitting element and travelling toward the heat sensitive circuit breaker, and a heat dissipating member formed on a second surface of the substrate to dissipate heat of the substrate, the second surface being opposite to the first surface.
US09249952B2

Multi-configurable, high luminous output light fixture systems, devices, and methods are disclosed. Light fixtures can be configured to produce variable light emission outputs and patterns and can include LED packages wherein at least one can be movable with respect to another of the LED packages. In addition, a power supply can selectively dim or turn off at least one of the LED packages. The light fixtures disclosed herein can be used in both high bay and low bay light fixtures.
US09249947B2

Disclosed is an LED-based luminaire (10, 110, 210, 310, 410, 510, 610, 710) including an optic surrounding a plurality of LEDs (140, 240, 340, 440, 540, 640a/b, 740). The optic may include a plurality of interior reflective surfaces for mixing light output of the LEDs and also include a transmissive diffuser (30, 130, 230, 330, 430, 530, 630a/b, 730a/b) through which interiorly reflected light output of the LEDs exits the LED-based luminaire.
US09249944B2

It is provided a vehicle rear lamp structure that can effectively utilize light that is illuminated from a light source. A door side lamp portion of a rear combination lamp has a housing that supports an incandescent bulb for a back lamp, and a lens that covers the incandescent bulb for the back lamp by being fixed to the housing, and transmits light illuminated from the incandescent bulb for the back lamp. Further, a garnish is mounted to the door side lamp portion. A surface at the lens side of the garnish reflects light, that is illuminated from the incandescent bulb for the back lamp, toward a vehicle rear side. Due thereto, light illuminated from the incandescent bulb for the back lamp can be utilized effectively.
US09249938B2

An LED (light emitting diode) light source module includes a first optical lens, an LED light source received in a groove of the first optical lens and a second optical lens located at a light path of the LED light source and above the first optical lens. The first optical lens includes a first reflecting surface around the groove and a second reflecting surface. The second optical lens includes a reflecting surface facing the LED light source, and light which is incident to the reflecting surface of the second optical lens is reflected thereby to the first reflecting surface and the second reflecting surface of the first optical lens. A light diffusion plate is attached to the second optical lens at a position away from the reflecting surface of the second optical lens.
US09249936B2

A modular element for distributing pressurized gas comprising a housing containing at least one tank of pressurized gas, the at least one tank having an outlet orifice coupled, via a pressure reducing valve, to a gas distribution circuit, characterized in that the modular element includes a cover for the housing, the cover selectively closing an open face of the housing and forming a support for a first gas duct and a second gas duct forming at least part of the gas distribution circuit, the first gas duct having a first free extremity and a second free extremity each fitted with a fluid coupling member, the second gas duct having a first free extremity fitted with a fluid coupling member coupled in a selectively removable manner to an inlet receiving expanded gas from the reducing valve of the at least one tank and a second extremity coupled to the first duct, between the two extremities of said first duct.
US09249935B2

A fuel supply system includes a fuel gas tank; a temperature detecting portion; a fuel gas discharge flow path; a main stop valve that is provided in the fuel gas discharge flow path; and a control portion. The main stop valve includes an inlet portion and an outlet portion, a main valve that is arranged between the inlet portion and the outlet portion and that opens and closes the fuel gas discharge flow path, a pilot flow path that is provided so as to communicate the inlet portion with the outlet portion, a pilot valve that opens and closes the pilot flow path, and an actuator capable of opening and closing the main valve and the pilot valve at different timings. The control portion opens the pilot valve and closes the main valve when the detected temperature is equal to or lower than a first reference temperature.
US09249932B2

A gas collection receptacle includes a segmented top portion and one or more side portions creating a volume for collecting gases. The gas collection receptacle, configured to float on a pond, lagoon, or other area, also includes interlocking side and end portions enabling multiple receptacles to connect, thus forming a substantially continuous covering.
US09249926B1

A tensioning arrangement uses a tendon to pull together (pre-stress) a hollow steel arm and a bracket in a localized area around the joint between the arm and the bracket in order to induce localized compressive stresses that will reduce the wind-induced, intermittent tensile stresses and hence minimize fatigue at the joint between the arm and the bracket.
US09249913B2

This invention relates to a hydraulic system comprising a hydraulic cross connection (90), housed in a housing case (99) to be mounted on a rear planar support (98), comprising inlet and outlet ducts (70, 71), at least one tubular element (105, 106) insertable in each one of said ducts (70, 71), and at least one quick coupling removable hook (91; 991), configured to be inserted in a seat (100) obtained on an outer wall of each one of said ducts (70, 71), the hydraulic system being characterized in that said at least one quick coupling removable hook (91; 991) is configured to be posteriorly inserted in the seat (100) and it comprises at least one rear arm (95; 995), and in that the housing case (99) is shaped so that a distance separating the seat (100) of each one of said ducts (70, 71) from the rear planar support (98) is such that said at least one removable hook (91; 991) is removable from the seat (100) and said at least one tubular element (105, 106) is extractable from the inlet or outlet duct (70, 71) to which the seat (100) belongs only when the housing case (99) is not mounted on the rear planar support (98). This invention further relates to the related kit of hydraulic accessories and to the related hydraulic system, as well as to a mixing apparatus comprising such hydraulic system.
US09249912B2

A hose coupling comprising a main body having a hose nipple section with at least one barb formed thereon, and a retention spring extending from a collar formed on the main body, the retention spring overlying a portion of the hose nipple section where the retention spring applies a clamping force on a hose that is trapped and held in position between the retention spring and the hose nipple section by the barb(s).
US09249904B2

Energy dissipative tubes are provided, along with methods of fabricating and installing the energy dissipating tubes. An energy dissipative tube can include a length of tubing, a first resin layer surrounding the outside of the tubing, an expanded metal foil adjacent to the outside of the first resin layer, and a second resin layer surrounding the expanded metal foil and the first resin layer. Another energy dissipative tube can include a length of tubing, a conductive layer adjacent to the outside of the tubing, and an insulative layer adjacent to the conductive layer. A further energy dissipative tube can include a length of tubing, a metal layer adjacent to the outside of the tubing, and a resin layer adjacent to the metal layer.
US09249901B2

A fuel pipe which is inexpensive and is excellent in salt spray corrosion resistance, characterized by being comprised of a steel pipe member having as a material a ferritic stainless steel which contains, by mass %, C: 0.015% or less, Si: 0.01 to 0.50%, Mn: 0.01 to 0.50%, P: 0.050% or less, S: 0.010% or less, N: 0.015% or less, Al: 0.010 to 0.100%, and Cr: 13.0 to 18.0% and further, one or both of Ti: 0.03 to 0.30% and Nb: 0.03 to 0.30% and a metal fitting part, the metal fitting part and the steel pipe member having between them a crevice structure at the surface which the structure is exposed to a salt spray environment, an opening amount at a crevice part of the crevice structure being 0.2 mm or more, and an inside of the crevice part being coated by electrodeposition.
US09249899B2

A cable pull-in system and method for offshore structures (1) of the type having a hollow interior extending from the sea bed to above the surface of the water and an entry hole (2) in the external wall of the structure. The system includes an elongated outer conduit assembly (7) within the interior of which is arranged an elongated cable member (10), the elongated outer conduit assembly being equipped with an inflatable sealing section (4) adapted for engaging the interior of entry hole (2) to seal and affix the outer conduit assembly. The elongated outer conduit assembly is pulled through the entry hole and up to a hangoff point above the water surface such that the inflatable sealing section (4) engages entry hole (2).
US09249895B2

A double valve has two coils which can be piloted separately from each other and which each have a core. The coils are arranged in a common valve housing, and a flange housing is mounted to the valve housing. Two valve seats are arranged in the flange housing, and a diaphragm is associated with the two valve seats, with each coil being associated with one valve seat.
US09249887B2

A seal assembly for use in a turbomachine is provided. The seal assembly has an annular division wall with outside and inside surfaces, a carrier ring disposed adjacent the inside surface of the annular division wall, and a sealing substrate metallurgically-bonded to an inner-most surface of the carrier ring. The sealing substrate is machined to form a seal surface that can be disposed proximate a rotor and maintained substantially parallel thereto during operation of the turbomachine.
US09249885B2

Mechanical seals, seal assemblies and pumps are disclosed. A mechanical seal includes a sealing member and a mount that forms part of a mounting assembly to mount the sealing member to a support structure of the seal. In an embodiment, the mount forms part of a seal assembly and is an elastomeric ring bonded to the sealing member.
US09249884B2

A shaft sealing assembly for static and dynamic sealing includes a stator member attached to a housing and a rotor member attached to a shaft rotatable about an axis. The rotor member includes first and second pocket sections extending from upper and lower radial flanges extending in a cantilevered fashion from a tubular member. At least one static sealing member is attached to and encapsulates each pocket section. Each static sealing member presents a core portion and a pair of radial lips extending from the core portion. The stator member presents an annular wall extending to inner walls inclined conically to a central radial rim or flange separating two pocket portions and the static sealing members presenting a contact and frictionally engaging with the central radial rim as the rotor member is at a stand-still or static position.
US09249880B2

Systems and methods for controlling transmissions and associated vehicles, machines, equipment, etc., are disclosed. In one case, a transmission control system includes a control unit configured to use a sensed vehicle speed and a commanded, target constant input speed to maintain an input speed substantially constant. The system includes one or more maps that associate a speed ratio of a transmission with a vehicle speed. In one embodiment, one such map associates an encoder position with a vehicle speed. Regarding a specific application, an automatic bicycle transmission shifting system is contemplated. An exemplary automatic bicycle includes a control unit, a shift actuator, various sensors, and a user interface. The control unit is configured to cooperate with a logic module and an actuator controller to control the cadence of a rider. In one embodiment, a memory of, or in communication with, the control unit includes one or more constant cadence maps that associate transmission speed ratios with bicycle speeds.
US09249875B1

An apparatus and method of providing a continuous flow of discharge transmission fluid from a torque converter to a cooler of a vehicle transmission such that oil flow to the cooler begins at engine start up and wherein the apparatus includes a safety bypass valve that directs discharge from the torque converter directly to a lube circuit other, than the cooler circuit, in the event pressure within the cooler circuit rises above a predetermine pressure due to a gelling of lubricant oil or other clogging of the cooler circuit.
US09249873B2

The present teachings provide for a power transmitting component including a housing, a clutch, a vent, and a dam. The vent can fluidly couple a first and second cavity. The dam can include a door member. Rotation of the outer carrier through a fluid in the second cavity can sling a portion of the fluid toward the vent to cause the portion of the fluid to be transferred from the second cavity, through the vent, and to the first cavity. When the piston is in a first position, the door member can be in a closed position to limit fluid flow from the first cavity to the second cavity. When the piston is in a second position, the door member can be in an open position to allow fluid to flow from the first cavity to the second cavity.
US09249868B2

A contact and separating device includes a roller member disposed to be capable of being contacted to an abutted member, a bearing member supporting the roller member and configured to be movable together with the roller member in a contact and separation direction with respect to the abutted member, and a biasing member biasing the roller member toward the abutted member through the bearing member. The contact and separating device further includes a separation member holding the roller member and the abutted member in a separation state where the roller member is separated from the abutted member against a biasing force of the biasing member by engaging with the bearing member in the separation state, and a release member releasing engagement between the bearing member and the separation member by moving the separation member.
US09249865B2

A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, at least three planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices include clutches and brakes actuatable in combinations of three to establish a plurality of forward gear ratios and at least one reverse gear ratio.
US09249864B2

A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, at least four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices include clutches and brakes actuatable in combinations of two to establish a plurality of forward gear ratios and one reverse gear ratio.
US09249859B1

Tool chatter during a pipe threading operation is reduced by positioning a pipe end to be threaded alongside a threading tool, positioning a radially expandable mandrel inside of the pipe end, securing the mandrel by expansion, threading the pipe end with the threading tool, and removing the mandrel. A preferred mandrel comprises a housing, an elastomeric sleeve, a piston, and a cylinder head. The elastomeric sleeve covers the outside cylindrical surface of the housing. The device is filled with hydraulic fluid and the piston is actuated to expand the sleeve against the inside of the pipe. Vibrations from the cutting operation are absorbed by the hydraulic fluid after being transmitted into it via the elastomeric sleeve.
US09249857B2

A liquid (L) sealed in a first mounting member (11) of an anti-vibration apparatus (10) contains a first liquid and a second liquid that are mutually insoluble, the second liquid having a higher vapor pressure and a lower weight percentage (weight %) included in the liquid than those of the first liquid. In the anti-vibration apparatus, the size of a generated abnormal noise can be reduced without complicating the structure and deteriorating a damping performance.
US09249852B2

An apparatus and method for damping vibrations within a physical object that is subject to vibration. In one version, a highly flexible enclosure includes at least one interior cavity that is substantially filled with a damping material in which the flexible enclosure is wrapped and secured about the exterior of the physical object.
US09249850B2

Provided is a machine tool which is equipped with a floating mechanism, and the whole of which can be miniaturized and lightened, the floating mechanism being equipped with carriers of loads generated in both radial and thrust directions, resulting in deformation of the floating mechanism being reduced. The floating section (4) of the machine tool is provided with a hollow circular-plate-shaped inner ring (9) comprising an outer peripheral surface section (9a), an upper surface section (9b), and a bottom surface section (9c); and an outer ring (8) comprising an inner peripheral section (8a) and an inner ring receiving section (8b). The outer ring (8) is fixed to a robot arm. The inner ring (9) is fixed to a tool driving section. The outer peripheral surface of the inner ring (9) is formed by a spherical surface which is equidistant from the center point (14) of a hollow circular plate.
US09249847B2

The present invention is a distributed piston elastomeric accumulator which stores energy when its elastomeric member stretches from its original length in response to the flow of a pressurized fluid. The stored energy is returned when the fluid flow is reversed and the accumulator discharges the fluid as its elastomeric member returns to its original length and moves the piston to its initial position. At least one part of the novelty of the invention is that the accumulator is not subject to radial strain gradients and the accumulator allows for precise pressure and linear position measurements. Accordingly, the invention allows for optimization of the energy strain storage capacity of a given elastomer.
US09249845B2

A friction switch coupling for torque transmission from a rotor which can be driven about an axis to an element to be driven, including a friction disk clutch with an electromagnet arrangement which includes a coil body and a ferromagnetically conductive coil carrier supporting and at least partly surrounding the coil body, which the carrier has a web segment lying radially outermost in relation to the coil body and oriented parallel to the axis, and an inner web segment, and between the inner and outer web segments of the coil carrier are provided permanent magnet means via which an axially movable friction segment of the friction switch coupling can be connected magnetically with the rotor, so that when the electromagnet arrangement is in electrically connected state, by weakening of the magnetic attraction effect of the permanent magnet means, the contact of the friction segment on the rotor can be eliminated.
US09249844B2

A clutch latching system is provided for latching and draining a torque transmitting mechanism. The latching clutch control system may include a latching valve, a release valve, and an accumulator. The clutch latching system may include a clutch feed channel configured to provide hydraulic fluid from a pressurized source to a torque transmitting device when the torque transmitting device is engaged and the engine is running. A latching valve connects the clutch feed channel to the torque transmitting device. The latching valve is configured to selectively trap pressurized hydraulic fluid within the torque transmitting device. A hydraulic pressure storage circuit configured to selectively provide pressurized hydraulic fluid to the latching valve to unlatch the latching valve. A multiple speed transmission is also provided.
US09249841B2

A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, at least four planetary gear sets, coupling members, and torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices include clutches and brakes actuatable in combinations of two to establish at least eleven forward gear ratios and one reverse gear ratio. A clutch assembly for use in an automatic transmission is provided that includes an apply piston and a stationary fluid supply member. The apply piston is configured to rotate during at least one gear speed of the automatic transmission. The stationary fluid supply member has portions forming a channel in the stationary fluid supply member and defining an outlet end of the channel. The stationary fluid supply member is configured to supply fluid to the apply piston through the outlet end of the channel.
US09249838B2

A clutch for a manual or automatic transmission according to the present invention includes an axial fan or turbine disposed on a shaft extending between the clutch and the transmission. Air is supplied to the turbine through one or more radial passageways between the clutch and transmission housings and is provided through an annular passageway around the shaft. Air from the annular passageway is then dispersed generally radially between the clutch plates or disks and other clutch components to absorb and carry away heat generated during clutch operation.
US09249835B2

An extruded bearing housing is provided. The extruded bearing housing includes a radially inner ring, and a radially outer ring located concentric with the radially inner ring. The extruded bearing housing includes webs that connect the radially inner ring and the radially outer ring, and the webs are arranged at an acute angle to a circumferential direction. Openings axially extend through the bearing housing and are defined between the webs, the radially inner ring, and the radially outer ring. Adjacent ones of the webs extend in opposite directions from each other.
US09249832B2

A ring-shaped metal rolling bearing cage, which has cage pockets for receiving rolling elements. The cage is formed by a first and a second cage segment. Adjoining ends of the cage segments are connected to one another by suitable connection assemblies. At least one of the assemblies permits a change of the cage diameter when the cage temperature changes. The suitable assembly, on one side, is configured as a joint mechanism and, on another side, as a locking mechanism, and at least one of the assemblies has a lash. A rolling bearing cage configured with the joint mechanism and the locking mechanism can be mounted with low time expenditure in a simple and reliable manner over a shaft, particularly in the case of an idler pinion mourning.
US09249827B2

A hinge and bracket system for a cushion seat back is provided. A bracket is attached to the side of a cushion seat back which is laying flat. The bracket is connected to a rotatable shaft, which in turn is connected to a toothed gear and a pawl. When the cushion seat back is raised upward, the toothed gear and an element of the pawl allow the cushion seat back to ratchet upwards, with the capability to lock the cushion seat back at any tooth. When the cushion seat back is raised above about 90 degrees, the pawl is forced to disengage from the toothed gear and the cushion seat back is unlocked and can be placed back in the original flat position. This hinge and bracket system may be employed in marine operations, especially for water skiing.
US09249825B1

Interlocking hook assemblies for elastic straps include an elastic member 500 including a pair of similar interlocking hook devices 100 connected to each end of elastic member 501. Each interlocking hook device 100, is provided with a connector 300 which is fixedly attached thereon. Each hook device can be connected, preferably in a locking manner, onto the other hook device creating a closed hook assembly thereby disabling the hooks to prevent entanglement of elastic or rigid straps when not in use or during storage and/or transportation. Multiple elastic straps 500 can be connected end-to-end forming an elongated elastic strap of desired length having closed central hooks with open hooks on each end. Interlocking hook assemblies for elastic members include an elastic member with interlocking hook devices 900 including two similar interlocking hook devices 800 with a connector groove 801 and a catch feature 802 and elastic member 811.
US09249822B2

A screw comprises an enlarged head; a large diameter screw rod having one end extending from the enlarged head; a small diameter screw rod having one end extending from another end of the large diameter screw rod; another end of the small diameter screw rod being formed as a tip end; a first thread extending from the large diameter screw rod and the small diameter screw rod; and the first thread extending to the tip end of the small diameter screw rod. A diameter of the first thread on the large diameter screw rod is large than that of the first thread on the small diameter screw rod. A pitch of the first thread on the large diameter screw rod is smaller than or equal to that of the first thread on the small diameter screw rod.
US09249817B2

A wooden member joint structure having high strength against load repeatedly applied in opposite directions, with improved work efficiency in joining the wooden member to a mating member. A screw member having spiral protrusion on its outer peripheral surface and an axial hollow hole is threaded axially into a wooden column. A distal end of joint bolt is threadedly engaged with bottom of the hollow hole. The joint bolt has an integrally formed flange, and the flange is threaded into the column together with the screw member with its contact surface firmly pressed against end face of the screw member. A joint device is clamped between a fastening nut threadably mounted on a proximal end of the joint bolt and the flange and coupled to the screw member via the joint bolt. The joint device is secured to a foundation by an anchor bolt protruding therefrom and a fastening nut.
US09249814B2

A split type hanging buckle can include a main body and a connection part. Wherein a buckle base, in which a buckling cavity is formed, may be arranged on the hanging buckle main body, and an opening of the buckling cavity is divided into an inserting segment and a buckling segment that are connected with each other. A clamping neck may be formed at the position where the inserting segment is connected with the buckling segment. An aperture of the clamping neck can be equal to that of the buckling segment. At least one side of the clamping neck can be provided with an elastic clamping key. One end of an inserting shaft that can be inserted into the buckling cavity is provided with a clamping head. The diameter of the clamping head may be greater than the aperture of the buckling segment.
US09249811B2

A compressed air energy storage system comprises a high-pressure water apparatus, a low-pressure water apparatus coupled to the high-pressure water apparatus through two channels, wherein a first channel is formed by a pumped hydroelectric power generation unit, a first high-pressure pipe and a first low-pressure pipe and a second channel is formed by a gas-water energy exchange unit, a second high-pressure pipe and a second low-pressure pipe and a compressed gas storage unit coupled to the gas-water energy exchange unit.
US09249808B2

A fan module includes a casing, a fan, and two vibration absorption assemblies. The casing has an accommodating space. The fan is located in the accommodating space and keeps a distance from the casing. Each of the two vibration absorption assemblies includes two first vibration absorption components and a second vibration absorption component. The two first vibration absorption components are respectively in contact with the fan and separated from the casing, respectively. The second vibration absorption component is connected with two first vibration absorption components and the casing, respectively. The first vibration absorption components and the second vibration absorption components are adapted for absorbing the vibration waves having different frequency ranges.
US09249804B2

A barrel-type multistage pump with uniformed velocity distribution in an axial direction, on a cross-section of a rotating flow channel, to suppress fluid loss in a last stage, and including: plural stages of centrifugal impellers, covered by an inner casing; diffusers and return channels provided on downstream sides of said centrifugal impellers, to guide the flow of a fluid to a centrifugal impeller in the next stage, and return vanes arranged at respective return channels; a cylindrical outer casing having a suction pipe and a discharge pipe, wherein a cylindrical rotating flow channel connected to a discharge opening is provided between an outer casing and an inner casing, a connecting channel to connect between a rotating flow channel and diffusers.
US09249802B2

A compressor may include first and second scrolls, a hub plate and a valve. The first scroll may include an end plate defining first and second sides, a primary discharge passage extending therethrough, and a secondary discharge passage extending therethrough and located radially outward from the primary discharge passage. The hub plate may be mounted to the first scroll and may include first and second opposite sides and a hub discharge passage in fluid communication with the primary discharge passage. The first side of the hub plate may face the second side of the end plate and may include a valve guide extending axially toward the end plate adjacent the hub discharge passage. The valve member may be secured on the valve guide for axial movement between open and closed positions to respectively allow and restrict fluid communication between the secondary discharge passage and the hub discharge passage.
US09249797B2

A seal assembly is disposed in an annular recess in a cylinder chamber between a pump cavity and a pump exterior. The seal assembly includes a main seal and a back-up seal and seals to a pump plunger disposed within the cylinder chamber. The back-up seal includes an extrusion recess extending from a surface of the back-up seal adjacent the main seal along an inner or an outer diameter of the back-up seal. During pumping operations the plunger strokes through the cylinder chamber causing the main seal to extrude into the extrusion recess to form a seal between the plunger and the cylinder chamber.
US09249778B2

The present invention relates to a vertical axis turbine rotor blade arrangement for a wind power generator adapted to rotate around a vertical axis. The vertical axis turbine rotor blade arrangement comprises a rotor blade having a first and a second end and being pivotally connected to a pivot arm. The pivot arm has a first and a second end and is pivotally connected to a base member. The rotor blade is adapted to be displaced between an active position and a retracted position. The base member and the pivot arm defines a horizontal plane when the rotor blade is in the active position, the base member is rotatable around a pole, the pole is configured to extend in a first direction.
US09249771B2

An engine controlling apparatus for executing (i) an engine automatic stop control and/or (ii) an engine automatic restart control, during running of a vehicle. The controlling apparatus includes: an allowing/inhibiting device configured to selectively allow and inhibit execution of (i) the engine automatic stop control and/or (ii) the engine automatic restart control, by comparing each of at least one of (a) a plurality of physical amounts including (a-1) behavior-representing physical amounts and (a-2) turning-behavior-influencing physical amounts, with (b) a threshold value which is determined, depending on a running velocity of the vehicle, for the each of the at least one of the physical amounts. The behavior-representing physical amounts include at least one turning-behavior-representing physical amount. The allowing/inhibiting device includes a turning-behavior-basis allowing/inhibiting portion that is configured to selectively allow and inhibit the execution of (i) the engine automatic stop control and/or (ii) the engine automatic restart control, by comparing each of the at least one turning-behavior-representing physical amount, with the threshold value.
US09249770B2

The engine starter includes: a starter motor; a pinion unit (30) for sliding in an axial direction on an output shaft of the starter motor; and a ring gear (100) which meshes with a pinion pushed out by a push-out mechanism (60) and receives a transmission of a rotational force of the starter motor to thereby start an engine, and the pinion portion (30) includes a pinion gear divided in the axial direction into two pinion gears which are a first pinion gear (35) having a protruded shape for synchronization, for first colliding with the ring gear upon start of meshing with the ring gear, and a second pinion gear (34) for serving to transmit the rotational force after the meshing.
US09249769B1

A fuel composition and method for cleaning up internal components of a fuel injector and for improver injector performance for a diesel engine. The composition includes major amount of middle distillate fuel having a sulfur content of 50 ppm by weight or less, and from about 1 to about 30 ppm by weight based on a total weight of fuel of a fuel soluble hydrocarbyl sulfonic acid or salt such as an alkyl aryl sulfonic acid or salt thereof, wherein the alkyl aryl sulfonic acid or salt thereof is effective to improve injector performance.
US09249768B2

Test liquid (3) including thermosetting resin is injected from an injection valve (2). Light (L) is irradiated to a spray (6) of the test liquid (3) injected from the injection valve (2) as a treatment for producing a hardening effect to the thermosetting resin. Liquid drops in the spray (6) are hardened and collected as particles. Spray characteristics such as a particle size distribution of the injection valve or the like are analyzed by using the collected particles.
US09249766B2

A fuel injector includes a valve body moved together with a movable core and opening an injection port, and an elastic-force applying portion being elastically deformable according to a movement of the valve body to apply an elastic force to the valve body in a valve-closing direction. An elastic coefficient of the elastic-force applying portion is set to meet a condition that Ffc−Ffo≦L×K. In this case, a fuel-pressure valve-closing force of when the valve body is closed is referred to as Ffc, and the fuel-pressure valve-closing force of when the valve body is completely opened is referred to as Ffo. A movement distance of the valve body from a time point that the valve body is closed to a time point that the valve body is completely opened is referred to as L. The elastic coefficient is referred to as K.
US09249763B2

A hollow plastic part may include at least two plastic shells connected with one another at a respective edge along at least one joining plane. Each plastic shell may have at least a first component and a second component, wherein the plastic of the first component may have a lower melting temperature than the plastic of the second component. The first component may extend on at least one plastic shell in a caterpillar-like manner along at least part of the respective edge of the second component of this plastic shell.
US09249760B2

A method for removing trace levels of oxygen from combustions products includes delivering fuel, oxidant and water into a direct combustion device. The fuel, oxidant and water are combusted in the direct combustion device to produce the combustion products. The combustion products include steam with trace levels of oxygen. The combustion products are then delivered to a scrubber for removal of oxygen. The scrubber includes a material capable of reacting with the oxygen.
US09249736B2

Inlet guide vanes and gas turbine engine systems involving such vanes are provided, In this regard, a representative an inlet guide vane for a gas turbine engine includes: a fixed strut; and a variable flap located downstream of the fixed strut and being movable with respect thereto; the fixed strut having a leading edge, a trailing edge and side surfaces extending between the leading edge and the trailing edge, the side surfaces being asymmetric with respect to each other.
US09249722B2

The present invention relates to a system for improving the performance of a rotary engine comprising at least one of a piston having at least one piston vane configured to rotate. A peddle block is positioned in the pathway of the piston vane, wherein as the piston vane approaches the peddle block a secondary exhaust pressure increases against the piston vane surface, the secondary exhaust pressure, in part, causes the piston vane to rotate and self-align for a subsequent cycle. A variable orifice secondary exhaust port selectively vents at least a portion of the secondary exhaust pressure, away from the piston vane setting an optimal rotational speed of the piston vane, improving performance of the rotary engine. Other exemplary embodiments include turbo-charging the rotary engine by increasing the secondary exhaust pressure, increasing the piston vane rotation, and increasing the amount of secondary exhaust pressure that is recirculated.
US09249720B2

The internal combustion engine has an ammonia feeder which feeds ammonia to a combustion chamber and an NOX selective reduction catalyst which is arranged in an engine exhaust passage. The removal rate of the NOX selective reduction catalyst depends on a ratio of concentration of ammonia to NOX of the exhaust which flows into the NOX selective reduction catalyst, that is, a ratio of concentration of inflow. A high removal rate range where the NOX removal rate in the NOX selective reduction catalyst becomes substantially maximum and, furthermore, the ammonia removal rate becomes substantially maximum, is set in advance. The internal combustion engine is controlled so that the ratio of concentration of inflow becomes inside the high removal rate range.
US09249714B2

The invention relates to a method for fastening an exhaust gas converter module (1) to an internal combustion engine (2) of a motor vehicle, wherein the exhaust gas converter module (1) is first connected to a pipe section of the exhaust gas system arranged upstream in the flow direction of the exhaust gas and is then pivoted about a pivot axis (S), wherein a two-part module bracket (4) engages with an engine bracket (3) and is coupled with the engine mount (3) in this installation position by a screw connection. The invention relates to a corresponding device having an engine bracket and a module bracket (3, 4).
US09249713B2

The present invention relates to a component (1) for a motor vehicle (5), particularly an exhaust system, which can be fastened to a carrier (4) of the motor vehicle (5) by means of at least one fixture (3), with a component housing (2) comprising a housing wall (6), wherein the respective fixture (3) comprises at least one holder (8) having an inner leg (9) extending parallel to the housing wall (6) and an outer leg (10) standing away from the housing wall (6) to the outside.The fatigue strength of the fixture (3) can be improved if the housing wall (6) comprises a passage opening (7), through which the outer leg (10) protrudes, while the inner leg (9) areally bears against the housing wall (6) in the interior (11) of the component housing (2).
US09249712B2

An air-fuel ratio control system for an internal combustion engine, which, at the resumption of air-fuel ratio feedback control, is capable of setting the initial value of an integral term of the feedback control to a value properly learned in preceding feedback control, thereby enabling improvement of control accuracy. To feedback-control the output value of an O2 sensor to a target value, a target air-fuel ratio is calculated. During the feedback control, when it is determined that a predetermined condition in which it is estimated that exhaust gas air-fuel ratio upstream of the catalyst is excellently reflected on an exhaust gas air-fuel ratio at a location midway or downstream of the catalyst is satisfied, an adaptive law input calculated immediately before interruption of the feedback control is updated and stored as the initial value of an integral term for the following execution of the feedback control.
US09249708B2

The present invention relates to a system preferably being an exhaust system or a part of a system such as a part of an exhaust system for a combustion engine. The system or the part of the system comprising a pipe (1) through which a fluid, such as exhaust gasses, flows; a nozzle (3) adapted to atomize a liquid, being disposed. to crystallize as a result of contact with the fluid and adapted to introduce the liquid through one or more outlets into the pipe (1). The nozzle (3) being arranged so that the region being sprayed and/or the mixing region in which a mixing between the liquid being atomized by the nozzle and the fluid flowing in the pipe occur is/are flushed by fluid flowing through the pipe.
US09249706B2

Provided is an exhaust gas treatment catalyst including: a de-NOx catalyst; and a coating layer being provided on a surface of the de-NOx catalyst and containing at least one selected from the group consisting of alkali metal carbonates and alkaline earth metal carbonates.In a method for regenerating an exhaust gas treatment catalyst of the present invention, the coating layer of the de-NOx catalyst on which VOSO4 is deposited is removed with an acid, and after the removal of the coating layer, a coating layer containing at least one selected from the group consisting of alkali metal carbonates and alkaline earth metal carbonates is again provided.
US09249701B2

A valve case includes a housing portion including a cylindrical space for housing a spool of an oil control valve, and a wall portion including a drain space arranged cross to the cylindrical space. The housing portion and the wall portion are integrally formed.
US09249696B2

Valve assembly and method in which a valve member is connected to an elongated lever arm for controlling communication between two chambers in an engine. The valve assembly is disposed at least partially within one of the chambers, and the valve member is moved between open and closed by an actuator connected to the lever arm. In some disclosed embodiments, a pilot valve is opened to equalize pressure on both sides of the valve member prior to moving the valve member toward the open position. In others, where a piston in an expansion cylinder is driven by hot, expanding gases from a separate combustion chamber or heat exchanger, the exhaust valve is closed before the piston has completed its exhaust stroke, and pressure is allowed to build up in the expansion cylinder to a level corresponding to the pressure in the combustion chamber before the valve member is moved toward the open position.
US09249688B2

A rotary machine drive system includes: a first heat source heat exchanger that receives a first heating medium and gasifies a liquid working medium; a first expander that is connected to a rotation shaft and rotates the rotation shaft by expanding the working medium that has been gasified by the first heat source heat exchanger; a rotary machine that has a rotor part provided to the rotation shaft; a second heat source heat exchanger that receives a second heating medium and gasifies a liquid working medium; a second expander that is connected to the rotation shaft and rotates the rotation shaft by expanding the second heating medium; and a condenser that condenses the working medium that has been used in the first expander and the working medium that has been used in the second expander.
US09249685B2

A gas turbine engine has a fan and a turbine section including a turbine rotor to drive the fan through a gear reduction module. An input shaft downstream of the turbine rotor includes a flexible mount driving the gear reduction. The input shaft is mounted within a bearing module. The gear reduction module has static structure mounted to an engine housing through a flexible mount. Oil is supplied into the gear reduction. An oil tube supplies oil from the gear reduction to the bearing module, and is received within openings in the static structure, and a housing for the bearing module. The oil tube extends through an assembly guide having a guide opening spaced away from an outer periphery of the oil tube. The guide opening is intermediate the openings. A method is also disclosed.
US09249678B2

A transition duct for a combustor of a gas turbine generally includes a transition duct having a frame at an aft end of the transition duct. The frame generally includes a downstream end, a radially outer portion, a radially inner portion opposed to the radially outer portion, a first side portion between the radially outer and inner portions, and a second side portion opposed to the first side portion. A slot in the first side portion of the frame may have a downstream surface adjacent to the downstream end of the frame. A heat shield having an inner surface, an outer surface and a plurality of spacers may extend generally outward from the heat shield inner surface such that the inner surface is adjacent to the slot downstream surface and the frame downstream end.
US09249675B2

The present application provides an airfoil with a cooling flow therein. The airfoil may include an internal cooling passage, a number of cooling holes in communication with the internal cooling passage, and a number of pin-fins positioned within the internal cooling passage. The pin-fins are arranged with one or more turning openings and one or more guiding openings so as to direct the cooling flow towards the cooling holes.
US09249673B2

A platform cooling arrangement for a turbine rotor blade having a platform at an interface between an airfoil and a root, the root including attachment means and a shank, wherein the platform comprises a suction side that includes a topside extending from an airfoil base to a suction side slashface, and wherein the platform overhangs a shank cavity. The platform cooling arrangement may include: a pocket formed in an underside region of the platform, the pocket comprising a mouth that fluidly communicates with the shank cavity; a manifold extending from the suction side slashface to a pressure side slashface, the manifold including a connection to the pocket; and cooling apertures that extend from connections made with the pocket and manifold to ports.
US09249659B2

In some embodiments, an apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may operate to obtain a formation fluid sample from a formation adjacent to a wellbore disposed in a reservoir, determine the sample saturation pressure of the formation fluid sample, repeat obtaining the formation fluid sample and determining the sample saturation pressure over a selected time period or number of samples, and determine a predicted ultimate formation fluid saturation pressure based on multiple determinations of the sample saturation pressure. The sample saturation pressures measured over selected time periods can be used to determine fluid sample contamination. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
US09249656B2

A system, method and apparatus for operating a laser at a downhole location is disclosed. A gas is configured to receive an output of a laser and to absorb a selected wavelength of the laser corresponding to a selected spectral line of the gas. A pressure device reduces broadening of the selected spectral line related to a temperature at the downhole location. A photodetector receives light from the gas chamber and provides a measurement related to the received light. A processor alters an operating parameter of the laser using the obtained measurement to operate the laser.
US09249655B1

A top drive control system with a remote control having a processor and data storage connected to a torque pin sensor, a speed sensor, a remote control, which enables a user to actuate automatic remote rocking, drilling, orienting and making-up of a drill string using the top drive and provides simultaneous right hand and left hand torque applied to the drill string while simultaneously controlling speed of turning of the drill string. The top drive control system includes computer instructions for automated orienting of drill pipe, automated drilling with drill pipe and automated making-up of drill pipe into a drill string.
US09249651B2

Improved methods are provided for the application of downhole oil or gas well treating agents, such as liquid corrosion inhibition agents. The methods involve first lowering a liquid retainer device into a well casing, preferably at or above the location of the well production zone, followed by introduction of a liquid treating agent. The presence of the liquid retainer device prevents substantial passage of the agent into the production zone, and forms a column of the liquid agent above the device. The retainer device is then withdrawn from the well so as to create a substantially uniform film of the agent along the inner surfaces of the well casing. In this manner, proper coating of the casing is achieved while preventing production losses owing to passage of the treating agent into the production zone. The liquid retainer is preferably one or more swab cups or oil field retainers.
US09249644B1

A process of manufacturing a well closure apparatus and using it downhole by releasing components contained within the apparatus. The well closure apparatus is an internal bidirectional tubing plug that is adapted for insertion into a tubing string for sealing the tubing string internally while running the tubing into a fluid filled well. The tubing plug is comprised of a body having an inner surface with a recess or passage extending through the body from one end to the other. The recess holds petals and a keystone petal that are held within the recess by a cork and the cork is held in place by a nut. At depth, the tubing is filled with well fluid, the tubing plug is released at a predetermined hydraulic pressure, and the pieces of the releasing components are pumped to the bottom of the well or are circulated out of the well.
US09249640B2

A release mechanism for use with a downhole component in a wellbore environment comprises a shifting sleeve disposed about a mandrel, where the shifting sleeve is torsionally locked with respect to the mandrel, a collet prop disposed about the mandrel and engaged with the shifting sleeve, where the engagement between the collet prop and the shifting sleeve is configured to torsionally lock the collet prop with respect to the shifting sleeve, and a collet engaged with the collet prop, wherein the collet couples the mandrel to the downhole component.
US09249631B2

A system and method for boring a hole in rock with a digger derrick; which utilizes a hollow stem auger, a kelly bar, and a core barrel with a top support member with a hole therein for receiving the kelly bar with a detachable central pilot bit thereon which is translatable up and down with respect to the core barrel as the kelly bar and auger are manipulated. The kelly bar is selectively positionable with respect to the auger so as to allow the ability to retract the pilot bit inward into the core barrel and to shorten the separation between the pilot bit and the auger.
US09249630B2

A downhole stabilizer (5), such as a drill motor stabilizer, comprises at least one reaming means and/or reinforcing means (10). The present invention also relates to an assembly (30), such as a downhole drilling assembly (31), comprising at least one such stabilizer (5) and/or a drill bit (40,41) comprising a gauge bit (42) at or near a drilling end (45) thereof, and a connection means (46) for connecting the drill bit (40,41) to a drill motor assembly (60), wherein the drill bit gauge (42) comprises a substantially cylindrical portion having a length less than or equal to approximately 1.0 times the nominal bit diameter. The present invention also relates to a novel locking mechanism (80), such as a lock and key mechanism, to allow locking of a shaft (70′), e.g. a motor drive shaft (71′), through or together with a stabilizer (5′).
US09249624B2

A battery-powered motorized window treatment for covering at least a portion of a window may be adjusted into a service position to allow for access to at least one battery that is powering the motorized window treatment. A headrail of the motorized window treatment may be adjusted to the service position to allow for easy replacement of the batteries without unmounting the headrail and without requiring tools. The motorized window treatment may comprise brackets having buttons that may be actuated to release the headrail from a locked position, such that the head rail may be rotated into the service position. The headrail easily rotates through a controlled movement into the service position, such that a user only needs one free hand available to move the motorized window treatment into the service position and change the batteries.
US09249613B2

The invention relates a method for making a window, where the sash is connected to the frame by a pair of hinges, each comprising a first hinge part connected to the sash and a second hinge part connected to the frame. The sash is made from a plastic material by molding, and that one or more functional elements are attached to the sash during the molding thereof. The functional elements can include a stay arm having a base member, which is attached to the sash bottom member, and the first hinge parts. Also, the frame may be made by molding.
US09249605B2

A door lock apparatus includes: a latch mechanism; a lock mechanism having a link that can move the latch mechanism to an unlock position and a lock position, and a lock plate that moves the link; a key-operation-force transfer mechanism that transfers an operation force of a key cylinder to the lock plate of the lock mechanism; and a housing in which at least the lock mechanism and the key-operation-force transfer mechanism are accommodated. The door lock apparatus further includes a positioning portion and an engaging portion that position the key-operation-force transfer mechanism in a neutral state corresponding to a neutral position of the key cylinder with respect to the housing.
US09249602B1

A key comprises a key blade, a key handle integral with one end of the key blade and forming a portion of a carabiner that includes a generally C-shaped portion integral with said key blade, and a latching element having a first end pivotably attached to a first open end of the C to permit pivoting movement of said latching element between open and closed positions, and a second end overlapping the second open end of the C when said latching element is in said closed position, to limit the pivoting movement of the latching element. In one implementation, the key includes a biasing spring that urges said latching element toward said closed position.
US09249596B2

An umbrella holder having a base, a holder removably attachable to the base, and a plurality of stakes to secure the base to the ground. A top surface of the base has a section to store the holder when not in use. A bottom surface of the base has a plurality of stake holders to hold the stakes when not in use. The holder has two tubes attached by link arms to allow the two holders to be adjustable relative to each other. The base also has a central main hole and a plurality of auxiliary holes so that a pole can be inserted through at least one of the tubes and through the main hole so as to be perpendicular to the ground, or through one of the auxiliary holes so as to be non-perpendicular to the ground.
US09249591B2

Plastically deformable support bodies (16) are embedded in a gel-like elastic body (15). A bottom-surface adhesive layer (15b) of the gel-like elastic body (15) is bonded to a floor surface (F), and a pressurizing plate (13) is kept on a top-surface adhesive layer (15a). A leg section (2) of equipment (1) is restrained from moving laterally with a bolt (22) provided on the pressurizing plate (13). A load of the equipment (1) is used to apply pressure to a vibration-damping pad (12) via the pressurizing plate (13). A restraint wall (18) is disposed around the vibration-damping pad (12) and a caulking compound (20) is packed in the opening between the pressurizing plate (13) and the floor surface (F). The caulking compound (20) is blocked by the restraint wall (18), and the gel-like elastic body (15) is allowed to deform due to a gap (19) formed between the restraint wall (18) and the vibration-damping pad (12). According to the present invention, a simple and hygienic seismic isolation structure can be used to prevent vibration, noise, and toppling of equipment installed on a floor surface without using anchor bolts.
US09249588B2

An ambulatory surgical center can include a hybrid operating room. The hybrid operating room can include at least four lead-shielded walls, a floor, and a ceiling. The ambulatory surgical center can also include an imaging device disposed in a central area of the hybrid operating room. The ambulatory surgical center can further include an operating table disposed in the central area of the hybrid operating room. The ambulatory surgical center can additionally include a power room adjacent to the operating room. The power room can include a power supply for the imaging device. The ambulatory surgical center can also include a conduit from the power room to the imaging device configured to deliver power to the imaging device. The ambulatory surgical center can further include an emergency power source for the imaging device configured to permit continuity of surgery in the hybrid operating room during a power outage.
US09249584B2

An acoustic dampener (100) comprising a base member (101) having a first surface (102) and a second surface (103), the first surface (102) and the second surface (103) are spaced apart from each other defining a thickness (104) therebetween. The acoustic dampener (100) further comprising a pair of side arms (105), each having a first end (109) and a second end (110). Each side arm (105) is attached to the base member (101) at its first end (109) at a predetermined angle. The side arm (105) extends from the base member (101) to form a channel formation (119) to receive a batten. A flange (106) extends substantially orthogonally from the second end (110) of each side arm (105) for retaining a batten within the channel formation (119).
US09249571B1

A break-away panel having an upper section with a trapezoidal cross sectional configuration and an upper planar surface. A lower section has a rectangular cross sectional configuration with a lower planar surface. First and second upper side surfaces are at an angle with respect to the upper and lower surfaces. The lower section has parallel lower side surfaces. The break-away panel is fabricated of a thermally insulating material. A plurality of slits are formed in the break-away panel. The slits begin a small distance from the first upper side surface. The slits extend downwardly through the upper section from the upper surface and terminate at the lower section above the lower surface.
US09249569B2

A steel support profile for support structures for facades or conservatories, in which a receiving channel for receiving mounting screws for the fixation of retaining profiles is formed by an outward-facing side wall of the steel support profile, and a support structure for facades and conservatories with a steel support profile, on which at least one facade element is fixed by a retaining profile fixed by mounting screws on the steel support profile in a sealed manner via inner and outer seals. An easily producible steel support profile and a support structure that allow greater opportunities for design, by a steel support profile in which the side wall is welded to a base profile, and a support structure with such a steel support profile.
US09249565B2

A deployable truss with modified primary orthogonal joints. The construction of these joints causes the center-hinged primary chords on opposite sides of a truss bay to fold inward in a plane orthogonal to the folding planes of the side diagonals while the two secondary chords fold in planes orthogonal to the plane of the in-folding primary chords. This provides for stiffness and stability during deploy and retract. The unique joint configuration permits the truss to deploy one bay at a time in a stable manner while having lateral bending stiffness, and the truss thus can extend and retract in a sequential manner. It can deploy integral flat panels nested between the secondary folding chords, or use cross bracing in lieu of panels. The truss can be triangular, square or rectangular in cross-section. A powered support frame may be used in conjunction with the truss.
US09249555B2

A hydraulic system for a mobile machine is disclosed. The hydraulic system may have a first actuator, a first valve arrangement, a second actuator, and a second valve arrangement. The hydraulic system may also have at least one operator interface device movable by an operator to generate a first signal indicative of desired work tool movement in a first manner, and a second signal indicative of desired work tool movement in a second manner; and a controller configured to generate a first flow rate command directed to the first valve arrangement based on the first signal, and generate a second flow rate command directed to the second valve arrangement based on the second signal. The controller may also be configured to selectively generate a third flow rate scaled from the first flow rate command and directed to the second valve arrangement based on only the first signal.
US09249549B2

A method and system for efficient oil spill cleanup are disclosed. Inserting magnetic filings in the oil magnetizes the spilled oil. An electromagnetic boom associated with an oil spill cleanup apparatus are used to create a magnetic field proximate to the electromagnetic boom. The magnetic field draws the magnetized oil toward the boom. The magnetic field is periodically switched on and off to create a pumping effect and draws the magnetized oil to a collection apparatus. The electromagnetic boom is directed through the effected environment using a thruster on the distal end of the boom.
US09249544B2

The present invention relates to a road finisher comprising a screed plate and/or a tamper bar and also to a screed plate and/or tamper bar comprising a heating layer applied by thermal spraying.
US09249542B2

A head assembly is provided for use with adzer machine. The head assembly may have a lift frame, and a cutting head rotationally connected to the lift frame. The head assembly may also have a skid, and a single-acting hydraulic cylinder connecting the skid to the lift frame. The head assembly may further have a spring connecting the skid to the lift frame.
US09249537B2

The combination washer/dryer with flow drum is an apparatus that directs the movement of fluids through the drum to improve the laundering of clothing. The apparatus comprises a tub, a drum, an air barrier, an actuator, a hot air duct, and an exhaust duct. The tub comprises a drain, a spout, and an inner space. The air barrier comprises a drum mount and a flow opening. The drum comprises a lateral wall, a first side, and a second side, each of which comprise a plurality of fluid directing blades and fluid openings. Additionally, the drum comprises a cavity. The configuration of these components and sub-components allows the apparatus to use the rotation of the fluid directing blades to direct the flow of fluids through the cavity of the drum during the washing cycle and drying cycle to providing more efficient laundering of the articles of clothing present within the drum.
US09249534B2

A laundry treating apparatus includes a cabinet, a tub provided in the cabinet, a drum rotatably provided in the tub for receiving laundry, a gasket provided between the cabinet and the tub, a plurality of spray nozzles provided at a lower part of the gasket for spraying wash water upward into the drum, and a pump for pumping wash water to the spray nozzles.
US09249531B2

The yarn tension is modulated by a yarn-braking device controlled by a control unit which receives signals of measured tension from a tension sensor and compares them with a reference tension signal in a control loop; as long as the reference tension remains unchanged, a first set of coefficients is used in the control loop causing the control loop to have a relatively slow behavior in relation to the error-compensating action; when a change in the reference tension occurs, the system switches to a second set of coefficients causing the control loop to have a relatively fast behavior; the second set of coefficients is maintained as long as the difference between the second value of the reference tension and the measured tension remains greater or equal to a predetermined minimum value, then the system switches again to the first set of coefficients.
US09249530B2

A fiber preform architecture and method of making, including a plurality of fiber bands. Each band of the plurality of fiber bands is placed at a time, at a predetermined position and orientation, to generate an interwoven and interlocking pattern between the fiber bands. Each of the plurality of fiber bands is formed of a plurality of fiber tows, positioned side by side at a predetermined spacing to define one or more gaps between each tow in the fiber band and define a secondary based interleaving within each of the fiber bands. The plurality of fiber bands are interwoven in an in-plane and out-of-plane orientation by interleaving each of the plurality of fiber bands with one or more of the plurality of fiber bands previously laid down and not in a common plane. The plurality of fiber bands include three or more different orientation angles and provide uniformity in coverage.
US09249527B2

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for manufacturing a melt-blown fabric web, by which a melt-blown fabric web having improved filament cohesion and excellent bulky characteristics and sound-absorbing performance is manufactured. The apparatus includes a heat extruder for heating a thermoplastic resin composition and extruding the melted thermoplastic resin, a melt-blown fiber spinner for spinning the extruded thermoplastic resin as a melt-blown fiber in a filament form, a variable gas injector for injecting gas whose injection speed and injection quantity are continuously changed at random to the melt-blown fiber spun from the melt-blown fiber spinner to cause the injected gas to collide with the spun melt-blown fiber, and a collector for collecting the melt-blown fiber, which is spun from the melt-blown fiber spinner and collides with the gas, to form a melt-blown fabric web.
US09249526B2

A synthetic single crystal diamond material comprising: a first region comprising electron donor defects; a second region comprising quantum spin defects; and a third region between the first and second regions. The second and third regions have a lower concentration of electron donor defects than the first region. The first and second regions are sufficiently close to allow electrons to be donated from the first region to the second region, thus forming negatively charged quantum spin defects in the second and positively charged defects in the first region, and sufficiently far apart to reduce other coupling interactions between the first and second regions which would otherwise unduly reduce the decoherence time of the plurality of quantum spin defects and/or produce strain broaden of a spectral line width of the plurality of quantum spin defects in the second region.
US09249523B2

Forming a porous layer on a silicon substrate is disclosed. Forming the porous layer can include placing a silicon substrate in a first solution and conducting a first current through the silicon substrate. It can further include conducting a second current through the silicon substrate resulting in a porous layer on the silicon substrate.
US09249517B2

Provided is a superior method of producing reduced glutathione by electroreduction of oxidized glutathione. In a method of producing reduced glutathione by electroreduction of oxidized glutathione using a cathode cell and an anode cell separated from each other by a separating membrane, oxidized glutathione is produced using an aqueous oxidized glutathione solution with pH 2.0-3.0 comprising a conducting agent other than acid as a solution in the cathode cell.
US09249516B2

An oxygen scavenger composition is effective in reducing oxygen-induced corrosion in aqueous systems that contain water, oxygen and a significant proportion (at least about 20 wt %) of a glycol, such as monoethylene glycol (MEG). The oxygen scavenger composition contains a sulfite, a transition metal salt, and a stabilizer to enhance the kinetics of oxygen removal (scavenging). The oxygen scavenger composition is particularly suitable when the transition metal salt component includes at least two different transition metals together, such as Ni and Co, or Ni and Mn.
US09249514B2

An article and method of forming the article are disclosed. The article includes a substrate, an overlay bond coat deposited over the substrate and a topcoat deposited over the bond coat. The bond coat of the article includes a plasma affected region proximate to an interface between the bond coat and the topcoat, and the plasma affected region includes an elongated intergranular phase. The method of depositing includes adjusting the plasma spray conditions so as to form the plasma affected region proximate to an interface between the bond coat and the topcoat, and elongated intergranular phases in the plasma affected regions.
US09249513B2

A plating formulation for the electroless deposition of a metal layer on a substrate, wherein a β-amino acid and/or β-amino acid derivative is used as a stabilizer. The β-amino acid is present within a range of 1 mg/L to 2 g/L. Typically, the electrolyte is free of heavy metal stabilizers, cyanides, selenium compounds and sulfur compounds comprising sulfur in an oxidation state between −2 and +5. The inventive plating formulation can comprise 3-aminopropionic acid, 3-aminobutyric acid, 3-amino-4-methylvaleric acid, and 2-aminoethane-sulfonic acid.
US09249509B2

Provided is a method for regenerating a nitric acid active treatment solution comprising: adding a zinc ion-aggregating agent to a nitric acid active treatment solution for a surface of a zinc-based material plated metal member, the nitric acid active treatment solution containing zinc ions, to thereby aggregate the zinc ions in the solution as an insoluble salt; and separating and removing the insoluble salt. This regeneration method is employed instead of methods conventionally and widely conducted in zinc-based plating on a steel material such as the exchange of the entire amount of the nitric acid active treatment solution after a lapse of a certain time, and is a method for regenerating a nitric acid active treatment solution, comprising: depositing and removing zinc ions which come to be mixed in the nitric acid active treatment solution during a zinc-based plating process on a steel material, so that the quality of a trivalent chromium chemical conversion treatment can be controlled at a constant level through simplification and cost reduction of a plating control step, and the waste nitric acid can be reduced as much as possible.
US09249508B2

There is described a process for depositing carbon on a surface, comprising, while contacting a mixture of CO2 and Br2 with a polar substrate presenting apposed surfaces, exposing a sufficient area of said mixture in the region of said apposed surfaces to light of sufficient intensity and frequency to result in deposition of carbon on at least some of said apposed surfaces. Other embodiments are also described.
US09249505B2

A first compound having an atom in an oxidized state is reacted with a bis(trimethylsilyl) six-membered ring system or related compound to form a second compound having the atom in a reduced state relative to the first compound. The atom in an oxidized state is selected from the group consisting of Groups 2-12 of the Periodic Table, the lanthanides, As, Sb, Bi, Te, Si, Ge, Sn, and Al.
US09249500B2

Methods and apparatus for a magnetron assembly are provided herein. In some embodiments, a magnetron assembly includes a first plate having a first central axis, the first plate rotatable about the first central axis, a first open loop magnetic pole coupled to the first plate, a second plate having a second central axis, the second plate rotatable about the second central axis, and a second open loop magnetic pole coupled to the second plate, wherein the first open loop magnetic pole and the second open loop magnetic pole form a closed loop magnetic pole when the first and second open loop magnetic poles are aligned.
US09249499B2

A coated article includes a metal substrate, a carbosiliconized layer formed on the metal substrate, a metal bonding layer formed on the carbosiliconized layer, and a color layer formed on the metal bonding layer. The carbosiliconized layer is formed by carbosiliconizing the metal substrate to enable elemental carbon and elemental silicon to penetrate into a surface layer of the metal substrate. The color layer consists of ceramic material. A method for making the coated article is also described.
US09249498B2

Forming memory using high power impulse magnetron sputtering is described herein. One or more method embodiments include forming a resistive memory material on a structure using high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), wherein the resistive memory material is formed on the structure in an environment having a temperature of approximately 400 degrees Celsius or less.
US09249495B2

The invention relates to a method for preparing a thin film of at least one compound of formula AM4X8, where: A is Ga or Ge; M is V, Nb, Ta or Mo; and X is S or Se. Said method includes the following steps: i) a step of forming a thin film of at least one compound of formula AM4X8 by the magnetron spraying of a target including at least one compound of said formula AM4X8, in an atmosphere including at least one inert gas; and ii) a step of annealing the thin film formed during step i) by heat treating; wherein step i) and/or step ii) are carried out in the presence of sulphur when X is S or in the presence of selenium when X is Se.
US09249493B2

An organic layer deposition apparatus including: a deposition source configured to discharge a deposition material; a deposition source nozzle unit arranged at a side of the deposition source and including a plurality of deposition source nozzles; a patterning slit sheet facing the deposition source nozzle unit and including a plurality of patterning slits, the patterning slit sheet being smaller than the substrate in at least one of a first direction or a second direction perpendicular to the first direction; a blocking member configured to be disposed between the substrate and the deposition source to block at least a portion of the substrate; and a heating member on the blocking member and configured to heat the blocking member, and the substrate is spaced apart from the organic layer deposition apparatus by a predetermined distance, and the substrate or the organic layer deposition apparatus is movable relative to the other.
US09249490B2

A system to install a mask onto a component of a gas turbine engine includes a drive movable along an axis with respect to a movable base.
US09249488B2

The present invention provides an Ni-base dual multi-phase intermetallic compound alloy which has a dual multi-phase microstructure comprising a primary precipitate L12 phase and an (L12+D022) eutectoid microstructure, and which comprises: more than 5 atomic % and up to 13 atomic % of Al; at least 9.5 atomic % and less than 17.5 atomic % of V; more than 0 atomic % and up to 12.5 atomic % of Nb; more than 0 atomic % and up to 12.5 atomic % of C; and a remainder comprising Ni.
US09249486B2

A profiled wire, of NACE grade, made of low-alloy carbon steel intended to be used in the offshore oil exploitation sector is provided. The profiled wire includes the following chemical composition, expressed in percentages by weight of the total mass: 0.75<% C<0.95; 0.30<% Mn<0.85; Cr≦0.4%; V≦0.16%; Si≦1.40% and preferably ≧0.15%; and optionally no more than 0.06% Al, no more than 0.1% Ni and no more than 0.1% Cu, the balance being iron and the inevitable impurities arising from smelting the metal in the liquid state. The steel is obtained, from hot-rolled rod stock cooled down to room temperature, and then having a diameter of about 5 to 30 mm, by subjecting this starting rod firstly to a thermomechanical treatment comprising two successive steps carried out in order, namely an isothermal quench, giving it a homogeneous perlitic microstructure, followed by a mechanical transformation operation carried out cold with an overall degree of work-hardening (or reduction ratio) of between 50 and 80% at most, so as to give the wire its definitive shape, and in that the profiled wire thus obtained is then subjected to a restoration heat treatment of short duration carried out below Ac1 (preferably between 410 and 710° C.), giving it the desired final mechanical properties.
US09249485B2

A cold work tool steel with average or above wear resistance, a hardness in excess of (60) HRc and a very good toughness but with considerably lower carbon contents leading to highly improved weldability is obtained by combining the presence of primary carbides (or alternatively nitrides and/or borides) with other strengthening mechanisms like precipitation hardening or even solid solution. Vanadium rich MC type carbides, modified with refractory metal additions, present the best compromise of hardness and fracture toughness for several applications, while for other applications harder carbides, such as Ti carbides or Ti mixed carbides (primarily with V, Mo and/or W) will be the preferred ones, alternatively using Zr and Hf mixed carbides.
US09249483B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a 6000-series aluminum alloy material for a high-pressure gas container which has both of resistance to hydrogen embrittlement and mechanical properties. In the aluminum alloy material for a high-pressure gas container, the contents of Fe, Mn and Cu fall within narrower ranges than the standard composition of AA6066 alloy. The aluminum alloy material is produced to have a structure in which a predetermined amount of fine dispersed particles are dispersed therein and coarse crystallized materials are small, and therefore strength and resistance to hydrogen embrittlement are improved, which are required for a high-pressure gas container.
US09249481B2

A preparation method of silver nanostructure for use as substrate of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), which can ensure the ‘hot spot’, which provides the considerably very intense electromagnetic field in which the silver nano-structures have uniform average size and very strong forms of particles, by characterizing a variety of conditions such as, for example, concentration of AgNO3 and reductant, reaction temperature, stirring velocity, single dropwise addition quantity, dropwise addition rate, or total dropwise addition quantity, which were unpredictable in the conventional silver nanoparticle preparation method using AgNO3 aqueous solution and NaBH4 reductant, so that the preparation method can be advantageously applied for the mass production of silver nano-structures for use as substrate of SERS because the method can provide multimer form with enhanced SERS signals and reproducibility, and also ability to selectively control the particle size.
US09249480B2

A method for producing alkali and alkaline earth alloys. It also relates to the use of the alkali and alkaline earth compositions. In order to create a novel method for producing alkali and alkaline earth alloys, it is proposed within the context of the invention that salts, hydroxides, alkoxides or oxides of alkali or alkaline earth compounds be mixed with salts, hydroxides, alkoxides or oxides of semi-metals, nonmetals or metals and then heated to at least 100° C., the salts, hydroxides, alkoxides or oxides of alkali or alkaline earth metals being present in a molar ratio of 1:1 or in excess thereof in relation to the salts, hydroxide, alkoxides or oxides of the semi-metals, nonmetals or metal. Surprisingly, it was found within the context of the invention that by mixing salts, hydroxides, alkoxides or oxides of alkali or alkaline earth compounds with salts, hydroxides, alkoxides or oxides of semi-metals or metals from the 3rd or 4th main group and subsequent heating, alkali or alkaline earth alloys can be produced.
US09249474B2

Methods for consolidated pretreatment and hydrolysis of genetically engineered plants expressing cell wall degrading enzymes are provided. Expression cassettes and vectors for making transgenic plants are described. Plants engineered to express one or more cell wall degrading enzymes using expression cassettes and vectors of the invention are also provided.
US09249472B2

The disclosed invention is related to methods, compositions, kits and isolated nucleic acid sequences for targeting Adenovirus nucleic acid. Compositions include amplification oligomers and/or detection probe oligomers. Kits and methods comprise at least one of these oligomers.
US09249466B2

We describe a method of determining whether a cancer cell is likely to be resistant to treatment by an mTOR inhibitor. The method may comprise detecting PPP2R2B (GenBank Accession Number: NM_18167) in or of the cell. It may, alternatively, or in addition, comprise detecting PDK1 (GenBank Accession Number: NM_002613), in or of the cell. The method may comprise detecting methylation of the PPP2R2B promoter in or of the cell. It may comprise detecting the expression and/or activity of PPP2R2B in or of the cell. It may comprise detecting PDK1 mediated Myc phosphorylation activity. Methods of choosing a treatment for an individual suffering from or suspected to be suffering from a cancer, determining whether an individual suffering from or suspected to be suffering from a cancer will respond to treatment by an mTOR inhibitor, increasing the sensitivity of a cancer cell to treatment by an mTOR inhibitor, for treating or preventing cancer in an individual suffering or suspected to be suffering from cancer are also provided. We further provide for a combination of an inhibitor of PDK1 expression and/or activity and an mTOR inhibitor for use in a method of treatment or prevention of cancer.
US09249465B2

Molecular markers for lung and colorectal carcinomas and methods of using them in blood sample assays are disclosed. The method comprises measuring the expression of the markers in a blood sample from a subject for detecting the presence and/or severity of lung and/or colorectal cancer, and for monitoring and/or assessing the prognosis of the subject's response to a cancer therapy. Also disclosed are kits for detecting, diagnosing, and/or monitoring lung or colorectal carcinomas.
US09249464B2

The present invention relates to an in vitro method for detecting methylated DNA comprising (a) coating a container with a polypeptide capable of binding methylated DNA; (b) contacting said polypeptide with a sample comprising methylated and/or unmethylated DNA; and (c) detecting the binding of said polypeptide to methylated DNA. In a preferred embodiment, said method further comprises step (d) analyzing the detected methylated DNA by sequencing. Another aspect of the present invention is a kit for detecting methylated DNA according to the methods of the invention comprising (a) a polypeptide capable of binding methylated DNA; (b) a container which can be coated with said polypeptide; (c) means for coating said container; and (d) means for detecting methylated DNA.
US09249447B2

The present invention relates to novel methods of generating and screening for chimeric polypeptides, which can be used in the treatment and prophylaxis of pathogenic bacterial contamination, colonization and infection. The novel methods are based on random recombination of protein domains, and the chimeric polypeptides obtainable by the methods according to the invention are characterized in that they comprise at least one enzymatic active domain (EAD) and at least one cell binding domain (CBD). The present invention also relates to a library of chimeric polypeptides obtainable by the methods of the present invention.
US09249445B2

Disclosed is a detection method for detecting a specific cell in a sample containing multiple cells including the specific cell. Specifically disclosed is a detection method for detecting a specific cell in a sample containing multiple cells including the specific cell, which comprises the following steps (1) and (2): (1) retaining cells contained in the sample on a microarray chip which comprises multiple microchambers, wherein each of the microchambers can contain multiple cells; and (2) confirming the presence or absence of the specific cell in the cells retained on the microarray chip.
US09249443B2

Devices and methods for implementing cell-based assays and long-term cell culture. The device and method are based on digital microfluidics (DMF) which is used to actuate nanoliter droplets of reagents and cells on a planar array of electrodes. DMF method is suitable for assaying and culturing both cells in suspension and cells grown on surface (adherent cells). This method is advantageous for cell culture and assays due to the automated manipulation of multiple reagents in addition to reduced reagent use and analysis time. No adverse effects of actuation by DMF were observed in assays for cell viability, proliferation, and biochemistry. These results suggest that DMF has great potential as a simple yet versatile analytical tool for implementing cell-based assays and cell culture on the microscale.
US09249439B2

The invention relates to optimization of culture conditions that utilizes different feed solutions and feeding strategies for improving capsular polyoses (CP) production.
US09249435B2

A process for the improved separation of a hydrophobic organic solution from an aqueous culture medium is provided. The process includes preparing an aqueous culture medium of a metabolically active cell having a decreased activity; contacting of the aqueous culture medium with a hydrophobic organic solution comprising a substrate for biotransformation; conducting a biotransformation of the substrate; and separating the hydrophobic organic solution comprising a biotransformed substrate from the aqueous culture medium. The decreased activity of the metabolically active cell is in comparison to a wild-type of the active cell and the decreased activity is of at least of one enzyme that catalyzes one reaction of β-oxidation of fatty acids. The invention further provides a metabolically active cell that has a decreased activity, compared to its wild-type, of an enzyme that catalyzes one of the reactions of the β-oxidation of fatty acids, including an enzyme selected from FadA, FadB, FadD, FadL and FadE as well as variants thereof.
US09249431B2

The invention relates to a process for producing organic acids, acid derivatives thereof and/or organic alcohols. In particular, the invention relates to a process for culturing a butyric acid-producing micro-organism in a culture vessel; transferring a portion of the butyric acid which is produced in the culture vessel to a separate compartment; and then reintroducing a portion of the acids from the second compartment in a controlled manner into the culture vessel. The invention also relates to a process for making butanol. The invention further relates to a process for culturing a butyrate-producing micro-organism in a first compartment of an electrochemical reactor, passing a direct current electric field across the electrochemical reactor and harvesting butyric acid or acid derivatives thereof in a second compartment of the reactor. The invention further relates to a process for producing butanol from the butyric acid.
US09249430B2

Described are recombinant microorganisms characterized by having phosphoketolase activity, having a diminished or inactivated Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway (EMPP) by inactivation of the gene(s) encoding phosphofructokinase or by reducing phosphofructokinase activity as compared to a non-modified microorganism and having a diminished or inactivated oxidative branch of the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) by inactivation of the gene(s) encoding glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase or by reducing glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity as compared to a non-modified microorganism. These microorganisms can be used for the production of useful metabolites such as acetone, isobutene or propene.
US09249429B2

Provided is a strain belonging to the genus Aurantiochytrium, the strain being characterized by there being at least 10 mass % of squalene in all the lipids produced by the strain, and by forming colonies exhibiting an orange-to-red color.
US09249427B2

The present invention relates to recombinant rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) vectors encoding heterologous antigens, such as pathogen-specific antigens or tumor antigens, which may be used, for example, for the treatment or prevention of infectious disease or cancer. The recombinant RhCMV or HCMV vectors elicit and maintain high level cellular immune responses specific for the heterologous antigen while including deletions in one or more genes essential or augmenting for CMV replication, dissemination or spread.
US09249419B2

The present invention relates to methods for producing Saccharomyces strains that are capable of growth on xylose as a sole carbon source at a desired growth rate, (such as at least one generation per 48 hours), strains made by such methods, and Saccharomyces strains that grow at a growth rate of at least one generation per 48 hours using xylose as a sole carbon source for growth made by non-recombinant methods.
US09249412B2

A method of partial, rapid and direct genetic and epigenetic reprogramming of biological cells without returning to the embryonic state can partially reprogram a cell to be treated to specifically modify the biological age of said cell to be treated without causing functional de-differentiation of said cell to be treated, said cell to be treated always remaining as a specialized functional cell that is immunologically autologous to the donor tissue from which said cell to be treated is derived, and for which the phenotype is preserved and/or rejuvenated.
US09249411B2

The invention provides a replicable genetic package displaying a cyclic peptide having at least one intramolecular bond between amino acid side chains. Also provided are a method of preparing such a genetic package displaying cyclic peptides having at least one intramolecular bond. Further provided is a library of replicable genetic packages displaying cyclic peptides each having at least one intramolecular cyclic bond between amino acid side chains; and a method of producing such a library.
US09249409B2

A method for detecting a cancer(s) based on an expression of prescribed polypeptides is disclosed. These polypeptides were isolated, by the SEREX method using a cDNA library derived from canine testis and serum from a cancer-bearing dog, as a polypeptide which binds to an antibody existing in serum derived from cancer-bearing living body. Because these polypeptides react with antibodies specifically existing in serum of a cancer patient, cancers in a living body can be detected by measuring the antibody in a sample. Cancers in a living body can also be detected by measuring the antigen protein of the antibody per se or mRNA encoding it.
US09249399B2

This document relates to molecular complexes having acid alpha glucosidase activity and at least one modification that results in enhanced ability of the molecular complex to be transported to the interior of a mammalian cell.
US09249395B2

The present invention concerns replicons of pestiviruses, in particular replicons of swine fever virus, engineered to have a defective replication thereby having lost infectivity, and further containing a foreign gene. A replicon of the invention contains all the genetic information required for its replication, but lacks essential codons or all codons of at least one of the genes encoding the viral structural proteins E1, E2, Ems or C protein, and consequently cannot generate infectious virus particles. Particular replicons are generated with a mutated gene encoding a modified Npro protein that no longer controls the cell interferon-induction pathway. Another particular replicon lacks the genes encoding all the structural proteins, the p7 protein and the NS2 protein, and has cytopathogenic properties in transduced cells. The replicons of the invention provide a new vector system that can be used for vaccination, gene delivery and gene therapy applications in mammals, including humans, as naked RNA or packaged into any form of delivery vehicle.
US09249390B2

The present invention relates to a method and components for producing polarized retinal progenitor cells (RPC) from pluripotent stem cells in high yield and purity. The polarized retinal progenitor cells are preferably further differentiated with high efficiency and speed into retinal pigment epithelium cells (RPE cells). The cells obtained are particularly suitable for use in cell transplantation or in the generation of transplant tissue and are particularly applicable to screening systems for substances that modulate the function of polarized retinal progenitor cells and/or RPE cells.In the method according to the invention pluripotent stem cells are differentiated into polarized retinal progenitor cells by first culturing pluripotent stem cell colonies in three-dimensional cell culture embedded in a proteinaceous gel comprising at least two proteins selected from the group consisting of Laminin, Collagen IV Entactin and Perlecan and comprising at least two growth factors selected from agonists of the EGF, FGF2, NGF, PDGF, IGF-1 and TGF-beta pathways until polarized neural cysts develop and subsequently dissociating the polarized neural cysts into dispersed polarized retinal progenitor cells.
US09249384B2

The invention relates to a method for applying at least one electrical voltage pulse to at least one reaction space by at least partially discharging at least one charge storing unit for storing electrical charges. According to the invention the method comprises applying at least one voltage pulse to a reaction space by at least partially discharging a second charge storing unit and simultaneously charging or partially discharging a first charge storing. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device 1 for applying at least one electrical voltage pulse to at least one reaction space, comprising at least two charge storing units (10, 11) for storing electrical charges and at least one power supply unit (12) for charging the charge storing units (10, 11) and/or at least one discharge device for partially discharging the charge storing units (10, 11). According to the invention it is provided that at least two of the charge storing units (10, 11) form a common storage module which can be discharged at any time.
US09249382B2

Devices and methods for isolating and/or culturing microorganisms are provided. The devices comprise one or more semi-permeable membranes and may additionally include a growth medium for the microorganism. The devices and methods described herein can be used to isolate and culture both known and novel microorganisms from any environment.
US09249379B2

A colored laundry detergent is provided that photobleaches.
US09249373B2

Laundry detergents useful for cold-water cleaning and boosted bargain detergents are disclosed. The detergents include a surfactant composition derived from a metathesis-derived C10-C17 monounsaturated acid, octadecene-1,18-dioic acid, or their ester derivatives. For fatty alkyl ester sulfonate-containing detergents, the composition is selected from C10 betaines, C12 or C16 amidoamines, C12 ethanolamine amides, C16 amidoamine sulfonates, C18 diamidoamine dioxides, quaternized C18 diamidoamine betaines, sulfonated C18 low-EO fatty ester alkoxylates, C18 amidoamine carboxylates, and amidoamine oxides and sulfobetaines derived from cross-metathesis of palm or soybean oil. The bargain detergents include a performance booster selected from C12 low-EO fatty ester alkoxylate sulfonates, C18 amidoamine oxide esters, C18 amidoamine oxide carboxylates, and amidoamine sulfobetaines made from self metathesized palm or soybean oil.
US09249364B2

The present invention describes a process for converting a heavy feed which is flexible for the production of propylene, gasoline and middle distillate.The process uses a catalytic cracking unit and a unit for the oligomerization of C4 to C9 olefins. The process of the invention includes selective hydrogenation of the unrefined gasoline cut obtained from the catalytic cracking unit and separation between a light gasoline cut and a heavy gasoline cut, the light gasoline being directed to the oligomerization unit.
US09249359B2

A method of preparing a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst for handling, storage, transport and deployment, including the steps of impregnating a porous support material with a source of cobalt, calcining the impregnated support material, activating the catalyst, and passivating the activated catalyst.
US09249354B2

Networks of semiconductor structures with fused insulator coatings and methods of fabricating networks of semiconductor structures with fused insulator coatings are described. In an example, a method of fabricating a semiconductor structure involves forming a mixture including a plurality of discrete semiconductor nanocrystals. Each of the plurality of discrete semiconductor nanocrystals is discretely coated by an insulator shell. The method also involves adding a base to the mixture to fuse the insulator shells of each of the plurality of discrete nanocrystals, providing an insulator network. Each of the plurality of discrete semiconductor nanocrystals is spaced apart from one another by the insulator network. The base one such as, but not limited to, LiOH, RbOH, CsOH, MgOH, Ca(OH)2, Sr(OH)2, Ba(OH)2, (Me)4NOH, (Et)4NOH, or (Bu)4NOH.
US09249352B2

Fracturing fluid comprising, in solution in water, a proppant and an associative amphoteric polymer, the said polymer having a molecular weight of at least 1 000 000 g/mol and comprising: 0.01 to 10 mol % of at least one cationic monomer derived from acrylamide, from 0.09 to 89.99 mol % of at least one anionic monomer, and from 10 to 99 mol % of at least one nonionic water-soluble monomer. Fracturing process using the fluid.
US09249348B2

Disclosed herein is heat transfer system, comprising a brazed aluminum component, and a heat transfer fluid in fluid communication with the brazed aluminum component, wherein the heat transfer fluid comprises a liquid coolant, an oxy-anion of molybdenum, tungsten, vanadium, phosphorus, antimony, or a combination thereof, and a corrosion inhibitor. Also disclosed is a method of preventing corrosion in the heat transfer system, and a heat transfer fluid and additive package for use in the heat transfer system.
US09249338B2

Disclosed herein is an anti-fingerprint coating composition, a coating composition for forming thin films that prevents fingerprints adhered to displays or touch panels from being remarkably visible and exhibits superior durability and slip properties, and a method for preparing the same.The anti-fingerprint coating composition is prepared by mixing a silane compound having an alkyl group with distilled water or acid.
US09249337B2

The invention relates to processes for coating a surface with a crosslinked polyelectrolytes multilayer film incorporating a protein, preferably a growth factor type protein. The invention also relates to crosslinked polyelectrolytes multilayer films obtained by this process, and a coated surface obtained therefrom.
US09249333B2

Provided are polymer-aerogel composite coatings, devices and articles including polymer-aerogel composite coatings, and methods for preparing the polymer-aerogel composite. The exemplary article can include a surface, wherein the surface includes at least one region and a polymer-aerogel composite coating disposed over the at least one region, wherein the polymer-aerogel composite coating has a water contact angle of at least about 140° and a contact angle hysteresis of less than about 1°. The polymer-aerogel composite coating can include a polymer and an ultra high water content catalyzed polysilicate aerogel, the polysilicate aerogel including a three dimensional network of silica particles having surface functional groups derivatized with a silylating agent and a plurality of pores.
US09249330B2

A resin composition includes a thermoplastic resin and a metal-resin composite particle, wherein the metal-resin composite particle includes a metal deposition layer, a first coating layer positioned on one side of the metal deposition layer, and a second coating layer positioned on the other side of the metal deposition layer, and the first coating layer and second coating layer include a thermosetting resin respectively. An article includes the resin composition.
US09249319B2

The present invention relates to a liquid additive for etching silicon nitride and silicon oxide layers, a metal ink including the same for forming silicon solar cell electrodes and a method for manufacturing silicon solar cell electrodes. More particularly, it relates to a liquid additive including metal nitrate, metal acetate, or hydrates thereof and a metal ink for forming silicon solar cell electrodes, mixed with the liquid additive and a metal. Further, it relates to a method for manufacturing silicon solar cell electrodes comprising a one-step non-contact printing for etching of a silicon nitride layer or silicon oxide layer and forming electrodes.
US09249307B2

Compounds useful as labels with properties comparable to known fluorescent compounds. The compounds are conjugated to proteins and nucleic acids for biological imaging and analysis. Synthesis of the compounds, formation and use of the conjugated compounds, and specific non-limiting examples of each are provided.
US09249302B2

Provided are a curable composition and its use. The curable composition may provide a cured product having excellent processability, workability, and adhesive property, and having no whitening and surface stickiness. The curable composition has excellent thermal resistance at a high temperature, gas barrierability, and crack resistance, and thus, when applied to a semiconductor device, may stably maintain performance of the device at a high temperature for a long time.
US09249299B2

Thermoplastic molding compositions comprising A) from 10 to 99.8% by weight of a thermoplastic polyamide, B) from 0.1 to 60% by weight of red phosphorus, C) from 0.05 to 5% by weight of a catalyst comprising copper and zinc and support material, D) from 0 to 40% by weight of an impact modifier, E) from 0 to 60% by weight of further additives, where the total of the percentages by weight of A) to E) is 100%.
US09249291B2

A thermoplastic elastomer compound is blended from styrenic block copolymer, thermoplastic vulcanizate, thermoplastic polyurethane, a compatibilizer, and a masterbatch containing silicone, which is added to provide a qualitative silky feel on surfaces of plastic articles made from the compound.
US09249287B2

In order to accurately learn a function for evaluating documents, even in the case where sample documents having missing feature values are included as training data, a document evaluation apparatus is provided with a data classification unit (3) that classifies a set of sample documents based on missing patterns of a first feature vector, a first learning unit (4) that uses feature values that are not missing in the first feature vector and evaluation values to learn a first function for calculating a first score which is a weighted evaluation value for each classification, a feature vector generation unit (5) that computes a feature value corresponding to each classification using the first score, and generates a second feature vector having the computed feature values, and a second learning unit (6) that uses the second feature vector and the evaluation values to learn a second function for calculating a second score for evaluating documents targeted for evaluation.
US09249280B2

The viscosity of solutions of nonionic synthetic associative thickeners is controlled by adding organophosphates to the solution of associative thickeners. The associative thickeners are hydrophobically modified polymers and the organophosphates include one or more hydrophobic groups.
US09249272B2

Thermal insulation material capable of being obtained from the mixture of at least the following elements: an aqueous foam; silica aerogel particles; and at least one binder selected from an organic binder and a mineral binder.
US09249266B2

Micro- and nano-sized particles, agglomerates and fibers are generated from high molecular weight water-soluble biopolymers applying supercritical fluid technology. A method of producing micro- or nanoparticles from an aqueous solution of a high molecular weight biopolymer includes the step of spraying the aqueous solution together with a mixture of a compressible gas and a water-soluble co-solvent/antisolvent into a pressurized chamber. The method may be adapted to impregnate the micro- or nanoparticles with a bioactive material. A method for microencapsulating a bioactive material with a biopolymer is also provided.
US09249259B2

The present invention relates to a process for the activation of double metal cyanide (DMC) catalysts and to a process for the preparation of polyethercarbonate polyols from one or more H-functional starter compounds, one or more alkylene oxides and carbon dioxide in the presence of a double metal cyanide catalyst, characterized in that (α) (α1) the DMC catalyst and one or more H-functional starter compounds are placed in a reactor, (α2) an inert gas, an inert gas/carbon dioxide mixture or carbon dioxide is passed through the reactor at a temperature of 50 to 200° C. and at the same time a reduced pressure (absolute) of 10 mbar to 800 mbar is established in the reactor by removal of the inert gas or carbon dioxide, (β) under an atmosphere of inert gas/carbon dioxide mixture or under a pure carbon dioxide atmosphere, alkylene oxide is added to the mixture from step (α) at temperatures of 50 to 200° C., and (γ) one or more alkylene oxides and carbon dioxide are metered into the mixture resulting from step (β).
US09249256B2

Provided are: a novel triepoxy compound capable of forming, through polymerization, a cured article having excellent heat resistance; a production method thereof; a curable composition including the triepoxy compound; and a cured article obtained by curing the curable composition.The triepoxy compound according to the present invention is represented by Formula (1). The triepoxy compound represented by Formula (1) may be obtained typically by oxidizing a compound represented by Formula (2) with an oxidizing agent. In Formulae (1) and (2), R1 to R2° are the same as or different from one another and each represent hydrogen atom, methyl group, or ethyl group. Formulae (1) and (2) are expressed as follows:
US09249249B2

An optical polymeric material that can substantially block the transmission of ultraviolet light as well as selected portion of violet light. The polymeric material will include monomeric units of one or more lens monomers, and monomeric units of a monomer of formula (I).
US09249241B2

A functionalized mesoporous carbon composition comprising a mesoporous carbon scaffold having mesopores in which polyvinyl polymer grafts are covalently attached, wherein said mesopores have a size of at least 2 nm and up to 50 nm. Also described is a method for producing the functionalized mesoporous composition, wherein a reaction medium comprising a precursor mesoporous carbon, vinyl monomer, initiator, and solvent is subjected to sonication of sufficient power to result in grafting and polymerization of the vinyl monomer into mesopores of the precursor mesoporous carbon. Also described are methods for using the functionalized mesoporous carbon, particularly in extracting metal ions from metal-containing solutions.
US09249240B2

Graft polymers whose grafting base is selected from the group consisting of polymers having vinylamine units, polyamines, polyamidoamines and polymers of ethylenically unsaturated acids and which comprise exclusively oligoalkylenimine side chains as side chains, process for the preparation of graft polymers having oligoalkylenimine side chains, at least one oligoalkylenimine which comprises a terminal aziridine group being grafted onto one of said grafting bases, and the use of the graft polymers thus obtainable as process chemicals in the production of paper, as antimicrobial coating materials, as builders in detergents and for the treatment of metal surfaces.
US09249239B2

This invention relates to a novel group 2, 3 or 4 transition metal metallocene catalyst compound that is asymmetric having two non-identical indenyl ligands with substitution at R2 having a branched or unbranched C1-C20 alkyl group substituted with a cyclic group or a cyclic group, R8 is an alkyl group and R4 and R10 are substituted phenyl groups.
US09249232B2

The present invention relates to improved methods for the selection of appropriate human acceptor framework regions for non-human (donor) antibodies and methods for obtaining humanized antibodies of high affinity using such acceptor frameworks.
US09249221B2

Provided is a humanized and affinity-matured anti-c-Met antibody, a pharmaceutical composition including the antibody, and a method of preventing and/or treating c-Met-related disease using the antibody.
US09249218B2

A method for purifying a polypeptide by ion exchange chromatography is described which involves changing the conductivity and/or pH of buffers in order to resolve a polypeptide of interest from one or more contaminants.
US09249217B2

We have constructed bispecific antibody engaging molecules which have one arm that specifically engages a tumor cell which expresses the human EGFRvIII mutant protein on its surface, and a second arm that specifically engages T cell activation ligand CD3. The engaging molecules are highly cytotoxic and antigen-specific.
US09249211B2

The present invention relates to binding fusion protein compositions comprising targeting moieties linked to extended recombinant polypeptide (XTEN), binding fusion protein-drug conjugate compositions, and XTEN-drug conjugate compositions, isolated nucleic acids encoding the compositions and vectors and host cells containing the same, and methods of using such compositions in treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions.
US09249209B2

The invention concerns glycosylated proteins having human factor VIII activity. In a preferred embodiment, the protein is glycosylated with oligosaccharides that include an alpha-(2,6)-linked sialic acid and a bisecting GlcNAc linked to a core beta-mannose.
US09249208B2

The invention relates to novel citrulline peptides derived from fibrin α and β chains which are recognizable by specific citrulline antiprotein autoantibodies (AAPC) of a rheumatoid arthritis (PR) and to the use thereof for detecting the presence of said specific PR AAPC in a biological sample.
US09249201B2

The invention concerns the field of recombinant gene engineering. It concerns novel introns and compositions comprising such introns as well as a method to improve expression of polypeptides from nucleic acids such as cloned genes with heterologous introns, especially genes encoding antibodies and antibody derived fragments, and the production of various polypeptides in eukaryotic host cells using said novel intron sequences as heterologous introns.
US09249194B2

The invention demonstrates that, contrary to apoptotic rabies virus G proteins, certain non-apoptotic rabies virus G proteins, such as the G protein of the CVS-NIV strain, have a neurite outgrowth promoting effect. The invention further demonstrates that this neurite outgrowth promoting effect is due to the cytoplasmic tail of the non-apoptotic rabies virus G proteins, more particularly to their PDZ-BS, which shows a single-point mutation compared to the one of apoptotic rabies virus G proteins. The invention provides methods for inducing and/or stimulating neurite outgrowth, which are useful in inducing neuron differentiation, for example for the treatment of a neoplasm of the nervous system, as well as in regenerating impaired neurons, for example for the treatment of a neurodegenerative disease, disorder or condition or in the treatment of a microbial infection, or in protecting neurons from neurotoxic agents or oxidative stress.
US09249193B2

The present invention relates to a truncated L1 protein of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Type 33, a sequence encoding the same, a method for preparing the same, and a virus-like particle comprising the same, wherein the protein and the virus-like particle are useful for preventing HPV (particularly HPV33) infection, and a disease caused by HPV (particularly HPV33) infection, such as cervical cancer. The invention also relates to the use of the protein and the virus-like particle in the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition or a vaccine for preventing HPV (particularly HPV33) infection, and a disease caused by HPV (particularly HPV33) infection, such as cervical cancer.
US09249191B2

The present invention provides a particle comprising a polypeptide and at least one antigen, and a composition comprising thereof.
US09249188B2

The present Invention relates to nanopeptides isolated from mammalian colostrums with vaccine like antiviral and immunodulator activity via building body's own immune system and attachment inhibition on the cell surface receptors.
US09249185B2

The present invention relates to a peptide promoting angiogenesis and novel use thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to peptides promoting angiogenesis, and the use of the peptide for promoting angiogenesis and preventing or treating angiogenesis-related disease. The peptide of the present invention have an excellent effect on promoting angiogenesis. Accordingly, it is useful for preventing or treating angiogenesis-related disease and for preparing regeneration of skin flap, wound and burn healing, implantation of artificial-skin and preparation of blood vessels for transplantation.
US09249184B2

The present invention relates to Cardiac Targeting Peptides or CTPs that are able to transduce cardiomyocytes specifically in culture and in vivo, and to methods for using such peptides and their derivatives to deliver peptides, proteins or nucleic acids specifically to the heart. It is based, at least in part, on the discovery that the peptide APWHLSSQYSRT (SEQ ID NO:1) functioned as a cardiac-specific protein targeting peptide and was successful in delivering a number of different cargoes to cardiac muscle cells in vitro and in vivo.
US09249183B2

Method for identifying a modulator of Sirt6, PfSir2a, or Sirt7 deacylase activity, wherein a fatty-acylated substrate containing an acyl-lysine moiety and an indicator moiety is contacted with Sirt6, PfSir2a, or Sirt7 in the presence of a candidate compound under conditions for Sirt6, PfSir2a, or Sirt7 to deacylate the substrate, wherein the acyl is a hydrophobic fatty acyl group containing a hydrocarbon group having at least three carbon atoms connected by carbon-carbon bonds; contacting the deacylated substrate with a cleavage agent that cleaves the linkage between the lysine and indicator moiety to generate a detectable signal; and correlating a quantified Sirt6, PfSir2a, or Sirt7 deacylase activity therefrom. Modulating compounds of Sirt6, PfSir2a, or Sirt7 deacylase activity are also described, as are pharmaceutical compositions thereof, methods of treatment by administration of the modulating compounds, and kits for practicing the method.
US09249178B2

The present invention provides novel tricyclic nucleosides and oligomeric compounds prepared therefrom. Incorporation of one or more of the tricyclic nucleosides into an oligomeric compound is expected to enhance one or more properties of the oligomeric compound. Such oligomeric compounds can also be included in double stranded compositions. In certain embodiments, the oligomeric compounds provided herein are expected to hybridize to a portion of a target RNA resulting in loss of normal function of the target RNA.
US09249177B2

The invention is directed to processes of preparing phosphonate nucleosides comprising a phosphonalkoxy-substituted five-membered, saturated or unsaturated, oxygen-containing ring coupled to a heterocyclic nucleobase such as a pyrimidine or purine base. These compounds can be described by the general formula (XIX)
US09249176B2

The present disclosure relates to the compound of Formula I: Also disclosed are pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compound of Formula I, methods of using the compound of Formula I and/or compositions comprising the compound of Formula I for the treatment of HCV.
US09249175B2

The present invention is directed to RNA monomers comprising O-acetal levulinyl protecting groups at the 2′ and/or the 5′-hydroxy functionalities of the ribose moiety. Said monomers may be incorporated into oligoribonucleotides or RNA polynucleotides. Furthermore, the invention is directed to methods for the synthesis of said RNA monomers, oligoribonucleotides and RNA polynucleotides, as well as methods for their deprotection and methods for the use of said compounds and compositions comprising said compounds. In particular, such compounds and compositions comprising them are used in methods for light-directed synthesis of RNA microarrays.
US09249171B2

A process for making the compound of Formula I utilizes the starting compound, together with sulfilimine and sulfoxide process steps later on.
US09249166B1

A hydrothermal synthesis method of making a delaminated titanate is disclosed. The delaminated titanate has a unique structure or morphology. The delaminated titanate is first formed by forming at a low temperature a layered sodium nonatitanate (SNT), which may be referred to as layered sodium titanate. The layered SNT has a unique morphology. The layered SNT is then synthesized into a delaminated titanate having a unique morphology.
US09249164B2

A process for preparing an acryloyloxysilane, the process comprising reacting a metal salt of a carboxylic acid having the formula [CR22═CR1COO−]aMa+ (I), with a haloorganoalkoxysilane having the formula XR3Si(OR4)nR53—n (II) in the presence of mineral spirits and a phase transfer catalyst at a temperature of from 50 to 160° C. to form a mixture comprising an acryloyloxysilane and a metal halide having the formula Ma+X−a (III), wherein R1 is H or C1-C6 hydrocarbyl, each R2 is independently R1 or [COO−]aMa+, Ma+ is an alkali metal cation or alkaline earth metal cation, a is 1 or 2, X is halo, R3 is C1-C6 hydrocarbylene, each R4 is independently C1-C10 Q hydrocarbyl, each R5 is independently R1 and n is an integer from 1 to 3.
US09249153B2

Disclosed are a method for treating an aging-related disease and a method for screening a therapeutic agent for an aging-related disease. The method for treating an aging-related disease includes administering to a subject a progerin expression inhibitor as an active ingredient. The method for screening a therapeutic agent for an aging-related disease includes selecting a candidate drug inhibitory of progerin expression.
US09249151B2

This invention relates to bis-amido pyridines of general formula (I) their use as SMAC mimetics, pharmaceutical compositions containing them, and their use as a medicaments for the treatment and/or prevention of diseases characterized by excessive or abnormal cell proliferation and associated conditions such as cancer. The groups R1 to R4 have the meanings given in the claims and in the specification.
US09249149B2

The present invention in one embodiment provides a compound of Formula A: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compound; and methods of treating the indications disclosed herein.
US09249148B2

The present invention relates to new tri(hetero)aryl pyrazoles, methods for their preparation, their use for treating and/or preventing diseases as well as their use in the preparation of drugs for treating and/or preventing diseases, in particular retroviral diseases in humans and/or animals.
US09249147B2

Provided are compounds of the formula (I): or a stereoisomer, tautomer, salt, hydrate or prodrug thereof that modulate tyrosine kinase activity, compositions comprising the compounds and methods of their use.
US09249144B2

This application discloses a novel process to synthesize 8-[{1-(3,5-Bis-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-ethoxy}-methyl]-8-phenyl-1,7-diaza-spiro[4.5]decan-2-one compounds, which may be used, for example, as NK-1 inhibitor compounds in pharmaceutical preparations, intermediates useful in said process, and processes for preparing said intermediates; also disclosed is a process for removal of metals from N-heterocyclic carbine metal complexes.
US09249139B2

The present invention provides compounds of general formula A useful as potential phosphodiesterase3 (PDE3) inhibitory agents and a process for the preparation thereof. The derivatives of formula A can be employed as therapeutics in human and veterinary medicine, where they can be used, for example, for the treatment and prophylaxis of the following diseases: heart failure, dilated cardiomyopathy, platelet inhibitors, cancer and obstructive pulmonary diseases.
US09249110B2

Described herein are kinase inhibitors represented by Formula I: and pharmaceutical compositions thereof for use in the treatment of cancer.
US09249106B2

The invention relates to substituted hydrazide compounds as shown by general formula I, including geometrical isomers, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, hydrates, solvates or prodrugs thereof, and use of the same, wherein the substitutents Ar and R have the same meanings as given in the Description. The invention further relates to the use of compounds of general formula I in the preparation of medicament for the treatment and/or prevention of cancer and other proliferative diseases.
US09249105B2

The invention provides crystalline salt forms of 4′-{2-ethoxy-4-ethyl-5-[((S)-2-mercapto-4-methylpentanoylamino)methyl]-imidazol-1-ylmethyl}-3′-fluorobiphenyl-2-carboxylic acid. This invention also provides pharmaceutical compositions comprising the crystalline compounds, processes and intermediates for preparing the crystalline compounds, and methods of using the crystalline compounds to treat diseases such as hypertension.
US09249103B2

Compounds, compositions and methods useful for treating infectious diseases are provided. In particular, 3-aryl quinoline compounds, their synthesis, pharmaceutical compositions thereof and methods of treating infectious diseases such as malaria, are disclosed.
US09249095B2

Compounds of Formula (I) are disclosed herein and their use in inhibiting quorum sensing in bacteria.
US09249085B2

The present invention relates to aniline derivatives of formula (I), to their preparation and to their therapeutic application, for example in treating glaucoma: Formula (I), R1a represents H, an halogen, a (C1-C6)alkyl or a CN; R1b represents H, an halogen or a (C1-C6)alkyl; R1c represents H or a (C1-C6)alkyl; R2 represents H, an halogen, an OH, an O—(C1-C6)alkyl or (C1-C6)alkyl; R3 represents H, an halogen, a (C1-C6)alkyl, an OH, an O—(C1-C6)alkyl, a CONH2 or CN; R4 represents H, an halogen or a (C1-C6)alkyl; R5 represents H or F: R7 represents H or F; R8 represents H or F; R9 represents H or (C1-C6)alkyl, or one of its enantiomers.
US09249084B2

The present invention relates to a (2R,3R)-3-(3-substituted phenyl)-2-methyl n-pentanamide compounds as shown in the formula I and the preparation method thereof, wherein, the substituents are as defined in the specification, the present invention further relates to a use of the above compounds for the preparation of tapentadol II or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt, and the intermediates involved in the preparation process.
US09249080B2

In this invention, a portion of the products from a pyrolysis reactor are reacted in a process to form one or more chemical intermediates.
US09249077B2

In a process for the dehydrogenation of at least one dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon, at least one dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon selected from an oxygen-containing six-membered carbon ring compound is supplied to a first dehydrogenation reaction zone together with at least one stabilizing compound selected from a non-oxygen-containing six membered carbon ring compound to the first dehydrogenation reaction zone, such that the weight ratio of the stabilizing compound to the dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon supplied to the first dehydrogenation reaction zone is in the range of from 1:200 to 200:1. The dehydrogenation feed stream and the at least one stabilizing compound are contacted with a first dehydrogenation catalyst in the first dehydrogenation reaction zone under dehydrogenation conditions to convert at least a portion of the dehydrogenatable hydrocarbon into an unsaturated six-membered carbon ring compound and hydrogen.
US09249063B2

The main subject of the present invention is solid pyrotechnic gas generator compounds, the composition of which contains: guanidine nitrate, basic copper nitrate, and at least one inorganic titanate, the melting point of which is above 2100 K. Said compounds are perfectly suitable for use in frontal airbags.
US09249061B2

The present invention relates to a fertilizer comprising at least one microbe selected from the group consisting of Trichoderma viride (NRRL B-50520), Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (NRRL B-50521), Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (NRRL B-50522), and combinations thereof, and a substrate which is acted upon by the at least one microbe to release nitrogen. The invention also relates to a fertilizer comprising at least one microbe selected from a keratin degrading microorganism and a keratin substrate which is acted upon by the at least one microbe to release nitrogen. The invention further relates to a method for enhancing growth of plants with the fertilizer, and methods of making a fertilizer. The invention further relates to an isolated Trichoderma viride strain (NRRL B-50520) and two isolated Scopulariopsis brevicaulis strains (NRRL B-50521, NRRL B-50522).
US09249055B2

One embodiment of the present invention is a unique prosthetic implant and method for making a prosthetic implant. Other embodiments include apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for prosthetic implants. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application shall become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith.
US09249047B2

Disclosed is an ultraviolet and infrared absorptive glass characterized by that its coloring component contains, based on mass of the ultraviolet and infrared absorptive glass, 0.05-0.9 mass % of CeO2, 0.50-1.20 mass % of of total iron oxide in terms of Fe2O3, 0.08-0.30 mass % of FeO, 0.1-1.5 mass % of TiO2, 10-25 mass ppm of CoO, and 0.1-50 mass ppm of Cr2O3, that mass ratio (Fe2+/Fe3+) of divalent iron to trivalent iron is 0.20-0.45, and that dominant wavelength measured by using illuminant D65 of JIS Z 8701 is 510-560 nm. This glass has satisfactory optical characteristics, even though the content of CeO2 has been reduced.
US09249043B2

A refractory object can include at least approximately 10 wt % Al2O3 and at least approximately 1 wt % SiO2. In an embodiment, the refractory object can include an additive. In a particular embodiment, the additive can include TiO2, Y2O3, SrO, BaO, CaO, Ta2O5, Fe2O3, ZnO, or MgO. The refractory object can include at least approximately 3 wt % of the additive. In an additional embodiment, the refractory object can include no greater than approximately 8 wt % of the additive. In a further embodiment, the creep rate of the refractory object can be at least approximately 1×10−6 h−1. In another embodiment, the creep rate of the refractory object can be no greater than approximately 5×10−5 h−1. In an illustrative embodiment, the refractory object can include a glass overflow trough or a forming block.
US09249040B2

A sludge treatment plant includes an extended floor with a work surface for receiving a mass of spread-out sludge and a movable carriage positioned transversely above the work surface. The movable carriage includes a displacement tool designed to carry the sludge towards a terminal part of the work surface. A withdrawal tool transfers the sludge towards an outlet channel. The outlet channel includes a screw conveyor associated with a rotational drive system and equipped with a heating element. A controller adjusts the temperature in this screw conveyor to a predetermined value between 90° C. and 100° C., while adjusting the rotational drive of the screw conveyor in order to obtain a residence time of the sludge within this screw conveyor to a predetermined value of greater than 4 hours.
US09249037B2

The invention pertains to a method for continuous treatment of water. According to the invention, such a method comprises a step of biological treatment of water followed by a step of filtration, characterized in that it comprises a step of enzymatic treatment planned between said step of biological treatment and said step of filtration, said step of enzymatic treatment being carried out by enzymes fixed on at least one three-dimensional support, said enzymes being capable of degrading at least a part of the organic matter contained in the water coming from said step of biological treatment.
US09249032B2

An amorphous oxide thin film containing amorphous oxide is exposed to an oxygen plasma generated by exciting an oxygen-containing gas in high frequency. The oxygen plasma is preferably generated under the condition that applied frequency is 1 kHz or more and 300 MHz or less and pressure is 5 Pa or more. The amorphous oxide thin film is preferably exposed by a sputtering method, ion-plating method, vacuum deposition method, sol-gel method or fine particle application method.
US09249030B2

A method of making sodium carbonate and/or sodium bicarbonate is disclosed in which carbon dioxide gas is reacted with an aqueous solution sodium hydroxide solution in the presence of a compound of the formula (I): Na+[X—O]− where X is Cl, Br, or I.
US09249028B2

The present invention is directed to a method of making metal oxide and mixed metal oxide particles. The method includes treating a mixture formed from a metal source, such as metal alkoxide, a surfactant, and a first alcohol in an aqueous media at a very high metal oxide yield. The mixture is reacted using a catalyst to form metal oxide particles having a desired particle size in said mixture. By washing the particles with an aprotic solvent, the residual carbon content of the particles can be significantly reduced. The method is particularly suitable for forming silica particles. The metal oxide particles can then be heat treated to form synthetic fused metal oxides such as, for example, synthetic fused silica.
US09249021B2

An organic particular material and a method for producing the material is disclosed, as well as multiple uses of the material produced by the same method for use as soil improver, combating the Iberia snail, fire resisting absorption of flammable liquids as well as fire extinguisher.
US09249017B2

Nanorod and nanowire compositions are disclosed comprising copper indium selenide, copper indium gallium selenide, copper indium sulfide, or a combination thereof. Also disclosed are photovoltaic devices comprising the nanorod and/or nanowire compositions. Also disclosed are methods for producing the nanorod and nanowire compositions, and photovoltaic devices described herein.
US09249016B2

This disclosure relates to structures for the conversion of light into energy. More specifically, the disclosure describes devices for conversion of light to electricity using photovoltaic cells comprising graphene.
US09249011B2

There are provided a process for fabricating MEMS device that includes a plurality of through-holes capable being arranged at a high density, the through-holes having a tapered end portion. Through-holes having vertical side surfaces and tapered bottoms are provided by a processing method including the steps of: disposing quadrilateral patterning having desired dimensions on a silicon substrate having a flat surface of a crystal plane, etching the substrate to a desired depth by dry etching that can realize a high aspect ratio etching, and anisotropic wet etching the dry etched substrate with a KOH aqueous solution containing isopropyl alcohol mixed thereinto.
US09249008B2

A MEMS device with a first electrode, a second electrode and a third electrode is disclosed. These electrodes are disposed on a substrate in such a manner that (1) a pointing direction of the first electrode is in parallel with a normal direction of the substrate, (2) a pointing direction of the third electrode is perpendicular to the pointing direction of the first electrode, (3) the second electrode includes a sensing portion and a stationary portion, (4) the first electrode and the sensing portion are configured to define a sensing capacitor, and (5) the third electrode and the stationary portion are configured to define a reference capacitor. This arrangement facilitates the MEMS device such as a differential pressure sensor, differential barometer, differential microphone and decoupling capacitor to be miniaturized.
US09249002B2

A lift platform includes a base unit (4), a lifting mechanism (8) and an operator cage (14) attached to the lifting mechanism, a set of wheels (16) and a set of static support elements (18). The base unit (4) is constructed and arranged for conversion between a static configuration in which it is supported by the static support elements (18) and a mobile configuration in which it is supported by the wheels (16).
US09248999B2

The present invention relates to an improved level wind arm for a winch drum assembly, and a winch drum assembly incorporating such a level wind arm. The level wind arm includes a cross member adapted to bias against an outwardly extending portion of rope, the cross member being concave so that more force is required for the rope spindle associated with the cross member to “climb” the slope of the cross member, causing a momentary pause in motion of the spindle after it reaches the end of wind stroke. This momentary pause allows for rope being wound onto the drum to rise up the end wall of the drum to create a new layer which is aligned and consistent with the layer below, without causing gaps in the rope or other circumstances which could lead to the rope accumulating at any one point, or becoming tangled. The present invention also includes means of ensuring that tension is maintained in the rope, and that the rope does not jump off the reel and, for example, into the clutch mechanism.
US09248998B2

A method of lifting device load hazard avoidance is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining a three dimensional position of a load hazard avoidance sensor unit coupled with a load line of a lifting device, the determining performed by a first global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver coupled with a housing of the load hazard avoidance sensor unit, monitoring for a load related hazard in a vicinity of a load coupled with the load line, the monitoring performed by a load monitor coupled with the housing and initiating at least one load related hazard avoidance action in response to a monitored occurrence of the load related hazard.
US09248997B2

The present disclosure relates to a hydraulic system for a crane with at least one hydraulic circuit, which comprises at least one hydraulic consumer, and a constant pressure network, wherein the at least one hydraulic circuit is coupled with the constant pressure network via at least one pressure reducer, whereby a higher volume flow with low pressure as compared to the constant pressure network can be generated in the hydraulic circuit.
US09248993B2

An elevator installation has at least one shaft door and a monitoring device for monitoring movements for opening the shaft door, the monitoring device has a first, energy-autonomous counting device for counting the movements, which independently of an intact power supply increments a first count value in the case of one of these movements, and a second counting device for counting the movements, which when the power supply is intact increments a second count value in the case of one of these movements, and a comparison circuit which calls up and compares the first and second count values and can generate a signal based on the comparison of the count values.
US09248989B2

A web-guiding system for guiding a web of media travelling from upstream to downstream along a transport path in an in-track direction, including a web-guiding structure and an air source. The web-guiding structure includes an exterior surface having a pattern of recesses formed into the exterior surface, wherein the web of media travels past the web-guiding structure with a first side of the web of media contacting at least some non-recessed portions of the exterior surface of the web-guiding structure. The air source provides an air flow between the first side of the web of media and the exterior surface of the web-guiding structure thereby providing a lifting force to lift portions of the web of media overlying the recesses away from the exterior surface of the web-guiding structure.
US09248988B2

A paper sheet material dispenser selectively operable to dispense paper toweling or other paper sheet material from a roll of paper sheet material employing a plurality of alternative operational modes.
US09248974B2

Devices for removing particulate from surfaces may include at least one belt coupled with at least one guide to rotate the belt(s) about the guide(s). A vacuum cavity may be disposed around a portion of the belt(s) to remove captured particulate therefrom when a negative pressure is introduced in the vacuum cavity. A surface may be cleaned by rotating a dry belt about a guide and positioning a portion of the dry belt on the surface to capture and collect particulate. A portion of the dry belt can pass into a vacuum cavity, and collected particulate may be removed from the dry belt into the vacuum cavity. A cleaning apparatus may be formed by coupling a belt to a guide so the belt can rotate around the guide. A vacuum cavity can be disposed to encompass a portion of the belt. Other aspects, embodiments, and features are also included.
US09248972B2

The invention relates to a belt run control device of an endless belt (2) revolving over at least one cylindrical roller (1), wherein the rollers (1) are each designed as deflection rollers around which the belt (2) is wrapped, and wherein for the purpose of tensioning the belt (2) at least one cylindrical roller (1) is preloaded on both sides by way of elastic elements (3) designed to be equally acting in order to center the belt (2) relative to the roller (1), and wherein a position measuring device is provided in the region of the belt (2), wherein an adjusting element (5) that can be actuated using a pneumatic piston-cylinder unit (4) is disposed on at least one side of the roller (1), characterized in that the adjusting element (5) is designed to apply a force that acts additively or subtractively with respect to the preloading force of at least one of the elastic elements (3).
US09248966B2

A targeted product distribution system is described herein with respect to an exemplary management of product flow through a distribution center. Specifically, the system and method described herein is directed to the management and display of direct and easily-understood instructions, such that average individuals, as well as those with mental disabilities, will be able to contribute equally to the overall process.
US09248962B2

A trash container for holding trash may include a flexible first sidewall, a flexible second sidewall opposed and in a spaced relationship to the first sidewall to define a cavity, a bottom rigid wall connected to the flexible first sidewall and the flexible second sidewall to seal the cavity, and a top ring connected to the flexible first sidewall and the flexible second sidewall to seal the cavity.
US09248957B2

A height adjustable column for a shipping container building structure. The height adjustable column has an upper sleeve portion, a middle sleeve portion and a lower sleeve. When the column is in the non-extended position the middle sleeve portion is fully slid within the lower and upper sleeve portions and a substantive length of the upper sleeve portion is slid within the lower sleeve portion such that ISO apertures in the middle sleeves are aligned whereby the height of the column is at a reduced height compared to that that of a standard shipping container. When the column is in the extended position locking means on the middle sleeve portion engage and lock with the corresponding slotted apertures on the lower and upper sleeve portions as to support and retain the column at a height equal to or greater than the height of a standard shipping container.
Patent Agency Ranking