US07758930B2

There are provided: a curable resin composition having a high exposure sensitivity and a good developing property, and thereby capable of forming an accurate and precise pattern; a liquid crystal panel substrate on which a protective film for covering a color layer or spacers for a liquid crystal layer, by using the curable resin composition, hardly causing a color irregularity and contrast irregularity; and a liquid crystal panel using the liquid crystal panel substrate and having a superior display quality. The curable resin composition of the present invention comprises: a copolymer (a) having a molecular structure in which a constitutional unit including an acidic functional unit and a constitutional unit including a photocurable functional group are linked at least; a photopolymerization initiator (h) having a tertiary amine structure; and a photocurable compound (c) having at least one acidic functional group and at least three photocurable functional groups.
US07758925B2

A method for preparing a protective layer (38) on a surface of the substrate (36) that requires a bonding temperature (BT) above a detrimental phase transformation temperature range (28) of the substrate, and then cooling the layer and substrate without cracking the layer or detrimentally transforming the substrate. The protective layer (38) and the substrate (36) are cooled from the bonding temperature (BT) to a temperature (46) above the detrimental phase transformation range (28) at a first cooling rate (30) slow enough to avoid cracking the protective layer. Next, the protective layer and the substrate are cooled to a temperature below the detrimental phase transformation range of the substrate at a second cooling rate (27) fast enough to pass the detrimental phase transformation range before a substantial transformation of the substrate into the detrimental phase can occur.
US07758924B2

Preservative compositions for wood products are described. The compositions include at least one boron-containing material, such as but not limited to boric anhydride, and at least one silane-containing material, such as but not limited to methyltrichlorosilane. Optionally, at least one solvent, such as tetrahydrofuran, pentane, or water, may also be employed in the compositions. The compositions impart protection to the treated wood products, especially damage caused by exposure to water and insects.
US07758921B2

A method of making a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) having an anode and a cathode and a proton conductive membrane there between. A bundle of longitudinally aligned carbon nanotubes with a catalytically active transition metal incorporated in the nanotubes forms at least one portion of the MEA and is in contact with the membrane. A combination selected from one or more of a hydrocarbon and an organometallic compound containing an catalytically active transition metal and a nitrogen containing compound and an inert gas and a reducing gas is introduced into a first reaction zone maintained at a first reaction temperature for a time sufficient to vaporize material therein. The vaporized material is transmitted to a second reaction zone maintained at a second reaction temperature for a time sufficient to grow longitudinally aligned carbon nanotubes with a catalytically active transition metal incorporated throughout the nanotubes. The nanotubes are in contact with a portion of the MEA at production or being positioned in contact thereafter. Methods of forming a PEMFC are also disclosed.
US07758920B2

A silicon-containing insulating film is formed on a target substrate by CVD, in a process field to be selectively supplied with a purge gas, a first process gas containing a silane family gas, and a second process gas containing a gas selected from the group consisting of nitriding, oxynitriding, and oxidizing gases. This method alternately includes first to fourth steps. The first, second, third, and fourth steps perform supply of the first process gas, purge gas, second process gas, and purge gas, respectively, while stopping supply of the other two gases. The process field is continuously vacuum-exhausted over the first to fourth steps through an exhaust passage provided with an opening degree adjustment valve. An opening degree of the valve in the first step is set to be 5 to 95% of that used in the second and fourth steps.
US07758917B2

A method for producing an arc-erosion resistant coating provides a substrate material with an arc-erosion resistant layer by a cold-gas spraying method. The method can be used for producing an arc-erosion resistant coating in inner regions of vacuum interrupter chambers that are exposed to electric arcs. An exemplary vacuum interrupter chamber with a shield coated inside is disclosed for medium-voltage switchgear.
US07758912B2

One embodiment of a microelectronic device includes a movable plate including a lower surface, a bump positioned on the lower surface, and an anti-stiction coating positioned only on the bump.
US07758908B2

The present invention provides for a method for spray application of a coating material onto a medical device by spraying coating material from a micronozzle fabricated from a plurality of sheets that are etched with holes or openings. The openings are aligned to form fluid channels and the sheets are fused together in a planar fashion to define a micronozzle. In another embodiment, the invention provides for a method for spray application of a coating material onto a medical device using micronozzles fabricated in batches by a simplified manufacturing process. In other embodiments, the invention provides for a method for spray application of a coating material onto a medical device by spraying coating material from a micronozzle that includes a swirl or gas-assist atomizer.
US07758904B2

A method and apparatus for slicing of foodstuffs is provided that has a rotatable disc with a radial slot, a knife blade projecting above the rotatable disc, an angled chute for conveying foodstuffs, and an orifice between the chute and the rotatable disc. The orifice has a shape that decreases in width in the direction of rotation of the rotatable disc.
US07758902B2

A composition for modulating cytokines to regulate an inflammatory or immunomodulatory response. The composition can include at least one of rosehips, blueberry, blackberry, elderberry, cranberry, rosemary, clove, feverfew, nettle root, artichoke, reishi mushroom, olive extract, green tea extract, grape seed extract, resveratrol, Aframomum melegueta, boswellia serrata extract, boswellia forte, ipriflavone, tocotrienols, evening primrose oil, INM-176, borage oil, krill oil, at least one type of xanthophyll (e.g., astaxanthin), green coffee extract and ferulic acid. Specifically, a composition of the invention can include: rosehips and at least one of blackberry, blueberry, elderberry, and optionally krill oil; or rosehips, resveratrol and at least one of Aframomum melegueta and astaxanthin. Based on the cytokine modulation and cytokine response inhibition of the composition, it can be used to regulate an immunomodulatory and/or inflammatory response, and subsequently treat diseases and/or abnormal conditions associated with inflammatory response, for example, cardiovascular conditions, arthritis, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's disease.
US07758893B2

The present invention relates to an enteral composition containing phospholipids, triglycerides and cholesterol or precursors thereof, which can be used in the treatment of sepsis. With the composition of the invention the natural level of chylomicrons is maintained, in particular in gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), which ensures that most of LPS and/or LTA which are released in the body can be neutralized, substantially decreasing the risk of locally occurring high levels of LPS and/or LTA and thus sepsis.
US07758890B2

Low volume safe for injection formulations of dantrolene yield significant advantages over the currently approved and marketed dantrolene for MH threatening anesthetic crisis. Once dantrolene can be made immediately available to patients triggered of MH, the anesthesiologist will be able to focus exclusively on the management of the patient's physiologic status in this complex and evolving crisis, not on the laborious and time consuming reconstitution process of the rescue agent. Additionally, a safe for injection low volume formulation of dantrolene can be made widely available to non-anesthesiologist practitioners who have occasion to use dantrolene intravenously in the treatment of other potentially life threatening conditions, including in the field. The low volume, safe for injection formulations of dantrolene, as well as other formulations of dantrolene, have significant advantages over currently used approaches to the prevention and treatment of pumphead, and other neurological, cognitive and motor dysfunction incident to iatrogenically or trauma induced situations of altered blood flow, including those incurred during surgical procedures involving CPB or related procedures, as well as those incurred during non-normothermic episodes caused iatrogenically or by disease.
US07758889B1

Herein we disclose a composition, comprising a Cn-Ab, wherein Cn is a fullerene or nanotube comprising n carbon atoms, and Ab is a moiety comprising an antigen-binding site and is linked to the Cn. The composition can further comprise a therapeutic molecule associated with the Cn-Ab. Also, we disclose a method of treating a disease in a mammal, comprising administering to the mammal an effective amount of the composition.
US07758879B2

The device for dispensing a volatile insecticide or repellent includes a sheet impregnated with an insecticidal/repellent component which volatilizes at an ordinary temperature; a flat box for detachably holding the sheet, the flat box having a sheet-exposing aperture for volatilizing the insecticidal component from the held impregnated sheet; and a suspension cord for three-dimensionally assembling a plurality of the flat box.
US07758873B2

This invention relates to the use of a composition comprising a polysaccharide and a botulinum toxin for reducing a skin wrinkle. In some embodiments, the polysaccharide comprises disaccharides. In some embodiments, the average molecular weight of a disaccharide unit of the polysaccharide is between about 345 D and about 1,000 D.
US07758866B2

An immunogenic composition and methods for producing said composition, the composition comprising VLPs from HPV 16 and 18 and at least one other HPV cancer type, the other cancer type being selected from the list consisting of HPV types 31, 45 and 52, wherein the dose of the VLP of the at least one other cancer types is reduced relative to that of HPV 16 or 18.
US07758861B2

The present invention discloses dye-sulfenate derivatives and their bioconjugates for dual phototherapy of tumors and other lesions. The compounds of the present invention may contain either a mixture of Type 1 and Type 2 agents or a single entity that integrates both units in the same molecules. The compounds are designed to produce both Type 1 and Type 2 phototherapeutic effect at once using dual wavelength light source that will produce singlet oxygen and free radicals at the lesion of interest.
US07758849B2

The solid hair wax product for treating or setting up a human hair-do or hair style contains at least one silicone-free wax, at least one hydrophobic oil that is liquid at 25° C. and at least one silicone wax with a melting point in a range of from 20 to 45° C. Preferably the silicone-free wax is a hydrocarbon wax, the hydrophobic oil is a silicone oil and the silicone wax is an alkylmethyl-dimethyl-siloxane.
US07758843B1

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for crystal growth of cadmium zinc tellurium (CZT) and cadmium tellurium (CdTe) crystals with an inverted growth reactor chamber. The inverted growth reactor chamber enables growth of single, large, high purity CZT and CdTe crystals that can be used, for example, in X-ray and gamma detection, substrates for infrared detectors, or the like. The inverted growth reactor chamber enables reductions in the presence of Te inclusions, which are recognized as an important limiting factor in using CZT or CdTe as radiation detectors. The inverted growth reactor chamber can be utilized with existing crystal growth techniques such as the Bridgman crystal growth mechanism and the like. In an exemplary embodiment, the inverted growth reactor chamber is a U-shaped ampoule.
US07758838B2

Disclosed are methods for making ultrafine particles, apparatus for making ultrafine particles, and coating compositions comprising ultrafine particles made by such methods and/or apparatus.
US07758833B2

An exhaust gas purifying apparatus for an internal combustion engine is provided with a NOx removing device and a particulate filter in an exhaust system. A temperature of the exhaust system is detected. A switching control is performed for alternately performing a process for removing sulfur oxide accumulated in said NOx removing device and a regeneration process for burning particulates trapped in said particulate filter, when it is determined to be necessary to perform at least one of the removal of the sulfur oxide in said NOx removing device and the regeneration of the particulate filter. The switching control is performed according to the detected exhaust system temperature.
US07758827B2

Sorbent components containing calcium, alumina, silica, and halogen are used in combination during coal combustion to produce environmental benefits. Sorbents are added to the coal ahead of combustion and/or are added into the flame or downstream of the flame, preferably at minimum temperatures to assure complete formation of the refractory structures that result in various advantages of the methods. When used together, the components ● reduce emissions of mercury and sulfur; ● reduce emissions of elemental and oxidized mercury; ● increase the efficiency of the coal burning process through de-slagging of boiler tubes; ● increase the level of Hg, As, Pb, and/or Cl in the coal ash; ● decrease the levels of leachable heavy metals (such as Hg) in the ash, preferably to levels below the detectable limits; and ● make a highly cementitious ash product.
US07758825B2

A handle assembly facilitates the removal of a sterile inner tray containing sterile medical instruments from a medical kit during an OR procedure. The handle assembly may have a handle coupled with an elongated member having a male end and a female end. The inner tray may be wrapped in medical packaging. Subsequently, the elongated member may be wrapped around the inner tray and the male and female ends interconnected. The inner tray may be positioned inside of an outer tray. A bacterial barrier may be formed over a portion of the outer tray to enclose the inner tray. The inner tray, including the medical instruments, may then be sterilized by a sterilization process. During an OR procedure, the handle assemble allows a sterile nurse to remove the sterile inner tray from the non-sterile outer tray without making contact with the non-sterile outer tray and/or contaminating the sterile medical instruments.
US07758820B2

Apparatus and process is provided for increasing mixing in a regenerator. Streamlines of gas and some catalyst may form in a regenerator as a result of cyclone inlet horns positioned in the same direction. Overall mixing in the regenerator may decrease because of these streamlines. A dampening device may be used to interrupt the streamlines and increase mixing in the regenerator. The dampening device may be a baffle and direct streamlines from the outside of the chamber toward the center to collide and mix. In another embodiment, a dampening device may be a secondary disengager such as a T-disengager or an inverted can arrangement that may discharge gas and catalyst near the center of the upper chamber and interrupt the streamlines. In another embodiment, a dampening device may have swirl arms that redirect stream lines counter to the direction of flow.
US07758815B2

A tamper-proof, point-of-collection specimen assay apparatus including three selectively connectable and sealable chambers, including a first chamber for receiving a specimen, a second chamber housing a specimen testing device and a specimen transfer site positioned between the first chamber and the second chamber for selectively depositing a portion of the specimen from the first chamber into the second chamber and a third chamber having inlets for depositing another portion of the specimen from the first chamber into the third chamber.
US07758813B2

A sampling apparatus includes a housing defining a test chamber with an opening for contacting a test surface to expose at least a portion the test surface to the test chamber. A movable agitator within the test chamber contacts the test surface and agitates the test surface to release material from the test surface. The apparatus further includes an inlet and an outlet communicating with the test chamber and defining an air flow path through the chamber. At least one sample cassette may be supported near the outlet to collect a sample from the air flow, including material released from the surface into the test chamber.
US07758797B2

UHMWPE panels of large width may be prepared by a continuous ram extrusion process by employing a slit die which preferably narrows from both sides in a direction transverse to the machine direction, and/or which employs a plurality of transversely positioned cooling zones located on the top and the bottom of the die, proximate the exit thereof. The panel exits the die at a temperature lower than the crystalline melt temperature.
US07758794B2

In accordance with the invention, an article comprising a nanoscale surface pattern, such as a grating, is provided with a nanoscale patterns of reduced edge and/or sidewall roughness. Smooth featured articles, can be fabricated by nanoimprint lithography using a mold having sloped profile molding features. Another approach uses a mold especially fabricated to provide smooth sidewalls of reduced roughness, and a third approach adds a post-imprint smoothing step. These approaches can be utilized individually or in various combinations to make the novel articles.
US07758778B2

This invention is directed to an apparatus and method for producing microparticles comprising pharmacologically active agents and biodegradable polymers. The apparatus includes a spinning disk containing a reservoir in the center thereof and a flat inclined surface. The apparatus optionally includes serrations and/or a flat surface beneath the periphery of the disk that is parallel to the rotational axis of the disk. The invention is also directed to a method for producing microparticles containing pharmacologically active agents, using the spinning disk apparatus. Formulations containing ophthalmically active agents are provided. Formulations exhibiting zero order release rates are also described.
US07758775B2

This invention relates to a green phosphor and a process for producing the same, wherein the phosphor is represented by a chemical formula: M(Tb1-xLax)4Si3O13, where M includes at least one of Ca and Sr, and 0
US07758769B2

A method of reducing the build up of ice or snow on roads. The method comprising mixing a solid de-icing material such as rock salt with a non brine additive solution such as an aqueous solution of a refined molasses stream. The de-icing material and additive solution being carried on a lorry 10, and being mixed immediately prior to spreading on a road.
US07758763B2

A substrate comprising a resist layer overlying a dielectric feature, is processed in a substrate processing chamber comprising an antenna, and first and second process electrodes. A process gas comprising CO2 is introduced into the chamber. The process gas is energized to form a plasma by applying a source voltage to the antenna, and by applying to the electrodes, a first bias voltage having a first frequency of at least about 10 MHz and a second bias voltage having a second frequency of less than about 4 MHz. The ratio of the power level of the first bias voltage to the second bias voltage is sufficient to obtain an edge facet height of the underlying dielectric feature that is at least about 10% of the height of the dielectric feature.
US07758761B2

A substance including tungsten and carbon is etched by using plasma. The plasma is generated from a mixed gas of a gas including a fluorine atom and a gas including a CN bond and a hydrogen atom.
US07758751B1

The present invention is for high performance UV-cross-linked membranes from polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) and the use of such membranes for separations. More specifically, the invention involves the methods of making UV-cross-linked membranes from PIMs. These membranes were prepared by cross-linking the UV-cross-linkable membranes from PIMs by exposure to UV-radiation. Pure gas permeation test results demonstrate that the UV-cross-linked membranes from PIMs exhibit CO2/CH4 performance well above the Robeson's polymer upper bound trade-off curve for CO2/CH4 separation. They have more than doubled selectivity for CO2/CH4 and extremely high permeability of CO2 compared to the original UV-cross-linkable membranes from PIMs. These membranes also show excellent separation performance for CO2/N2, H2/CH4, O2/N2, and propylene/propane separations. These high performance UV-cross-linked membranes are very useful for gas and liquid separations such as CO2/CH4, CO2/N2, H2/CH4, O2/N2, olefin/paraffin, deep desulfurization of gasoline and diesel fuels, and ethanol/water separations.
US07758745B2

A diesel desulfurization method has various steps including: implementing a modified oxidative desulfurization (UAOD) process. The UAOD has the steps of: mixing diesel fuel with room temperature ionic liquid, oxidant, phase transfer catalyst, and acid catalyst in a tank in a mix; recycling the ionic liquid and recycling the acid catalyst in aqueous phase. A step is to move the sulfur from the diesel fuel in a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) having bed reactor material. The process can be improved with ultrasound during mixing, or a high shear mixer. The bed reactor is preferably acidic alumina for adsorbing oxidized sulfur. The oxidant is preferably hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The acid catalyst is preferably a mixture of Acetic acid and Tri-fluoro acetic acid.
US07758744B2

Diagnostic dry reagent tests capable of reacting with a single drop of whole blood and reporting both glucose and light-scattering analytes, such as chylomicrons, are taught. Such dry reagent tests may employ electrochemical detection methodologies, optical detection methodologies, or both methodologies. These tests alert diabetics to excessive levels of postprandial lipemia caused by meals with excessive amounts of fat, and thus can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular complications in diabetic patients.
US07758741B2

There is here disclosed a nozzle type ELID grinding apparatus comprising a conductive grindstone 12 having a contact surface with a workpiece 1; and an ion supply nozzle 16 that supplies an electrolytic medium 2 containing hydroxyl ions (OH−) onto a surface of the conductive grindstone, the workpiece being ground while the surface of the grindstone is dressed by electrolysis or chemical reaction. Furthermore, the apparatus comprises a grindstone power source 14 for setting the conductive grindstone to be a positive potential (+).
US07758740B2

An electrolytic cell for electrochemically reducing metal oxide powders and/or pellets is disclosed. The cell includes a cathode (25) in the form of a plate that has an upper surface for supporting metal oxide powders and/or pellets. The plate is horizontally disposed or slightly inclined and has a forward end and a rearward end and is immersed in an electrolyte bath. The plate is supported for movement so as to cause metal oxide powders and/or pellets on the upper surface of the plate to move toward a forward end of the plate. The cell also includes a means for causing metal oxide powders and/or pellets to move over the upper surface of the plate toward the forward end of the cathode while in contact with molten electrolyte whereby electrochemical reduction of the metal oxide to metal can occur. A method of continuously or semi-continuously reducing metal oxide powders and/or pellets in the cell is also disclosed.
US07758738B2

A method of separating gaseous components, heavier liquid components and lighter liquid components of a stream including the steps of conducting the stream between spaced apart electrodes in a treatment vessel, supplying from a voltage source an AC voltage of at least one base frequency F1 to at least one of the electrodes to establish an electric field within the vessel through which the stream passes, modulating the frequency F1 of the AC voltage at a modulation frequency F2, and withdrawing separated gaseous components from an upper portion of the vessel, heavier stream components from a lower portion of the vessel, and lighter liquid components from an intermediate portion of said vessel.
US07758732B1

A method for applying a strike voltage to one or more substrates during plating. During this method, the substrates are moved in a planetary manner while being held at their exterior edges by a set of parallel mandrels. (The substrates are held in a mutually parallel orientation, typically vertically, during plating.) A voltage is applied to the substrates via a contact pin, a contact plate, a set of ball bearings, a rack end-plate, and the mandrels.
US07758731B2

A falling film plasma reactor (FFPR) provides a number of benefits for the treatment of process gases. The falling film plasma reactor uses high voltage alternating current or pulsed direct current which is applied to radially separated electrodes to thereby create a dielectric breakdown of the process gas that is flowing within the large radial gap between the two electrodes. Typical plasma reactors often utilize fixed dielectric construction which can result in potential failure of the device by arcing between the electrodes as portions of the dielectric fail. Such failures are prevented by using a dielectric liquid that constantly flows over the electrodes, or over a fixed dielectric barrier over the electrodes.
US07758722B2

The invention relates to a method for producing an absorbent fiber product, starting with a parent fiber product that comprises fibers that, on the one hand, lie at a statistical distance from one another and, on the other hand, make contact with one another at contact points. The method comprises treating the parent fiber product with a fluid medium in such a way that the fibers are at least partially wetted and the fluid medium is then rapidly evaporated by irradiation, so that the evaporation pressure generated by the evaporating fluid medium has a kinematic effect on the fibers, which increases the distance between them. In this way the risk of inadvertent, in particular, thermal damage to the fibers is eliminated. Furthermore, the intrinsic fiber structure is left unaffected, or is only affected in a controlled manner. This prevents the uncontrolled destruction of the fiber structure and a detrimental effect on the fiber product, for example, to its tear resistance when wet. Instead, the proposed method achieves an expansion of the fiber product on a microscopic scale by increasing the distance between the fibers. In a further embodiment, the intrinsic fiber structure can be controlled and affected in a targeted manner if necessary, by controlling the time period between the wetting of the fibers and the evaporation of the fluid medium.
US07758718B1

A method for processing a substrate in a plasma processing chamber having a chamber wall is provided. The method includes providing an electrode arrangement having a cylindrical electrode encapsulated within a dielectric liner, which is coupled with the chamber wall. The method also includes providing an inductive circuit arrangement, which is coupled between the cylindrical electrode and the chamber wall. The method further includes generating a plasma within the plasma processing chamber to process the substrate while the electrode arrangement is disposed within the plasma processing chamber.
US07758714B2

A cord-reinforced band 2 having at least one cord 1 is cut into a plurality of cord-reinforced strips 3 of a predetermined length L. The cord-reinforced strips 3 are arranged successively such that side edge parts of adjacent cord-reinforced strips 3 overlap each other and the adjacent cord-reinforced strips are bonded together to form a tire structural member of a pre-determined length with respect to a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal side edges of the cord-reinforced strips 3. The tire structural member manufacturing method uses one and the same extrusion die 14 having an extrusion opening of a fixed width regardless of a pitch at which the cords 1 are arranged. Thus, the tire structural member manufacturing method is simpler.
US07758710B2

A method for joining fabrics, particularly high strength fabrics such as airship hull fabrics, including the steps of: measuring selected parameters of two fabric layers to be joined and the adhesive and any tape or other materials intended to be included in the joint; calculating therefrom an optimal value of a quality control parameter of an ideal joint, such as joint thickness, specific gravity or opacity; assembling the two fabric layers and other materials in the desired order; and applying heat and pressure to the assemblage until the selected quality control parameter of the joint, such as joint thickness, specific gravity or opacity, is satisfied.
US07758707B2

The invention relates to a martensitic stainless steel to be used for making a razor, surgical and similar blades or other cutting tools, which steel contains 0.40 to 0.55 wt % carbon, 0.8 to 1.5 wt % silicon, 0.7 to 0.85 wt % manganese, 13.0 to 14.0 wt % chromium, 1.0 to 1.5 wt % molybdenum and 0.2 to 0.4 wt % nickel, 0.02 to 0.04 wt % nitrogen, the balance of the steel being iron and inevitable impurities. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing the said steel.
US07758702B1

Extraction surface cleaning wherein a cleaning liquid is applied to a surface to be cleaned and extracted to remove the soiled cleaning fluid from the surface, and the surface is heated prior to or concurrent with the application of the cleaning fluid to the surface. A method and apparatus are disclosed.
US07758699B2

The present invention is a high-throughput ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) system and method of utilizing such a system that enables continuous deposition of thin films such as the buffer layers of HTS tapes. The present invention includes a spool-to-spool feed system that translates a metal substrate tape through the IBAD system as the desired buffer layers are deposited atop the translating substrate tape using an e-beam evaporator assisted by an ion beam. The system further includes a control and monitor system to monitor and regulate all necessary system parameters. The present invention facilitates deposition of a high-quality film over a large area of translating substrate.
US07758695B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for fabricating a high-quality metal substrate. During operation, the method involves cleaning a polished single-crystal substrate. A metal structure of a predetermined thickness is then formed on a polished surface of the single-crystal substrate. The method further involves removing the single-crystal substrate from the metal structure without damaging the metal structure to obtain the high-quality metal substrate, wherein one surface of the metal substrate is a high-quality metal surface which preserves the smoothness and flatness of the polished surface of the single-crystal substrate.
US07758689B2

In one embodiment the invention is a hydrophobic nano-talc composition that is the reaction product of nano-talc with an ammonium, pyridinium or phosponium salt. The composition is characterized by a carbon content of about 5 to about 25 wt %. The compositions are useful in preparing nano-talc/polymer composites. In another embodiment, the invention is a process for preparing a nano-talc composition of the invention.
US07758685B2

An ink composition is provided which has excellent storage stability, good defoaming properties, and improved resistance to bleeding on the print paper during image forming, while preventing nozzle clogging when used in a wet-type image forming apparatus. The ink composition according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a colorant, a solvent, and a plurality of additives. The plurality of additives are of the same type and have one or more hydrophilic groups and one or more hydrophobic groups. Each of the one or more hydrophobic groups of the plurality of additives have the same structure, each of the one or more hydrophilic groups of the plurality of additives have the same structure, or each of the one or more hydrophobic groups and each of the one or more hydrophilic groups of the plurality of additives have the same structure.
US07758683B2

An ink composition, which comprises: at least two kinds of water-soluble dyes each having the maximum wavelength of an absorption spectrum in an aqueous solvent of from 550 to 700 nm, wherein at least one of the at least two kinds of water-soluble dyes is selected from the group consisting of a compound represented by formula (L-1) as defined in the specification, a salt of the compound represented by formula (L-1) and a compound having a naphthalene ring substituted with at least one hydroxyl group and three or more azo groups; an ink set containing at least one kind of the ink composition; a recording method comprising applying the ink composition to a recording medium; and a recording method comprising loading the ink set on a recording apparatus, and applying the ink from the recording apparatus to a recording medium.
US07758681B2

A cobalt-based alloy electroless plating solution according to the present invention comprises a cobalt precursor, a tungsten precursor, a phosphorus precursor, a reducing agent, a complexing agent, a pH regulator and a stabilizer, in which the reducing agent is dimethylamine borane (DMAB) or borohydride and the stabilizer is one or more compounds selected from a group consisting of imidazole, thiazole, triazole, disulfide and their derivatives; and which is stable enough for long-term reuse and prevents deterioration of metal thin-film quality by inhibiting the formation of a precipitate.
US07758675B2

Gas treatment equipment including a corona electrode and a dust-collection electrode facing the corona electrode, and forming corona discharge in gas passing between the corona electrode and the dust-collection electrode by applying a high voltage between them to collect components in the gas wherein a gas turbulence accelerator is located in the vicinity of the surface of the dust-collection electrode facing the corona electrode.
US07758668B1

A process for synthesizing metal submicron and nano-scale powders for use in articles of manufacture. In a suitable reactor, single metal or multiple metal complexes are heated to a temperature whereby, upon contact with hydrogen gas, an exothermic reaction begins. The further temperature rise in response to the exothermic reaction is minimized by reducing the external heat input, thereby minimizing the agglomeration or sintering of the metal nano-scale particles resulting from the process. Preferably, after drawing a vacuum on the metal complexes in the reactor, the hydrogen is introduced at above, equal to or below ambient pressure and the reaction is purposely made slow to prevent agglomeration or sintering.
US07758657B2

Present invention relates to a coloring composition for keratin fibers especially for hair, and, especially for brightening hair. Coloring composition of the present invention for keratin fibers especially human hair based on oxidative dye precursors and optionally comprising coupling agents and direct dyes comprises further at least one carbonate at a concentration of 0.75 to 5% by weight, at least one ubiquinone at a concentration of 0.001 to 1%, at least one aminated silicone at a concentration of to 1% by weight and at least one chelating agent at a concentration of 0.25 to 5 % by weight, all concentrations are calculated to total composition and prior to mixing with a composition comprising oxidizing agent.
US07758656B2

A textile having excellent water- and oil-repellency can be obtained by a method of preparing a treated textile, having steps of: (1) preparing a treatment liquid comprising a water- and oil-repellent agent, (2) adjusting pH of the treatment liquid to at most 7, preferably at most 3, (3) applying the treatment liquid to a textile, (4) treating the textile with steam, and (5) washing the textile with water and dehydrating the textile, wherein the water- and oil-repellent agent is at least one fluorine-containing compound selected from the group consisting of a fluorine-containing polymer and a fluorine-containing low molecular weight compound, and the water- and oil-repellent agent or the treatment liquid contains an organic salt.
US07758650B2

A modular humeral prosthesis for replacement of the humeral head of a humerus. The prosthesis generally comprises a stem to be fitted to a resected humerus; a head sized and configured to approximate the humeral head; and an intermediate connecting member for connecting the stem to the head. The intermediate connecting member provides a desired angle of inclination or offset between stem and head. The head may be a traditional humeral head, or it may be an eccentric humeral head, with its mating portion being offset. The head may also comprise a groove or milled trench at least partially surrounding or otherwise defining mating portion. Also disclosed is a modular humeral prosthesis kit comprising a variety of different intermediate connecting members that may be selected to fit the prosthesis to the patient, and a method of replacing a humeral head in a patient.
US07758646B2

A total disc implant (TDI) is provided for total replacement of a spinal disc or discs in a human patient or other mammal, wherein the TDI is designed to maintain a substantially full range of natural motion (ROM) following implantation. The TDI generally comprises, in one preferred form, upper and lower end plates for affixation to adjacent vertebral bodies, with an intervening insert disposed therebetween. The end plates each include elongated part-cylindrical surfaces oriented generally perpendicular to each other, with one of said surfaces extending in an anterior-posterior direction and the other extending in a medial-lateral direction. The intervening insert defines concave upper and lower part-cylindrical seats oriented for respectively engaging these part-cylindrical surfaces, wherein these part-cylindrical seats are defined by offset radii to include a somewhat flattened central base region merging smoothly with upwardly curving radiused sides.
US07758644B2

Expandable devices include a body defining a hollow interior for receiving distal portion of a delivery instrument. The expandable devices are collapsed on the distal portion of the delivery instrument for delivery to the operative site within a vertebral body. Upon delivery of the collapsed expandable devices to the operative site, the distal portion of the delivery instrument is enlargeable to expand the expandable device in situ for implantation at the operative site.
US07758632B2

The present invention relates to a medical device, and in particular, to a stent-based valve. The valve includes a radially expandable structural frame comprising a proximal and distal anchors formed from a lattice of interconnected elements, and having a substantially cylindrical configuration with first and second open ends and a longitudinal axis extending there between. One or more cantilevered valve struts are attached directly or indirectly to the proximal anchor. The stent based valve also comprises one or more connecting members attached between the proximal and distal anchors. A biocompatible valve assembly is coaxially disposed and attached to the proximal anchor and extends in the longitudinal direction along the one or more connecting members.
US07758630B2

A prosthesis is disclosed for placement across an ostium opening from a main body lumen to a branch body lumen. The prosthesis comprises a radially expansible support at one end, a circumferentially extending link at the other end and at least one spiral frond extending axially therebetween.
US07758619B2

A unitary body spine distraction implant which is inserted between a first spinous process and a second spinous process has saddles adapted to be in contact with the spinous processes and tethers to hold the spinous processes in the saddles in order to alleviate pain associated with spinal stenosis and facet arthropathy by expanding the volume in the spine canal and/or neural foramen.
US07758615B2

A surgical device for anchorage of a prosthetic implant with at least one arm or flexible suspension link in muscle or ligament tissues comprises an elongated body, an anchor head located at one end of the body and provided with means of anchorage in the tissues, and at least one orifice, formed in the elongated body to attach to the at least one arm or flexible suspension link, that is associated with a non-return means adapted to enable adjustment of a useful length of the at least one arm or flexible suspension link and to prevent the at least one arm or flexible suspension link from sliding in a direction opposite its direction of insertion.
US07758613B2

A medical tool comprising an electromechanical driver and a surgical instrument attachment for use in invasive surgery, including a handle coupled to a flexible sheath which is in turn coupled to a surgical attachment. The handle of the driver includes the electromechanical driver and at least one processor element which controls the actions of the electromechanical driver, and therefore the application elements of the surgical attachment, based on information relayed between the processor element and remotely activatable sensor assemblies in the surgical instrument attachment.
US07758609B1

An ambidextrous locking clamp system for providing a user the ability to alter the configuration of a hand operated device allowing a right or left handed user to operate the device. The device has a hingedly connected first and second elongated member each with a finger engaging member and a working head. At least two inter-engaging latching members are removably attached to the first and the second elongated members. The latching members are symmetrical, interchangeable, and reversible, allowing a user to change the configuration of the ambidextrous device. The latching members can be retained to the elongated members by a rotatably lever, a removable retaining cap, or a removable retaining pin. Additionally, the latching members can be incorporated into removable finger engaging members, thereby allowing the entire finger engaging member and latching member to be removed, interchanged or reversed.
US07758605B2

A medical balloon may be configured by at least partially inflating the medical balloon and forming at least one primary wing in the balloon. The primary wing extends from a central portion of the balloon. The primary wing may be manipulated to form a T-shaped wing therefrom. The balloon may then be deflated and the T-shaped wings wrapped around the balloon.
US07758598B2

A medical device that includes a cannulated needle, a first knotting element portion releaseably engaged with the needle, a second knotting element portion also releaseably engaged with the needle, a knotting element deployment actuator that abuts the second knotting element portion, and an anchor deployment actuator in communication with the interior of the needle, wherein the knotting element deployment actuator and anchor actuator are slidably manipulable from a proximal handle of the device, and held in a coaxial relationship with each other. The first knotting element portion may be releaseably engaged by means including shearing posts and adhesives, and the second knotting element portion may be releaseably engaged by means including detents and adhesives.
US07758597B1

A suturing instrument and method for placing mattress stitches in soft tissues is described. An elongate shaft with a stationary jaw and a moveable jaw disposed at the distal end is coupled to a handle grip at the proximal end configured to manipulate the jaws into open and closed positions. The jaws are configured to allow for atraumatic grasping of soft tissues. The stationary jaw is comprised of a serrated face incorporating apertures through which needles attached to opposite ends of a single strand of suture material may be driven out into and through grasped tissue. The serrated upper jaw is configured with needle catch adapted to accept and capture the needles and suture. The handle is released to open the moveable jaw, the instrument may be withdrawn, trailing the suture, and leaving a mattress stitch in the grasped tissue.
US07758593B2

A medical instrument handle includes a medical-instrument-handle body, manually-slidable first and second slides, and medical-instrument-member first and second articulation cables. The handle body has a longitudinal axis, a proximal body portion, and a distal body portion. The first slide is slidably attached to the handle body. The first articulation cable includes a first proximal cable portion which has a first centerline and which is connected to the first slide. The second slide is slidably attached to the handle body. The second articulation cable includes a second proximal cable portion which is connected to the second slide. A medical instrument also includes a flexible shaft and a medical end effector.
US07758592B2

A wire guide has first and second portions with first and second diameters, respectively. A resilient loop positions a distal end of the wire guide adjacent another section of the wire guide. A closure member comprising at least one attachment tab maintains the distal end in a fixed position relative to the remainder of the wire guide. A covering may be positioned around one or more parts of the wire guide.
US07758591B2

A medical instrument converts linear movement of a shaft at a proximal end of the instrument to a rotational movement of an end effector of the instrument. According to one embodiment, the medical instrument includes an end effector formed of a snare loop connected to a shaft that is located within a sleeve. Once the sleeve is located near a desired location within a patient, the snare loop may be rotationally positioned with linear movement of the shaft by the operator. The shaft is formed with a threaded portion that matches threads formed in a torque transmitter element fixed within the sleeve. Linear movement of the shaft through the torque transmitter element causes the shaft to rotate. The medical instrument may also include a pivot connector for reducing torque build-up of the shaft and/or a clutch assembly for restricting controlled rotation of the snare loop to only one direction.
US07758583B2

A surgical instrument and method are provided for positioning an osteochondral plug within a bone defect site. The instrument includes an elongate shaft, a ribbon, an elongate sleeve and a locking mechanism. The shaft has proximal and distal ends, with the distal end being shaped to contact the osteochondral plug. The ribbon extends along two sides of the shaft and around the distal end, forming a loop that is used to secure the osteochondral plug to the distal end. The sleeve is movably mounted to the shaft for reciprocating relative thereto between retracted and extended positions. The sleeve includes a slot that allows for visualization and cutting of the ribbon. The locking mechanism locks the ribbon in place and thereby controls the size and tension of the loop that surrounds the osteochondral plug, securing it to the distal end of the shaft.
US07758582B2

Methods, systems, and devices according to this invention provide drill guides for optimal placement of fixation elements, such as half pins, into a patient's bone. According to one embodiment, a collar frame (202) with a collar adapted (204) to receive a bar (270) of an orthopedic external fixation system such that the collar may be moved linearly or rotationally about the bar is coupled to a guide frame (224) including a bore (232) through which a fixation element (266) of the external fixation system may be inserted. The coupling between the collar frame and the guide frame allows for them to rotate about at least one axis relative to each other. In one embodiment, the collar frame and the guide frame may rotate about three axes relative to each other.
US07758581B2

A reamer may be designed to engage a guide member, such as a guide wire, implanted in bone at any of a plurality of relative orientations such that the resulting resection of the bone does not depend on the relative orientation. The reamer may have a shaft that receives torque and a reaming head with a cavity into which a protruding portion of the guide wire is insertable. The cavity may have a generally conical shape capable of receiving the guide wire at a variety of relative orientations. The orientation of the reaming head is determined not by that of the guide wire, but by a stationary frame to which the reamer is coupled. The reamer may optionally have an offset assembly that causes the reaming head to rotate about an axis displaced from that of the shaft to reduce the size of the incision required to reaming head.
US07758579B2

A surgical system including a bipolar generator having a first electrical connection and a second electrical connection, a needle, the needle being formed from a first electrically conductive material and electrically connected to the first electrical connection, and a conductor coaxially disposed over the needle, the conductor being formed from a second electrically conductive material and electrically connected to the second electrical connection, wherein the needle is electrically isolated from the conductor.
US07758572B2

Medical systems and methods including balloons having nanotubes are disclosed. In some embodiments, a medical system includes an elongated shaft, and an expandable balloon carried by the shaft and including nanotubes. The medical system is capable of cooling the balloon to less than about 37° C. In some embodiments, a method includes providing a medical device having an elongated shaft, and an expandable balloon carried by the elongated shaft and including nanotubes; and cooling the balloon to less than about 37° C.
US07758568B2

A medical device known as an implantable therapeutic substance delivery device is configured for implanting in humans to deliver a therapeutic substance such as pharmaceutical compositions, genetic materials, and biologics to treat a variety of medical conditions such as pain, spastisity, cancer, and many other conditions. The therapeutic substance delivery device has a permanent magnet solenoid pump that is energy efficient, accurate, small, compatible with therapeutic substances, and has many other improvements. The implantable therapeutic substance delivery device has a housing, a therapeutic substance reservoir, a power source, electronics, and a permanent magnet solenoid pump. The therapeutic substance reservoir is configured to contain a therapeutic substance and is coupled to the housing. The power source is carried in the housing to power the electronics and solenoid pump. The electronics are coupled to the solenoid pump and the solenoid pump is coupled to the therapeutic substance reservoir. The permanent magnet solenoid pump is configured for pumping therapeutic substance from the therapeutic substance reservoir through an infusion outlet at a programmed infusion rate. Many embodiments of the permanent magnet solenoid pump and its methods of operation are possible.
US07758567B2

A medical system comprising an implantable medical device and an external controller. The medical device includes a therapy administration subsystem, a telemetry subsystem, and a control subsystem which includes a microprocessor operable in response to data and/or code provided via said telemetry subsystem for producing an output signal for controlling said therapy administration subsystem. The controller includes a user input means and a telemetry subsystem responsive to said user input means for communicating data and/or code to said medical device telemetry subsystem. The medical device control subsystem includes program means for causing said microprocessor to separately execute at least two software processes to respectively produce separate therapy control output components. Combinatorial logic means responds to the separate output components to produce the output signal for controlling the therapy administration subsystem.
US07758566B2

Disclosed herein is a valve assembly comprising a male luer end portion and a female luer end portion and a passage for the transfer of fluids extending between the male and female luer end portions, valve means movable between a first position, in which the passage is closed, and a second position, in which the passage is open, biasing means for biasing the valve means toward the first position, and actuating means extending into the male luer end portion and coupled to the valve means to actuate the valve means when a female luer end portion of a medical accessory is engaged with the male luer end portion.
US07758563B2

A patient hydration system with an infusion subsystem responsive to a source of hydration fluid for infusing the patient with hydration fluid. A urine output measurement subsystem determines the amount of urine output by the patient. A setting is received corresponding to an amount of urine to be output by the patient. When or after the urine output measurement subsystem indicates the set amount of urine has been output by the patient, the infusion subsystem is controlled to administer hydration fluid to the patient based on the patient's further urine output.
US07758558B2

A pants-type disposable wearing article includes a chassis forming a body of the article, an absorbent structure disposed on an inner surface of the chassis, and a plurality of elastic members arranged in waist-surrounding regions. Opposite end portions of the elastic members in a waist surrounding direction are secured in the vicinities of transversely opposite side edges of the waist regions to the chassis while middle portions of the elastic members in the waist surrounding direction are not secured to the corresponding portions of the chassis.
US07758555B2

A method of treating a tissue site is provided. The method includes applying a reduced pressure to a tissue site with a reduced pressure source. A source pressure is monitored at the reduced pressure source, and a differential pressure is determined between the source pressure and the desired tissue site pressure. If a blockage is present between the reduced pressure source and the tissue site, the differential pressure is limited to a first maximum differential pressure. If no blockage is present between the reduced pressure source and the tissue site, the differential pressure is limited to a second maximum differential pressure.
US07758554B2

A wound closure apparatus having a porous pad adapted to be fluidly connected to a vacuum pump. The pad is placed over or within a tissue site, and the vacuum pump may be activated to draw air and exudates from the tissue site. The pad contains multiple pore sizes to prevent granulation tissue from migrating into the pad as reduced pressure treatment is applied. The pad has an outer surface adjacent the wound with pore sizes of a diameter of approximately 100 microns or less to prevent tissue from growing into the pad and is treated for biocompatibility.
US07758550B2

An injection device for administering a liquid product, the device including a drive mechanism, an engaging member and a catch including a number of latching elements, wherein at least one of the engaging member and the number of latching elements is relatively moveable to the other to generate a haptic and/or acoustic signal comprising a number of discrete signals during a relative movement, wherein one of the catch and the engaging member is coupled to the drive mechanism and the drive mechanism generates a variable drive speed during the relative movement, and wherein the latching elements are a distance (x0; x0-Δx) from each other such that a time interval between each of the number of discrete signals is constant. A method for generating a haptic and/or acoustic signal in use of an injection device is encompassed.
US07758546B2

A surgical handpiece having an active flow restrictor responsive to a feedback loop that can vary the fluid flow resistance through the handpiece.
US07758538B2

A surgical system that is able to sense the onset of an occlusion or other surgical event as well as the instant an occlusion breaks. To help avoid overheating of the tip, the system determines a temperature of an eye using irrigation flow rate and reduces the power to the handpiece automatically if an overheating situation is predicted. Alternatively or in addition, the system monitors the power drawn by the handpiece, which is indicative of the cutting load on the tip, and automatically adjusts the power or stroke of the tip to compensate for increased loads on the tip.
US07758537B1

The present invention provides systems, apparatus and methods for removing the outer layer, or stratum corneum, of a patient's skin. In one aspect of the invention, a method includes positioning an active electrode adjacent to or near a target site on a patient's outer skin, and applying a sufficient high frequency voltage to the active electrode to remove the stratum corneum without removing the entire epidermis layer. In this manner, the present invention removes dead and/or damaged skin cells on the surface of the skin which improves the overall appearance of the skin. In addition, this process helps to stimulate the bodies own rejuvenation process. In some embodiments, this rejuvenation process occurs by the actual removal of the stratum corneum, which accelerates the regrowth of new cell layers in the skin. In other embodiments, thermal energy is applied to the underlying epidermis and/or dermis to stimulate the growth of new collagen. In both of these embodiments, the skin appears healthier and, in some cases, small wrinkles are removed or reduced.
US07758525B2

An appliance or device for massaging and/or dispensing a product. The device includes a container holding the product, preferably a cosmetic product, a housing to which the container is mounted, and a massage element mounted on the housing. A rotary drive arrangement rotates the massage elements about an axis of rotation relative to the housing. In addition, a conduit is in fluid communication between an outlet from the container and the massaging element. The container has an axis between the outlet and a bottom of the container, with this axis is parallel to the axis of rotation.
US07758523B2

A method, apparatus and system for communicating to a remote location a representation of a physical condition caused by a foot. The method involves communicating to a transmitter unit at least partially held within a cavity in a foot support operable to be inserted into footwear, a condition signal representing the physical condition sensed by a condition sensor; and transmitting from the transmitter unit a radio frequency (RF) signal representing the condition signal, for reception by a receiver unit spaced apart from the transmitter unit. An apparatus and system using the method are also disclosed.
US07758516B2

Bodily fluid is sampled by causing a lancet mounted in a housing to be displaced toward a skin surface. A vacuum mechanism disposed on the housing is utilized to create a suction in the area to be incised causing bodily fluid to pool. The vacuum mechanism may then be deactivated thereby releasing the vacuum force on the skin, or repeatedly activated and deactivated. After the vacuum device has been utilized, the lancet is advanced to form an incision. The vacuum device may be activated, activated and deactivated, or repeatedly activated and deactivated after forming the incision. The sample may be withdrawn from the incision through a capillary tube.
US07758506B2

An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus includes a scanner, an input unit, a change unit, a prediction unit, a processor, and a second processor. The scanner is configured to conduct an ultrasound segment scan by alternating a B-mode scan and a Doppler-mode scan. The input unit is configured to input an instruction. The change unit is configured to change a first period of the B-mode scan and a second period of the Doppler-mode scan in accordance with the instruction. The prediction unit is configured to predict a first Doppler signal with respect to the first period. The processor is configured to prepare an Doppler-mode image based on the first Doppler signal and a second Doppler signal resulting from the Doppler-mode scan. The second processor is configured to prepare a B-mode image based on a B-mode signal resulting from the B-mode scan.
US07758499B2

A method, apparatus, and system for viewing through blood in situ including a flexible catheter for insertion into a blood vessel, an optical assembly positioned at the distal end of the catheter, a working channel, and a control unit for regulating the opacity level of blood in the blood vessel around the distal end of the catheter and controllably injecting quantities of fluid into the blood vessel in the vicinity of the optical assembly. A local controller located at the distal end of the catheter may control functions of the optical assembly while coordinating signals and power with the control unit. Some possible embodiments, may include an inflatable stent balloon.
US07758496B2

In a diagnostic system, a diagnostic unit for an operator of an electronic endoscope and a diagnostic unit for an instructor are in half-duplex radio communication. An inquiry that is input as a voice signal through a microphone into the electronic endoscope is superimposed on a modulated picture signal while shifting the phase of the voice signal, to produce an RF signal, which is sent as an electric wave to an operator's processor and an instructor's processor. The processors demodulate the RF signal, to display an endoscopic image based on the picture signal and output the inquiry through speakers based on the voice signal. An instruction that is input as a voice signal through a microphone into the instructor's processor is superimposed on a dummy signal, to produce an RF signal, which is sent as an electric wave to the operator's processor, to output the instruction through the speaker.
US07758470B2

A system for managing exercise of an animal such as a human being so that the animal can be trained to move with an appropriate scale and rhythm while harmonizing the motion of the animal with the operations of two devices which induce the motion of the animal in different manners, is provided. According to the exercise management system (1) of the present invention, the speed of the walking motion of the user is adjusted by an operation of a treadmill (first motion induction device) (10). The user's walking motion is induced with the motion scale being adjusted with a rhythm harmonized with the motion rhythm of the animal by an operation of a walking motion induction device (second motion induction device) (20). At this time, the operation of the walking motion induction device (20) is controlled based on the walking speed v (walking rate p, as required). Accordingly, it is possible to train the user so that the user walks with an appropriate scale and rhythm, while realizing harmonization between the walking motion of the user, the operation of the treadmill (10), and the operation of the walking motion induction device (20).
US07758466B2

A vehicle planetary gear device includes a ring gear, a sun gear, and a carrier, and pinions housed in the carrier. A penetration hole formed in a hollow cylindrical portion of the carrier has two inner wall surfaces that face an outer peripheral surface of a pinion. One of the inner wall surfaces has a curvature radius larger than the radius of the pinion, and has a curvature center that is apart from the radius center of the pinion gear. The pinion is disposed with respect to the carrier with a predetermined space formed between the one of the inner wall surfaces and the outer peripheral surface of the pinion, and thereby slides along a radial direction of the carrier.
US07758465B2

A damped planetary transmission comprising an input member, an inertial member connected to the input member, a planetary gear assembly connected to the input member, the planetary gear assembly comprising a carrier member that is directly and fixedly connected to the input member, a brake member engaged with a ring gear of the planetary gear assembly, the planetary gear assembly connected to an output member, a one-way clutch operationally disposed between the input member and the output member, and a vibration isolator directly connected for torque flow between the input member and the one-way clutch.
US07758456B1

An illuminable basketball rim assembly includes an anchor member that has a hollow cavity filled with a weight agent. A support pole is coupled to the anchor member and extends upwardly therefrom, and has a distal end positioned anterior to the anchor member. A rim section is positioned at the distal end of the support pole. A mechanism illuminates the rim section and the support pole when an external force is applied to the rim section. A mechanism maintains the support pole at a stable and equilibrium position such that the distal end of the support pole is prohibited from displacing downwardly beyond a predefined height.
US07758453B2

A golf club head according to one or more aspects of the present invention comprises a striking surface having a face center, a crown portion, and a sole portion, four quadrants, and a linear stiffening element coupled to at least one of the crown portion and the sole portion. The linear stiffening element may extend from the heel region to the toe region of the club head. The stiffening element is disposed in at least three of the four quadrants, at an angle between 50° and 85° relative to an imaginary vertical plane oriented substantially perpendicular to the striking surface and containing the face center. The stiffening element has a survey length, the ratio of the overall width to the survey length being less than 0.97.
US07758447B2

A golf club has a hand grip comprising an exterior surface and an interior surface with an elongated bore located between the two surfaces and extending generally parallel to the golf club shaft. A removable shim with a generally arc shaped cross section is disposed inside of the bore and forms a “reminder rib” for a player using the club.
US07758439B2

An adjustable alignment golf putter to compensate for a golfer's visual misalignment of the putter face due to eye predominance to the intended or target line taking into account the slope and contour of the green comprising an upper golf grip and a lower putter head attached to opposite end portions of a putter shaft, the putter head includes visual alignment means formed on the side opposite the putter face including a visual alignment base to support an adjustable alignment element movably positioned thereon to selectively align the adjustable alignment element on a virtual line between the optimum contact point and the cup angularly off set relative to the intended or target line between the golf ball and cup to compensate for the golfer's visual misalignment when putting the golf ball along the intended line to the cup.
US07758438B1

The golf aid apparatus provides for instant fit and removal from either of a golfer's shoes, left or right. The apparatus fits the toe of the employed shoe and provides for a golfer to properly align feet, with the telescopic rod aimed toward an intended target of the golf swing. The apparatus is useful for proper alignment in any swing, including putting strokes. Fitting the toe provides for best visual alignment while also providing ease of fit and removal. The combined loop is slideably fitted around the telescopic rod so that a user has even more freedom in positioning the rod as desired. The rod is adjustable up to 20 inches in length.
US07758428B2

An apparatus and method affords, to authorized persons, access to one or more lockable areas of one or more gaming machines. Each area includes a door or switch and an associated electrically operable lock mechanism which controls access to the area. Each machine has a local processor communicating with a central host computer and with lock processors for each of its lockable areas. Personnel identification and access authorization data is stored at the host computer. Data may also be stored on personal data cards, respectively assigned to individual persons. A person seeking access inputs identification data at the machine, and the host computer responds with signals to unlock lock mechanisms for areas which the identified person is authorized to access. Each machine monitors the states of all of its locks and doors. A manual override key, disabled when power is on, operates the lock mechanisms when power is off.
US07758416B2

The present disclosure provides a gaming machine or gaming system having a plurality of games which each can be provided as a wagering game or as a free game. The gaming machine or gaming system enables the player to wager on and simultaneously play the plurality of the games. If any free games are won by the player during the played games, the gaming machine or gaming system enables the player to wager on one or more of the games and to play one or more of the games as a wagering game, while simultaneously playing one or more of the games as a free game.
US07758415B2

A slot machine may comprise: a plurality of display windows in which a plurality of symbols are displayed variably and statically; at least one pay line across the display windows to connect a predetermined number of display windows, a winning combination of symbols being determined by symbol arrangement along the at least one pay line; and the processor operable to: cause the plurality of symbols displayed variably in the display windows; cause the plurality of symbols displayed statically in the plurality of display windows; let a player select an area where at least one symbol is displayed statically and which covers at least partially a display window; cause each symbol displayed statically in the selected area to be replaced with a specific symbol capable of substituting at least another kind of symbol; and determine the winning combination by the symbol arrangement including the replacing specific symbol.
US07758414B1

An electronic video slot machine enables wild symbols to expand into adjacent symbols positions—vertically, horizontally, and/or diagonally—in the symbol matrix (“Directional Wilds”). In one embodiment, the Directional Wild concept uses wild symbols that expand in a pre-determined vertical direction—upwards or downwards. The upwards wild symbol (“Up Wild”) converts all of the symbol positions above the Up Wild into wild symbols. The downwards wild symbol (“Down Wild”) converts all of the symbol positions below the Down Wild into wild symbols. The original position of the Up or Down Wild symbol is also optionally wild. Various alternative embodiments may optionally be used.
US07758413B2

A distributed manufacturing and distribution process for lottery tickets is disclosed. The manufacturing/vending system comprises a ticket manufacturing server and one or more vending devices located at remote sites. Each vending device is operatively coupled for communication with the server, normally via a network connection. Each vending devices is further equipped with blank media and printing means, so that a customer is able to purchase on-demand tickets from a vending device in communication with the server. Additionally, the vending devices may be configured as electronic aid to display the results of the purchased lottery tickets in entertaining ways to the customer.
US07758410B2

A method for conducting a wagering game includes receiving a wager from a player to play the game and providing a plurality of symbol-bearing objects to form a first user-playable hand. The method includes providing the ability to discard, via player selection, one or more of the provided symbol-bearing objects from the first user-playable hand. The discarded symbol-bearing objects are collected and replaced with a replacement symbol-bearing object to form a second user-playable hand. The method includes awarding the player a payoff based on a ranking of the second user-playable hand in response to the second user-playable hand meeting a predetermined criterion. The method includes forming a best-possible hand from the plurality of the symbol-bearing objects of the second user-playable hand and the collected, discarded symbol-bearing objects and awarding a bonus payoff based on a ranking of the best-possible hand in response to the best-possible hand meeting a predetermined criterion.
US07758407B2

An arrangement for use in an occupancy-based ventilation system includes a plurality of CO2 sensors and a processing circuit. The plurality of CO2 sensors are disbursed throughout a plurality of spaces in a building. The processing circuit is operably coupled to receive information representative of CO2 measurements generated by the plurality of CO2 sensors. The processing circuit is operable to determine a value corresponding to occupancy, based on information from the CO2 sensors, and to control the flow of fresh supply air into the building ventilation system based on the determined value.
US07758395B2

A method of manufacturing a plasma display panel, which includes forming a lower dielectric layer on a lower substrate, disposing a mesh over the substrate on which the lower dielectric layer is formed, dispersing a glass powder through the mesh, forming a barrier rib-forming layer by applying a certain amount of heat and pressure to the dispersed glass powder, and forming barrier ribs by selectively removing the barrier rib-forming layer.
US07758390B2

A large array connector assembly for containing a plurality of wafers is disclosed. The large array connector assembly includes a plurality of guide blocks that includes first and second guide blocks. The first guide block being located at a first end of the assembly. The second guide block being located at a second end of the assembly. A first plate is mechanically coupled to a first portion of the first guide block and a first portion of the second guide block. The first plate includes a plurality of slots each for receiving a tab extending from a corresponding wafer so as to substantially prevent movement of the corresponding wafer in first and second directions while allowing a given degree of movement in a third direction. A second plate is mechanically coupled to a second portion of the first guide block and a second portion of the second guide block.
US07758381B2

A new arrangement of the cage for the pluggable optical transceiver is disclosed. The cage provides a plurality of fingers which has a corrugated shape with first and second contact portion. The first contact portion comes in contact with the front panel of the host system when the cage is implemented therein, while, the second contact portion comes in contact with the housing of the transceiver when it is set within the cage.
US07758378B2

A connector assembly includes a metal terminal, a lead wire, a connector housing and a sealing member. The metal terminal defines a longitudinal direction. The metal terminal comprises: a lead-wire connection portion located on a front end side; a counterpart connection portion located on a rear end side; and a press-fit portion located between the lead-wire connection portion and the counterpart connection portion. The press-fit portion comprises a curved portion which curves around an imaginary axis extending in the longitudinal direction. The lead wire comprises an end portion connected to the lead-wire connection portion of the metal terminal and comprising an outer circumferential surface. The connector housing comprises a press-fit hole having a wall surface. The press-fit portion of the metal terminal is press-fit into the press-fit hole. The sealing member provides a seal between the outer circumferential surface of the lead wire and the wall surface of the press-fit hole.
US07758363B2

A rotary connector device equipped with a rotary connector and a steering angle sensor for detecting rotational angles of a steering wheel, includes one circuit board, in which the circuit board is used for the rotary connector and the steering angle sensor simultaneously. According to the device, since only one circuit board is provided, the total thickness is reduced as compared with other devices having a plurality of circuit boards in the related art.
US07758359B2

A USB plug comprises a shell, a stationary port, upper and lower sliders and a levering device. The shell has an opening formed at a front end thereof and two pairs of terminal pins connected at a rear end thereof. The stationary port extending horizontally is fixed at a middle of the rear end of the shell, each side of the port being provided with two pairs of contacts in electrically connection with the terminal pins. The upper and lower sliders respectively have first sides thereof facing towards each other and second sides thereof being slidable along upper and lower sidewalls of the shell, each one slider having two metal contacts provided on the first side thereof corresponding to the contacts of the stationary port. The levering device is operatively provided between the upper and lower sliders in order to alternately shift the upper and lower sliders by means of an external intrusion force exerted on one of the upper and lower sliders. Advantageously the USB plug is adapted for connecting with a conventional USB socket in both upside and upside down orientation.
US07758346B1

Novel prosthetic teeth constructed using moldable, micro-filled composite resin, and a novel method for making and bonding the same onto implants in a patient's mouth. The teeth are prepared and seated in the patient's mouth using materials and methods that are known and widely available. The present invention may be applied to any situation in which one or more replacement teeth are required, including full-arch replacement for upper and/or lower teeth.
US07758342B2

An apparatus that indicates a proximity of a dental instrument in a tooth's root canal to the canal's apical foramen while using the dental instrument to perform a dental/medical procedure. The apparatus includes a signal generator that provides divider signal across a first node and a third node, and a reference impedance coupled between the first node and a second node. The second node and third node include configuration for electrically coupling between a tip of the dental instrument and an electrode coupled with a body tissue of the patient, a stimulation signal being defined across the second node and the third node. The apparatus also includes a microprocessor operable to compare the stimulation signal and the divider signal, and generate a proximity signal in response to the comparison, and a proximity indicator that indicates the proximity of the dental instrument to the apical foramen in response to the proximity signal.
US07758338B2

An apparatus includes a first enclosure, a first door, at least one first valve, at least one inlet diffuser and at least one substrate holder. The first enclosure has a first opening. The first door is configured to seal the first opening. The first valve is coupled to the first enclosure. The inlet diffuser is coupled to the first valve and configured to provide a first gas with a temperature substantially higher than a temperature of an environment around the first enclosure. Each substrate holder disposed within the first enclosure supports at least one substrate.
US07758336B2

The invention relates to processes for the combustion of liquid fuels, including a means of using an oxygenated gas in a combustion zone, applicable to steam boilers, which produces a longer, more uniform and cooler oxygen flame than a conventional oxygen flame. According to the invention, the liquid fuel is injected into the combustion zone in atomized form, the fuel being atomized by bringing a stream of fuel into contact with a stream of atomizing fluid, and: prior to its atomization, the liquid fuel has a viscosity of at least 30×10−6 m2/s, the stream of fuel is brought into contact with the stream of atomizing fluid only in the combustion zone, and oxygenated gas is injected into the combustion zone in stages.
US07758335B2

A method for utilizing a combustible gas product collected in the seal device of a compressor of the combustible gas produce, in particular a method in which combustible gases, or gas mixtures containing combustible gases, are compressed, is provided. The method is particularly advantageous in applications in the field of the production and/or processing of synthesis gas, for producing and/or processing combustible gases or gas mixtures containing combustible gases including in particular H2, CO, CH4, natural gas and CO2.
US07758330B2

For forming a ready-to-bake, endless dough ring, a dough piece is first round kneaded in a round-kneading station and then fermented in a fermenting station. In a pressure station, flattening pressure is exerted on two sides of the dough piece for a flat round piece to produce. After a relaxation interval, an inside hole is punched into the relaxed dough piece in a punching station, with a dough ring being obtained. The individual stations of a corresponding dough treatment system are connected to each other by means of a conveyor. Then secondary fermenting of the shaped dough ring takes place, which is followed by baking of a ring article. The result is an efficient method of forming a ready-to-bake, endless dough ring. Producing the baked ring article can be completely automated.
US07758327B2

Methods and apparatus for hydrodischarging and hydrocharging substrates and articles to produce enhanced ability to avoid attraction of contaminants or improved capability of removing contaminants from fluids are disclosed. In another form the method involves removal of electric charges or neutralization of charge on or within substrates. Also disclosed are methods of making using electret substrates and articles for removing particulates and mists from fluid streams.
US07758326B2

A scroll fluid machine comprises compression chambers defined with an orbiting scroll orbiting relative to a fixed scroll, and a back pressure chamber provided on the face opposite from a wrap of the orbiting scroll. A back pressure port is provided, which is formed in an end-plate of the orbiting scroll and connects from a compression chamber side opening opened to a compression chamber side and to a back pressure chamber side opening opened to a back pressure chamber side. The compression chamber side opening is opened and closed by an end-plate of the fixed scroll according as the orbiting motion of the orbiting scroll to perform connection and blockage of the back pressure port. The flow resistance of fluid flowing in and out between the back pressure chamber and the compression chamber is reduced and the compression efficiency and reliability are improved.
US07758324B2

A roller pump includes a stator with a pump bed formed therein, and a rotor for acting on a hose inserted into the pump bed in arcuate form. The ends of the hose are guided out of the pump bed in a crossed configuration.
US07758322B2

A fan system includes a first airflow generator providing a main airflow, a duct having a first feeding port to guide the main airflow, and a first fan. The first fan includes a base, a rotor connected to the base by a shaft, and a plurality of blades connected to the rotor. Each blade includes a passive part corresponding to the first feeding port and an active part. The main airflow drives the passive part rotating about the shaft to synchronously rotate the active part, dissipating heat from a heat source, increasing flow rate of airflow and decreasing pressure. The amount and location of the fans can be flexibly configured.
US07758315B2

A system for automatically controlling a pumping unit used in fire suppression comprises a pumping unit, a water flow sensor and a pump controller. The pumping unit has a pump with a suction inlet configured to receive water from an upstream pumping unit and an engine to run the pump. The water flow sensor senses water flow into the suction inlet of the pumping unit. The pump controller receives a water flow sensor signal from the water flow sensor and controls an on/off state of the engine based on the water flow sensor signal.
US07758310B2

A translational thrust system for a high speed rotary-wing aircraft includes a propeller system driven by a propeller gearbox, a hydraulic system, and a mechanical-hydraulic control system. The mechanical-hydraulic control system utilizes a hydraulic fluid which travels to and from a propeller dome via an oil transfer/position feedback tube which translates with a propeller pitch change piston. Translation of the oil transfer/position feedback tube and the propeller pitch change piston pitches the blades between high (coarse) and low (fine) pitch positions.
US07758299B1

A wind turbine for generating electricity is configured as a drum with a housing that has adjustable shutters to control the amount of wind reaching the turbine blades. Alternatively, the turbine blades can be pivotably mounted and opened and closed using a cam follower, cam track system to minimize wind exposure to downstream turbine blades.
US07758295B2

A handling device and method utilizes a clamping arm that is mounted on a guide rod. The axial direction and the rotation direction of the guide rod are intersected each other at right angles. Makes the clamping arm rotate in the rotation direction of the guide rod when the clamping arm is not restricted, and makes the clamping arm move in the axial direction of the guide rod when the clamping arm is restricted. By such arrangements, the clamping arm can perform handling in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction.
US07758293B2

The invention relates to a device for loading and/or unloading a transport cargo hold, in particular on a good vehicle, comprising at least one transport unit, by means of which goods units, particularly several thereof, may be simultaneously transported. According to the invention, the costs of said device may be reduced and the flexibility increased, whereby the transport unit may at least partly be introduced into the transport cargo hold.
US07758283B2

The present invention includes methods for investigating a site for possible selective removal of sediment containing a contaminant. The methods include calculating an adjusted contaminant concentration for sediment zones on the site. The site preferably contains a water course. The methods may also include determining whether sediment zone need remediation by comparing the adjusted contaminant concentration to a standard. The invention also includes a system for carrying out the described methods, at least partially implemented in a computer.
US07758282B2

An asymmetric corrugated ditch liner is disclosed that is formed with asymmetrical corrugations adapted to control fluid and materials flow through the liner. The asymmetric corrugated ditch liner also includes opposing angled opposing aprons that also having asymmetrical corrugations extending from opposing top edges of the ditch liner in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the liner. Connectors are provided for assembling the asymmetric corrugated ditch liner in a ditch. Anchors also are included for assembling the asymmetric corrugated ditch liner in a ditch.
US07758281B2

A durable and wear resistant synthetic sports field having at least one strip having a plurality of fibrillated polypropylene strands tufted within a multilayer backing material. The strands are tufted in a wide variety of pile heights, patterns, gauges, and stitch patterns depending upon end use. The multiplayer backing material has a top mesh polypropylene layer at least three layers of a backing material coated with a secondary coating used to contain the ends of the plurality of strands. The strips are placed onto a fine aggregate layer placed over a coarse aggregate layer and a geotextile fabric. The geotextile fabric is placed onto a compacted and leveled subgrade. A ground rubber infill, with or without sand particles and diatomaceous earth, is introduced onto the strips. In alternative arrangements, a series of perforated drains and drain tiles may be introduced to the coarse aggregate layer to promote drainage.
US07758277B2

A vehicle crash cushion for decelerating a vehicle includes first, second and third bays. The first bay is positioned forwardly of the second bay and the second bay is positioned forwardly of the third bay. The first, second and third bays each have energy absorbing structures with first, second and third impact strengths respectively. The first impact strength is greater than the third impact strength, which is greater than the second impact strength.
US07758275B2

An automatic fitting device is configured for assembling a vehicular part. If a spring-forced automatic fitting device is inserted into a bush of a trailing arm of a chassis and the trailing arm is inserted into a vehicular frame in the state in which buttons provided in the automatic fitting device are pushed, the vehicular frame and the chassis are provisionally assembled with each other as the buttons are projected through bolting holes, thereby enabling the automatization of assembling operation and reducing the working hours. In addition, because it is unnecessary to separately manufacture a conventional chassis bracket, the manufacturing costs can be saved.
US07758274B2

A quick attachment apparatus for use in association with orthopedic instrumentation and/or tools for releasable connection to a device, including a coupling member defining a passage extending generally along a longitudinal axis and sized to slidably receive a connection portion of the device, a locking member transitionable between a locked position and an unlocked position, a biasing member engaged between the coupling member and the locking member to bias the locking member into engagement against the connection portion to substantially prevent relative axial movement between the coupling member and the connection portion, and wherein application of a lateral force onto the locking member results in displacement of the coupling member generally along a transverse axis wherein the locking member is disengaged from the connection portion to allow relative axial movement between the coupling member and the connection portion.
US07758259B2

In an optical device including an optical system to form an optical image of an object to be photographed, an image capture unit to convert the optical image of the object to be photographed into an electrical signal, and an optical device arranged on the front surface of the image capture unit, a water repellent layer or a structure with a three-dimensional pattern to reduce the adhesive force of an alien substance is provided on a surface of the optical element on the opposite side of the optical system.
US07758255B2

A fiber optic connector uses an expanded light beam design in a universal receptacle that couples to a single style of plug on the ends of all harnesses. A single, mirror image socket design is used on bulkhead receptacles or box connections, with which two harness plugs mate. The receptacle uses optical lenses for expanding, collimating, and focusing the beam from the plug terminii. The optical lens may comprise rod lenses, ball lenses, or any other optical component that accomplishes the desired beam manipulation with the required diameters and lengths. The optical components are captured in a sleeve that holds the components, establishes the distance between the plug terminii and the lenses, and provides the alignment needed between the plug ferrules and the optical components.
US07758248B2

[Problems] A bearing assembly is provided which is designed to prevent a core (metal annular member), used in a synthetic-resin cover, from disengaging from the cover.[Means for Solving Problems] A bearing assembly H includes: a synthetic-resin cover 25 fitted in an inside surface of a vehicular-inner-side end of an outer ring member 2, and a metal annular member 33 disposed on an inside surface of a fitting engagement portion 26 of the cover 25, the fitting engagement portion being fitted in the inside surface of the outer ring member 2. The annular member 33 includes an engaging portion 33a in engagement with the cover 25.
US07758246B2

A robust spindle motor is provided having improved shock resistance for fluid containment, as well as enhanced air purging characteristics. In an aspect, axial displacement of relatively rotating components is restricted by utilizing a limiter situated adjacent to a limiter bushing forming an axial limiter gap therebetween. A fluid channel, at least partially diverging, extends from a hydrodynamic bearing to the axial limiter gap, and continues to a region beyond the axial limiter gap. In an aspect, an axially diverging slot is situated adjacent to the axial limiter gap. Power is reduced by reducing viscous drag between relatively rotating components, hydrodynamic bearing length is increased, and higher stiffness of the hydrodynamic bearing is provided. Fluid volume may be increased, thereby offsetting fluid evaporation losses and allowing for the use of lower viscosity lubricants.
US07758236B2

A food blending apparatus and a method of blending food within a container with the object of providing a hygienic system whereby disposable containers are charged with product at a location remote from consumption. After filling with ingredients the container is sealed and then cooled. Containers include an integral blender which when connected to a drive enable the product to be blended at the point of consumption after location in driving connection with the drive means. Product is accessed through a sealed opening of the container after opening the seal. After consumption the container is disposed of and is constructed to make disposal economical.
US07758232B2

An electronic device includes a case, a display panel and a backlight module. The case has at least a hole. The display panel is disposed in the case to display information. The backlight module is disposed in the case as a light source of the display panel. The backlight module has at least a light emitting element, a light-guide plate and at least a light-guide tube. The light-guide plate guides the light emitted by the light emitting element to the display panel. The light-guide tube has a light input end and a light output end. The light input end is disposed at the hole of the case and is exposed outside, and the light output end is located at one side of the light-guide plate. Therefore, the light-guide tube can guide external environment light to the light-guide plate.
US07758231B2

A backlight assembly includes a receiving container, a light guide plate, a light source unit, an optical member and a panel-guiding member. The receiving container includes a bottom plate and a sidewall extended from an edge portion of the bottom plate. The light source unit includes a light source generating light and disposed at side face of the light guide plate, and a light reflecting cover that covers the light source to reflect the light generated from the light source toward the side face. The optical member is disposed over the light guide plate. The panel-guiding member has a first plate combined with the sidewall of the receiving container, and a second plate extended from the first plate such that the second plate covers a portion of the optical member and is spaced apart from an upper face of the optical member. Therefore, warpage and cleavage of the optical member are prevented.
US07758221B2

The present invention relates to a headlight (10) for a vehicle. The headlight comprises a light emitting diode (LED) (12) including at least one LED chip (18) adapted to emit blue light and at least one overlying converter layer (20) for converting part of the blue light into yellow light, wherein part of the blue and yellow light forms bluish white light emitted in the direction of the LED normal and part of the blue and yellow light forms yellowish white light emitted at larger angles of departure, and means (14, 16) for directing at least part of the yellowish white light in a central direction of the headlight and at least part of the bluish white light in a peripheral direction of the headlight. The present invention also relates to a vehicle comprising such a headlight.
US07758217B2

A lamp support structure is disclosed using in a backlight module. The lamp support structure comprises a base, extending downwards, and two arms. Each arm comprises an inner curved edge and an opposite outer curved edge, both extending upwards from the base to define a receiving space. Moreover, each arm comprises a top end to define an opening such that a lamp can fit into the receiving space through the opening. The lateral dimension of the opening is smaller than that of the lamp. Each arm comprises a first section, including an upper portion and a lower portion, wherein the lower portion extends upwards from the base and the lateral cross-section dimension of the first section tapers from the base toward the upper portion.
US07758212B2

A light emitting diode device includes a substrate, a plurality of light emitting diode chips mounted on the substrate and arranged in a plurality of lines and a frame located on the substrate. The frame includes a plurality of first plates each extending along a first direction of the substrate, a plurality of second plates each extending along a second direction of the substrate and a plurality of reflecting plates. The first plates and the second plates cooperatively form a plurality of receiving rooms for receiving the light emitting diode chips therein. Each reflecting plate is located above a corresponding line of light emitting diode chips and inclined with respect to the substrate.
US07758209B2

The present invention provides an illumination device capable of improving an efficiency of acquiring light emitted by light emitting diodes, which are provided in a light source module and used as a light source, and capable of achieving a uniform luminance distribution, and provides a liquid crystal display device using the illumination device. The illumination device includes a circuit board, red, green and blue light emitting diodes, and a lens body. Each red, green and blue light emitting diode is mounted on the circuit board and connected with a wiring pattern formed on the circuit board. The lens covers the red, green and blue light emitting diodes, and includes first portions each having two first side surfaces and second portions each having two second side surfaces. The first and second portions are alternately arranged. A distance between the first side surfaces is larger than a distance between the second side surfaces. The three red, green and blue light emitting diodes are provided in each first portion of the lens.
US07758201B2

A light energy collection hand tool comprises a handle; a driving portion at one end of the handle; and an energy collection plate installed on the handle. The energy collection plate includes a solar energy plate on a surface of the handle, an energy storage unit; and a conductive unit connected to the energy storage unit. A light emitting unit is connected to the conductive unit; and thus electric power flows through the conductive unit will flow through the lighting emitting unit to light up the lighting emitting unit. The light emitting unit is one of a halogens bulb and a light emitting diode device. A slideable cover covers upon the electric power storage area. The metal conductive unit is arranged to be around an inner periphery of the handle; not only transferring electric energy, the conductive unit also generate heat.
US07758189B2

A system provides an optical image of an object. A first module tracks a reference feature of the object. A second module includes a source for an imaging beam, a scanning device to move the imaging beam along a portion of the object and a detection device receives a signal associated with an image of the portion of the object. The first module controls the position of the imaging beam relative to the reference feature to correct for the motion of the object. A third module detects a distortion of the object and compensates for the distortion.
US07758157B2

The image forming apparatus forms an image on a recording medium by using coloring materials of at least three colors of cyan, magenta and yellow, wherein: at least one of the cyan and magenta color materials is a coloring material of lower density than the yellow; and ink brightness or perception of graininess on the recording medium is substantially the same for each of the three coloring materials, if recording is carried out on the recording medium according to any one condition of: a first condition wherein recording is carried out using substantially the same dot size for each color, at a recording rate of 100%; a second condition wherein recording is carried out using substantially the same dot size for each color, at the same recording rate for each color with respect to the surface area of the recording medium that is to be evaluated, and at an overlap rate of 100%; and a third condition wherein recording is carried out using substantially the same dot size distribution for each color, at the same recording rate for each color with respect to the surface area on the recording medium that is to be evaluated, and at an overlap rate of 100%, where a maximum number of dots recorded onto the recording medium per unit surface area is taken as Nmax, a number of dots actually recorded per unit surface area as r, a sum of a surface area covered by the recorded dots per unit surface area as c, a total surface area of the dots recorded per unit surface area as Ds, and the unit surface area as S, and the following equations are established: a recording rate=(r/Nmax)×100(%), a coverage rate=(c/S)×100(%), and an overlap rate={Ds/(S×Coverage rate/100)}×100(%)=(Ds/c)×100(%).
US07758146B2

Defects in an image forming system may give rise to visible streaks, or one-dimensional defects in an image that run parallel to the process direction. One known method for compensating for streaks introduces a separate tone reproduction curve for each pixel column in the process direction. A compensation pattern according to this invention has alignment marks before and after a halftone compensation region. The alignment marks provide alignment between the printer pixel grid and a scanning pixel grid. The line width of each alignment mark and the gray level in each pixel column of each gray level portion is measured and analyzed to produce a local tone reproduction curve for each pixel column and associated line width. The line widths of the alignment marks can be remeasured to adjust the local tone reproduction curves to compensate for the streak defect when printing.
US07758136B2

The ink supply device for an inkjet printer which supplies ink to an inkjet head via an ink supply channel from an ink tank storing ink, the ink supply device comprises: a printing duty pre-reading device which previously reads a printing duty from print data; and a flow rate adjustment device which is provided on an upstream side of a pressure loss region in the ink supply channel and controls a flow rate of ink passing through the pressure loss region in the ink supply channel to a prescribed flow rate, in accordance with the printing duty obtained by the printing duty pre-reading device.
US07758134B2

A drawer fixing apparatus includes a bottom rail on a cabinet and having a movable latch member and at least one slide. The slide has a brake connected to a fixing member by a resilient member and an inner rail slidable on the slide and combined with a drawer. The inner rail includes a driven member having an embedding groove and a movable turning member pivotally connected to the driven member. As the inner rail moves with the drawer into the cabinet, the slide moves accordingly. The brake pushes the driven member to drive the turning member to rotate and press a latch member. When a user releases his/her hand, the resilient member pulls the brake backward slightly to resume the turning member to its original position, while the latch member falls naturally into the embedding groove of the driven member by gravitational force to achieve the positioning effect.
US07758128B2

A furniture assembly for compact and efficient packaging, the assembly including a sofa having component parts defining a sofa confine, the component parts including a back, a seat, a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs, and a skirt, wherein the skirt and the seat are removable, at least one chair having component parts defining a chair confine, the component parts including a back, a seat, a pair of front legs, a pair of rear legs, and a skirt, wherein the seat is removable, a coffee table, an end table, an ottoman, and a plurality of cushions and pillows, wherein the furniture assembly is arranged such that the at least one chair, the coffee table, the end table, the ottoman, and the plurality of cushions and pillows are located within the confines of the sofa.
US07758125B2

A portable support for providing support for the head of a seated individual includes an elongated pillow having an enlarged upper end portion and a lower pillow end portion. Connector structure is provided to position the larger pillow end portion above the shoulder of a seated individual.
US07758124B2

A seat apparatus for a vehicle includes a seat cushion, a lower arm, a seat back, an upper arm, an intermediate arm, a reclining mechanism, and a lock mechanism. The lock mechanism includes a first plate member, a second plate member, and a pawl gear. The first plate member is fixed to one of the upper arm and the intermediate arm to be provided therein with a plurality of internal tooth sections each of which has a plurality of teeth with different widths. The second plate member is fixed to the other one of the upper arm and the intermediate arm so as to be supported by the first plate member to rotate relative thereto. The pawl gear is supported by the second plate member and has an external tooth section each of which has a plurality of teeth with different widths for engaging with the internal tooth sections.
US07758122B2

A device for locking and/or unlocking a component (e.g., in or on a vehicle, etc.) in relation to a mating element is provided. The device comprises a locking element and a blocking element. The locking element is configured to be set into a locking position and into an unlocking position. The blocking element is configured to be set into a blocking position and into an actuating position. The setting of the blocking position brings about the setting of the locking position and the setting of the actuating position favors the adoption of the unlocking position.
US07758112B2

A foldable chair capable of being overlapped with other chairs vertically comprises two front legs, two rear legs and a seat plate. An inner side of each front leg has a recess for assembling the rear leg and a T shape buckle; each of two sides of a top end of an outer side of each rear leg has a post for assembling the seat plate; and each of two outer ends of a rear side of the seat plate has a C shape tenon which can be assembled to the T shape buckle at the inner side of the front leg; and each of two ends of an inner side of the seat plate has a sliding groove for assembling the post of the rear leg. The chair can be assembled without screws, but it still has a firm structure and the assembly work can be positioned quickly and easily.
US07758102B2

An interior armrest for a sliding door assembly of a motor vehicle having a hollow housing that is pivotally movable about a pivot axis between a horizontal position for use as an armrest and a vertical position for storage is disclosed. The housing includes an actuator for automatically moving the armrest to the vertical position from the horizontal position as the sliding door moves between the closed and the open position. The armrest is disposed within a recess of the sliding door assembly when in the vertical position.
US07758099B2

A convertible vehicle includes a retractable top with a rear window laterally surrounded by flexible cover regions. The rear window is movable relative to the cover regions. The top has flexible and tensionable loose material portions that forms a water pockets for sealing between the cover regions and the sides of the rear window. Each loose material portion has a lower end fixed to a material holding hoop disposed beneath the rear window. The material holding hoop has a holding opening through which a part of the loose material portion extends.
US07758097B2

An improved method and apparatus relating to vehicle storage compartments is disclosed. Specifically, the apparatus relates to the concealment of vehicle storage compartment strikers and the method of manufacturing the apparatus. The improvement relates to the elimination of some metal components while maintaining durability of the apparatus.
US07758092B2

A cover configured to overlay a space and secure at least one item, includes selectively collapsible storage bins, and preferably includes a retraction mechanism operable to stow the cover, and a guide for automatically causing the bins to collapse as the cover is stowed.
US07758081B2

A method of preparing documents for the transmission of secure information comprises the steps of preparing a first laminar element (13; 37) with a peripheral region (15) separable from a central region (14), printing the secure information on the central region (14) of the first laminar element (13; 37), or on a central region (19) of a second laminar element (12; 36), positioning the two laminar elements (13; 37, 12; 36) in face-to-face relation, with the face of the element bearing the information facing the said other element, and securing the element together around the peripheral regions. Apparatus for preparing secure composite documents comprises a first storage container (25; 47) for the first laminar element (13; 37), a second container (24; 50) for the said second laminar element (12; 36), and means (27, 28, 48, 49) for bringing the first and second laminar elements together in face-to-face relationship after the secure information has been printed on one of them, with the face of the laminar element bearing the printed information facing the other laminar element; and means (51; 48, 49) for securing the two laminar elements together around their peripheral regions.
US07758079B2

The invention relates to a personal document in the form of a book, comprising a book cover, a multi-layered personalised side which contains personalised data, in addition to inner pages. The personalised side and the inner pages are secured by means of a seam to the book cover. The multi-layered personalizing side is provided with a central area which is made of a textile layer which is joined on both sides to a thermoplastic layer which covers the central area until the projecting end. A RFID element comprising an IC element is integrated into the central area for the contactless transfer of biometric data of the personal document owner. The personalised side is sewn by means of a seam in the region of the projecting end.
US07758078B2

The invention relates to a security element (12, 18) with a carrier film (20) and a cover layer (22; 42; 50) applied to the carrier film (20). The cover layer has gaps (24; 30, 32, 34; 44) in the form of characters or patterns forming visually and/or machine readable first information. Additionally, a printed image (26; 36, 38, 40; 46, 48; 52) forming visually and/or machine readable second information is disposed in the gaps (24; 30, 32, 34; 44) in register, the first and second information being different.
US07758073B1

A lockable vehicle steering-wheel tilting assembly (LVWTA) (10) that functions in combination with and improves an existing vehicle steering-wheel tilting assembly. The LVWTA (10) includes an inward structure (12) that attaches to a steering-wheel column (102) and an outward structure (32) that is pivotally attached to the inward structure (12) and that it is attached to a vehicle-steering wheel (100). The LVWTA (10) is designed to position the steering wheel (100) in either a safe steering configuration or in a driver-exit configuration in which position the vehicle cannot be safely steered. The LVWTA (10) improves an existing steering wheel tilting assembly by removably inserting and attaching a locking insert (70) to the inward structure (12). When the locking insert (70) is attached and locked by means of a cylindrical key lock (90), the LVWTA (10) cannot be placed into the safe steering configuration.
US07758068B2

A curtain airbag device includes a gas generator and a curtain airbag configured to be deployed downward along an inner side surface of a vehicle cabin. The curtain airbag includes a front portion configured to be fixed to at least two sections of a pillar of a vehicle such that the front portion is disposed along a direction in which the pillar extends. A virtual equilateral triangle having a line connecting the first and second sections as a first side of the equilateral triangle is formed in the front portion of the curtain airbag. A region surrounded by the sides of the equilateral triangle includes a portion of an inflatable chamber that is configured to be inflated by receiving gas from the gas generator.
US07758052B2

The present invention provides a seal assembly for sealing between two relatively slideable members of non-circular cross-section. A plurality of adjacent seal members may be staggered and grouped within a groove so that all leakage surfaces between the two relatively slideable members are sealed. Multiple seal members or seal member groups may be used to reduce leakage caused by incomplete contact of the seal members with leakage surfaces. An actuator system may comprise various embodiments of the present invention to enable the actuation of one member in relation to another.
US07758051B2

A gas seal assembly includes a pair of mutually rotatable sealing members, each of which has a front face adjacent a gap between the two members which constitutes a leakage path through the seal assembly. The two sealing member are urged, in use, in a direction to close the gap and a gas bleed arrangement is provided for allowing gas from a high pressure side of the seal to bleed into the gap so as to apply a force tending to separate the members. The gas bleed arrangement includes a bore extending between the front face and a rear face of one of the sealing members, a generally radial groove formed in the rear face of the sealing member and a plate overlying the rear face to cover the groove and thereby define between the rear face of the sealing member and the plate a bleed passage connecting the bore to the high pressure side of the seal. The plate is formed as a shim that is sufficiently flexible to be deflected by the gas pressure into mating contact with the rear face of the sealing member so as to confine the gas flow of the bleed passage to the radial groove.
US07758050B2

An improved game of Shut the Box, including a game box and front and back rows of tiles in which tiles are pivotally arrayed in a side-by-side relationship. Each tile bears a number and may be selectively placed in either a vertical orientation so as to show the tile face or a horizontal orientation so as to obscure the tile face. The back row of tiles is positioned immediately behind and above the front row such that each one of the back row tiles is directly behind a corresponding front row tile. For any given pair of front and back row tiles, when the front row is in the vertical orientation, the face of the corresponding back row tile is obscured, and when the front row tile is in the horizontal position, the back row tile is revealed if it is in its vertical orientation. When both the front row tile and the back row tile are in the horizontal orientation, the face of each is obscured. The game is played with dice.
US07758047B2

A word game in which a participant attempts to decipher a word formed from a plurality of stylized alphabet letters that share a common side. The alphabet letters are majuscule English language alphabet letters in a block style font formed of line segments on a square grid. A portion of the alphabet letters is assigned a first level of difficulty, another portion is assigned a second level of difficulty different than the first level of difficulty, and yet another portion may be assigned a third level of difficulty different than the first and the second levels of difficulty. A word score is determined by adding together the level of difficulty assigned to each of the alphabet letters. A word formed from the alphabet letters may be assigned a level of difficulty determined by the word score of the word and the number of letters in the word.
US07758037B2

An envelope loader device comprising a mail-receiving bed provided with conveyor rollers and serving to receive a stack of mail items, jogger means for holding the mail items against a referencing wall, a drive motor for driving said conveyor rollers in rotation, and control means for actuating said drive motor and for causing a fraction of said stack of mail items to be ejected as a function of a mail presence sensor mounted at said mail-receiving bed and whose state depends on whether or not mail items are present in a downstream feeder device.
US07758032B2

A sheet processing apparatus configured to bind a sheet bundle includes a folding portion configured to fold the sheet bundle, a sheet processing portion provided upstream of the folding portion and configured to form a groove at a fold position of at least one sheet of the sheet bundle, and a controller configured to control an operation of the sheet processing portion. The controller controls an operation of the sheet processing portion such that a width of a groove formed on a sheet located on an outer side of the folded sheet bundle is larger than that of a groove formed on a sheet located on an inner side of the folded sheet bundle.
US07758028B1

An improved vacuum box assembly for use in printed circuit board manufacturing where the printed circuit board is supported during manufacturing operations on the second side of the board. The vacuum box uses a unique and improved side plate that securely retains commercially available substrate support devices within the vacuum box. The side plate has a retention cavity configured to receive one or more substrate support devices therein. The side plate retains the substrate support device in a desired position. Open or unoccupied regions of the retention cavity may be sealed by use of specifically configured vacuum blocking plates.
US07758027B2

An upper bush is secured to a bracket of a compressor unit, and a lower bush is abutted against a panel member of a vehicle body through a washer. A coil spring is interposed between the upper and lower bushes. A pipe member is inserted through the upper and lower bushes and the coil spring. A bolt is inserted through the pipe member and screwed into the panel member of the vehicle body. The compressor unit is resiliently supported floatingly by the coil spring. Vibration of the compressor unit is damped by friction generated by sliding contact between the pipe member and raised portions of the upper bush. When the vibration amplitude is large, respective projections of the upper and lower bushes abut against each other to suppress the vibration while absorbing impact.
US07758019B2

The safety valve includes a first generally tubular body 12 and a second generally tubular body 14 each having flow paths therein when the bodies are mated. A ball 20 rotates between open and closed position in a first seat 30 and a ball centering member 32 provided for engaging the ball. An outer actuator sleeve 40 is rotatable with respect to the first and second bodies, and a connecting member 50 acts between the actuator sleeve and the ball to rotate the ball.
US07758015B2

A solenoid-operated valve controller includes a first signal line and a second signal line, which are connected respectively to ends of a first solenoid coil and a second solenoid coil. The first solenoid coil and the second solenoid coil have other ends, which are electrically connected in common to a switch. One of the first and second solenoid coils, which corresponds to signal states of a plurality of input signals that are supplied respectively to the first and second signal lines, is selected, and the switch is turned on and off to control the selected one of the first and second solenoid coils.
US07758012B2

In order to produce a coating having an attractive, velvet-like or suede-like appearance for a substrate by application of a liquid plastic dispersion to the die surface 3 consisting of hydrophobic plastic and subsequent solidification of this plastic material, a die is used whose surface 3, according to the invention, has a gloss of less than 2.2 according to DIN 67530 at an angle of incidence of 60° and is provided with microscopically small well-like indentations 4.
US07758011B2

An adjustable mounting assembly (70a/70b) for installing solar cell modules (58) on a building surface (34) is disclosed. The mounting assembly (70a/70b) includes a mounting device (74), a stud (114) that may be threaded to the mounting device (74), a clamping member (142) that may be positioned on the stud (114), and a nut (128) that may be threaded onto the stud (114) to secure the clamping member (142) to the mounting device (74). A nut (126) is fixed to the stud (114) at an intermediate location along its length. This fixed nut (126) may be used to tighten the stud (114) to a mounting device (74), and furthermore may be positioned such that the stud (114) does not extend into a slot (90) of the mounting device (74).
US07757996B2

The present invention comprises a collapsible hanger and a method for using the same for supporting, among other things, cables from the ceiling of mines. The collapsible hangers of the present invention allow the cables to fall to the floor when tension, pressure, and/or weight is applied to the hangers, either directly or indirectly.
US07757994B2

A method for suctioning the boundary layer at the surface (1) of an aircraft having an air-conditioning system (4), at whose flow-critical points of the surface multiple suction openings (2) are provided, the air quantity suctioned via these being discharged to the atmosphere again via at least one outlet (7) placed in a way favorable for flow, the air quantity suctioned from the surface (1) being fed to the air-conditioning system (4) of the aircraft, via whose outlet (7) the air quantity suctioned is discharged to the atmosphere together with the exhaust air of the air-conditioning system (4), to reduce flow losses.
US07757992B2

Embodiments of systems and methods for enhancing the performance of rotary wing aircraft through reduced torque, noise and vibration are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes configuring the rotorcraft in a selected flight condition, communicating input signals to a control system operable to position sails coupled to tips of blades of a rotor assembly, processing the input signals according to a constraint condition to generate sail positional information, and transferring the sail positional information to the sail. Alternately, input signals may be communicated to a control system operable to position a plurality of sails, each sail having an aerodynamic shape and positioned proximate to a tip portion of the rotor blade. The input signals may be configured to rotate each sail about a longitudinal axis into a corresponding pitch angle independently of the other sails.
US07757971B2

In one aspect of the invention, an abrasion resistant nozzle has at least two sintered diamond bodies having flat, mating, exterior surfaces and a thickness, the surfaces being held against each other under compression. An enclosure is formed between the mating surfaces, at least one surface having a groove forming a portion of the enclosure and the other surface forming a remaining portion of the enclosure. The enclosure connects an entry and an exit formed in at least one side of at least one of the bodies.
US07757967B1

A protection device for a fire-fighting/protection instrument and its operational components. The device includes a proximal end surface and a distal end surface with a wall member extending therebetween having an outer surface and an inner surface. The proximal and distal end surfaces define a chamber with the wall member for housing at least a portion of the instrument. The wall member includes a first portion and a second portion defining at least one pivot axis therebetween. At least one of the first and second portions further defines a core element disposed between a first lateral member and a second lateral member. The inner surface of the device includes a plurality of projections for supporting the instrument in the chamber.
US07757962B2

A thermostatic device for selectively opening and closing one of more apertures used for controlling the flow of a coolant fluid includes a housing, at least one fixed element and at least one moveable element. The at least one fixed element is fixedly interconnected to the housing. The at least one moveable is moveably connected to the housing. A fluid path passes through the fixed element and the moveable element. The fluid path is opened and closed in response to movement of the moveable element relative to the fixed element such that when the moveable element is in a first position the fluid path is closed and when the moveable element is in a second position the fluid path is open. A temperature responsive bi-metal element is coupled to the moveable element for moving the moveable element between the first position and the second position.
US07757958B2

A card-shaped memory device includes a power supply terminal, an antenna terminal, a control circuit, a power generating circuit, and a switching circuit. The power supply terminal is provided to receive power supplied from a host device. The antenna terminal is connected to a non-contact communication antenna provided at the host device, and receives a signal from the antenna. The control circuit has a wireless communication function and an IC card function. The power generating circuit is included in the control circuit, and generates power based on the signal from the antenna. The switching circuit is included in the control circuit, and effects switching between supplying of power from the power supply terminal and supplying of power from the power generating circuit.
US07757957B2

Rigid polymeric transaction cards are provided having a plurality of layers forming a first surface and a second surface wherein at least one of said first and second surfaces comprises a textured pattern. In addition, a method of making a transaction card is provided wherein a textured pattern is disposed into a lamination plate, and further wherein a plurality of layers are laminated together to form a rigid card having the textured pattern disposed in at least one of the first and second surfaces of the transaction card.
US07757944B2

A purchase card system configured in accordance with the invention offers purchase card products that facilitate online purchases of life sciences research products and/or services via an e-commerce application. The acquisition and use of such purchase card products complies with mandated procurement, spending, and appropriations rules, regulations, and laws, such as the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the Anti-Deficiency Act, and the Department of Defense “bona fide needs” rule.
US07757942B1

A charge card identification system includes a portable base station with a mechanism for heating a top surface area of the base station to a desired temperature such that the user can place a user finger on the selected surface area. The system further includes a portable charge card, a heat detecting circuit electrically coupled to a finger print reader, a processor electrically coupled to the finger print reader and a memory. Such a memory includes software instructions that cause the finger print reader to calculate the finger print image based upon the detected peaks and valleys of the user finger. The system further includes a mechanism for verifying a user identity based upon the recorded finger print image such that the user is authorized to execute the sales transaction.
US07757941B2

The present invention relates to a method and to an arrangement for producing an ID document (9) or a like document in which a photograph (2) shall be included in the ID-document and in which the photograph (2) is produced in a digital form and transferred (7) for direct copying into the document (9) while still in its digital form. According to the invention additional information concerning an owner of the ID document (9) is produced in a digital form and transferred for incorporation in the ID document (9) in an electronic form (13).
US07757926B2

A transducer assembly for a bonding apparatus is provided that comprises a horn having first and second base ends and a bonding tool attached to the horn between the first and second base ends. First and second ultrasonic generators are secured to the first and second base ends respectively. A first fastening mechanism is located on the horn between the bonding tool and the first ultrasonic generator and a second fastening mechanism is located on the horn between the bonding tool and the second ultrasonic generator such that the horn is releasably attachable to a mounting interface using the first and second fastening mechanisms. There are also transducer mounting positions disposed on the mounting interface for mounting the mounting interface to a bond head.
US07757920B2

A combustion-powered driving tool for propelling fasteners into a workpiece includes a housing, a power source located in the housing, a nosepiece associated with a lower end of the power source, a magazine associated with the housing and constructed and arranged for storing and sequentially feeding a plurality of fasteners to the nosepiece, and a workpiece contact element associated with the nosepiece and including at least one tooth extending from the workpiece contact element and being constructed and arranged for engaging the workpiece to enable the tool to actuate when the magazine is arranged generally parallel to the workpiece.
US07757918B2

The present invention relates to a back or shoulder carried bag or case that includes a support strap supported on part of a back or shoulder of a person carrying the bag or case comprising a back support surface disposed toward the back of the person that includes a support strap cinching arrangement.
US07757916B1

Method and arrangement for providing a load carrier mountable on a carrying vehicle. The arrangement includes an elevating structure arranged between a base portion and a load supporting portion. The elevating structure is adapted to expand and contract between raised and lowered configurations. The elevating structure includes two substantially upright members, each of which is slidably moveable relative to the other for establishing the raised and lowered configurations. A fixing device is provided for releasably fixing the two sliding members one to the other. The fixing device includes a blocking member that is insertible in aligned receivers, one each of the aligned receivers being formed in each of the two sliding members for preventing expansion and contraction of the elevating structure. The fixing device further includes a take-up arrangement that is configured to press one of the two upright members against the other thereby forming a releasable friction fit therebetween.
US07757912B1

A sports backpack includes a hollow bag member with a pair of shoulder straps on the front surface thereof for securing the bag member to a user's back. The bag member includes several storage compartments that are accessible with zippers. Furthermore, the bag member includes a plurality of horizontally aligned male snap members on the rear surface thereof. An accompanying collapsible stool includes an attachment strip with mating female snap members thereon for fastening the stool to the bag member.
US07757908B1

A combination beer container and dispenser includes an outer container having a top section provided with an opening centrally formed therein. The top section includes a removable lid selectively positional in the opening. The outer container further has front and rear sections and includes a plurality of flange portions extending inwardly and orthogonally from the front and rear sections. An inner container having a cylindrical shape defines a cavity therein. A mechanism for dispensing beer from the keg and a mechanism for securing the keg within the inner container are also included. An axle having opposed end portions is positioned in a bore. A drain cock is directly conjoined to the rear and is manually adaptable between open and closed positions. A plurality of wheels are conjoined to the end portions of the axle. Such wheels include coextensive and juxtaposed ridges for providing traction.
US07757884B2

A packaging container such as a tube, which is characterized in that the head (11) of the tube is inter alia sealed by the interior annular element (18) configured by a film material that engages with the shoulder (15) of the head. The annular element (18) is produced by pre-forming a plastic film annular element (18).
US07757878B2

A soft sided insulated container assembly includes a first portion having an insulated, soft sided external wall structure, and an internal, substantially rigid molded plastic receptacle mounted therein. It has a cover structure that includes a reinforcement member for engaging a land region of the molded receptacle, thereby tending to yield an interface tending to have a sealing relationship. The container may also include a thermal storage element, and the container may have an accommodation for receiving the thermal storage element.
US07757877B1

The invention is a barrel jacket designed to protect a barrel in transit. The invention is a container with at least one wall and a floor portion forming an interior, where the wall has an opening sized to allow a barrel to be placed in the interior of the container. The container wall includes a door section allowing access to the interior and closeable. The invention includes a series of offset plates positioned in the interior of the container, where the offset plates are positioned to engage a barrel placed in the interior of the container. Each of the offset plates is connected to but offset from the interior facing portion of the container's interior walls through a crushable member that is adapted to absorb energy caused by an impact to the exterior facing surface of the container's wall.
US07757876B1

Embodiments of the present invention provide collapsible cheese mold that eliminates or reduce the shortcomings of prior collapsible cheese molds. One embodiment of the present invention includes a container for transporting cheese, comprising a base and four wall panels mounted on the base, each side wall comprising an inner surface, an outer surface and two end faces. A first two of the wall panels comprise a set of hooks protruding from the end faces and a second two of the wall panels comprise hook receivers. Each hook receiver defines an opening through a corresponding wall panel inner surface and comprises a receiver rib spanning the width of the opening. A receiver rib has an outer face to engage an inner face of the respective hook. Each opening and receiver rib is sized to allow a portion of the respective hook to pass over the receiver rib.
US07757873B2

The invention describes a bypass valve (1) that can be used as a divert air valve. Bypass valves (1) that work in the closed or opened position in a force-balanced or pressure-balanced manner are known. During the opening of the bypass valve (1), a lower pressure is produced in a gap (25) between a valve closing body (3) and a valve seat (20), which pressure destroys the force balance and thus loads a movable valve unit (2) in the closing direction. In order to prevent this, according to the invention pressure equalization openings (24) are embodied or arranged with respect to the gap (25) in such a way that a reduced pressure is introduced into the chambers (7, 8) in the interior of the valve, so that the closing-operative force is distinctly reduced. By these means, the opening times of such a bypass valve can be distinctly reduced.
US07757871B2

A railcar coupler includes a coupler head portion extending from a shank portion. The coupler head portion is configured to couple to a first coupler knuckle for coupling the railcar coupler to a second railcar coupler of an adjacent railcar. The coupler head portion comprises a nose portion and a gathering face extending from the nose portion for engaging a second coupler knuckle coupled to the second railcar coupler. The coupler head portion comprises a guard arm portion extending from the nose portion towards the shank portion. The guard arm portion comprises a minimum height less than a height of the shank portion where the guard arm portion meets the shank portion.
US07757864B2

A screen assembly that is sufficiently flexible to adapt to a non-planar profile of a crowned deck on a vibrating shaker. When attached to the crowned deck, the screen assembly provides a screen with less curvature than the crowned deck.
US07757863B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for obtaining recycled mixed cullet at a beneficiator and/or a material recovery facility (MRF). The composition of the cullet, or portions thereof, can be certified for use by a party other than the beneficiator and/or the MRF. The recycled mixed cullet can be used, for example, by glass plants to make new glass articles, such as beverage bottles.
US07757862B2

A semiconductor chip housing tray that is used in a state of being stacked in a plurality of stages and houses a plurality of semiconductor chips, includes: a base plate; a plurality of upper surface protruding parts provided to an upper surface of the base plate and dividing the upper surface of the base plate into a plurality of first semiconductor chip housing areas; and a plurality of under surface protruding parts provided to an under surface of the base plate and dividing the under surface of the base plate into a plurality of second semiconductor chip housing areas. In the semiconductor chip housing tray, a margin width of the first semiconductor chip housing areas with respect to the semiconductor chips is smaller than a margin width of the second semiconductor chip housing areas with respect to the semiconductor chips.
US07757861B2

A package assembly for a product includes a cushion pad and a retaining member engaged with the cushion pad for retaining the product on the cushion pad. The retaining member defines a plurality of expandable cuts therein so as to increase the elastic extendibility of the retaining member.
US07757859B1

A dispensing apparatus for packaging and dispensing a single service portion of a food product. The food product is contained within an inner container cavity formed by an outer cover and a center member. Draw portions are provided for transferring a force from the user to the outer cover, whereby the force peels the outer cover from the center section, thus folding the outer cover over itself as it is removed from the center section. The food product is dispensed when the inner container is opened by removing the outer cover from the center member. An optional outer container seals and holds portions of bread or other sandwich portions while the inner container is located therebetween.
US07757857B2

The plastic bag for vacuum packing provided by the present invention has embossments which space in longitudinal direction and stagger in transverse direction formed on the inner surface, and thus lots of intercommunicate channels are formed so as to eliminate the possibility to form any air pocket or internal cavity. Meanwhile, air linearly exits from the bottom to the open end, so it takes less time to evacuate the bag. Further, the bag only has one film be embossed, and thus the manufacturing process thereof is simplified and at low cost, and the bag is easy to wash. Moreover, the strength of the bag provided by the present invention is enhanced; especially the anti-avulsion capability is well improved.
US07757841B2

A hingeless belt comprises modules having opposed leading and trailing sides, first and second bases and opposed outer sides. The modules are connected to joining members with layers that can be, for example, an adhesive. The joining members comprise an elastic material which allows the modular belt to bend and flex, and the modules are made of a hard thermoplastic material. The modules and joining members resists cuts and impacts, the modules and joining members are easy to clean and keep sanitary. The joining members are embodied with different shapes for enhancing the connection with the modules, and for enhancing the flexibility of the modular belt as it carries load and as it is driven around a sprocket. There is a molding machine having mold members for making the hingeless belt. There is also a method of making the hingeless belt in the molding machine.
US07757836B2

Apparatuses and methods for coating, topping, and conveying foods. The apparatus includes a first frame, spring assemblies, a vibrating assembly including an upper pan, a middle pan, a lower pan, and a second frame mounted to the lower pan with the spring assemblies. The second frame is an excited frame and the upper pan, the middle pan, the lower pan are vibrationally connected. The apparatus also includes a vibratory drive unit mounted and adapted to impart energy to the second frame. In addition, the apparatus has a wire conveyor belt assembly including a wire conveyor belt, and a housing that receives the wire conveyor belt. The wire conveyor belt assembly is suspended inside of the vibratory assembly by the first frame such that the wire conveyor belt assembly is isolated from the vibratory assembly.
US07757816B2

A transmission has a lubricant pump which is arranged in the interior of a transmission housing and which includes a rotor rotationally fixedly connected to a transmission shaft in a pump housing, with the pump housing being rotationally fixedly connected to the transmission housing and being sealed with respect to a cylindrical sealing surface of the transmission housing, and with the lubricant pump pumping into a pressure chamber which surrounds the transmission shaft and which is sealed with respect to the transmission shaft. To achieve a good seal and centration of the pump housing, the pump housing is sealed by means of a resilient ring with respect to the cylindrical sealing surface of the transmission housing, with the ring being received by an outer peripheral groove of the pump housing with radial clearance so that the pump housing can adjust itself in the radial direction.
US07757815B2

A method for sampling lubricant from a lubrication system including a pump for pumping lubricant between a reservoir and a sump. The method includes removing a filter from the pump, replacing the filter with a sampling device having a fluid passage, channeling lubricant returned from the sump to the pump into the fluid passage, and discharging lubricant from the pump by discharging lubricant from the fluid passage.
US07757810B2

A transparent acoustical sound-absorbing, fire-retardant wall finishing system (100) includes a laminated semi-rigid acoustical planar backer board material (101). A glass textile surface covering (107) is used which includes a decorative woven or flat non-woven face (109) and back surface (111). The flexible surface covering (107) is attached to the laminated semi-rigid acoustical planar backer board material (101) at its back surface (111) so that the face of the material (109) fully covers the backer board material (101) for providing an uninterrupted secondary surface giving the appearance of a finished wall.
US07757804B1

An injury mitigation system for a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian. The invention includes a releasable net-like structure which is deployed from the front of a vehicle to alter the collision dynamics between the vehicle and the pedestrian is disclosed. A release mechanism allows deployment of the net which expands from a small compact size to a large rectangle in a deployed mode, expanding upward by an integrated spring-like structure which then shrouds the front of the vehicle in a short period of time. The system is activated upon sensing an imminent collision at short range in front of the vehicle through use of a motion sensor or other release mechanism.
US07757802B2

A connectable four-wheel drive vehicle includes an engine having a gear shaft; two main drive wheels connected permanently to the drive shaft by interposition of a gearbox having a first clutch; and two secondary drive wheels selectively connectable to the drive shaft by a connectable drive system. The connectable drive system includes a second clutch which, on one side, is connected with a fixed velocity ratio to the drive shaft upstream from the gearbox, and on another side, is connected with a fixed velocity ratio to the secondary drive wheels.
US07757800B2

The monocylindrical hybrid powertrain is provided having a continuously variable volume hybrid engine, a pump, and a hydrostatic motor. A direct energy transmission, a variable displacement volume engine, a pump, and a hydrostatic motor and energy recuperation increases the specific power, decreases the weight, and installation space and enables the vehicle to achieve a fuel economy of 80 miles per gallon for the vehicle in city conditions.
US07757797B2

A drive for a track-laying vehicle includes a drive shaft connected for driving two chain drive wheels of the track-laying vehicle. At least one differential gear system is arranged for superimposing a rotational speed of a steering drive on at least one of the chain drive wheels. The drive shaft is in drive connection with an electrical machine which can be operated as a generator or as an electric motor and which can be connected to an internal combustion engine by an engaging and disengaging clutch. The electrical machine is operable for charging an electrical energy storage device during operation in generator mode.
US07757790B1

A superabrasive compact including a superabrasive layer bonded to a substrate along a selected interface is disclosed. In one embodiment, an interface may comprise a depression and a dividing wall, wherein the dividing wall forms at least one closed plane figure. In another embodiment, an interface may comprise a depression, a dividing wall forming at least one closed plane figure, and at least one raised feature positioned within the depression. In a further embodiment, an interface may comprise a depression formed into the substrate, the depression surrounded by a closed peripheral wall exhibiting a thickness of about 0.080 inches or less. A rotary drill bit including at least one cutting element is also disclosed.
US07757781B2

A downhole motor assembly for driving a drill bit. The assembly includes a hydraulic drive section with a stator and a rotor located inside the stator to form a flow path between the stator and the rotor. Fluid flowing through the flow path in response to a pressure differential across the hydraulic drive section creates an operative force to rotate the drill bit. The assembly also includes a regulation mechanism that includes a valve and a fluid flow diversion bore for diverting at least some fluid from the flow path when the pressure differential across the hydraulic drive section is greater than or equal to a transition pressure differential.
US07757779B2

Pressure-air driven percussion device for a down-the-hole drill with a hammer-piston which is axially reciprocally movable in a hammer-piston chamber through a driving device. The hammer-piston in operation acting with a hammer-end against an upper end of a drill bit which is positioned inside a chuck. An air-cushion for reducing percussive power is arranged to be formed at the hammer-end of the hammer-piston in positions where the drill bit has been moved past a predetermined distance in the percussion direction. The drill bit is sealingly slidingly supported in a drill bit bushing, and the hammer-end of the hammer-piston is formed so that it sealingly cooperates with the drill bit bushing in the positions in order to form the air-cushion.
US07757778B2

Ripper boots of the type adapted to be mounted to a bulldozer tyne for use in cleaving through hard ground. The ripper boot includes a replaceable ripping tooth which is secured within the boot by interference fit so that during use, it does not rotate. The replaceable ripping tooth may be angled upwardly with respect to the carrier so that the angle of attack of the ripping tooth is raised so that it is almost parallel with the ground.
US07757770B2

A method of stimulating gas production from a coalbed methane well that involves injecting a foam forming liquid and an expandable fluid into a coal seam proximate the wellbore. When the wellbore pressure is reduced, at least a portion of the expandable fluid can vaporize, which can generate foam that aids in the formation and/or enlargement of a cavity in the coal seam proximate the wellbore.
US07757764B2

A cement float collar can be positioned downhole and used in a wellbore completion operation after drilling a wellbore with casing. The cement float collar is made for pumping downhole and into engagement with a groove formed in the casing, called the profile nipple. As such, no restriction is needed in the casing for accepting or latching the float collar and the portion of casing including the groove can be installed at the start of the drilling operation. In addition, the profile nipple can be used to engage other drilling tools and, therefore, can already be in placed when the final well depth (TD) is reached.
US07757758B2

A wellbore tubular has openings in its wall. An outer sleeve has ridges on which openings are located so that they communicate with the tubular openings. The tubular can be expanded to plant the ridges against the formation while any space between the ridges and the borehole wall can be used for pumping cement without fouling the aligned openings between the tubular and the sleeve. Optionally the sleeve can swell with or without tubular expansion. The openings can be initially sealed for delivery to the desired location and then opened using well or added fluids or well conditions.
US07757755B2

A technique provides an orientation system combined with downhole equipment used in a well. An orientation device is mounted in the downhole equipment, e.g. a bottom hole assembly, for actuation during angular displacement of the downhole equipment. A sensor is mounted to cooperate with the orientation device in detecting the angular displacement.
US07757751B2

A heat dissipation device includes a base including a base plate made of a first heat conductive material and a substrate made of a second heat conductive material having a heat conductivity lower than that of the first heat conductive material. The substrate comprises a frame with a window receiving the base plate therein and an engaging plate spanning over the window. A fin set includes a plurality of fins parallel with and spaced from each other, and is mounted on the base. A heat pipe has an evaporating section sandwiched between the base plate and the engaging plate, and two condensing sections extending through the fin set and thermally connecting therewith. The evaporating section has a substantially V-shaped configuration.
US07757750B2

A cooling system for removing heat from a heat generating component, includes a base (100) and a heat sink (200) mounted on the base. The base includes a bottom wall (20) and a side wall (10) surrounding the bottom wall. The bottom wall and the side wall cooperatively define a space (40) receiving working fluid therein. The heat sink defines an evaporating passage (220) and a condensing passage (230) therein. The two passages are in fluid communication with the space. Cooperatively the space and the passages define a loop for circulating the working fluid therein. The working fluid has a phase change for dissipating heat generated by a heat-generating electronic component.
US07757743B2

A vertical drapery panel including a plurality of louvers and a plurality of transparent or translucent spacers. Each of the plurality of spacers is disposed between a respective pair of the plurality of louvers. At least one of the plurality of louvers includes a first vertically oriented louver portion connected to a second vertically oriented louver portion. Each of the first and second louver portions includes a first portion that is substantially opaque and a second portion that is substantially transparent or translucent.
US07757731B2

The invention relates to an adapter cartridge for supplying fuel to a device set up for fuel cartridge operation alternatively to the fuel cartridges, also by means of an external tank or an external supply pipe. The adapter cartridge comprises a fuel feed device and an interface on the load side for releasing the fuel, which is formed according to the corresponding interface of the fuel cartridge.
US07757725B2

A manual vacuum device is introduced to provide vacuum isolation in a container. The manual vacuum device comprises a lower cover disposed on the container and an upper cover rotatably disposed on the lower cover to form a first air chamber. The lower cover includes a first air channel fluidly communicating the container with the first air chamber and a first check valve disposed within the first air channel to prevent air from flowing back to the container. The upper cover includes a second air channel fluidly communicating the first air chamber with the external environment and a second check valve disposed within the second air channel to prevent air in the external environment from flowing back to the first air chamber. The air in the container exhausts to the external environment by the rotational movement of the upper cover relative to the lower cover.
US07757723B2

A paper weaving kit (100) has a box-like body (106). A top of the body (106) forms a weaving aid (107). A crimping apparatus (108) is mounted at one side of the body (106). A removable sheet tearing apparatus (109) is slidably mounted within the body (106) at a front end of the body (106). The sheet tearing apparatus (109) can be used to tear strips of paper from a sheet of newspaper or the like. This strip is then fed through the crimping apparatus (108) which crimps fold lines in the paper strip. The paper strip is then folded about the fold lines to form a weaving element. number of weaving elements are mounted side by side on a support panel (112) on the weaving aid (107). These are clamped against the support panel (112) by clamp (115) and thus form a number of juxtaposed warp weaving elements extending down the support panel (112). Weft weaving elements can then be woven through the warp weaving elements on the panel (112) to form a woven panel of paper weaving elements.
US07757718B1

A polymer composition including a resin and a fiberglass is wrapped around the bell portion of a clay pipe to provide a cushion thereto to resist damage due to impact forces, and holds the bell in compression to thereby increase the tensile strength thereof. The length of the bell can be lengthened using a polyester-based material for an extension, where the extension is also wrapped with the polymer composition.
US07757702B2

Heavy crude transportation optimization method wherein at least one solvent consisting of a petroleum cut is added to said crude. According to the method, the polar component δp of the Hildebrand parameter of the solvent is increased, and the contribution of hydrogen bond δh of the Hildebrand parameter of the solvent is controlled, by adding a predetermined amount of at least one specific additive.
US07757691B2

The present invention, in an exemplary embodiment, provides a therapeutic medical appliance, delivery device and method of use. In particular, plug therapeutic medical appliances are provided that allow for the interventional treatment of pulmonary disorders such as defects characterized by pulmonary blebs and/or diffused destructive parenchymal disease. The plug therapeutic medical appliances themselves combine many of the excellent characteristics of both silicone and metal therapeutic medical appliances while eliminating the undesirable ones. In particular, these therapeutic medical appliances are preferably self-expanding in nature and allow the predetermined differential selection of relative hardness/softness of regions of the therapeutic medical appliance to provide additional patient comfort. An exemplary embodiment also provides a family of delivery devices that facilitate flexibility, durability and/or proper installation of one or more medical appliances in a single procedure. Moreover, the preferred embodiment of the delivery device provides for the reloading of the delivery device with additional medical appliances for additional inferventional procedures.
US07757685B2

The present invention provides a radiation burner, by which thermal efficiency is enhanced. The present invention includes a pot configured to burn gas, a mat provided to on the port, the mat heated by combustion of the gas to radiate thermal energy, a housing provided on the mat, the housing configured to allow radiation energy of the mat to pass through, a support member provided on the housing to support an object, and a barrier provided within the housing to suppress an exhaust of the burnt gas.
US07757682B2

A magazine assembly presents a pressure cartridge to a compressed gas powered device, such as a gun, wherein the magazine assembly has a cartridge support biased with respect to a magazine to urge the pressure cartridge to a short (or seated) position, wherein an interlock plate is biased to engage the cartridge support. The bias on the interlock plate is overcome during insertion of the magazine assembly into a magazine chamber, at which point the cartridge support moves relative to the magazine in response to a seated length of the pressure cartridge. The bias on the interlock plate then controls the positioning of the interlock plate to engage the cartridge support and retain the pressure cartridge relative to the magazine assembly. A lever connected to the gun then engages the magazine assembly to translate the magazine assembly relative to the gun and pierce the pressure cartridge.
US07757669B2

A control device for a high-pressure fuel pump for an internal combustion engine having a solenoid valve installed as a suction valve in a fuel charging passage to a pressurized chamber. A pump suction pressure generated in the pressurized chamber in the charging stroke is exerted on the solenoid valve in a valve opening direction. The solenoid valve is closed at OFF state of an electric driving signal and opened at ON state of the electric driving signal, so that a discharging rate of the high-pressure fuel pump of variable discharge rate type is controlled by an opening and closing control of the solenoid valve.
US07757668B2

A method of controlling a flow rate of fuel in a fuel supply unit of a fuel cell system is provided. The fuel cell system includes a fuel pump, a revolution per minute (RPM) measuring unit, a microcomputer, and a power converter. The method of controlling the flow rate controls the fuel supply unit so as to supply the fuel to a reformer reforming the fuel to generate hydrogen or a stack generating electric energy through a reaction of the fuel and oxygen. The method of controlling the flow rate includes measuring an actual RPM of the fuel pump; comparing the actual RPM to a reference RPM of the fuel pump; and adjusting a driving voltage of the fuel pump on the basis of the comparison result.
US07757660B2

A cross-sectional shape of a first intake passage is formed in a circular shape and a cross-sectional shape of a second intake passage is formed in a rectangular shape. Thus, an opening area of a second intake throttle portion can be made larger than an opening area of a first intake throttle portion even when the opening area of the first intake throttle portion is narrow and an intake air quantity supplied into a combustion chamber of an engine is small as in the case of engine start-up or engine idling operation. Accordingly, an intended strong tumble flow in accordance with a demand for improving a combustion efficiency in the combustion chamber can be generated in the combustion chamber while achieving the intake air quantity necessary during the engine start-up or the engine idling operation.
US07757658B2

An internal combustion rotary engine using vanes to create separate combustion chambers within the engine and capable of performing all four strokes of the Otto cycle (intake, compression, combustion and exhaust) in each separate combustion chamber. Each Otto cycle is completed in a 180-degree rotation with all four strokes of the Otto cycle being completed in 720 degrees. An intake and exhaust valve system tightly controls the flow of the air/fuel mixture into each separate combustion chamber.
US07757654B2

A cylinder head in which a partition wall for separating exhaust ports of adjoining cylinders extends from between these adjoining cylinders to an exhaust merging portion and the partition wall is formed with a head bolt insertion hole inside it, an oil passage is formed in the partition wall between the front end of the partition wall facing the exhaust merging portion and the head bolt insertion hole, and a heat insulating layer is formed inside the partition wall between the front end of the partition wall and the oil passage.
US07757649B2

A plug of a power cord of a block heater, which is mounted to a cylinder block of an engine, is connected to a household power receptacle to energize the block heater during an engine stoppage in cold climate. Thus, an engine coolant is kept warm to prevent freeze. Existence/nonexistence of the energization to the block heater during the engine stoppage is determined based on a behavior of coolant temperature or a behavior of engine rotation speed immediately after an engine start. If it is determined that the energization to the block heater exists, abnormality diagnosis of a cooling system is prohibited or a condition for the abnormality diagnosis is corrected and estimation coolant temperature is corrected.
US07757645B2

A variable valve system for an internal combustion engine includes a drive shaft rotated by an engine crankshaft, a drive cam integrally mounted on the drive shaft, first and second swing cams mounted on first and second engine valves in each engine cylinder, a valve lift mechanism for converting a rotational movement of the drive cam into swing movements of the first and second swing cams to open and close the first and second engine valves, and a control mechanism for controlling the operating position of the valve lift mechanism to vary the valve lifts of the first and second engine valves according to engine operating conditions. The valve lifts of the first and second engine valves are different from each other when the control mechanism performs minimum lift control on the valve lift mechanism to control the valve lifts of the first and second engine valves to minimum lifts.
US07757644B2

Constant pressure internal combustion engine having compression and expansion chambers of variable volume, an elongated combustion chamber of substantially constant volume between the compression and expansion chambers, and a fuel inlet for introducing fuel into the combustion chamber where it mixes with compressed air from the compression chamber to form a mixture of fuel and air that burns as it travels through the combustion chamber. In some embodiments, the combustion chamber is folded back upon itself and has a rough, twisting interior side wall, with long, sharp protrusions extending inwardly therefrom and forming hot spots which help to provide complete combustion of the fuel mixture throughout the combustion chamber. These protrusions, together with flow turbulators within the chamber, promote complete mixing and, hence, combustion of the fuel and air in the combustion chamber.
US07757636B2

Certain embodiments provide an improved pet watering device having an easily removable debris filter. For example, the device, in some examples, has a base portion separated into a bowl and a water storage section. The filter is selectively placeable in a channel connecting the bowl and the water storage section. In further embodiments, the device includes a water dispensing portion having a spout. At least one flow guide extends along the spout and helps guide water off the spout to reduce water braiding, which may reduce noise and splashing associated with the stream of water falling from the spout. Yet further embodiments provide a pet watering device that may be easily assembled and disassembled. In one example, the upper and lower portions of the watering device are connectable with a mating tab and slot structure.
US07757628B2

A machine controlled by a computer for depositing a liquefied electronically-interactive material on a sheet or support card includes a base (1) to support a mobile bed (2) which is moved longitudinally (Y) by a worm screw (20) whose movement is controlled by a computer and which supports and fixes the support sheet or card “S” on which the layer of electronically-interactive material is to be formed. A bridge above the base has a transversal shaft (30) which also has a worm screw and whose movement is also controlled by the computer. The transversal shaft (30) moves the distribution unit for the electronically-interactive material to be deposited (3) in an orthogonal direction (X).
US07757623B2

Indicator devices and systems are provided. Indicator devices include a sleeve, a dome-like transparent member, a connector body, and an indicator. In alternate embodiments, indicator devices include a sleeve and an indicator retained in the sleeve by a retaining ring and a latch held in place by a spring. Indicator systems include an indicator device coupled to an enclosure containing critical equipment.
US07757622B2

According to the invention, a system is provided for connecting two vessels to each other or for connecting a vessel to a land-based structure for the transfer of objects. The system according to the invention comprises at least one projecting body adapted for attachment to one of the vessels and at least one receiving means adapted for attachment to the other vessel or to the land-based structure, the receiving means also comprising side members with recesses for cooperation with the projecting bodies. The invention also comprises a method for transferring material and a landing vessel for connecting to a cargo vessel.
US07757618B2

A height-adjustable table comprises a base mounted thereon with a fixed brace, a shiftable brace for supporting a table board, an auxiliary brace pivotally connected between the shiftable brace and the fixed brace, a swingable brace settled on the fixed brace wherein a plurality of positioning recesses that are arranged in a curved array are provided on the swingable brace, and one end of the swingable brace is pivotally fastened to the shiftable brace while an opposite end is fixed with a second controller, a first controller for controlling a positioning pin to be settled in or separated from one of the positioning recesses. Thus, the second controller can swing the swingable brace when the positioning pin is separated from the positioning recess, so as to adjust an altitude of the table board.
US07757613B2

A portable table apparatus is disclosed, where that apparatus can be releaseably attached to a vehicle. The apparatus comprises a horizontal assembly, a vertical assembly, and a table.
US07757601B2

The invention relates to a system and method for the immersion cooking/cooling of food in diffused forced convection. The inventive system comprises: a tank for housing the food to be cooked/cooled, filling/emptying means for filling the vessel with a cooking or cooling liquid and emptying same, and heating means for heating the liquid. The tank comprises a lower region and an upper region, and circulation means which are intended: (i) to collect liquid from the lower region by means of various outlets in a first lower side wall and to introduce said liquid into the upper region through various inlets in a first upper side wall, and (ii) to collect liquid from the upper region by means of various outlets in a second upper side wall and to introduce said liquid into the lower region through various inlets in a second lower side wall, thereby generating diffused forced convection in a turbulent flow.
US07757599B2

A sealing arrangement for two relatively movable first and second parts and including a sealing ring positioned in a groove on one of the parts for sealing contact against the other one of the parts, so as to separate a first side of the sealing ring from a second side of the sealing ring, wherein the sealing ring is positioned in a sealing ring seat formed as a groove in the circumference of one of the parts, including liquid supply means for supplying liquid under pressure to the second side of the sealing ring, and means for balancing the pressure of the supplied liquid in the region of the sealing ring, whereby forces on the sealing ring resulting from the pressure prevailing on the first side of the sealing ring are counteracted and balanced in such a way that in operation the sealing ring is essentially free-floating in the groove. The invention also concerns a reciprocating piston device including such a sealing arrangement.
US07757593B2

A miter saw having a laterally tiltable cutting portion and a fence unit that supports a workpiece without mechanical interference with the cutting portion regardless of its laterally tilting posture. A left fence unit and a right fence unit are provided on a base portion. The left fence includes a fixed left fence, a first left subordinate fence pivotally movably connected to the fixed left fence, and a second left subordinate fence pivotally movably connected to the fixed left fence. The first left subordinate fence is moved to a first position outside of a first titling region of the cutting portion, and to a second position outside of the first tilting region and a second tilting region in which a tilting angle of the cutting portion is greater than that in the first tilting region.
US07757562B2

Technique for deterring and monitoring internal defect condition of a mud pump during the operation and/or in a laboratory conditions are illustrated. One or more acoustic transducers are attached in the proximity of one or more valves of the pump. Variation(s) in the output signal parameters are continuously monitored. Variation of the signal over the predetermined threshold level indicate a gradual degradation of the pump or if the variation of the signal occurs over a short interval it may indicate a sudden failure of the pump. Likewise, a system of detecting internal defect condition of the pump and apparatus for monitoring the pump condition is illustrated. The techniques are also applied to duplex and/or triplex high-pressure pumps used to push hydrocarbons through pipelines. Apparatus and system similar to that disclosed for the mud pump is equally applicable to the high-pressure pumps used to push hydrocarbons through pipelines.
US07757560B2

A method for observing a change in one or more parameters of a flowable material in a vessel is disclosed, the method comprising transmitting an ultrasound signal into a vessel containing a flowable material; observing a change in the ultrasound signal after it has passed through the flowable material; and, relating the change in the ultrasound signal to the change in one or more parameters of the flowable material.
US07757559B2

Ultrasonic transducers and methods for detecting oblique flaws in cylindrically-shaped objects using pulse-echo testing are provided. By mounting one or more transducers on a rotary tester for testing manufactured objects such as tubes and bars, offsetting each transducer horizontally from its position if it were to emit a beam that is perpendicular to the object's outer surface, and actuating the transducer so as to emit an angled beam, oblique surface flaws and internal flaws may be reliably detected without reducing inspection speed, significantly adding to transducer cross-talk, or requiring significant additional hardware or processing.
US07757553B2

A flow detector has a housing (1) with tongues (8), which allow to anchor it to a support to withstand pulling forces. The housing further comprises pegs (41) provided to mate with openings or recesses in the same support, which allow to secure it against lateral forces. The tongues (8) and pegs (41) are mounted to a hull (7) of a housing (1) of the detector, which carries on its opposite side an inlet (4a) and an outlet (4b) for the fluid to be measured. Connectors (5) are provided on the same side as the tongues (8) and the pegs (41) for connecting the detector to an external system. This design is robust and allows to mount the detector to the support in quick and secure manner.
US07757548B2

A Calibrated Air Intake Tract for Internal Combustion Engine is disclosed. The intake includes a Mass Airflow Sensor section that defines an inner diameter that differs from the diameter of the overall intake air tract piping. The Mass Airflow Sensor length and diameter are precision-tuned in order to provide the best engine performance without the typical “check engine” light being lit due to faulty mass airflow sensor readings. In those vehicles where necessary, an insert of the appropriate size and in the proper location is added to the interior wall of the MAFS section in order to correct final fuel trim level inadequacies.
US07757537B1

An accessory for a conduit bender has a support member which attaches to the handle of the conduit bender. The support member includes a hand hold for grasping during conventional bending. The support member defines an anti-skid surface. The anti-skid surface has an area greater than the cross-sectional area of the conduit bender handle. When the handle is placed on a horizontal surface for a shoulder bend the anti-skid surface engages the horizontal surface and prevents the handle from skidding or slipping on the horizontal surface. An aperture in the anti-skid surface receives the end of a conduit for bend backs.
US07757522B2

An agitator assembly for an automatic washing machine comprises an agitator and an auger mounted to the agitator. The auger comprises a tubular body defining a peripheral surface and having a central longitudinal axis. A vane spirals around the tubular body and extends from the peripheral surface from a root having a thickness T to a tip. The vane has a width W measured from the peripheral surface along a line perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis to the tip. The vane is formed by a plurality of ledges, with adjacent ledges joined by steps. With this configuration, the vane can have a relatively small root thickness T and a relatively large width W.
US07757521B2

A washing and drying machine includes a drying duct having at least one inlet end and at least two outlet ends. Consequently, air flow is increased, and drying time and power consumption are reduced. The inlet end is connected to the center portion of the circumferential surface of a tub, and the outlet ends include a front outlet end connected to the front side of the tub and a rear outlet end connected to the rear side of the tub. Consequently, the laundry is uniformly dried even when the laundry is placed in the drum at the front and/or the rear sides of the drum, and therefore, damage to the laundry is prevented. Flow resistance is minimized, and drying time and power consumption are reduced.
US07757513B2

An ice storage and bagging system for automatically bagging ice and dispensing the bagged ice to a customer. The ice storage and bagging system generally includes a storage bin to store a plurality of ice cubes, an ice dispensing machine to transfer the plurality of ice cubes from the storage bin and a bagging system to receive the plurality of ice cubes from the ice dispensing machine to within a bag, wherein the bag is filled with a predetermined amount of the ice cubes. A delivery system transfers the filled bag of ice cubes from the bagging system to a customer and a purchasing system activates the ice dispensing machine to fill the bag with the plurality of ice cubes to be delivered to the customer in an automated manner. The ice may also be formed via a forming machine prior to being stored within the storage bin to completely automate the present invention.
US07757512B2

An ice dispenser has a duct cap and a controller to control movement of the duct cap. The controller includes a guide, a first control surface, and a second control surface. A first frictional force between the guide and the first control surface is greater than a second frictional force between the guide and the second control surface. The first frictional force controls the duct cap to move at a first rate and the second friction force controls the duct cap to move at a second rate faster than the first rate.
US07757509B2

A portable instrument for providing an on-site ice cream, comprise of all natural ingredients, in front of a customer is provided. The instrument according to the current application is comprised of; 1) a compressor equipped with a condenser having heat removal capacity of 12,000 BTU/hr, 2) an exit tube, 3) a condenser tube, 4) an expansion valve, 5) an outlet copper tube, 6) a coiled coolant pipe, 7) a stainless steel shallow bowl shape plate welded on the coolant pipes, 8) an inlet copper tube, 9) a separator, 10) a by pass line that connects the exit tube and the outlet copper tube, 11) a solenoid valve, and 12) a foot stepper to control on/off of the solenoid valve. Slurry of a mixture of fruits, milk, cream powder and honey syrup, formed from an electric mixer is dumped on the stainless steel plate, which is maintained at the very low temperature between −31 C to −35 C.
US07757506B2

Systems and methods are provided for cooling an electronics rack, which includes a heat-generating electronics subsystem across which air flows from an air inlet to an air outlet side of the rack. First and second modular cooling units (MCUs) are associated with the rack and configured to provide system coolant to the electronics subsystem for cooling thereof. System coolant supply and return manifolds are in fluid communication with the MCUs for facilitating providing of system coolant to the electronics subsystem, and to an air-to-liquid heat exchanger associated with the rack for cooling air passing through the rack. A controller monitors the system coolant and automatically shuts off flow of system coolant through the heat exchanger, using at least one isolation valve, upon detection of failure at one of the MCUs, while allowing the remaining operational MCU to provide system coolant to the electronics subsystem for liquid cooling thereof.
US07757505B2

A system and method in a commercial refrigeration system for compensating for events. A commercial refrigeration system includes a controller that predicts a first change in cooling capacity required based on at least one anticipated system event. The controller also predicts a second change in cooling capacity required based on at least one anticipated system event during a period of time. The controller compares the first and second changes in cooling capacity and implements a change in cooling capacity based on a relationship between the first and second changes in cooling capacity.
US07757503B2

A gas pressure reducer comprising at least one gas expansion device for allowing the gas to expand and thereby reduce in pressure, and at least one means for raising the temperature of the gas in the vicinity of the gas expansion device and wherein the means for raising the temperature of the gas comprises a liquid or solid fuel heater or a liquid fuelled engine.
US07757495B2

A turbine engine annular combustion chamber includes inner and outer longitudinal walls connected upstream by a transverse chamber bottom and including a single-piece cowling covering the chamber bottom. Each of the longitudinal walls is inserted between corresponding flanges of the chamber bottom and of the cowling. The longitudinal walls, the chamber bottom and the cowling are assembled together by a plurality of first fixings between the longitudinal walls and the chamber bottom alternating with a plurality of second fixings distinct from the first fixings between the longitudinal walls and the cowling.
US07757491B2

A method for fabricating a fuel nozzle assembly includes providing a nozzle portion including a fuel passageway defined about a center axis of the fuel nozzle assembly. A longitudinal axis of a first peg is oriented to intersect the fuel nozzle assembly center axis such that a first plane is defined. The first peg defines a first opening having a centerline intersecting the first peg longitudinal axis and obliquely oriented with respect to the first plane. The first peg is coupled in flow communication with the fuel passageway such that the first peg extends radially outward from the nozzle portion and such that the first opening is configured to direct a flow of fuel in an oblique direction with respect to the fuel nozzle assembly center axis to facilitate fuel mixing.
US07757489B2

An engine configuration includes an internal combustion engine with a plurality of cylinders, at least one turbocharger and a first and a second exhaust gas tract. A turbine of the at least one turbocharger is associated with the first exhaust gas tract. Increased torque and increased power can be achieved when a bypass exhaust gas line emerging from at least one cylinder, which is associated with the first exhaust gas tract, is connected to the first exhaust gas tract such that it bypasses the at least one turbocharger.
US07757482B2

The present invention provides an exhaust cooler mounted to a tailpipe for receiving exhaust gas. The exhaust cooler includes a jet pump connectable to the tailpipe and a nozzle connectable to the tailpipe. The nozzle defines a nozzle opening between the tailpipe and the jet pump for communicating the exhaust gas from the tailpipe to the jet pump. A first member is included that is moveable between a closed position and an open position, the open position defining a first opening between the tailpipe and the jet pump for communicating the exhaust gas from the tailpipe to the jet pump.
US07757473B2

Manufacture method and manufacturing apparatus for power transmission chain according to the invention are adapted to accomplish exact positioning of pin members and link plates. This permits the pin members to be positively press-inserted into pin holes of the link plates and hence, the fabrication of the power transmission chain is facilitated.
US07757459B2

A preformed web and a method of producing dunnage units from the preformed web. The web is an elongate flattened thermoplastic tube having an inflation edge and an opposite edge. The tube includes spaced transverse seals that define sides of pouches. In one embodiment, the web is configured such that a gap forms between each pair of adjacent pouches when the pouches are inflated. In one embodiment, an inflation edge of the web comprises a frangible connection that allows the inflation edge to be broken by an unsharpened object.
US07757456B2

A coating system for a roof for the retention of snow and ice thereon. The coating system employs a base layer, which is applied to the roof surface. The base layer may provide a liquid impermeable barrier layer on the roof surface. An aggregate is spread or broadcast over the base layer while the base layer is in a liquid state. The base layer and the aggregate are secured to the roof surface once the base layer has cured. The aggregate protrudes from the upper surface of the base layer to provide maximum snow and ice retention.
US07757448B2

Taught herein is inter alia a concrete wall modulus comprising a concrete-steel wall having one or more steel mesh plates; at least two form panels being physically connected to the concrete-steel wall; a plurality of steel plates; and a plurality of jointing pieces; wherein the form panels are made in part of polystyrene foam; at least two form panels are arranged in parallel to one another; and at least two the form panels are interconnected by a plurality of the jointing pieces by means of the steel plates.
US07757441B1

An apparatus for isolating and leveling a machine foundation with respect to a substructure of a building or the ground. The apparatus of the present invention provides an enclosure connectable to the machine foundation. A load bearing member is disposed within and adjustably connected to the enclosure. A primary support member and a secondary support member are positioned between the bearing member and the substructure for isolating the machine foundation from the substructure. The magnitude of force carried by the secondary support member may be adjusted to consequently adjust the natural frequency of the machine foundation.
US07757440B2

A method is provided for installing a ventilated eaves closure and tile support apparatus along the eaves of a roof. A vented eaves closure apparatus is disposed along the eaves to support the first course of roof tiles at a desired pitch. The apparatus provides support, ventilation, and drainage, while also providing a barrier to wind-driven precipitation, bird nesting, and animal invasion. The apparatus includes an array of openings configured to allow drainage and facilitate the flow of air beneath the tiles and throughout the air space between the roof deck and the tiles. The method and apparatus can be adapted to fit a variety of roof types and roof tiles having different sizes, shapes, and profiles.
US07757439B1

A fabric covered rigid frame structure having at least three elongate rafters; at least one column supporting the rafters; a fabric cover; a cord system or a web system encircling the fabric cover; and at least one tensioner formed in an end of at least one elongate rafter, wherein the tensioner includes an opening formed in an end of the elongate rafter along the axis of the rafter; a first fitting disposed between the opening and an end of the elongate rafter; a rod disposed in the elongate rafter along an axis of the rafter through the first fitting, wherein the rod comprises threads that are exposed to at least a portion of the opening; means for engaging the rod through the first fitting; and a sliding block with hook disposed on the threads of the rod interior of the elongate rafter wherein the hook engages the fabric cover.
US07757434B1

An apparatus for securing and irrigating a live tree such as a Christmas tree is herein disclosed. The apparatus incorporates a tree ornament that has an internal water reservoir which is fluidly connected to a tree base stand. Besides holding the tree securely erect, the base stand provides the primary water reservoir for the tree. The ornament is affixed to the tree in a conventional manner with a small diameter hose extending from the ornament to the base stand reservoir. The base reservoir has a float valve that allows water to drain into the base from the ornament while controlling a maximum water level. The apparatus is particularly useful for trees that are difficult to reach, or for people who have difficulty in bending over, kneeling, or crawling under a tree.
US07757432B2

A carpenter bee trap having a housing that contains a hole, an electrode in proximity to the hole, and a power source connected to the electrode. The hole is of a size similar to the size holes that carpenter bees normally make, thus attracting the carpenter bees to the hole. The carpenter bees will enter the hole, and make contact with an electrode. The electrode is energized through connection with a power source. In one embodiment, the power source includes a photovoltaic panel. Once the carpenter bee makes contact with the electrode, a high voltage discharge will take place through the body of the carpenter bee, thus killing the carpenter bee. The carpenter bee will then fall from the hole, and the trap will be ready for the next carpenter bee to enter.
US07757431B2

A lamp includes a combustion chamber having a neck that defines a combustion chamber air outlet. A candle is disposed in the combustion chamber and, when burned, creates an upward flow of air and combustion products through the neck. A reservoir is disposed around a portion of the neck with a material to be heated disposed in the reservoir. In one configuration, the material is a candle fuel that is wicked by the neck and drips into the candle to refuel the candle. In another configuration, the material is a scented material that evaporates when heated to distribute the scent. A cooling chamber may be disposed above the combustion chamber with the outlet of the cooling chamber being disposed below the outlet of the neck. Another configuration allows the height of the flame to be adjusted by varying the volume of air allowed to be drawn into the unit.
US07757430B2

An electric or electronic animal trap with a CPU-controlled, rearming, multiple killing plate configuration and automatically resetting interruptible beam sensor for triggering a high voltage cycle. A high-voltage output circuit is connected to killing plates which are activated with a high-voltage pulse train when a pest interrupts the beam signal, such as an infrared beam signal generated by an infrared transmitter to an infrared receiver. The trap is preferably configured to automatically rearm if the IR beam signal is no longer interrupted after the killing cycle. If the IR beam signal is still blocked after the killing cycle, however, the trap enters a standby mode indicating trap servicing is required to remove the dead rodent from the trap.
US07757417B1

The present invention is directed to a vehicle mountable display device. The device includes a first adversarial profile and a second adversarial profile. Between the first adversarial profile and the second adversarial profile is a first extension, which is part of or attached to the first adversarial profile. The first extension is made of a flexible material and/or pivotably or flexibly connected to the first adversarial profile such that while driving the extension can move back and forth in the appearance of slapping or hitting the second adversarial profile. The first adversarial profile is preferably a user's preferred choice and the second adversarial profile is preferably a rival or challenger, thereby effectively communicating a user's preferred choice, while also communicating the adversarial nature between the two with minimal or no words. The device further includes a mounting element for securely attaching to the vehicle.
US07757410B2

Impact-attenuation members include: (a) an impact-attenuating member and (b) a shear resistant member engaged with the impact-attenuating member. Another example impact-attenuation member includes a shear resistant member having a continuous wall that bulges outward on opposing sides when in an uncompressed base orientation. The shear resistant members may be structured and arranged to allow bending or compression against impact forces in one direction (e.g., when landing a step or a jump), but remain highly stable against shear or lateral forces in another direction (e.g., in a side-to-side direction). Such impact-attenuation members may be used in footwear products, including in athletic footwear.
US07757408B2

The invention relates to a shoe and method for providing a shoe having an outsole with an outside surface, an upper, a liner with an inside surface, and a stitch extending from the outside surface through the upper to the inside surface, where the stitch is a sole securing mechanism for securing the outsole, upper, and liner together. The stitch secures the outsole, upper, and liner together without cement.
US07757406B2

A method and device for determining the grade/slope of the road upon which a vehicle is traveling and displaying said grade/slope through a visual display that is adjustable by the driver/operator of said vehicle to his/her convenient sight of vision; wherein such device can also be used by many industries, machineries, and engineering fields of many types; wherein such device does so by its internal parts which include shafts, gears, bushes, weights, a spring, brake shoes, cylinders, and other, all within a shell, with (or in some cases without) oil; wherein positive or negative accelerations will not affect the performance of said device. Said device is fixed in the said vehicle by either said operator or the manufacturer of said vehicle and said device will measure said grade/slope independent of any driving members or parts of said vehicle or other devices, power, sensors of any kind, and/or anything else outside of its shell.
US07757401B2

An assembly method for a downhole screen is disclosed. In the preferred embodiment, the filtration layer is slipped over a perforated base pipe and an expansion technique is used to increase the base pipe diameter to the point where, preferably, an interference fit exists. The expansion can be fully underneath the filtration layer or can be done in discrete zones. The finished assembly can still be expanded further downhole, such as, for example, in open hole completions. An outer protective shroud can be employed over the filtration layer when the expansion of the base pipe occurs.
US07757400B2

A hearing device having at least one of an acoustical/electrical converter and an electrical/acoustical converter respectively with an acoustical input or output. The input or output, as the case may be, is linked to a coupling opening at the outer surface of the device via a channel. At least a part of the outer surface of the device is formed by a one-part shell. The shell defines an inner space of the device, with the channel being provided within and along the part of the shell and being formed within the material of the shell.
US07757397B2

A method for forming an element substrate which includes a substrate, an ink supply port penetrating substrate and energy supplying means for supplying ejection energy to ink introduced through ink supply port, the method includes a step of forming the energy supplying means on the substrate, then; a step of thinning the substrate, and then; an ink supply port forming step of forming the ink supply port in the substrate.
US07757396B2

There are disclosed a laser clad valve seat raw-material powder superior in productivity, cladding property, wear resistance and finishing property, and a laser clad valve seat using the same superior in wear resistance. The row-material powder comprises a powder mixture comprising: 80 to 99% by weight of a Cu-based alloy powder comprising 0.5 to 5% by weight of B, 0 to 20% by weight of Ni, 0 to 10% by weight of Fe plus Co, 0 to 5% by weight of Si, 0 to 3% by weight of Al, and the balance Cu and unavoidable impurities; and 1-20% by weight of an Fe or Co based alloy powder having a Vickers hardness of 500 HV or higher and an average particle diameter of 50 to 200 μm of and comprising 5 to 40% by weight of Mo, 0 to 25% by weight of Cr, 0 to 5% by weight of Si, and the balance Fe or Co and unavoidable impurities.
US07757394B2

A multilayer wiring board having a plurality of wiring layers is proposed, which is prepared by a process having the steps of: forming, on one insulating sheet, wiring patterns for all the wiring layers, which patterns are arranged at predetermined positions; and folding the insulating sheet having formed the wiring patterns in the predetermined order and stacking the folded sheet while positioning, and then heating the resultant sheet in a vacuum under a pressure to form a three-dimensional electric wiring.
US07757370B2

A needle and hub assembly for automatic injectors includes a cap or skirt that has a forward surface interposed between and reinforced by first and second engaged hub portions. A needle is received in a contiguous channel formed in the two hub portions. Methods of forming the assembly include molding the first hub portion, placing the cap over the first hub portion, inserting the needle into the channel in the first hub portion, and then overmolding or otherwise forming the second hub portion on the exterior of the first hub portion and cap such that the second hub portion engages the first hub portion. An assembly created by this “two-shot” process can be used to seal a relatively large opening in a medicament cartridge and to support the needle more effectively than a conventional assembly.
US07757368B2

An installation device includes an extruding mechanism that horizontally extrudes a piston ring, positions the piston ring and, after extruding, is driven downwardly and then returned to a waiting position; a ring holding mechanism that has a guide passage for guiding the piston ring, that is driven so as to move close to and apart from a piston in one direction perpendicular to the extruding direction, and that is capable of defining an insertion hole for insertion of the piston; a ring diameter extending mechanism that extends the diameter of the piston ring, that is driven to enter and leave the guide passage of the ring holding mechanism, and that is reversely driven to a position for defining a part of the guide passage when the diameter-extended state of the piston ring is released; and a piston holding member that holds the piston at a predetermined position.
US07757362B2

A method for producing a dielectric film, comprising: a coating step of coating a colloidal solution containing an organometallic compound containing a metal constituting a dielectric film containing at least a lead component to form a dielectric precursor film; a drying step of drying the dielectric precursor film; a degreasing step of degreasing the dielectric precursor film; and a firing step of firing the dielectric precursor film to form a dielectric film, and wherein the drying step includes a first drying step of heating the dielectric precursor film to a temperature lower than the boiling point of a solvent, which is a main solvent of the material, and holding the dielectric precursor film at the temperature for a certain period of time to dry the dielectric precursor film, and a second drying step of drying the dielectric precursor film at a temperature in the range of 140° C., to 170° C., the degreasing step is performed at a degreasing temperature of 350° C. to 450° C. and at a heating-up rate of 15 [° C./sec] or higher, and the firing step is performed at a heating-up rate of 100 [° C./sec] to 150 [° C./sec].
US07757360B1

A safety hook includes a hook body, a pivotable safety retainer biased to a locking position, and a pivotable latch member biased to abut against a distal end of a hook portion of the hook body to thereby close a hook mouth defined by the hook body. The safety retainer includes a stop portion and an abutment face unit. When the safety retainer is disposed in the locking position, the stop portion abuts against the latch member, and the abutment face unit is adjacent to and spaced apart from a stop block of the hook body. In the locking position, if an external force is applied to pivot the latch member away from the distal end of the hook portion, the abutment face unit will come into contact with the stop block to prevent further pivoting movement of the latch member.
US07757358B2

Spring clamp binders that include sheet retention mechanisms that provide improved performance and increase manufacturing efficiency and cost-effectiveness are described. The spring clamp binders have a cover and one or more spring clamps for holding one or more items, including sheets of physical media, such as loose sheets of paper, pages of a photoalbum, and other types of physical media. Methods of manufacturing spring clamp binders also are described.
US07757348B2

Furniture hinge with damping and/or braking device in alternative to those already existing and capable of guaranteeing an improved efficiency during the closing or opening operation of the doors, or other furniture parts, thanks to an improvement of the characteristics of rigidity and, simultaneously, elasticity of the means for transmitting motion from one of the rockers to the damping elements. The improved efficiency of this hinge is also obtained by increasing the friction surfaces with a viscous medium present in suitable areas of the hinge and by allowing regulation of the trend of the angular velocity of a circular shaped element, for example a disc, which acts as braking element in contact with the viscous medium.
US07757347B1

A drapery carrier comprising a carrier body with first and second coaxially joined wheels on opposite sides of the carrier body, and bearings entrapped within the drapery carrier between raceway seat portions of the wheels. An axial finger extends from the first wheel and is engagingly held within an axial bore of the second wheel. Respective outer circumferential wheel surfaces of the first and second wheels define first and second wheel outer diameters of the first and second wheels, and the bearing center-to-center orbit diameter is less than the first and second wheel outer diameters. Two embodiments of a carrier strip hold a plurality of the drapery carriers prior to and during insertion within a drapery track, and permit easy insertion of the drapery carriers into the track by sliding the track onto the drapery carriers while they are held by the carrier strip.
US07757344B2

A vacuum cleaner is provided that includes a cleaner body, a multi cyclonic (including a primary cyclone and at least one secondary cyclone), a suction source having a suction source inlet and a suction source outlet, a main filter assembly including a main filter element, a discharge member having an opened upper end coupled to a peripheral edge of a primary airflow outlet and a closed lower end, and a guide rib provided at the primary cyclone for guiding the airflow in a direction tangential to an inner peripheral wall surface of the primary cyclone.
US07757342B2

A cleaning machine for cleaning a surface is provided. The cleaning machine includes a base assembly that moves along the surface and a liquid distribution system associated with the base assembly for distributing the cleaning solution to the cleaning surface. A suction nozzle assembly is mounted to the base assembly and includes a front nozzle portion and a rear nozzle portion. The front nozzle portion defines a fluid flow path having an inlet opening and an outlet opening and the rear nozzle portion defines a fluid flow path having an inlet opening and an outlet opening. A suction source is in fluid communication with the suction nozzle for applying suction to draw the cleaning solution and dirt from the surface and through the suction nozzle assembly. The fluid flow path of the front nozzle portion is closed in response to the base assembly moving in one of the forward direction and rear direction. The fluid flow path of the rear nozzle portion is closed in response to the base assembly moving in other one of the forward and rear direction.
US07757333B2

A toothbrush head comprising a mid section, a tip section resiliently flexibly connected to the tip end of the mid section, and at least two side sections each resiliently flexibly connected to the mid- or tip- section at respective points on widthways opposite sides of the mid- or tip- section.
US07757330B2

An oral hygiene device having one or more toothbrushes connected or connectible to the end of a handle, the one or more toothbrushes providing a desirable fit about the teeth and/or gums and/or providing a desirable brushing action. An oral hygiene device hereof may provide for mechanically providing the brushing movements of the professionally recommended manual tooth-brushing method known as the “Bass” or “Modified Bass” technique to thus reduce or eliminate the element of human error associated with the brushing of a user's teeth and gums.
US07757319B2

The present invention is a wound elevation device for alleviating or diminishing pressure on a wound, blemish, decubitus ulcer (also known as pressure ulcer or pressure sore) or surgical site by elevating the affected area above a surface and surrounding the wound without directly contacting or covering the wound, for allowing increased air and blood flow to the wound. An interior filling of the present invention is composed of a Visco/Memory foam, natural buckwheat hulls, whole buckwheat seeds, millet hulls, or a combination thereof, or other suitable material known in the art. The interior filling is enclosed in a unitary, elongated, flexible hollow member, and an additional removable and/or reusable cover composed of anti-bacterial/anti-microbial fabric encloses the hollow member for additional protection. Fastening means allow the user to reconfigure the shape of the device to provide the required support for each use.
US07757318B2

A mattress for a hospital bed is provided. The mattress includes an encasing enclosing a compressible mattress portion and a rigid mattress portion. The compressible mattress portion has an integral construction extending from a head end of the bed to a foot end of the bed. The rigid mattress portion contracts from a first elongated position to a second retracted position, and the rigid portion contracting the compressible mattress portion therewith. The rigid mattress portion may be provided at any side or end section of the mattress. Accordingly, the width or length of the mattress can be modified.
US07757315B2

A mattress wrap set is disclosed, providing an easy way to cover a mattress with a sheet, and remove the sheet from the mattress. The mattress wrap set includes a wrap sheet to cover the sides of a mattress and having a top edge that is inelastic. The top edge includes four right-angled corners and is adapted to cover a periphery of the top of the mattress. The mattress wrap set further includes a top sheet to cover at least most of the top of the mattress, and a plurality of fasteners, with one fastener located at each right-angled corner to removably connect the top sheet to the wrap sheet.
US07757307B2

In one embodiment, the present invention provides a jock support short including a short member and an integrally-formed jock support member. The integral jock support member includes a pocket portion attached to a front portion of the short, which is configured to house a protective groin cup. At least two elongate members extend along opposing sides of the pocket portion and may intersect or meet at a crotch portion of the short such that the pocket and/or protective cup remains secured over a user's groin region during athletic or other physical activity.
US07757306B2

A multilayer necktie consisting of a first portion of fabric defined by three sections joined together without continuity solution to define: a so-called blade of the necktie, standing, when used, in sight of the user; the part around the user's neck; another blade, standing, when the necktie is knotted according to preferable manner, behind the first section and one destined to be partly showing, since it is as wide as, or preferably wider than, the first section. A second portion of fabric is superimposed on this first portion of fabric, which is joined or joinable to the first portion by means of relevant attachments. The resulting necktie is characterized in that, once knotted around the user's neck so as to show, at least partly, three blades, it features a knot in which at least two portions of fabric can be seen.
US07761920B2

A machine-actionable memory may include: one or more machine-actionable records arranged according to a data structure, the data structure including links that respectively map between at least one R_ID field, the contents of which denote an identification (ID) of a remediation (R_ID); and at least one POL_ID field, the contents of which denotes an ID of at least one policy (POL_ID), the at-least-one policy respectively defining a condition satisfaction of which is potentially indicative of unauthorized activity or manipulation of the device.
US07761916B2

Secure computation environments are protected from bogus or rogue load modules, executables and other data elements through use of digital signatures, seals and certificates issued by a verifying authority. A verifying authority—which may be a trusted independent third party—tests the load modules or other executables to verify that their corresponding specifications are accurate and complete, and then digitally signs the load module or other executable based on tamper resistance work factor classification. Secure computation environments with different tamper resistance work factors use different verification digital signature authentication techniques (e.g., different signature algorithms and/or signature verification keys)—allowing one tamper resistance work factor environment to protect itself against load modules from another, different tamper resistance work factor environment. Several dissimilar digital signature algorithms may be used to reduce vulnerability from algorithm compromise, and subsets of multiple digital signatures may be used to reduce the scope of any specific compromise.
US07761908B2

Exemplary embodiments of the present application provide an apparatus, system, method, computer program and product, each capable of authenticating a client, generating client device management data corresponding to the authenticated client in a predetermined XML-based format, and providing the client device management data to the authenticated client.
US07761903B2

Determining a policy parameter for an entity of a supply chain includes establishing attributes of the entities of the supply chain. Attribute segments are established for each attribute, where an attribute segment includes one or more values of the corresponding attribute. Rules are formulated using the attribute segments to define policy groups, and policy parameters are assigned to each policy group. A policy group corresponding to an entity is identified in accordance with the rules. The policy parameters assigned to the identified policy group are determined and selected for the entity.
US07761899B2

Assets, such as content and related data are packaged, transmitted, received and managed in a digital cable television system to standardize the distribution of content and services from a content/service provider to subscribers in the system. The standardized format for packaging content enables the digital cable system to package, transmit, receive and manage diverse types of content, such as MPEGs, executable files, HTML pages, and the like, using standard system components without requiring reprogramming of the system to deploy new services. Service and content providers are freed from having to develop custom formats for delivering content and data to the cable system. Moreover, the standardized bundling of content and related data that is enabled by the invention allows the cable system operator to automate the deployment of services based on specific content and data to select subscribers.
US07761897B2

A TV receiver preliminarily measures and stores, in a memory, data of best receiving directions, each giving maximum signal intensity, of a multi-directional antenna for receivable channels. When the antenna rotationally shifts physically for some reason, one channel is selected and subjected to measurements by an omni-directional scanning again to determine a new best receiving direction. A receiving direction number difference between the stored best receiving direction and the new best receiving direction of the same channel is determined. Using the receiving direction number difference for the one channel, all data stored in the memory are renewed at one time, the data being the best receiving direction numbers and the signal intensities therefor for all the channels. The antenna direction can be quickly adjusted to the rotational shift by new measurements for one channel, without requiring time to make unnecessary measurements for all channels, achieving a best receiving condition steadily.
US07761895B2

An apparatus, method and data structure for generating at least one table in a broadcast environment, are provided. The apparatus includes a generator to generate an event information table (EIT) and an extended text table (ETT). The ETT has program guide information for an n-hour span and has a transmission interval. The ETT has a transmission interval and program description information according to the EIT. The transmission interval of the EIT is shorter than the transmission interval of the ETT.
US07761893B2

A digital television translator includes a digital television receiver for receiving a first digital television signal at a first frequency and generating a digital transport stream from the first digital television signal. The digital transport stream can include original Program and System Information (PSIP) data having RX channel data that is indicative of the first frequency, the first major channel number, and/or the first minor channel number. The digital television translator also includes a PSIP update module for updating the original PSIP data in the digital transport stream by replacing the RX channel data with TX channel data. The TX data is indicative of a second frequency, a second major channel number, and/or a second minor channel number. The digital television translator further includes a digital television modulator for converting the digital transport stream having the updated PSIP data into a second digital television signal at the second frequency, where the second frequency can be the same or different from the first frequency.
US07761892B2

An interactive television program guide system is provided. An interactive television program guide provides users with an opportunity to select programs for recording on a remote media server. Programs may also be recorded on a local media server. The program guide provides users with VCR-like control over programs that are played back from the media servers and over real-time cached copies of the programs. The program guide also provides users with an opportunity to designate gift recipients for whom programs may be recorded.
US07761887B2

The present invention relates to a high-density disk that is structured to prevent a collision of an optical pickup's objective lens with the high-density disk if the disk is placed upside down in a disk device that is able to record and reproduce signals to/from the high-density disk. A high-density disk recording medium according to the present invention has a reflecting thin film or label, formed on a surface opposite to a recording surface, to block a beam incident to an inserted disk not to travel up to a lead-in area, which a disk device tries to read first when a disk is placed, in the event that the inserted disk has been misplaced upside down.
US07761884B2

A method and system are provided for controlling the algorithmic elements in 3D graphics systems via an improved 3D graphics API and for managing computing resources utilized in connection with the maintenance of connections between surfaces and objects. When multiple applications are running simultaneously, it is possible that the demand for overall computing resources may exceed supply, and it is possible that a connection between a surface and object may be lost for one or more applications. In accordance with the present invention, a check for the persistence of a connection between surface space and object space is made substantially at the time of a present function call, and thus multiple redundant checks are avoided. In one embodiment, checks made incident to function calls other than a present function call are spoofed or bypassed in order to avoid previous inefficient use of computing resources.
US07761878B2

A method for providing “guaranteed message delivery” for network based communications between a client machine and a server. The client machine includes a Client Runtime Environment (CRE) and the server includes a Server Runtime Environment (SRE). The method includes the following steps. A first message queue is maintained in the CRE. A first unique identification is attached to the first message from the first message queue and the first message is sent from the CRE to the SRE via a network communication. The SRE receives the first message and sends an acknowledgement of the receipt of the first message to the CRE. Upon receiving of the acknowledgement within a certain time threshold, the CRE removes the first message from the first message queue in the CRE. A method of providing “server-push” of messages from the server to the client machine utilizing a push Servlet and a push API.
US07761871B2

Methods and apparatuses for remotely accessing data through a wireless device are disclosed. Preferably, the wireless device includes an ability to link data between software components operating on the wireless device. Additionally, the wireless device preferably includes an ability to reduce remote data access by identifying a first data type and a second data type used by a software component, retrieving data corresponding to the first data type from a service provider, retrieving data corresponding to the second data type from the portable device, and displaying on the portable device a return content result including both the first data type and the second data type.
US07761863B2

A method, computer program product, and system for segmenting a software application program into a set of separately executable images. The method including segmenting program binary images of the application program into sub-execution units to be distributed to run in each device of a team as part of a single event-driven runtime process with a single main program linear contiguous code address space and a single main program linear contiguous data address space. The program sub-execution units containing executable code, and data; and each sub-execution unit containing one linear contiguous address space subset segment of the main program code, and one linear contiguous address space subset segment of the main program data; and running a unification engine on each said device of said team of devices to synchronize and serialize events as needed across the formed team of devices that drive said single event-driven runtime process.
US07761861B2

In some embodiments of the present invention, files are generated from java files or class files or jar files. The generated files are directly linkable and interpretable by a Java Virtual Machine. The generated files may be stored in a directly addressable memory of a device. References between class files may appear in the generated files as hard offsets or symbolic references. The generated files may be grouped so that cross-references between generated files in the same group appear as hard offsets.
US07761859B2

One embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for aiding a user in specifying function parameter values in a computer program. An application development environment (ADE) may be operable to display parameter assistant user interfaces for aiding the user in specifying various function parameter values.Another embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for automatically declaring variables passed as parameters in function calls.
US07761841B1

A computer automated method to update a data store is disclosed. The method comprises receiving a definition mapping one or more information fields in an upload file to fields in a data store, creating a first linkage between a test set identified in a first record in the upload file and a first test case based on the mapping, and creating a test set record in the data store including the first linkage and data in the information fields in the first record in the upload file based on the definition.
US07761836B1

In one embodiment of the invention, an object oriented autorouter is disclosed for routing nets in a circuit. The object oriented autorouter includes a routing data model (RDM); at least one routing engine, such as a single connection router (SCR), a topographical (TOPO) transformation engine, and a detail geometric (DETAIL) engine, and a command and control module (CCM) coupled together. The RDM reads and write data with a design database as well as reading one or more object oriented design constraints. Each of the routing engines have at least one action to operate on the design database to improve compliance of the circuit to a constraint. The CCM controls the overall routing process of the nets in the circuit and includes at least one director to invoke at least one of the routing engines to achieve compliance with one or more constraints.
US07761833B2

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of wiring patterns arranged in a first wiring layer of the semiconductor device and extending in a first direction, and a plurality of dummy patterns arranged in the first wiring layer and extending in a second direction different from the first direction, wherein each of the plurality of dummy patterns is arranged spaced apart from each of the plurality of wiring patterns and includes one or more dummy lands formed by separating a part of the dummy pattern opposed to the wiring pattern, from the rest part of the dummy pattern.
US07761805B2

To reduce the amount of space needed to display an item, while still retaining meaning for the item, a reduced presentation is determined for the item. The reduced presentation is based on analysis of a portion that contains information that may be less important for the user to see in order to understand the whole item. The item may contain a portion that is based on user input. It is this portion upon which the reduced presentation determination may be made. However, the reduced presentation determination may be based on another factor. For example, the technique is applicable to displaying any list of items that have some common pattern in the items. Based on analysis of the common pattern, a reduced presentation can be determined for at least one of the items.
US07761796B2

A system and method for graphically showing the animation order of animated elements in a presentation program or other software. The invention consists of a User Interface (UI) widget which shows the order of the animation in the presentation. This UI employs an animation On Object User Interface (OOUI), or animation tag, that is preferably a rectangular control that encloses a number, and labels the order in which objects are animated. Each animation OOUI or animation tag is associated with an object on a display during creation and editing. The animation OOUI or tag is preferably placed in close proximity to the object it is associated with, rather than in a separate window or dialog box, and is hence termed ‘On Object’. The animation tag is active and responds to computer input device selection actions. Each animation OOUI is typically associated with an animation list.
US07761780B2

A parity adder obtains a second data by adding a parity for first data to be written to a memory to the first data. An access-key register holds an access key unique to a source of request. A first operating unit obtains a third data by calculating an XOR between the second data and the access key, the access key being set by the source of request for writing data to the memory. A second operating unit obtains a fourth data by calculating an XOR between the access key and the third data. A syndrome calculator calculates a syndrome from the third data, the access key being set by the source of request for reading data from the memory. A determining unit determines whether to output the third data as the first data, based on calculated syndrome.
US07761773B2

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of laser fuses and each laser fuse represents a bit of data. A first set of the plurality of laser fuses represents a unique identifier that corresponds to the semiconductor device. Also, a second set of the plurality of laser fuses represents error correction coding data that corresponds to the unique identifier. The unique identifier can be a digital rights management identification. Also, the error correction coding data is configured for use by a Reed-Solomon error correcting method to correct the unique identifier. Alternatively, the error correction coding data is configured for use by a cyclic redundancy check method.
US07761767B2

A method for transmitting a packet from a transmitter to a receiver in a wireless communication system begins by building a packet by a transport format combination (TFC) selection process, and the packet is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver. If the transmitter receives an indication that the packet was not successfully received at the receiver, the packet is retransmitted via a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) procedure. If the HARQ procedure did not successfully transmit the packet, then the packet is retransmitted via a retransmission management (RM) procedure. If the RM procedure did not successfully transmit the packet, then the packet is discarded by the transmitter.
US07761760B2

A method for designing an integrated circuit, the method includes: providing an initial definition of a boundary scan register that includes identical super-cells adapted to be connected to multiple pin types; and determining the configuration of each super-cell by providing at least one pin type indication signal to each super-cell. An integrated circuit that includes a boundary scan super-cell, the boundary scan super-cell includes first circuitry adapted to be connected to at least one type of integrated circuit pin; characterized by further including a second circuitry, connected to first circuitry, wherein the second circuitry is adapted to receive at least one pin type indication signal and in response allows the boundary scan super-cell to be connected to at least one additional type of an integrated circuit pin.
US07761756B2

The invention relates to a circuit configuration with a serial test interface (TIF) to control a test operation mode, a freely programmable digital processor (CPU), a housing (G) for the accommodation of a test interface (TIF) and the processor (CPU) with terminals or connectors (C0, C1) for data and/or signal exchange with external components and setups. At one of the terminals (C1), a modulated supply voltage (VDD) can be received the transfer of data (d) and or a clock (T) by using at least two voltage levels (V2, V3) that can be controlled and which are different from a supply voltage level (V1) that is designed to feed the circuitry with a supply operating voltage. Furthermore, the invention relates to a serial test operation method for such a circuit configuration.
US07761741B2

A storage system maintains a journal and a snapshot of one or more data volumes. Two journal entry types are maintained, an AFTER journal entry and a BEFORE journal entry. Two modes of data recovery are provided: “fast” recovery and “undo-able” recovery. A combination of both recovery modes allows the user to quickly recover a targeted data state.
US07761725B2

A circuit includes a clock generator for providing a clock signal to a synchronously operated digital circuit and a control signal generator for providing a control signal to the synchronously operated digital circuit. The control signal generator is interconnected to the clock generator to suppress the clock signal for a defined duration as a control signal is provided. The defined duration allows the control signal to settle to allow said synchronously operated digital circuit to unambiguously sample said control signal. The control signal generator may place the synchronous digital circuit in a lower power consumption state.
US07761720B2

A method for a mechanism for processor power state aware distribution of lowest priority interrupts. The method of one embodiment comprises receiving first power state information from a first component and second power state information from a second component. First task priority information from the first component and second task priority from the second component are also received. An interrupt request from a first device for servicing is received. Power state and task priority information for the first and second components are evaluated to determine which component should service the interrupt request. Either the first component or the second component is selected to be a destination component to service the interrupt request based on the power state and task priority information. The interrupt request is communicated to the destination component.
US07761718B2

In a blade of a blade server, power is supplied from a power distributing unit to an internal circuit, and also supplied to a capacitor to charge the capacitor. If power consumption of the blade server is high and a process load on a blade is also high, power is supplied to the internal circuit from both the power distributing unit and the capacitor. If the process load on the blade is low, power is supplied to the internal circuit only from the power distributing unit.
US07761713B2

A method for controlling access to secured information for a predetermined region of a computer generated original image presented on a display, comprising: determining whether a user is authorized to access the secured information; and, in response to the determining, distorting the original image to produce a distorted region for the predetermined region to provide the user with the secured information on the display.
US07761712B2

An apparatus and method for encoding and decoding additional information into a stream of digitized samples in an integral manner. The information is encoded using special keys. The information is contained in the samples, not prepended or appended to the sample stream. The method makes it extremely difficult to find the information in the samples if the proper keys are not possesed by the decoder. The method does not cause a significant degradation to the sample stream. The method is used to establish ownership of copyrighted digital multimedia content and provide a disincentive to piracy of such material.
US07761704B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that can expire encrypted-data. During operation, the system receives an expiry-request that includes object-identifying information, which can be used to identify a set of database objects that contain the encrypted-data, wherein a database object can be a table, a partition, a row, or a column in a row. Furthermore, a database object can have an expiration time, and it can be stored in an archive, which is typically used to store large amounts of data for long periods using a slower, but cheaper storage medium than the storage medium used by the database. The system then identifies a set of keys for the encrypted-data using the object-identifying information. Next, the system deletes the set of keys, thereby expiring the encrypted-data. Note that, deleting the set of keys ensures that the secure key repository does not contain any stale keys associated with expired encrypted-data.
US07761702B2

A packet forwarding process, on a data communications device, forwards a packet to a plurality of destinations within a network from that data communications device using an “encrypt then replicate” method. The packet forwarding process receives a packet that is to be transmitted to the plurality of destinations, and applies a security association to the packet using security information shared between the data communications device, and the plurality of destinations, to create a secured packet. The secured packet contains a header that has a source address and a destination address. The source address is inserted into the header, and then the packet forwarding process replicates the secured packet, once for each of the plurality of destinations. After replication, the destination address is inserted into the header, and the packet forwarding process transmits each replicated secured packet to each of the plurality of destinations authorized to maintain the security association.
US07761700B2

Methods and arrangements are provided that can be used to identify users to an operating system during initialization through an advanced graphical user interface (GUI). The resulting GUI can be visually compelling and functional while advantageously remaining easy for the developer to create, maintain and modify. A markup language rendering engine is loaded substantially near the beginning of an operating system initialization procedure, and provided with markup language code that solicits at least one user input associated with a user logon process when rendered by the markup language rendering engine. The markup language code can be written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Dynamic HTML, eXtensible Markup Language (XML), eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), etc.
US07761697B1

One embodiment of a computing system configured to manage divergent threads in a thread group includes a stack configured to store at least one token and a multithreaded processing unit. The multithreaded processing unit is configured to perform the steps of fetching a program instruction, determining that the program instruction is an indirect branch instruction, and processing the indirect branch instruction as a sequence of two-way branches to execute an indirect branch instruction with multiple branch addresses. Indirect branch instructions may be used to allow greater flexibility since the branch address or multiple branch addresses do not need to be determined at compile time.
US07761695B2

A data processing circuit has a programmable processor (12a, b) with an instruction set that comprises an new type of instruction. This instruction has a first operand that refers to a string of bits, and a second operand that refers to a position in that string of bits. The programmable processor (12a, b) is arranged to execute this type of instruction by returning, as a result, a code that is indicative of a count of a number of bits that occurs from said position in the string of bits until the string of bits from said position deviates from a predetermined bit pattern. The instruction is particularly useful for use in programs that perform variable length decoding and/or decoding.
US07761689B2

A digital processor is coupled to a processor programmer through a single programming connection (e.g., terminal, pin, etc.) coupled to the single conductor programming bus. The processor programmer comprises an instruction encoder/decoder, a Manchester encoder, a Manchester decoder, a bus receiver and a bus transmitter. The digital processor comprises an instruction encoder/decoder, a Manchester encoder, a Manchester decoder, a bus receiver, a bus transmitter, a central processing unit (CPU), and a program memory. The instruction encoder/decoder is coupled to the CPU and the program memory. The bus receivers and bus transmitters are coupled to the single conductor programming bus which is coupled to a connection, e.g., terminal, pin, ball, etc., on an integrated circuit package containing the digital processor. The instruction encoder/decoder is coupled to a programming console, e.g., a personal computer, workstation, etc.
US07761674B2

Embodiments of apparatuses, articles, methods, and systems for associating identifiers with memory locations for controlling memory accesses are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07761660B1

A system and method for monitoring a group of storage devices for indications of a detected error. After receiving an indication that a first storage device in the group has experienced a detected error, a consecutive number of detected errors experienced by the first storage device is determined. If it is determined the consecutive number of detected errors experienced by the first storage device exceeds a threshold of more than one detected error before a second storage device in the group experiences one detected error, then in response, the consecutive number of detected errors experienced by the first storage device is reset. If the consecutive number of detected errors does exceed the threshold before the second storage device experiences the one detected error, then the first storage device is identified as a suspect storage device.
US07761653B2

A flash microcontroller has a Static Random-Access-Memory (SRAM) buffer that stores several blocks of boot code read from a flash memory. The boot code includes an initial boot loader, boot code and a control program that are executed by the flash microcontroller, and an operating system OS image and an external-host control program that are executed by an external host. Both the external host and the microcontroller are booted from boot code buffered in the SRAM buffer. A first-reset-read address from the external host is captured by the microcontroller during its boot sequence and stored in a mapping table along with a physical address of the block in the SRAM buffer with the operating system OS image and the external-host control program. A boot-loader state machine reads the flash ID and programs flash parameter registers with timing parameters for the flash memory.
US07761652B2

The present invention relates to a mapping information managing apparatus and method for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types, and more particularly, to a mapping information managing apparatus and method for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types capable of managing mapping information considering physical characteristics of each cell type in the non-volatile memory supporting different cell types in which bits represented by one cell are different from each other. A mapping information managing apparatus for a non-volatile memory supporting different cell types includes: a user request unit used for a user to request a predetermined operation by using a logical address; a non-volatile memory comprising a plurality of memory areas having different cell types; and a mapping information managing unit storing mapping information on user data written to a second memory area of the plurality of memory areas in a first memory area.
US07761649B2

A storage system is provided with an ASIC having an interconnect selectively coupling a plurality of dedicated purpose function controllers in the ASIC to a policy processor, via a list manager in the ASIC communicating on a peripheral device bus to which the policy processor is connected, and an event ring buffer to which all transaction requests from each of the plurality of function controllers to the policy processor are collectively posted in real time.
US07761643B1

A media access controller system embedded in an integrated circuit is described. A platform dependent bridge for communicating with a first processor, where the platform dependent bridge is associated with a platform of the first processor and where the first processor is embedded in an integrated circuit. Host interface circuitry is coupled to the platform dependent bridge and is configured to provide a processor interface, where the processor interface is for communicating with the first processor via the platform dependent bridge and where the processor interface has a platform independent bus for communication with a second processor. At least one media access controller is coupled to the host interface circuitry.
US07761640B2

A slot interface access device including a slot management module; a slot control module; and a physical slot to management slot contrast table, the slot management module, the slot control module, and the physical slot to management slot contrast table being provided between an input and output control module and a slot interface lower than the input and output control module. The input and output control module accesses the slot interface using virtual slot identification information. The slot management module converts the virtual slot identification information into physical slot identification information while referring to the physical slot to management slot contrast table, and accesses the slot control module corresponding to the physical slot identification information obtained by conversion, thereby realizing a physical access of the input and output control module to the slot interface.
US07761628B1

A conjoined portable display monitor and portable keyboard similar to the arrangement of a laptop style portable computer are used to provide user interface for a desktop personal computer or workstation. The portable display monitor is configured to receive video data signals from the desktop computer, while the portable keyboard and associated mouse are configured to deliver their signals to corresponding inputs of the desktop computer. The arrangement retains the space-saving advantages of a portable computer's embodiment with the enhanced performance and available options of a full-sized desktop computer. An example mode of this teaching shows a portable computer adapted to receive video signals from and deliver keyboard signals to conventional data-signal ports inherent with the desktop computer system. The user may return the portable computer's signal ports to a conventional mode and continue usage as a conventional self-contained portable computer.
US07761625B2

A computing system is disclosed that includes a memory controller in a processor socket normally reserved for a processor. A plurality of non-volatile memory modules may be plugged into memory sockets normally reserved for DRAM memory modules. The non-volatile memory modules may be accessed using a data communication protocol to access the non-volatile memory modules. The memory controller controls read and write accesses to the non-volatile memory modules. The memory sockets are coupled to the processor socket by printed circuit board traces.The data communication protocol to access the non-volatile memory modules is communicated over the printed circuit board traces and through the sockets normally used to access DRAM type memory modules.
US07761616B2

A method is disclosed for failover protection in an information storage and retrieval system comprising two clusters, two device adapters, and a plurality of data storage devices. The method provides a first device driver for a first device adapter and a second device driver for a second device adapter, and disposes those device drivers in both clusters. The method then places in operation the first device driver disposed in a first cluster, places in operation the second device driver disposed in a second cluster, and places in a standby mode the first device driver disposed in the second cluster. The method detects a failure of the first cluster, followed by a failure of the second device adapter. The method then makes operational the first device driver disposed in the second cluster, and continues to access information stored in the plurality of data storage devices using the first device adapter, and the first device driver disposed in the second cluster.
US07761604B2

An apparatus, program product and method bridge an isolated network such as a virtual network to an external network such as another virtual network or physical network by utilizing a network adapter on the other network that is assigned the same Media Access Control (MAC) address as an isolated network adapter on the isolated network.
US07761602B1

A computer-implemented method includes identifying encoded content to be presented. The method also includes loading the content into a content player. The content player is configured to dynamically identify a local decoder that is operable to decode the content. The method further includes providing the identified content to the local decoder during playback of the content; and presenting the decoded content.
US07761600B2

A method of distributing application server addresses in an IP Multimedia Subsystem. Upon allocation of an application server to a subscriber, the allocated or another application server sends at least one application server address to a Home Subscriber Server (HSS). The HSS stores the address(es) in association with the subscriber identity and sends the address(es) to a Serving Call/Session State Control Function (S-CSCF) allocated to the subscriber. The S-CSCF caches the address(es) in association with the subscriber identity and uses the address(es) to send subscriber-related messages to the allocated application server.
US07761594B1

A method and apparatus for forwarding requests in a cache hierarchy based on user-defined forwarding rules are described. A proxy cache on a network provides a user interface that enables a user to define a set of forwarding rules for controlling the forwarding of content requests within a cache hierarchy. When the proxy cache receives a content request from a client and the request produces a cache miss, the proxy cache examines the rules sequentially two determine whether any of the user-defined rules applies to the request. If a rule is found to apply, the proxy cache identifies one or more forwarding destinations from the rule and determines the availability of the destinations. The proxy cache then forwards the request to an available destination according to the applicable rule.
US07761582B2

A method of managing personal information of a user wherein personal information of a user is provided to an information provider from any location, through a simple apparatus, and with reliability. Personal information is stored beforehand in a user profile database of a server. When the user accesses a service provider device from a terminal device through the server and the Internet, the service provider device requests personal information of the user. The server reads the requested personal information from the user profile database and transfers the personal information to the service provider device. This novel arrangement makes it unnecessary for the user to input the personal information on its own.
US07761565B2

Systems and methods of the present invention allow for tracking of domain name related reputation by a domain name Registering Entity (e.g. Registry, Registrar, etc.). In a preferred embodiment, the Registering Entity maintains a database with reputation data that can be accessed by the requesters. The Registering Entity may update reputation data based on a variety of events related to the domain name. The reputation data may be tracked on the domain name itself, URLs, domain name purchaser or registrant, or email addresses associated with the domain name. The reputation data may include various categories, such as email practices, website content, privacy policies and practices, fraudulent activities, domain name related complaints, overall reputation, etc. The registrant may opt for a reputation service while registering domain name. The requester may decide whether to allow email messages or to visit URLs based on the domain name related reputation.
US07761564B2

In a method and system for monitoring events occurring at respective servers of a configuration of nodes, a first server located at a first node receives information from a messaging system pertaining to events at servers located at other nodes. The messaging system usefully comprises a highly available (HA) bulletin board or the like. When the first server receives a start event notification pertaining to a second server located at a second node, a direct communication path is established between the first and second servers. The first server identifies events in the second server that affect or are of interest to services of the first server. The first server then registers with the second server, to receive notification through the direct communication path when respective identified events occur.
US07761554B1

A Web server indicates which device, user, software, and network properties it can use to generate personalized content for a requesting user. The Web server also indicates which properties are actually required for it to generate any meaningful content at all. Using this mechanism, the client can optionally query the user for permission before including requested information in the request. Furthermore, the client device can save network bandwidth by only transmitting information that the server will use.
US07761552B2

A computer apparatus which integrates at least two or more services of user management domains has a processor, a memory and an interface. The processor receives an access request, specifies an access source domain, specifies an access target domain, and judges whether the specified access source domain matches the specified access target domain. If the access source domain is different from the access target domain, the processor extracts a user ID of the specified access source domain from the received access request, and refers to ID conversion information indicating correspondence of user IDs between the user management domains whose services are integrated to convert the extracted user ID of the access source domain into a user ID of the specified access target domain. Thus, loads of configuration at the time of service integration are reduced.
US07761550B2

Methods of configuring a first agent for operation on a network. The methods may comprise the steps of receiving an indication that the first agent is active on the network and determining if the first agent is scheduled to become active on the network within a predetermined amount of time. The methods may also comprise the step of configuring the agent to send periodic status messages to a host if the first agent is scheduled to become active on the network within the predetermined amount of time.
US07761544B2

An apparatus and method for the monitoring and recording of data stream associated with a transportation vehicle (10), the apparatus comprising at least one capture device (36) for receiving the data stream depicting activities within the transportation vehicle (10); at least one recording device (34) for recording the captured data stream about the activities within the transportation vehicle (10); and a communication device (32) for communicating the recorded data stream to a monitoring station (24, 26).
US07761543B2

A method and system permitting a network management system to be backward and forward compatible with a range of network elements or devices, and device versions. The present invention uses a combination of versioned interface negotiation, data driven interfaces or self-describing devices, and a support matrix of management features supported by various versions of the network management system, to provide the network management system with both backward and forward compatibility. This permits a single version of a management system to be backward compatible with a series of network elements that predate the management system's release, and to be forward compatible with a series of network elements that follow the management system's release, even in the face of unpredictable changes in the devices with which the management system interacts. The invention also permits the vendor to control which features are enabled for the various combinations of network element versions and management system versions and thus how much testing is required.
US07761537B2

The present invention, generally speaking, provides a broad-based solution for acquisition, processing and distribution of media objects including pictures (images), movies, videos, graphics, sound clips, etc via the Internet or the like. And specifically, it is a solution to such systems for use in applications wherein there are multiple originators of media objects that will be viewed in multiple web sites having different viewing requirements. A browser-based Aprepare and post@ tool prepares and submits media objects from inside a standard browser to a remote server. A Media Acquisition, Processing and Distribution (MAPD) system receives these media objects, processes them to meet specific requirements, and delivers them for integration into remote databases. MAPD system services include media object submission, processing, hosting and mirroring. The hosting service delivers a media object URL to a remote database, allowing the media object to be requested and served by the media object server. The mirroring service delivers the actual media object to multi-point remote databases to be stored and served by the customer.
US07761535B2

A method and system for synchronizing a main database of a server and a local database of a handheld device. A user can use an application residing in the handheld device to make transactions in the local database. During a synchronization operation, the handheld device and server are coupled. The system then determines whether the application should be updated and, if so, causes the server to provide an update. The system also causes the handheld device to provide to the server information related to the transactions made by the user to the local database. The system causes the server to perform transactions on the main database based on the transaction information. The system also causes the server to extract data from the main database. The server can then provide at least some of the extracted data to the handheld device to update the local database.
US07761533B2

A method is described that involves comprising, during runtime in an object-oriented environment, invoking, from an object, a first Web services endpoint method to process a first message by: invoking the first Web services endpoint method through a first interface according to an endpoint method invocation format, where, the first Web services endpoint method is implemented with a first component that is provided one or more services by a first container. The method also involves invoking, from the object, a second Web services endpoint method to process a second message by: invoking the second Web services endpoint method through a second interface according to the endpoint method invocation format. The second Web services endpoint method is implemented with a second component that is provided one or more services by a second container. The first and second containers have respective interfaces that are different.
US07761532B2

Detection of variations in a large quantity of sensing data connected to a network and prescribed processing corresponding to the variations are to be executed at high speed. An event-action controller for monitoring data collected from plural sensors and executing preset processing when the data has come to satisfy preset conditions includes an event-action entry search engine, an event-action table, a cache and a cache controller. The cache controller further includes a learning table for learning an arrival cycle of sensing data, a learning table controller, a cache access controller, a forwarding controller and time information.
US07761531B2

A method and apparatus for remote access of personal data using a remote device. The personal data is stored on a storage medium in a personal device. The personal data may include personal information of a user of the remote device, or the personal data may be that of another user who intends to share their personal data with the user. The personal device is uniquely associated with the user and may be configured to allow multiple users to access the device. User identification data is received from the remote device. The user is authenticated, using the user identification data received from the remote device, as the user with whom the personal device is associated, either uniquely or through configuration of sharing. When the user is authenticated, menu data is sent to the remote device. The menu data includes a list of personal data management applications on the personal device associated with the user. Selection data is received from the remote device. The selection data identifies one of the personal data management applications from the list as a selected application. From the personal device, a portion of the personal data accessible by the selected application is requested. The requested portion of personal data is received from the storage medium in the personal device and sent to the remote device.
US07761526B2

A method and apparatus turns a typical home telephone system into a platform for delivery of web based content and services. The preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a broadband enabled telephone system for the home and a series of web servers that collect, package, and deliver personalized content and services to all of the telephone handsets throughout the home. With this end-to-end solution, any information or services available via the web can be delivered through a broadband enabled telephone system. Through the web, each member of a family can build a profile which defines what information and services they want available through the handset. In addition, each handset can be dynamically personalized for any family member. The color screens on the handsets become windows through which an individual can view and interact with a broad range of content and services. The audio channels thus become an extension of the voice based services, such as messaging and voice chat.
US07761524B2

The present invention discloses an email application that includes a subject evaluation engine, which is able to automatically generate a subject heading suggestion for an email message based upon content contained in the email message. The subject evaluation engine can also compare a pre-existing subject heading of the email message against content contained in the email message. User selectable interface elements can be included in the email application for invoking the suggestion and comparison functions of the subject evaluation engine. Further, the subject evaluation can automatically be initiated before an email message is sent, can be used to notify a user when the message's subject is inconsistent with the message's content, and can suggest one or more replacement subject headings for the current heading.
US07761509B2

A program product stored on a recordable medium for linking operations between multiple connected devices connected to each other via a network is provided. The program product includes: program code for setting a state of a linked device for execution of linked operations between the connected devices, a state change (occurrence of an event) at an external device that is a condition for execution of the linked operations, and an operation to be executed by the linked device upon the occurrence of the event; program code for storing the settings; program code for sending a request for registration of necessity to notify the linked device of occurrence of an event; program code for determining whether an operation to be executed by the linked device that corresponds to a current state of the linked device and to the notified event is stored or not; and program code for executing the operation.
US07761508B2

Link fragmentation and interleaving at an access device located between a point to point link and a tunneled connection is provided. A method of access device-based link fragmentation and interleaving is also provided. The method includes receiving frames through a tunnel from a network server, fragmenting at least some of the frames from the network server, and sending fragmented and unfragmented frames over a data link to an endpoint device. The frames may be multilink point to point protocol (MLPPP) frames and the frames may be received through a layer two tunneling protocol (L2TP) tunnel. The method can include scanning a frame for PPP options and removing options related to MLPPP negotiation and then forwarding the frame to a network server.
US07761506B2

A computer program interface for permitting multiple users to share a single copy of a computer program is described. The program interface is written in Java 1.2 or a later version and C++ and permits users who have browser programs enabled in Java to interact with the user interface. The system can be used in a variety of modes which includes a shared mode to allow multiple users to use the system, although other modes include use by a single user. In the shared mode two or more users share the same copy of software interactively over the Internet or an Intranet connection. In one embodiment during the sharing activity only one user, designated the active user, interacts directly with the computer program and the other users, designated passive user, observe what the active user does and what results are produced in response to the active user's activities. The user interface allows intercommunication between users and allows passive users to assume the role of an active user and vice versa but there is only one active use at any time. In another embodiment more than one active user can share a program which permits real-time interaction for example in game playing or co-design. Various aspects of the invention including graphical and command-time user new interface programs are described.
US07761505B2

A video teleconferencing and multimedia presentation system is provided. The system is integrated and network-ready to facilitate ease of set-up and operation, and also utilizes IP and/or wireless networking to provide advanced features and functionality, such as remote access and control and the ability to perform secure archiving and retrieval of recorded video and audio data. The system further utilizes a unique peer-to-peer conference network solution in order to address the bandwidth limitations that plague conventional systems and allow enhanced viewing of high-bandwidth applications.
US07761502B2

A multipool can do a callback to an application before switching connection pools.
US07761498B2

According to the described embodiments, an intermediate electronic messaging service is inserted into a message delivery path connecting to an e-mail entity such as an ISP. A database is provided in the intermediate service, the database having user profiles associated with the users of the ISP or other e-mail entity. The intermediate service receives email message over the electronic message delivery path into which it has been inserted, where the e-mail messages comprise at least content and IP routing information. Within the intermediate service, at least one of the content and the IP routing information of the received e-mail message is examined, and the e-mail message is then delivered to a destination based on the examination and in accordance with a user profile in the database in the intermediate service.
US07761491B2

Systems, methods, and devices for detecting a commercial in a video data stream by evaluating descriptor information provided from a plurality of visual descriptors indicative of commercial or non-commercial features. The descriptor information provided from the plurality of descriptors may be evaluated in an entropy based decision process.
US07761481B2

Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate transforming business and encoding rules defined in a persistent and relational format into XML schemas that provide a message format and validation logic for the message. A message can be received in delimited flat-file format and parsed to facilitate generating a value-added XML schema that represents both encoding rules and business rules associated with the message. The systems and methodologies detailed herein can be employed, for example, in applications utilized in a healthcare provider space and can be consistent with Health Level 7 standards to improve message validation and/or processing.
US07761476B2

A content framework system and method. The content framework system comprises a content infrastructure, a content flow management system, and a content association system. The content infrastructure comprises content management systems. Each of the content management systems comprises content. The content flow management system comprises an acquisition tool comprising an agent tool. The content flow management system controls a flow of each of the content within and between each of the content management systems. The acquisition tool provides an interface between the content flow management system and the content infrastructure. The content association system generates a first set of associations metadata comprising a first set of links for linking the content management systems together. The agent tool monitors the content from each of the content management systems and adding to a registry, a description of the content from each of the content management systems based on the monitoring.
US07761475B2

Apparatus, system, method and computer-readable media for organizing a listing of key pairs to increase the likelihood that key pairs more likely to satisfy database queries will be examined in the course of the query execution before key pairs that are less likely to satisfy a database query.
US07761470B2

An information processing method which can reduce stress on the user by always providing services to the user without any delay. The information processing method is executed by an information processing apparatus. A search server is requested to perform a search for at least one of servers for performing desired data processing, and a result of the search showing a first server is received from the search server. The search server is requested to perform a search for at least one of the servers for performing the desired data processing, and a result of the search showing a second server which is different from the first server is received from the search server, when the first server cannot accept a request for performing the desired data processing from the information processing apparatus. The second server is registered in a storage as a substitute server for the first server. The substitute server is requested to perform the desired data processing without requesting the search server to perform the search for at least one of the servers for performing the desired data processing, when the first server cannot accept the request from the information processing apparatus, and the substitute server is registered in the storage.
US07761461B2

A method, system and article of manufacture for relationship building based on text-based markup languages and, more particularly, for representing relationships between data elements defined according to a first physical representation of data in a logical representation. The logical representation abstractly describes a second physical representation of the data, which is generated from the first physical representation of the data. On the basis of the relationships between the data elements, logical relationships each defining a path between data structures of the second physical representation are determined and associated with the logical representation.
US07761458B1

Provided are systems, methods and techniques for hierarchically segmenting a sequence of records, by specifying windows, each window encompassing a portion of the sequence. For each specified window, a function of the data records within that specified window is calculated in order to generate a function value for the window. The function values are then used to define a hierarchical arrangement in which the sequence is divided into a plurality of segments and the segments are divided into smaller segments.
US07761447B2

The present invention provides systems and methods that rank search results. Such ranking typically includes determining a relevance of individual search results via one or more feature-based relevance functions. These functions can be tailored to users and/or applications, and typically are based on scoped information (e.g., lexical), digital artifact author related attributes, digital artifact source repository attributes, and/or relationships between features, for example. In addition, relevance functions can be generated via training sets (e.g., machine learning) or initial guesses that are iteratively refined over time. Upon determining relevance, search results can be ordered with respect to one another, based on respective relevances. Additionally, thresholding can be utilized to mitigate returning results likely to be non-relevant to the query, user and/or application.
US07761439B1

Systems and methods for performing a directory search are described. In one described system, a computer program receives a first search query and causes the first search query to be executed on a directory. The program generates a second search query associated with the first search query and causes the second search query to be executed on a local data store. The program then obtains a first result from the directory, obtains a second result from the local data store, and generates and outputs a result set, the result set comprising the first result and the second result.
US07761435B2

A method performed by a computing system is described. The method involves receiving a deployment descriptor that specifies a persistence scope that is external to the computing system. The method also involves, as a consequence of the receiving, instantiating a plug-in for a database that is external to the computing system. The method also involves, over the course of a session, managing the persistence of the session's session state information in said database by, with program code provided by the plug-in, translating a first command that is not specific to the database into a second command that is specific to the database. The session state information comprises a plurality of attributes. The first command is to cause a process to be performed. The process is selected from the group consisting of: storing in the database one of the attributes; and, retrieving from the database one of the attributes.
US07761432B2

A storage pool, that includes a hierarchical data structure, wherein the hierarchical data structure comprises a plurality of nodes, wherein one of the plurality of nodes corresponds to the file system, and the file system, wherein the file system is associated with a value corresponding to an attribute, wherein the value is determined using the hierarchical data structure.
US07761427B2

A system, apparatus, method, and computer program product for electronically stored file profiling and conversion including converting printable files to images, supported by meta-data, and one or more searchable master text files.
US07761417B2

Extensible reconfigurable media appliance for security and entertainment captures images digitally for storage. Digital effects and filters are applied to incoming video stream on-the-fly or to video data stored in memory. Digital effects and filters are dynamically stored, modified, updated or deleted, providing extensible reconfigurable effects studio. Digital media appliance communicates wirelessly with other media appliances, computers, security systems, video storage, email, chat, cellular services or PDAs to provide seamless integration of captured video stream.
US07761413B2

A method of ensuring availability of event notification registrations of a database management system is described and provided. The method comprises creating the event notification registrations and storing the event notification registrations in a database of the database management system. Further, the event notification registrations are replicated in a designated database management system to create replicated event notification registrations. If the database management system fails, the replicated event notification registrations are utilized.
US07761407B1

Systems or apparatus, methods, data structures and/or computer programs are provided for implementing an OLAP system that has increased query execution speed, requires reduced data storage capacity for an OLAP system and/or facilitates scaling of an OLAP system to large data cubes. The OLAP system can advantageously be implemented as an all-main memory OLAP system.
US07761402B2

This invention relates to a method of determining stability of unstable equilibrium point (UEP) computed by using BCU method, comprising selecting UEP computed by using BCU method, obtaining a test vector Xtest for the selected UEP, say XUEP using the following equation: Xtest=Xspost+0.99(XUEP−Xspost) where Xspost is the SEP, and checking boundary condition of XUEP by simulating system trajectory of post-fault original system starting from Xtest.
US07761396B2

Techniques enable a user, such as a business analyst or a system administrator, to define business process rules that control the processing of transaction data by a computer application and to assign a collection of business process rules to one of multiple predefined points in a business process of a computer application. At runtime, when the computer system executing the computer application reaches a point in a business process that is associated with a collection of user-defined business process rules, the computer system executes the business process rules. In this manner, a customized process represented by user-defined business process rules is able to be added to a computer application.
US07761394B2

A computerized method of representing a dataset with a taxonomy includes obtaining a dataset comprising a plurality of records, the dataset being characterized by a vocabulary and each of the plurality of records being characterized by at least one term within the vocabulary; identifying nearest neighbors for each term within the vocabulary; imputing a degree of membership for each nearest neighbor identified for each term within the vocabulary; augmenting the obtained dataset with the imputed degree of membership; and generating a taxonomy of the augmented dataset.
US07761383B2

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for users to search networks, both their own network and their peers' networks, all under the umbrella of a “multiple level access” security system. The present invention has been designed to optimize networking capabilities among users in a comprehensive online community. Networking among such a secured environment will allow users an opportunity to enhance their networking potential by expanding their networks to their peers' and beyond. A user registers with the online community and personally adds individuals that they know to their personal networking database. While adding these peers to the networking database, the user grants a specific level of access to each individual. This security measure is devised to discourage solicitation from other unwanted online users. The levels of access give the user an opportunity to control the amount of personal information, including contacts that they make, available to their individual peers. Based on the level of access granted by the user, the peer may or may not be able to access the user's information or the user's personal databases for potential networking. The level of access granted by two individuals need not be the same for each other.
US07761380B2

A system and method for use in the authentication of payment instrument non-Internet transactions. A server transmits the transaction information to the authentication network associated with the issuer of the cardholder's card to determine whether the cardholder is enrolled in the card issuer's authentication program, and if so, will transmit a notification to the cardholder which includes instructions on how the cardholder can use an Internet connection to complete the authentication process for the transaction. When the cardholder accesses the server website and inputs the verification code previously generated by the server, the cardholder is automatically redirected by the server to the specific Internet link provided by the authentication network, which corresponds to the cardholder's transaction, so that the cardholder may complete the authentication of the transaction.
US07761376B2

A method for providing funding of and access to an investment vehicle, comprises the steps of establishing an investment vehicle, monetizing the investment vehicle by depositing funds therein by at least one predetermined investor, receiving a request for the funds by an employee of an employer, distributing the funds from the investment vehicle to a financial institution via a management entity upon direction of the management entity in response to the employee's request, transferring the funds from the financial institution to the employee via the employer, utilizing the funds for a predetermined economic activity by the employee, remitting the funds to the financial institution from an employee's subsequent earnings via an employer payroll system, redepositing the funds, remitted to the financial institution, into the investment vehicle via the management entity, and wherein the basis for the investment vehicle is the value of an employee's continuing employment with an employer.
US07761374B2

Methods and systems for dynamically generating a verification value for a transaction and for utilizing such value to verify the authenticity of the payment service application. The dynamically created verification value may be generated on a payment device, such as an integrated circuit credit card or smart card, embedded into the payment data, and transmitted to a point of sale terminal. Alternatively, payment data is sent by a payment device to a point of sale terminal, which generates a verification value and embeds it into the payment data. The embedded verification value is used by a service provider to verify the authenticity of the transaction. The methods and systems may be used in a contactless (wireless) environment or a non-wireless environment.
US07761364B2

An automated system for matching orders to buy and sell securities at the midpoint of a best bid and offer (“BBO”), wherein the automated system is adapted to (i) operate on a fully-anonymous and continuous basis, (ii) process multiple, computer-generated orders, of any size, transmitted by algorithmic, program, and other automated trading systems, (iii) automatically match multiple, executable orders according to a priority scheme, and (iv) execute a matching algorithm that maximizes tradable volume when an executable order can not be matched according to the priority scheme. The system may be executed at a server or participant system, or combination of the two.
US07761363B2

The present invention provides an order management and execution system and computer-implemented method for managing orders in an environment where the customer may utilize internal accounting and trading procedures that require filling a number of internal and external trading requirements for a number of internal and external trading accounts. The invention, which may be used in a variety of different trading contexts and for a variety of asset classes, automatically converts the internal trading requirements to external trading requirements and builds external orders, which are optionally netted and executed in the market using an asset trading execution system. Then the invention automatically converts the executed external requirements back to the appropriate internal requirements, records the internal requirements as filled, and optionally downloads the appropriate execution completion records to the customer's trading system.
US07761358B2

A real time financial instrument image exchange system and method deliver a digital image of a financial instrument (for example, a bank check) very quickly through an image exchange network to a payor institution by promptly forwarding the digital image when it is created at a depositing institution. This may expedite pay or return decisions to be made by payor institutions, which may enable banks to truncate checks, to reduce fraud and its costs, and to facilitate compliance with banking regulations. Such image capture, as well as related data capture, and real-time transfer enable emulation to an item processing system of the payor institution whereby the payor's item processing system processes the image and data as if it did the original capture actually performed at the depositing institution.
US07761354B2

Banking software application development includes defining a plurality of banking object terms, each of these terms relating to components of a banking relationship. Additionally, the software is developed by defining a plurality of responsibility area terms, each of these terms relating to banking activities, wherein each of the responsibility area terms includes at least one of the banking object terms. From the defined relationships, the software is developed by generating a solution foundation for at least one of the responsibility area terms by defining relationships between the plurality of business object terms. Therefore, the banking software application is developed based on the solution foundation.
US07761353B1

Techniques are described related to validating financial accounts, such as before allowing the use of the financial accounts in making payments or otherwise being used as part of transactions. In some situations, the validating of a financial account includes corroborating that a user who desires to use the financial account is the account holder for the account or is otherwise authorized to use the account, such as by confirming that the user has access to information about transactions involving the account and that the user has access to at least one physical item that is delivered to an address or other location associated with the user. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US07761347B2

The present invention discloses a method and system for making losses due to the counterfeiting of RF-ID tags to a minimum, enhancing the reliability of RF-ID tag read-out and improving the overall reliability of the RF-ID tag system. An ID reader for communicating by radio with the RF-ID tag and reading tag data from the RF-ID tag transmits the data read-out results to a terminal management server connected to the ID reader. The terminal management server decodes the error correction signal from the read-out result data, also extracts the identification number section from the tag, and decides whether or not that identification number is valid. When determined to be a valid identification number, an inquiry is made to the system operation server connected over the network to find out if that identification number was previously read out and if that identification number might be counterfeit. The system operation server then refers to the log database, the blacklist database and process transition rule, calculates the probability of counterfeiting and automatically sends a warning message to the related department when there is a high probability of counterfeiting.
US07761344B2

A method for multi-selection gifting, including maintaining a merchandise database comprising records for merchandise for a plurality of merchants, each record including a stock keeping unit (SKU) for an item of merchandise, a description of the item, a price of the item, and the merchant for the item, maintaining a gift database comprising records for multi-selection gifts, each record including at least one gift recipient, a plurality of SKU's for items of merchandise, and at least one selection rule for selecting at least one of the items of merchandise, interactively enabling a gift giver to generate a multi-selection gift for a gift recipient, interactively guiding the gift recipient to select at least one of the items of merchandise in the multi-selection gift in accordance with the gift's at least one selection rule, aggregating the at least one item selected by the gift recipient according to merchant, issuing purchase orders to each merchant in accordance with the aggregated selected items corresponding to such merchant, and billing the gift giver according to the at least one item of merchandise selected by the gift recipient. A system and a computer-readable storage medium are also described and claimed.
US07761343B2

The embodiments of the present system include a review engine that is connected to support modules and databases that receive, store, and retrieve reviews, based upon the subject and the users' relationship to the authors of the reviews. The review engine comprises a social network engine, a rate and rank engine, a credentials engine and a privacy engine. These engines allow reviews to be sorted, filtered and ordered in terms of relevance when presented to the user. Numerous methods are also provided by the system that receive, store and retrieve reviews.
US07761334B2

Crop information related to a particular crop is collected and stored in data storage during the performance of an agricultural operation. A harvested particular crop is segregated from all other genetically distinct crops by storing the particular harvested crops in one or more segregated storage volumes for storing the particular crop. Each segregated storage volume has a corresponding storage identifier. An electronically accessible data profile, associated with the particular crop, is provided or made available to a user. The data profile includes the collected crop information.
US07761332B2

A transaction card system includes a transaction cared with a display tag for displaying short term information, the character display having optical states that are stable without power and viewable from one side of the display tag and an array of electrical contacts for electrically addressing the character display from the other side of the tag, a contact window through which the contacts are accessible, machine readable data on the card, and long term information printed on the transaction card; a transaction card writer having a reader for reading the machine readable data and having means for updating the short term information displayed on the transaction card; and a central computer connected to the transaction card writer having a data base and a central processor for receiving the information read by the magnetic card reader and generating display commands for the transaction card writer.
US07761327B1

A system may confirm that advertising was played as originally intended. For example, in one embodiment, a system may determine that an advertisement was played as originally intended and in return, a credit may be provided to the user. This credit may be the ability to play content that the user wishes to play or the credit may be in the form of rewards that are provided to the user, as another example. Thus, the system determines whether the advertisements are played correctly, for example, by detecting watermarks encoded within the advertising, and in return, provides indications that reward the user for playing the advertisement as intended.
US07761325B2

Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for intelligent inventory applications and services. A purchase request to purchase a product is received that has a product number to be purchased, an account number to process for payment, and a purchaser's inventory information that identifies the purchaser's inventory database to update with the product number. The account number is communicated for payment authorization. When payment is authorized, the product number is communicated to the purchaser's inventory database to reflect the purchase of the product.
US07761313B1

A method and system for providing multiple real-time pricing quotes based on optional consumer variables is disclosed. A user accesses a web site and is provided with a web page enabling the user to choose a product with multiple optional features. Upon selection of the product and desired features, the user is provided with pricing information for the selected products and features and provided with the option to modify the product be selecting different features. Upon selection of the modification, the user is provided with a web page simultaneously displaying the original selection and associated feature prices and the modification and associated feature prices.
US07761311B2

A computer-implemented system and method analyzes the effectiveness of pharmaceutical treatments for medical conditions utilizing real time prescription compliance records. Information related to medical history of a patient can be reviewed while simultaneously reviewing prescription compliance records for the same patient. Trends in a target or non-target medical parameter can be identified and correlated with the prescription compliance records to determine the effectiveness of a pharmaceutical treatment on the target and non-target medical parameter. Correlations can be identified for a group of patients having the same medical condition.
US07761310B2

Methods, systems and computer program products are used in monitoring patients, staff, assets and visitors at a facility, initiating a response to prevent or mitigate harm, and assess and ensure overall quality and performance, and refine individual patient, staff and visitor profiles. A plurality of sensors throughout the facility provide multiple data streams relating to the locations of patients relative to at least one of caregivers, assets, other patients, visitors or one or more fixed locations. A computer system analyses the data stream and determines the location and/or movements of the patients relative to the caregivers, assets, other patients, visitors and/or fixed locations. A profile containing individual data for the patient is used to accurately detect events, including actionable events, ensure completion of prescribed care, assess patient wellness, and, in some cases, provide tailored patient specific responses to detected events. Patient profiles are periodically refined by means of an information feedback loop in order to more accurately predict (actionable) events, provide adequate care and ensure a desired level of patient wellness. Staff and visitor profiles can be used to measure staff and visitor performance at a facility.
US07761303B2

Spatial information associated with an audio signal is encoded into a bitstream, which can be transmitted to a decoder or recorded to a storage media. The bitstream can include different syntax related to time, frequency and spatial domains. In some embodiments, the bitstream includes one or more data structures (e.g., frames) that contain ordered sets of slots for which parameters can be applied. The data structures can be fixed or variable. The data structure can include position information that can be used by a decoder to identify the correct slot for which a given parameter set is applied. The slot position information can be encoded with a fixed number of bits or a variable number of bits based on the data structure type.
US07761302B2

A method for generating output data identifying a class of a predetermined plurality of classes. The method comprises receiving data representing an acoustic signal; determining an amplitude of at least a first predetermined frequency component of said acoustic signal; and comparing the or each amplitude with a respective primary threshold; and generating output data identifying one of said classes to which said acoustic signal should be allocated, based upon said comparison.
US07761296B1

A system and method for rescoring the N-best hypotheses from an automatic speech recognition system by comparing an original speech waveform to synthetic speech waveforms that are generated for each text sequence of the N-best hypotheses. A distance is calculated from the original speech waveform to each of the synthesized waveforms, and the text associated with the synthesized waveform that is determined to be closest to the original waveform is selected as the final hypothesis. The original waveform and each synthesized waveform are aligned to a corresponding text sequence on a phoneme level. The mean of the feature vectors which align to each phoneme is computed for the original waveform as well as for each of the synthesized hypotheses. The distance of a synthesized hypothesis to the original speech signal is then computed as the sum over all phonemes in the hypothesis of the Euclidean distance between the means of the feature vectors of the frames aligning to that phoneme for the original and the synthesized signals. The text of the hypothesis which is closest under the above metric to the original waveform is chosen as the final system output.
US07761291B2

The invention regards a method for processing audio-signals whereby audio signals are captured at two spaced apart locations and subject to a transformation in the perceptual domain (Bar or Mel), whereupon: a) a (blind or supervised) source separation process is performed to give a first estimate of the wanted signal parts and the noise parts of the microphone signals and b) a coherence based separation process is performed to give a second estimate of the wanted signal parts and the noise parts of the microphone signals, and where further a sound field diffuseness detection is performed on the at least two signals, whereby further the sound field diffuseness detections is used to mix the output from the blind source separation and the coherence based separation process in order to achieve the best possible signal. The transfer functions calculated from the source separation are used to reconstruct a virtual stereophonic sound field in restore the spatial information about the source position in the enhanced signals.
US07761283B1

An apparatus for simulating the internal configuration of industry standard ROM and EPROM-type chips using other types of storage technologies, while still operating transparently with interfaces and mechanisms such as authentication devices adapted to EPROM-type media. The invention includes: an EPROM connector interface, a data presentation program; user access log display program; a user login/registration program; a software/data library; software/data selection program; and software/data loader program. These components work in conjunction to securely retrieve software images resident in mass storage media and to present them to an authentication device as if the images were resident in EPROM type media. The invention is particularly adapted to use in the gaming industry where regulation and fraud detection are performed using EPROM authentication techniques.
US07761282B2

A method, information handling system, and computer program product to simulate conditions in a software module, by identifying, in the software module, whether a simulation environment has been activated, encountering a simulation point in the software module, the simulation point including one or more simulation parameters, and in response to identifying that the simulation environment has been activated and the simulation point has been encountered: invoking a simulation module, the invoking including passing the simulation parameters to the simulation module, comparing, at the simulation module, the simulation parameters with one or more active simulation entries, and returning a simulated condition from the simulation module to the software module in response to the comparing.
US07761281B2

A system and method for performing compound computational experiments include an experiment having at least one input. The experiment includes a process controllable by a computer and responsive to the input to produce at least one output, the output capable of being stored on a medium readable by the computer. The system includes a generator capable of running on the computer. The generator automates the performance of a plurality of experiments and automatically varies the inputs for the experiments. An outcome store of the system stores the outputs on the computer-readable medium. The system also includes a display capable of running on the computer. The display presents an interpretation of a set of the outputs extracted from the outcome store. The display is responsive to user input to alter the interpretation, to present an interpretation of a different set of outputs, or to cause the generator to perform a plurality of experiments.
US07761275B2

A method for performing an analysis of at least one logic stage in a netlist, which include one or more drivers, is provided. The method includes operations of generating at least one look-up table for an output transient current to be based on values of input and output voltages using data available from a cell library; synthesizing analytically at least one current source model, which includes a DC component and a plurality of parasitic capacitances, using the look-up table; simulating the logic stage using the current source model to model the drivers; and obtaining characteristics of the simulated logic stage. A system and a machine-readable medium for performing the method are also provided.
US07761273B2

A computer-implemented method may include defining an input bus signal in a graphical block diagram model by associating the input bus signal with a first group of signals, at least two of the first group of signals having a different data type; defining an output bus signal in the graphical block diagram model by associating the second bus signal with a second group of signals, each of the second group of signals corresponding to one of the first group of signals; defining an input to a non-virtual operation block in the graphical block diagram model as the input bus signal; defining an output to the non-virtual operation block in the graphical block diagram as the output bus signal; and simulating an operation performed on the input bus signal by the non-virtual operation block, the operation being performed on each of the first group of signals and output to each of the second group of signals.
US07761271B2

Device, method and system for displaying data of a machine control system. Status data for at least one element of the system, which represent at least one physical state variable, are received. The status data, which are received for the element, are represented in a circuit diagram which displays, at least for the element, the electrical/physical connection of the element in the system.
US07761268B2

A non-linear transient analysis module and method for phase locked loop (PLL) is disclosed. The method includes a pulse cycle defined by the larger period of two input frequencies; a pulse width defined by the accumulation value of period difference. Each pulse cycle is divided into two linear regions, a first voltage at the beginning of the pulse cycle as an initial value then applying a first linear equation to obtain a second voltage, and then the second voltage as an initial value then applying a second linear equation to obtain a third voltage which is used to be an initial value for next pulse cycle. An average voltage of the first region and the second region is inputted into the VCO to generate an output as the PFD input. The aforementioned steps are repeated to complete a simulation of PLL transient response.
US07761265B2

A method for determining a similarity of a first solid model to a second solid model is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: selecting a set of features for representing the first solid model; extracting features corresponding to the selected set of features from the first solid model; constructing an undirected model dependency graph of the first solid model based on the selected set of features; extracting features corresponding to the selected set of features from the second solid model; constructing an undirected model dependency graph of the second solid model based on the selected set of features; comparing the undirected model dependency graph of the first solid model with the undirected model dependency graph of the second solid model; and outputting a numerical measure indicative of the similarity of the first solid model to the second solid model.
US07761264B2

An evaluation implementation of an environmental load includes a design plan information comparing part for extracting a difference in parts structure, material, or process between a plurality of product design plans stored in a design plan information storing part, an environmental load evaluation value comparing part for calculating a difference in environmental load evaluation value between a plurality of product design plans, from which differences in parts structure, material, or process have been extracted by the design plan information comparing means part, using the environmental load evaluation value comparing part, and a display part for displaying the difference in parts structure, material, or process between the plurality of product design plans calculated by the design plan information comparing part, and the differences in the environmental load evaluation values calculated by the design plan comparing part using the environmental load evaluation value comparing part.
US07761258B2

A system for indicating the state of load of a vehicle having suspension components comprising: at least one transducer mountable on a single suspension component such that a signal relating to the angular deflection of the suspension component can be generated; and a controller configured to receive the signal and generate an output representative of the state of load of the vehicle.
US07761257B2

An apparatus is for evaluating optical characteristics of an optical system based on an image forming position of a point image formed through the optical system. The apparatus includes a point image producing unit that forms a point image through the optical system in each point light source; an imaging unit that images the point images to produce a point image distribution image; and a moving unit that changes relative distance between the optical system and the point light source or the imaging unit in an optical axis direction. The apparatus also performs processing of detecting an image forming position in each different relative distance of the point image based on image information of the point image distribution images, the processing including calculating a regression expression for the detected image forming positions to obtain a shape parameter of the image axis in each of the point images.
US07761245B2

A method for visualizing the eccentricity of cables which is acquired in the eccentricity measurement of the cables, wherein eccentricity measurements take place at the same time on plural locations spaced apart across the perimeter of the cable during the transportation of the cable, and the measurement values are represented graphically on a display after being processed in a computer, characterized in that a frequency distribution of individual eccentricity values acquired during the measurement interval is represented on the display, wherein the scattering caused by measuring instruments is significantly smaller than the scattering of the individual eccentricity values.
US07761242B2

The present invention relates to methods of assessing the health of skin. Biomarkers are used to evaluate skin samples. Using metabonomics approaches, samples taken from different skin sites or at different times during a treatment are used to diagnose skin conditions or to appraise various skin treatments for efficacy.
US07761238B2

The present invention relates to a computationally efficient method of finding patterns in any data that can be expressed in the form of arrays of binary features or arrays of categorical features. This includes data represented by continuous-valued attributes that can be transformed to a categorical representation, such as the discovery of patterns of genetic variability that may be causally related to diseases or traits, as well as the discovery of patterns of protein biomarkers that may be used for medical diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics. The invention further relates to a program storage device having instructions for controlling a computer system to perform the methods, and to a program storage device containing data structures used in the practice of the methods.
US07761237B2

This patent delineates methods for quantifying and mitigating dip-induced azimuthal AVO effects in seismic fracture detection using Azimuthal AVO analysis by accurately accounting for the divergence correction and azimuthal dependence of the reflection angle. Solutions are provided for three cases: (1) dipping isotropic reservoirs; (2) anisotropic reservoirs with fractures aligned in arbitrary direction; and (3) anisotropic reservoirs where vertical fractures are aligned perpendicular to the dip direction.
US07761232B2

A wireless tracking device and method of operation. A processor connected to a positioning system may periodically determine a location of the device. A wireless radio is connected to the processor for transmitting the location of the device across a wireless area network. The processor may be a microcontroller in a vehicle monitoring system, configured to receive vehicle location input from the positioning system as well as sensor input to determine vehicle condition. The wireless transmitter may be configured to transmit vehicle position and vehicle condition data to a remote data network access point.
US07761230B2

A navigation apparatus including a memory for storing building data of buildings; a display; a decimating unit for decimating the building data based on the unit of the bar scale of a map appearing on the display; and a display controller for displaying the buildings on a map on the display based on the building data decimated by the decimating unit.
US07761226B1

The present invention's network-based directions-provision methodology typically features the establishment of two ranking schemes that reversely parallel each other. The “personal” ranking scheme ranks all permitted persons in terms of the degree of access permission with respect to the variously ranked regions of a facility; the lower the personal rank, the fewer the regional ranks to which the person is permitted access. The “regional” ranking scheme ranks all accessible regions in terms of the degree of access permission with respect thereto by the variously ranked permitted persons; the higher the regional rank, the fewer the personal ranks that are permitted access to the region. According to typical inventive practice, a permitted person logs in to request directions, within the facility, from an original location to a destination location; the directions given (textual and/or graphical) are the optimal directions that are consistent with the personal rank of the requestor.
US07761206B2

A passenger protection apparatus (1) includes a rollover angular speed detection device (10), which detects a rollover angular speed during vehicle rollover, a rollover determination device (14), which conducts a determination of the vehicle rollover based on the rollover angular speed detected by the rollover angular speed detection device (10) and a rollover angle obtained from the rollover angular speed, a passenger protector (2), which operates in accordance with a determination result of the rollover determination device (14) to protect a passenger, a vertical G sensor (11), which detects an acceleration of an up and down direction of the vehicle; a horizontal G sensor (12), which detects an acceleration of a right and left direction of the vehicle, and an angular speed sensor error determination device (16), which conducts a determination whether or not a zero-point drift of the rollover angular speed detection device (10) occurs based on a detected signal of the vertical G sensor (11) or the horizontal G sensor (12).
US07761201B2

Turnkey maintenance of a customer's aircraft fleet is managed by a single management service provider (MSP) controlling integrated maintenance and materials services from a central operations site. The MSP converts data received directly from on-board aircraft systems into information it uses to manage maintenance service providers and parts suppliers. The MSP contracts with and manages maintenance, repair and overhaul organizations (MROs) who perform the maintenance on the customers' aircraft at line and base stations. The MSP either remotely manages part inventories at the customer's site, or manages suppliers who deliver the parts to the MROs. Maintenance planning, scheduling and execution information is exchanged between the MSP, MROs, part suppliers and the customers through a shared data communication network controlled by the MSP. The MSP charges the customer for the maintenance services based on a flat rate per unit of aircraft flying time.
US07761197B2

A device and method for detecting air turbulence determine a theoretical height corresponding to the difference between an extrapolated height of an isentropic trajectory and the current height of an aircraft. This theoretical height is compared with a height threshold indicating a risk of turbulence.
US07761193B2

Method and device for ensuring the safety of a low-altitude flight of an aircraft.A device (1) for ensuring the safety of a low-altitude flight comprises information sources (5) able to determine current flight conditions, a monitoring unit (6) for realizing, with the aid of said current flight conditions, a function for global and autonomous monitoring of said low-altitude flight of the aircraft, making it possible to preserve the integrity of said aircraft during said flight, and means (13) for presenting the results of the monitoring function realized by said monitoring unit (6) to an operator.
US07761184B2

A robot apparatus capable of offering significantly improved safety and a control method thereof by detecting a safety level status and a safety level of the safety level status and then, in response, taking prescribed countermeasures. In addition, in a movable robot apparatus and its control method, a safety level status detecting means for detecting a safety level status and a control means for performing a control process so as to implement prescribed countermeasures depending on the position of the safety level status detected by the safety level status detecting means are provided. Further, in a robot apparatus and its control method, a safety level involving an object and movable parts is detected when the object is detected, and the movable parts are moved so as to mitigate or avoid the danger based on the detected safety level and a determined action.
US07761175B2

We discovered that a) a single key can support a multiplicity of ordered groups, b) only a subset of each group needs to be visually represented on the face of a key, c) either multi-tap or predictive methods, or both, can be used to input members of each of the groups, and d) auxiliary keys are a convenient, effective and user-discoverable method to select ordered groups, and to perform the multi-tap function. The objects of: limiting multi-tap depth, reducing keystrokes per symbol, unifying focus, increasing discoverability, graduated discoverability, power, compact presentation, and seamless integration of multi-tap and predictive text methods, can all be achieved by exploiting these discoveries.
US07761171B2

An example apparatus includes a first interface configured to identify a first function associated with a process control routine. The example apparatus also includes a sub-schedule generator configured to generate a first sub-schedule associated with a first time period. The first sub-schedule indicates a first execution time at which the first function is to be executed. The example apparatus also includes a schedule generator configured to form a schedule associated with a second time period based on two instances of the first sub-schedule. The schedule indicates the first execution time and a second execution time at which the first function is to be executed.
US07761167B2

Systems and methods for programming and logging medical device and patient data are provided. The systems include a handheld device, which is capable of communicating with a medical device, and a base station, which provides connectivity for the handheld device to accomplish various functions such as recharging, programming, data back-up and data entry. The methods comprise the steps of detecting a medical device, obtaining and recording information from the medical device. Additionally, medical device parameters may be modified and the recorded information may be archived for future reference.
US07761157B2

A technique utilizing an endolymphatically implanted lead having one or more electrodes that may be used for sensing cardiac activity and/or delivering cardiac electrical stimulation by an implantable cardiac device. An electrode disposed in the thoracic duct is in close proximity to the left ventricle and generates an electrogram especially suitable for ischemia detection and/or discriminating between ventricular tachycardias and supraventricular tachycardias.
US07761149B2

A method of reducing the symptoms of allergy including exposing the patient to the allergenic substance in containers and applying an electrical stimulus device to acupuncture meridian points on the patient's body to clear blockages in the flow of life-energy of the patient. The electrical signal acts as a carrier for the natural frequency of the allergen, exposing the patient to the natural frequency of the allergen, carried by the electrical signal.
US07761147B2

A transdermal electrotransport drug delivery device having an anode, a cathode and a source of electrical power electrically connected to the anode and the cathode. At least one of the anode and the cathode includes an electrode and a reservoir comprised of a housing composed of a polymeric material and an aqueous medium in contact with the housing. The aqueous medium includes (i) a drug or an electrolyte salt or a mixture thereof, (ii) propylene glycol, and (iii) an antimicrobial agent in an amount sufficient to inhibit microbial growth in the aqueous medium. The propylene glycol prevents the antimicrobial agent from being adsorbed by other materials used in the construction of the delivery device. A process for preparing a transdermal electrotransport drug delivery device is also provided.
US07761146B2

Systems and methods for detecting and/or treating nervous system disorders, such as seizures. Certain embodiments of the invention relate generally to implantable medical devices (IMDs) adapted to detect and treat nervous system disorders in patients with an IMD. Certain embodiments of the invention include detection of seizures based upon comparisons of long-term and short-term representations of physiological signals. Other embodiments include prediction of seizure activity based upon analysis of physiological signal levels. An embodiment of the invention monitors the quality of physiological signals, and may be able to compensate for signals of low signal quality. A further embodiment of the invention includes detection of seizure activity following the delivery of therapy.
US07761136B2

In a storing unit of a medical image processing apparatus, first 3D image corresponding to a first period and second 3D image data corresponding to a second period are stored. The first 3D image data corresponds to a period before contrast agent injection operation and/or therapeutic operation. The second 3D image data corresponds to a period after the contrast agent injection operation and/or therapeutic operation. A 3D subtracting unit subtracts the first 3D image data from the second 3D image data. In 3D subtraction image data, a portion having undergone a change due to contrast agent injection operation and/or therapeutic operation is emphasized. A pseudo 3D image data generating unit generates pseudo 3D image data on the basis of 3D subtraction image data. A displaying unit displays the pseudo 3D image data.
US07761133B2

A method of navigating a medical device includes determining the location of a medical device at a point in an operating region in a subject's body, the medical device being responsive to at least one control variable to assume a desired configuration includes storing information representative of the at least one control variable being applied to the medical device at the point, and more preferably storing information representative of the at least one control variable and the device length.
US07761129B2

A measurement head has an objective for imaging of a target area such as including a capillary vessel in the skin. The measurement head does not require a lateral shifting of the optical axis of the objective. Transverse relative movements between the objective and a capillary vessel in the skin are performed by mechanically shifting the skin with respect to the objective of the measurement head. Moreover, the measurement head is adapted to host one or more pressure sensors for measuring the contact pressure between the measurement head and the skin. Pressure information may be exploited in order to calibrate a spectroscopic analyzer, and/or to regulate the contact pressure within predefined margins specifying an optimum range of contact pressure for spectroscopic examination of capillary vessels.
US07761128B2

A physiological monitor varies perfusion at a tissue site and measures resulting perfusion values and corresponding oxygen consumption values. A constant oxygen consumption relationship between the perfusion values and the oxygen consumption values is characterized, and changes in that relationship are monitored so as to indicate changes in metabolism at the tissue site.
US07761125B1

Intermodulation distortion (IMD) is known to be an impediment to progress in superconductor-based filter technology. The present invention's methodology for reducing IMD can open doors to heretofore unseen practical applications involving high temperature superconductor (HTS) filters. Typical inventive practice includes (a) increasing the thickness d, and/or (b) changing the operation temperature T, of the filter's HTS film. The film's thickness d is increased in such a way as to decrease the IMD power PIMD in accordance with the material-independent proportionate relationship PIMD∝1/d1.5-6. The film's operation temperature T is bettered or optimized in accordance with the material-independent proportionate relationship PIMD∝(λO(T))10(K(2)(T))2/(ΔO(T))6, and further in accordance with three individual material-dependent relationships, namely, between operation temperature T and each of linear penetration depth λO, gap maximum ΔO, and kernel K(2). Some inventive embodiments include oxygen overdoping of the film as an additional/alternative IMD-reductive measure.
US07761123B2

A sliding and swing type portable terminal that includes a first housing, and a second housing that slides in a transverse direction of the first housing and then swings to be aligned in a lengthwise direction of the first housing. Each of the sliding and swinging operations exposes a different set of keys, which enable different multimedia operation modes.
US07761121B2

A mobile communication terminal which senses a counterpart mobile communication terminal located within a predetermined range by using local area communication and displays a character corresponding to the sensed counterpart mobile communication terminal on its screen. After character cooperation, the mobile communication terminal transmits reproduced music or a user's spoken comment to counterpart mobile communication terminals by using the local area communication. Also, the mobile communication terminal outputs a sound signal transmitted from a counterpart mobile communication terminal by using the local area communication. Therefore, mobile communication terminals can share music with each other, so that the users can enjoy various types of communication by forming a virtual community space.
US07761119B2

A system and method for indicating signal strength of a multi-mode wireless communication device is disclosed. The wireless communications device simultaneously displays signal strength indicators of multiple radio access technologies on the multi-mode wireless communication device. In an exemplary method, the multi-mode wireless device determines a first signal strength of a first radio access technology and displays the signal strength in a designated annunciator area of a display of the device. The device then determines availability and signal strength for a second radio access technology and further displays a second signal strength indicator in the annunciator area corresponding to the second determined signal strength of the second radio access technology.
US07761118B1

Techniques for providing access to databases from handheld devices are disclosed. Techniques can be used to implement a database system. The database system provides a graphical user interface which can be displayed on handheld devices. This allows users of handheld devices to conveniently by interacting with the graphical user interface. As will be appreciated, the user can access the database to perform a variety of operations. Moreover, the user can perform these operations without having to write programs and virtually in real time. Thus, the user can conveniently access the database and be provided with up-to-date information. In addition, the user can be provided with hyperlinks which allow the user to conveniently perform various tasks without having to switch between different operation modes.
US07761117B2

A dual-mode mobile terminal capable of accessing two or more different mobile communication systems in which the terminal includes a controller for determining if the terminal is currently located in service areas of the mobile communication systems, and displaying an indicator of at least on of mobile communication systems, which currently provides a communication service to the terminal.
US07761113B2

An allocation section 101 in a base station apparatus of the present invention sets the transmission rate of a transmit signal for a communication terminal apparatus based on a DRC signal transmitted from that communication terminal apparatus. A power margin information detector 117 detects power margin information from a demodulated signal generated by a demodulator 115, and, using that power margin information, a power setting section 118 makes a setting so as to give the minimum transmission power value at which received signal characteristics in each communication terminal apparatus meet the desired quality. Using the set transmission power value, the base station apparatus transmits a transmit signal of the set transmission rate to a communication terminal apparatus. By this means it is possible to suppress interference to a communication terminal apparatus that performs adaptive modulation communication with another base station apparatus and a communication terminal apparatus that performs adaptive modulation communication with the local base station apparatus at the same time.
US07761106B2

The present invention provides a voice coder for voice communication that employs a multi-microphone system as part of an improved approach to enhancing signal quality and improving the signal to noise ratio for such voice communications, where there is a special relationship between the position of a first microphone and a second microphone to provide the communication device with certain advantageous physical and acoustic properties. In addition, the communication device can have certain physical characteristics, and design features. In a two microphone arrangement, the first microphone is located in a location directed toward the speech source, while the second microphone is located in a location that provides a voice signal with significantly lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
US07761102B2

In one of multiple mobile communication networks, a serving node responsible for locating mobile terminals is responsive to a registration request from a mobile terminal for storing the serving node identity in a home location database to which the mobile terminal is subscribed. In response to a location request message from a client terminal requesting the location of a target mobile terminal, a serving node identity is retrieved from the home location database of the target mobile terminal. The serving node identity represents the current location of the target mobile terminal. If the current location area is within the coverage area of location-based service provided by the client terminal, the location request message is forwarded to a serving node identified by the retrieved serving node identity. Otherwise, an error message is transmitted to the client terminal to indicate that the target mobile terminal is roaming outside of the coverage area.
US07761100B2

Described herein are one or more implementations for an electromagnetic (EM) position and orientation tracking system operating at an ultra-low frequency, which reduces the strength of eddy currents produced by nearby field-distorting electrically-conductive materials (“distorters”). This effectively reduces the overall distorting effect of distorters.
US07761097B2

A method and apparatus of optimizing transitioning between EVDO and CDMA 1X systems in a hybrid access terminal, the method having the steps of: preventing a reconnect data call from being sent from the hybrid access terminal. The preventing step including checking whether a transition between an EVDO and a CDMA 1X system is successful; and if not blocking the data call, and/or checking whether an EVDO received signal strength indication is greater than or equal to a receiver sensitivity on the hybrid access terminal; and if yes, allowing the hybrid access terminal to connect to the EVDO system, and/or delaying a connection timer for connecting to the EVDO system and/or applying fast dormancy to the hybrid access terminal in an EVDO state.
US07761078B2

This disclosure describes a dual inductor circuit, which may be particularly useful in a mixer of a wireless communication device to allow the mixer to operate for two different frequency bands. The dual inductor circuit comprises an inductor-within-inductor design in which a small inductor is disposed within a large inductor. The two inductors may share a ground terminal, but are otherwise physically separated and independent from one another. Terminals of the inner inductor, for example, are not tapped from the outer inductor, which can reduce parasitic effects and electromagnetic interference relative to tapped inductor designs. The independence of the inductors also allows the different inductors to define different resonance frequencies, which is desirable.
US07761077B2

A diversity receiver receives high rate radio signals (for example DVB-T signals) while the receiver is moving at a high speed (for example in or with a car). Two or more antennas are closely spaced and arranged behind each other in the direction of motion for receiving the radio signals. A difference (S2(t)−S1(t)) of a first signal (S1(t)) obtained via the first antenna and a second signal (S2(t) obtained via the second antenna serves as an estimation of the spatial derivative of the receiving channel transfer function. This spatial derivative is interpreted as a temporal derivative and exploited to cancel or at least reduce distortions (for example ICI) due to rapid receiving channel variations.
US07761064B2

A radio frequency (RF) matching control apparatus and method for a portable communication terminal is provided. An RF matching control apparatus for a portable communication terminal according to the present invention includes matching circuitry for performing RF matching on an RF signal input through an input line connected to an antenna and outputting a matched RF signal through an output line; and a decoding unit for generating matching control signals according to a utilization environment of the portable communication terminal and providing the matching control signals to the matching circuitry.
US07761052B2

A mobile communication terminal for providing a content and its method are disclosed. The mobile communication terminal for providing content includes a transceiver for receiving a content from a server; a display unit for displaying the content received from the transceiver on a pre-set region; and a controller for controlling the transceiver to receive the displayed content and controlling the display unit.
US07761050B2

The present invention relates to wireless communication networks particularly for indoor deployment, in which there typically directly exists a rapidly changing multipath propagation environment with limited opportunities for line of sight wireless communication. The present invention provides A wireless communications network for communicating with a mobile terminal; comprising: a number of repeater points each comprising means for communicating with the mobile terminal; an access point comprising means for communicating with the repeater points; the repeater points further comprising means for relaying signals between the terminal and the access point; means for determining a quality measure of signals sent by the terminal and received by the access point via the repeater points; means for selecting one or more repeater points to relay transmission signals from the access point to the terminal, said selection based on said quality measures of the terminal signals received by the access point.
US07761049B2

A communication system is provided. The communication system comprises a remote transmitter, at least one central unit, and M number of nodes distributed in a coverage area to form a distributed array antenna in order to receive signals from the at least one remote transmitter and retransmit the received signals to the at least one central unit such that when combined the retransmitted signals form a composite signal with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) array gain of approximately M and the time to receive the retransmitted signals at the at least one central unit is increased by an inflation rate of approximately M or less.
US07761044B2

A ratio of a radius of curvature of a pressure applying member with an elastic layer, which pushes an endless belt wound around an endless heating member with pressure, in a transferring direction to a radius of curvature of an outer diameter of the heating roller is set to 1.1 or more.
US07761032B2

An image forming apparatus of a tandem system includes a main body and a drum unit attachable to and detachable from the main body. The drum unit includes photosensitive drums, a housing for rotatably supporting the photosensitive drums, and for each photosensitive drum, a drum gear arranged at an end of the photosensitive drum for transmitting a drive force to the photosensitive drum, and a rotating member having a protrusion rotating with the drum gear, the protrusion being arranged at a position away from a center axis of the rotation of the photosensitive drum. Also, the image forming apparatus includes a transfer unit for transferring developer color images from respective photosensitive drums onto a medium and a guide arranged in the main body for contacting each protrusion and guiding each rotating member during attachment of the drum unit to cause each drum gear to move to a respective predetermined position.
US07761023B2

A developer cartridge is attachable to and detachable from an image forming unit. The developer cartridge includes a developer roller and an electrode member electrically connected to the developer roller. The electrode member faces in an attachment direction along which the developer cartridge is attached to the image forming unit. The electrode is configured to contact a power supply member disposed at the image forming unit.
US07761017B2

A power supply apparatus includes an error detecting unit configured to perform error detection to detect that an output node and another node are placed in a short-circuit state or open-circuit state, a condition change detecting unit configured to detect a change in an external condition, and an operating-point changing unit configured to change an operating point of the error detection performed by the error detecting unit in response to the change detected by the condition change detecting unit.
US07761015B2

A toner dispensing system and a method for controlling the same. A toner dispensing amount is determined using a pixel dispensing time related to a pixel count adjusted according to the ratio of a transition count to a pixel count per page, a Δ automatic concentration control dispensing time relating to the difference between the toner concentration of a developer material and target concentration, and a dispensing rate corresponding to a print job length. The determined amount of toner is dispensed into a developer housing. This method can maintain a toner concentration in order to obtain an accurate image density. A remaining toner ratio (%) determined from a total dispensing time, a dispensing rate, and a toner capacity can also be displayed so that the user can monitor the remaining amount of toner, the used amount of toner, etc., during the life of the toner cartridge.
US07761006B2

An appropriate ring topology is selected by searching network topology information on the basis of given information about client signal paths on a predetermined condition, and a wavelength ring accommodating the client signal paths and having an optimal transmission characteristic is designed on the basis of the selected ring topology. Accordingly, accommodation of client signal paths in an optical network is efficiently designed.
US07760996B2

An image blur correction device 400 includes a pitching movement frame 405, a yawing movement frame 408, and a third group frame 462. The pitching movement frame 405 supports a third lens group G3 included in an optical system for performing image blur correction. The yawing movement frame 408 supports the pitching movement frame 405 to be movable in the pitching direction perpendicularly intersecting a second optical axis A2, within a plane perpendicularly intersecting the second optical axis A2. The third group frame 462 supports the yawing movement frame 408 to be movable in the yawing direction along an arc whose center is a rotational axis A3, within a plane perpendicularly intersecting the second optical axis A2.
US07760991B2

A multimedia data reproducing apparatus includes: a multimedia data acquiring unit configured to acquire multimedia data, the multimedia data including sound data; a receiving unit configured to receive an external operating signal; a sound data processing unit configured to generate insertion audio data by using the sound data based on the external operating signal; and a multimedia data output unit configured to mix the multimedia data based on information included in the multimedia data and to insert the insertion audio data into the multimedia data for an output.
US07760989B2

The present invention relates to a recording medium having data structure including graphic data to be used for a menu page etc. of main video data recorded thereon as well as methods and apparatuses for reproducing and recording the data structure. A recording medium of the present invention comprises: a main data stream including at least video data; and a graphic data stream being used for composition of a menu screen for the recorded main data stream, wherein the graphic data stream includes at least one display set, the display set includes at least one composition segment and at least one data definition segment, and a presentation time stamp written in the composition segment is greater than a presentation time stamp written in the data definition segment.
US07760980B2

A method of fabricating on a substrate an optical detector in an optical waveguide, the method involving: forming at least one layer on a surface of the substrate, said at least one layer comprising SiGe; implanting an impurity into the at least one layer over a first area to form a detector region for the optical detector; etching into the at least one layer in a first region and a second region to form a ridge between the first and second regions, said ridge defining the optical detector and the optical waveguide; filling the first and second regions with a dielectric material having a lower refractive index than SiGe; and after filling the first and second regions with the dielectric material, removing surface material to form a planarized upper surface.
US07760977B2

Step-index optical waveguides are made of multicomponent glass containing a core glass and an outer glass which entirely surrounds the core class. A fiber-optic cable for conducting electromagnetic radiation, contains at least one bundle of individual fibers which encompass the step-index optical waveguides that are made of multicomponent glass containing a core glass and an outer glass that entirely surrounds the core glass on the circumferential wall thereof. These step-index optical waveguides provide great transmission capacity for transmitting data while keeping the transfer characteristics sufficiently durable. Furthermore, the fiber-optic cable is resistant against physical and chemical environmental influences and be protected against radical ambient chemicals. These aims are achieved by the fact that the outer glass of the step-index optical waveguides is provided with a material composition which is largely free from chemical interactions with the core glass when the fibers are drawn and is chemically inactive towards the plastic jacket.
US07760975B2

A shared light pipe is set forth for transmitting light generated by a message waiting LED in a mobile communication device, in one direction, and transmitting ambient or surrounding light, in an opposite direction, to a light sensor for controlling a display backlight of the device. The light pipe includes an elongated first portion having a first end for receiving and transmitting light and external surfaces for reflecting light there through via total internal reflection (TIR), a second portion coextensive with the first portion for outputting light received at the first end and reflected through the first portion, and a second branch coextensive with the first portion for receiving and transmitting light for output at the first end.
US07760971B2

An anti-EMI lens module used in a bill acceptor is disclosed to include a circuit board, which has a plurality of electric recognition devices and a grounding device surrounding the electric recognition devices, a holder base mounted on the circuit board and holding a lens device and having a plurality of through holes respectively aimed at the electric recognition devices and a metal conducting layer disposed in contact with the grounding device of the circuit board and forming with the grounding device a grounding loop for absorbing and discharging static electricity during operation of the bill acceptor to protect the electric recognition devices against static electricity, radiowave and electromagnetic interference.
US07760970B2

A single-photon absorption all-optical modulator, systems employing the same, and methods of making and using the same. An illustrative example is provided based on silicon semiconductor technology that employs rectangular waveguides. In some embodiments, it is observed that the waveguides operate with an absorption density of less than 1017 cm−1s−1mW−1 to provide a single-photon absorption operation mode.
US07760964B2

A deblocking/deflickering filter decreases artifacts produced in a block-based image compression system, wherein a plurality of transform coefficients are produced respectively indicative of different frequencies in input signal values. The filter includes a first filter portion for deblocking filtering a first low frequency one of the transform coefficients and a second filter portion for deblocking filtering a second low frequency one of the transform coefficients, the first low frequency being different from the second low frequency. The deblocking filter passes through at least a third one of the transform coefficients having a third frequency higher than both of the first and second frequencies without deblocking filtering.
US07760962B2

A digital camera shoots a document plural times from different directions to obtain a plurality of images. An image processing device included in the digital camera corrects the keystone distortion of each image to generate an image which seems as if the document were shot from in front of it. The image processing device synthesizes the images by addition-averaging the pixel values of each pixel in the plurality of corrected images. Even if captured images are illuminated by glare from a light because a document made of glossy paper is shot, the influence of the glare is reduced by addition-averaging the pixel values of each pixel in the plurality of images.
US07760955B2

A method and a system for producing formatted information related to defects of appliances of a chain of appliances. To produce the formatted information related to the defects of an image-capture appliance of the chain, the method includes a first calculation algorithm with which there can be chosen, within a set of parameterizable transformation models, within a set of parameterizable reverse transformation models, within a set of synthesis images, within a set of reference scenes, and within a set of transformed images: a reference scene, and/or a transformed image, and/or a parameterizable transformation model, with which a reference image of the reference scene can be transformed to the transformed image, and/or a parameterizable reverse transformation model, with which the transformed image can be transformed to the reference image, and/or a synthesis image obtained from the reference scene and/or obtained from the reference image. The formatted information is at least partly composed of the parameters of the chosen parameterizable transformation model and/or of the parameters of the chosen parameterizable reverse transformation model.
US07760947B2

The present invention provides a method of modifying a classification scheme for classifying hand-written characters to thereby make the classification scheme user dependent. The classification scheme includes a number of allographs, each allograph representing a respective style of a respective letter. The method includes obtaining at least one hand-written character, and then selecting an allograph representing the character. One or more of the allographs are then modified in accordance with the selection, to thereby reflect the fact that the allograph corresponds to a style of letter used by the user.
US07760945B2

A method of indicating and detecting a remaining amount of an ink ribbon having a transparent sheet on which an ink layer is formed in a thermal transfer type image forming apparatus which prints an image by applying heat from a thermal head to the ink ribbon to transfer ink to a sheet of paper. In the method, a print number mark that is optically detectable is formed by removing part of the ink layer by applying heat to the ink ribbon from the thermal head, and the print number mark is detected using an optical sensor before a subsequent print starts to determine the remaining amount of the ink ribbon.
US07760944B2

Text data is extracted from image data read by an image reader. Log data containing the extracted text data is generated. The generated log data is stored in a log management server.
US07760936B1

Data that includes an encoded version of sets of color component values for a block of texels is accessed. The encoded version includes a first set of color component values selected from a pre-encoded version of the sets and a second set of color component values selected from the pre-encoded version of the sets. The first set and the second set correspond to endpoints of a range of colors. The encoded version further includes index values associated with the texels. The first set and the second set and an index value associated with a texel are used to decode a third set of color component values that describes a color for the texel. The index value indicates how to determine the third set using the first set and the second set.
US07760935B2

A method for a dominant color setting of a video region and a data structure and a method of a confidence measure extraction are disclosed. The video region dominant color setting method is characterized in that a region dominant color descriptor is expressed by the number of dominant colors with respect to a certain region, a dominant color expressed, a frequency that the dominant color appears, and an accuracy of a color value representing the region in a region dominant color based on various region dominant color extraction methods, for thereby expressing a region dominant color using a plurality of colors with respect to a region dominant color value and a confidence value of a region dominant color information based on various region dominant color feature extracting methods.
US07760933B2

A parameter estimation method for estimating a parameter by estimating maximum a posteriori probability for input data. Operation for the input data is expressed by an inner product for the input data and the inner product is replaced by a Kernel function. By using the calculation result of the kernel function, a parameter is estimated. The method includes a step (offline operation) for learning a correlation between a plurality of learning input data in which a parameter to be estimated is known and the parameter corresponding to each of the learning input data; and a step (online operation) for estimating the parameter for the estimating input data in which a parameter to be estimated is unknown, by using the learned correlation.
US07760923B2

A method and system for characterizing a knee joint in terms of its skeletal morphology. A plurality of loci associated with a model of skeletal structure of a knee joint are fitted and used to parameterize positions of the plurality of loci in a given subject and, thereby, to derive parameters of a deformable statistical template. The skeletal morphology is then characterized on the basis of the derived parameters of the deformable statistical template.
US07760921B2

An image input apparatus includes an image reading assembly positioned below a placement surface on which an object to be examined is placed, and a sensing circuit for sensing that the object is placed on the placement surface, in accordance with a pressure applied to the placement surface.
US07760920B2

The apparatus enables a user to recognize the way he is moving his finger with respect to, for example, a sweep-type fingerprint sensor so that the user can easily and surely learn an appropriate way the finger (body part) should be moved. A velocity detecting means detects a velocity at which the body part moves with respect to a sensor, and an image generating means generates an arbitrary pattern, of which a portion corresponding to a position where the body part is located when the movement velocity is detected is altered according to the detected movement velocity, and the generated pattern is shown on a display.
US07760914B2

A method of identifying or tracking a line in an image comprises determining a start point that belongs to a line, and identifying a plurality of possible end points belonging to the line using a search window, and calculating values for a plurality of paths connecting the start point and the end points to determine an optimum end point and path, characterised in that the search window is non-rectangular.
US07760897B2

A system including a projection screen having a surface, a projector configured to project images onto the surface of the projection screen and a camera configured to capture one or more images of the surface of the projection screen. An object can be configured to rest upon the surface, wherein the object and at least one of the projector and the camera are configured to cooperate with one another to communicate audio data through the surface of the projection screen while the object is resting upon the surface.
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