US07818087B2

A system for guiding movement of a movable machine element of a machine, such as a machine tool, production machine and robot, receives user input data relating to a travel movement of machine element and an optimization criterion selected from a robust travel movement, where a smallest number of natural frequencies of the movable machine element is excited, and a time-optimized travel movement, where from the natural frequencies of the movable machine element only those natural frequencies are excited that do not include a main natural frequency. The system then determines from the movement profile coefficients of polynomial functions and a position setpoint variable based on the coefficients. The travel movement of the machine element is executed in response to the determined position setpoint variable.
US07818083B2

A system is provided for providing automated washing and verifying compliance of use. The system provides for identifying individual users of one or more cleaning stations through various technologies, such as RFID. Individual's use of cleaning stations is monitored to determine compliance with hand-washing requirements. A compliance report may be generated based on data associated with one or more individuals' use of the cleaning station(s). Educational and/or entertainment content may be displayed to the user when he or she is using the cleaning station. Additionally, the cleaning station may identify containers having authorized consumables such as soap or disinfectant. Optional automated collection and forwarding of hygiene compliance information is performed to provide compliance monitors, such as a regulatory agency, with such information.
US07818079B2

This invention relates to a device, a method, a software application program, a software application program product and an audio device for processing a digital signal, wherein the digital signal is separated and downsampled into at least two downsampled subband signals, wherein at least one of the at least two downsampled subband signals is equalized, and wherein the at least two downsampled subband signals are upsampled and combined into a digital output signal.
US07818071B2

This invention discloses a system for controlling and optimizing production operations oil and/or gas production wells and facilities, which are equipped with sensors that generate raw reservoir, production and/or production equipment performance data. This system collects raw data processes it in a central data center to produce component data and system performance data.
US07818070B2

An implantable lead body for a medical device with improved conductor lumens separates and insulates conductors while permitting access to the conductors through the implantable lead outer surface. The implantable lead comprises a lead body, a stylet lumen, at least one conductor lumen, and at least one axial slit in the lead body. The lead body has a proximal end, a distal end, an internal portion, and an external portion. The stylet lumen is formed in the internal portion. The conductor lumen is formed in the internal portion and positioned near an outer surface of the internal portion such that there is only a web between the conductor lumen and the outer surface of the internal portion. The axial slit is formed in the lead body distal end between the conductor lumen and the outer surface of the internal portion.
US07818065B2

The present invention relates to conducting polymer nanowires and their use in a brain-machine interface which is secure, robust and minimally invasive. In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, a vascular-based brain-machine interface comprising conducting polymer nanowires is disclosed.
US07818053B2

Devices, systems and methods are disclosed for determining the composition of a plaque at a plaque site, which could be inside a blood vessel. Through a combination of fluid injection with different conductivities and measurement of the resultant conductances, a parallel tissue conductance measure is obtained that assists in determining the composition of the site plaque. Lower parallel conductance levels are determinative of a higher lipid and/or fatty plaque, which is a type that may break out of its position and cause organ injury or death.
US07818046B2

In the course of an imaging method that is particularly suitable for creating an image data record of the heart and/or the blood vessels of a patient, a series of recording pulses, tuned to the cardiac rhythm, are derived from an ECG signal of the cardiac rhythm of the patient. The imaging is driven in a pulsed fashion from the series of recording pulses. In this case, an initial instant and a final instant of a future recording pulse are determined by taking account of at least one variability parameter characterizing the irregularity of the cardiac rhythm.
US07818045B2

A method for reduced-artifact 3D-imaging of an imaging volume having an interfering element. A patient is positioned in a first position and a second positions spatially different from each other in an imaging device and first 3D-imaging and second 3D-imaging are performed with the interfering element lying within a first radiographic layer and a second radiographic layer. A first and second set of raw data of the imaging volume are provided with the first set having artifact-influenced raw data for the first radiographic layer and the second set having artifact-influenced raw data for the second radiographic layer and non-artifact influenced raw data for the first radiographic layer. A reduced-artifact 3D data set is created by combining the raw data sets or by calculating a first 3D image data set and a second 3D image data set from the raw data sets and combining the 3D image data sets.
US07818042B2

A medical diagnostic imaging system is employed to generate two or more diagnostic images with each image generated using a different imaging modality. The imaging system includes an imaging device for generating the diagnostic image information, an operator interface for controlling the operation of the imaging device, an imaging device control module that operates on the diagnostic image information generated by the imaging device and sends the processed image information to a display device. After first generating two or more test images that are used to identify target tissue and to derive functions that are later used during the diagnostic process to identify target tissue and to assign vector magnitudes to the identified target tissue, two or more diagnostic images are then generated and the color in each image is quantified. The images that have been color quantified are then run through a matrix operation which employs the earlier derived functions to identify potential target tissue and to assign vector magnitudes to the identified target tissue. The results of this matrix operation are then processed to arrive at a characteristic diagnostic result which is used to reach a diagnostic conclusion.
US07818039B2

A suction assisted ablation device having a support surface, suction elements disposed adjacent the support surface, at least one electrode and at least one suction conduit is provided. The device may further include fluid openings, which allow fluid to irrigate target tissue and aid in ablation. A method for ablating tissue using suction is also provided.
US07818036B2

Disclosed herein is a communications system implementing a headset wirelessly connected to a half-duplex communications device, such as a two-way radio or a radio-simulating cellular phone. The headset may incorporate a transmit/receive switch wherein a transmit signal is wirelessly transmitted from the headset to the communications device to direct the communications device to enter into a transmit mode. Alternatively, a wireless transmit/receive switch may be implemented separately from the wireless headset, where the wireless transmit/receive switch may be positioned in the proximity of the communications device and the headset and may be engaged by a user to direct the communications device to enter a transmit mode.
US07818028B2

A communication device may include one or more circuits in an integrated transmitter and receiver that includes a transmit path and a receive path. The transmit path may include an I processing baseband transmit path and a Q processing baseband transmit path. The receive path may include an I processing baseband receive path and a Q processing baseband receive path. The one or more circuits may enable sharing a first common filter by the I processing baseband transmit path and the I processing baseband receive path. The one or more circuits may also enable sharing a second common filter by the Q processing baseband transmit path and the Q processing baseband receive path. The first common filter and the second common filter are independently programmable to adjust a phase and/or a gain of the said first common filter, and/or a phase and/or a gain of the second common filter.
US07818024B2

In one illustrative example involving automatic network selection, a mobile station selects and operates with a non-home communication network. The mobile station then experiences an out-of-coverage condition with the non-home network (or a power down condition) but subsequently regains signal coverage (or is powered back on) in response, the mobile station scans to identify a plurality of communication networks in its coverage area. If a home network is identified as being available, the mobile station selects and operates with the home network. Otherwise, if the previous non-home network (e.g. the RPLMN) is identified as being available, the mobile station continues operation with the previous non-home network.
US07818018B2

An ad hoc network with distributed hierarchical scheduling is disclosed. In one aspect, stations in a network mesh detect interfering neighbor stations and form interference lists. Stations transmit their interference lists. Scheduling stations schedule allocations for child stations in response to interference lists, received remote allocations, or a combination thereof. Coordination messages are transmitted including frame structure, allocations, and interference lists, among others. In another aspect, an ad hoc mesh network may be organized into a tree topology. In an example wireless backhaul network, this matches traffic flow. Distributed, hierarchical scheduling is provided where parents schedule communication with children while respecting already scheduled transmissions to/from interferers and to/from interferers of their respective children. Procedures to construct interference constraints for distributed, hierarchical scheduling are described, resulting in efficient scheduling and reuse in an ad hoc wireless network, without centralized scheduling. Various other aspects are also disclosed.
US07818011B2

The radio frequency (RF) environment is scanned and analyzed prior to entering a building or otherwise non-ideal propagation path environment. Upon entering the building or non-ideal propagation path environment, the mobile unit will scan the RF environment from within the building. An attenuation factor is determined for various frequencies. A channel then chosen to operate on in the cognitive system based on the attenuations of the various frequencies.
US07818009B2

In a spectrum allocation method in a cellular communication system, a cell pattern is divided into clusters each containing a plurality of adjacent cells. A pool of forward and return link bearers is allocated to each cluster and may be shared among cells within the cluster. Bearers are reused between blusters having a sufficiently high mutual isolation. Preferably, the same time slot in a return link bearer is allocated to multiple users within the cluster. The receiver of the shared return link bearer uses multi-user detection techniques to separately decode the signals from each user sharing a time slot, using the spatial diversity of the individual cells.
US07818007B2

An unlicensed wireless service is adapted to generate the interface protocols of a licensed wireless service to provide transparent transition of communication sessions between a licensed wireless service and an unlicensed wireless service. In one embodiment, a mobile station includes level 1, level 2, and level 3 protocols for licensed wireless service and an unlicensed wireless service. An indoor base station and indoor network controller provide protocol conversion for the unlicensed wireless service into a standard base station controller interface of the licensed wireless service.
US07818006B2

Handover execution and communication resumption in a wireless access system is provided. Performing a handover includes communicating with a serving base station through a first communication link and receiving from the serving base station, handover information associated with at least one candidate target base station. The method also includes transmitting handover indicator to the serving base station indicating a handover operation to a selected target base station and performing a ranging procedure with the selected target base station to establish a second communication link with the selected target base station while maintaining the first communication link with the serving base station. The method also includes being released from the serving base station in response to a handover complete status message from the selected target base station to the serving base station, or resuming normal communication with the serving base station if the handover fails with the selected target base station.
US07817998B1

A packet-based wireless transceiver that transmits and receives data packets comprises a receiver including a mixer that converts signal frequencies and a baseband circuit that communicates with the mixer and that includes an amplifier. A receiver voltage offset calibration circuit adjusts a receiver voltage offset at the baseband circuit at times synchronized with the data packets and includes a calibration signal generator that outputs calibration signals to first and second inputs of the baseband circuit and a calibration adjustment circuit that communicates with the calibration signal generator and that adjusts the calibration signal to reduce the voltage offset based on an output of the amplifier.
US07817996B2

A method and system for reducing interference in a cellular radio communications network. At least one parameter affecting user terminals within a cell is adjusted such that the cell boundary is modified, such that interference in the network is reduced. In alternative embodiments the at least one parameter is adjusted adaptively.
US07817992B2

The invention concerns a method for updating in at least a first mobile communication apparatus (48) of a network, in particular of the GSM type, a personal data file concerning at least a correspondent of the user of the first communication apparatus, said correspondent being equipped with a second mobile communication apparatus (60) and having modified at least one personal information concerning him. The invention is characterized in that it comprises the following main steps which consist in: (a) detecting in said second mobile communication apparatus (60) the call number of said first mobile communication apparatus (48), and (b) transmitting to at least said first mobile communication apparatus (48) said modified personal information.
US07817991B2

A method and apparatus for connecting two wireless devices to share information is disclosed. To connect the wireless devices the users communicate to each other a desire to connect their devices. Following this communication the users electronically identify each device, initiate and propose the connection. Once the connection has been made the users are able to share information across the devices. Alternative embodiments provide the user with expedited methods to identify the wireless device, identify the information to share, or provide additional security in forming the connection.
US07817990B2

A method of ordering location-specific services in which RFID or NFC interaction between an RFID or NFC-enabled portable device or a mobile telephone of a user, on the one hand, and a location and service-specific smartposter comprising at least one RFID or NFC label or tag or a location and service-specific RFID or NFC label affixed to an object such as a smartposter, on the other hand, is used to set up an activatable link to the portable device or mobile telephone. A connection to a server operated by the service provider is established following link activation. Location information relating to the RFID or NFC label is communicated to the service provider's server, the contents of the server page corresponding to the link depending on the location information transmitted by the RFID or NFC label. The user is then capable of ordering location-specific services after the connection has been set up.
US07817989B2

A method of performing an action is disclosed. The method starts by sensing a print medium to obtain data encoded on a surface of the print medium. The data encodes at least a print media identifier. The print media identifier is determined from the data and a digital copy of a document is retrieved, the digital copy being associated with the print media identifier and including one or more hyperlinks. The digital copy of the document is displayed and a selection of one of the hyperlinks is received from a user. A predefined action designated by the selected hyperlink is then performed.
US07817986B2

A method for providing secure communications among a plurality of ad hoc devices includes authenticating one or more first devices within a first network; authenticating one or more second devices within a second network; transmitting a group key to the authenticated first devices and to the authenticated second devices; establishing an ad hoc network by at least one of the authenticated first devices and at least one of the authenticated second devices using the group key; and communicating within the ad hoc network among the at least one of the authenticated first devices and the at least one of the authenticated second devices.
US07817980B2

A wireless receiver (100) for receiving and demodulating a frequency modulated RF (radio frequency) signal by a direct conversion procedure, including channels (110, 112) for producing in-phase and quadrature components of a received RF signal, and a processor (123, 133) for periodically estimating an error in at least one of the in-phase and quadrature phase components and for producing a signal for adjustment of at least one of the in-phase and quadrature components to compensate for the detected error, wherein the processor is operable to apply alternatively each of a plurality of different procedures to estimate the error, the procedures including a first procedure which is applied when a signal quality value of the received RF signal is above a threshold value and a second procedure which is applied when a signal quality value of the RF received signal is not above the threshold value.
US07817975B2

A wireless communication system includes: a base station; a first wireless communication terminal that receives a first signal from the base station; and a second wireless communication terminal that receives a second signal from the base station. The first signal is to be used by the second wireless communication terminal. The first wireless communication terminal includes: a transmitting unit that transmits the first signal to the second wireless communication terminal. The second wireless communication terminal includes: a receiving unit that receives the first signal from the first wireless communication terminal; and a signal synthesizing unit that receives the first signal from the receiving unit and performs at least one synthesis based on the first signal and the second signal.
US07817964B2

Methods and systems are presented for assessing wireless communication quality in a communications network, in which a network application broadcasts reporting criteria to base stations in the network that requests reporting of RF signal strength from powered RF devices, and the base stations send messages to RF devices to request the RF devices to RF quality information according to the reporting criteria. The base station sends reported RF quality information to the network application, which processes the reported information to provide an assessment of RF network quality for all or a subset of the RF coverage areas served by the network.
US07817950B2

Apparatuses useful for printing and methods for stripping media from surfaces in apparatuses useful for printing are disclosed. An apparatus useful for printing including a first member including a first outer surface; a second member including a second outer surface; a belt including an inner surface and an outer surface; a first nip formed by contact between the inner surface of the belt and the second outer surface and contact between the outer surface of the belt and the first outer surface; and a stripping mechanism including a stripping member disposed internal to the belt. The stripping member is positionable relative to the first nip to vary a pressure applied by the outer surface of the belt against the first outer surface downstream from the first nip. The media are stripped from the outer surface of the belt after exiting from the first nip.
US07817939B2

When removing a sheet that is undesirably attached to a pressure belt as a result of a jam, if the sheet is pulled in the width direction of the pressure belt, the pressure belt may undesirably move in the width direction. This will make it difficult to perform a subsequent jam recovery operation properly.In order to solve this problem, a belt gripping roller can be brought into pressure contact with the pressure belt in the event of a jam, so as to prevent the pressure belt from being moved accidentally in the width direction while the jam is being cleared.
US07817936B2

A color electrophotographic image forming apparatus in which a plurality of cartridges are detachably mounted to an apparatus main body to form an image on a recording medium, including: a cartridge supporting member, which moves between an inside position that is positioned inside the apparatus main body and a pullout position pulled out from the inside position to an outside of the apparatus main body, while detachably supporting the plurality of cartridges; in which the plurality of cartridges are arranged side-by-side and supported on the cartridge supporting member so that a longitudinal direction of each of the plurality of cartridges is orthogonal to a pullout direction in which the cartridge supporting member moves from the inside position to the pullout position, and a cartridge, which is heaviest among the plurality of cartridges, is supported most upstream in the pullout direction.
US07817935B2

An electrophotographic printer in which a photoconductor drum and a transfer drum can be supported in a simple component construction and in the makeup free from misalignment and development of thrust load. To this end, an electrophotographic printer comprising a photoconductor drum (1) and a transfer drum (2) is provided in which each of the photoconductor and transfer drums is fitted on a drum body (12, 13) so as to be extractable therefrom towards a front side, the shaft at a back side of the drum body being supported in a cantilever fashion by a bearing unit (16) supported on a main frame (F1) at the back side; the shaft at the front side of the drum body is supported by a movable bearing (17, 18) which comprises a shaft holding cylinder (24) axially extractable from the shaft and a housing (22, 23) supporting the shaft holding cylinder via a bearing (30); two such movable shafts are supported on a swingable frame (21) mounted so as to be swingable on a main frame (F2) at the front side; and the housing (23) of the movable bearing for the transfer drum and the housing (31) of the bearing unit supporting the shaft at the back side of the drum body for the transfer drum are housings decentered from the transfer drum so that angularly displacing the housings makes the transfer drum movable towards and away from the photoconductor drum.
US07817929B2

A system for adjusting selected operating parameters of an image forming device to improve color registration based on selected environmental conditions includes a first image forming station to print a first registration mark on a substrate, a second image forming station to at least partially erase the first registration mark to form a registration pattern in a reverse transfer process of the color registration, and a control mechanism to adjust voltage biases of charge and developer rolls of the second image forming station based on wet-bulb temperature values determined from measured dry-bulb temperature and relative humidity values and stored in a lookup table so as to maintain a predetermined potential difference between charged and uncharged areas of a PC drum of the second image forming station that avoids Paschen breakdown and the development of toner at charged areas of the PC drum during the reverse transfer process of the color registration.
US07817927B2

One aspect of the present invention can include an image forming apparatus having an image forming portion configured to form an image using developer, a recovery portion configured to recover the developer, a accommodating portion having a first chamber for accommodating developer recovered by the recovery portion, a second chamber which is connected to the first chamber and has a groove, a partition member positioned between the first chamber and the second chamber and which is movable by a pressure of the developer deposited in the first chamber, and a sensing portion having two positions for sensing developer deposited in the groove.
US07817923B2

A phase shift unit provides a prescribed phase difference (π/2, for example) between a pair of optical signals transmitted via a pair of arms constituting a data modulation unit. A low-frequency signal f0 is superimposed on one of the optical signals. A signal of which phase is shifted by π/2 from the low-frequency signal f0 is superimposed on the other optical signal. A pair of the optical signals is coupled, and a part of which is converted into an electrical signal by a photodiode. 2f0 component contained in the electrical signal is extracted. Bias voltage provided to the phase shift unit is controlled by feedback control so that the 2f0 component becomes the minimum.
US07817921B2

In a method for determining a power of an amplified spontaneous emission in an optical fiber amplifier for a WDM signal, wherein the optical fiber amplifier includes at least a first amplifier stage having a predetermined output power set for a measured input power, a first mean inversion is determined for the first amplifier stage. A first output power of the amplified spontaneous emission is determined at an output of the first amplifier stage by reference to tabulated values which depend on the first mean inversion.
US07817915B2

In an image taking system, when a running image is to be taken by the use of a self-timer or an automatic image taking system, exposure conditions and a focusing position are determined according to result of detection of the predetermined objective body at least once between the time when instruction to take a running image is done and the time when the running image is actually taken.
US07817912B2

An optical system of a focus detection apparatus includes a condenser lens positioned behind an expected focal plane of a photographing lens; an auxiliary lens group positioned behind the condenser lens to be coaxial therewith; and a pair of separator lenses positioned behind the auxiliary lens group in close vicinity thereof and integrally molded from resin. An object image formed on the expected focal plane is divided into two images by the pair of separator lenses to be reformed on a pair of areas on a sensor, respectively, and the auxiliary lens group includes a negative lens element made of resin, and a positive lens element made of glass.
US07817910B2

An imaging apparatus includes an image sensor; a strobe unit; a preliminary. illumination controller which instructs the strobe unit to preliminarily illuminate for a predetermined period before main illumination; a reading controller which divides the image sensor into a plurality of regions, controls an exposure period for each region, corresponding to the preliminary illumination, and reads an image signal from each of the regions; and an imaging exposure setting unit which sets an appropriate amount of strobe light to be fired during imaging according to the image signals read from the regions; wherein the reading controller controls the exposure period for each region so that an overlapping period with the preliminary illumination period of the strobe unit is different from each other.
US07817907B2

A tank for retaining and heating water is defined by tank walls, including a bottom wall portion comprised of stainless steel. The tank has a water inlet and a water outlet for dispensing hot water. An aluminum intermediate plate is brazed to the lower surface of the bottom wall portion. A heating element secured within a heat conductive sheath, is brazed to the intermediate plate. A baffle is positioned within the walls of the tank, dividing the tank into an upper water reservoir and a lower preheating chamber, the baffle having at least one open portion defined therethrough.
US07817906B2

The Direct Electric Resistance Liquid Heater comprises a liquid heating chamber containing a plurality of electrodes. The electrodes are spaced apart to create a plurality of channels through which the liquid to be heated passes. The electrodes are each connected to a power supply by one or more switches. A controller controls the switches based upon data received from a temperature sensor, sensing the temperature of the liquid, and/or an electric current sensor, sensing the current utilized by the liquid heater. Selection of the number and spacing of the electrodes, and the number of switches, provides the controller with various current levels options to apply to the liquid to be heated. The current levels available due to the number and spacing of the electrodes and the number of switches, span the range from minimum current to maximum current such that the controller can incrementally increase or decrease the current applied to the liquid to be heated without disrupting other users of the same power source.
US07817905B2

A system for recording audio and video comprises at least one video camera device (100), each camera device comprising a subsystem for capturing (112) at least video data, a storage device (107) upon which at least the video data is stored, a wireless interface (108) for communicating with at least one further recording device (200), an internal clock(106) for recording at least a time at which the video data was recorded, and a connecting port (108, 110) enabling connection to a remote-control device (eg. 200). The system also has at least one of the further recording devices (200), each comprising a microphone (215) for capturing audio information and a storage device upon which corresponding audio data is recorded, a wireless interface (208) for communicating with the video camera device, an internal clock (206) for recording at least a time at which the audio data was recorded, and a connection port (208,210) enabling connection to the video camera device.
US07817904B2

With this invention, at least one of a video file containing video information, a still picture file containing still picture information, and an audio file containing audio information and a management file having management information on a control method of reproducing the information in the file are recorded on an information storage medium. This realizes a data structure that causes the recording and deleting places on the information storage medium to correspond spuriously to places on a single tape, such as a VTR tape. Use of the data structure provides users with an easy-to-use interface.
US07817899B2

A moving picture decoding apparatus is provided which reduces the deterioration in image quality due to errors by a concealment processing for decoded image data, thereby improving the image quality of decoded images, without causing high deterioration in image quality resulting from the concealment processing. The moving picture decoding apparatus includes a decoder for decoding an input stream for each macroblock and generating decoded image data, a transmission error detector for detecting a transmission error in the input stream, and a stream error detector for detecting a stream error in the input stream. When the transmission error is detected, the moving picture decoding apparatus conceals the decoded image data in macroblock units and when the stream error is detected, the moving picture decoding apparatus conceals the decoded image data in video packet units.
US07817893B2

A fiber wrap and a method of rotating the fiber wrap without twisting a data cable are disclosed. The fiber wrap includes a sun gear, a sun cylinder coupled to the sun gear, a planetary gear in contact with the sun gear, a planetary cylinder coupled to the planetary gear, an outer housing in contact with the planetary gear, and a data cable coupled to the sun cylinder, the planetary cylinder, and the outer housing. The maximum bend radius of the data cable is determined by the equation: 2 ⁢ πΔ ⁢ ⁢ D ⁢ ⁢ G ⁢ ⁢ D ⁢ c λ wherein λ is optical wavelength and Δ ⁢ ⁢ D ⁢ ⁢ G ⁢ ⁢ D = 0.5 ⁢ C s ⁡ ( r R 2 ) 2 ⁢ Δ ⁢ ⁢ L c - 0.5 ⁢ C s ⁡ ( r R 1 ) 2 ⁢ Δ ⁢ ⁢ L c wherein Cs is the stress-optics coefficient, c is the speed of light, R1 is the bend radius at the end of the wrap motion, R2 is the bend radius at the start of the wrap motion, r is the radii of the sun cylinder and the planetary cylinder, and Δ ⁢ ⁢ L = 10 360 ⁢ 2 ⁢ π ⁢ ⁢ R 2 .
US07817892B2

A bend insensitive fiber optic cable includes a singlemode fiber, a buffer layer surrounding the fiber wherein a thickest component of the buffer layer has an elastic modulus greater than 515 MPa (75,000 psi), and a jacket surrounding the buffer layer, wherein the jacket has a thickness of at least 1.2 mm. In one preferred embodiment, the buffer layer includes a nylon 12 resin with a nominal elastic modulus of approximately 218,000 psi. In this embodiment, an inner thin component of the buffer layer is made of an ethylene/ethyl acrylate resin so as to facilitate stripping of the buffer layer away from the fiber.
US07817877B2

An image fusion processing method, image fusion processing program, and image fusion processing device for fusing a plurality of images of three or more dimensions obtained from a single watched object without degenerating the amount of information. A CPU calculates an optical parameter corresponding to a first voxel value and an optical parameter corresponding to a second voxel value. Then, the CPU calculates synthesized optical parameters based on a synthesis ratio obtained through a synthesis ratio determining process performed at each current position and updates the residual light and reflected light using these optical parameters. When the current position is an end point, a CPU sets the reflected light as a pixel value, and the fusion image data generating process ends for the single pixel configuring a frame.
US07817873B2

A method of enhancing the contrast of image or video data may include applying a contrast increasing transfer function to a reference image to generate an enhanced image. A transformation may be applied to the reference image to generate reference high frequency components and may also be applied to the enhanced image to generate enhanced high frequency components. For a pixel in the reference image, whether a corresponding enhanced high frequency component has a higher energy than a corresponding reference high frequency component may be determined. The method may also include replacing the pixel in the reference image with a corresponding pixel in the reference image if the corresponding enhanced high frequency component has a higher energy than the corresponding reference high frequency component.
US07817864B2

The coding apparatus according to the present invention is a coding apparatus which codes data regarding a moving picture, and includes: a DCT coefficient advanced-coding unit which performs advanced-coding on multivalued data representing a quantized DCT coefficient or a motion vector, so as to reduce the bit length of binary data obtained by binarizing the multivalued data; an advanced-coded coefficient/binary coefficient conversion unit which converts the advanced-coded data obtained by the DCT coefficient advanced-coding unit into the binary data; and an arithmetic coding unit which performs arithmetic coding on the binary data obtained by the advanced-coded coefficient/binary coefficient conversion unit.
US07817859B2

Methods and apparatus for identifying objects in an image include processing the image with a gradient operator to produce a gradient magnitude and direction for each pixel. A number of different gradient directions in a portion of the processed image is determined. The portion of the processed image is identified as an object if the number of different gradient directions exceeds a threshold number of gradient directions. The determination of the gradient directions can be simplified by employing a lookup table.
US07817840B2

Cell based assays are used to assess the hepatotoxicity of a stimulus. Imaging technologies are used to analyze the effects of a stimulus on hepatocytes. Image analysis may characterize the stimulus on the basis of whether it is hepatotoxic, and if so what type of pathology is exhibited; e.g., apoptosis, necrosis, cholestasis, and/or steatosis.
US07817837B2

An image processing device according to the present invention which includes image creating means for creating each of a smoothened image and a sharpened image with respect to at least a part of image data, and mixed image creating means for mixing the smoothened image and the sharpened image created by the image creating means to create a mixed image, including: analysis quantity calculating means for calculating an analysis quantity on plural pixel values in each matrix that surrounds each pixel of the image data and has any matrix size; control means for controlling the mixing ratio between the smoothened image and the sharpened image in the mixed image creating means in accordance with the analysis quantity calculated by the analysis quantity calculating means; and display means for displaying the mixed image that is controlled by the control means and output from the mixed image generating means.
US07817834B2

The invention relates to a method for operating an x-ray diagnostics device having an x-ray source, an x-ray image detector and an image system for generating a subtraction angiography sequence, in which a subtraction angiography sequence of low resolution individual images containing moving structures is created, registration of the individual images one with another is performed, and the images in the subtraction angiography sequence are used to compute a high resolution image.
US07817829B2

Medical imaging modalities generate increasingly more and very large three-dimensional data sets. According to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a three-dimensional data set of an object of interest is interactively visualized with a varying sampling rate in an image. Advantageously, a focus area may be moved by a user interactively during rendering, wherein the sampling rate of a particular part of the image is defined by its relative position to the focus area. Advantageously, this may allow for an improvement of an overall rendering performance.
US07817828B2

An image for treatment region considered as already completed treatment in the course of medical treatment is acquired. Time up to completion of the whole scope of intended treatment regions is estimated on the basis of the already completed treatment region.
US07817826B2

A method and system for identifying a human being or verifying two human beings by partial component(s) of their face. A probe human face image is identified from the gallery database by detecting and segmenting a plurality of partial face components from the probe human face image; creating a probe template for each of the partial face components from the probe human face image, comparing first and second probe templates against first and second categories of templates in the gallery database to generate similarity scores between the probe templates and templates in the gallery database; generating a plurality of sub-lists of candidate images having partial face component templates with the highest similarity scores over a first preset threshold; generating for each candidate image from each sub-list a combined similarity score; and generating a final list of candidates from said candidates of combined similarity scores over a second preset threshold.
US07817821B2

An portable integrated identification and verification system is disclosed. The station includes multiple devices integrated for identifying or verifying the identity of a person. The multiple devices, which may include a camera, a document scanner, and a fingerprint scanner, are mounted in a housing along with a computing device.
US07817819B1

A catalyst sample may contain both small and large metal particle distributions simultaneously. Characterizing the properties of the metal particles contained in each distribution is important to help describe catalytic performance and optimize catalysts. Monte Carlo simulations and dispersion measurements are employed to determine the relationship between dispersion parameters of each metal particle distribution. Various properties, such as the atom fraction and the surface atom fraction of each distribution can be determined.
US07817814B2

The present invention relates to a multiple channel earphone of small volume. In the earphone structure, a chamber tube with an adjusting hole or a set of adjusting holes is provided. The sound pressure of the chamber tube is naturally released without affected the performance of the main chamber sound field. When the external speaker connected to the chamber tube generates a large sound pressure, the sound pressure released naturally by the adjusting hole or a set of adjusting holes is increased accordingly, so that the sound pressure produced by the external speaker connected to the chamber tube is controlled by the main chamber.
US07817812B2

A compact audio reproduction system for two input signals includes at least four loudspeakers disposed at the vertices of a quadrilateral not more than two feet on any side and such that no two loudspeakers are located at a distance from one another which is less than one-fourth the greatest distance between any two loudspeakers. The two input signals are connected to alternate speakers such that no two loudspeakers at adjacent vertices of the quadrilateral produce the same signal such that a listener at an arbitrary location perceives a sound source larger than the quadrilateral and significant stereo image. The signals received by two loudspeakers located at adjacent vertices may receive signals which are equalized separately from the signals received by the other loudspeakers for the purpose of reducing comb filtering and improving the tolerance of the device to placement near walls and other obstructions. Two loudspeakers may be delayed by a time corresponding to a sound distance at least equal to the shortest distance between two loudspeakers and not greater than the longest distance between two loudspeakers, for the purpose of reducing comb filtering and improving the perception of large sound source size and stereo imaging for listeners at arbitrary locations.
US07817809B2

When a PC connected to a mixer engine functions as an editing device to edit a configuration of signal processing in the mixer engine, components and wires included in the edited configuration of signal processing are displayed within a CAD screen on a display of the PC, and a delay amount occurring in processing corresponding to each of the components and wires when the mixer engine executes the signal processing is displayed in correspondence with each of the components and wires on the CAD screen. In this case, the delay amount corresponding to each wire is a value determined according to a result of assignment in which signal processing corresponding to each component is assigned to a plurality of signal processors in the mixer engine.
US07817808B2

A clear, high quality voice signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio is achieved by use of an adaptive noise reduction scheme with two microphones in close proximity. The method includes the use of two omini directional microphones in a highly directional mode, and then applying an adaptive noise cancellation algorithm to reduce the noise.
US07817806B2

A sound is picked up using a plurality of microphones that are arranged so that respective directivity axes of the microphones differ from each other or so that they function as a plurality of microphones having directivities in different directions by performing a calculation on sound signals output from the plurality of microphones. Rotation of the plurality of microphones is detected, and the sound signals output from the plurality of microphones are processed according to the detected rotation so that a change in orientation of each of the microphones is canceled. The processed output sound signals are output to a reproduction side.
US07817801B2

The present invention teaches methods, systems and articles of manufacture for embedding information within the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a video signal. Such embedded data may be operative for the control of a set-top-box receiver, VCR, DVD player/recorder, computer or television, or may contain software which may be installed on a receiver unit. Embedded data may include electronic signatures which identify the source of a video signal and may be used as a copy-protection message. The information is inserted into closed caption (CC1) bandwidth. The term CC1 bandwidth refers to the capacity for insertion of closed caption data within Channel 1 of the Line-21 (VBI) of the video program. The CC1 band is especially suited for use in embedding data both because CC1 data is invisible to content viewers and because the United States and other nations require CC1 content to be transmitted with all publicly distributed video content.
US07817794B2

According to the invention, a system and method for integrating agent scripting, call routing and workforce management functions in contact centers, enabling them to work together without opposing the influence of the workforce management system against those of the other two systems, is disclosed. In an embodiment of the invention, a feedback mechanism is provided between the agent scripting engine and either the forecasting engine or the adherence module of the workforce management system, or both. This feedback mechanism is used to pass useful information dynamically between the said workforce management system and the said agent scripting engine, said information exchange being unidirectional in either direction, or bidirectional. A similar feedback mechanism is provided between the routing system and either the forecasting engine or the adherence module of the workforce management system, or both. This second feedback mechanism is used to pass useful information dynamically between the said workforce management system and the said call routing system, said information exchange being unidirectional in either direction, or bidirectional. In another embodiment of the invention, a method in which information is passed from an agent scripting engine and a call routing system to the forecasting engine or adherence module of a workforce management system, or both, is disclosed.
US07817789B2

A system, method, and computer readable medium for mass call defense in a communications network, comprises detecting a mass call event, detecting a resource exhaust event related to the mass call event, where the resource exhaust event is based upon a release message indicating a call connection attempt in excess of a threshold, and releasing, upon detecting the resource exhaust event, subsequent call connection attempts to a called telephone number.
US07817786B2

A method for providing communication with an automated voice system includes establishing a first communication session between a caller and the automated voice system. The first communication session includes a call thread. The method also includes receiving a signal indicative of a call event. In response to receiving the signal indicative of the call event, a state of the call thread is saved. The method also includes establishing a second communication session between the caller and the automated voice system at a state of the call thread associated with the saved state of the call thread.
US07817780B2

Disclosed is an X-ray reflecting device and an X-ray reflecting element constituting the X-ray reflecting device capable of facilitating a reduction in weight and being prepared in a relatively simple manner. The X-ray reflecting element of the present invention comprises a body made of a solid silicon, and a plurality of slits formed in the body in such a manner as to penetrate from a front surface to a back surface of the body. Each of the slits has a wall surface serving as an X-ray reflecting surface. To allow the slits in the respective X-ray reflecting elements to be located in a given positional relationship with each other, the X-ray reflecting device of the present invention comprises a plural number of the X-ray reflecting elements, which are formed into a multilayered structure in such a manner or arranged side-by-side in a horizontal direction in such a manner as to allow the slits in the respective X-ray reflecting elements to be located in a given positional relationship with each other, or stacked on each other in a vertical direction to form a stacked structure in such a manner as to allow the slits in the respective X-ray reflecting elements to be located in a given positional relationship with each other. Further, the X-ray reflecting device may comprise a plural number of the stacked structures arranged side-by-side in a horizontal direction.
US07817777B2

In a focus detector arrangement and method for an x-ray apparatus for generating projection or tomographic phase-contrast images of an examination subject, a beam of coherent x-rays is generated by an anode that has areas of different radiation emission characteristics arranged in bands thereon, that proceed parallel to grid lines of a phase grid that is used to generate the phase-contrast images.
US07817776B2

The inspection methods and systems of the present invention are mobile, rapidly deployable, and capable of scanning a wide variety of receptacles cost-effectively and accurately on uneven surfaces. The present invention is directed toward a portable inspection system for generating an image representation of target objects using a radiation source, comprising a mobile vehicle, a detector array physically attached to a movable boom having a proximal end and a distal end. The proximal end is physically attached to the vehicle. The invention also comprises at least one source of radiation. The radiation source is fixedly attached to the distal end of the boom, wherein the image is generated by introducing the target objects in between the radiation source and the detector array, exposing the objects to radiation, and detecting radiation.
US07817775B2

Disclosed is an inspection system for inspecting a cargo by using radiation, comprising: a main plate conveyor; a radiation scanning unit that spans said main plate conveyor and is provided above said main plate conveyor, for scanning the cargo provided on the main plate conveyor; auxiliary conveyors that are provided at the front end and rear end of said main plate conveyor, respectively, so as to load the cargo to be inspected onto said main plate conveyor and to unload the inspected cargo from said main plate conveyor; and lifting devices for lifting said auxiliary conveyors. The inspection system according to the present invention occupies less area, has simple corollary equipments, a lower operating cost, and excellent compatibility, and can be widely applied.
US07817774B2

The present invention provides a system 10 for irradiating a breast 20 of a patient 22. The system 10 comprises a gantry 12 rotatable about a horizontal axis 14 and comprising a radiation source 16 for generating a radiation beam 18 and a detector 24 spaced from the radiation source 16, and a barrier 26 disposed between the patient 22 and the gantry 12. The barrier 26 is provided with an opening 30 adapted to allow a breast 20 passing therethrough to be exposed to the radiation beam 18. In some embodiments, the barrier 26 is provided with an opening 30 adapted to allow both the breast 20 and the tissue leading from the breast to axilla and the muscle tissue of the adjacent chest wall passing therethrough to be exposed to the radiation beam 18.
US07817764B2

A system and method for effectively supporting a data transmission procedure includes a phase interpolator with a modular array of unit phase interpolators that each receives a respective input clock signal that is phase-shifted with respect to other input clock signals received by the remaining unit phase interpolators. The unit phase interpolators responsively generate corresponding UPI output signals that are summed together to produce a receiver clock signal. The phase interpolator receives a phase control word that includes a UPI selection segment and a UPI output-control segment. The phase interpolator utilizes the UPI selection segment to selectively activate pairs of the unit phase interpolators. The phase interpolator also utilizes the UPI output-control segment for controlling the UPI output signals to thereby adjust phase characteristics of the receiver clock signal.
US07817759B2

An approach is provided for supporting carrier synchronization in a digital broadcast and interactive system. A carrier synchronization module receives one or more signals representing a frame that includes one or more overhead fields (e.g., preamble and optional pilot blocks and one or multiple segments separated by pilot blocks). The module estimates carrier frequency and phase on a segment by segment basis and tracks frequency between segments. Carrier phase of the signal is estimated based upon the overhead field. Estimates carrier phase of random data field are determined based upon the estimated phase values from the overhead fields, and upon both the past and future data signals. Further, the frequency of the signal is estimated based upon the overhead fields and/or the random data field. The above arrangement is particularly suited to a digital satellite broadcast and interactive system.
US07817755B2

The present invention discloses a log function generator module device that is adapted to receive substantially simultaneously a plurality of signals at a plurality of respective communication links. The device includes a plurality of sets of logarithmic, a plurality of substantially linear amplifiers, a plurality of negative-value-eliminator (NVE) modules, a plurality of preliminary adders, a plurality of limiters and one final adder all of which are associated with each other a manner such that the output of the final adder is a final signal that substantially corresponds to a logarithm of the sum of the square of each of the received signals, thereby providing a received signal strength indication (RSSI) of the plurality of received signals.
US07817743B2

A multi-tone system includes a data transmission circuit with an interface for receiving a data stream for transmission, a data steam splitter that splits the data stream to produce multiple substreams and a plurality of parallel data preparation circuits. Each data preparation circuit prepares a respective substream for transmission and generates a respective sub-channel signal. At least a first data preparation circuit of the plurality of parallel data preparation circuits includes a first analog filter for filtering a first substream. The first analog filter operates at a sample rate greater than the respective symbol rate of the first substream. The first analog filter provides pre-emphasis of the respective sub-channel signal and attenuation of signals outside of a respective band of frequencies corresponding to the respective sub-channel signal. The data transmission circuit also includes a combiner for combining respective sub-channel signals to generate a data transmission signal.
US07817741B2

In a MIMO wireless communication system, the transformation process synthesizes the eigenmodes having a large singular value (i.e. a high effective SNR) and the eigenmodes having a small singular value (i.e. a low effective SNR). Thereby, the former eigenmodes are converted into modes having suppressed effective SNR which do not require a large number of levels of modulation, and the latter eigenmodes are converted into modes having increased effective SNR instead. In a MIMO wireless communication system for eigenmode transmission, a large communication capacity is realized without increasing the number of levels of modulation even in a communication environment capable of achieving a high SNR.
US07817738B2

A delay profile generating circuit 9 generates a delay profile signal. Concerning the delay profile signal, a ghost decision circuit 10 makes a decision as to the presence or absence of ghosts that will appear during traveling of a mobile vehicle in response to a transmission mode signal fed from a changeover switch 8. The delay profile signal and the decision signal about the presence/absence of the ghosts are delivered to a window control circuit 13 via an accumulator 11. The window control circuit 13 sets and controls the FFT window position of an FFT circuit 5 in response to a guard correlation signal fed from a guard correlation signal generating circuit 12 and a signal fed from the accumulator 11.
US07817736B2

A multi-carrier (MC) receiver receives a multi-carrier signal containing data symbols as well as pilot symbols. The MC receiver estimates a carrier frequency offset in a downconverted base-band multi-carrier signal in the frequency domain based on deviations of one or more characteristics of the pilot signals from predetermined values, and corrects for the offset in the time domain. In an embodiment, a second order phase locked loop (PLL) estimates the phase of the pilot signals to determine the carrier frequency offset. Changes in pilot phases caused due to the time domain correction are cancelled to allow the PLL to minimize deviations from the lock position.
US07817726B2

Methods and systems for processing a plurality of pixels, in a video system, are disclosed. Aspects of the method may comprise acquiring scaling factors associated with a plurality of output pixels and generating filter coefficients during the generation of the output pixels. The filter coefficients may be utilized to filter a plurality of pixels to produce the plurality of output pixels. The filter coefficient may be generated on the fly utilizing a windowed sinc function corresponding to the scaling factors. The sinc function may be sampled according to the needed number of filter taps to determine the filter coefficients.
US07817725B2

The present invention aims to provide a transmitter circuit that is capable of suppressing quantization noise and operating with a high efficiency, a data converter section 13 and a data conversion method for use therein, and a communications device using the same. The data converter section 13 of the present invention performs a predetermined data conversion operation on an input signal. The data converter section 13 includes: a signal processing section 133 for discretizing the input signal to produce a signal having a lower resolution magnitude-wise than that of the input signal; a subtractor section 134 for subtracting the input signal from the signal having a lower resolution to extract quantization noise; a filter 135 for extracting quantization noise near an intended wave frequency; and a subtractor section 136 for removing the quantization noise near the intended wave frequency from the signal having a lower resolution.
US07817722B2

A system and method is provided for editing and parsing compressed digital information. The compressed digital information may include visual information which is edited and parsed in the compressed domain. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a method for detecting moving objects in a compressed digital bitstream which represents a sequence of fields or frames of video information for one or more captured scenes of video.
US07817721B2

A method for processing a transport stream is disclosed. The method generally comprises the steps of (A) parsing the transport stream to separate a transport packet, (B) generating a plurality of status items for the transport packet, (C) writing a relevant portion of the transport packet and the status items together in a memory and (D) reading the relevant portion of the transport packet and the status items from the memory for post-parsing processing of the transport packet based upon the status items.
US07817693B2

A method for producing high optical power density. Laser beams emitted from a plurality of laser bars are combined by spatial multiplexing to become substantially parallel with an optical axis. Each single laser bar includes one or more diode lasers. The slow axes of adjacent diode lasers of the single laser bar are substantially parallel with each other and the adjacent diode lasers emitting substantially to the same direction. The laser bars are arranged in two or more sectors around the optical axis. The width of the effective light-emitting near-field of at least one of the laser bars is less than 2.5 millimeters in the direction of the slow axis of the diode lasers of the at least one laser bar.
US07817681B2

An optical fiber for performing pulse stretching, and fiber laser systems and methods using the pulse-stretching fiber are disclosed. The pulse-stretching (PS) fiber has low fourth-order dispersion (dispersion curvature) and a third order dispersion (dispersion slope) with a small negative, nearly zero or small positive value. Two different types of fiber laser systems that use the PS fiber in a manner that achieves optimum performance are described. The PS fiber enables an all-fiber (up to the final pulse compressor) ultra-short pulsed laser systems reaching pulse energies exceeding 100 μJ, average powers exceeding 100 W, and output pulse widths of less than 100 fs.
US07817679B2

Transference of signaling frames on GERAN (GSM/EDGE radio Access Network) half rate channels utilizing a modulation scheme carrying n bits in one symbol. In order to be able to utilize the existing channel coding developed for channels with different modulations and to avoid high rate convolutional and block codes, the AMR signaling frame to be transferred is coded using a coding procedure defined for a GSM half rate channel utilizing a GMSK modulation scheme, the coding procedure outputting a coded output stream. In response to said coding, each bit of the coded output stream is repeated n times, whereby a repeated bit stream is obtained, and symbols to be transmitted are formed from the repeated bit stream.
US07817676B2

A system, method, and computer program product for synchronizing time between a centralized controller device and at least one subscriber device on a fiber access network. The control layer of a network device is expanded, and additional messaging control is added via the transmission of data frames. The expansion prevents reliance on a physical layer signal. The time synchronization also allows a time stamp to be incorporated into a message. Thus, bandwidth is not wasted by simply transmitting a time stamp by itself. In an embodiment, the centralized controller device measures the time difference between the time at which a particular ranging request is transmitted and the time at which the particular ranging request is received. The time difference represents the time adjustment value for the particular subscriber device and allows the device to synchronize its time with that of the centralized controller device.
US07817666B2

A method and apparatus for adaptively obtaining bandwidth requests in a broadband wireless communication system. The method and apparatus includes dynamically varying technique combinations enabling a plurality of users to efficiently request bandwidth from a shared base station. A user may “piggyback” a new bandwidth request upon, or set a “poll-me bit” within, presently allocated bandwidth. A base station may poll users, individually or in groups, by allocating unrequested bandwidth for new requests. Polling may respond to a “poll-me bit,” and/or it may be adaptively periodic at a rate based on communication status parameters, such as recent communication activity and connection QoS levels Group polling permits a possibility of collisions. Polling policies may be established for dynamically varying user groups, or may be determined for each user. Dynamic selection of appropriate polling techniques makes use of efficiency benefits associated with each technique.
US07817663B2

A packet data generating method and apparatus for supporting multiple services in a wireless packet data communication system where an MS transmits two or more traffics to a BS on one of a reverse PDCH, a reverse FCH, and a reverse DCCH. To generate a PDU using non-signaling traffic and/or signaling traffic for one of the reverse physical channels, a multiplex option is determined during service negotiations between the MS and the BS. The multiplex option defines a traffic format having a header and a payload including traffic data, and the header includes a service reference identifier field, a length indicator field indicating the presence or absence of a length field, and the length field indicating the length of the traffic data. A PDU is generated by formatting a reverse traffic to have a header and a payload according to the determined multiplex option.
US07817662B2

Systems and methods that interface with a management system are provided. In one embodiment, a system and a method may provide a command protocol and format for communication between a network interface card (NIC) and a management device such as, for example, an intelligent management device (IMD). An interface may be adapted to allow the management device to merge its traffic with that of the NIC to provide a fully integrated management solution. The fully integrated management solution may be implemented, for example, without additional network connections.
US07817657B1

A circuit is provided for processing network packets. The circuit includes ports identified in a specification of the processing of the network packets. The specification specifies handlers that each include at least one collection of actions. The specification specifies a dependency between each pair of handlers for which the actions of one handler include a handle action for invoking the other handler. The circuit also includes one or more parallel units coupled to the ports. The parallel units process input network packets and generate output network packets. Each parallel unit corresponds to a respective independent set of the handlers and has a corresponding architecture that is either a pipeline or a cluster of threads. Each parallel unit includes a concurrent unit for each collection of the actions of each handler in the respective independent set. Each concurrent unit is another pipeline for implementing the actions of the collection.
US07817655B1

Approaches for sizing first-in-first-out (FIFO) buffers for pipelining functions of a circuit. Functions of the circuit are performed on an input data set, with respective FIFO buffers for buffering data elements between coupled pairs of the functional blocks. While performing the functions of the circuit, a respective current number of elements added to a FIFO buffer since a previous element was removed from the FIFO buffer is counted for each FIFO buffer, and then compared to a respective saved number. The respective current number is saved as a new respective saved number in response to the respective current number being greater than the respective saved number, and the respective current number is reset after the comparing of the respective current number to the respective saved number. Respective sizes for the FIFO buffers are determined as a function of the respective saved numbers and then the sizes are stored.
US07817654B2

A test device and a test method, the test device comprising a bus controller for the transmission and reception of bus messages, the bus controller having a message memory for offering transmission data for bus messages, the message memory having a memory capacity for a bus message sequence with bus messages to be transmitted within a single transmission cycle or a transmission cycle sequence. The test device includes an intermediate memory for the storage of transmission data for bus messages with a larger storage capacity than the message memory. The test device furthermore comprises a transmission preparing means for reading transmission data from the intermediate memory and for writing, in advance of reading of the bus controller, to the message memory of the bus controller so that the bus message sequence is expanded by additional bus messages which are transmitted by the bus controller within the transmission cycle or the transmission cycle sequence on the motor vehicle bus.
US07817650B2

A data communication transmitting node is provided, the transmitting node comprising: a plurality of buffers for storing data from a respective plurality of input data streams; means for monitoring an occupancy level of each of the plurality of buffers to detect if the occupancy level is sufficient to provide a complete data block to the transmission stream; and a transmission controller operable to select, in turn, a buffer from the plurality of buffers to output a data block to a transmission data stream, the selection being performed according to a buffer selection order. If the buffer selected by the transmission controller is detected to have an insufficient occupancy level when selected, a dummy data block is supplied to the data transmission stream in place of a data block from the selected buffer.
US07817642B2

A system and method are provided for aggregating Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) Medium Access Control (MAC) frames. The method sends a Multiframe Reservation Request (MRR) requesting a transmission time slot, and receives a grant in response to the MRR. Subsequent to sending the MRR, a plurality of MoCA MAC frames are accepted and assembled into a physical layer (PHY) burst packet that is transmitted in the granted time slot. A method is also provided for bundling client data packets into a MoCA MAC frame. The method sends a Bundledpacket Reservation Request (BRR) requesting a transmission time slot, and receives a grant in response to the BRR. Subsequent to sending the BRR, a plurality of client data packets are accepted and concatenated into a bundled MoCA MAC frame. The bundled MoCA MAC frame is transmitted in a PHY packet in the granted time slot.
US07817640B2

A scheduler for use in a computer network system which provides an order 1 level of complexity, while maintaining proportional fairness and a constant normalized worst-case fair index to create short term and long-term fairness among backlogged flows. The scheduler utilizes an intra-class scheduling algorithm to obtain the benefits of a round robin scheduler and an inter-class scheduling algorithm to obtain the benefits of timestamp based scheduler.
US07817636B2

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises one or more forwarding logic components and logic coupled to a plurality of network interfaces. The logic is operable to: receive address information that identifies a packet flow; generate a synthetic packet based on the address information; provide the synthetic packet to the one or more forwarding logic components; retrieve forwarding information that indicates one or more forwarding decisions for the synthetic packet made by the one or more forwarding logic components; and report the forwarding information. Each of the one or more forwarding logic components is operable to make a forwarding decision for the synthetic packet as part of processing packets in the packet flow, and to store, as part of the forwarding information, data indicating the forwarding decision for the synthetic packet that is made by that forwarding logic component.
US07817633B1

A method of providing virtual router functionality to a packet responsive to one or more abstracted virtual packet identifiers is provided. The method occurs in a networking device having a router core. The one or more abstracted virtual identifiers are abstracted from one or more virtual identifiers derived from the packet, thus insulating the router core from changes in the one or more virtual identifiers. A packet is received having a VLAN field, and a key is formed from the VLAN field and at least one other packet field. The key is mapped into an abstracted virtual identifier using an indirection mapping process. One or more core virtual router functions are then performed responsive to the abstracted virtual identifier.
US07817631B1

Systems, methods and computer program products facilitate communication on a network by transmitting a communication on the network from a first node to a second node, the communication including a first segment and a second segment. The first segment consists essentially of a destination port and a data length of the communication, and the second segment includes a payload and at least one of a connection ID, a sequence number, and an opcode. A responsive communication is then received from the second node, the responsive communication acknowledging receipt of the communication transmitted from the first node.
US07817622B2

In a method for mobile access of a mobile device for a system providing cellular and non-cellular mobile access, the system comprises a serving node, a packet gateway node and the mobile device. The method comprises the steps of negotiating a direct tunneling connection between the mobile device and the packet gateway node by the serving node, wherein the direct tunneling connection is only dedicated to packet switched traffic of the mobile device using the non-cellular mobile access, and establishing the direct tunneling connection between the mobile device and the packet gateway node by the mobile device.
US07817606B2

A technique is provided for a seamless and transparent handoff from a user's mobile device to the user's stationary terminal of a network address of a remote device for the purpose of establishing a direct communication channel between the stationary terminal and a remote device, where the remote device first contacted the user's mobile device to initiate communications with the user.
US07817604B2

A detection strategy is selected for use in detecting a shared control channel that is transmitted on a physical channel in a communication system. This involves using a previously selected detection strategy to detect the shared control channel. The power of the detected shared control channel is measured. At least two correlation results are generated by correlating the measured power with each of at least two parameters that are associated with one or more other physical channels used in the communication system. Based on the at least two correlation results, a detection strategy is selected for upcoming use in detecting the shared control channel.
US07817602B2

The present invention concerns a transmission method in a wireless telecommunication system including at least a base station intended to communicate with terminals over bidirectional communication channels, each channel supporting frames being divided into downlink sub frames and uplink sub frames, each downlink sub frame including a number of symbols intended to be transmitted to at least two terminals, wherein the transfer of at least one supplementary symbol between the base station and at least one terminal that can receive or transmit the at least one supplementary symbol during the time delay is enabled. At least part of each symbol comprised in the sub frame are transferred according to a first transmission power coefficients and at least at least one supplementary symbol is transferred according to second transmission power coefficients.
US07817599B2

A mobile station (303) provides seamless mobility across multicast domains for communicating with a multicast group (109) in a telecommunication system (300) that includes a home domain (102) and a visited domain (302). The mobile station (303) includes a local source address (324) and a home address (322). The mobile station (303) also includes a domain detector (305) for detecting a current domain of the mobile station (303), a comparator (307) for comparing the current domain of the mobile station with a previous domain of the mobile station (303) to generate a comparison result; and a multicast mode switch (326) coupled to the comparator (307) for switching between the local source address (324) and the home address (322) to select a source address for communicating with the multicast group (109) as a function of the comparison result.
US07817596B2

Methods and apparatus are presented to optimize the likelihood of a successful acquisition of frame timing information of an asynchronous base station by providing a mechanism that copes with short-term degradations caused by a dynamic radio environment. An acquisition search is performed in a plurality of stages, wherein a declaration indicating a failure at a stage is delayed through the use of a verification stage. The verification stage can be repeated a variable number of times. The number of repetitions of the verification stage can be dependent upon the stage at which the failure occurred. Declaration of failure occurs only after the predetermined number of verification searches have been performed.
US07817593B2

Embodiments of methods and apparatus for aggregating a plurality of media access control-layer frames into a single physical layer frame are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.
US07817586B2

A high-speed digital interface (HSDI) transceiver with bi-directional HSDI function includes a transmitter, a receiver, a first multiplexer, and a controller. The first multiplexer is selectively coupled to the transmitter or the receiver in order to let the HSDI transceiver act as a source device or a sink device respectively. The controller is coupled to the first multiplexer for controlling a switching operation of the first multiplexer. When the HSDI transceiver is connected to an HSDI source device, the controller controls the first multiplexer to couple to the receiver to let the HSDI transceiver act as the sink device, and when the HSDI transceiver is connected to an HSDI sink device, the controller controls the first multiplexer to couple to the transmitter to let the HSDI transceiver act as the source device.
US07817582B2

A path controller 10 creates a logical tree LT having a plurality of member trees MT1 and MT2 within a routing table 52 at the time of initial setting. Direct tables DT1 and DT2 for the member trees MT1 and MT2 have the same DT entries (root). Unlike a conventional tree in which a single tree is constructed for the same root, since the present invention is such that the plurality of member trees are constructed for the same root, the number of nodes N passed through before reaching leaves L is reduced. At the time of path search, a plurality of search engines SE1 and SE2 search the member trees MT1 and MT2, respectively.
US07817580B2

According to the present invention, methods and apparatus are provided to improve the link state routing protocol (LSRP) to prevent transient loops during topology changes. Broadcast and shared multicast traffic may be dropped on particular ports upon detecting link state change until neighboring nodes have computed routes using updated link state information. An acknowledgment is sent upon receiving a link state record. Sync and sync-ack packets are used to determine when link state information is synchronized with that of peer nodes.
US07817579B2

Briefly, an access point may include one or more software defined radios that may be arranged to implement one or more radio transmission protocols or standards. New radio transmission protocol or standards may be downloaded into the access point so that the access point may communicate according to new radio transmission protocols or standards as they are developed.
US07817577B2

Disclosed herein are a method for balancing the quality of a wireless communication channel wherein the quality of the wireless communication channel can be more accurately estimated and adjusted on the basis of the combination of observation results of the number of data frames failed to be transmitted in the past and a received signal strength (RSS), and reliability of data transmission over the channel can thus be increased, and a wireless communication apparatus using the same. The method includes collecting information about whether data frames have been successfully transmitted and information about RSSs of the wireless communication channel, acquiring the number of data frames failed to be transmitted and an average RSS in a predetermined observation period using the collected information, comparing the acquired transmission-failed data frame number with a predetermined threshold value and the acquired average RSS with a predetermined reference RSS, respectively, and estimating the quality of the wireless communication channel and quality degradation factors in detail by performing an AND operation with respect to the comparison results. Therefore, it is possible to stably adjust the channel quality.
US07817575B2

Disclosed are a method and a computer program product for achieving fairness in utilization of a channel in a network. The network includes plurality of stations such that at least one station of the plurality of stations includes at least one radio. The at least one radio may fail to access the channel even when the channel is available for performing transmission. The method includes determining a number of idle slots occurred at the channel during a disruption period when the at least one radio is unavailable for transmission. The number of idle slots occurred during the disruption period may be accumulated as a credit. Based on the accumulated credit, an initial value of a backoff counter of the at least one station may be reset. The reset initial value of the backoff counter enables the at least one radio to utilize the accumulated idle slots for next transmission.
US07817571B2

In one embodiment, a method can include: (i) receiving an incoming probe packet in a network device; (ii) de-encapsulating the incoming probe packet to provide a packet content portion and a drop result portion; (iii) testing the packet content portion against a local access control list (ACL) to determine a local drop result; and (iv) inserting the local drop result and encapsulating an outgoing probe packet.
US07817560B2

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable code for receiving data from a sender across a network connection for the data transfer. An expected size for a congestion window for the sender is identified. An amount of the data received from the sender is tracked. An acknowledgment is sent in response to the amount of data received from the sender meet in the expected size of the congestion window for the sender.
US07817557B2

Systems and methods are described for transmitting audio and video messages between network terminals over a network. A communication link is established between a first network terminal and a second network terminal, and audio data and video data is transmitted concurrently over the link. During communication, the first network terminal acquires data representing the performance of the first network terminal and data representing the performance of the network. Based on negotiation between the first network terminal and the second network terminal and received performance data the at least one buffering parameter is determined and, if the parameter is within a predetermined range, the buffering parameter of the first network terminal is modified.
US07817554B2

Quality of Service parameters are changed to adapt a transmission to varying transmission capacity demands. During an ongoing communication session, at least one client terminal utilizes services provided via a network node, and initial quality of service parameters are used. In the process of responding to a content request originating from the client terminal, it is determined if a delivery of the response to the content request would benefit from a modification of quality of service parameters. If the modification is determined to be beneficiary, a modification 520 of quality of service parameters for use in the response to the content request is initiated.
US07817551B2

A data reception apparatus has a data reception section that receives data sent from a server through a communication link. A storage section stores the received data, and a play back section plays back the stored data. A requesting section requests the server to send data, corresponding to a certain period, at a rate equal to or more than a normal rate and lower than a rate set up by the communication link.
US07817550B2

A method of rate-control for a group of ports in a communication network. Ramping is performed for allowed-rate of each of the group of ports, if sum of the ingress-rates of the group of ports is less than a given rate threshold; and adjusting is performed for allowed-rate of each of the group of ports, if sum of the ingress-rates of the group of ports is greater than or equal to the given rate threshold, such that the sum of allowed-rates of the group of ports is equal to the given rate threshold.
US07817535B2

A system and a method are disclosed for detecting a multicast stream fault condition at a variety of points within a digital broadcast video distribution system. In addition, a method of seamless switchover from a primary to a redundant multicast stream is provided.
US07817525B2

In order that thickness reduction, weight reduction, and mass productivity improvement should be achieved in an objective lens even in the case where NA is high, an objective lens according to the present invention is a bi-convex single lens having at least one aspheric surface, and satisfies conditions: (1) 3.5
US07817524B2

An optical head device 100 of the invention performs at least one of recording and reproducing of information for a plurality of types of optical recording mediums 7. A light source 1 emits a plurality of kinds of light having mutually different wavelengths. The positions for emitting the plurality of kinds of light from the light source are mutually deviated. A center C1 of first light 2a is matched with a pattern center C3 of a first diffracting plane 3a. A center C2 of second light 2b is matched with a pattern center C4 of a second diffracting plane 3b. The optical head apparatus 100 provided with the light source in which two or more light emitting elements are mounted in one module can perform stable tracking control.
US07817516B2

A method is used for detecting a tilt of an optical pickup head. The method includes the steps of: capturing a plurality of images; converting the images to bitmap images; superposing the bitmap images together to form an superimposed bitmap image; setting a two-dimensional coordinating system of the superimposed bitmap image; determining coordinates of a first static spot, a second static spot, and dynamic spot; calculating a first distance between the first static spot and the dynamic spot, and a second distance between the second static spot and the dynamic spot based on the coordinates to determine a maximum distance; and comparing the maximum distance with a first standard distance to attain a conclusion whether the tilt is in an acceptable range.
US07817515B2

Within a disk recording/reproducing apparatus for improving a transfer rate when recording/reproducing, and an alternation process method for a disk for it, for recording or reproducing information onto/from an optical disk 100, while conducting a alternation on a defect block within a user data recording area into an alternation area, a controller 500 determines an alternation destination where data of an alternation origin are recorded therein, or a drive speed during the alternation process, upon basis of the position of the alternation origin on the optical disk, when conducting the alternation process. The alternation destination is determined upon basis of an intermediate position (rmid) of the disk, when the optical disk includes alternation areas on an innermost periphery and an outermost periphery thereof, and when it is conducted with CAV recording, on the other hand it is determined upon basis of an inner/outer peripheral rotation speed average position (rav) of the disk, when being conducted with CLV recording. Or, the drive speed during the alternation process is determined on the position of the alternation origin, upon basis of a drive speed inner peripheral rotation speed average position (rint), when the optical disk includes the alternation area only on the innermost periphery thereof, and when it is conducted with CLV recording.
US07817514B2

The present invention provides a method of recording control information in a recordable optical disc including at least one recording layer. In recording control information within a management area of an optical disc including at least one or more recording layers, the present invention includes providing the control information to each of the at least one or more recording layers per recording velocity, recording an information identifying a type of the corresponding control information within the control information, and recording a write strategy (WS) interworking with the type of the control information. In recording a write strategy (WS) within disc information, CLV and CAV are separately recorded, whereby it is able to efficiently cope with the record/playback of the optical disc.
US07817513B2

A record and reproduction apparatus includes: a CPU; a memory; a recording medium control unit configured to read out data from a recording medium; a reproduction buffer configured to temporarily store stream data such as an image and an audio out of the data read by the recording medium control unit; a reproduction processing unit configured to decode and reproduce the stream data temporarily stored in the reproduction buffer; and an access control unit configured to control the timing by which the access control unit switches between access to the memory and access to the reproduction buffer so that the reproduction processing does not break off during reproduction of the stream data while supervising the state of the reproduction buffer, and to manage the memory and the recording medium control unit in each transaction.
US07817502B2

Disclosed is a music jukebox which is configured for storing a music library therein. The music jukebox includes a housing, audio input structure on the housing for receiving audio signals, audio output structure on the housing for outputting audio signals, and a data storage structure in the housing for storing audio signals. The music jukebox is configured such that a music library of sound tracks is storable in the data storage structure. The music jukebox includes means for selecting a sound track from the music library stored in the data storage structure to play through the audio output structure, and the housing includes a display thereon which identifies sound tracks in the music library. Preferably, the music jukebox is configured such that the sound tracks stored in the data storage structure are editable before being played through the audio output structure.
US07817490B1

A static random access memory (SRAM) operable that is biased at lower power supply voltages in a read-only mode than in a read/write mode. The SRAM can be embedded within a large-scale integrated circuit, for example in combination with a microprocessor and associated circuitry. Upon system control circuitry determining that an SRAM array can be operated in a read-only mode, for example that a large number of read operations are likely to be performed prior to writing to the SRAM array, the power supply voltages applied to the SRAM array are reduced. The array power supply voltage and periphery power supply voltage can be at separate voltages and separately reduced from the read/write mode to the read-only mode. The read-only mode can be readily used for instruction cache memories, and for local instruction memories associated with an embedded microcontroller.
US07817485B2

A testing system with data compressing function includes a third data end, a first encoder, and a second encoder. The testing system receives testing data and testing address for testing if any memory cell fails in a memory. The memory includes a first data end, a second end, and an address end. The first encoder encodes the testing data to the data type of the first data end according to the testing address. The second encoder encodes the testing data to the data type of the second data end according to the testing address. In this way, the corresponding memory cells of the first data and second ends store same testing data.
US07817483B2

A memory device includes terminals for transferring input data and output data to and from a memory array. The memory device also includes an auxiliary circuit for receiving input auxiliary information associated with the input data and for generating output auxiliary information associated with the output data. The input and output auxiliary information include inverting codes, parity codes, temperature information and time delay information. The input and output auxiliary information are transferred to and from the memory device on the same terminals that the input data and the output data are transferred.
US07817482B2

A memory device has multiple bi-directional data paths. One of the multiple bi-directional data paths is configured to transfer data at one speed. Another one of the multiple bi-directional data paths is configured to transfer data at another speed.
US07817481B2

A static random access memory decoder circuit includes a first cell supply line coupled to provide a first column of memory cells a first cell supply voltage and a second cell supply line coupled to provide a first column of memory cells a first cell supply voltage. The decoder circuit further includes a write assist circuit having a first threshold transistor coupled to the first cell supply line and a second threshold transistor coupled to the second cell supply line. In response to a write assist signal, the write assist circuit connects one of the first and second cell supply lines selected by control circuitry to an associated one of the first and second threshold transistors, such that a cell supply voltage of the selected one of the first and second cell supply lines is reduced toward the threshold voltage of the threshold transistor.
US07817477B2

A manufacturing method, remanufacturing method and reshipping method for a semiconductor memory device capable of preventing the charge hold characteristic from deteriorating even if information data is repeatedly written and erased. The manufacturing method is for a semiconductor memory device having a plurality of memory cells in an FET structure formed on a semiconductor substrate, wherein each of the plurality of memory cells is to store a unit bit and hold information data. Preparing a plurality of memory cells, bits of the information data are written to the memory cells. After writing the information data bits to the memory cells, the memory cells are allowed to stand at a predetermined ambient temperature for a predetermined time. Thereafter, bits of the information data are written to the memory cells.
US07817473B2

A flash memory device is disclosed and includes a memory cell array including a plurality of sectors. Each one of the plurality of sectors includes a plurality of strings, and each of the plurality of strings includes a plurality of memory cells series connected between a string select transistor and a ground select transistor. The flash memory device also includes a plurality of string selection lines, wherein each one of the plurality of string selection lines is respectively connected to string select transistors associated the plurality of strings in one of the plurality of sectors.
US07817466B2

A semiconductor array includes a matrix of cells, the matrix being arranged in rows and columns of cells, and a plurality of control lines. Each cell is coupled to a number of control lines allowing to select and read/write said cell. At least one of said control lines is coupled to cells of a plurality of columns and of at least two rows of the matrix.
US07817460B2

A semiconductor memory device having a memory cell including a flip-flop; and a memory cell power supply circuit for supplying a low voltage cell power supply voltage to the memory cell. The memory cell power supply circuit supplies a cell power supply voltage in a first period and a different cell power supply voltage in a second period, a predetermined first power supply voltage in case where the cell power supply voltage in supplied in a data read cycle and in a case where data is not written to a memory cell to which the cell power supply voltage is supplied in a write cycle, and a second power supply voltage higher than the first power supply voltage in a case where data is written to a memory cell to which the cell power supply voltage is supplied in a write cycle.
US07817457B2

According to one embodiment, a nonvolatile memory device includes: a memory cell array including memory cells each having a variable resistance element for nonvolatilely storing data identified by an electrically rewritable resistance value; a first data latch storing write and erase data to be written on a given group of memory cells of the memory cell array for a write and erase operation; and a second data latch storing reference data for performing a compensation operation of the given group to compensate write and erase disturbance accompanied by the write or erase operation.
US07817454B2

A variable resistance memory array, programming a variable resistance memory element and methods of forming the array. A variable resistance memory array is formed with a plurality of word line transistors surrounding each phase change memory element. To program a selected variable resistance memory element, all of the bitlines are grounded or biased at the same voltage. A top electrode select line that is in contact with the selected variable resistance memory element is selected. The word line having the word line transistors surrounding the selected variable resistance memory element are turned on to supply programming current to the element. Current flows from the selected top electrode select line through the variable resistance memory element into the common source/drain region of the surrounding word line transistors, across the transistors to the nearest bitline contacts. The word lines are patterned in various lattice configurations.
US07817447B2

A power converter operates in continuous conduction mode and outputs a regulated output voltage. A feedback-derived signal is used to regulate the output voltage. The feedback-derived signal is sampled at multiple time points during an OFF cycle of a power switch. A current-sense signal is also sampled at one or more time points during an ON cycle of the power switch. The current-sense signal is indicative of an output inductor current of the power converter. A calibrated feedback-derived voltage is then generated based on the multiple voltage samples of the feedback-derived signal and the one or more voltage samples of the current-sense signal. The calibrated feedback-derived voltage is less sensitive to an output inductor current loop resistance than the original voltage samples of the feedback-derived signal. The calibrated feedback-derived voltage also compensates for the nonlinearity of a diode of the output inductor current loop.
US07817442B2

An input device of the invention includes a body formed with an accommodating part; an operation member having a basal end accommodated in the accommodating part and a distal end projected in a swinging operable manner to either side in a width direction and in a pushing operable manner from an neutral position; and an earth terminal for dissipating static electricity charged in the operation member. The input device is attachable to a circuit board. The earth terminal, being a metal plate insert molded in a wall, includes a contacting portion and first and second projections arranged near the operation member, and connecting parts exposed from the other end face of the body and solder connectable to respective earth patterns of the circuit board.
US07817440B2

A multilayer printed wiring board includes a mounting portion supporting a semiconductor device and a layered capacitor portion including first and second layered electrodes and a ceramic high-dielectric layer therebetween. The first layered electrode is connected to a ground line and the second layered electrode is connected to a power supply line. The ratio of number of via holes, each constituting a conducting path part electrically connecting a ground pad to the ground line of a wiring pattern and passing through the second layered electrode in non-contact, to number of ground pads is 0.05 to 0.7. The ratio of number of second rod-shaped conductors, each constituting a conducting path part electrically connecting a power supply pad to the power supply line of the wiring pattern and passing through the first layered electrode in non-contact, to number of power supply pad is 0.05 to 0.7.
US07817435B2

A wiring substrate has a front face and a rear face opposed the front face. An electric component is mounted on the front face and is electrically connected to the wiring substrate at the rear face. A protection cover is comprised of a resin material and includes an upper plate, a lower plate and a connecting plate. The upper plate covers the electric component from above. The lower plate covers an electrical connection between the wiring substrate and the electric component from below. The connecting plate integrally connects the upper plate and the lower plate.
US07817434B2

A method and apparatus for improving the thermal conductivity of a circuit board (CB) assembly comprising an integrated circuit (IC) die mounted on a CB. A high thermal conductivity device is attached on a first end to a surface of the die. When the die is mounted on the CB, a void formed in the CB receives a second end of the HTC device, and the second end of the HTC device comes into contact with a portion of the CB. During operation of the die, heat produced by the die is dissipated through the HTC device and into the CB.
US07817430B2

An electronic module enclosure has a frame with an airflow opening. A gate positioned within airflow opening pivots between open and closed positions, allowing a maximum and minimum amount of airflow, respectively, through the airflow opening.
US07817429B2

A printed circuit board assembly and a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) having the same, and more particularly, to a printed circuit board assembly, wherein a board mounted with a heat dissipation plate and a time controller using a spring clip or a hook spring can prevent the board from sagging. An exemplary embodiment includes a heat dissipation plate, a protection plate and a thermal interface material to dissipate heat from a time controller, thereby efficiently dissipating heat from the time controller. Another exemplary embodiment includes a spring clip or a hook spring to increase contact forces among a protection plate, a heat dissipation plate and a board, thereby further improving heat dissipation performance. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention make it possible to provide a printed circuit board assembly, wherein a spring clip supports the bottom of a region of a board in which a time controller is mounted, thereby preventing sagging of the region of the board in which the time controller and a heat dissipation plate are mounted. An LCD having the printed circuit board assembly is also described.
US07817425B2

A heat dissipating apparatus for an IC chip, having a structure capable of effectively dissipating heat created by an IC chip to the outside, and a display module including the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the display module includes a panel that forms an image, a chassis disposed at the rear of the panel to support the panel, at least one IC chip that emits heat mounted on at least one circuit board installed at the rear of the chassis, and a heat dissipating apparatus that dissipates heat emitted by the IC chip to the outside. The heat dissipating apparatus is attached to contact the IC chip, and has a heat conducting chip contact plate, and a heat conducting heat discharging plate formed in one piece with a plurality of mutually proximal joining portions joined to the chip contact plate, and a plurality of heat dissipating portions bent to protrude outward from the joining portions to connect the joining portions.
US07817420B2

An enclosed electronic apparatus including a first continuous heat-transfer band forming at least a portion of the exterior surface of the enclosure, with continuous lateral edges on either side thereof, and mounting points on an internal side of the continuous heat transfer band to which a printed circuit board assembly is mountable. A printed circuit board assembly is mounted to the heat transfer band at the mounting points, with a thermally conductive portion forming a thermal path between a heat-producing electronic component of the printed circuit board assembly and the heat transfer band. A thermally conductive gasket between the printed circuit board assembly and the heat transfer band at the mounting points facilitates heat transfer. Opposing first and second enclosure portions seal the respective continuous lateral edges of the heat transfer band against penetration of fluid or debris. It is small, compact, lightweight, rugged and otherwise ergonomic for ease of use and protection from accidental impact caused by, for example, dropping the unit. The reliability of the system is improved because the internal electronic components are protected from moisture, dust, and other liquid or particle contaminants, all while maintaining an internal temperature that is lower than a maximum permissible operating temperature.
US07817419B2

A solar inverter assembly has a first housing part, which is used as a heat sink, and a second housing part for holding electronic components of the solar inverter. The first housing part has a first air inlet opening, a first air outlet opening and a first air channel connecting the air inlet and air outlet openings. Air flows on the basis of natural convection through the first air channel. The second housing part has a second air inlet opening, a second air outlet opening, and a second air channel which connects the second air inlet opening to the second air outlet opening. Air flows on the basis of natural convection through the second air channel. At least one electronic component, which is insensitive to dust, of the solar converter, for example a transformer or an inductor, is mounted in the second housing part in direct thermal contact with the first housing part and within the second air channel. Those electronic components of the solar inverter that are sensitive to dust are in contrast arranged in the second housing part, separated in a dust-tight manner by a separating wall from the second air channel, and make indirect thermal contact with the first housing part. A solar inverter such as this ensures high cooling power for its electronic components, and at the same time the high ingress-protection class.
US07817411B2

A display device with a document holding function includes a main body and an elongated rod. The elongated rod, which is pivotally connected to an edge of the main body, is swiveled relative to the main body, and selectively laid against or perpendicular to the edge of the main body. A curved wall extends from the elongated rod. A curved clip is pivotally connected to the elongated rod, and rotatable to be selectively laid against or away from the curved wall. When the curved clip is laid against the curved wall, a document is clamped between the curved clip and the curved wall.
US07817409B2

An electronic apparatus includes: a case having a first cover and a second cover, which form an internal space of the case in combination; a circuit substrate loaded with an electronic circuit and disposed in the internal space of the case; and a board member extending between the circuit substrate and the second cover, of the internal space of the case. The board member has: a first fixing section that fixes the circuit substrate between the first cover and the board member; and a second fixing section that is formed at a position different from the first fixing section and fixes the board member on the second cover.
US07817407B2

An electronic apparatus includes a battery housing section that houses a removable battery; and an electronic component housing section that houses a removable electronic component that operates with power supplied by the battery housed in the battery housing section. The apparatus further includes an electronic-component housing section cover that covers the electronic component housed in the electronic component housing section that is movable between a locked position in which its attachment is not allowed and an unlocked position in which its attachment is allowed. The electronic-component housing section cover is prohibited from moving from the locked position to the unlocked position when the battery is housed in the battery housing section and is allowed to move from the locked position to the unlocked position when the battery is removed from the battery housing section.
US07817403B2

A lithium ion capacitor having high energy density, high output density, high capacity and high safety includes a positive electrode made of a material capable of being reversibly doped with lithium ions and/or anions, a negative electrode made of a material capable of being reversively doped with lithium ions, and an aprotic organic solution of a lithium salt as an electrolytic solution. Wherein, the positive electrode and the negative electrode are laminated or wound with a separator interposed between them, the area of the positive electrode is smaller than the area of the negative electrode. The face of the positive electrode is substantially covered by the face of the negative electrode when they are laminated or wound.
US07817400B2

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a power supply to generate a supply current; at least one optoisolator coupled to the power supply and responsive to the supply current to generate a charging current; a capacitor, coupled to the at least one optoisolator, to build up a charge in response to the charging current; and an actuating switch, coupled to the capacitor, to release the charge from the capacitor to generate a relay actuating current.
US07817396B2

A plasma generation system includes a pulse generator having at least one switch and that is configured to convert a DC voltage to a desired high frequency, high breakdown voltage pulse sufficient to break down a high-breakdown voltage gap, wherein all pulse generator switches are solely low to medium voltage, high frequency switches, and further configured to apply the breakdown voltage to a plasma load for the generation of plasma. In one application, the plasma generation system is useful to manipulate the flow of jets and provide highly efficient acoustic noise reduction.
US07817390B2

An ESD protection circuit including a clamping module and a detecting module is provided. The clamping module is coupled between a positive power line and a negative power line. The detecting module includes a triggering unit, a resistor, and a MOS capacitor. An output terminal of the triggering unit is used for triggering the clamping module. The resistor is coupled between the negative power line and an input terminal of the triggering unit. The MOS capacitor is coupled between the positive power line and an input terminal of the triggering unit for ESD protection. During a normal power operation, a switching terminal of the triggering unit enables the MOS capacitor to be coupled between the negative power line and an input terminal of the triggering unit. Thereby, the gate tunneling leakage is eliminated and the problem of mistriggering is prevented.
US07817369B2

In a method of implementing power savings in an automated storage system, a power savings mode authorization is sent from a library controller to a tape drive, such that the tape drive is authorized to enter an extended power savings mode that maintains an operational host interface in the tape drive for communicating with a host system. A media move command is received at a tape library of the automated storage system. The media move command comprises a command from the host system for the tape library to move a tape cartridge to the tape drive. In response to receiving the media move command, an instruction is issued to the tape drive to transition from the extended power savings mode to an active power mode. The instruction is issued prior to notifying the host system of completion of the media move command.
US07817357B2

The present invention provides a display device having a large-area display region which is capable of performing an image display of high quality by making, even when two display panels abut on each other, an abutting portion becomes inconspicuous. Two optical path changing lenses LPL1, LPE2 are arranged in a state that respective optical path changing lenses LPL1, LPE2 have respective one sides thereof abutted on each other above an abutting portion BE of two display panels PNL1, PNL2. The abutted ends form a straight-line shape on the abutting portion BE. The first optical path changing lens LPL1 and the second optical path changing lens LPL2 have a lens shape such that the lenses change a optical path of an optical image at a portion remote from the abutting portion BE in the viewing point VP direction and, at the same time, an optical image of a non-display region BW including a picture frame where a shield frame SHD is present from a boundary of the abutting portion BE in the direction orthogonal to the abutting portion BE within a display screen is contracted and focused on the viewing point VP in the upward direction orthogonal to a display screen in a boundary of the abutting portion BE.
US07817349B2

A zoom lens is provided and includes: in order from an object side thereof, a first group having a positive refractive power; a second group having a negative refractive power; a stop; a third group having a negative refractive power, the third group including at least two positive lenses and at least two negative lenses; and a fourth group having a positive refractive power. Power variation from a wide angle end to a telephoto end of the zoom lens is performed by moving the second group to an image side along an optical axis thereof, while the first group and the third group are fixed, and correction of an image plane caused by the power variation and focusing is performed by moving the fourth group along the optical axis.
US07817346B2

A zoom lens includes, in an order from an object side, a first lens group having positive refractive power; a second lens group having negative refractive power; a third lens group having positive refractive power; and a fourth lens group having positive refractive power, and in which, during power variation from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, a distance between the first lens group and the second lens group increases, a distance between the second lens group and the third lens group decreases, and a distance between the third lens group and the fourth lens group decreases, and the zoom lens includes at least one cemented-triplet lens block having negative refractive power, in the fourth lens group.
US07817345B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an enlargement conjugate side to a reduction conjugate side, a first lens unit of negative refractive power; a second lens unit of positive refractive power; a third lens unit of positive refractive power, the third lens unit having at least three lens elements; a middle lens unit including at least one lens unit; and a last lens unit of positive refractive power. All the lens units, except the first lens unit and the last lens unit, move during zooming. The zoom lens satisfies appropriate conditions.
US07817339B2

A display panel for a 3-dimensional display device is provided. The display panel includes a plurality of unit pixels arranged in a matrix form having a row and column with each unit pixel including a plurality of sub-pixels. Further, the plurality of unit pixels form each of a plurality of pixels alternately arranged with each other for a viewer's left eye and pixels for the viewer's right eye. In addition, at least one unit pixel has a different arrangement of sub-pixels than another unit pixel.
US07817336B2

A telescopic tube includes an upper section tube and a lower section tube that are provided coaxially with each other. A plurality of connecting rods is provided between the upper and lower section tubes in parallel to the axis of the tube. Via the connecting rods, the upper section tube or the lower section tube can slide telescopically in the axial direction of the tube, thereby extending or retracting the tube.
US07817334B2

A wavelength conversion element includes a second harmonic wave generating element provided with an entrance surface and an emission surface, a function of converting an incident fundamental wave into a second harmonic wave with a different wavelength and emitting the second harmonic wave, and a cyclic polarization inversion structure configured so as to be able to match a phase of the second harmonic wave in a pseudo manner, and a first wavelength dispersive optical element disposed on the entrance surface side of the second harmonic wave generating element, having a first diffraction surface for diffracting an incident light beam with a diffraction angle increasing in accordance with a wavelength of an incident light beam to disperse the incident light beam by the wavelength of the incident light beam, and for emitting the light beam dispersed in the first diffraction surface towards the second harmonic wave generating element.
US07817332B2

An electromechanical dynamic force profile articulating mechanism for recovering or emulating true parallel plate capacitor actuation behaviors from deformable membranes used in MEMS systems. The curved deformation of flexible membranes causes their MEMS behavior to deviate from known interactions between rigid plates that maintain geometric parallelism during ponderomotive actuation. The present invention teaches three methods for reacquiring parallel plate behavior: superaddition or in situ integration of a rigid region within or upon the deformable MEMS membrane; creation of isodyne regions to secure parallelism by altering the force profile upon the membrane by introducing tuned and shaped voids within the conductive region associated with the membrane; and a hybrid composite approach wherein the conductive region is deposited after deposition of a raised rigid zone, thereby emulating isodyne behavior due to the increased inter-conductor distance in the vicinity of the rigid zone, in conjunction with rigidity benefits stemming directly from said zone.
US07817324B2

The projector has an intensity-modulable light source to emit a light beam onto a projection surface, as well as an optical switch connected after the light source for intensity modulation of the light beam emitted by the light source, and a control unit to control intensity modulation of the light source and the optical switch.
US07817323B2

An optical architecture comprises an optical scanning mechanism for use in imaging systems. With the optical scanning mechanism, illumination light from an illuminator can be directed to a target so as to generate an illumination field. The generated illumination field can be moved across the target so as to sequentially illuminate the image area on the target.
US07817322B2

An optical scanning element performs scanning with light by bringing a mirror portion into a swinging state by generating resonance oscillations of the mirror portion due to torsional oscillations. The optical scanning element has a first resonance frequency and a second resonance frequency which generate longitudinal oscillations and lateral oscillations on a lower region side and a high region side of a resonance frequency of the torsional oscillations respectively. Outputting of a drive signal is started by setting a frequency of a drive signal which is used for oscillating the optical scanning element to a specific frequency which falls between the first resonance frequency and the second resonance frequency and is higher than the resonance frequency of the torsional oscillations and, thereafter, the frequency of the outputted drive signal is shifted to the resonance frequency of the torsional oscillations after outputting of the drive signal is started.
US07817321B2

A scanning optical apparatus includes a light source, a deflecting element for deflecting a beam of light emitted from the light source, an optical device for causing the beam of light emitted from the light source to be imaged into a linear shape long in the main scanning direction on the deflecting surface of the deflecting element. The optical device is comprised of a first optical element and a second optical element, and a third optical element for causing the beam of light deflected by the deflecting element to be imaged into a spot-like shape on a surface to be scanned. The third optical element includes a single lens, the opposite lens surfaces of which both include a toric surface of an aspherical surface shape in the main scanning plane, the curvatures of the opposite lens surfaces in the sub scanning plane being continuously varied from the on-axis toward the off-axis in the effective portion of the lens.
US07817312B2

An image acquiring device includes a scanning module, an optical signal transmission medium and a mainboard module. In the scanning module having a rechargeable battery, a scanning unit scans a document to obtain an electrical document signal, a first signal converter is connected to the scanning unit and converts the electrical document signal into an optical document signal, and a first signal transmitting unit is connected to the first signal converter and receives and outputs the optical document signal. The optical signal transmission medium is connected to the first signal transmitting unit. On a mainboard of the mainboard module, a second signal input/output unit is connected to the optical signal transmission medium and receives the optical document signal, and a second signal converter is connected to the second signal input/output unit and converts the optical document signal into the electrical document signal.
US07817310B2

A sheet-size detecting mechanism for an image scanning apparatus detects the width of a sheet before a complete image of a sheet is acquired by the means of varying optical paths and obtaining a partial image of the sheet in advance so as to judge a width of the sheet. The mechanism includes a light source, a reflecting device having at least one reflecting mirror, a path-routing device, a photosensor, and a detecting position defined on a sheet transporting path of the sheet. The path-routing device may be rotatable, movable or fixed and reflects light rays from the detecting position and a scanning position. The path-routing device changes the optical path so that the partial image of the sheet at the detecting position may be acquired and the width of the sheet may be judged precisely. In addition, the manufacturing cost can be decreased because the sheet-size detecting mechanism and an image scan mechanism may have shared components.
US07817308B2

The image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording sheet based on an input image signal includes a halftone processor that applies a halftone process to an input image signal with a predetermined halftone processing period, and an add-on processor that attaches, to the image signal subjected to the halftone process, an add-on signal with an add-on period which is determined according to the halftone process period. The invention enables to suppress an image deterioration and to improve detection accuracy of the add-on signal.
US07817307B2

A raster image processing system and method accepts a digital page description as a series of page elements (text, graphics, images, etc.) and creates output video-ready (“flattened”) raster without allocating large amounts of raster memory (arrays of pixels) and without creating a display list of all page elements. This technique improves performance (greater speed with fewer resources consumed) in the typical output process: rendering, image processing, compression, and transmission. The method records each page element in memory in a manner that largely retains the inherent compression of the element description, and fully retains the positional relationships with its neighboring elements. Where an incoming page element overlaps an existing one, the intersections are calculated on the fly, and elements underneath are immediately split, merged, shrunken, or deleted. Each incoming page element is immediately processed and recorded as described above, and then discarded. The result is a continuously precise, simple, non-overlapping (“flat”) representation of the final output raster. In other words, in one embodiment, the representation starts empty, then stays compressed and flat throughout while accumulating representations of page elements.
US07817306B2

This invention provides for a method of page expansion and printing of image data received from a computer. The method includes the steps of receiving a page description from the computer, the page having a bi-level black layer compressed in an EDRL (Edge Delta and Runlength) format and a continuous tone (“contone”) layer, and decompressing the respective layers in parallel. The method also includes the steps of halftoning the contone layer data to a bi-level data and compositing the bi-level black layer over the bi-level data to form an image, and transmitting the image data for printing to a pagewidth printhead arrangement. The method includes operating the printhead according to one of a low-speed nozzle firing mode and a high-speed firing mode, the low-speed firing mode having a firing rate half that of the high-speed firing mode.
US07817305B2

In a method, a printing system and a computer program for trapping of print data with a plurality of objects, the print data are generated, prepared and/or transferred together with trapping instructions in a print data stream for execution of the trapping. The print data stream references resource data that comprise trapping parameters and/or trapping instructions. The method can be executed in real time without a delay in the printing process hereby occurring. It can therefore be integrated into a print data stream for electrographic high-capacity printers.
US07817297B2

To provide an image processing technique compatible with both a CCD and a CIS, which controls storage of image data read by each device in a memory and the read of the stored data for each rectangular area to obtain a high memory efficiency, an image processing apparatus includes an input section which executes input processing of image data read by an image reading device in accordance with the data output format of the device, an output data control section which distributes the image data that has undergone the input processing by the input section in accordance with the output format of the image reading device, an address generation section which generates address information corresponding to the output format to store the distributed image data in a memory, and a memory control section which DMA-transfers the distributed image data to the memory and stores the image data on the basis of the generated address information.
US07817296B2

Management of multiple paper sources during printing is provided. A setting screen allows setting a page layout indicating a number of pages to be arranged on a single face of a sheet of paper. An additional setting screen having different setting items allows setting of multiple paper feed sources for a single print job where the paper feed sources include a paper feed source for the first page of the print job and another paper feed source for a page different from the first page. The page layout may be changed in accordance with an operation on a page image indicating a set page layout when the additional setting screen includes the page image. In addition, both setting screens may be provided by a single printer driver.
US07817291B2

In an image forming device, an identification data input unit receives a first user-identification data which identifies a user of the image forming device and is inputted by the user. A data comparison unit detects whether the first user-identification data matches with a second user-identification data received from a host terminal before or after an image output request is received or concurrently with receipt of the image output request. A management information transmitting unit transmits an image output enabled state notice to the host terminal in response to the image output request when the first user-identification data matches with the second user-identification data. An image output unit receives image data transmitted by the host terminal in response to the image output enabled state notice, and outputs an image based on the received image data.
US07817285B2

An instrument for use in a borehole, the instrument including a pressure tuned light source disposed in a housing adapted for insertion into the borehole.
US07817284B2

Interference in a rotation rate detector signal of an interferometric fiber-optic gyroscope from a bias phase modulator signal may be reduced or substantially avoided by transmitting one or more off-frequency signals having a frequency other than the eigenfrequency of the gyroscope towards a bias phase modulator, generating the bias phase modulator signal having a frequency substantially equal to the eigenfrequency of the gyroscope, and driving the bias phase modulator with the bias phase modulator signal.
US07817281B2

An inhomogeneous optical cavity is tuned by changing its shape, such as by changing reflection surface positions to change tilt angle, thickness, or both. Deformable components such as elastomer spacers can be connected so that, when deformed, they change relative positions of structures with light-reflective components such as mirrors, changing cavity shape. Electrodes can cause deformation, such as electrostatically, electromagnetically, or piezoelectrically, and can also be used to measure thicknesses of the cavity. The cavity can be tuned, for example, across a continuous spectrum, to a specific wavelength band, to a shape that increases or decreases the number of modes it has, to a series of transmission ranges each suitable for a respective light source, with a modulation that allows lock-in with photosensing for greater sensitivity, and so forth. The optical cavity can be a linear variable filter fabricated on the photosensitive surface of a photosensing component such as a photosensor array or a position-sensitive detector.
US07817270B2

A nanosecond pump-probe LFP system is disclosed and adapted to a substantially lower energy requirement of a pump light source and to electronically extend a time interval during which a chemical change of a sample may be measured. The LFP system includes a photonic crystal fiber based probe light source, a pump light source adapted to produce light pulses with microjoule or higher energy, a delay generator, computer, and a detector.
US07817268B2

The present invention provides a spectroscopic system as well as a method of autonomous tuning of a spectroscopic system and a corresponding computer program product. By detecting the position of return radiation in a transverse plane of an aperture of a spectroscopic analysis unit, a control signal can be generated that allows to drive servo driven translation or tilting stages of optical components. In this way a transverse misalignment of a spectroscopic system can be effectively detected. Generally, a plurality of different detection schemes are realizable allowing for an autonomous tuning of the spectroscopic system and for autonomous elimination of misalignment of a spectroscopic system.
US07817267B2

A system for multispectral confocal mapping of a tissue, comprising: a light source; an optical fiber having an aperture providing a confocal pinhole, a scanner being free-space coupled to said aperture and operative to scan the tissue and provide intensity signals for each of a plurality of points therein; a switch or modulator operative to convert input signals to optical pulses; a reflector that receives the optical pulses and provides a temporal sequence of wavelength selective reflections; and, a detector optically coupled to receive the temporal sequence of wavelength selective reflections.
US07817260B2

A method and apparatus for inspecting a specimen are provided. The apparatus comprises a primary illumination source, a catadioptric objective exhibiting central obscuration that directs light energy received from the primary illumination source at a substantially normal angle toward the specimen, and an optical device, such as a prism or reflective surface, positioned within the central obscuration resulting from the catadioptric objective for receiving further illumination from a secondary illumination source and diverting the further illumination to the specimen. The method comprises illuminating a surface of the specimen at a variety of angles using a primary illumination source, illuminating the surface using a secondary illumination source, the illuminating by the secondary illumination source occurring at a substantially normal angle of incidence; and imaging all reflected, scattered, and diffracted light energy received from the surface onto a detector.
US07817253B2

A distance measurement method, medium, and apparatus for measuring a distance between the distance measurement apparatus and a target object are provided. The distance measurement method comprises counting pulses of a clock pulse signal having a low frequency during a period from when an optical pulse signal is applied to a target object by a distance measurement apparatus to when the optical pulse signal reflected from the target object is received by the distance measurement apparatus, counting pulses of the clock pulse signal during a period from when the optical pulse signal is received by the distance measurement apparatus to when the received optical pulse signal and the clock pulse signal correspond to each other, and calculating a distance between the distance measurement apparatus and the target object using the counting results. Accordingly, the distance can be measured with high accuracy using the optical pulse signal and the clock pulse signal, thereby reducing costs and power consumption.
US07817252B2

A holder is described for carrying a photolithography mask in a flattened condition. The holder may include a mask chuck and may be able to flatten a mask for use in photolithography. In one example, the holder may include a substrate and a plurality of independently controllable actuators coupled to the substrate and coupled to a photolithography mask to flatten the photolithography mask.
US07817246B2

An optical apparatus is disclosed that has a convex mirror and a concave mirror with an aperture, wherein, in use, radiation from a radiation emitter passes through the aperture and is incident upon the convex mirror before being incident upon the concave mirror, the optical apparatus arranged to form the radiation into a radiation beam, wherein the concave mirror is translatable towards and away from the convex mirror or the convex mirror is translatable towards and away from the concave mirror, to adjust divergence of the radiation beam.
US07817244B2

An exposure apparatus performs exposure for a substrate by filling a space between a projection optical system and the substrate with a liquid and projecting an image of a pattern onto the substrate through the liquid by using the projection optical system. The exposure apparatus includes a substrate stage for holding the substrate, a liquid supply unit for supplying the liquid to a side of an image plane of the projection optical system, and a focus/leveling-detecting system for detecting surface information about a surface of the substrate not through the liquid. The exposure apparatus performs liquid immersion exposure for the substrate while adjusting a positional relationship between the surface of the substrate and the image plane formed through the projection optical system and the liquid, on the basis of the surface information detected by the focus/leveling-detecting system. The liquid immersion exposure can be performed at a satisfactory pattern transfer accuracy.
US07817243B2

A vibration isolation system isolates a body from its surroundings with respect to vibrations. The vibration isolation system includes active isolator devices that isolate and damp the body in unstable directions. However, such active isolators may exert damping forces not only in the unstable direction, but simultaneously in other stable directions due to mechanical coupling of the stable and unstable directions. As a result the damping and isolation in the other stable directions may be deteriorated due to the active isolation and damping. Employing modal decoupling, i.e. decomposing any vibration into independent directions, and isolating and damping in the independent directions, enables compensation of any vibration in an unstable direction without influencing the isolation and damping performance in any other, possibly stable, direction.
US07817234B2

A liquid crystal display panel comprising a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer is provided. The first substrate has an active device array, a pixel electrode layer and a plurality of first alignment patterns. Each first alignment pattern has at least a first shrinking area. The width of the first shrinking area is smaller than that of the other area of the first alignment pattern. The second substrate is disposed above the first substrate and has an electrode layer and a plurality of second alignment patterns. The second alignment patterns and the first alignment patterns are staggered. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The present invention can provide better dynamic pictures.
US07817231B2

A liquid crystal display device is provided that comprises a gate line; a first insulating film on the gate line; a data line crossing the gate line to define a pixel region, the pixel region having a transmissive area and a reflective area; a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line; a pixel electrode formed in the pixel region; a second insulating film on the thin film transistor; a storage capacitor including a storage upper electrode overlapping the gate line; a transmission hole exposing at least a portion of the pixel electrode, and a reflective electrode formed in the reflective area of the pixel region, the reflective electrode connecting the pixel electrode with thin film transistor and the storage upper electrode, wherein the gate line and the pixel electrode include a first transparent conductive layer.
US07817210B2

An image processing method comprising: reading out corrected data from a memory which prestored the corrected data, by referring to low P bit (P is an integer number ≧1, and ≦to M) in M bits digital image data (M is an integer number ≧to 2); calculating corrected data based on data for operation read out from the memory which prestored the data, wherein the data is read out by referring to high R bit (R is an integer number ≧1, and ≦M−1) in the digital image data; and outputting the read-out corrected data in a case that a value of the digital image data is not greater than a predetermined value, and outputting the calculated corrected data in a case that the value is greater than the predetermined value.
US07817206B2

An embodiment of the invention is a method of generating a final exposure setting, including, (a) selecting one of a number of predetermined exposure settings as a current exposure setting for a solid state camera having a camera imager, (b) generating a captured scene by the camera imager using the current exposure setting, (c) selecting according to an automated search methodology another one of the exposure settings to be the current setting in response to the captured scene being underexposed or overexposed, and, (d) repeating (b) and (c) until the captured scene is neither underexposed or overexposed.
US07817198B2

The present invention relates to an active pixel array of a CMOS image sensor. The active pixel array includes a pixel sensor array in which a pixel sensor which detects first and second light signals, of which the wavelengths are different from each other, among all wavelengths of light signals so as to generate current and voltage signals and a pixel sensor which detects a third light signal with a predetermined wavelength so as to generate a current or voltage signal are alternately arranged; and a color filter array that is formed on the pixel sensor array and in which a filter which transmits all wavelengths of light signals and a filter which transmits the third signal with a predetermined wavelength are alternately arranged.
US07817193B2

An image pickup apparatus includes an image pickup device generating image signals of picked up images; a converting unit converting the image signals generated by the image pickup device to digital image signals; a memory storing the image signals obtained by the converting unit; and a memory control unit controlling writing the image signals in the memory and reading the image signals from the memory. The memory control unit assigns bands of the memory in order to simultaneously perform writing image signals in the memory and reading the image signals from the memory for displaying picked up images and/or reading the image signals from the memory for recording picked up images at different frame rates.
US07817192B2

An image-taking apparatus preferable for saving image data in folders as desired by a user for each scene or date of image-taking is disclosed. The image-taking apparatus of the present invention comprises an image processing circuit which creates image data files based on output from an image-pickup device, and a filing system which saves created image data files in a folder created on a recording medium with a different file number assigned to each image data file and performs a numbering process in which it assigns file numbers sequentially from an initial number. The filing system creates a new folder on the recording medium in accordance with operation of an operating member by a user and starts the numbering process on image data files to be saved in the new folder from the initial number.
US07817184B1

Methods of testing receiver video fidelity are disclosed. One example method includes producing a video test signal; coupling the video test signal into an input of the receiver, wherein the video test signal is configured to cause a decoder to output a step function signal upon processing the video test signal; coupling the step function signal to a display rate converter; and measuring signal characteristics of signals provided at a receiver output.
US07817181B2

A method, medium, and apparatus for 3-dimensional encoding and/or decoding of videos, including adapting to temporal and spatial characteristics of the videos. Methods include performing temporal estimation on videos taken by a camera located in a centerly position with reference to videos taken by the same camera at immediately previous times, when a plurality of other cameras are arranged in a row, and performing temporal-spatial estimation on videos taken by the other cameras with reference to previous videos taken by cameras adjacent to the camera located in the centerly position.
US07817175B2

A laser induced thermal imaging apparatus and a fabricating method of organic light emitting diodes using the same, which laminate an acceptor substrate and a donor film using a magnetic force in vacuum, and are used to form a pixel array on the acceptor substrate. A substrate stage includes a magnet or magnetic substance. The acceptor substrate has a pixel region for forming first, second, and third sub-pixels, and the donor film has an organic light emission layer to be transferred to the pixel region. A laser oscillator irradiates a laser to the donor film. A contact frame is adapted to be disposed between the substrate stage and the laser oscillator, and is used to form a magnetic force with the substrate stage. The contact frame includes an opening through which the laser passes. A contact frame feed mechanism moves the contact frame in a direction of the substrate stage.
US07817162B2

A computer simulation and virtual reality system simulates the use of a blasting nozzle to remove one or more coatings and/or rust from a virtual surface. The user operates an electronic controller in the form of a blasting nozzle that outputs a signal indicating whether the blasting nozzle controller is in an “on” position or in an “off” position. The system also has a motion tracking system that tracks the position and orientation of the blasting nozzle controller with respect to the virtual surface defined on the display screen. Simulation software in a computer generates virtual blast pattern data, and the removal of the virtual coating(s) and/or rust image from the virtual surface is displayed in real time on the display screen.
US07817160B2

A method and system for synthesizing texture using a preprocessed exemplar image and a neighborhood-matching per-pixel texture synthesis correction technique. The sub-pass correction system and method alters pixel coordinates to recreate neighborhoods similar to those in the exemplar image. In the context of parallel texture synthesis, instead of synthesizing all pixels of an image simultaneously, the sub-pass correction system and method allows neighbors to be corrected in different sub-passes. Each pixel, therefore, benefits from the correction of some of its neighbors in previous sub-passes. This reduces the required number of global correction passes to obtain good synthesis results Generally, one or more correction passes are performed, with each correction pass divided into a plurality of correction sub-passes. A number of pixel coordinates are corrected in parallel during each of the correction sub-passes.
US07817159B2

A user identifies an area of a digital canvas. Color gradients are determined based on a corresponding area on a reference. Brush strokes are applied in the area of the digital canvas, the brush strokes having trajectories based on the color gradients.
US07817153B2

A rendering apparatus includes a rasterizer, pixel processing units and memories. The rasterizer generates pixels corresponding to graphics. The pixel processing units execute rendering operations for the pixels generated by the rasterizer. The pixels rendered by the same pixel processing unit are positioned substantially equidistantly and isotropically within a rendering area. The memories are provided in association with the respective pixel processing units and store data of the pixels rendered by the associated pixel processing units.
US07817150B2

A computer-implemented system for representing a production environment comprises a modeling module that creates a three-dimensional model of at least a portion of a production environment. The system also includes a view module that renders a graphical depiction of at least a portion of the three-dimensional model from a reference point that is based at least in part upon a location. Methods of using the system are also provided.
US07817144B2

An information input display apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes: an information display unit formed with a flexible material; an information input unit provided at a back of the information display unit and including keys onto which input of data is performed with a pressing-down process involving a deformation of the information display unit; and a control unit adapted to perform control processing of display information supplied to the information display unit, and key setting processing such that a key of the information input unit at a position corresponding to a data input portion contained in the display information is set as an information input key corresponding to the displayed data input portion.
US07817134B2

A pointing device is disclosed in the present invention, which comprises a planar sensing unit, an inertial sensing unit and a controller unit. The planar sensing unit is capable of detecting a movement of the point device moving on a planar surface and generating a planar sensing signal accordingly. The inertial sensing unit is capable of detecting a movement of the point device while it is moving in a free space and thus generating an inertial sensing signal accordingly. The controller unit is coupled to the planar sensing unit and the inertial sensing unit for enabling the same to receive and process the planar sensing signal and the inertial sensing signal. In a preferred aspect, the planar sensing unit is capable of detecting and determining whether the pointing device is operating on a surface or in a free space for selectively enabling the pointing device to operate in a mode of two-dimensional detection or in a mode of three-dimensional detection such that users can apply the pointing device freely without being restricted by a surface or a space, and thus not only the usage convenience of the pointing device is enhanced, but also the applications thereof are broadened.
US07817121B2

Physical barriers (210) are present between neighbouring pixels (200) on a circuit substrate (100) of an active-matrix electroluminescent display device, particularly with LEDs (25) of organic semiconductor materials. The invention forms these barriers (210) with metal or other electrically-conductive material (240) that serves as an interconnection between a first circuit element (21, 4, 5, 6, 140, 150, 160, T1, T2, Tm, Tg, Ch) of the circuit substrate and a second circuit element (400, 400s, 23), for example, a sensor (400s) of a sensor array supported over the pixel array. The conductive barrier material (240) is insulated (40) at the sides of the barriers adjacent to the LEDs and has an un-insulated top connection area (240t) at which the second circuit element is connected to the conductive barrier material (240).
US07817116B2

A TFT for controlling the amount of current flowing into a power supply line when an EL element does not emit light (electric discharge TFT) is provided in each pixel. When an EL driving TFT is turned ON to make an EL element emit light, the electric discharge TFT is turned OFF. On the other hand, the electric discharge TFT is turned ON when the EL driving TFT is turned OFF and no EL element emit light. Therefore variation of the difference in electric potential over the length of a power supply line depending on an image to be displayed is contained. Thus reduced is the difference in amount of current flowing into EL elements in adjacent pixels while the EL elements emit light, thereby avoiding crosstalk.
US07817114B2

A display apparatus includes a plurality of pixel circuits, wherein each of the pixel circuits comprises a light emitting element, a drive transistor for supplying the light emitting element with a current, as a driving current, of a quantity corresponding to a potential between a gate and a source of the drive transistor, a first switch for controlling a flow of the current supplied to the light emitting element, a second switch for switching between a first state of setting the potential between the gate and the source of the drive transistor and a second state of holding the potential between the gate and the source of the drive transistor, and a circuit for supplying the first switch with a signal for switching a state of controlling the flowing of the current of the driving current. In addition, a circuit supplies the second switch with a signal for switching the second switch between the first and second states, and a circuit sets the potential between the gate and the source of the driving transistor at a potential to flow the driving current so as to set the light emitting element at a low level driving state, at a time of starting a power source or a waiting state of the power source, and under a state that the first switch suppresses the flowing of the driving current and the second switch is at the first state.
US07817108B2

A plasma display for causing a stable discharge at all lines and eliminating a side abnormal discharge is disclosed. In the plasma display, a width of at least one of electrodes at a first scan line selected firstly of scan lines is different from a width of electrodes provided at other scan lines excluding the first scan line.
US07817107B2

A cooling apparatus of a plasma display panel and a method for stabilizing the PDP to minimize the residual image on the display are disclosed. In particular, the present invention minimizes the residual image that is generated due to the degeneration of phosphors caused by a high voltage and a high temperature.
US07817103B2

A dual band multi-pitch helical antenna (101) includes a first section (201) positioned adjacent to the feed point having a widely spaced pitch. A second section (203) is attached to the first section (201) having a narrowly spaced pitch. A third section (205) is attached to the second section (203) having a widely spaced pitch, while a fourth section (207) is attached to the third section (205) having a narrowly spaced pitch. The antenna further includes a parasitic element (213a/213b) that is positioned adjacent to each of the first section (201), second section (203), third section (205), and fourth section (207) for enhancing broad-band antenna performance. A matching network (216) is connected between an antenna feed point and the first section (201) for matching the dual band multi-pitch helical antenna to a predetermined feed point impedance such that the antenna is resonant in at least two frequency bands.
US07817099B2

According to one embodiment of the invention, a radome cover for an RF sensor has been provided. The radome cover comprises a ceramic core and at least two layers. The ceramic core is sandwiched between the at least two layers and the at least two layers are impedance matched to the ceramic core. The radome cover provides ballistic protection for the RF sensor.
US07817098B2

A medical device and system is provided with a device housing and with a radio frequency detection device. The radio frequency detection device is functionally connected to an antenna for detecting a radio frequency identification element. The radio frequency detection device has a transmitter and an at least partly electrically conductive shield, which encloses at least the transmitter such that a field generated by the transmitter is effectively shielded towards the outside and the antenna is arranged within the housing and outside the shield.
US07817096B2

Multi-array antennas providing dual electrical azimuth beam steering, combined mechanical and electrical azimuth steering, independent mechanical column steering and dual mechanical steering. Systems incorporating such antennas and methods of controlling them are also provided.
US07817093B2

An apparatus has an antenna distance setting mechanism that sets a distance between a cosmetic cover and a radio antenna. An upper housing and a radio antenna, which has a ground and a radiating element and is movably attached to the upper housing, are covered by a cosmetic cover formed of a dielectric material. An antenna distance setting mechanism includes a radio antenna supporting member, elastic members, and protrusions. The radio antenna-supporting member is movably attached to the upper housing. When the cosmetic cover is attached to the upper housing, an inner wall of the cosmetic cover pushes the ends of the protrusions against an elastic force of the elastic members to set the distance between the radiating element and the inner wall of the cosmetic cover to a predetermined distance.
US07817087B2

A method and system to passively navigate an orbiting moving body towards an orbiting target using reflected GPS signals. A pair of antennas is employed to receive both direct signals from a plurality of GPS satellites and a second antenna to receive GPS signals reflected off an orbiting target. The direct and reflected signals are processed and compared to determine the relative distance and position of the orbiting moving body relative to the orbiting target.
US07817086B2

The vector coordinates of each acquired satellite are calculated, the vector coordinates being given by the coordinates of an end point of a vector of which the direction coincides with the direction (azimuth) of the corresponding acquired satellite based on the present position and the magnitude corresponds to a signal strength. An overall BOP that indicates the deflection of the acquired satellite signals is calculated by adding up the vector coordinates of each acquired satellite signal. The position of the overall BOP indicates the direction of deflection (deflection azimuth) of the acquired satellite signals, and the distance from an origin O indicates the degree of deflection (deflection strength) of the acquired satellite signals.
US07817081B2

Provided is a radar apparatus that detects an object, and includes: an oscillating unit for generating carrier waves; first and second transmission units for spreading the carrier waves, respectively using a first pseudo-random code and a second pseudo-random code different from the first pseudo-random code; a first transmission antenna for transmitting the carrier waves spread by the first transmission unit; a second transmission antenna for transmitting the carrier waves spread by the second transmission unit and have a directional characteristic different from that of the carrier waves transmitted by the first transmission antenna; a reception antenna for receiving reflected waves that are the carrier waves that have been transmitted by the first and second transmission antennas and have been reflected from the object; and a reception unit for despreading the reflected waves, using the first pseudo-random code and despreading the reflected waves, using the second pseudo-random code.
US07817069B2

A data processing method where a source bit stream is manipulated to produce four intermediate streams: flag bits, literals, offsets and lengths. Flag bits are grouped into multi-bit units, and an output stream containing flag units, literals, offsets and lengths is emitted. The output stream occupies fewer bits than the source bit stream, but encodes all the data of the source bit stream.
US07817068B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a bus architecture utilizing multiple-pumped serial links, and a combination of encoding and serialization to two data streams to transmit and receive a serialized data stream over a bus. The order in which encoding and serialization takes place depends upon the anticipated activity factors of the two data streams, and is chosen to reduce average energy dissipation. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07817064B2

A detecting unit that is provided at a detection position on a road detects a road condition near the detection position. A light emitting unit that is provided at the detection position emits a light. A control unit controls a light emission of the light emitting unit based on detected road condition.
US07817063B2

An elevated mesh network supported and operably coupled to street lamps can be used to remotely monitor and control field devices. The packet transceiver modules of the mesh network can also be coupled to sensors that monitor operation of a street lamp as well as environmental conditions. The elevated mesh network supported by street lamps can use RF links to couple with one or more remote field devices that also have packet transceiver modules. The elevated mesh network can also include a communications gateway that couples the elevated mesh network to an asynchronous communications system. The communications gateway is a store and forward system that can periodically connect to the asynchronous communications system in order to upload compressed data derived from the remote field devices. The asynchronous communications system can connect the elevated mesh network to a back-end computer system that may monitor, diagnose, and control the remote field devices.
US07817054B2

An electronic device having several alarm functions checks to see if a first alarm type can be executed at a preset time, and if not, executes a second alarm type. The alarm types may be playing a received broadcast, playing a stored multimedia file, sounding a tone, or vibrating. If playing a received broadcast is selected as the first alarm type and playing an MP3 file is selected as the second alarm type, and when at the preset time, the broadcast cannot be received, then the MP3 file will be played.
US07817051B2

A power converter including a processor, at least one component whose health in the power converter will degrade over time, and at least one alarm is disclosed. The processor is configured for monitoring the health of the component over time, and for activating the alarm when the monitored health of the component reaches a threshold level.
US07817048B2

A fire extinguishing system for suppressing fires on cook stoves, fryers or other heating or heated devices with fire suppressant dispensed through nozzles is powered by batteries which provide current for both a detection circuit including a pair of heat sensors and control circuitry and current for a gas or electric house current shut-off. The appliance shut-off device is operated by the standard hardwired interconnect cable that provides a signal between the control board and shutoff device or by an optional sonic receiver assembly that is acoustically tuned to detect an audible alarm emitted by a signal from the main control board. Preferably, the heat sensors are diodes, but in alternative embodiments may be thermistors or active temperature sensors. Mounting of heat sensors and nozzles are facilitated by tees and 90 degree elbows. While the standard interconnect cable is usually used between the control circuitry and shutoff device, a wireless link, such as the sonic receiver assembly, may also be used with the shutoff device.
US07817045B2

A device for nullifying an exception RFID tag associated with a product or package includes a label with a replacement RFID tag configured thereon. The label is configured for placement on a package or product adjacent to the exception RFID tag. An electromagnetic shield is configured on the label and has a size and configuration so as to extend over the exception RFID tag when the label is placed adjacent thereto so as to disable subsequent reading of the exception RFID tag.
US07817043B2

The present invention provides an RF tag which does not have an integrated circuit such as a silicon chip, can retain a plurality of information, can rewrite or add the information, and is inexpensive. The RF tag includes an RF resonance circuit which has at least two capacitors connected in series or parallel and at least one coil antenna formed on a substrate, wherein at least one of the capacitors is an anti-fuse which irreversibly short-circuits when a voltage higher than a threshold voltage is applied to the anti-fuse, and the surface of an electrode constituting the capacitor has a mean roughness of 1 μm or less.
US07817039B2

Systems, methods and computer program products, implementing techniques for automatic data acquisition and the real-time display of automatically acquired data. A system implementing the techniques includes one or more automatic data acquisition devices that emit data; and a data integration system that receives data from the automatic data acquisition devices and processes the data. The data integration system includes a display system for displaying the data to a user. The display system is operable to generate a graphical display and to update the graphical display automatically and only when new data from the automatic data acquisition devices is available. The display system is operable to update only affected parts of the graphical display but not necessarily the entire display.
US07817036B2

A system and method for automatically determining a physical location of one or more units in a rack, including: using one or more physical cables between rack units; cascading a first signal through the one or more units located in the rack, the first signal being encoded with a unit number and a physical parameter; and creating a rack ID by utilizing hardware parameters, the hardware parameters being determined by: detecting a second signal that exists from a bottom unit, the bottom unit located at the bottom of the rack; and using a third signal to send data between the one or more units in the rack by manipulating void spaces within the rack, the third signal being either cabled or an optical signal.
US07817027B2

The present invention is, in one embodiment, directed to a system and method to encourage seat belt use among all passengers in a vehicle. The system and method use media driver and entertainment devices to reward seat belt usage in all seating positions.
US07817024B2

An air pressure sensor (2) for a vehicle tire warning system includes a tubular housing (21) defining a chamber (218), an air pressure actuating device seated in the chamber and being moveable back and forth in the chamber in response to air pressure change in the vehicle tire, and a switch device to electrically connect a high air pressure warning circuit or a low air pressure warning circuit under the drive of the air pressure actuating device. The chamber of the tubular housing is communicated to the atmosphere via a connecting pipe (29).
US07817018B2

A car antitheft system includes a main controller invisibly mounted on a car, and an antitheft state indicator embedded in an engine start button of the car and electrically connected to the main controller for indicating a current antitheft state of the car. With these arrangements, the engine start button serves to start the car when the car antitheft system is released, and to indicate the current antitheft state of the car when the car antitheft system is enabled and the antitheft state indicator embedded in the engine start button is lighted, so as to warn and stop a thief from invading the car.
US07817015B1

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag is provided with a capability to adaptively initiate a floating RF threshold from the level of a raw RF signal detected during a communication session with a designated RFID reader, and to compare that threshold with the level of a baseband signal derived from the RF signal so as to reject RF interference including noise from other sources during the communication session. Preferably, the threshold is derived from the peak level of the detected RF signal on commencement of each communication from the reader during the session.
US07817006B2

First and second components may be precisely attached to form an apparatus. In an example embodiment, a first component includes a first field emission structure, and a second component includes a second field emission structure. The first and second components are adapted to be attached to each other with the first field emission structure in proximity to the second field emission structure such that the first and second field emission structures have a predetermined alignment with respect to each other. Each of the first and second field emission structures include multiple field emission sources having positions and polarities relating to a predefined spatial force function that corresponds to the predetermined alignment of the first and second field emission structures within a field domain. The first and second field emission structures are configured responsive to at least one precision criterion to enable a precision attachment.
US07817003B2

A device is described herein that incorporates correlated magnets which enable a cover to be easily and effectively attached to and removed from a compartment. Some examples of such a device include a remote control unit, a calculator, a clock-radio, a mobile phone, a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a camera, a television, a portable media player, and a handheld electronic game unit.
US07817002B2

A belt is described herein that uses correlated magnets to enable objects to be secured thereto and removed therefrom. Some examples of such a belt include a construction work belt, a soldier belt, an astronaut belt a home handyman belt, a plumber's belt, an electrician's belt, a telephone repairman's belt, a lineman's belt, a fisherman's belt, a hunter's belt, a sports belt, and a scuba weight belt. For instance, the scuba weigh belt can have different types of objects secured thereto and removed therefrom such as a weight pouch, a utility pocket, a dive light (flash light), a camera, a scuba lanyard, a navigation board, a depth gauge, a spear gun, or any type of military equipment.
US07816998B2

A film bulk acoustic resonator includes a lower electrode that is formed on a void of a substrate or is formed so that a void is formed between the lower electrode and the substrate, a piezoelectric film that is formed on the lower electrode, an upper electrode that is formed on the piezoelectric film so as to have a resonance region facing the lower electrode through the piezoelectric film, a support region that is provided around the resonance region, has a width of 0.35 times to 0.65 times a wavelength of a wave propagating in a lateral direction, and transmits the wave passes, and an adjacent region that is provided around the support region and blocks the wave.
US07816997B2

An antenna multiplexer with a pi-network circuit is described, having an inductance connected in series and, on each of the two connection sides of the inductance, a capacitance connected in parallel. The pi-network circuit is used for effecting an impedance mismatch of a signal path of the antenna multiplexer.
US07816990B2

A variable gain amplification circuit comprises a signal generator that has an output terminal and is able to vary an output amplitude; a variable capacitor connected between the output terminal and an AC grounded terminal; and a control circuit for controlling the output amplitude of the signal generator, and a capacitance of the variable capacitor. Therefore, unnecessary signals can be attenuated even when the gain is low, and degradation in distortion characteristics in the latter block can be suppressed.
US07816987B2

A driver circuit comprises: differential amplification stages connected in series, and at least two cross-point adjuster circuits respectively connected to at least two differential amplification stages of the differential amplification stages. The cross-point adjuster circuits control at least one of the positive-phase and negative-phase DC levels of a corresponding differential amplification stage and adjust the cross point of the output signals of the corresponding differential amplification stage.
US07816983B2

A differential-pair amplifier comprising a transistor pair. The differential-pair amplifier includes a current source coupled to the transistor pair for providing a bias current to the transistor pair. The differential-pair amplifier also includes a switching mechanism coupled to the transistor pair for steering the bias current away from the transistor pair when disabling the amplifier operation. A system and method in accordance with the present invention allows fast enabling and disabling of a differential-pair amplifier. This fast switching technique can be used in the signal paths where the switching time is critical.
US07816975B2

A bias voltage generation circuit is provided which includes a voltage-to-current translation circuit configured to generate a first current that is positively related to a first voltage. A current mirror circuit is configured to generate a first bias voltage that is negatively related to the first current. The current mirror circuit also generates a second current that is positively related to the first current. Also employed is a current-to-voltage translation circuit configured to generate a second bias voltage that is positively related to the second current.
US07816972B2

Disclosed herein is a multiplexer circuit. The multiplexer circuit includes a first differential output unit, a second differential output unit, and a selection unit. The first differential output unit receives NRZ input signals (D1 and D1) and a clock signal (CLK), and generates differential RZ-mode outputs (R1 and R1). The second differential output unit receives NRZ input signals (D2 and D2) and an inverted clock signal ( CLK), and generates differential RZ-mode outputs (R2 and R2). The selection unit receives the RZ-mode output signals (R1, R1, R2, and R2) generated at the first differential output unit and the second differential output unit, and generates NRZ mode outputs in each half cycle of the clock signal (CLK).
US07816970B2

A frequency mixing apparatus with improved voltage gain and linearity is provided. The frequency mixing apparatus includes a transconductor, a separator, and a switching unit. A voltage gain of the transconductor is controllable, and the transconductor converts a Radio Frequency (RF) signal into a current signal under control of a self bias. The separator transfers the current signal to the switching unit. The switching unit outputs a signal having a frequency corresponding to one of a sum and a difference of a frequency of the RF signal and a frequency of a Local Oscillation (LO) signal by performing a switching operation according to the LO signal.
US07816962B2

A delay locked loop can remove a jitter component that inevitably occurs due to feedback latency in the conventional DLL. That is, the present invention has benefit of removing the jitter component by controlling the delay lines based on the predicted data. The delay locked loop includes a pattern detecting unit for generating and storing a noise pattern by detecting inputted noise data, a pre-delay control unit for determining a delay amount depending on the output of the pattern detecting unit, and a pre-delay line for delaying an internal clock depending on the delay amount that is determined by the pre-delay control means.
US07816960B2

In an embodiment, a method is disclosed that includes receiving a clock signal at a delay chain of a circuit device and determining a value of the clock signal at a selected point within the delay chain. The method also includes adjusting the selected point when the value does not indicate detection of an edge of the clock signal.
US07816959B1

A clock circuit generates a reference clock signal based on a resonant frequency of a crystal, generates thermometer-coded signals based on the reference clock signal, and generates a pulse train based on the thermometer-coded signals. The pulse train has a frequency that is a multiple of the frequency of the reference clock signal. Additionally, the clock circuit includes a phase-lock loop for generating an output clock signal based on the pulse train and aligning a phase of the output clock signal with pulses in the pulse train. In various embodiments, the frequency of the reference clock signal is the same as the resonant frequency of the crystal and the frequency of the output clock signal is a multiple of the resonant frequency of the crystal. Moreover, reference clock signal and the output clock signal each have a long-term jitter based on the precision of the resonant frequency of the crystal.
US07816956B2

A power-on reset circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an input control unit configured to generate a default input signal in response to a power-on reset signal and a clock, a counting unit configured to perform a counting operation in response to the default input signal to generate a count offset signal, and a power-on reset unit configured to perform a counting operation in response to the count offset signal to generate the power-on reset signal.
US07816951B1

An analog sampling network (100) includes a sampling capacitor being coupled between a bottom plate sampling switch and a top plate sampling switch implemented as NMOS transistors. The top plate sampling switch has source/drain terminals coupled respectively to the sampling capacitor and a first reference voltage. The analog sampling network includes a top plate boosting circuit (150) providing a boosted gate voltage to a gate terminal of the top plate sampling switch during a sampling phase, the boosted gate voltage being the sum of a first voltage and a second voltage. The first voltage is approximately equal to the first reference voltage and tracks process, temperature, power supply voltage and biasing condition variations. The second voltage is a maximum operating voltage from the gate to drain/source terminal for a fabrication process used to fabricate the second MOS transistor.
US07816945B2

Programmable fuse-type through silicon vias (TSVs) in silicon chips are provided with non-programmable TSVs in the same chip. The programmable fuse-type TSVs may employ a region within the TSV structure having sidewall spacers that restrict the cross-sectional conductive path of the TSV adjacent a chip surface contact pad. Application of sufficient current by programming circuitry causes electromigration of metal to create a void in the contact pad and, thus, an open circuit. Programming may be carried out by complementary circuitry on two adjacent chips in a multi-story chip stack.
US07816943B2

A programmable cycle state machine interface to a microcontroller comprising a programmable cycle state machine, a first and second data bus, a first and second control output, and a control input for programming the cycle of the state machine. The programmable nature of the state machine allows for design and implementation changes without the need to redesign customized state machine logic on the microcontroller.
US07816936B2

A semiconductor integrated circuit apparatus includes an internal circuit having a MIS transistors on a semiconductor substrate and a substrate voltage control block that supplies a substrate voltage to the internal circuit and controls threshold voltages for the MIS transistors of the internal circuit. The apparatus also includes a leakage current detection MIS transistor and a leakage current detection circuit. The substrate voltage control block generates a substrate voltage based on comparison results of the comparator and applies the generated substrate voltage to the substrate of the leakage current detection MIS transistor and the substrate of the MIS transistors of the internal circuit. The substrate voltage control block includes a switch arranged between first and second input terminals of a comparator and a drain of the leakage current detection MIS transistor and a reference potential terminal, as well as an input data corrector that carries out substrate voltage adjustment.
US07816930B2

An electrical circuit testing assembly that includes a mechanical reference that is relatively stationary as compared to a circuit under test. A probe support assembly is coupled to the mechanical reference and includes probes for contacting interconnect pads on the circuit under test. Optionally, the probe support structure is attached to the mechanical reference via a column that is thermally resistive. Also optionally, a testing circuitry support structure (e.g., a printed circuit board) is not rigidly attached to the mechanical reference or to the probe support structure, thereby permitting the testing circuitry support structure to float with respect to the probe support structure.
US07816926B2

An analyzer for measuring the response of an electronic device (DUT 206) to an RF input signal from a signal generator (240a) is described. An active load pull circuit (201) is connected to the DUT 206, which receives an output signal from the DUT 206 and then feeds a modified signal back to the DUT 206. The signal is modified by a signal processing circuit (237) in view of input signals x, y to control the magnitude gain and phase change effected by the feedback circuit (237). Thus, positive feedback loops are avoided and better control of the analyzer is permitted. A network analyzer, or other signal measuring device (242), logs the waveforms (from which s-parameters derived) observed at ports of the DUT 206, thereby allowing the behavior of the DUT 206 under various load conditions to be analyzed.
US07816923B2

A method for drilling substantially parallel twin wells includes drilling a first well and deploying a casing string in the first well. A magnetized section of the casing string includes a plurality of magnetized wellbore tubulars having at least one pair of opposing magnetic poles located between longitudinally opposed ends of the wellbore tubular. A portion of a second well is drilled within sensory range of magnetic flux from the magnetized section of the casing string. The local magnetic field is measured in the second well and processed to determine a direction for subsequent drilling. Drilling proceeds along the direction for subsequent drilling.
US07816922B2

A method for magnetizing a wellbore tubular is disclosed. The method includes magnetizing a wellbore tubular at three or more discrete locations on the tubular. In exemplary embodiments the magnetized wellbore tubular includes at least one pair of opposing magnetic poles located between longitudinally opposed ends of the tubular. Wellbore tubulars magnetized in accordance with this invention may be coupled to one another to provide a magnetic profile about a section of a casing string. Passive ranging measurements of the magnetic field about the casing string may be utilized to survey and guide drilling of a twin well. Such an approach advantageously obviates the need for simultaneous access to both wells.
US07816919B2

A magnetic resonance apparatus gantry includes a cylindrical static magnet housing which accommodates a static field magnet and in which an opening portion is formed, a cylindrical gradient magnet housing which accommodates a gradient coil, is placed in the opening portion, and is shorter in length in an axial direction than the static magnet housing, and a support unit which supports the gradient magnet housing on the static magnet housing, and includes a first support member mounted on the static magnet housing, a second support member mounted on the gradient magnet housing and supported by the first support member, and an adjustment unit which is placed inside the static magnet housing in the axial direction and adjusts a relative positional relationship between the static magnet housing and the gradient magnet housing by changing the relative positional relationship between the first support member and the second support member.
US07816894B2

An AC voltage regulator able to provide a desired voltage to any type of a given load within a predetermined range without any output power interruptions during any transition time, without distortion of the AC sine wave and without high current circulating through the circuit components during the voltage switching. The voltage regulator uses a single regulator transformer having a primary winding and a secondary winding. The secondary winding of the regulator transformer is connected in series between a power source and the load, while the primary winding of the regulator transformer is connected with the power source so that the primary and secondary windings have opposite polarities. The position of a plurality of switches can be variably set by the control circuit to control current flow through the primary winding and to provide a normal mode, a step-down mode, or a step-up mode.
US07816892B2

A battery charger for charging a battery through controlling a charging regulation circuit is provided. The battery charger includes a constant voltage mode controller, a current sensing unit, and a reference voltage generator. The constant voltage mode controller is for comparing a battery voltage of the battery with a first reference voltage to generate a regulation signal, and utilizing the regulation signal to control the charging regulation circuit to regulate a charging current applied to the battery. The current sensing unit is for monitoring the charging current to generate an error signal. The reference voltage generator is for setting the first reference voltage according to the error signal. By adding a voltage generator to the battery charger, the overshoot charging current will be reduced and the mode transition will become smooth.
US07816891B2

An active voltage management device and a method for actively managing a voltage level of an energy storage device are provided. The active voltage management device comprises: a pair of input terminals adapted to be connected to the energy storage device; a reverse polarity protection circuit coupled to the pair of input terminals; a voltage comparator circuit adapted to compare a second voltage associated with the voltage level of the energy storage device to a reference voltage and to provide an output based upon the comparison of the second voltage to the reference voltage; and a transistor adapted to operate in a linear mode to dissipate energy from the energy storage device at a substantially constant current level, wherein output of the voltage comparator circuit is adapted to activate the transistor when the second voltage is greater than or equal to the reference voltage. The method comprises: receiving an input voltage from the energy storage device; providing reverse polarity protection from the energy storage device; comparing the a second voltage associated with the input voltage from the energy storage device to a reference voltage; and conducting a transistor in a linear mode to dissipate energy from the energy storage device at a substantially constant current level when the second voltage is greater than or equal to the reference voltage.
US07816889B2

A method for charging a rechargeable battery, and a protection circuit for the rechargeable battery. The protection circuit perceives whether the battery is charged or not by sensing the voltage of the bare cell, changes the direct voltage applied between a gate electrode and a source electrode of a charging field effect transistor, which is connected in series between one terminal of the bare cell and one terminal of a charger, and controls the amount of the current flowing from the source electrode of the charging field effect transistor to a drain electrode at a low level, thereby maintaining a low charging rate of the battery.
US07816888B2

A battery pack with a device for locking said battery pack to a cordless power tool has a guide configured to guide the battery pack in a predetermined movement direction as it moves between a locking position in which it is locked to the cordless power tool and a removal position in which it is removed from the cordless power tool, the guide has a break in at least one location between the locking position and removal position, and at said location a force acting on the battery pack moves the battery pack into a safety position offset from the guide, in which the battery pack is prevented from moving further along the guide into the removal position.
US07816886B2

A battery charger (100) includes a base (102) which selectively receives first (104a) and second (104b) battery pods. The battery pods (104a, 104b), which are adapted to receive one or more batteries (212) for charging, have a form factor which facilitates the handling of the pods (104) and the batteries (212) received therein. Charging energy may be allocated between the pods (104) as a function of the temporal sequence in which the pods (104) are received by the base (102). Charging energy may also be allocated among the batteries (212) so that the batteries (212) are substantially charged at about the same time.
US07816881B2

One or more magnets are mounted on the rotor of a motor/actuator and analog Hall Effect sensors are mounted on the stator of the motor actuator to provide the necessary feedback for both speed and position control of the rotor. The feedback system includes signal conditioning circuitry for conditioning the sinusoidal signal produced by the magnet and the Hall Effect sensors and a tracking converter observer algorithm executing on the system microprocessor to produce controlled motion. The controller (and other electronics) may be integrated into the housing of the motor or actuator to provide a compact, efficient system for use in a number of applications.
US07816880B2

The invention relates to a device for controlling the movement of a moveable furniture part which can be moved, in a driven manner, relative to a stationary furniture part by means of a drive unit via a monitoring unit for monitoring the movement of the moveable furniture part. According to the invention, the monitoring unit can be operated in an operating mode and in a configuration mode, with the monitoring unit being designed to use additional means to enter a configuration mode in which the device can be configured. In addition, the invention relates to a piece of furniture having a device such as this.
US07816877B2

A brake-controllable brushless motor has a rotor and a stator having polyphase coils; a polar position detector whereby electric power is supplied to the coil selected by its phase in response to the polar positions of the rotor detected by the polar position detector; a driver division for controlling the electric supply to the coils; a motor pulse identifier for recognizing motor pulse signals fed from the polar position detector; and a delayed pulse generator for producing phase-delayed pulse signals in response to the pulse signals fed from the motor pulse identifier, thereby ensuring that when the brushless motor is braked, the phase delay of the delayed pulse signals is progressively and continuously enlarged, and that the coils receive a controlled electric supply from the driver division in response to the delayed pulse signals.
US07816875B2

The invention is a system for gearless operation of a movable barrier utilizing Lorentz forces, and in particular, a movable barrier operator retrofitted with a gearless motor capable of high torque at very low speeds. Eliminating a gear system in accordance with the present invention lowers maintenance requirements, increases efficiency, and streamlines operation of any movable barrier. By utilizing a motor which produces high-torque at low a speeds a system in accordance with the present invention does away with the need for complicated gears and pulley systems in order to achieve control of movable barriers. The present invention allows manufacturers, distributors and consumers to implement movable barrier systems with much more versatility and efficiency.
US07816873B2

The present invention discloses an apparatus and method for controlling a linear compressor which can actively handle load and efficiently perform an operation, by synchronizing an operation frequency with a natural frequency of a movable member varied by the load. The apparatus for controlling the linear compressor includes a counter electromotive force phase detecting unit for detecting a phase of a counter electromotive force from a voltage command value of the linear compressor and an input current, a current phase detecting unit for detecting a phase of the input current, a frequency generating unit for comparing the phase of the counter electromotive force with the phase of the input current, and generating a frequency change value, a control unit for correcting the voltage command value according to the frequency change value, and an inverter unit for receiving a direct current voltage, generating a sine wave voltage according to the corrected voltage command value, and applying the sine wave voltage to the linear compressor.
US07816868B2

A variation with the passage of time of a response speed is reduced. In a plasma display panel having a magnesium oxide film formed on a dielectric layer covering electrodes for gas discharge, the magnesium oxide film has an oxygen deficiency amount within a range of 3.0×1017 to 1.0×1020 per cubic centimeter, preferably within a range of 3.0×1017 to 1.0×1018 per cubic centimeter. The magnesium oxide film has a crystal orientation of (220) plane orientation.
US07816827B2

A brushless motor is provided with: a tubular stator case; a stator core; a rotor rotatably supported via a bearing inside the stator core; a bracket which closes an opening at one end of the stator case; a coil bobbin around which a coil is wound is mounted on an inner peripheral surface of the stator core; a lead wire which feeds power to the coil; and a wiring substrate which relays a connection between one end of the lead wire and the coil, wherein: a drawn-out hole is formed on the bracket at the position corresponding to the connection point of said one end of the lead wire and the wiring substrate such that the other end of the lead wire is drawn outward; and a harness guide is provided on a peripheral edge of the drawn-out hole such that the drawn lead wire is bent and fixed.
US07816820B2

A compacted magnetic core with a high resistance, which comprises compacted magnetic powder of an iron powder or an alloy powder containing iron as a main ingredient and a layer of a rare earth metal fluoride or an alkaline earth metal fluoride on the surface of the powder, wherein the rare earth metal fluoride or the alkaline earth metal fluoride contains fluorine-depleted crystal lattice at a rate of 10% or less.
US07816814B1

A bi-directional power converter for cryogenic operation based on a bi-directional cryo-MOSFET switch. Cryogenic power electronics lends itself easily to bi-directional topologies, and brings higher efficiencies, further reductions in switching speed, higher-frequency operation, reduction in size and weight of associated transformers and inductors, and reductions in overall size and weight. In addition, cryogenic power electronics operating around liquid nitrogen temperatures is easily integrated with superconducting motors, motor drives, and transformers, all of which can reduce size and weight of shipboard power systems, allowing for greater payload.
US07816811B2

A portable power source is configured for use with an electronic device. The portable power source cooperates and communicates with the electronic device via a peripheral bus to which the electronic device is attachable. The portable power source includes circuitry to process a power request signal from the electronic device to determine whether a device connected to a bus interface of the portable power source is requesting power from the portable power source.
US07816809B2

An automatic sensing power system automatically determines a power requirement for an electrical device, converts power to the required level, and outputs the power to the electrical device when the electrical device is connected to the automatic sensing power system.
US07816803B1

A system and method for processing data includes coupling circuitry for connecting a system to a power line and receiving data from the power line, packet detection circuitry for detecting synch mark in the data, and a processor for processing data upon detecting a synch mark.
US07816798B2

A power train for a wind power plant includes a rotor (1) for driving a gear (4), wherein the rotor blades (2) of the rotor are pivotally arranged around the longitudinal axis thereof on the hub of the rotor (1). A three-phase generator (5) is connected to the gear (4) and a power supply network (12). The gear (4) is also provided with an auxiliary variable speed drive (7). Each rotor blade (2) is provided with a drive for individually rotating around the longitudinal axis thereof for levelling the rotation speed and/or the torque of the power train.
US07816794B2

An electronic device includes a package substrate made of an insulator, a device chip that is flip-chip mounted on the package substrate, and a seal portion sealing the device chip. The seal portion includes sidewalls made of solder. The whole seal portion including the sidewalls may be made of solder. The electronic device may include a metal layer provided on the seal portion.
US07816783B2

On a surface of a resin base material (11), a first resin coating film (19) having a larger thickness and a larger area than a second resin coating film (20) formed on the other surface of the resin base material (11) is continuously formed. The second resin coating film (20) is formed so as to be separated into a plurality of portions.
US07816780B2

A technique capable of improving reliability of a semiconductor apparatus is provided. A semiconductor device having a metal electrode on at least one principal surface and a die pad (a metal member) electrically connected to the metal electrode via conductive resin composed of base resin (an organic binder) mixed with a Ag particle (metal powder) including precious metal are provided, and a configuration is made so that a porous nano-particle coat film (a precious metal layer) having an Ag (precious metal) nano particle fired on a metal surface is formed on at least one of mutually opposed surfaces of the metal electrode and the die pad.
US07816774B2

A flexible device has an integrated circuit and an antenna incorporated or directly coupled to an interconnect structure of the integrated circuit. The interconnect structure extends outside of the active area. An electrically insulating or dielectric layer is present as support layer for both antenna and integrated circuit. The substrate is removed outside the active areas of the integrated circuit.
US07816768B2

A high dielectric loss tangent layer is provided in a dielectric layer between a power-supply plane and a ground plane. The high dielectric loss tangent layer is arranged such that its edge is located between the edge of the power-supply plane and the edge of the ground plane. The edge of the high dielectric loss tangent layer is preferably separated by a predetermined distance or more from the edge of the power-supply plane or the edge of the ground plane which is located on the inner side.
US07816740B2

An integrated circuit (IC) includes a memory cell having source/drain regions for defining source/drains of a first pull-up or pull-down (PU/PD) transistor for a first storage node, a second PU/PD transistor for a second storage node, and driver, cell pass, and buffer pass transistors. The memory cell includes a first gate electrode region for the first PU/PD and driver transistors, a second gate electrode region for the cell pass and buffer pass transistors, and a third gate electrode region for the second PU/PD transistor. The third gate electrode region and the cell pass transistor are coupled to the first storage node and the first gate electrode region is coupled to the second storage node. The buffer pass and driver transistors are coupled to a source/drain path of the cell pass transistor and the buffer pass transistor is coupled between a bitline (BL) node and the driver transistor.
US07816738B2

In order to reduce power dissipation requirements, obtain full potential transistor performance and avoid power dissipation limitations on transistor performance in high density integrated circuits, transistors are operated in a sub-threshold (sub-Vth) or a near sub-Vth voltage regime (generally about 0.2 volts rather than a super-Vth regime of about 1.2 volts or higher) and optimized for such operation, particularly through simplification of the transistor structure, since intrinsic channel resistance is dominant in sub-Vth operating voltage regimes. Such simplifications include an underlap or recess of the source and drain regions from the gate which avoids overlap capacitance to partially recover loss of switching speed otherwise caused by low voltage operation, an ultra-thin gate structure having a thickness of 500 Å or less which also simplifies forming connections to the transistor and an avoidance of silicidation or alloy formation in the source, drain and/or gate of transistors.
US07816733B2

A semiconductor device having a JBS diode includes: a SiC substrate; a drift layer on the substrate; an insulation film on the drift layer having an opening in a cell region; a Schottky barrier diode having a Schottky electrode contacting the drift layer through the opening and an ohmic electrode on the substrate; a terminal structure having a RESURF layer in the drift layer surrounding the cell region; and multiple second conductive type layers in the drift layer on an inner side of the RESURF layer contacting the Schottky electrode. The second conductive type layers are separated from each other. The second conductive type layers and the drift layer provide a PN diode. Each second conductive type layer has a depth larger than the RESURF layer.
US07816731B2

In one embodiment, a transistor fabricated on a semiconductor die includes a first section of transistor segments disposed in a first area of the semiconductor die, and a second section of transistor segments disposed in a second area of the semiconductor die adjacent the first area. Each of the transistor segments in the first and second sections includes a pillar of a semiconductor material that extends in a vertical direction. First and second dielectric regions are disposed on opposite sides of the pillar. First and second field plates are respectively disposed in the first and second dielectric regions. Outer field plates of transistor segments adjoining first and second sections are either separated or partially merged. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure.
US07816719B2

A nonvolatile magnetic memory device including a magntoresistance device having a recording layer formed of a ferromagnetic material for storing information by use of variation in resistance depending on the magnetization inversion state. The plan-view shape of the recording layer includes a pseudo-rhombic shape having four sides, at least two of the four sides each include a smooth curve having a central portion curved toward the center of the pseudo-rhombic shape. The easy axis of magnetization of the recording layer is substantially parallel to the longer axis of the pseudo-rhombic shape. The hard axis of magnetization of the recording layer is substantially parallel to the shorter axis of the pseudo-rhombic shape. The sides constituting the plan-view shape of the recording layer are smoothly connected to each other.
US07816714B2

Provided is an image sensor. The image sensor can include a readout circuitry on a first substrate, an electrical junction region in the first substrate electrically connected with the readout circuitry, and an interconnection on the first substrate. The interconnection can be formed for connection to the electrical junction region. An image sensing device can be formed on the interconnection.
US07816713B2

Provided is a CMOS image sensor that uses thiophene derivatives. The CMOS image sensor includes first through third photoelectric conversion units vertically and sequentially stacked on a semiconductor substrate. The first photoelectric conversion unit detects blue light and comprises a first electrode, a second electrode, and a p-type thiophene derivative layer between the first electrode and the second electrode.
US07816703B2

A light-emitting diode device includes an epitaxial layer, a current blocking layer and a current spreading layer. The current blocking layer is disposed on one side of the epitaxial layer and contacts with a portion of the epitaxial layer. The current spreading layer is disposed on one side of the epitaxial layer and contacts with at least a portion of the current blocking layer.
US07816702B2

There are a silicon laser device having a IV-group semiconductor such as silicon or germanium equivalent to the silicon as a basic constituent element on a substrate made of the silicon, and the like by a method capable of easily forming the silicon laser device by using a general silicon process, and a manufacturing method thereof. The silicon laser device is an ultrathin silicon laser that includes a first electrode unit injecting electrons, a second electrode unit injecting holes, a light emitting unit electrically connected to the first electrode unit and the second electrode unit, wherein the light emitting unit is made of single-crystal silicon and has a first surface (top surface) and a second surface (bottom surface) opposed to the first surface, a waveguide made of a first dielectric, which is disposed in the vicinity of the light emitting unit, by setting surface directions of the first and second surfaces as a surface (100) and thinning a thickness of the light emitting unit in a direction perpendicular to the first and second surfaces, and a mirror formed by alternately adjoining the first dielectric and a second dielectric.
US07816699B2

Disclosed is a polarized light emitting diode (LED) capable of emitting polarized light in the front direction thereof by forming a first grating layer on a quantum well layer and forming a second grating layer on a substrate. The polarized LED includes a nitride thin film formed on a substrate, a quantum well layer formed on the nitride thin film, a first grating layer formed on the quantum well layer to allow a part of light generated from the quantum well layer to pass through the first grating layer and to reflect remaining light, and a second grating layer formed on the substrate to rotate the light reflected from the first grating layer such that the reflected light passes through the first grating layer.
US07816698B2

A heat dissipation package is provided. Conducting leads of the package are located between two dissipating parts of a heat dissipation carrier to form the heat dissipation package with a structure of heat outside and electricity inside. Consequently, there is no limitation caused by electrical elements surrounding the heat dissipation carrier, so as to enhance the expandability of the heat dissipation carrier and improve the efficiency for heat dissipation of the heat generation element.
US07816690B2

A light-emitting device includes a light-emitting element 12 and a wiring substrate 11 having a substrate body 17 having a protruding portion 25 at a position where the light-emitting device 12 is disposed and wiring patterns 21 and 22 disposed on the substrate body 17 and electrically connected to the light-emitting element 12.
US07816686B2

A semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate; a gate stack on the semiconductor substrate; an epitaxial region having at least a portion in the semiconductor substrate and adjacent to the gate stack, wherein the epitaxial region comprises an impurity of a first conductivity type; a first portion of the semiconductor substrate adjoining the epitaxial region, wherein the first portion of the semiconductor substrate is of the first conductivity type; and a second portion of the semiconductor substrate adjoining the first portion. The second portion of the semiconductor substrate is of a second conductivity type opposite the first conductivity type. A silicide region is formed on the epitaxial region and the first and the second portions of the semiconductor substrate.
US07816678B2

Provided is an organic light emitting display, in which a semiconductor circuit unit of 2T-1C structure including a switching transistor and a driving transistor formed of single crystalline silicon is formed on a plastic substrate. A method of fabricating the single crystalline silicon includes: growing a single crystalline silicon layer to a predetermined thickness on a crystal growth plate; depositing a buffer layer on the single crystalline silicon layer; forming a partition layer at a predetermined depth in the single crystalline silicon layer by, e.g., implanting hydrogen ions in the single crystalline silicon layer from an upper portion of an insulating layer; attaching a substrate to the buffer layer; and releasing the partition layer of the single crystalline silicon layer by heating the partition layer from the crystal growth plate to obtain a single crystalline silicon layer of a predetermined thickness on the substrate.
US07816677B2

An organic light emitting device includes first, second, and third pixels each displaying a different color. Each pixel includes a first electrode, a second electrode facing the first electrode, and an emission layer between the first and second electrodes. The first electrodes of the first and second pixels respectively include a first transparent conductive layer and a translucent conductive layer disposed on at least one of lower and upper portions of the first transparent conductive layer and forming microcavities together with the second electrodes, and the first electrode of the third pixel includes a second transparent conductive layer that is different from the first transparent conductive layer and a translucent conductive layer disposed on at least one of upper and lower portions of the second transparent conductive layer and forming a microcavity together with the second electrode.
US07816667B2

A silsesquioxane-based compound represented by Formula 1 and an organic light-emitting device including the same: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, and R8 are as defined in the specification. The use of the silsesquioxane-based compound enables to produce an organic light-emitting device with improvement in electrical characteristics such as brightness and efficiency. The silsesquioxane-based compound can exhibit good film smoothness and adhesion, and at the same time, good electrical characteristics such as current efficiency and brightness, and thus, is suitable for use in an organic light-emitting device.
US07816666B2

A substrate prevented from being deformed due to thermal stress or deposition stress includes a deformation preventing layer arranged on one surface of the substrate. The substrate can include a thin film transistor arranged on one surface of the substrate and the deformation preventing layer, arranged on the another surface of the substrate, and including at least one layer.
US07816664B2

A high-quality, substantially relaxed SiGe-on-insulator substrate material which may be used as a template for strained Si is described. The substantially relaxed SiGe-on-insulator substrate includes a Si-containing substrate, an insulating region that is resistant to Ge diffusion present atop the Si-containing substrate, and a substantially relaxed SiGe layer present atop the insulating region. The insulating region includes an upper region that is comprised of a thermal oxide and the substantially relaxed SiGe layer has a thickness of about 2000 nm or less.
US07816660B2

A lateral phase change memory includes a pair of electrodes separated by an insulating layer. The first electrode is formed in an opening in an insulating layer and is cup-shaped. The first electrode is covered by the insulating layer which is, in turn, covered by the second electrode. As a result, the spacing between the electrodes may be very precisely controlled and limited to very small dimensions. The electrodes are advantageously formed of the same material, prior to formation of the phase change material region.
US07816656B2

By operating an implantation tool with a source gas having a halogen fraction of 66 atomic percent or less relative to the total composition of the source gas, an in situ cleaning effect may be achieved while performing an implantation process.
US07816651B2

An image acquisition apparatus includes a conversion layer for generating electrons in response to electromagnetic radiation photons, and a first semiconducting layer adjacent to the conversion layer for generating electron-hole pairs in response to electrons generated by the conversion layer.
US07816648B2

In an electron beam interference system using an electron biprism, which is capable of independently controlling each of the interference fringe spacing s and the interference width W, both of which are important parameters for an interferometer and for an interferogram acquired by the interferometer, an optical system used in a two-stage electron biprism interferometer is adopted. The optical system uses two stages of electron biprisms in an optical axis direction to give the flexibility to the relative magnification relative to a specimen image and that relative to an image of a filament electrode of the electron biprism. In addition, as a two-stage configuration in which two objective lenses (51, 52) are combined, independently controlling the focal length of each objective lens makes it possible to set the relative magnification relative to a specimen image and that relative to an image of the filament electrode of the electron biprism at arbitrary values.
US07816646B1

Atmospheric pressure, intermediate pressure and vacuum laser desorption ionization methods and ion sources are configured to increase ionization efficiency and the efficiency of transmitting ions to a mass to charge analyzer or ion mobility analyzer. An electric field is applied in the region of a sample target to accumulate ions generated from a local ion source on a solid or liquid phase sample prior to applying a laser desorption pulse. The electric field is changed just prior to or during the desorption laser pulse to promote the desorption of charged species and improve the ionization efficiency of desorbed sample species. After a delay, the electric field may be further changed to optimize focusing and transmission of ions into a mass spectrometer or ion mobility analyzer. Charged species may also be added to the region of the laser desorbed sample plume to promote ion-molecule reactions between the added ions and desorbed neutral sample species, increasing desorbed sample ionization efficiency and/or creating desired product ion species. The cycling of electric field changes is repeated in a timed sequence with one or more desorption laser pulse occurring per electric field change cycle. Embodiments of the invention comprise atmospheric pressure, intermediate pressure and vacuum pressure laser desorption ionization source methods and devices for increasing the analytical flexibility and improving the sensitivity of mass spectrometric analysis.
US07816644B2

The invention provides a system apparatus and methods for fragmenting various molecules. In particular, the invention may be employed for fragmenting biomolecules like peptides to determine sequence information. The invention provides a mass spectrometry system for photo-activated collision induced dissociation. The mass spectrometry system or device includes an ion source for producing ions, a photon source adjacent to the ion source for photo-activating ions produced by the ion source, an electrical element adjacent to the photon source for creating an electric field for accelerating ions produced by the ion source and photo-activated by the photon source; wherein ions are produced by the ion source, photo-activated by the photon source and accelerated into a surface to cause dissociation of the activated ions; and a detector downstream from the ion source for detecting the collision induced and dissociated ions.
US07816643B2

A neutral atom trapping device with a multipole-magnetic field-generating electrode is provided with a main current electrode through which main current flows, and a pair of sub-current electrodes through which sub-current flows, and which is located in parallel to and both sides of said main current electrode; a neutral atom trapping device with an S-shaped multipole-magnetic field-generating electrode.
US07816642B2

A pressure-induced counter includes a pressure acquisition unit, a delay unit and a counter unit. The pressure acquisition unit is electrically coupled to the counter unit via the delay unit. The pressure acquisition unit is configured for acquiring a pressure signal of an external pressure applied thereon to generate and output an original electrical signal corresponding to the pressure signal. The delay unit is configured for processing the original electrical signal outputted from the pressure acquisition unit to obtain a processed electrical signal by depressing the leading-edge jitter existing therein. The counter unit is configured for receiving the processed electrical signal transmitted from the delay unit and taking count of the received signals.
US07816634B1

A cooking utensil has a first member connected to a second member in a generally transverse configuration. The first member has a first end and a second end. The first end of the first member has a turner element used for turning food products. The second member has a first end and a second end. The first end of the second member has a fork element thereon. The second end of the second member has a brush assembly thereon used for applying sauces and condiments to food products. A cooperative structure is associated with the first member and the second member to connect the members in the generally transverse configuration.
US07816631B2

The inverter housing (1) has a cooling unit (2) for cooling the electronic and/or electric components (4, 5, 5a) of the inverter. The housing (1) of the inverter comprises at least two chambers, the two chambers (7, 8) being separated by a wall (6) for receiving the electronic and/or electric components (4, 5, 5a), the components (5) comprise cooling bodies (4) located on the one side of the wall in the one chamber (7) with the cooling bodies (4) being located on the other side of the wall (6) in the other chamber (5) and the electric or electronic component to be cooled have a high protection grade, the component (5a) being located in the other chamber (8), preferably on the wall side of the wall (6) of the other chamber (8), the other chamber (8) comprising the cooling unit (2).
US07816622B2

A laser shock peening system including a workpiece is provided. The laser shock peening system includes a workholding fixture configured to hold the workpiece. The laser shock peening system also includes a laser source configured to emit multiple laser beam pulses on the workpiece. The laser shock peening system further includes an absorptive layer disposed on the workpiece, the absorptive layer configured to absorb the laser beam pulses from the laser source into the workpiece. The laser shock peening system also includes a transparent constraining layer disposed between the laser source and the absorptive layer. The transparent constraining layer is also configured to provide a pressure medium configured to direct multiple reflected laser generated shock waves from the workpiece back into the workpiece. The laser shock peening system also includes a transducer disposed on the workholding fixture and configured to detect multiple acoustic signals emitted from the workpiece.
US07816620B2

The invention relates to a method and generator for generating a time sequence of EDM pulses having a predefined ignition voltage for electrical discharge machining. An AC voltage is generated from a DC voltage, furnished by a bipolar current source. The AC voltage is applied to an isolating transformer disposed between the bipolar current source and the spark gap. A first pulse capacitor is charged by the bipolar current source to a voltage corresponding to the ignition voltage. The ignition voltage provided by the isolating transformer is switched with a selected polarity to the spark gap.
US07816617B2

A method includes deducting selected ones of a plurality of products from a first sorting and/or sequencing system to a conveying system, and determining data including at least one of: a predicted position of each of the selected ones of the plurality of products within the conveying system, and speed and direction of conveyors of the conveying system. The method also includes controlling movement of the selected ones of the plurality of products through the conveying system by controlling speed and direction of the conveyors based upon the determined data, and inducting the selected ones of the plurality of products onto a second sorting and/or sequencing system.
US07816611B2

After disposing metallic foils on either surface of a prepreg sheet of low compressibility having conducting holes filled with conductive paste, the prepreg sheet is compressed in a state of being kept at a relatively low temperature, and after that, the temperature is raised under pressure to melt and harden the resin in the prepreg sheet, and thereby, the connecting resistance is stabilized, and a high-quality circuit board can be obtained.
US07816610B2

The layout circuit comprises a first 3×2 grid array and a second 3×2 grid array. The first 3×2 grid array comprises first, second and third signal contact points and the first and second fixed potential contact points are coupled to a first fixed potential. The first and second fixed potential contact points are arranged diagonally into the first 2×2 array and the first and second signal contact points are also arranged diagonally into the first 2×2 array. The second 3×2 grid array comprises fourth, fifth and sixth signal contact points and the third and fourth fixed potential contact points are coupled to the first fixed potential. The third and fourth fixed potential contact points are arranged diagonally into the second 2×2 array and the fourth and fifth signal contact points are also arranged diagonally into the second 2×2 array.
US07816607B2

A process for manufacturing a multipolar cable having at least one pair of cores, each core having at least one conductive element and at least one layer of electrical insulation in a position which is radially external to the at least one conductive element. The process includes the steps of: a) assembling the at least one pair of cores so as to form an assembled element having a plurality of interstitial zones between the cores, and b) depositing by co-extrusion an expandable polymeric material in a position which is radially external to the cores so as to fill the interstitial zone and to form a filling layer of substantially circular transverse cross section, and at least one containment layer of polymeric material in a position radially external to the filling layer. The multipolar cable obtained from the process.
US07816600B2

An electronic keyboard that includes a plurality of keys including a first key. The keyboard further includes a key support supporting the first key for movement between a rest position and a depressed position. The keyboard also includes a first key return spring configured to apply a return force to the first key to bias the first key toward the rest position. In the keyboard, the first key return spring is configured such that the return force has a substantially constant magnitude throughout the movement of the first key between the rest position and the depressed position.
US07816599B2

Either a tone generation priority mode or a quality priority mode can be set. If the currently-set mode is the tone generation priority mode when a connecting tone is to be generated for connecting between two successive notes, the joint-portion waveform data is selected for synthesis of the tone, stored head-portion waveform data and tail-portion waveform data are selected, and at least one of a pitch and amplitude of at least one of the head-portion waveform data and tail-portion waveform data is processed so as to provide a smoothly-varying connecting tone. In accordance with the processing, a tone of a fall portion of a temporally preceding one of two successive notes and a temporally succeeding one of the two successive notes are separately synthesized on the basis of the tail-portion waveform data and head-portion waveform data, respectively, so that a connecting tone is realized by a combination of the synthesized tone of the fall portion of the preceding note and the synthesized tone of the rise portion of the succeeding note.
US07816598B2

An electronic keyboard musical instrument comprises a keyboard assembly including juxtaposed keys and juxtaposed swing weight mechanisms, each of the keys correspondingly linked with each of the swing weight mechanisms. Actuating members are provided corresponding to the respective swing weight mechanisms each of which in turn actuates each corresponding key. The actuating members are arranged in the vicinity of the fulcrum of the swing weight mechanisms and disposed in two rows as a front row and a rear row and extending downward through the key bed. The heights of the actuating members are made small. An actuator cover has a rearward descending slant wall so that the knees of the player will not be obstructed in depressing the pedals.
US07816594B2

A tuning peg for a stringed musical instrument is provided in accordance with the present invention having a shank with a first area which forms a string supporting area and at least one additional area which forms a mounting area for fixing the tuning peg to the stringed musical instrument. The first area is rotatable relative to the at least one additional area. A first gear wheel is connected non-rotatably to the first area. At least one additional gear wheel is connected non-rotatably to the at least one additional area. A head is arranged on the shank so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation, and at least one drive gear wheel is arranged on the head and acts on the first gear wheel and the at least one additional gear wheel.
US07816585B1

A novel maize variety designated X6F624 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing maize variety X6F624 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X6F624 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X6F624, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X6F624. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X6F624 and to the maize varieties derived by the use of those methods.
US07816581B2

The present invention provides molecular constructs and methods for use thereof, including constructs including heterologous miRNA recognition sites, constructs for gene suppression including a gene suppression element embedded within an intron flanked on one or on both sides by non-protein-coding sequence, constructs containing engineered miRNA or miRNA precursors, and constructs for suppression of production of mature microRNA in a cell. Also provided are transgenic plant cells, plants, and seeds containing such constructs, and methods for their use. The invention further provides transgenic plant cells, plants, and seeds containing recombinant DNA for the ligand-controlled expression of a target sequence, which may be endogenous or exogenous. Also disclosed are novel miRNAs and miRNA precursors from crop plants including maize and soy.
US07816579B2

Disclosed herein is a transgenic plant transformed with an isolated polynucleotide comprising a plant arsenate reductase coding sequence operatively linked to a plant-expressible transcription regulatory sequence. Also disclosed are methods to limit metal or metal ion accumulation in a harvested plant tissue comprising growing the transgenic plant; and harvesting plant tissue having reduced metal or metal ion accumulation. Further disclosed herein is method of making a transgenic plant transformed with an isolated polynucleotide comprising a plant arsenate reductase coding sequence operatively linked to a plant-expressible transcription regulatory sequence.
US07816577B2

A preformed wound shield includes a frame formed of one or more layers of suitable material and any suitable covering. Exudate absorbing or transporting material may also be one of two or more layers of material forming the frame.
US07816571B2

The use of a layered catalyst composition to selectively hydrogenate C5-C11 diolefins in a hydrocarbon mixture to one or more respective C5-C11 monoolefins is disclosed. The layered catalyst comprises an inner core having a first inorganic oxide and an outer layer bonded to the inner core. The outer layer has a non-refractory second inorganic oxide with at least one Group 1-2 metal and at least one Group 8-10 metal dispersed thereon.
US07816570B2

A process for the direct conversion of lipid biomass fuel stock to combustible fuels include the steps of hydrolyzing a lipid biomass to form free fatty acids, catalytically deoxygenating the free fatty acids to from n-alkanes, and reforming at least a portion of the n-alkanes into a mixture of compounds having the correct chain length, conformations and ratio to be useful as transportation fuels. The process exhibits an overall energy efficiency of at least about 75%, wherein energy efficiency is calculated as the lower heating value of the produced transportation fuel over the sum of the lower heating value of the process reactants and the total energy input into the process.
US07816569B2

The invention relates to a process for the preparation of chloromethane from methanol and hydrogen chloride contaminated with Si compounds, the Si compounds being methylchlorosilanes, methoxymethylsilanes and hydrolysis and condensation products thereof, in which some of the Si compounds are removed by condensation from the chloromethane formed and remaining Si compounds are washed out with methanol, the methanol thus obtained and containing Si compounds being used for the further preparation of chloromethane with hydrogen chloride.
US07816568B2

Catalytic reactions conducted during acid digestion of cellulose materials, including paper, a wide range of grasses including prairie grass, switch grass, pine wood sawdust, bagasse dried after sugar cane processing, cotton, waste cellulose products and starch materials, are taught for direct conversion to ethanol. The cellulose material is thoroughly wet in concentrated sulfuric acid in the presence of transition metal complexes possessing a degree of symmetry. Ethanol formed during the reaction can be removed by distillation affording a continuous process.
US07816567B2

A reactive-separation process converts glycerin into lower alcohols, having boiling points less than 200° C., at high yields. Conversion of natural glycerin to propylene glycol through an acetol intermediate is achieved at temperatures from 150° to 250° C. at a pressure ranging from 1 and 25 bar. The preferred applications of the propylene glycol are as an antifreeze, deicing compound, or anti-icing compound. The preferred catalyst for this process in a copper-chromium powder.
US07816561B2

The invention relates to a method of improving the crushing strength and reducing the dust formation and the caking tendency of urea particles by the addition of an organic compound to the molten urea, where at least one carbohydrate and optionally a polyvinyl compound is added to the urea. The invention also relates to a composition to be used as a urea additive.
US07816554B2

A process for the production of carboxylic acid esters by reaction of a carboxylic acid selected from mono-, di- and polycarboxylic acids, with an alcohol in the presence of water of solution comprising the steps of: (a) providing a solution comprising the carboxylic acid and the water of solution; (b) reacting the solution of the carboxylic acid in an esterification zone with an alcohol to form an ester and water of esterification; (c) removing the water of solution and the water of esterification; and (d) recovering the ester.
US07816550B2

This invention relates to processes for the production of organometallic compounds represented by the formula M(L)3 wherein M is a Group VIII metal, e.g., ruthenium, and L is the same or different and represents a substituted or unsubstituted amidinato group or a substituted or unsubstituted amidinato-like group, which process comprises (i) reacting a substituted or unsubstituted metal source compound, e.g., ruthenium (II) compound, with a substituted or unsubstituted amidinate or amidinate-like compound in the presence of a solvent and under reaction conditions sufficient to produce a reaction mixture comprising said organometallic compound, e.g., ruthenium (III) compound, and (ii) separating said organometallic compound from said reaction mixture. The organometallic compounds are useful in semiconductor applications as chemical vapor or atomic layer deposition precursors for film depositions.
US07816535B2

The invention relates to compounds of structural formula (Ia): or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate, clathrate, or prodrug thereof, wherein X1, X2, X3, X4, X6, X10, R1, Y, Z, L, and n are defined herein. These compounds are useful as immunosuppressive agents and for treating and preventing inflammatory conditions, allergic disorders, and immune disorders.
US07816534B2

Novel compounds of the structural formula (I) are antagonists and/or inverse agonists of the Cannabinoid-1 (CB1) receptor and are useful in the treatment, prevention and suppression of diseases mediated by the CB1 receptor. The compounds of the present invention are useful as centrally acting drugs in the treatment of psychosis, memory deficits, cognitive disorders, migraine, neuropathy, neuro-inflammatory disorders including multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barre syndrome and the inflammatory sequelae of viral encephalitis, cerebral vascular accidents, and head trauma, anxiety disorders, stress, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, movement disorders, and schizophrenia. The compounds are also useful for the treatment of substance abuse disorders, the treatment of obesity or eating disorders, as well as the treatment of asthma, constipation, chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction, and cirrhosis of the liver.
US07816524B2

Compounds having formula 1 are produced by contacting a compound having formula(6A) with a compound having formula (7), or tautomers thereof, in the presence of a non-nucleophilic base, wherein V, A, Z, L, L1,W, X, B′, R and N are as defined herein.
US07816522B2

A Compound represented by the following general formula (1), salts thereof or hydrates of the foregoing is a novel compound useful for treatment and/or prevention of diseases associated with thrombus formation, and which is safer with suitable physicochemical stability. [wherein R1a, R1b, R1c and R1d each independently represent hydrogen, etc.; R2 represents optionally substituted phenyl, etc.; R3 represents optionally substituted C6-10 aryl, etc.; and Z1 and Z2 each independently represent hydrogen]
US07816521B2

The compound 3-ethyl-6-[3-(4-morpholinyl)propoxy]-1,2,4-benzotriazine 1,4-dioxide and pharmacologically acceptable salts thereof. A method of treating cancer in a subject is also described in which 3-ethyl-6-[3-(4-morpholinyl)propoxy]-1,2,4-benzotriazine 1,4-dioxide or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof is administered to tumor cells in a hypoxic environment. Also described is a method of radiosensitising in a subject tumor cells of solid tumors in hypoxic conditions by administering to the subject a pharmaceutical composition containing 3-ethyl-6-[3-(4-morpholinyl)propoxy]-1,2,4-benzotriazine 1,4-dioxide or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof in an amount sufficient to produce radiosensitivity in the tumor cells, and subjecting the tumor cells to radiation. A pharmaceutical composition is additionally provided containing a therapeutically effective amount of 3-ethyl-6-[3-(4-morpholinyl)propoxy]-1,2,4-benzotriazine 1,4-dioxide or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, adjuvant, carrier, buffer or stabiliser.
US07816519B2

The present invention describes novel dyes, including coumarins, rhodamines, and rhodols that incorporate additional fused aromatic rings. The dyes of the invention absorb at a longer wavelength than structurally similar dyes that do not possess the fused aromatic rings. Many of the dyes of the invention are useful fluorescent dyes. The invention includes chemically reactive dyes, dye-conjugates, and the use of such dyes in staining samples and detecting ligands or other analytes.
US07816517B2

In one embodiment of the present invention, a first test tube including therein a dehydrated sample containing a sugar chain and a labeling agent solution made of 2-aminopyridine/acetic acid are stored in a well-closed container with the first test tube and the labeling agent solution secluded from each other. The labeling agent solution is heated, and the 2-aminopyridine is evaporated so as to be in contact with the sugar chain, thereby obtaining a pyridylamination sugar chain from the sugar chain. As a result, it is possible to provide the saccharide fluorescence labeling apparatus and the saccharide fluorescence labeling method whereby it is possible to simplify and ensure an operation for reacting saccharide into the pyridylamination sugar chain.
US07816507B2

The invention provides bifunctional plant biosynthetic enzymes that increase the efficiency by which modification can be made to plant biosynthetic pathways. In certain aspects of the invention, bifunctional isoflavone biosynthetic enzymes are provided. The invention therefore allows the modification of plants for isoflavone content. The inventors have demonstrated increased isoflavone biosynthesis can be obtained even in non-legume plants.
US07816503B2

The invention is directed to modified guanine-containing nucleosides and nucleotides and uses thereof. More specifically, the invention relates to modified fluorescently labelled guanine-containing nucleosides and nucleotides which exhibit enhanced fluorophore intensity by virtue of reduced quenching effects.
US07816498B2

Provided is a monoclonal antibody specific for hippuric acid. In the present invention, a hippuric acid-carrier protein conjugate is prepared from hippuric acid and BSA or OVA as a carrier protein, using a coupling reagent and a cross-linker. The monoclonal antibody screened according to the present invention has a titer having a standard curve in the concentration range of mg/mL meeting requirements for the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of toluene. The monoclonal antibody exhibits no cross-reactivity with carrier proteins, exhibits higher competitive inhibition in response to an increasing concentration of hippuric acid, and exhibits no cross-reactivity with other proteins contained in the urine. Therefore, the disclosed monoclonal antibody can be usefully employed in a diagnostic kit for detection of hippuric acid which is capable of diagnosing toluene exposure.
US07816495B2

The present invention relates to processes for the purification of fibrinogen, and to readily solubilised fibrinogen preparations.
US07816489B2

More efficient and/or economical methods for synthesizing heptapeptide alcohol analogs of oxytocin are provided along with novel intermediates which are useful in synthesizing such oxytocin analogs. Efficient and economical methods for synthesizing intermediates useful in synthesizing these oxytocin analogs are also provided.
US07816484B2

A method for preparing a polyalkylene glycol carbonate is disclosed comprising reacting a hydroxyl functional polyalkylene glycol and a reagent selected from carbonates and chloroformates in the presence of an aromatic solvent and an amine.
US07816478B2

A thick film and process to prepare polyethylene useful for the film are disclosed. Ethylene is polymerized in two reaction zones with a C6-C10 α-olefin in the presence of a catalyst system comprising an activator, a supported bridged zirconium complex, and a supported non-bridged zirconium complex. The process yields medium density to linear low density polyethylene having a melt index from 0.20 to 1.0 dg/min. Thick films from the polyethylene have a superior combination of high impact strength and high modulus.
US07816475B2

An aminoalkoxystyrene represented by the formula (1) wherein R1 and R2 are C1-4 alkyl and n is 3-6. The aminoalkoxystyrene is prepared by reacting an aminoalkoxyphenylmagnesium halide with vinyl halide in the presence of a catalyst. A quaternized amino group-containing polymer made by quaternizing the amino groups of a polymer prepared from the aminoalkoxystyrene is useful as an anion exchanger.
US07816473B2

Diacetylenic materials for the colorimetric detection of an analyte or exposure to certain environmental factors are disclosed as well as the polymerization reaction products of these diacetylenic compounds.
US07816471B2

Process for producing photoresist polymeric compound having repeated units corresponding to at least one monomer selected from monomer (a) having lactone skeleton, monomer (b) having group which becomes soluble in alkali by elimination with acid, and monomer (c) having alicyclic skeleton having hydroxyl group. Process includes (A) polymerizing mixture of monomers containing at least one monomer selected from the above monomers (a), (b), and (c), and (B) extracting polymer formed in the polymerization by using organic solvent and water to partition the formed polymer into organic solvent layer and metal component impurity into aqueous layer, or passing polymer solution, which contains polymer having repeated units corresponding to at least one of the above monomers (a), (b), and (c) and metal content of which is 1000 ppb by weight or less relative to the polymer through filter comprising porous polyolefin membrane having cation-exchange group. The photoresist polymeric compounds have a metallic impurity content that is extremely low.
US07816469B2

This disclosure is generally directed to a batch process of producing semi-conductive polymer nanodispersions in which a composition comprising a liquid and a polymer is at least partially dissolved in the liquid, resulting in dissolved polymer molecules in the composition, wherein the dissolution occurs in a dissolution vessel. The solubility of the dissolved polymer molecules in the composition is then increased to increase the concentration of dissolved polymer in the composition to a range from about 0.1% to about 30% based on a total weight of the polymer and the liquid, wherein increasing the solubility of the dissolved polymer in the composition occurs in a dissolution vessel. The dissolved polymer in the composition is then diluted with a diluent, wherein the dissolution of the dissolved polymer in the composition occurs by addition of the composition to the diluent in a precipitation vessel.
US07816467B2

Processes for forming adducts of hydrazines with acrylic macromonomers are provided. Also provided are processes for using ring-closing reactions of the adducts to form aminolactams. The adducts are useful, for example, for making adhesives, surfactants, viscosity modifiers, processing aids, and other products.
US07816466B2

A propylene polymer composition comprising (weight percentages being referred to the sum of A+B): (A) 75-95% by weight of a copolymer of propylene comprising from 0.5 to 3.0 mole % of comonomer units derived from ethylene and/or C4-C8 alpha-olefins; and (B) 5-25% by weight of a copolymer of propylene comprising from 25 to 45 mole % of ethylene units, said propylene polymer composition having a melt flow rate value according to ISO 1133 (230° C., 2.16 Kg) of from 20 to 40 g/10 min.
US07816465B2

Process and apparatus for continuously producing olefin polymers in a slurry phase reactor in a hydrocarbon diluent or liquid monomer. The process comprises continuously withdrawing from the slurry phase reactor a polymer slurry containing polymer and a fluid phase, which contains hydrocarbons and optionally hydrogen, and concentrating the slurry with a self-cleaning screen by removing a part of the fluid phase to provide a concentrated slurry. The openings of the screen, which can have a planar or cylindrical configuration, are smallest at the inflow surface of the screen and increases towards the outflow surface. By the present invention, the need for service and maintenance is significantly reduced.
US07816461B2

Poly(propylene fumarate) is copolymerized with poly(caprolactone) diol to produce a block copolymer of poly(propylene fumarate) and poly(caprolactone). The biocompatible and bioresorbable block copolymer of poly(propylene fumarate) and poly(caprolactone) is useful in the fabrication of injectable and in-situ hardening scaffolds for tissue and/or skeletal reconstruction. The block copolymer can be crosslinked by redox or photo-initiation, with or without an additional crosslinker. Thus, the copolymer is both self-crosslinkable (without the use of any crosslinkers) and photocrosslinkable (in the presence of photons such as UV light).
US07816459B2

Disclosed is a method for preparing polyolefins containing vinylidine end groups from quasiliving carbocationically terminated polyolefin polymers by contacting the quasiliving carbocationically terminated polymer with quenching agent selected from the group consisting of polypyrrole, polyvinylpyridine, polyphenothiazine, polyoxazine, and polypyrrole-co-thiophene and substituted derivatives thereof.
US07816453B2

Adhesive composition for bonding and filling large assemblies, including a mixture of about 5 percent to about 75 percent by weight of a thermoplastic polymer, about 0.5 percent to about 35 percent by weight of a polyester resin or vinyl ester resin, and about 20 percent to about 80 percent by weight of an alkyl acrylate or methacrylate monomer.
US07816445B2

The subject invention provides a hydrophilic polymer (water-absorbing resin) which is superior in performance and productivity. According to the production method of the present invention, a hydrophilichigh-molecular-weight compound is dispersed in an aqueous solution containing a hydrophilic monomer. The dispersed hydrophilic high-molecular-weight compound is dissolved by heat of neutralization (heat of hydration) and/or heat of polymerization generated in the process of producing a hydrophilic polymer.
US07816439B2

Polymer-inorganic particle blends are incorporated into structures generally involving interfaces with additional materials that can be used advantageously for forming desirable devices. In some embodiments, the structures are optical structures, and the interfaces are optical interfaces. The different materials at the interface can have differences in index-of-refraction to yield desired optical properties at the interface. In some embodiments, structures are formed with periodic variations in index-of-refraction. In particular, photonic crystals can be formed. Suitable methods can be used to form the desired structures.
US07816437B2

A polyimide resin composition modified with bismaleimide and cyanate, which comprises (a) polyimide resin, (b) cyanate, (c) bismalemide, and (d) nanometer filler. By using the present polyimide resin composition modified with bismalemide and cyanate, heat expansion coefficient of polyimide can be reduced. Also, heat resistance and dimension stability of the polyimide resin can be improved, and thus it is suitable for cladding with copper foil to produce printed circuit board.
US07816432B2

A curable composition comprising: (A) a hydrocarbon compound having a plurality of carbon-carbon double bonds, and (B) a carbonaceous material. The hydrocarbon compound may preferably be 1,2-polybutadiene. The curable composition may be used for a fuel cell separator.
US07816430B2

The present invention provides a resin composition for printed wiring board to be used for electronic devices in which operating frequency exceeds 1 GHz, and a varnish, a prepreg and a metal clad laminated board using the same. One invention of the present invention is a resin composition for printed wiring board containing a cyanate ester compound having 2 or more cyanate groups in the molecule and/or a prepolymer thereof, an epoxy resin containing at least one kind of an epoxy resin having a biphenyl structure in the molecule, and a varnish, a prepreg and a metal clad laminated board using the same.
US07816422B2

The present invention provides a curable composition comprising a compound having a partial structure represented by the following formula (I) and a partial structure represented by the following formula (II): wherein in formula (I), A represents a group capable of forming a four- or more-membered bivalent alicyclic alkyl group with neighboring carbon atoms; and in formula (II), R1 represents an alkylene, a cycloalkylene, or an arylene group, and n represents an integer of 1 or more.
US07816418B2

A radiation-curable composition comprising a radiation-curable compounds a free acid and a halogenated polyolefin is disclosed. The compositions are useful in the repair of damaged motor vehicle body parts.
US07816413B2

A carbon-based foam composite including a carbon-based foam and a solid state hydrogen storage material, methods for making the carbon-based foam composite, and methods for using the carbon-based foam composite. Representative carbon-based foams include cryogels, aerogels, and xerogels. Representative solid state hydrogen storage materials include metal hydrides and chemical hydrides.
US07816412B2

Electrically conductive adhesive hydrogels formed from a composition which generally includes a monomer, an initiator, an organic solvent, and a cross-linking agent are suitable for use as skin contact adhesives and, particularly, suitable for use as an electrical interface for disposable medical devices. The present hydrogels provide for reduced skin irritation and/or malodor properties, hydrate a subject's skin, readily wet around a subject's skin surface hair, and protect against burning of a subject upon or due to electrical stimulation through the hydrogel.
US07816408B2

A novel calcium receptor active compound having the formula is provided: Ar1—[CR1R2]p—X—[CR3R4]q—[CR5R6]—NR7—[CR8R9]—Ar2 wherein: Ar1 is selected from the group consisting of aryl, heteroaryl, bis(arylmethyl)amino, bis(heteroarylmethyl)amino and arylmethyl(heteroarylmethyl)amino; X is selected from the group consisting of oxygen, sulfur, sulfinyl, sulfonyl, carbonyl and amino; R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8 and R9 are, for example, hydrogen or alkyl; Ar2 is selected from the group consisting of aryl and heteroaryl; p is an integer of from 0 to 6, inclusive; and, q is an integer of from 0 to 14, inclusive.
US07816396B1

The invention relates to a method of treating sialorrhea in a human patient, which comprises orally administering glycopyrrolate in a liquid solution to the human patient under fasted conditions.
US07816390B2

The invention is directed to compounds having the following structures: N-(3-ethoxyphenyl)-1,4-dihydro-6-ethoxy-7-(3-hydroxypropoxy)-1-methylindeno[1,2-c]pyrazole-3-amine; 3-[3-(3-Bromo-phenylamino)-6-ethoxy-1-methyl-1,4-dihydro-indeno[1,2-c]pyrazol-7-yloxy]-propan-1-ol; or 3-[3-(2-Chloro-pyridin-4-ylamino)-6-ethoxy-1-methyl-1,4-dihydro-indeno[1,2-c]pyrazol-7-yloxy]-propan-1-ol, and N-oxides, pharmaceutically acceptable salts, solvates, tautomers and stereochemical isomers thereof and the uses of such compounds as inhibitors of tubulin polymerization and for the treatment of solid tumors. The present invention is further directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of the present invention and to methods for treating conditions such as cancers and other cell proliferative disorders.
US07816386B2

Cinnamic and phenylpropiolic acid derivatives of formula (I) having antitumour and chemo sensitizing activity are described. Also described are pharmaceutical compositions containing the above-mentioned compounds, for the treatment of tumours.
US07816380B2

α-Hydroxycycloalkanecarboxamide derivatives of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein formula (a) is a single or double bond; R1, R2 and R3 are each independently selected from H, halogen and OH; or R1 and R2 attached to the same carbon atom together represent oxo; R4 is H or methyl; R5 is Cl or I2; R6 is selected from —CO2—C1-4alkyl, —O—C1-4alkyl, —O—C1-4haloalkyl, 2-methyltetrazol-5-yl, 5-methyl-1,2,4-oxadiazol-3-yl, 3-methyl-1,2,4-oxadiazol-5-yl, 5-halomethyl-1,2,4-oxadiazol-3-yl, 3-halomethyl-1,2,4-oxadiazol-5-yl, tetrazol-5-yl, 5-halomethyl-1,2,3-triazolyl, and 5-methyl-1,2,3-triazolyl; R7 and R8 are each independently Cl or I2; and n is 0 or 1, are bradykinin B1 antagonists or inverse agonists useful in the treatment or prevention of symptoms such as pain and inflammation associated with the bradykinin B1 pathway.
US07816378B2

The present invention is directed to cyclic ketal compounds of formula (I) which are inhibitors of the beta-secretase enzyme and that are useful in the treatment of diseases in which the beta-secretase enzyme is involved, such as Alzheimer's disease. The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the treatment of such diseases in which the beta-secretase enzyme is involved.
US07816375B2

One aspect of the present invention relates to heterocyclic compounds. A second aspect of the present invention relates to the use of the heterocyclic compounds as ligands for various mammalian cellular receptors, including dopamine, serotonin, or norepinephrine transporters. The compounds of the present invention will find use in the treatment of numerous ailments, conditions and diseases which afflict mammals, including but not limited to addiction, anxiety, depression, sexual dysfunction, hypertension, migraine, Alzheimer's disease, obesity, emesis, psychosis, schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, inflammatory pain, neuropathic pain, Lesche-Nyhane disease, Wilson's disease, and Tourette's syndrome. An additional aspect of the present invention relates to the synthesis of combinatorial libraries of the heterocyclic compounds, and the screening of those libraries for biological activity, e.g., in assays based on dopamine transporters.
US07816373B2

The present invention relates to a method for improving adsorption on the gastrointestinal mucous layers of one or more selected from polyethylene glycol, polyethylene oxide, and polyoxyethylene polypropylene copolymer wherein the average number of repeating oxyethylene units of one ethylene oxide chain length is 17 or greater. It is possible to enhance pharmacological effects by using the present invention with drugs that have anti-H. pylori activity.
US07816364B2

The present invention relates to the use of GPR119 receptor agonists for treating or preventing a condition characterized by low bone mass, such as osteoporosis, and for increasing bone mass in an individual. The present invention further relates to the use of a GPR119 receptor agonist in combination with a dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitor for treating or preventing a condition characterized by low bone mass, such as osteoporosis, and for increasing bone mass in an individual. A GPR119 receptor agonist and the combination of a GPR119 receptor agonist and a DPP-IV inhibitor promote bone formation in an individual.
US07816362B2

Novel piperazine derivatives are provided having the formula wherein R1 is cyano, nitro, trifluoromethyl or halogen, or pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts thereof, which are useful as 5-HT1A receptor antagonists.
US07816346B2

Analogs of geldanamycin (an ansamycin), pharmaceutical formulations comprising such analogs, and methods of use (e.g., treating tumors).
US07816341B2

The present invention is directed to a homogeneous, thermoreversible gel comprising carrageenan wherein the carrageenan has a viscosity of less than 10 cP at 75° C. when measured in a 0.10 molar aqueous sodium chloride solution containing 1.5% by weight of the carrageenan based on the weight of all components in the solution, and optionally at least one of a plasticizer, a second film former, a bulking agent, and a pH controlling agent, wherein the gel has a solids content of at least 40%. The present invention is also directed to processes for the preparation thereof, as well as to variety of products containing the gel including edible products, soft capsules, hard capsules and solid forms encapsulating powders, tablets, caplets, etc.
US07816338B2

The present invention provides short interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA), compositions and methods for inhibiting the CAR gene expression simply and rapidly, which can be used for evaluating toxicity of a chemical substance.
US07816334B2

The invention provides nucleic acid construct and nucleic acid expression vectors directing the expression of a fusion protein consisting of a disease peptide antigen and a first domain of FrC of tetanus toxin. The invention provides nucleic acid (DNA) vaccines for use in inducing an immune response against a disease. There is also provided methods of producing nucleic acid constructs and vectors for use as nucleic acid (DNA) vaccines.
US07816333B2

A method for the prevention or treatment in a mammal of a disease preventable or treatable by the pharmacologically useful antisense or antigene activity of an oligonucleotide analogue or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof in the body of said mammal, which method comprises administering to said mammal in need of such prevention or treatment a pharmaceutically effective amount of an oligonucleotide analogue comprising two or more nucleoside units, wherein at least one of said nucleoside units is a structure of the formula (2): wherein A is methylene; and B is an unsubstituted purin-9-yl, an unsubstituted 2-oxo-pyrimidin-1-yl or a substituted purin-9-yl; or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof.
US07816331B2

Substituted indazole-O-glucosides, compositions containing them, and methods of using them, for example for the treatment of diabetes and Syndrome X are disclosed.
US07816328B2

This invention relates to substituted fused heterocyclic C-glycosides, compositions containing them, and methods of using them, for example, for the treatment or prophylaxis of diabetes and Syndrome X.
US07816317B2

The prodrug of the invention is a modified form of a therapeutic agent and comprises a therapeutic agent, an oligopeptide of three amino acids, a stabilizing group and, optionally, a linker group. The prodrug is cleavable by a trouase enzyme such as Thimet oligopeptidase. Also disclosed are methods of making and using the prodrug compounds.
US07816313B2

A photoresist residue remover composition is provided that removes a photoresist residue formed by a resist ashing treatment after dry etching in a step of forming, on a substrate surface, wiring of any metal of aluminum, copper, tungsten, and an alloy having any of these metals as a main component, the composition including one or two or more types of inorganic acid and one or two or more types of inorganic fluorine compound. There is also provided a process for producing a semiconductor circuit element wherein, in a step of forming wiring of any metal of aluminum, copper, tungsten, and an alloy having any of these metals as a main component, the photoresist residue remover composition is used for removing a photoresist residue formed by a resist ashing treatment after dry etching.
US07816306B2

The present invention provides a lubricant composition for hot forming which makes it possible to provide lubricity at 80° C. or more without being peeled or washed by the roll cooling water, and which is easily washed under 40° C. without having water resistance. The lubricant composition for hot forming of the present invention comprises: a solid lubricant from 10 to 40% by mass; water-dispersible synthetic resin from 5 to 20% by mass; inorganic acid amine salt from 0.5 to 5% by mass; and water from 45 to 80% by mass.
US07816304B2

Provided herein are sets of mass labels. Each mass label in a set includes: 1) a mass marker moiety; 2) a mass normalisation moiety; and 3) a cleavable linker connecting the mass marker moiety to the mass normalisation moiety. Each mass marker moiety is characterized as having a mass different from that of all other mass marker moieties in the set as determined by mass spectrometry. Further, each mass normalization moiety ensures that each mass label in the set has substantially the same mass as determined by mass spectrometry.
US07816303B2

A laminated superconductor wire includes a superconductor wire assembly, which includes a first superconductor insert comprising a first high temperature superconductor layer overlaying a first substrate and a second superconductor insert comprising a second high temperature superconductor layer overlaying a second substrate. The first and second superconductor inserts are joined together at their respective substrates. An electrically conductive structure substantially surrounds the superconductor wire assembly.
US07816300B2

The present invention provides an exhaust gas purification catalyst comprising a base material, and a two or more layered catalyst coating layer, formed on the base material, wherein the two or more layers have upper and lower layers, and wherein the upper layer contains a large amount of noble metal per liter of the base material more than that of the lower layer, and the lower layer contains a large amount of an oxygen storage/release material per liter of the base material more than that of the upper layer. This exhaust gas purification catalyst has more excellent H2S purifying performance than conventional catalysts while maintaining purifying performance against NOx and the other exhaust gas components.
US07816299B2

A stacked bed catalyst system comprising at least one first catalyst selected from conventional hydrotreating catalyst having an average pore diameter of greater than about 10 nm and at least one second catalyst comprising a bulk metal hydrotreating catalyst comprised of at least one Group VIII non-noble metal and at least one Group VIB metal and optionally a binder material.
US07816285B2

An odor control substrate that is applied with an activated carbon ink is provided. The activated carbon ink is applied in a pattern that covers from about 25% to about 95% of the surface area of the substrate. Although not covering the entire surface, the present inventors have discovered that the activated carbon ink is still capable of providing good odor reduction qualities to the substrate. To further enhance the aesthetic appeal of the odor control substrate to a consumer, one or more colored inks may also be applied the substrate in a pattern that may or may not overlap with the activated carbon ink pattern. The colored ink(s) may contrast well with the activated carbon ink to provide an overall design that is more aesthetically than otherwise would be provided by a uniform coating of activated carbon ink.
US07816278B2

An in-situ hybrid film deposition method for forming a high-k dielectric film on a plurality of substrates in a batch processing system. The method includes loading the plurality of substrates into a process chamber of the batch processing system, depositing by atomic layer deposition (ALD) a first portion of a high-k dielectric film on the plurality of substrates, after depositing the first portion, and without removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber, depositing by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) a second portion of the high-k dielectric film on the first portion, and removing the plurality of substrates from the process chamber. The method can further include alternatingly repeating the deposition of the first and second portions until the high-k dielectric film has a desired thickness. The method can still further include pre-treating the substrates and post-treating the high-k dielectric film in-situ prior to the removing.
US07816273B2

Resist masks exposed to high-dose implantation processes may be efficiently removed on the basis of a combination of a plasma-based etch process and a wet chemical etch recipe, wherein both etch steps may include a highly selective etch chemistry in order to minimize substrate material loss and thus dopant loss in sophisticated semiconductor devices. The first plasma-based etch step may provide under-etched areas of the resist mask, which may then be efficiently removed on the basis of the wet chemical etch process.
US07816270B2

A method of forming minute patterns in a semiconductor device, and more particularly, a method of forming minute patterns in a semiconductor device having an even number of insert patterns between basic patterns by double patterning including insert patterns between a first basic pattern and a second basic pattern which are transversely separated from each other on a semiconductor substrate, wherein a first insert pattern and a second insert pattern are alternately repeated to form the insert patterns, the method includes the operation of performing a partial etching toward the second insert pattern adjacent to the second basic pattern, or the operation of forming a shielding layer pattern, thereby forming the even number of insert patterns.
US07816269B2

A plasma deposition apparatus for making polycrystalline silicon including a chamber for depositing said polycrystalline silicon, the chamber having an exhaust system for recovering un-deposited gases; a support located within the deposition chamber for holding a target substrate having a deposition surface, the deposition surface defining a deposition zone; at least one induction coupled plasma torch located within the deposition chamber and spaced apart from the support, the at least one induction coupled plasma torch producing a plasma flame that is substantially perpendicular to the deposition surface, the plasma flame defining a reaction zone for reacting at least one precursor gas source to produce the polycrystalline silicon for depositing a layer of the polycrystalline silicon the deposition surface.
US07816264B2

A wafer processing method having a step of reducing the thickness of a wafer in only a device forming area where semiconductor chips are formed by grinding and etching the back side of the wafer to thereby form a recess on the back side of the wafer. At the same time, an annular projection is formed around the recess to thereby ensure the rigidity of the wafer. Accordingly, handling in shifting the wafer from the back side recess forming step to a subsequent step of forming a back side rewiring layer can be performed safely and easily.
US07816256B2

An interconnect structure of an integrated circuit having improved reliability and a method for forming the same are provided. The method includes providing a substrate, forming a dielectric layer overlying the substrate, performing a first shrinking process, wherein the dielectric layer shrinks and has a first shrinkage rate, forming a conductive feature in the dielectric layer after the step of performing the first shrinking process, and performing a second shrinking process after the step of forming the conductive feature, wherein the dielectric layer substantially shrinks and has a second shrinkage rate.
US07816252B2

A method for forming a bump on under bump metallurgy according to the present invention is provided. A bonding pad is first formed on the active surface of a wafer. Subsequently, a passivation layer is formed on the active surface of the wafer and exposes the bonding pad. An under bump metallurgy is formed on the bonding pad. A layer of film is formed on the passivation layer and overlays the under bump metallurgy. Afterward, the portion of the film on the under bump metallurgy is exposed to a UV light and the exposed portion of the film is removed to expose the under bump metallurgy. A solder paste is applied to the under bump metallurgy and the remaining film on the wafer is removed. Finally, the solder paste is reflowed to form a spherical bump.
US07816248B2

Disclosed are embodiments of a far back end of the line solder connector and a method of forming the connector that eliminates the use aluminum, protects the integrity of the ball limiting metallurgy (BLM) layers and promotes adhesion of the BLM layers by incorporating a thin conformal conductive liner into the solder connector structure. This conductive liner coats the top of the via filling in any divots in order to create a uniform surface for BLM deposition and to, thereby, protect the integrity of the BLM layers. The liner further coats the dielectric sidewalls of the well in which the BLM layers are formed in order to enhance adhesion of the BLM layers to the well.
US07816245B2

A semiconductor device is formed by providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a cell region, a peripheral circuit region, and a resistor region, forming a device isolation layer on the semiconductor substrate so as to define an active region, forming a first insulating layer and a polysilicon pattern on the active region of the peripheral circuit region, forming a second insulating layer, a charge storage layer, and a third insulating layer on the active region of the cell region, forming a conductive layer on the semiconductor substrate, and patterning the conductive layer to form conductive patterns on the third insulating layer of the cell region, the polysilicon pattern of the active region of peripheral circuit region, and the semiconductor substrate of the resistor region, respectively.
US07816241B2

Provided is a method for preparing a compound semiconductor substrate. The method includes coating a plurality of spherical balls on a substrate, growing a compound semiconductor epitaxial layer on the substrate coated with the spherical balls while allowing voids to be formed under the spherical balls, and cooling the substrate on which the compound semiconductor epitaxial layer is grown so that the substrate and the compound semiconductor epitaxial layer are self-separated along the voids. The spherical ball treatment can reduce dislocation generations. In addition, because the substrate and the compound semiconductor epitaxial layer are separated through the self-separation, there is no need for laser lift-off process.
US07816237B2

A method of forming a field effect transistor creates shallower and sharper junctions, while maximizing dopant activation in processes that are consistent with current manufacturing techniques. More specifically, the invention increases the oxygen content of the top surface of a silicon substrate. The top surface of the silicon substrate is preferably cleaned before increasing the oxygen content of the top surface of the silicon substrate. The oxygen content of the top surface of the silicon substrate is higher than other portions of the silicon substrate, but below an amount that would prevent epitaxial growth. This allows the invention to epitaxially grow a silicon layer on the top surface of the silicon substrate. Further, the increased oxygen content substantially limits dopants within the epitaxial silicon layer from moving into the silicon substrate.
US07816224B2

In one embodiment, the invention is a method for fabricating an ultra thin silicon on insulator. One embodiment of a method for fabricating an ultra thin silicon on insulator includes providing a silicon layer, saturating the silicon layer with at least one reactant gas at a first temperature, the first temperature being low enough to substantially prevent the occurrence of any reactions involving the reactant gas, and raising the first temperature to a second temperature, the second temperature being approximately a dissociation temperature of the reactant gas.
US07816218B2

A microelectronic device includes a metal gate with a metal gate upper surface. The metal gate is disposed in an interlayer dielectric first layer. The interlayer dielectric first layer also has an upper surface that is coplanar with the metal gate upper surface. A dielectric etch stop layer is disposed on the metal gate upper surface but not on the interlayer dielectric first layer upper surface.
US07816217B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate comprising silicon, cleaning the substrate, performing a first low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process using a first source gas to selectively deposit a seeding layer of silicon (Si) over the substrate, performing a second LPCVD process using a second source gas to selectively deposit a first layer of silicon germanium (SiGe) over the layer of Si, the second source gas including hydrochloride at a first flow rate, and performing a third LPCVD process using a third source gas including hydrochloride at a second flow rate. The first flow rate is substantially lower than the second flow rate.
US07816216B2

A method for forming an opening within a semiconductor material comprises forming a neck portion, a rounded portion below the neck portion and, in some embodiments, a protruding portion below the rounded portion. This opening may be filled with a conductor, a dielectric, or both. Embodiments to form a transistor gate, shallow trench isolation, and an isolation material separating a transistor source and drain are disclosed. Device structures formed by the method are also described.
US07816208B2

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes: a first step of forming an STI region and an active region surrounded by the STI region on a semiconductor substrate; a second step of forming a protection film protecting a shoulder part of the STI region in a boundary between the active region and the STI region; a third step of forming a gate trench in the active region so as to leave a part of the semiconductor substrate located between a side surface of the STI region and a side surface of the gate trench;a fourth step of forming a gate insulating film on the side surface of the gate trench; a fifth step of forming a gate electrode, at least a part of the gate electrode being buried in the gate trench; and a sixth step of forming a source region and a drain region in regions located on both sides of the gate trench in an extension direction of the gate trench, respectively, so that the part of the semiconductor substrate functions as a channel region.
US07816204B2

A semiconductor device, having a memory cell region and a peripheral circuit region, includes an insulating film, having an upper surface, formed on a major surface of a semiconductor substrate to extend from the memory cell region to the peripheral circuit region. A capacitor lower electrode assembly is formed in the memory cell region to upwardly extend to substantially the same height as the upper surface of the insulating film on the major surface of the semiconductor substrate. Additionally, the lower electrode assembly includes first and second lower electrodes that are adjacent through the insulating film. A capacitor upper electrode is formed on the capacitor lower electrode through a dielectric film, to extend onto the upper surface of the insulating film. The capacitor lower electrode includes a capacitor lower electrode part having a top surface and a bottom surface. A semiconductor device organized as just described, permits implementation having a high density of integration while ensuring the capacitor exhibits high reliability and a constant capacitance.
US07816200B2

The present invention generally includes a method and an apparatus for depositing both a high k layer and a capping layer within the same processing chamber by coupling gas precursors, liquid precursors, and solid precursors to the same processing chamber. By coupling gas precursors, liquid precursors, and solid precursors to the same processing chamber, a high k dielectric layer, a capping layer for a PMOS section, and a different capping layer for a NMOS may be deposited within the same processing chamber. The capping layer prevents the metal containing electrode from reacting with the high k dielectric layer. Thus, the threshold voltage for the PMOS and NMOS may be substantially identical.
US07816197B2

One or more on-chip VNCAP or MIMCAP capacitors utilize a variable MOS capacitor to improve the uniform capacitance value of the capacitors. This permits the production of silicon semiconductor chips on which are mounted capacitors having capacitive values that are precisely adjusted to be within a range of between about 1% and 5% of their design value. This optimization can be achieved by the use of a back-to-back connection between a pair of the variable MOS capacitors for DC decoupling. It involves the parallelization of on-chip BEOL capacitance of VNCAP and/or MIMCAP capacitors by the insertion in the FEOL of pairs of back-to-back variable MOS capacitors.
US07816191B2

By using a high purity target as a target, using a single gas, argon (Ar), as a sputtering gas, setting the substrate temperature at 300° C. or less, setting the sputtering power from 1 kW to 9 kW, and setting the sputtering gas pressure from 1.0 Pa to 3.0 Pa, the film stress of a film is made from −1 ×1010cm2 to 1×1010 dyn/cm2. By thus using a conducting film in which the amount of sodium contained within the film is equal to or less than 0.3 ppm, preferably equal to or less than 0.1 ppm, and having a low electrical resistivity (equal to or less than 40 μΩ•cm), as a gate wiring material and a material for other wirings of a TFT, the operating performance and the reliability of a semiconductor device provided with the TFT can be increased.
US07816190B2

An E-ink display and method for repairing the same is provided. The method is for repairing a thin film transistor array substrate of the E-ink display. The thin film transistor array substrate having a plurality of pixel units is provided initially. Each of the pixel unit includes a thin film transistor and a pixel electrode. The thin film transistor has a gate electrode, a source electrode and a drain electrode. The gate electrode, the source electrode and the drain electrode are connected electrically to a scan line, a data line and the pixel electrode respectively. A portion of the pixel electrode is located above the data line. Next, a repairing portion is formed at the space between the data line and the pixel electrode. The repairing portion is utilized to electrically connect the pixel electrode and the data line.
US07816188B2

A high density plasma oxidation process is provided in which a dielectric film is formed having a predetermined thickness. Plasma oxidation conditions are provided such that the growth rate of the dielectric film is limited in order to produce dielectric layer having a precise thickness and uniformity. The high density plasma oxidation process can be used to fabricate gate oxide layers, passivation layers and antifuse layers in semiconductor devices such as semiconductor memory devices and multi-level memory arrays.
US07816183B2

In the multiple-layered semiconductor device and the method for manufacturing thereof according to the present invention, the resin is formed on the substrate around the semiconductor device, on which the semiconductor device is installed in the first semiconductor package. Therefore, a generation of a warpage of substrate is inhibited in the first semiconductor package. And since the first semiconductor package is stacked to and coupled to the second semiconductor package via the electric conductors that extend from the back surface of the second semiconductor package to the coupling lands on the substrate penetrating through the resin, a defective situation such as a coupling defective in the bump junction can be avoided when the junction of the second semiconductor package via the electric conductor is formed. Therefore, a considerably improved coupling reliability in the multiple-layered semiconductor device can be achieved.
US07816181B1

A method of under-filling semiconductor die in a die stack and a semiconductor device formed thereby are disclosed. Once the semiconductor die are formed, they may be stacked and interconnected. The interconnection may leave a small space between semiconductor die in the die stack. This space is advantageously completely filled using a vapor deposition process where a coating is deposited as a vapor which flows over all surfaces of the die stack, including into the spaces between the die in the stack. The vapor then deposits on the surfaces between and around the die and forms a film which completely fills the spaces between the die in the die stack. The material used in the vapor deposition under-fill process may for example be a member of the parylene family of polymers, and in embodiments, may be parylene-N.
US07816176B2

In a method of manufacturing an electronic component package, first, a plurality of sets of external connecting terminals corresponding to a plurality of electronic component packages are formed by plating on a top surface of a substrate to thereby fabricate a wafer. The wafer includes a plurality of pre-base portions that will be separated from one another later to become bases of the respective electronic component packages. Next, at least one electronic component chip is bonded to each of the pre-base portions of the wafer. Next, electrodes of the electronic component chip are connected to the external connecting terminals. Next, the electronic component chip is sealed. Next, the wafer is cut so that the pre-base portions are separated from one another and the plurality of bases are thereby formed.
US07816173B2

An OLED comprises an anode, a hole source, an emissive region, an electron source and a cathode, wherein the materials for the electron source and the hole source are chosen such that the electrical conductivity of these charge carrier sources is greater than the electrical conductivity of the emissive region. In particular, the electrical conductivity of the source layers is between 10−8 to 102 S/cm. Furthermore, one or both of the hole source and the electron source are made substantially of one or more inorganic materials. The emissive region can have one or more layers of organic material. The materials for the emissive region are insulators. The cathode can be made of a metal such as Mg:Ag and Al, and the anode is made of ITO or the like. The electrical conductivity of the cathode and the anode is significantly higher than 102 S/cm.
US07816172B2

An organic thin-film transistor having a higher carrier-mobility, a method of fabricating the organic thin-film transistor and an organic thin-film device including the organic thin-film transistor are provided. In an organic thin-film transistor having an organic semiconductor layer, the organic semiconductor layer contains a fluorinated acene compound which is represented by a formula of C4n+2F2n+4, wherein n is an integer of 2 or greater. The fluorinated acene compound is preferably tetradecafluoropentacene or dodecafluoronaphthacene.
US07816170B2

A dual-pixel full color CMOS imager comprises a two-photodiode stack including an n doped substrate, a bottom photodiode, and a top photodiode. The bottom photodiode has a bottom p doped layer at a first depth overlying the substrate and a bottom n doped layer cathode overlying the bottom p doped layer. The top photodiode has a top p doped layer overlying the bottom n doped layer and a top n doped layer cathode overlying the top p doped layer. A single photodiode including a bottom p doped layer overlies the substrate at a third depth. The third depth is less than, or equal to the first depth. A bottom n doped layer overlies the bottom p doped layer, a top p doped layer directly overlies the bottom n doped layer without an intervening layer, and a top n doped layer overlies the top p doped layer.
US07816168B2

A method for forming a color filter is provided. A substrate having a passivation layer thereon is provided. The passivation layer has at least one trench therein within a peripheral region of the substrate. A first color filter layer is formed over the passivation layer to fill the trench by performing a first spin-on coating process with a first spin rate. Thereafter, the first color filter layer is patterned so as to form a plurality of first color filter blocks in a display region of the substrate and expose a portion of the passivation layer. A second color filter layer is formed over the passivation layer by performing a second spin-on coating process with a second spin rate, which is larger than the first spin rate. Next, the second color filter layer is patterned to form a plurality of second color filter blocks between the first color filter blocks respectively.
US07816159B2

A method for fabricating a pixel structure includes following steps. First, a substrate is provided. Next, a first conductive layer is formed on the substrate. Next, a first shadow mask is disposed over the first conductive layer. Next, a laser is applied through the first shadow mask to irradiate the first conductive layer to form a gate. Next, a gate dielectric layer is formed on the substrate to cover the gate. After that, a channel layer, a source and a drain are simultaneously formed on the gate dielectric layer over the gate, wherein the gate, the channel layer, the source and the drain together form a thin film transistor. A patterned passivation layer is formed on the thin film transistor and the patterned passivation layer exposes a part of the drain. Furthermore, a pixel electrode electrically connecting to the drain is formed.
US07816155B2

A method for mounting a semiconductor device onto a composite substrate, including a submount and a heat sink, is described. According to one aspect of the invention, the materials for the submount and the heat sink are chosen so that the value of coefficient of thermal expansion of the semiconductor device is in between the values of coefficients of thermal expansion of the materials of the submount and the heat sink, the thickness of the submount being chosen so as to equalize thermal expansion of the semiconductor device to that of the surface of the submount the device is mounted on. According to another aspect of the invention, the semiconductor device, the submount, and the heat sink are soldered into a stack at a single step of heating, which facilitates reduction of residual post-soldering stresses.
US07816150B2

A method for fabricating a semiconductor device includes the steps of forming a first ferroelectric film over a lower electrode, crystallizing the first ferroelectric film, forming a second ferroelectric film in an amorphous state over the first ferroelectric film so as to fill voids existing on a surface of the first ferroelectric film, and forming an upper electrode over the second ferroelectric film of the amorphous state, wherein the crystallizing step of the first ferroelectric film is conducted by a thermal annealing process at a temperature of 585° C. or higher.
US07816148B2

Microfluidic devices and systems for affecting the serial to parallel conversion of materials introduced into the device or system. Material or materials to be converted from a serial orientation, e.g., a single channel, into a parallel orientation, e.g., multiple channels, are introduced into an open chamber or field in which containing flows of materials maintain the cohesiveness of the sample material plugs serially introduced into the open chamber. The sample material or materials are then redirected in the chamber toward and into a plurality of parallel channels that also communicate with the chamber.
US07816146B2

A passive electronic device includes layers of a layered structure on a support surface. The device can include a first layer part that includes electrically conductive or semiconductive material and that has a contact surface. The device can also include second layer parts that include electrically conductive material and are in electrical contact with the contact surface, with a subset electrically connectible to external circuitry. At least one of the parts of the two layers can be produced by a printing operation or can include a printed patterned artifact such as an uneven boundary or an alignment. The printing operation can be direct printing or printing of a mask for etching or liftoff or both. The device could, for example, be a resistive device, such as a device with resistance varying in response to non-electrical stimuli, or a conductive device, such as with a contact pad for a pogo pin.
US07816144B1

Methods for analyzing mixtures of polysaccharides, for example heparin such as unfractionated heparin and enoxaparin are described. In some instances, the mixtures are analyzed using fast performance liquid chromatography (FPLC) and high liquid performance chromatography (HPLC), e.g., strong anion exchange HPLC.
US07816143B2

A method for confirming the active intake of marijuana and its active component Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (“Δ9-THC”) by detecting the amount of 11-nor-Δ9-THC carboxylic acid (“THCA”) in oral fluid at the picogram per milliliter (pg/ml) level using chromatography/mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (“GC/MS/MS”).
US07816140B2

The present disclosure provides compositions and methods for increasing bone growth and/or enhancing wound healing, for example, fracture repair. The disclosure provides recombinant nucleic acids useful for promoting bone growth. For example, the disclosure provides recombinant nucleic acids that encode a fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) analog. The disclosure also provides vectors and cells incorporating these nucleic acids, as well as FGF-2 analogs encode by them. The disclosure also provides a mouse system of bone marrow transplantation and methods for producing as well as methods for using the system. Methods for inducing division and/or inducing differentiation of a hematopoietic stem cell are also provided, as are methods for enhancing bone growth and/or wound repair (for example, fracture repair).
US07816133B2

Disclosed is a method for in vitro growing of connective tissue substitute, said connective tissue substitute being populated with fibroblasts, a connective tissue substitute obtainable by such a method, as well as a method for closing of a wound, wherein such connective tissue substitute is applied onto a wound.
US07816131B2

The present invention regards cancer-specific control sequences that direct expression of a polynucleotide encoding a therapeutic gene product for treatment of the cancer. Specifically, the invention encompasses breast cancer-, prostate cancer-, and pancreatic cancer-specific control sequences. Two breast cancer-specific sequences utilize specific regions of topoisomerase IIα and transferrin receptor promoters, particularly in combination with an enhancer. The prostate cancer-specific and pancreatic cancer-specific control sequences utilize composites of tissue-specific control sequences, a two-step transcription amplification sequence, and a post-transcriptional control sequence. In more particular embodiments, these polynucleotides are administered in combination with liposomes.
US07816129B2

The present invention is related to an improved production of bacterial proteins in filamentous fungus, e.g. in Trichoderma and Aspergillus. The improvement is achieved by constructing expression vectors, which comprise the bacterial protein encoding DNA sequences fused in frame with a DNA sequence encoding a filamentous fungus secretable protein or one or more functional domains of said protein. Filamentous fungus hosts transformed with such expression vectors secrete the desired proteins or enzymes, especially xylanases or cellulases originating from bacteria or more preferably from actinornycetes into the culture medium of the host. The desired proteins or enzymes can be used directly from the culture medium after separation of host cells or recovered and treated using down-stream processes, which are appropriate for the respective application. Xylanases or cellulases from actinomycetes produced using the above expression vectors are most suitable for treating plant derived materials e.g. in pulp and paper industries.
US07816121B2

A droplet actuation system is provided including a droplet actuation device including a substrate that includes electrodes for conducting droplet operations; temperature control means for heating and/or cooling a region of the droplet actuation device and arranged such that a droplet can be transported on the electrodes to a region for heating; and a means for effecting a magnetic field in proximity to one or more of the electrodes sufficient to immobilize magnetically responsive beads in a droplet on the substrate during droplet operations. The system further includes a processor for controlling the electrodes and temperature control means, wherein the processor is programmed, and electrodes and magnetic field are arranged, to cause the electrodes to split a droplet including the magnetically responsive beads yielding a first daughter droplet which includes the magnetically responsive beads and a second daughter droplet without a substantial amount of the magnetically responsive beads.
US07816110B2

A process for storing entrapping immobilization pellets in which microorganisms are entrapped and immobilized in an immobilizing material until the entrapping immobilization pellets are used in a treatment tank, the process comprising: storing a large pellet block in water at 15° C. or less or in air at a relative humidity of 90% or more and a temperature of 15° C. or less until the pellet block is cut into the entrapping immobilization pellets and used.
US07816109B2

A hydrogen producing method by culturing a microorganism having a hydrogenase gene, in which a lactic acid biogenetic path and a succinic acid biogenetic path in anaerobic metabolic paths are inactivated, under an anaerobic condition in the presence of organic substrate. The microorganism may further have a formate dehydrogenase gene. The microorganism may be Escherichia coli which is a facultative anaerobic bacterium.
US07816094B2

A method for quantitative analysis of interactions between fluorescein-labeled HIF-1α (alpha) C-terminal peptides and cAMP-responsive element binding protein (CBP) or p300 proteins, and a method of screening inhibitors against the formation of HIF-1α-p300 or HIF-1α-CBP protein complexes using the above method is described.
US07816091B2

The present invention relates to a novel human gene encoding a polypeptide which is a member of the Cytokine Receptor family. More specifically, the present invention relates to a polynucleotide encoding a novel human polypeptide named Cytokine Receptor Common Gamma Chain Like, or “CRCGCL.” This invention also relates to CRCGCL polypeptides, as well as vectors, host cells, antibodies directed to CRCGCL polypeptides, and the recombinant methods for producing the same. Also provided are diagnostic methods for detecting disorders related to the immune system, and therapeutic methods for treating diagnosing, detecting, and/or preventing such disorders. The invention further relates to screening methods for identifying agonists and antagonists of CRCGCL activity.
US07816089B2

The present invention provides a method for determining whether a subject has a pediatric neoplasm. The present invention further provides a method for assessing the efficacy of therapy to treat a pediatric neoplasm in a subject who has undergone or is undergoing treatment for a pediatric neoplasm. In addition, the present invention provides a method for assessing the prognosis of a subject who has a pediatric neoplasm. Finally, the present invention provides a method for treating a pediatric neoplasm in a subject in need of treatment thereof.
US07816088B2

Isolated populations of leukemic stem cells are provided. The cells are useful for experimental evaluation, and as a source of lineage and cell specific products, and as targets for the discovery of factors or molecules that can affect them. Detection of leukemic stem cells is useful in predicting disease progression, relapse, and development of drug resistance. Proliferation of LSC may be inhibited through interfering with activation of the bcatenin pathway. Methods are provided for the clinical staging of pre-leukemia and leukemias by differential analysis of hematologic samples for the distribution of one or more hematopoietic stem or progenitor cell subsets.
US07816087B2

A new polypeptide is disclosed that is specifically detected in the cells of the prostate, termed Novel Gene Expressed in Prostate (NGEP). Polynucleotides encoding NGEP are also disclosed, as are vectors including these polynucleotides. Host cells transformed with these polynucleotides are also disclosed. Antibodies are disclosed that specfically bind NGEP. Methods are disclosed for using an NGEP polypeptide, an antibody that specifically binds NGEP, or a polynucleotide encoding NGEP. Assays are disclosed for the detection prostate cancer. Pharamaceutical compositions including an NGEP polypeptide, an antibody that specifically binds NGEP, or a polynucleotide encoding NGEP are also disclosed. These pharmaceutical compositions are of use in the treatment of prostate cancer.
US07816086B2

The invention relates to the polynucleotide sequence of a nontypeable stain of Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and polypeptides encoded by the polynucleotides and uses thereof. The invention also relates to NTHi genes which are upregulated during or in response to NTHi infection of the middle ear and/or the nasopharynx.
US07816081B2

A method is provided for performing a reaction, such as the synthesis of concentrated cDNA, in the wells of a microplate while minimizing the volume of the solution of reagents required to perform the reaction. In the method, a pestle is inserted into the well of a microplate to which a substance has been immobilized. A volume of reagent solution is introduced into the well that is insufficient to cover the portion of the well onto which the substance is immobilized. The insertion of the pestle displaces reagent solution and increases the surface area of the solution in contact with the portion of the well to which the substance has been immobilized when the pestle is inserted.
US07816079B2

The present invention provides novel systems for sequencing nucleic acid molecules using dNTPs that are 3′ end labeled with cleavable tags that block further extension and uniquely identify the bases to which they are attached. Removal of the tags liberates the 3′ ends of the extension products for further extension. In related embodiments, oligonucleotides containing sequence-related cleavable tags are employed in a ligation reaction to determine the sequence of a particular DNA sample.
US07816075B2

The use of screening assays based on the role of human stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 (“hSCD1”) in human diseases, disorders or conditions relating to serum levels of triglyceride, VLDL, HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, or production of secretions from mucous membranes, monounsaturated fatty acids, wax esters, and the like, is disclosed. Also disclosed are conventions useful in the prevention and/or treatment of such diseases.
US07816066B2

A positive resist composition includes a resin component (A), and an acid generator component (B) which generates an acid upon exposure and includes an acid generator (B1) represented by general formula (B1): (wherein R51 represents a straight chain, branched chain, or cyclic alkyl group, or a straight chain, branched chain, or cyclic fluorinated alkyl group; R52 represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxyl group, a halogen atom, a straight chain, branched chain, or cyclic alkyl group, a straight chain or branched chain halogenated alkyl group, or a straight chain or branched chain alkoxy group; R53 represents an aryl group which may include a substituent; and n represents an integer from 1 to 3).
US07816058B2

A membrane electrode assembly including an ionically conductive member, an electrode, and an electrically conductive member including an active layer, wherein the electrode is a smooth, continuous layer that completely covers and supports the ionically conductive member. The electrode and active layer further include a first and second catalyst content, respectively; and 50% of the total catalyst content is present in the electrode and 50% of the total catalyst content is present in the active layer.
US07816047B2

There is provided a method for stopping power generation of fuel cell system including: a fuel cell having a fuel electrode and an oxidizer electrode; a fuel container; and a fuel flow path for supplying a fuel from the fuel container to the fuel cell, which enables suppression of a pressure difference between the fuel electrode and the oxidizer electrode during a stop state of an operation of the fuel cell, the method including the steps of, during the stop state of the operation of the fuel cell: stopping supply of the fuel from the fuel container to the fuel cell; consuming a residual fuel in the fuel flow path by short-circuiting the fuel electrode and the oxidizer electrode or connecting a load between the fuel electrode and the oxidizer electrode; and opening the fuel flow path to the atmosphere.
US07816025B2

An amino acid capable of coordinately binding to a metallic complex is introduced to an active site within the enzyme or another controlled position near the active site. Therefore, when a mediator is introduced into the enzyme, a mediator-introduced position is controlled to be held at or near the active site.
US07816022B2

A composite structure for microlithography, in particular a holding device for a wafer, has two or more components, the surfaces of which are bonded together at least at one bond. At least one of the components consists of cordierite (Mg2Al4Si5O18) or of silicon carbide (SiC). Also disclosed is an optical arrangement, in particular a projection illumination apparatus for microlithography, having at least one such composite structure, preferably a wafer stage.
US07816021B2

Provided are a carbazole-based compound represented by Formula 1 below and an organic light-emitting device including an organic layer including the carbazole-based compound: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R9, R10, R11, R12, R13, and R14 are as defined in the specification. The carbazole-based compound has good electrical characteristics and charge transport capability, and thus, is useful as a hole injection material, a hole transport material, and/or an emitting material for fluorescent or phosphorescent devices capable of producing light of a full spectrum of colors, including red, green, blue, and white, thereby making it possible to produce an organic light-emitting device with high efficiency, a low driving voltage, and high brightness.
US07816011B2

A structural material of diamond like carbon (DLC) composite layers is provided. The structural material includes a composite material which is consisted of a metal layer, a first metal nitride layer, and a DLC thin film. The metal layer includes aluminum (Al), copper (Cu), zirconium (Zr), nickel (Ni), or vanadium (V). The first metal nitride layer includes aluminum nitride (Al—N), zirconium nitride (Zr—N), vanadium nitride (V—N), or nickel nitride (Ni—N). The DLC thin film of the structural material of DLC composite layers has high quality tetragonally bonded amorphous carbon (ta-C) with a sp3(C—C) bonding ratio of more than 30%. Therefore, it is suitable for the work pieces in the mechanical, chemical, electricity, photoelectric, and heat transfer fields.
US07816009B2

Particles of metal and non-metal oxides may be readily functionalized with organosilyl groups, even in the absence of catalysts, when methylene-spaced alkoxysilanes are used for functionalizing. When an excess of alkoxy groups relative to metal-OH groups are present, the resulting functionalized particles exhibit high reactivity, particularly upon exposure to moisture. Functionalization is particularly useful with particles of organopolysiloxane resins.
US07816008B2

This invention discloses a process and a necessary article to simultaneously thermally treat at least two thermoplastics. The process utilizes the necessary compartmentalized or zoned pellet construction wherein the major amount of each thermoplastic component is located within individual compartments or zones of the pellet such that the components of the reaction during thermal processing and/or reactions with compounds in the atmosphere such as oxygen are less than the reaction if the thermoplastics were homogeneously dispersed in the pellet. This invention allows the components of the multi-component pellets to be thermally treated together without significant degradation and/or stored in air or in the presence of oxygen without significant degradation.
US07816005B2

A method for imparting resistance to staining to a substrate comprising contacting the substrate with a copolymer comprising the monomers of Formula wherein D is at least one vinyl monomer selected from the group consisting of aryl olefin, alpha olefin and diene, each M is independently H, Ca, Mg, Al, Na, or K, each R1 is independently H, C1-C6 alkyl, or C1-C6 hydroxyalkyl, each R2 is independently linear or branched C1-C12 alkyl, C1-C6 hydroxyalkyl, C6F5, arylalkyl, C6H4OH, R3COOH, or R3SO3H, or R1 and R2 are linked together to form a morpholino or pyrrolidino ring, R3 is linear or branched C1-C12 alkyl, CH(COOH)CH2CH2, C6H4, or C6H3(OH), h1+h2 is h, h is a positive integer, k is zero or a positive integer, i and j are each independently zero or a positive integer, provided that the total of 1) h÷(k+h+i+j) is from about 0.005 to about 0.7, 2) k÷(k+h+i+j) is from about 0.3 to about 0.6, 3) [i+j]÷(k+h+i+j) is 0 to about 0.6, and provided that the sum of 1)+2)+3) is 1.0, said monomers occurring in any sequence.
US07816002B2

A recording paper contains a pulp fiber and a magnetic fiber having a large Barkhausen effect. The fiber orientation ratio of this recording paper by an ultrasonic propagation velocity method is in a range of more than 1.3 to less than 1.8, and the degree of shrinkage in an MD thereof is 0.25% or less.
US07815992B2

A vehicular seat trim cover attachment device having a plurality of female attachment portions interconnected to one another by at least one connecting portion. The attachment device is preferably flexible in at least two independent planes. Each female attachment portion has a receptacle portion and a base portion. Each base portion is connected to the connecting portion. Each base portion has a lateral dimension greater than a lateral dimension of the receptacle portion. At least a portion of the connecting portion is disposed in an exoplanar relationship with respect to a pair of female attachment portions that have substantially coplanar base portions. Preferably, the connecting portion extends below the bottom surfaces of the adjacent base portions.
US07815991B2

A lightweight multilayer heat reflective concrete cure blanket having a moisture-impervious top outer layer, a moisture-impervious bottom outer layer, and the top and bottom layers sealingly connected to each other at the boundaries of the layers to form a moisture-impervious chamber between the first and second layers. The chamber includes at least one bubble type insulative layer therein, and the bottom surface of the blanket comprises a heat reflective material to reflect heat emanating from the concrete when the blanket is placed over the concrete. In a further embodiment, heat reflective material is applied to at least one inner bubble type layer to reflect additional heat which radiates from the concrete through the insulative layer and back towards the concrete.
US07815989B2

A stock material (16) for use with a dunnage conversion machine (14) includes at least one ply of sheet material having spaced along the length thereof a plurality of transverse rows (22) of weakened areas (24). The weakened areas (24), which can be formed by perforations, for example, have a reduced strength relative to adjacent portions of the sheet material. Each row (22) of weakened areas (24) has at least one parameter that varies along the row (22). The strength of the stock material at the row (22), in response to a force applied across the row (22), varies across the stock material (16).
US07815987B2

A polyamide membrane and method for making and using the same, including use within a spiral wound module. While many different embodiments are described, one embodiment includes a polyamide membrane including a coating comprising a combination of a polyalkylene oxide compound and a polyacrylamide compound.
US07815979B2

Disclosed is a liquid crystal display that includes a first substrate, a second substrate facing the first substrate, a pair of field generating electrodes formed on at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The liquid crystal layer comprises a liquid crystal composition that includes a first class having at least one fluorine atom, and a second class containing a neutral compound. The second class includes a first sub-class and a second sub-class. The first sub-class contains a liquid crystal compound having at least one selected from an alkyl group and an alkoxy group having C1 to C5 in a terminal group thereof. The second sub-class contains a liquid crystal compound having an alkenyl group having C1 to C5 in terminal groups thereof. The second sub-class is contained in a content of about 7 wt % or less of a total content of the liquid crystal composition.
US07815977B2

The purpose of the invention is a process for obtaining a material comprising a substrate at least part of whose surface and at least one of whose faces is based on organic compounds, the said process being implemented at atmospheric pressure comprises moreover the following stages. In the immediate vicinity of the said substrate a zone containing active species of a non-thermal plasma is created; into the said zone is injected at least one precursor of a chemical element so as to deposit upon at least one face of the said substrate (at least part of whose surface comprises an organic compound base), a first thin layer capable of protecting the said substrate against oxidation reactions, specifically those due to radicals. A further purpose of the invention is the material obtainable according to this process.
US07815973B2

Compositions, systems and methods are described for condensed phase conversion and growth of nanorods and other materials. A method includes providing a condensed phase matrix material; and activating the condensed phase matrix material to produce a plurality of nanorods by condensed phase conversion and growth from the condensed phase matrix material instead of from vapor. The compositions are very strong. The compositions and methods provide advantages because they allow (1) formation rates of nanostructures necessary for reasonable production rates, and (2) the near net shaped production of component structures.
US07815966B2

A production process of a light amount adjustment member, by which a light amount adjustment member that can sufficiently satisfy optical properties can be economically produced at low production cost and high yield by a simple operation is provided. In addition, a wide variety of light amount adjustment devices and photographing apparatus equipped with a light amount adjustment member are cheaply provided while achieving satisfactory optical properties. The production process of the light amount adjustment member comprises the step of applying a coloring liquid containing a coloring material to a transparent base material using a liquid jet recording process to form a light amount adjustment region having a particular optical density.
US07815962B2

A stent includes a stent framework and a coating disposed on the stent framework. The coating includes an inner surface and an outer surface. The coating has a circumferential therapeutic concentration zone near the inner surface and a circumferential washed zone near the outer surface.
US07815961B2

The invention relates to a process for concentrating vegetable juice or fruit juice, wherein a permeate stream and a retentate stream are formed by subjecting the juice to an ultrafiltration step and subjecting the permeate stream to evaporative concentration. Further, the invention relates to the use of the thus obtainable concentrated juice for preparing a vegetable or fruit juice by diluting the concentrate with water.
US07815960B2

Green tea formulations and methods for the preparation thereof are shown and described. Generally speaking, the method of preparation includes the mixing of fresh tea leaves in an amount of cold water, followed by pulverization of the leaves to release their intracellular material from the cells of the green tea leaves into the water and form an aqueous extract component. The remaining cellular material forms a leaf residue component which is removed from the mixture. Once the leaf residue is removed, the aqueous extract component is collected and may be dried or further processed to produce a final tea extract that has good natural color, robust natural flavor, and pleasant organoleptic properties, which also is high in polyphenol content, and may be used for various purposes such as the creation of a green tea beverage.
US07815954B2

A dispenser for a soft-serve food product includes a housing having a dispensing chute and a piston having a head positioned therewithin. A lateral wall, the piston head, and a front door define an enclosed hollow space. The head is slidable within the lateral wall for squeezing a deformable container to dispense product through the chute. A system for preparing and dispensing a soft-serve food product includes a tempering freezer for raising a temperature of the food product from hard-frozen to a condition for soft-serve dispensing. An apparatus for packaging a soft-serve confection into a multiple-serving-size container for transport includes a blender for blending ingredients together to form a blended product and a device for transferring the blended product into a deformable container. The deformable container filled with the blended product is transferred into a substantially rigid mold and frozen to a hardened state for transport and retention.
US07815938B2

A film coating composition suitable for use in coating pharmaceutical formulations to provide modified release comprising a dispersion which includes: a) an acrylic polymer, b) a vinyl acetate polymer, and c) a water-containing liquid. The film coat is useful for the achievement of modified release from pharmaceutical formulations such as tablets, pellets, etc.
US07815930B2

The present invention relates to a food and feed supplement, and its use, where the supplement comprise as the basic component at least one carboxylic acid and/or its salt, an iron component and vitamins B6, B9 and B12 in amounts corresponding to at least that which theoretically can be consumed during the metabolism of the COOH-groups present. The supplement may also contain a desiccant and an antioxidant. The supplement will have a pH in the range 2.0-6.0 when dissolved in water. The supplement is characterized in that the amounts of the vitamins B6, B9 and B12 are in the range of 0.5-30 mg, 0.1-10 mg and 1-1500 μg/gram dry weight of the content of the pure carboxylic acids in the supplement, respectively. The supplement can be used in animal feed in amounts of 0.5-15 grams dry supplement/kg dry feed.
US07815929B2

A container suitable for the preparation, storage and dispensing of compounded suppositories is provided. Methods of preparing, storing and dispensing compounded suppositories utilizing such a container and related kits are also provided.
US07815922B2

Methods for preparing articles having a bioactive surface comprising treating a substrate to form free reactive groups, depositing a monomer onto the treated substrate, and covalently immobilizing a biologically functional molecule onto the deposited monomer. Additional embodiments include methods for the deposition of the monomer onto the treated substrate in a solvent-free environment. Further embodiments include articles having surfaces prepared using the methods described herein. Additional embodiments include articles prepared using the methods described herein.
US07815921B2

The present invention relates to a method for determining the hematopoietic cytocapacity of a subject comprising the steps of: (a) determining the amount of leukocytes present in a blood sample obtained from a subject, wherein said subject has been subjected to administration of a single dose of G-CSF and has been maintained for a time sufficient to allow mobilization or release of the leukocytes from hematopoietic production and storage tissues and sites of margination into the blood; and (b) determining the hematopoietic cytocapacity by assessing the amount of leukocytes determined in step (a) with the amount of leukocytes which have been mobilized or released in a control subject wherein said control subject is selected from the group consisting of subjects having (i) a high risk for a disease, disorder or complication associated with high-dose cytotoxic chemotherapy and/or hematopoietic cell transplantation, (ii) an intermediate risk for a disease, disorder or complication associated with high-dose cytotoxic chemotherapy and/or hematopoietic cell transplantation or (iii) a low risk for a disease, disorder or complication associated with high-dose cytotoxic chemotherapy and/or hematopoietic cell transplantation.
US07815919B2

This document relates to methods and materials involved in fungus-induced inflammation and eosinophil degranulation. For example, isolated nucleic acids encoding fungal polypeptides, fungal polypeptides, methods for assessing fungus-induced inflammation, methods for assessing eosinophil degranulation, and methods for identifying inhibitors of fungus-induced inflammation and/or eosinophil degranulation are provided.
US07815911B1

Compositions and methods for treating a Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) infection are provided. Compositions and methods of for inducing an immune response in a subject are provided. Composition can include a YadC polypeptide.
US07815906B2

Methods and compositions for restoring growth inhibition sensitivity to a tumor cell resistant to growth inhibition by HER2 antagonists. The methods involve administering a PCDGF antagonist to the cell in an amount effective to stimulate or restore growth inhibition sensitivity to HER2 antagonists. The invention also provides treatment regimens, and therapeutic compositions comprising an HER2 antagonist and a PCDGF antagonist.
US07815897B1

Disclosed is an effervescent composition that includes menthol, eucalyptus oil, and an effervescent agent and that dissolves in water to form a clear solution.
US07815887B2

The invention relates to a conductive nonwoven fabric that is carbonized and/or graphitized and possesses a bending rigidity <8 taber, a density of 0.1 g/m3 to 0.5 g/m3, a thickness of 80 μm to 500 μm, and an electrical conductivity of 10 to 300 S/cm in the nonwoven fabric strip and 30 to 220 S/cm2 perpendicular to the nonwoven fabric strip.
US07815883B2

A facile synthesis route for preparing SBA-15 silica of platelet shape and very short mesochannels was developed by introducing a small amount of Zr(IV) ions in the first synthesis solution. The synthesis route can be easily extended to prepare SBA-15 materials with various organic functional groups in one pot.
US07815882B2

In a refining method for boron-containing silicon, boron-containing silicon is irradiated with an electron beam in a vacuum vessel to melt the boron-containing silicon. A boron compound-forming substance is introduced into the vacuum vessel, and boron contained in the molten silicon is formed into a boron compound. After at least a portion of the boron compound has vaporized, irradiation with the electron beam is stopped. The high-purity molten silicon can then be solidified.
US07815881B2

Disclosed are a process and apparatus for selective catalytic reduction of NOx. The process is enabled by bypassing a heat exchanger section, such as an economizer, of the boiler in advance of an SCR unit at low load conditions to enable NOx reduction even at low loads using urea instead of ammonia. In a preferred form, under high load conditions, the bypass can be almost fully closed and the economizer can be operated normally without excessively cooling the combustion gases, using only a portion of bypassed gases which are hot enough to decompose the urea into its active components including ammonia.
US07815875B2

The invention relates to a device for the reactive conversion of gaseous streams at high temperatures in excess of 1000° C. Said device comprises a reaction chamber (8) with an inlet opening for the gaseous streams to be converted, in particular a burner head (2) and an outlet opening for the converted gaseous streams. In order to guarantee the highest possible conversion performance, the reaction chamber (8) has a narrow construction, extending longitudinally from the inlet opening to the outlet opening to form a controlled gaseous flow, thus preventing a circulatory flow in the reaction chamber (8). To achieve reaction conditions that are as adiabatic as possible, the reaction chamber (8) is thermally insulated with a layer (7) that has a porous foam and/or fiber structure. In the simplest embodiment, the reaction chamber (8) is cylindrical, thus achieving a tubular flow reactor construction for the entire device.
US07815873B2

The overall efficiency of a regenerative bed reverse flow reactor system is increased where the location of the exothermic reaction used for regeneration is suitably controlled. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for controlling the combustion to improve the thermal efficiency of bed regeneration in a cyclic reaction/regeneration processes. The process for thermal regeneration of a regenerative reactor bed entails (a) supplying the first reactant through a first channel means in a first regenerative bed and supplying at least a second reactant through a second channel means in the first regenerative bed, (b) combining said first and second reactants by a gas mixing means situated at an exit of the first regenerative bed and reacting the combined gas to produce a heated reaction product, (c) passing the heated reaction product through a second regenerative bed thereby transferring heat from the reaction product to the second regenerative bed.
US07815872B2

A reactor for generating moisture, with which hydrogen and oxygen fed into the reactor contact with a platinum coating catalyst layer to activate reactivity so that hydrogen and oxygen react under conditions of non-combustion, wherein the reactor includes a cooler comprising a heat dissipation body substrate in which a heater insertion hole is made in the center to fix to the outer surface of the reactor structural component on the outlet side and a cooler on the outlet side made up of a plural number of heat dissipation bodies installed vertically in parallel on the part excluding the area where the afore-mentioned heater insertion hole of the heat dissipation body substrate exists, and a part of the heater to heat the reactor is inserted in the heater insertion hole so as to fix to the outer surface of the reactor structural component on the outlet side.
US07815869B2

A catalytic converter assembly is provided that includes a metallic tubular member having a first end and a second end. A first substrate is disposed within the metallic tubular. A second substrate is disposed within the metallic tubular member. A spacer is axially positioned the between the first and second substrate that includes a cylindrical body with a first wall and a second wall formed substantially perpendicular to the cylindrical body. The first wall abuts an end of the first substrate for retaining the first substrate between the first end and the first wall for preventing movement. The second wall abuts an end of the second substrate for retaining the second substrate between the second end and the second wall for preventing movement.
US07815860B2

A biosensor for detecting an analyte by using a variable voltage according to infrared radiation absorption is provided. The biosensor includes an infrared absorber having a variable resistance and bioreceptors immobilized onto the infrared absorber for selectively reacting and binding with an analyte, wherein an induced voltage at the infrared absorber varies depending on whether the bioreceptor reacts and binds with the analyte.
US07815856B2

A container having an indicator for detecting the presence of chemical elements is provided. In one embodiment, the container comprises a cavity therein for receiving an article having a first metallic element, the cavity being substantially sealed from a surrounding environment outside the container. An indicator is disposed within the sealed cavity, the indicator having a second metallic element with a standard potential less than the standard potential of the first metallic element, whereby a change in state of the second metallic element alerts an operator to the presence of a predetermined chemical element within the container.
US07815849B2

An iridium alloy is produced having at least 85% by weight iridium, at least 0.005% by weight molybdenum, 0.001 to 0.6% by weight hafnium and, optionally, rhenium, the sum of molybdenum and hafnium being between 0.002 and 1.2% by weight. The iridium alloy is produced in a process, in which an IrMo and an IrHf master alloy, respectively, are created in an electric arc and immersed into an iridium melt, optionally together with Re.
US07815841B2

This invention discloses a new technology related to cellulose fiber reinforced cement composite materials using cellulose fibers that are treated with inorganic and/or organic resins to make the fibers more hydrophobic, as well as other chemical treatments. This invention discloses four aspects of the technology: fiber treatment, formulations, methods and the final product. This technology advantageously provides fiber cement building materials with the desirable characteristics of reduced water absorption, reduced rate of water absorption, lower water migration, and lower water permeability. This invention also impart the final products improved freeze-thaw resistance, reduced efflorescence, and improved rot and UV resistances, compared to conventional fiber cement products. These improved attributes are gained without loss in dimensional stability, strength, strain or toughness. In some cases the physical and mechanical properties are improved. This invention also discloses the method of treating cellulose fibers with various chemicals to impart the fiber hydrophobicity for applications in the fiber reinforced cement composite materials.
US07815837B2

Method for compression molding plastic articles. The method includes the step of providing a plurality of molds mounted for travel around a first axis. Each mold includes upper and lower mold sections, with at least one of the mold sections being moveable in a non-circular first endless path, and being moveable with respect to the other mold section to form a mold cavity. A mold charge delivery system is provided to deliver individual mold charges to the mold cavities and includes at least one delivery mechanism that travels in a second endless path around a second axis spaced from the first axis, wherein the second endless path overlies a portion of the first endless path. At least one of the mold sections is moved radially relative to the first axis during at least a portion of the first endless path wherein the second endless path overlies the first endless path.
US07815823B2

An object is to provide an optical film in which retardation variation is less even after a long period of duration of use, to provide an optical compensating film in which transparency and flatness are not deteriorated in a stretching process by using the foregoing film as a support, and to provide a polarizing plate and a liquid crystal display exhibiting reduced visibility variation caused by heat generation of an optical LED backlight, and excellent color reproducibility. Disclosed is a manufacturing method of an optical film formed by melt-casting a composition containing a cellulose resin and a plasticizer, wherein the cellulose resin has a residual sulfuric acid content of 0.1-50 ppm, and the composition contains a polymer having a weight average molecular weight of 500-30000 prepared via polymerization of ethylenic unsaturated monomers, or an acrylic polymer having a weight average molecular weight of 500-30000.
US07815803B2

The present invention provides a novel procedure of preparing samples for analysis by way of mass spectrometry, preferably LC-MS/MS. Accordingly, functionalized magnetic particles with a hydrophobic surface were used for extracting low molecular weight compounds from complex liquid biological samples such as plasma, serum, whole blood or hemolyzed blood. The method of the invention includes (a) contacting the sample with an amount of functionalized magnetic particles with a hydrophobic surface, (b) incubating the sample and the particles, thereby adsorbing the compound to the hydrophobic surface, (c) separating the particles by applying a magnetic field and removing the liquid, (d) optionally washing the particles, (e) eluting the compound from the particles.
US07815797B1

A pre-filter assembly is for use in a skimmer of a residential swimming pool. The pre-filter comprises a skimmer collar and a cleanable filter basket. The skimmer collar is for placement on a rim of a below water surface opening within the skimmer. The cleanable filter basket is made of a water porous material. The filter basket is permanently secured at an edge defining the open-top to the skimmer collar. The filter basket further has a chevron shape for ease of use. Swimming water debris is trapped in the filter basket as pool water is pulled through the filter basket on its way to a primary filter apparatus. The filter basket is easily cleaned as needed and replaced.
US07815795B2

This invention describes a ring shaped adapter that is adapted to fit within a pool skimmer and have a pressure cap that will prevent debris from inadvertently being deposited within the pump system of the pool under construction. The ring shaped adapter and pressure cap will allow the pool to be drained using the pump system, without any additional equipment.
US07815790B2

This invention relates to a process of producing an upgraded product stream from the products of a resid visbreaking process to produce an improved feedstream for refinery and petrochemical hydrocarbon conversion units. This process utilizes an ultrafiltration process for upgrading select visbreaking process product streams to produce a conversion unit feedstream with improved properties for maximizing the conversion unit's throughput, total conversion, run-time, and overall product value.
US07815785B2

The present invention relates to an improved method for the direct metallization of non-conductive substrate surfaces, in particular polyimide surfaces, that is characterized by the process steps of etching the substrate surface with an acidic etching solution that contains peroxide; contacting the etched substrate surface with an acidic treatment solution that contains permanganate; activating the treated substrate surface in an acidic activation solution that contains peroxide; contacting the activated substrate surface with an acidic catalytic solution that contains at least a thiophene derivate and at least a sulfonic acid derivate; metallization of the thus treated substrate surface in an acidic galvanic metallization bath.
US07815774B2

An element made by papermaking for use in the production of a casting cast which comprises an organic fiber, an inorganic fiber, and a binder. The contents of the organic fiber, the inorganic fiber, and the binder are preferably 10 to 70 parts by weight, 1 to 80 parts by weight, and 10 to 85 parts by weight, respectively. The binder is preferably an organic binder. The organic fiber is preferably pulp fiber.
US07815755B2

The present invention relates to the following seamless steel pipes excellent in strength, toughness and weldability, particularly suitable for submarine flow lines, and a manufacturing method thereof. An as-quenched seamless steel pipe having a chemical composition consisting of, by mass%, C: 0.03 to 0.08%, Mn: 0.3 to 2.5%, Al: 0.001 to 0.10%, Cr: 0.02 to 1.0%, Ni: 0.02 to 1.0%, Mo: 0.02 to 0.8%, Ti: 0.004 to 0.010%, N: 0.002 to 0.008%, Ca: 0.0005 to 0.005%, and the balance Fe and impurities, with not more than 0.25% of Si, not more than 0.05% of P, not more than 0.005% of S, less than 0.005% Nb, and less than 0.0003% of B as the impurities, and having a microstructure consisting of not more than 20 volume% of polygonal ferrite, not more than 10 volume% of a mixed microstructure of martensite and retained austenite, and balance bainite. B can be 0.0003 to 0.001%. Mg and/or REM can be contained. The manufacturing method is characterized by the cooling rate during quenching.
US07815743B2

Device for cleaning a gas turbine engine, and in particular an engine of turbofan type. The present invention further relates to a method for cleaning such an engine. The device comprises a plurality of nozzles arranged to atomize cleaning liquid in the air stream in an air inlet of the engine up-stream of a fan of the engine. According to the invention, a first nozzle is arranged at a position such that the cleaning liquid emanating from the first nozzle impinges the surfaces of the blades substantially on the pressure side; a second nozzle is arrange at a position such that the cleaning liquid emanating from the second nozzle impinges the surfaces of the blades substantially on the suction side; and a third nozzle is arranged at a position such that the cleaning liquid emanating from the third nozzle passes substantially between the blades and enters an inlet of the core engine. Thereby, the different types of fouling found on the fan and in the core engine compressor of turbofan engine can be removed in an efficient manner.
US07815742B2

A method for the internal cleaning of a tank. An oil sump and a gas mixture which is diffused out of the oil sump and has a hydrocarbon-containing gas being present in the crude-oil tank. The gas mixture is sucked away out of the tank and a feed of an inert gas into the tank is permitted. An energy content of the sucked-away gas mixture is determined. The gas mixture is fed to a compressor for compressing the gas mixture, if the energy content of the gas mixture overshoots a limit value, in order to compress the gas mixture in the compressor. The gas mixture is fed to a consumer unit, if the energy content of the gas mixture undershoots the limit value.
US07815733B2

A method of growing hexagonal boron nitride single crystal is provided. Hexagonal boron nitride single crystal is grown in calcium nitride flux by heating, or heating and then slowly cooling, boron nitride and a calcium series material in an atmosphere containing nitrogen. Bulk hexagonal boron nitride single crystal can thereby successfully be grown.
US07815726B2

A fluoride coating film formed with a fluoride-containing solution wherein a rare earth fluoride or an alkaline earth metal fluoride, in particular, fluoride of Pr, Nd, Dy, Tb and Ho, is swollen in a solvent comprising a major amount of an alcohol, and the solution is a colloidal solution in which the rare earth fluoride or the alkaline earth metal fluoride is dispersed homogeneously in the solvent comprising a major amount of an alcohol improves magnetic properties of NdFeB rare earth magnets including not only sintered magnets but also bonded magnets.
US07815712B2

The present invention discloses a novel method of making high performance mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) using stabilized concentrated suspensions of solvents, uniformly dispersed polymer stabilized molecular sieves, and at least two different types of polymers as the continuous blend polymer matrix. MMMs as dense films or asymmetric flat sheet or hollow fiber membranes fabricated by the method described in the current invention exhibit significantly enhanced permeation performance for separations over the polymer membranes made from the continuous blend polymer matrix. MMMs of the present invention are suitable for a wide range of gas, vapor, and liquid separations such as alcohol/water, CO2/CH4, H2/CH4, O2/N2, CO2/N2, olefin/paraffin, iso/normal paraffins, and other light gases separations.
Patent Agency Ranking