US07875508B2
A silicon film is crystallized in a predetermined direction by selectively adding a metal element having a catalytic action for crystallizing an amorphous silicon and annealing. In manufacturing TFT using the crystallized silicon film, TFT provided such that the crystallization direction is roughly parallel to a current-flow between a source and a drain, and TFT provided such that the crystallization direction is roughly vertical to a current-flow between a source and a drain are manufactured. Therefore, TFT capable of conducting a high speed operation and TFT having a low leak current are formed on the same substrate.
US07875504B2
A method of reducing wire bond loop heights in wire bonds electrically connecting an integrated circuit die with a contact pad to a printed circuit board with a conductor, by mounting the integrated circuit die such that the contact pad is spaced from the conductor, positioning an adhesive surface between the contact pad and the conductor on the printed circuit board, attaching wire to one of the contact pad or the conductor, drawing the wire towards the other of the contact pad or the conductor, allowing the wire to contact the adhesive surface, and, attaching the wire to the other of the contact pad of the conductor to form a wire bond adhered to the adhesive surface and a point intermediate its ends.
US07875501B2
A backgrinding machine 10 of a semiconductor wafer W includes: a table 13 set on the working plane of a mount 11; a multiple number of holding jigs 20 arranged via check tables 15 on table 13; a grinding machine 30 for performing a grinding process of the rear side of semiconductor wafer W held by holding jig 20; and a washing device 40 for ground semiconductor wafers W. Each holding jig 20 is constructed of a concave 22 depressed on the surface of a base plate 21, a multiple number of supporting projections 23 projectively arrayed on the bottom surface of concave 22, a deformable contact film 24, covering the concave 22, being supported by the multiple supporting projections 23, for detachably holding semiconductor wafer W in close contact with it; and an exhaust path 25 for conducting air from the concave 22 covered by contact film 24 to the outside.
US07875495B2
A semiconductor device is made by disposing a film layer over a substrate having first conductive layer. An opening is formed in the film layer to expose the first conductive layer. A second conductive layer is formed over the first conductive layer. A first bump is formed over the second conductive layer which promotes reflow of the first bump at a eutectic temperature. A standoff bump is formed on the film layer around a perimeter of the substrate. The film layer prevents reflow of the standoff bump at the eutectic temperature. A second bump is disposed between a semiconductor die and the first bump. The second bump is reflowed to electrically connect the semiconductor die to the first bump. After reflow of the second bump, the standoff bump has a height at least 70% of the second bump prior to reflow to maintain separation between the semiconductor die and substrate.
US07875490B2
An image sensor includes a semiconductor substrate including circuitry, an interlayer dielectric including metal lines arranged on the semiconductor substrate, crystalline photodiode patterns arranged on the interlayer dielectric such that the photodiode patterns are connected to the metal lines, hard mask patterns arranged on the respective photodiode patterns, a device-isolation trench interposed between the adjacent photodiode patterns, to isolate the photodiode patterns from each other, a barrier film implanted with impurity ions, arranged into the inner wall of the device-isolation trench, and a device-isolation insulating layer arranged over the interlayer dielectric including the photodiode pattern and the device-isolation trench.
US07875483B2
To provide a method of easily forming a three-dimensional structure typified by a cantilever by using a thin film formed over an insulating surface, and provide a microelectromechanical system formed by such a method. A three-dimensional structure typified by a cantilever is formed by using a mask having a nonuniform thickness. Specifically, a microstructure is manufactured by processing a structural layer formed over a sacrificial layer by using a mask having a nonuniform thickness and then removing the sacrificial layer. The sacrificial layer can be formed by using a silicon layer or a metal layer.
US07875480B2
A method of making a sensor comprises substantially laterally growing at least one nanowire having at least two segments between two electrodes, whereby a junction or connection is formed between the at least two segments; and establishing a sensing material adjacent to the junction or connection, and adjacent to at least a portion of each of the at least two segments, wherein the sensing material has at least two states.
US07875475B2
A flat panel display apparatus includes a gate insulating layer having openings which define pixels. The flat panel display apparatus includes: a substrate; a source electrode and a drain electrode formed on the substrate; a semiconductor layer contacting the source electrode and the drain electrode; a gate formed on the substrate; an insulating layer formed between the source and drain electrodes and the gate, and including an opening; and a pixel electrode partially exposed by the opening of the insulating layer. The insulating layer acts as a gate insulating layer and a pixel definition layer defining the pixel electrode.
US07875471B2
A method of manufacturing light-emitting diode device has steps of isolating a light-emitting side of an LED chip from a wire-bonding region by disposing partition panels on the wire-bonding region and coating phosphors on the light-emitting side of the LED chip in a phosphor-coating process. The method can be applied to manufacturing LED device having a flip chip structure or a vertical chip structure. According to the method, a white LED device can be directly manufactured without adopting a phosphor package technique, and thereby a whole package process of the white LED device is simplified.
US07875469B2
A method of operating and process for fabricating an electron source. A conductive rod is covered by an insulating layer, by dipping the rod in an insulation solution, for example. The rod is then covered by a field emitter material to form a layered conductive rod. The rod may also be covered by a second insulating material. Next, the materials are removed from the end of the rod and the insulating layers are recessed with respect to the field emitter layer so that a gap is present between the field emitter layer and the rod. The layered rod may be operated as an electron source within a vacuum tube by applying a positive bias to the rod with respect to the field emitter material and applying a higher positive bias to an anode opposite the rod in the tube. Electrons will accelerate to the charged anode and generate soft X-rays.
US07875467B2
Chemiluminescent acridinium compounds are used in homogeneous assays to determine the concentration of an analyte in a sample without strong acid or strong base treatment. The chemiluminescent acridinium compounds include acridinium esters with electron donating functional groups at the C2 and/or C7 position on the acridinium nucleus to inhibit pseudo-base formation, or acridinium sulfonamides with or without electron donating functional groups at the C2 and/or C7 position on the acridinium nucleus.
US07875462B2
The invention provides extraction columns for the purification of an analyte (e.g., a biological macromolecule, such as a peptide, protein or nucleic acid) from a sample solution, as well as methods for making and using such columns. The columns typically include a bed of extraction media positioned in the column, often between two frits. In some embodiments, the extraction columns employ modified pipette tips as column bodies. In some embodiments, the extraction columns are comprised of frits having a low pore. In some embodiments, the frits of the extraction columns have a pore volume of less than one microliter or less than 10% of the interstitial volume of the bed of extraction media.
US07875459B2
Data on a secular change of each denitration catalyst is managed based on data obtained by a periodic maintenance and a daily management. Management of a secular change and prediction on performance variations that occur until a next periodic check is performed. It is determined whether the denitration catalyst is deteriorated such that an exhaust-gas denitration system cannot maintain its performance. When the denitration catalyst is deteriorated, regeneration, replacement, or addition of the denitration catalyst is performed, and the denitration catalyst is altered as necessary. When the denitration catalyst is usable, the denitration catalyst is not replaced nor regenerated.
US07875455B1
A method and system for evaluating status and response of a mineral-producing field (e.g., oil and/or gas) by monitoring selected chemical and physical properties in or adjacent to a wellsite headspace. Nanotechnology sensors and other sensors are provided for one or more underground (fluid) mineral-producing wellsites to determine presence/absence of each of two or more target molecules in the fluid, relative humidity, temperature and/or fluid pressure adjacent to the wellsite and flow direction and flow velocity for the fluid. A nanosensor measures an electrical parameter value and estimates a corresponding environmental parameter value, such as water content or hydrocarbon content. The system is small enough to be located down-hole in each mineral-producing horizon for the wellsite.
US07875439B2
The invention provides isolated polypeptide and nucleic acid sequences derived from Streptococcus pneumoniae that are useful in diagnosis and therapy of pathological conditions; antibodies against the polypeptides; and methods for the production of the polypeptides. The invention also provides methods for the detection, prevention and treatment of pathological conditions resulting from bacterial infection.
US07875434B2
Label-free methods for performing assays using a colorimetric resonant reflectance optical biosensor
The instant invention provides compositions and methods for determining cell interactions that are faster than conventional methods and that require the use of fewer reagents than conventional methods.
US07875433B2
Methods for measuring the relative amount of two or more analytes of interest in a fluid sample, as well as kits useful in the methods, are disclosed. The methods involve assays that utilize a solid phase apparatus with a membrane having an application point and at least two sample capture zones having sample capture reagents; analyte binding particles or analyte coated particles; and assessment of a ratio of such particles arrested in capture zones, wherein the ratio is equal to, or inversely equal to, the relative amounts of the analytes of interest in the fluid sample.
US07875432B2
A method for diagnosing spinal muscular atrophy is provided. The method includes providing a biological sample of a subject containing a nucleotide of SMN gene, amplifying SMN exons 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 by a universal multiplex PCR using the nucleotide as a template and the primers to obtain fragments of the SMN exons 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, labeling the fragments of the SMN exons 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 by a fluorescent primer to obtain fluorescence-labeled exon fragments, and analyzing the fluorescence-labeled exon fragments by a capillary electrophoresis. If the SMN1/SMN2 ratios in exon 7 and 8 are different, it indicates that the subject is susceptible to spinal muscular atrophy. Additionally, if the peak of certain exon fragment appears crossed, it indicates an intragenic mutation in the exon.
US07875430B2
The invention provides DNA compositions that relate to transgenic insect resistant maize plants. Also provided are assays for detecting the presence of the maize DAS-59122-7 event based on the DNA sequence of the recombinant construct inserted into the maize genome and the DNA sequences flanking the insertion site. Kits and conditions useful in conducting the assays are provided.
US07875414B2
A periodic structure is to be successively formed over an extensive area with a uniaxial laser beam. Such method includes irradiating a uniaxial laser beam near an ablation threshold to a surface of a material; and executing an overlapped scanning on the irradiated region, so as to cause an ablation by interference between an incident beam and a surface scattered wave along the material surface; increasing the scattered wave; causing an interference at an interval equal to a wavelength of the laser beam, to thereby cause spontaneous formation of a periodic structure. The periodic structure can be made to have a different ripple spacing by changing an incident angle of the laser beam to the material surface. When the laser incident beam has an angle, the ripple spacing can be changed by changing a scanning direction.
US07875413B2
There is provided a capsulated toner which has low-temperature fixing ability, good storage stability, excellent charge stability, high fixing strength to a sheet paper, and low consumption, and is capable of forming a color image of high-definition, high-gloss, and high-density. The capsulated toner for electrophotography includes a shell layer containing a cycloolefin copolymer resin and a core particle including a synthetic resin different from the cycloolefin copolymer resin, wherein the capsulated toner has a core/shell type structure.
US07875407B2
A colored alkali-developable photosensitive resin composition comprising an alkali-developable resin composition that contains a reaction product obtained by esterification of an epoxy-adduct with a polybasic acid anhydride (C) and then with a polyfunctional epoxy compound (D), wherein the epoxy-adduct has a structure in which an unsaturated monobasic acid (B) is added to an epoxy resin (A) represented by general formula (I) below, a coloring material (E) and a photopolymerization initiator (F). wherein Cy represents a cycloalkyl group having 3 to 10 carbon atoms; X represents a hydrogen atom, a phenyl group, or a cycloalkyl group having 3 to 10 carbon atoms; the phenyl group or the cycloalkyl group having 3 to 10 carbon atoms is optionally substituted with an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, or a halogen atom; each of Y and Z independently represents an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkenyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, or a halogen atom, wherein the alkyl group, the alkoxy group, and the alkenyl group are optionally substituted with a halogen atom; n represents a number of 0 to 10; p represents a number of 0 to 4; and r represents a number of 0 to 4.
US07875396B2
A membrane humidifier for a fuel cell is disclosed, wherein a pressure drop in the humidifier is minimized and a humidification of a proton exchange membrane in the fuel cell is optimized.
US07875393B2
An organic electrolytic solution and a lithium battery employing the same are provided. The organic electrolytic solution includes a lithium salt, an organic solvent containing a first solvent having a high dielectric constant and a second solvent having a low boiling point, and a surfactant including a hydrophobic portion having an aromatic group. The organic electrolytic solution effectively prevents the electrolytic solution from contacting the anode, thereby suppressing side reactions on the anode surface and improving discharge capacity, charge/discharge efficiency, lifespan, and battery reliability.
US07875391B2
A lithium ion secondary battery with improved safety against both internal short-circuiting and overcharge is provided. This lithium ion secondary battery includes a positive electrode comprising a composite lithium oxide, a negative electrode, and a non-aqueous electrolyte. At least one of the positive electrode and the negative electrode has a porous film, comprising an inorganic oxide filler and a binder, on the surface facing the other electrode, and the electrode surface having the porous film partially has a protruded part. This protruded part may be a protruded part formed on the porous film itself or a protruded part formed on an electrode mixture layer. Further, a separator can also be incorporated therein. Instead of the above-mentioned porous film, the separator can be provided with a porous film.
US07875387B2
In an electrode in electrochemical device, particularly an anode lithium ion secondary battery, a cathode for use in alkali storage battery, an electrode for use in fuel cell, or a capacitor electrode, a metal structure has nano size micro-pillars is constructed with an electrode active material being formed on the surface of the metal structure. The metal structure having nano size micro-pillars can be formed, for example, by forming a metal layer as an electrode material by plating to the surface of a substrate having pores and then removing the substrate by dissolution, the metal filled in the pores of the substrate to form a group of micro-pillars. And the active material can be formed by depositing metal by plating. Since the active material is in direct contact with the conductive skeleton, the conducting agent for connecting the active materials to each other may not be added at all.
US07875384B2
Disclosed is a secondary battery which can prevent twist or bend of a mold resin part of the battery. In one embodiment, a side wall extension part is formed on a top edge of a side wall of a can of the battery. The side wall extension part protrudes upwardly from the top edge of the side wall, and partially encloses a mole resin part that is formed on the top of the can. In another embodiment, a protrusion part is formed on an edge of an upper plane of a cap plate that covers the can of the battery. The protrusion part protrudes upwardly from the upper plane of the cap plate, partially encloses a mole resin part that is formed on the upper plane of the cap plate. In both embodiments, the protruded part adheres to the mold resin part, and supports the mold resin part to prevent mechanical distortion that can be caused by external force. Therefore, the protruded part improves the reliability of the battery.
US07875381B2
A rechargeable battery, which features a simplified assembly process by reducing the number of components includes a bare cell, a body portion which is attached to one side surface of the bare cell and a protective circuit board portion which has two electrical terminals respectively electrically connected to two electrode terminals of the bare cell and formed into one single body by molding. A method of fabrication of the rechargeable battery includes forming a protective circuit board portion into one single body through resin molding, attaching the protective circuit board portion to a bare cell, and respectively electrically connecting two electrical terminals of the protective circuit board portion to two electrodes of the bare cell.
US07875372B2
Embodiments of the present invention help to improve corrosion resistance and durability by providing a functional diamond like carbon (DLC) protective layer for a perpendicular magnetic recording medium using a granular magnetic layer. According to one embodiment, when a DLC protective layer that protects a granular magnetic layer of a perpendicular magnetic recording medium is formed using a CVD method, the thickness of a first layer on the granular magnetic layer is set to 7.5 to 25% of the total thickness of the protective layer and a hydrogen content of the first layer is set to 33 to 38%, the thickness of a second layer is set to 50 to 85% of the total thickness of the protective layer and a nitrogen content of the second layer is set to 3 to 7%, and the thickness of a third layer located at the outermost side of the protective layer is set to 7.5 to 25% of the total thickness of the protective layer and a hydrogen content of the third layer is set to 25% or less.
US07875370B2
A turbine engine component has a substrate, a thermal barrier coating deposited onto the substrate, and a sealing layer of ceramic material on an outer surface of the thermal barrier coating for limiting molten sand penetration.
US07875363B2
A surface-treated galvanized steel sheet includes a steel sheet, a zinc coating disposed on the steel sheet, and a film disposed on the zinc coating. The film has a thickness in the range of 0.01 to 3 μm and contains certain amounts of resin compound having a particular chemical structure, cationic urethane resin, vanadium compound, zirconium compound, compound having a phosphate group, and acid compound. The surface-treated galvanized steel sheet contains no hexavalent chromium in the film and is excellent in terms of corrosion resistance, alkali resistance, and solvent resistance.
US07875357B2
A multi-layer, low-emissivity, solar control article comprises a dielectric substrate, a first dielectric metal oxide layer deposited on the substrate, a first highly conductive, silver-free metal oxide layer deposited on the first dielectric metal oxide, and a second dielectric metal oxide deposited on the first highly conductive, silver-free metal oxide layer. The aforementioned coating layer sequence may be repeated as necessary to achieve the desired properties. An iridescence suppressing interlayer may, optionally, be utilized in connection with the low-emissivity, solar control coating.
US07875352B2
A stabilized inorganic nanoparticle which is stabilized by bonding protective ligands to a surface of an inorganic nanoparticle, wherein one part of binding sites on the surface of the inorganic nanoparticle are bonded to the protective ligand, the other part of the binding sites remain as a free site not bonded to the protective ligand, and satisfies the condition that the amount of the protective ligand bonded to the inorganic nanoparticle is a critical amount or the condition that the form of modifying the surface of the inorganic nanoparticle by the protective ligand is a critical modification form.According to the present invention, there is provided a stabilized inorganic nanoparticle that is stabilized by a protective ligand and can be rapidly functionalized with ease by bonding a functional ligand thereto.
US07875349B2
A polymer inactivation method for a polycrystalline silicon manufacturing device, wherein humidified gas such as water vapor and humidified nitrogen gas is supplied into a reacting furnace for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon to hydrolyze polymers adhered to an inner surface of the reacting furnace. It is preferable that a furnace wall of the reacting furnace is heated when the humidified gas is supplied.
US07875340B2
Disclosed herein is a method of manufacturing a heat radiation substrate, including injection-molding mixed powder of carbon nanotubes and metal in a die to fabricate a metal core having through holes; molding the entire metal core including the through holes with an insulating resin to fabricate a metal core substrate; processing the insulating resin provided in the through holes to form connection holes; and forming a circuit pattern on the metal core substrate in which the connection holes are formed.
US07875339B2
The present invention relates to a decoration technique for providing iridescent color effects or glittering luster effects to a resin casing by attaching a polarizing film in contact with a resin casing, and for finishing a cut-off edge portion of the polarizing film smooth. After forming the polarizing film on a mold having a prescribed shape, a thermoplastic resin is injected into the mold to produce a thermoplastic resin casing to which the polarizing film is firmly attached. When cutting off an excess portion of the polarizing film by using a cutting die, a heater built into the cutting die is energized, and the cut-off edge portion of the polarizing film is fused by the heating of the cutting die, thus fixing the edge portion to the thermoplastic resin.
US07875333B2
A laminate sheet, in particular for use as a fuselage skin includes thin aluminium alloy sheets layered on top of one another with each two aluminium alloy sheets being adhesively bonded to one another at least in regions by an adhesive layer which includes at least one unidirectional fibreglass insert impregnated with a curable synthetic resin.
US07875327B2
A nematic liquid crystal compound represented by any one of formulas (a-1) to (a-6): in formulas (a-1) to (a-6), Ra and Rb are each independently hydrogen or alkyl having 1 to 10 carbons, provided that in the alkyl, —CH2- may be replaced by —O—, —(CH2)2- may be replaced by —CH═CH—, and hydrogen may be replaced by a halogen; ring A1 and ring A2 are each independently trans-1,4-cyclohexylene or 1,4-phenylene, provided that in these rings hydrogen may be replaced by a halogen, and in the case where the ring is trans-1,4-cyclohexylene, —CH2- may be replaced by —O—, and —CH2CH— may be replaced by —CH═C—; and Z1 and Z2 are each independently a single bond, —COO—, —OCO—, —OCH2-, —CH2O— or —CH2CH2-, provided that in formula (a-3), in the case where ring A2 is trans-1,4-cyclohexylene, Z2 is a single bond, —COO—, —OCO—, —OCH2- or —CH2O—, in the case where Ra is —C3H7, Rb is —OC2H5, and Z2 is a single bond, ring A2 is trans-1,4-cyclohexylene, 1,3-dioxane-2,5-diyl, 2-fluoro- 1,4-phenylene, 3-fluoro-1,4-phenylene, 2-fluoro-3-chloro-1,4-phenylene, 2-chloro- 3-fluoro-3,4-phenylene or 2,3-dichloro-1,4-phenylene, and in formula (a-4), in the case where ring A1 is trans-1,4-cyclohexylene, Z1 is a single bond, —COO—, —OCO—, —OCH2- or —CH2O—.
US07875325B2
An optical film comprising a transparent film, and, on the film, at least one layer formed by applying a composition comprising a titanium compound and/or a zirconium compound and a vinyl alcohol-based resin to a surface is disclosed.
US07875321B2
Upon a substrate subsequent layers of elastic ink are jetted using an ink jet printing system. Each layer is immobilised by a immobilisation step before jetting the following layer.A printing relief is gradually formed to obtain a flexographic printing plate allowing accurate control over the relief and slopes of the printing plates.Use can be made of different inks or immobilisation step to obtain different layer characteristics.Inks can be immobilised using UV curing.The recorded relief of the layers can be measured and corrections can be applied using a feed-back loop.A rejuvenation process for printing plates can be constructed using the described method.An elastic base layer can be provided on the substrate to provide better plate characteristics.
US07875319B2
A method is provided to reliably form shot drops on all of a plurality of pixel areas. The method comprises a step of forming a plurality of shot drops by ejecting droplets from a plurality of nozzles of a drawing apparatus to a plurality of pixel areas on a substrate. The step of forming the plurality of shot drops includes a step of forming additional shot drops near predetermined ones of the plurality of shot drops.
US07875315B2
This disclosure relates generally to polymeric networks of fullerene compounds, to methods of preparing precursors for such networks, and to their subsequent use as low dielectric constant materials in microelectronic devices.
US07875304B2
Typical current methods for producing large quantities of extracts from solid raw materials such as ground, roasted coffee are designed for exhaustive extraction. Such methods are not ideally suited to producing high quality coffee extracts that are rich in flavor and fragrance, and which maintain the varietal characteristics of the roasted coffee from which they are produced. The current invention provides methods for producing such high quality extracts. The invention provides methods that have sufficient flexibility and scalability to be used for a wide variety of applications, including for producing industrial-scale quantities of extracts for the food and beverage industry. The invention provides methods that can produce highly concentrated, “gourmet quality” extracts for use as flavoring agents, beverage concentrates, and fragrances. The inventive extraction methods, in some embodiments, involve subjecting roasted coffee to a static pressure treatment with pressurized solvent and/or removing extract from the bed of roasted coffee with a non-solvent gas as a final extraction step. The inventive methods can reduce the extent of extraction of the roasted coffee and the level of bitter, off-flavor components present in the coffee extracts.
US07875299B2
The present invention relates to compositions, articles of manufacture, methods of preparation thereof, methods of use thereof, etc., for enhancement of sexual pleasure, conditions, disorders, and diseases related to reproductive physiology and systems, especially of mammalian females. For instance, the present invention relates to all aspects of modulating the female sexual response, including female sexual dysfunction, such as female sexual arousal disorders (FSAD), orgasmic disorders, and sexual pain disorders, and enhancing female sexual pleasure and satisfaction of the female sexual experience. Accordingly, the present invention relates to compositions comprising botanical extracts, active agents, etc., which are useful to treat or affect any of the aforementioned conditions. For example, the present invention relates to a composition, preferably for topical or local use, which comprises one or more of the following ingredients, including, but not limited to, borage seed oil, Angelica pubescens root and other angelica species, Coleus forskohlii extract, vinpocetine, ferulic acid, magnesium, ascorbyl palmitate, capric/caprylic triglyceride, silica, and equivalents thereof.
US07875295B2
A process for the production of a microparticle or a nanoparticle of a chemical compound comprising the steps of providing a solution of said chemical compound in a first liquid; providing a second liquid in which said chemical compound is insoluble or substantially insoluble; combining said liquids in a region of high shear thereby causing formation of said particles; and isolating said particles of said compound. The processing time of a coacervation style process can be reduced and the yield can be substantially increased both by control of the precipitation step which allows for desolvation step to be dispensed with leading to significant process time reduction. The invention also provides a molecular mixing unit comprising an outer body defining a mixing zone; a shear means to provide shear liquid in said mixing zone; at least one fluid inlet means for a first liquid; at least one fluid inlet means for a second liquid and a fluid outlet means.
US07875292B2
An orally disintegrable tablet, of the present invention, which comprises (i) fine granules having an average particle diameter of 400 μm or less, which fine granules comprise a composition coated by an enteric coating layer, said composition having 10 weight % or more of an acid-labile physiologically active substance and (ii) an additive, has superior disintegrability or dissolution in the oral cavity so that it can be used for treatment or prevention of various diseases, as an orally disintegrable tablet capable of being administered to the aged or children and easily administered without water. Also, because the tablet of the present invention contains fine granules having the average particle diameter such that it will not impart roughness in mouth, it can be administered easily without discomfort at the administration.
US07875291B1
A nutritional supplement includes a first formulation including minerals: chromium polynicotinate, magnesium glycinate, manganese sulfate, selenium, vanadyl sulfate, zinc gluconate, copper gluconate, iodine, and boron; and vitamins: vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, and D, biotin, alpha-lipoic acid, and folic acid. The second formulation, packaged separately from the first, includes essential fatty acids: evening primrose oil, flax seed oil, sunflower oil, sesame seed oil, and pumpkin seed oil; and vitamins: vitamin E and vitamin Q-10. A method for improving metabolic function includes consuming the first and second formulation. A method of formulating a composition for improving metabolic function includes packaging together the first formulation and packaging together and separately from the first formulation the second formulation. A method for assisting a patient to improve metabolic function includes prescribing the first formulation and the second formulation to be taken separately from the first formulation.
US07875290B2
A drug delivery device such as an oral dosage form (ODF) with a toxic or potent core encapsulated by a non-toxic region. The non-toxic region may be a region including multiple layers, coatings, shells, and combinations thereof, which provides protection to and isolation from the toxic or potent core. The drug in the toxic or potent core is incorporated into the dosage form via, for example, three-dimensional printing, as a solution, solubilization or suspension of solid particles in liquid, rather than by the more conventional handling and compressing of dry powder. This minimizes the likelihood of creating airborne particles of the toxic drug during manufacturing, hence controlling and minimizing the exposure of manufacturing personnel to the hazardous substance. Wet dispensing of the toxic or potent drug further provides greater bioavailability of the drug to the patient.
US07875288B2
Provided is a method for treatment of blood coagulation disorders. The method comprises administering to an individual compositions comprising lipidic particles comprising phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol and cholesterol. One or more peptides, polypeptides or proteins involved in the blood coagulation cascade are associated with the lipidic particles.
US07875287B2
The present invention relates to Tc-labeled arylpiperazine derivatives for imaging serotonin receptor and, more particularly, to arylpiperazine derivatives coupled with MAMA-disulfide, N2S2 or dimethyl-N2S2 chelating ligand represented by the following chemical formula (1). New arylpiperazine derivatives according to the present invention have no problem of amide hydrolysis in metabolism and have a high affinity for serotonin receptors, and can be labeled with an optimum radionuclide of technetium, thereby being usefully applied for monitoring neurodegenerative diseases or neurological diseases of a mammal.
US07875286B2
Coatings for medical devices which include polycationic peptides such as L-arginine and methods for fabricating the coatings are disclosed.
US07875282B2
Medical devices, and in particular implantable medical devices, may be coated to minimize or substantially eliminate a biological organism's reaction to the introduction of the medical device to the organism. The medical devices may be coated with any number of biocompatible materials. Therapeutic drugs, agents or compounds may be mixed with the biocompatible materials and affixed to at least a portion of the medical device. These therapeutic drugs, agents or compounds may also further reduce a biological organism's reaction to the introduction of the medical device to the organism. In addition, these therapeutic drugs, agents and/or compounds may be utilized to promote healing, including the formation of blood clots. Also, the devices may be modified to promote endothelialization. Various materials and coating methodologies may be utilized to maintain the drugs, agents or compounds on the medical device until delivered and positioned. In addition, the devices utilized to deliver the implantable medical devices may be modified to reduce the potential for damaging the implantable medical device during deployment. Medical devices include stents, grafts, anastomotic devices, perivascular wraps, sutures and staples. In addition, various polymer combinations may be utilized to control the elution rates of the therapeutic drugs, agents and/or compounds from the implantable medical devices.
US07875279B2
The invention relates to cells and organisms as well as to methods for producing said cells and organisms, according to which intermediates of the mevalonate-independent pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis (MEP pathway) are enriched by deleting or inactivating genes. The derivatives can also be enriched by using enzyme inhibitors. The enriched intermediates may be used as substrates in enzyme activity tests. The inventive cells and organisms and the enriched intermediates can further be used in the production of medicaments.
US07875278B2
The invention pertains to anti-PSMA antibodies that lack fucosyl residues. The antibodies of the invention exhibit increased antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) activity as compared to the fucosylated form of the antibodies. The invention also provides host cells that express the anti-PSMA antibodies that lack fucosyl residues, wherein the host cells are deficient for a fucosyl transferase. Methods of using the antibodies to inhibit the growth of PSMA+ cells, such as tumor cells, are also provided.
US07875275B2
The present invention is directed to the use of Bridge-1 polynucleotides and Bridge-1 polypeptides, as well as activators and inhibitors of Bridge-1 activity, in the treatment of Bridge-1 mediated disorders, including diabetes.
US07875271B2
The present invention provides an ophthalmic composition containing xanthan gum and glucose, which has a superior corneal epithelial disorder-treating effect.
US07875265B2
A subject matter of the invention is a cosmetic composition comprising a cosmetically acceptable organic liquid medium, a block polymer and a plasticizer, characterized in that: the block polymer is a film-forming linear ethylenic polymer, the plasticizer is a compound, the nature and the amount of which are such that the composition is capable of forming a film having a hardness of less than or equal to 35 seconds, the hardness of the film being measured using a Persoz pendulum according to Standard NF-T-30-016, and in particular a compound having a solubility parameter δh ranging from 5.5 to 11 (J/cm3)1/2. Application to making-up and caring for keratinous substances, in particular the skin.
US07875240B2
An auto-calibration circuit or label (20) being adapted to be used with different first and second instruments. The first instrument being different from the second instrument. The auto-calibration label comprising first and second plurality of electrical connections. The first electrical connections conveys first instrument encoded-calibration information (82) corresponding to a sensor. The first instrument information is adapted to be utilized by the first instrument to auto-calibrate for the first sensor. The first plurality of electrical connections includes contact areas. The second electrical connections conveys second encoded-calibration information (84) corresponding to the first sensor. The second information is adapted to be utilized by the second instrument to auto-calibrate for the sensor. The second electrical connections includes a second plurality of contact areas, which are distinct from the first contact areas. The first electrical connections is adapted to be routed directly from each of the first contact areas to a first (52) or second common (54) connection. The second electrical connections is adapted to be routed directly from each of the second contact areas to the first or second common connection.
US07875235B2
A method is described for batchwise heat treatment of goods to be annealed which are heated in a heating chamber after scavenging air with a scavenging gas under protective gas to a predetermined treatment temperature, with the protective gas being conveyed through the heating chamber depending on the occurrence of impurities in different quantities. In order to enable the economic use of protective gas, it is proposed that the protective gas which is withdrawn from the heating chamber after the main occurrence of impurities and which is loaded with a residual quantity of impurities is conveyed, optionally after intermediate storage, into the heating chamber during the main occurrence of impurities of a subsequent batch before non-loaded protective gas is introduced into the heating chamber.
US07875233B2
Methods of manufacturing a radially expandable stent, including radial expansion and axial elongation of a polymer tube, are disclosed.
US07875232B2
In a method to create a hearing aid housing shell and a negative cast for a hearing aid to be fitted to a patient's ear canal, a 3D jet printer apparatus is provided able to build a 3D part by injecting both the soft material and a hard material with the soft material serving as a support for the hard material. The 3D file is input to the 3D jet printer apparatus to build the hearing aid shell with the hard material and the combined negative cast with the soft material. The negative cast is used to check a quality of the hearing aid shell and to add external features to the shell by fitting the shell into the negative cast.
US07875229B2
A method of making a lasted skate boot having an upper for enclosing and supporting a human foot having an ankle, a plantar surface, a lateral side, a medial side, and toes. The method comprises (a) forming lateral and medial quarter panels by thermoforming a sheet of foam material such that at least one of the quarter panels comprises an inner surface shaped to substantially conform to one of the lateral and medial sides of the foot; (b) assembling to the quarter panels a toe box for enclosing the toes of the foot, an inner lining having an inner surface adapted to contact the foot in use, and a tongue extending upwardly and rearwardly from the toe box to form the upper; and (c) affixing to the upper an insole for facing the plantar surface of the foot.
US07875226B2
A method of making an armrest that is mountable between adjacent left and right passenger seats includes: separately forming two receptacle parts by molding a prepreg in a first mold assembly, the receptacle parts being adapted to hold personal objects and each having a looped wall surrounding a slot; forming an armrest frame by molding a prepreg in a second mold assembly, the armrest frame including a lower frame portion having a plurality of downwardly extending legs, and an upper frame portion disposed on top of and bridging the legs; and positioning the receptacle parts within the second mold assembly and combining the receptacle parts with the upper frame portion during the forming of the armrest frame in the second mold assembly, thereby providing a one-piece unitary structure having the receptacle parts and the armrest frame.
US07875219B2
A process for producing meso-porous nanocomposite electrode comprising nano-scaled graphene platelets. The process comprises: (A) providing nano-scaled graphene platelets, wherein each of the platelets comprises a single graphene sheet or a stack of multiple graphene sheets, and the platelets have an average thickness no greater than 100 nm (preferably less than 5 nm and most preferably less than 2 nm in thickness); (B) combining a binder material, the graphene platelets, and a liquid to form a dispersion; (C) forming the dispersion into a desired shape and removing the liquid to produce a binder-platelet mixture; and (D) treating the binder material under a desired temperature or radiation environment to convert the binder-platelet mixture into a meso-porous nanocomposite electrode, wherein the platelets are bonded by the binder and the electrode has electrolyte-accessible pores characterized in that the nanocomposite has a surface area greater than about 100 m2/gm (preferably greater than 200 m2/gm, more preferably greater than 500 100 m2/gm, and most preferably greater than 1,000 m2/gm). A supercapacitor featuring such a nanocomposite exhibits an exceptionally high capacitance value.
US07875217B2
The present invention includes molds for forming ophtalmic lenses, such as contact lens. In particular, the present invention relates to apparatus, molds and methods for fashioning an ophthalmic lens with a mold assembly that includes two or more mold parts with at least one of the mold parts including a flange surface and a static charge differential between each mold part, including the flange surface.
US07875216B2
The object of the present invention is mainly a powder dispenser including a casing capable of impulsing the powder in a reciprocal movement on a plane along a determined displacement direction (X), and means (19,23) for grouping the powder along distinct axes, substantially parallel to the X direction. The object of the present invention is also a method for making pellets, notably nuclear fuel pellets, applying a dispenser according to the present invention.
US07875213B2
A mineral slurry comprises mineral particles in an amount equal to or greater than about 60 percent by total weight of the slurry, wherein 85 percent of the mineral particles have an average particle size equal to or less than 2 micrometers; a polyelectrolyte dispersant derived from an acrylate polymer formed by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, wherein the polyelectrolyte dispersant comprises endgroups comprising thio-containing residues derived from a trithiocarbonate chain transfer agent, wherein the polyelectrolyte dispersant is in an amount less than about 35 pounds of the dispersant per ton of dry mineral particles, and wherein the polyelectrolyte dispersant has a molecular weight of 3000 to 10,000 Daltons and a polydispersity of at least 1.0 and less than 1.5; and the remainder water.
US07875211B1
A high performance multifunctional cementitious nanocomposite material is made by adding a nano admixture to the water used in a conventional cementitious material manufacturing process. The nano admixture is made by dispersing nanomaterials in a solvent and sonicating the mixture, adding a hydrophilic emulsifier, thickener, additive or cellulose derived compound to hot water, where it separates and expands, cooling the water, causing the compound to dissolve, and then adding the solvent and nanomaterial mixture to the water and mechanically mixing. The contact between the nanomaterials and the surrounding matrix changes with applied stress, affecting the volume electrical response of the finished nanocomposite material. By measuring the electrical resistance of the material, its structural health, as well as the stress applied to it, can be monitored. A bridge made with the material is monitored for structural integrity and for the weight, speed, and location of traffic over the bridge.
US07875208B2
Disclosed herein is a conductive copolymer. The conductive copolymer can prevent water-absorbance, lower the concentration of polyacid contained in a molecule and exhibit superior film characteristics and excellent storage stability via a reduction in aggregation between molecules, as well as impart improved efficiency and lifetime to optoelectronic devices. The conductive copolymer includes a conductive polymer doped with a polyacid copolymer represented by Formula 1 below: Further disclosed are a conductive copolymer composition, a conductive copolymer composition film and an organic optoelectronic device, each including the conductive copolymer.
US07875195B2
The presently disclosed invention provides for the fabrication of porous anodic alumina (PAA) films on a wide variety of substrates. The substrate comprises a wafer layer and may further include an adhesion layer deposited on the wafer layer. An anodic alumina template is formed on the substrate. When a rigid substrate such as Si is used, the resulting anodic alumina film is more tractable, easily grown on extensive areas in a uniform manner, and manipulated without danger of cracking. The substrate can be manipulated to obtain free-standing alumina templates of high optical quality and substantially flat surfaces. PAA films can also be grown this way on patterned and non-planar surfaces. Furthermore, under certain conditions, the resulting PAA is missing the barrier layer (partially or completely) and the bottom of the pores can be readily accessed electrically. The resultant film can be used as a template for forming an array of nanowires wherein the nanowires are deposited electrochemically into the pores of the template. By patterning the electrically conducting adhesion layer, pores in different areas of the template can be addressed independently, and can be filled electrochemically by different materials. Single-stage and multi-stage nanowire-based thermoelectric devices, consisting of both n-type and p-type nanowires, can be assembled on a silicon substrate by this method.
US07875193B2
A method for manufacturing a probe structure of a probe card is disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, a portion of a substrate exposed through a crossing region of one more probe beam regions defined by a first mask layer pattern and a windows defined by a second mask layer pattern are etched to form one or more self-aligning probe tip regions, thereby preventing a misalignment of the one or more probe tip regions.
US07875190B2
An input chamber receives runoff water to be cleaned. Part of the way up the chamber wall is a restricted outlet which feeds a system for cleaning the water. At a still higher elevation another opening allows runoff water to flow to an extended detention chamber. Near the top of the chamber is an outlet pipe. A vertical baffle in front of the outlet cleans water that flows under the baffle on its way to the outlet. When the incoming flow rate is very high, water passes over the baffle to the outlet.
US07875186B2
The invention consists of a water treatment process using selective and regenerable weak base anion exchange resins to remove any number of complex anions, especially oxyanions including perchlorate, nitrate, chlorate, arsenate, selenate, and chromate, from aqueous solutions. The treatment process is comprised of three key processes including 1) pretreatment to lower pH, 2) ion exchange, and 3) post treatment to adjust pH and alkalinity. The invention also includes processes for regenerating weak base anion resins and treatment of the residuals generated. This invention employs pressurized treatment, carbon dioxide management, and reuse of regenerating solution to minimize pumping and treatment costs.
US07875185B2
A process for the removal of residual sulfur compounds from a liquid caustic stream is disclosed. One embodiment of my invention adsorbs disulfides from a caustic stream using an activated carbon adsorbent while another combines both oxidation and adsorption in single step to remove residual sulfur compounds from a rich caustic stream using metal phthalocyanine supported on a solid adsorbent. This process is especially useful as a polishing step in a caustic regeneration process flow scheme.
US07875178B2
A drain basin insert having a housing, with the housing having a sidewall having a top edge and a bottom edge, and with the housing having a perforated base member secured to the sidewall at the lower edge of the sidewall, and with the housing having an outwardly extending flange at the top edge of the sidewall. The insert also includes a secondary filter means having a permeable container having hydrophobic filter media therein. The insert also has a perforated, rigid structural member having a bottom wall and a raised portion, with the raised portion attached to the bottom wall and extending upwardly therefrom. The insert also has a primary filter means having an outer sidewall, a bottom surface, and a central portion, with the bottom surface contacting the bottom wall of the perforated structural member, and with the central portion contacting the raised portion of the perforated structural member. The housing sidewall also has an interior lip extending inwardly therefrom located intermediate the bottom and top edges.
US07875176B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a membrane module including a first plurality of fibers capable of filtering fluids that are helically wound in layers creating a mono helix. Fluids to be treated can flow radially with respect to a longitudinal axis of the mono helix or parallel to the longitudinal axis of the mono helix. The membrane module can further include a second plurality of fibers that are helically wound with the first plurality of fibers to create a dual helix. The second plurality of fibers can have different properties than the first plurality of fibers in order to achieve different filtering functionalities.
US07875173B1
Retrofit apparatus for retrofitting an ozone generator to a spa, hot tub, recreational fountain, or similar facility, and a method for treating biofilms therein, are disclosed. Fittings inserted into water and air circulating lines associated with such water holding facilities, and covers provided over inlets, generally inject, retain, and concentrate ozonated gas in such lines, especially while they are not filled with water. In some embodiments, an ozone-providing plug is provided to at least one water outlet of a spa or hot tub, with other outlets being blocked. In some embodiments, covers for suction inlets, and plugs for water jets, have features to provide ozone to water circulation lines when not filled with water as well as when the tub is filled and water is circulating. In some embodiments, plugs for water jets are ejected and subsequently provide ozone to water circulating in a tub.
US07875172B2
A back-water trap unit comprises a housing having an outer perimetric wall sealed to a base to define an enclosure, and a removable housing cover comprising inlet apertures. An interior wall, shorter than the housing wall, is sealed to the base to define an inner compartment and an outer compartment within the enclosure, the inner compartment being sealed by a cover secured to the upper interior wall edge and the inside of the housing wall. A flapper valve secured to the interior wall within the inner compartment is rotatable in response to liquid pressure to open or close an inlet aperture proximate the lower interior wall edge. An outlet through the housing wall as high as or above the upper edge of the inlet aperture allows discharge of fluid from the inner compartment, while the flapper valve prevents unwanted back-flow from the inner compartment to the outer compartment.
US07875171B2
A filter assembly includes a filter housing including an inlet, through which hydraulic fluid enters the housing, and an outlet, through which hydraulic fluid exits the housing, valve housing containing a bypass valve located adjacent the inlet in a chamber, the valve including an orifice that opens and closes in response to differential pressure across the valve, and a screen secured to the valve housing and covering the orifice, the screen having a fine mesh for removing contaminants from the fluid that flows through the valve.
US07875170B2
A treatment system comprising a holding tank for a source liquid, a pump having a pump inlet for the intake of source liquid and a pump discharge, at least one conduit connected to the pump discharge and a liquid dispenser connected to the one conduit, the dispenser comprising a container for treating liquid, a feed conduit, a dosing chamber for receiving treating liquid via the feed conduit, a vent for breaking an airlock in the dosing chamber, a first valve connected to the dosing chamber for controlling flow of treating liquid through the first valve, a second valve connected to the first valve, the second valve being operative in response to pressure resulting from the pumping of source liquid through the at least one conduit to close the second valve and open the first valve, stopping of the pump resulting in opening of the second valve and introduction of the treating liquid from the dosing chamber and into the source liquid.
US07875168B2
The invention relates to a device for calculating blood flow and to an apparatus for extracorporeal blood treatment provided with the device. The device includes a memory for receiving and storing either a first datum relating to a blood flow removed from the patient Qb, or a second datum relating to a flow of liquid Qt crossing a tract of the extracorporeal circuit, and a third datum relating to a flow of infusion liquid Qinf flowing through the infusion line. The device also comprises a control unit able to calculate the first datum or the second datum as a function of the third datum relating to the flow of infusion liquid Qinf.
US07875159B2
An electrokinetic pump achieves high and low flow rates without producing significant gaseous byproducts and without significant evolution of the pump fluid. A first feature of the pump is that the electrodes in the pump are capacitive with a capacitance of at least 10−4 Farads/cm2. A second feature of the pump is that it is configured to maximize the potential across the porous dielectric material. The pump can have either or both features.
US07875148B2
An adhesive tape attaching method for attaching an adhesive tape to the back side of a wafer, the wafer having a device area where a plurality of devices are formed on the front side of the wafer and a peripheral marginal area surrounding the device area, wherein the back side of the wafer is formed with a circular recess corresponding to the device area and an annular reinforcing portion surrounding the circular recess so as to correspond to the peripheral marginal area. The adhesive tape attaching method includes the steps of holding the wafer and the adhesive tape in a low-pressure condition so that the back side of the wafer is opposed to the adhesive surface of the adhesive tape, fixedly providing a plate member in the condition where the plate member is opposed to the nonadhesive surface of the adhesive tape, pressing the back side of the wafer against the adhesive surface of the adhesive tape, and engaging the plate member into the circular recess formed on the back side of the wafer in the condition where the adhesive tape is closely fitted in the circular recess.
US07875145B2
An adhesive tape is supplied to a back face side of a ring frame, joined to the ring frame with a joining roller, and cut by pivoting a cutter blade along the ring frame. Subsequently, an inspection ring of an inspecting mechanism perform suction on the adhesive tape while contacting the adhesive tape adjacent an inner periphery of the ring frame. Separation of the adhesive tape from the ring frame is determined based on variations of the suction pressure. When the separation of the adhesive tape from the ring frame is detected, the adhesive tape is joined again with the joining roller provided in the cutter mechanism.
US07875137B2
A method for applying and monitoring an application structure comprising a repairing function and device thereof are provided. The method includes arranging automatically a first application structure on the substrate using the application device. The first application structure on the substrate monitored by the at least one camera such that the at least one camera is constantly aligned to the first application structure and the first application structure. The method further includes transmitting the images acquired by the at least one camera to an image processing device that analyzes the images of the first application structure and the image processing device filing partial areas of the first application structure. The method also includes applying, after application of all partial areas of the first application structure, at least a second application structure to the substrate by the application device based on the repair list.
US07875130B2
The present invention provides: a steel for a welded structure to be used for a crude oil tank that exhibits excellent general and local corrosion resistance in crude oil corrosion caused in a steel oil tank and is capable of suppressing the formation of corrosion products (sludge) containing solid sulfur; a method for producing said steel; a crude oil tank; and a method for preventing a crude oil tank against corrosion. The present invention makes it possible to obtain general and local corrosion resistance in a crude oil tank environment and suppress the formation of corrosion products (sludge) containing solid sulfur by using a steel: containing, in mass, 0.001 to 0.2% C, 0.01 to 2.5% Si, 0.1 to 2% Mn, 0.03% or less P, 0.007% or less S, 0.01 to 1.5% Cu, 0.001 to 0.3% Al, 0.001 to 0.01% N as basic components and, further, 0.01 to 0.2% Mo and/or 0.01 to 0.5% W; and preferably satisfying the following expression; Solute Mo+Solute W≧0.005%.
US07875125B2
The invention features in-situ cleaning process for an ion source and associated extraction electrodes and similar components of the ion-beam producing system, which chemically removes carbon deposits, increasing service lifetime and performance, without the need to disassemble the system. In particular, an aspect of the invention is directed to an activating, catalytic, or reaction promoting species added to the reactive species to effectively convert the non-volatile molecular residue into a volatile species which can be removed by conventional means.
US07875123B2
A method and apparatus for cleaning accumulated silt from the floor of a percolation basin are provided. An underwater terrain vehicle (UTV) moves along the basin floor and carries a series of blades that cut and lift the accumulated silt. An eductor driven vacuum head also carried by the UTV vacuums fragmented silt and transports the entrained fragmented silt through a vacuum hose into a location where the silt particles are separated from the water in which they are entrained. The UTV carries a first sonar for continuously scanning the basin floor and which is utilized to guide the UTV. A second sonar is placed in the basin in a known location and continuously scans and continuously monitors the location of the UTV on the basin floor. An operator remotely guides the UTV from an onshore location.
US07875122B2
Industrial dishwasher and method of operating the same, wherein, during at least one operating state other than the drying phase, program control automatically provides for second ambient air to be blown by means of the additional blower directly into the drying channel and through the latter and out through the blowing-out opening, the dishwasher being switched on but the main blower being switched off.
US07875121B2
A pipe maintenance method and device is particularly suited for maintaining a pipe of a gas-insulated high-voltage line with a particle trap system extending along the pipe. The novel method enables poorly accessible sections to be reached. To this end, a maintenance unit is displaced along the particle trap system, and it is guided thereby.
US07875115B2
This disclosure is aimed at providing a method for producing an epitaxial wafer allowing uniform occurrence of oxygen precipitate in a substrate plane in the radial direction in a base plate and excelling in the crystal quality of an epi-layer.A method for the production of an epitaxial wafer, characterized by using as a substrate a base plate of nitrogen- and carbon-added silicon single crystal having a nitrogen concentration of 5×1014 to 5×1015 atoms/cm3 and a carbon concentration of 1×1016 to 1×1018 atoms/cm3, having a crystal growth condition during the production of silicon single crystal in a range in which the whole surface of substrate becomes an OSF region, and being pulled at a cooling speed of not less than 4° C./minute between 1100 and 1000° C. during the growth of crystal, and depositing the silicon single crystal layer on the surface of the substrate by the epitaxial method.
US07875109B1
A gas sample cylinder outlet valve having a flow restricting element associated therewith. The preferred embodiment of the flow restricting element comprises an orifice constructed of a low thermal conduction material such as a plastic. Preferably the outlet valve Cv characteristic is large relative to the orifice Cv characteristic resulting in essentially all of the gas pressure drop taking place across said orifice and therefore essentially all of the J-T effect cooling taking place at said orifice. Due to the low thermal conductivity construction of said orifice an insignificant amount of cooling takes place upstream of the valve mechanism. Test have shown that the integral orifice outlet valve having a large Cv characteristic is more efficient then the typical sample cylinder outlet valve and extension tube and/or flow restrictor combination.
US07875102B2
A method for managing the use of flow-through monolithic sorbents for the sorption of a trace contaminant from a fluid stream, which comprises: providing two or more flow-through monolithic sorbents having a trace contaminant sorbed thereon, wherein the flow-through monolithic sorbents are positioned in an initial series to allow for passing a fluid stream from an upstream inlet end of the series to a downstream outlet end of the series; removing an inlet end portion of the flow-through monolithic sorbents from the inlet end position of the series; moving a downstream portion of the flow-through monolithic sorbents from a downstream position in the series to the inlet end position of the series; and placing a replacement flow-through monolithic sorbent portion in a downstream position of the series.
US07875099B2
An electronic device includes a housing defining a chamber, a circuit board positioned in the chamber and having at least one integrated circuit, an air inlet port and an air outlet port formed in the housing, a fluid flow generator to generate an air flow across the circuit board in the chamber, and an electrostatic air filtration system to filter air entering the chamber from the air inlet port.
US07875098B2
The invention refers to a centrifugal separator comprising a stationary casing defining an inner space, a spindle and a rotating member, which is attached to the spindle and arranged to rotate around an axis of rotation with a rotary speed. The rotating member comprises a number of separating discs which are provided in the inner space. A drive member drives the spindle and the rotating member with said rotary speed. A sensor device senses the rotation of the rotating member in relation to the casing. The sensor device comprises at least one transmitter element which is provided in the inner space on the rotating member and a receiver element which is provided at the casing and arranged to sense the transmitter element. The receiver element is provided on the casing outside the inner space.
US07875095B2
A skimmer device for concentrating an aerosol from a flowing gas stream, having an inlet with inlet aperture and inlet raceway, an outlet with virtual impact void and collector channel, and bulk flow divertors symmetrically disposed on either side of the long axis of flow, further characterized in that the downstream walls of the bulk flow divertors are concavedly curved and reverse the direction of bulk flow. In section, the four channels or passages of the “skimmer” thus form a “crossed tee” with concavedly contoured lateral arms curving back around. The lateral flow channels are for diverting the bulk flow into exhaust chimney spaces, and the chimney spaces are positioned proximate to the inlet element and anterior to the collection channel. In operation, the bulk flow streamlines are thereby folded more than 90 degrees away from the long axis of flow on the laterally disposed concave walls of the bulk flow channels. While counterintuitive, this was found using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimentation to dramatically reduce wall separation and related instabilities and to improve particle recoveries. Large two-dimensional arrays of closely stacked inlet and skimmer elements are thus achieved by fitting the chimneys into spaces between parallel inlet elements. The interlinked problems of flow instability, manufacturability of arrays, and scale-up of chimney cross-sectional area to equalize pressure differentials in the bulk flow diverter exhaust ducts, particularly in two-dimensional arrays at high throughput, are uniquely solved with this geometry.
US07875091B2
A rapid structuring media cartridge includes a cartridge body, a first binder and first abrasive particles. The cartridge is operable to deposit successive patterned layers including the first binder and first abrasive particles to form an abrasive structure.
US07875085B2
A coloring enhancing shampoo composition for hair comprising at least one cleaning and lathering surfactant selected from anionic, nonionic and amphoteric surfactants and present at a concentration of 5 to 50% by weight, calculated to total composition; at least one oil soluble dye; at least one polypropylene glycol compound having a formula as disclosed in the claims and the disclosure and optionally at least one silicone compound having at least one quaternary ammonium group.
US07875069B2
An implantable stent comprising a first strut having an abluminal surface, and subluminal surface, and at least one side surface; a first depression formed in the abluminal surface; and a first support element at least partially disposed in the first depression; wherein at least a portion of the first support element extends beyond the abluminal surface of the first strut.
US07875052B2
A tissue closure includes a body, and a thread includes a knot which is slidable on the thread. The body is composed of a plate-like anchor portion, and a deformation portion having a frame-like shape which can be deformed between a first form in which the deformation portion is elongated in a direction substantially perpendicular to the anchor portion and contracted in a direction substantially parallel to the anchor portion and a second form in which the deformation portion is contracted in a direction substantially perpendicular to the anchor portion and elongated in a direction substantially parallel to the anchor portion. The tissue closure can also include a connecting portion connecting the anchor portion and the deformation portion to each other. In the condition where the deformation portion is in a desired form between the first form and the second form, the condition is maintained by the thread.
US07875039B2
Provided herein are devices and methods for supporting and positioning a tracking assembly for mounting variously configured medical devices for prostate imaging, biopsy, and other therapeutic applications. In one aspect, a support assembly provides multiple degrees of freedom for positioning a tracking assembly and mounted probe relative to a patient on a patient support structure such as an examination table or a gurney bed and/or maintaining a tracking assembly and mounted probe in a desired location throughout the rendering of imaging, biopsy, or other therapeutic procedures.
US07875035B2
An expandable structure carried at the end of a catheter tube assembly can be contracted and/or wrapped to present a reduced profile during deployment and/or removal from a targeted tissue site.
US07875033B2
A bone distractor, preferably an alveolar ridge distractor, having first and second bone plates sized and configured to engage opposing bone segments and an interconnecting mechanism operatively associated with the first and second bone plates such that rotation of an activation screw causes the second bone plate to move with respect to the first bone segment. The distractor may also include a housing having a first housing member operatively associated with the first bone plate and a second housing member operatively associated with the second bone plate, the second housing member being pivotally coupled to the first housing member such that the orientation of the second bone plate may be varied with respect to the first bone plate. Moreover, the second housing member may include a releasable closure cap so that the second bone plate may be easily removed and/or replaced, the second bone plate being provided in varying shapes and sizes.
US07875031B2
A system and a method for providing minimally invasive access to the spine of a patient and implanting spinal stabilization devices. The system utilizes one or more post-type access devices. The post-type access device includes a cage with an aperture and two or more posts extending from the cage and being removably attached to the cage. The posts are supported at the top of the access device by a support ring structure. A pedicle screw is inserted into the access device and through the cage aperture and the screw-access device assembly is inserted into an opening of the patient's body. The base aperture is dimensioned to securely support the head of the screw. Side openings between the posts allow the insertion and placement of stabilization devices, such as rods, wires, or plates from almost any direction.
US07875026B1
An electrosurgical handpiece comprises a handle, a nose piece for threaded engagement with the handle at a first end for cooperating with a collet to grip an electrode, and a detachable cable connector at the opposite second end, the latter being characterized by a rotatable connection such that when the handle is rotated by the user, the cable will maintain its rotary position and thus not encumber rotation of the handle to a desired position. The electrosurgical handpiece may also comprise a nose piece with at least one set of circumferentially-spaced grooves, preferably two axially-spaced sets, which the surgeon can use with his fingers for one-handed orientation of the electrode position.
US07875025B2
A needle assembly (N) for RF ablation of target tissue in e.g. the liver (L) of a patient comprises a radial array of electrodes (1) in the form of loops which can be expanded by feeding the proximal ends of the Y electrodes along the bore of the needle assembly. An RF power supply (2) is connection between the array of electrodes and a skin pad (P) in contact with the skin (S) of a patient and, in accordance with the invention, is biased by a DC power supply 4 which generates electro-osmotic and/or electrolytic effects in the target tissue. In particular, chloride ions are discharged to generate chlorine which has a potent cytocidal effect and water can be attracted to the array of electrodes by electro-osmosis, thereby alleviating the problems of low electrical and thermal conductivity encountered with conventional apparatus.
US07875022B2
Some embodiments of a portable infusion pump system can be configured to deliver medicine (e.g., insulin or the like) to a user and to deliver media content to a user. The media content can include, for example, MP3 music and other audio/video data stored in a memory device in the portable system. Thus, in particular embodiments, the portable infusion pump system can serve a dual purpose of providing medication and entertainment for the user from a compact and unobtrusive device.
US07875021B2
A closed specimen collection system includes a port tube that is rotatably attached to tubing of a urinary drainage system attached to an indwelling urinary catheter. The port tube has a one-way valve located adjacent one end formed to fit sealably with a shaped nozzle. A collection has a proximal end and a distal end with a shaped nozzle at the proximal end adapted to fit sealably into the port tube adjacent the one-way valve. A specimen container has a hollow body, a back end and a front end with a sealable aperture sized and shaped to attach to the distal end of the collection tube. A piston fits closely within the hollow body and is attached to an actuating rod. When the actuating rod is moved away from the front end of the container, urine will flow into the specimen container through the collection tube in a sterile condition.
US07875015B2
A pharmaceutical container with an improved peelable seal is provided, wherein the container may be made of a flexible polymeric film and comprises at least one peelable seal comprising at least two substantially straight sections which are connected by a rupture zone (5), The rupture zone of the peelable seal may be curved over its whole length between the straight sections. The container may be used for storing pharmaceutical substances, solutions for dialysis, solutions for infusion and/or agents for nutrition.
US07875010B2
An incontinence device for wearing by a female is disclosed. A urine collection trough has an elongated open top end that is adapted to fit around the labia area of the female, encompassing her urethra. The trough has at least one non-rigid side wall and includes a drainage aperture in a lower portion thereof and a vaginal anchor means at an upper portion thereof. The vaginal anchor means is preferably a resilient protruding member fixed to the upper portion of the side wall of the trough. A drainage conduit is fixed at an upper end thereof to the drainage aperture that has at a lower end a valve means having an open position and a closed position. Preferably, the at least one side wall includes at least one attachment aperture therethrough, such that the device may be fixed to articles of clothing with straps, buttons, or the like.
US07875008B2
A catheter for use in delivery or withdrawal of a formulation, wherein the catheter has an outer layer comprising a bio-compatible material and a barrier layer comprising a material that provides a more effective barrier than the outer layer against inward and outward diffusion of substances that may cause destabilization of the formulation. The catheter may include a flared distal end tip to aid in the release, during a bolus delivery or catheter flush, of any obstruction situated at the distal end tip of the catheter. The catheter may also include a slit valve at the distal end tip which has one or more and, preferably a plurality of slits that may be elastically extended to an open position by the expulsion of the formulation during an IIP pump stroke. During the interval between IIP pump strokes, the slits return to a closed position and hinder the inflow of body fluid into the distal end tip.
US07875006B2
A needle-protection device (2) for a syringe (1) having a needle (6), a tubular body (4) and an injection plunger (8). The device includes: a needle protector (22); a protector support (20); a spring (24) which presses against the support (20) and the protector (22), the support and protector being movable relative to one another between a retracted protector position, in which the needle of the syringe is exposed and the spring is locked in compression, and a deployed protector position in which the needle is disposed inside the protector and the spring is at least partially decompressed; and a mechanism for unlocking the spring. When locked, the spring (24) exhibits a predetermined force which is greater than the push force required to move the plunger (8) along essentially all of the injection stroke thereof. The mechanism has a digital support flange (50) which (i) transmits to the spring a compression force, which is less than the predetermined force, as the plunger slides along the injection stroke, and (ii) transmits to the spring a compression force, which is greater than the predetermined force, when the plunger reaches the end of the injection stroke.
US07875005B2
Since this syringe has projections provided on the rear surface of a flange of a syringe barrel, when it is inserted in an insertion groove of a cylinder holder, the tips of projections are compressed and the flange is fixed. Consequently, even when a solution having high viscosity is injected at higher pressure, breakage does not occur easily. Further, pressure-receiving area may also be increased by providing a guide defining mounting direction of a syringe, alternatively, a positioning mechanism may be provided so as to obtain mounting at a correct position, or the surface of a flange may be roughened.
US07875004B2
Systems and methods for detecting an occlusion in a fluid delivery device are disclosed. The system includes a fluid delivery tube, an occlusion detection sensor configured to be coupled to the fluid delivery tube and further configured to detect occlusion within the fluid delivery tube. The fluid delivery tube includes an occlusion detection portion. The occlusion detection sensor is further configured to detect alteration of a shape of the occlusion detection portion when at least one condition occurs within the fluid delivery tube.
US07875000B2
The invention relates to a disposable breast cup set which comprises a coupling element (2) to be coupled to a milk collection receptacle (1) and a breast cup connecting element (3) to be coupled to a breast cup funnel (5). The coupling element (5) and the breast cup connecting element (3) are interlinked via a tamper-evident element (4), said connection being destroyed when the coupling element (2) is for the first time separated from the breast cup connecting element (3) and preventing re-use of the set.
US07874973B2
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a centrifuge in which a steam sterilization of a sample flow passage is performed, the centrifuge including: a rotor configured to centrifuging a liquid sample; a drive portion that drives and rotates the rotor; a chamber that accommodates the rotor therein, the chamber having a first and a second penetration holes provided on an upper and a bottom portions thereof, respectively; and a first and a second valves disposed on the first and the second penetration holes, respectively; wherein a cooling gas is introduced through one of the first and the second penetration holes and discharged through the other to cool a periphery of the rotor before or after execution of a centrifuging operation of the liquid sample.
US07874971B2
A calf extension training device which focuses training on the calf muscles is disclosed herein. The training device may comprise a frame, base, riser, sled, and one or more springs. The sled may comprise a sled frame and shoulder extensions, and is configured to move along the length of the frame while attached to one or more springs. Generally, the user stands on the riser leaving the user's heels unsupported while the user's shoulders are engaged by the shoulder extensions of the sled. The user may then lift and lower the sled using his or her calf muscles. This occurs by the user raising or lowering his or her body by extending and flexing the ankles. Resistance may be provided by one or more springs attached to the sled and the frame. The springs may provide variable resistance against the force of the user's calf muscles.
US07874969B2
A training device (10) for exercising the abdominal muscles (40) of a user (30), comprises a base portion (11), an upstanding resistance member (21) contained within a housing (12) and a plunger (13). The resistance member (21) is operably connected to the plunger (13) and is biased normally to urge the plunger (13) upwardly out of the housing (12). By standing on the base portion (11) and exerting a downward force (c) on the plunger (13) whilst keeping his arms (41, 42) and legs (43, 44) straight, the user (30) causes his abdominal muscles (40) to work to overcome the resistance to the downward motion of the plunger (13) provided by the resistance member (21), thus driving the plunger (13) downwards into the housing (12).
US07874965B2
Gymnastic machine (1) including a frame (10), at least one gymnastic implement supported by the frame (10), in association with a load group (30) to provide a resistive load to each implement (20) during the execution of a physical exercise; the load group (30) including a first circuit (40) and a second circuit (50), both having respective flexible members (41) (51); each implement (20) being coupled to a first transmission member (41) for the first circuit (40), and the second circuit (50) including at least one load unit (60) capable of exercising a resistive action on the first transmission member (41); the first circuit (40) and the second circuit (50) being interfaced mechanically with each other through modulating means (70) capable of mechanically activating the load unit (60) to regulate its intensity.
US07874963B2
An exercise device reciprocates footpads along curved tracks having first pivotally supported ends and second ends that are alternately raised and lowered with respect to one another.
US07874961B2
An elliptical exercise machine allowing a user to move between a first position (standing on a stationary platform and using the machine's exercise arms), a second position (using the machine's footskates and holding a stationary handlebar), and a third position (using the machine's footskates and exercise arms), or any variation thereon. The machine may include a computer that directs the user's movements between those positions and others.
US07874959B2
A collapsible ladder for use primarily for athletic training and the like has a plurality of spaced-apart, substantially rigid rungs secured with collapsible connectors to a plurality of spaced-apart, substantially rigid spacers extending therebetween. In one disclosed embodiment, the collapsible connectors are strips of flexible material extending between the rungs and spacers. Another disclosed embodiment has a second set of rungs aligned substantially parallel to the plurality of spaced-apart rungs along a common central set of spacers. The collapsible connectors allow the ladder to be quickly and easily transitioned between an extended, operational position, and a collapsed, storage position.
US07874958B1
A leg exercising apparatus includes a support that includes a base having a top side and a post extending upwardly from the base. A housing is attached to a distal end of the post with respect to the base. The housing has a perimeter wall and a plurality of weight sensors is mounted within the housing. A seat is positioned on the housing. The weight sensors detect weight positioned on the seat. The sensors are positioned to detect weight differentiation positioned on sections of the seat. The sections at least include a right lateral section and a left lateral section. A control circuit is electrically coupled to the weight sensors. The control circuit emits a first signal when the weight sensors detect weight differentiations between the sensors within acceptable limits. The control circuit emits a second signal when the weight sensors detect weight differentiations outside of acceptable limits.
US07874952B2
A power transmission chain includes a plurality of links aligned in a chain travel direction and a coupling member that includes a first power transmission member and a second power transmission member. The first power transmission member includes an opposing portion that opposes the corresponding second power transmission member and contacts the corresponding second power transmission member on a contact portion that undergoes displacement in association with a change of a bending angle between corresponding links in a contact state including at least one of rolling contact and sliding contact. The opposing portion includes an arc-shaped portion having a predetermined radius of curvature and a rate-of-change increasing portion. The arc-shaped portion includes a portion that forms the contact portion when the bending angle is equal to or greater than zero and equal to or smaller than a predetermined boundary angle.
US07874950B2
A tensioner enables easy and reliable reinstallation of the tensioner and belt in the field service while simultaneously making it possible to utilize a one-way clutch device to ensure continuous belt tension control without cumbersome manual alignment and/or realignment procedures. The tensioner has a pivot shaft configured for mounting on an engine surface. A tensioner arm is mounted on the pivot shaft for pivotal movement between a free arm stop position and premount stop position. A belt-engaging pulley is mounted for rotation on the tensioner arm. A base cup is rotatably mounted around an end of the pivot shaft. The base cup has an arcuate slot having a free arm stop end and a premount stop end. The tensioner arm cooperates with the arcuate slot limiting the pivotal movement of the tensioner arm. A spring is coupled between the tensioner arm and the base cup biasing the tensioner arm in a belt-tensioning direction. An anti-kickback stop mechanism engages the pivot shaft and has a lost motion connection with the tensioner arm wherein the tensioner arm moves through a free range without engaging the anti-kickback mechanism. The tensioner arm 1) rotates the anti-kickback mechanism as the tensioner arm moves beyond the free range towards the premount stop position and 2) enables the anti-kickback mechanism as the tensioner arm moves beyond the free range towards the free arm stop position, limiting travel of the tensioner arm therebeyond. The spring is fixable relative to the pivot shaft upon the tensioner being mounted on the engine surface.
US07874947B1
In one embodiment there is provided a lawn dart having a shaft that connects to a head assembly at one end thereof. A sleeve is mounted coaxially about the shaft. The sleeve has an inner profile that matches a predetermined cross-section of the sleeve such that the sleeve is capable of axially movement and not capable of rotationally movement relative to the shaft. A plurality of fins is mounted on the sleeve.
US07874943B1
A safety baseball base includes a base with a bottom recess and a bottom stem in the bottom recess, an anchor embedded in the ground in a baseball field, a positioning member inserted into the anchor, a flexible mounting plate affixed to the positioning member and having recessed holes on the top side, and a flexible coupling member fitted into the bottom recess around the bottom stem and affixed to the base and having a plurality of bottom locating blocks respectively engaged into the recessed holes of the flexible mounting plate to secure the base to the flexible mounting plate for allowing disconnection of the base from the flexible mounting plate upon an impact to avoid injuries when a player is sliding into the base.
US07874934B2
A golf club incorporating an interchangeable shaft system includes a shaft, a shaft sleeve, a club head. The shaft sleeve is coupled to an end of the shaft and is received in a hosel included in the club head. The shaft sleeve is removably coupled to the club head. Hosel and shaft sleeve alignment features provide discreet orientations between the shaft and club head.
US07874929B2
A system is provided for training a golf club stroke. The system includes a sensor, and a transmitter positioned in a spaced relation to the sensor, where the transmitter transmits a signal received by the. The system further includes a golf club including a head including a transparent medium region, where the head is positioned between the sensor and the transmitter. The signal passes through the transparent medium region.
US07874927B2
A child motion device includes a motor to drive motion, a capacitive sensor array responsive to the motion to generate feedback information indicative of the motion, a control circuit coupled to the capacitive sensor array to control the motor based on the feedback information, and a user interface having a capacitive sensor element configured to recognize operator interaction with the user interface. The control circuit is coupled to the capacitive sensor element to control operation of the child motion device in accordance with the operator interaction. With the control circuit coupled to both the capacitive sensor array and the capacitive sensor element, the same control circuitry can be utilized in connection with both user interface and motor control functions.
US07874922B2
The present invention provides a game system in which a maintenance property of a game part of a game machine is improved.A game part D has a replacement determination device 35 and a replacement information output device 32. The replacement determination device 35 measures a parameter indicating a used amount of the game part D in a game, accumulates a value of the measured parameter RD, specifies a wearing level of a consumable item 38 of the game part D based on the determined accumulation value, and checks the specified wearing level to a criterion wearing level to determines whether or not it is replacement time to replace the consumable item 38. When the replacement determination device 35 determines that it is the replacement time, the replacement information output device 32 outputs replacement information to a game machine main body K. The game machine main body K has replacement processing device 27. The replacement processing device 27 performs a process concerning the replacement of the consumable item 38 of the game part D which has output the obtained replacement information.
US07874910B2
A method and apparatus for use in gaming activities such as slot machines. Multiple display segments are presented, where one or more of the display segments are presented having multiple display subsegments. Display subsegments present subsegment symbols independently of the other display subsegments in its respective display segment. Paylines are created from a plurality of the display segments, where the subsegment symbols of the display subsegments are independently used in formulating payout results for paylines in which the display segment is affiliated. Paylines may be dynamically created at any location as a result of corresponding symbols occurring in a predetermined number of adjacent display segments and/or subsegments.
US07874908B2
A method and gaming device, such as a slot machine, is disclosed that generates a spin results which are used to determine a player's progress toward a secondary or overall game objective. The secondary game objective may include completing a set or a collection. A game objective may instruct a player to attempt to assemble a picture or image. Portions of the complete image may be displayed on a first game area, such as the reel area of the gaming device. A player executing a spin on the gaming device may acquire or utilize portions of the image as they occur in the context of a reel-based game. Image portions may “occur” when they appear on the gaming device payline as part of a traditional reel-based game. The image portion may be utilized on a second game area of the gaming device (e.g. a screen located above the gaming device reel area) in order to depict progress toward the secondary game objective of completing the image.
US07874902B2
Various embodiments of methods and apparatus and systems for playing a simulated card game, such as Texas Hold'em Poker, are provided. One embodiment comprises a method for playing a simulated card game. One such method comprises the steps of: displaying a plurality of entries and at least one of a set of community game elements to a virtual game to a player, each entry including at least two game elements, each game element associated with a game value according to a game rule for the virtual game; receiving a wager from the player, the wager associated with at least one bet type; displaying the remaining of the set of community game elements to the player; and determining whether the wager wins based on the plurality of entries, the at least one bet type, and according to the game rule for the virtual game.
US07874900B2
Embodiments of the invention include a method of performing a bonus event in a gaming machine that produces a gaming outcome. The method for performing a bonus event includes displaying a three-dimensional character; modifying the character based on one or more user selections; and controlling the character to influence the gaming outcome.
US07874899B2
An agricultural harvester includes a support frame and a hopper coupled to the support frame. The hopper is configured to store an agricultural product during a harvesting operation. An unloading system is coupled to the support frame. The unloading system is configured to transport agricultural product received from the hopper to an off-machine location. The unloading system includes a metering gate, a transfer conveyance, at least one sensor, and an electrical processing circuit. The metering gate is positioned near a bottom of the hopper and in communication with an interior of the hopper. The transfer conveyance has an inlet end and a discharge end. The inlet end is in communication with the metering gate. The at least one sensor provides an output signal representing an operating parameter associated with an unload rate of agricultural product through the transfer conveyance during an unloading operation. The electrical processing circuit is coupled to the metering gate and the at least one sensor. The electrical processing circuit controls a position of the metering gate, dependent upon the output signal.
US07874896B1
A sharpening guide assembly to be removably attached to a sharpening stone to provide for smooth, controlled and accurate motion when sharpening a blade is provided. The assembly includes a body portion forming a platform adapted to receive the sharpening tool. A magnet is disposed within a recess formed in the platform. The magnet aids in removably attaching the sharpening tool to the guide assembly. The body portion includes guide rails to stabilize and aid in the attachment of the sharpening tool to the guide assembly. A guide rod is affixed to the body portion. The sharpening guide assembly may be used with a sharpening tool including metal and having a substantially planar sharpening surface. A clamping device for holding a blade to be sharpened is slidably coupled to the guide rod of the assembly and is drawn back and forth along the guide rod for sharpening the blade.
US07874889B2
An apparatus for printing bead spacers on a substrate of an LCD panel includes a head unit for spraying a plurality of bead spacer groups on the substrate, a transfer unit for transferring the head unit, and a supply unit for supplying the bead spacers to the head unit. Each of the bead spacer groups includes a plurality of bead spacers, and the sizes of the respective spacers of at least two of the spacer groups are different from each other. The invention enables a cell gap of a substantially uniform thickness to be created and maintained in the panel, prevents the occurrence of smear failures in the panel, and increases the allowable tolerance in the amount of liquid crystal material needed to fill the panel correctly.
US07874883B2
A system for steering a watercraft propelled by a water jet includes a control lever supported to pivot rightward and leftward about a first control axis, a nozzle supported on the watercraft to pivot rightward and leftward and through which water is discharged from the watercraft, first and second cables, and a steering module interconnected by the cables to the control lever and connected to the nozzle, supported to pivot laterally about a second control axis and to pivot the nozzle laterally in response to pivoting of the control lever about the first control axis.
US07874880B2
An adapter apparatus includes a substrate having a plurality of openings defined therethrough. Further, a sleeve spring contact is mounted in each of the openings.
US07874879B2
A communication jack having crosstalk compensation features for overall crosstalk interference reduction is disclosed. In one embodiment, the jack is configured to receive a plug to form a communication connection, and comprises jack contacts disposed in the jack, with each contact having at least a first surface and a second surface. Upon the plug being received by the jack, the plug contacts interface with the first surface of the jack contacts. The jack further includes a first capacitive coupling connected between two pairs of jack contacts to compensate for near end crosstalk, with the first capacitive coupling being connected to the pairs of jack contacts along the second surface adjacent to where the plug contacts interface with the jack contacts. A far end crosstalk compensation scheme is also set forth.
US07874875B2
An electrical connector for electrically connecting an element to a circuit board includes at least two adjacent insulation bodies, a plugging slot located on the insulation bodies for being plugged with the element, and a set of conductive terminals disposed on the insulation bodies and electrically connected with the circuit board. One side of each of the insulation bodies is movably connected with the adjacent insulation body. When the circuit board undergoes soldering process, the relation position of the insulation bodies at the adjacent location is automatically adjusted according to the warp caused by the high temperature of soldering so as to reduce the warp and deformation. Thereby, the soldering portion of each conductive terminal received in the insulation bodies can be soldered onto the circuit board well, such that electrical connector is normally and electrically connected with the circuit board.
US07874869B2
A reconfigurable patch panel and a method of reconfiguring a patch panel comprising a support member supporting at least one adapter, where the at least one adapter comprises a plurality of ports for coupling to electric signal bearing cables. A pivot, associated with each of the at least one adapters, couples the at least one adapter to the support member. The at least one adapter selectively rotates about the pivot to a selected position relative to the support member. A retainer, associated with each of the at least one adapters, couples the support member to the at least one adapter and retains the at least one adapter in the selected position.
US07874864B2
A cable connector with security arrangement for HDMI cable and the like includes a connector head for being plugged into a terminal socket of an electronic device, and a connector body having at least one retention member pivotally coupling with the connector body for being folded between a folded and unfolded position. The retention member has an attachment slot for aligning with an attachment hole of the terminal socket when the retention member is flipped to the unfolded position so that a fastener can be used to fasten the retention member with the terminal socket so as to securely connect the cable connector with the terminal socket and prevent the cable connector from being accidentally pulled out to disconnect the power or data transmission.
US07874854B2
Communications patching devices are provided that include a mounting frame and a first jack that is mounted to the mounting frame. The first jack has a plurality of input terminals, a plurality of output terminals and a printed circuit board that includes a plurality of conductive paths that each electrically connect a respective one of the input terminals to a respective one of the output terminals. The printed circuit board further includes a plurality of electronic static discharge circuits, each of which circuit provides a path for discharging static charges to ground. Related methods and RJ-45 jacks are also provided.
US07874853B2
A converter has a casing and a plug. The casing has a mounting recess, multiple position posts, multiple conductive slices and multiple mounting protrusions. The mounting recess is formed in the casing. The position posts are formed on and protrude from the mounting recess. The conductive slices are mounted around the position posts. The mounting protrusions are formed on the mounting recess. The plug is detachably mounted on the casing and has an escutcheon, an engaging protrusion and multiple terminals. The escutcheon covers the mounting recess. The engaging protrusion is formed on the escutcheon, is mounted in the mounting recess and has a position groove and multiple holding grooves. The position is annular formed in the engaging protrusion and is mounted around the position posts. The holding grooves are formed on the engaging protrusion and engage the mounting protrusions. The terminals are formed on the escutcheon.
US07874837B2
Methods and corresponding apparatus for segmenting an orthodontic treatment path into clinically appropriate substeps for repositioning the teeth of a patient include providing a digital finite element model of the shape and material of each of a sequence of appliances to be applied to a patient; providing a digital finite element model of the teeth and related mouth tissue of the patient; computing the actual effect of the appliances on the teeth by analyzing the finite elements models computationally; and evaluating the effect against clinical constraints. The appliances can be braces, polymeric shells, or other forms of orthodontic appliance.
US07874836B2
Provided, among other things, is a system for progressive palatal expansion, the system comprising a series of incremental expanders, including: a) a first incremental expander having a geometry selected to incrementally expand the palate; b) one or more intermediate expanders having geometries selected to progressively expand the palate; and, c) a final expander, having a geometry selected to expand the palate to a target desired breadth.
US07874827B2
A syringe mold with a coolant circulation outward and homeward positioned close to the cavity space and a sufficient coolant circulating flow for cooling a core cylinder is provided.Slide cores (5, 5) are put in the position where the slide cores (5, 5) protrude from the circumference of the core cylinder (2) by moving the slide core operating jig (4) forward in the axial direction of the core cylinder (2) while cooling the core cylinder (2) by the coolant. Then, a two medical agent mixing type syringe having a communicating groove on the inner circumference for mixing two medical agents is injection-molded. A molding failure due to insufficient cooling of the core cylinder (2) can be prevented by positioning the coolant outward and homeward close to the cavity space and making the cross sectional area of the coolant outward and homeward enough large because the coolant outward and homeward is partitioned by the circumference of the jig container space in the core cylinder (2).
US07874824B2
Problems with incipiently gelling alginate or low-methoxy pectate sols in a bath of an aqueous solution containing calcium ions are reduced by having in the bath a perforated support surface which can be oscillated. The surface is preferably oscillated horizontally and vertically and preferably these oscillations are synchronised. Transport means to remove the product from the bath can be provided at one end of the bath. It is advantageous to ensure that at the beginning of the vertical oscillation the horizontal oscillation is in the direction of such transport means. Portions of the sol can be formed by extrusion either below or above the surface of the bath. The process is particularly useful for sols which have a sugar content greater than 10%. The invention also provides equipment comprising such a perforated support surface. Although the equipment is particularly useful for preparing alginate and low-methoxy pectate products it can also be used advantageously for other products which are formed in a bath and are susceptible to damage before they solidify adequately.
US07874818B2
An electric motor and fuel pump assembly with a housing having generally opposed ends with an electric motor within the housing having an armature with an axial commutator adjacent one end of the armature and one end of the housing. A fuel pump is positioned adjacent another end of the housing and the armature and is operably connected to the armature for being driven by the electric motor. A carrier within the housing has guides slidably receiving axially elongate brushes disposed generally parallel to the armature axis with ends contacting the commutator. Each brush is biased generally axially into contact with the commutator by a torsional spring with a coiled body having an axis generally transverse to the axis of the armature to decrease the overall axial length of the pump assembly. Preferably an end cover of the housing overlies and encloses the springs and brushes and preferably has an outlet port laterally offset from the brushes and within the outer periphery of the end cover to further decrease the overall axial length of the fuel pump assembly. Preferably electrical connector blades extend through the end cover and are laterally offset from and axially overlap in electrical connection with the brushes for supplying current to the motor.
US07874815B2
The invention relates to a high-pressure cleaning appliance with a motor-pump unit, comprising a pump head on which is positioned a piston subassembly, which carries a drive motor with the interposition of a planetary gearing, and has a plurality of pistons which can be moved back and forth in the longitudinal direction of the motor-pump unit and each penetrate into a pumping chamber of the pump head, and also comprising a swash-plate unit which interacts with the pistons, the planetary gearing having a sun gear which is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the motor shaft of the drive motor and is coupled to a ring gear via planet gears rotatably mounted on a planet gear carrier, the planet gear carrier being connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the swash-plate unit. In order for it to be possible for the planetary gearing to be lubricated to good effect even when the motor-pump unit is oriented substantially vertically, it is proposed for the piston subassembly to have an oil sump into which penetrates an oil-delivery tube which is aligned coaxially with the motor shaft and is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the planet gear carrier, it being possible for oil to be fed to the planetary gearing from the oil sump via the oil-delivery tube.
US07874813B2
A variable displacement compressor comprising a first control means for detecting the suction pressure of fluid or the crank chamber pressure and controlling the suction pressure to a target control value, and a second control means including means for detecting high-pressure side pressure to control the displacement of the compressor so as to relax an increase in the high-pressure side pressure when it is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold and increasing the control value of the suction pressure depending on the increase in the high-pressure side pressure in a region exceeding the threshold. The control system is simple, the control valve is inexpensive and simple and capable of stabilized operation, and the variable displacement compressor has the internal control means suitable for refrigeration cycle operating in a supercritical region.
US07874812B2
In known devices for pumping fuel, suction jet pumps are used which are driven by the fuel flowing back from the internal combustion engine and pump fuel from a supply tank into an impoundment container of a fuel pumping unit. In known suction jet pumps, the suction power is limited by the fact that the fuel stream applies itself to the housing wall, so that the entire area of the fuel stream is no longer available for entraining fuel. The device of the invention lessens this effect by providing at least one rib between the first partial section of the fuel line and the mixing conduit.
US07874810B2
A water pressurizing pump includes a pump mounted in a compartment of a water tank for pressurizing and outputting water. The compartment is sealed by a cover having a first channel in communication between the compartment and a water supply coupler and a second channel having an end in communication with the first channel. A pressure tank is mounted to the other end of the second channel of the cover. A differential pressure valve unit is slideably mounted in the pressure tank adjacent to the second channel. The differential pressure valve unit is movable by the high water pressure in the second channel to allow water from the second channel to enter the pressure tank.
US07874807B2
A compressor system is disclosed, comprising a first pump driven by a D/C motor, a second pump driven by an A/C motor, and a switch which allows a user to manually selectively engage of one of the D/C motor or NC motor, including a gauge having a user settable shut-off mechanism which interrupts power to at least one of D/C or A/C motors. Also disclosed is a gauge configured to display system pressure independent of the user settable shut-off mechanism. A gauge having a rotatable bezel with a needle stop comprising a first needle rotatably coupled to a gauge shaft, and a second needle fixable coupled to the gauge shaft, and a spring disposed between the first and second needles, the spring configured to bias the first needle into the second needle so changes in pressure causes rotation of both is also disclosed.
US07874806B2
A turbomachine rotor includes a plurality of turbomachine rotor blades. The turbomachine rotor has a plurality of firtree shaped slots in its radially outer periphery to form a plurality of rotor posts. The turbomachine rotor blades have correspondingly shaped firtree roots to fit in the firtree shaped slots in the turbomachine rotor. The firtree roots of the turbomachine rotor blades comprise a plurality of radially spaced lobes on each of it flanks. The rotor posts of the turbomachine rotor comprise a plurality of radially spaced lobes on each of its flanks. A radially inner lobe of at least one of the turbomachine rotor blades has reduced stiffness such that the load on the radially inner lobe of the at least one turbomachine rotor blade is shared with the other lobes of the at least one turbomachine rotor blade. Alternatively a radially outer lobe of at least one of the rotor posts has reduced stiffness such that the load on the radially outer lobe of the at least one rotor post is shared with the other lobes of the at least one rotor post.
US07874801B2
A device for measuring the displacement travel of a hydraulic displacement mechanism for blades of an impeller of an axial-flow fan, wherein the displacement mechanism includes as components a displacement cylinder and a piston rod having a piston, one of the components being axially displaceable and the other component not being axially displaceable. Respective spindles of the blades are secured to a displacement disk to which is connected the axially displaceable component of the displacement mechanism. An oil transfer element surrounds an extension of the piston rod that extends out of the displacement cylinder. A magnetostrictive displacement-measuring device that includes a sensor housing with a wave guide, sensor head, and an annular magnet is coupled to the displacement mechanism. The sensor housing and the sensor head are connected to the oil transfer element. Either the oil transfer element or one of the displacement mechanism components is axially displaceable relative to the other component. The magnet is connected to that component for which the axial displacement relative to the oil transfer element exists.
US07874791B2
A turbomachine (1), in particular a turbine or compressor, includes a rotor (2) which has at least one moving blade row (4) with a plurality of moving blades (5), and a stator (3) which has at least one guide vane row (6) with a plurality of guide vanes (7), at least in one of the blade or vane rows (4, 6) all the blades or vanes (5, 7) each having a shroud plate (10). In order to simplify the maintenance of the turbo-machine (1), the shroud plates (10) are separate components with respect to the respective blade or vane (5, 7) and are mounted on the respective blade or vane (5, 7), shroud plates (10) adjacent in the circumferential direction (9) being coupled to one another for the transmission of tensile forces in the circumferential direction (9).
US07874787B2
A vertical axis wind turbine system includes a vertical shaft rotatably mounted about a vertical axis and an upper platen coupled to the vertical shaft. Vanes are coupled to the vertical shaft and extend downward from the upper platen. Each vane has a concave face and an opposing convex face. A lower platen is coupled to the vertical shaft and to each vane. The lower platen has an opening formed therein proximate to the concave face of each vane. A plenum is disposed below the vertical axis wind turbine and is rotatably mounted about the shaft for rotation about the vertical axis. The plenum includes a top portion disposed proximate to the lower platen and has an outlet port therein. The outlet port is in fluid communication with at least one of the lower platen openings. A plenum passage provides fluid communication between a plenum inlet and the outlet port.
US07874777B1
An attachment device for joining planar metal members to one another. A tapered passage is formed through the metal members. A tapered metal sleeve is positioned in the tapered passage. An elongated headed fastener is inserted through the sleeve. A bearing washer is positioned between the headed portion of the fastener and the metal members with the bearing washer engaging the tapered sleeve. A spacer washer is positioned between the bearing washer and the metal members to limit movement of the bearing washer against the tapered sleeve. A nut threads onto the threaded end of the fastener. A spacer washer is positioned between the nut and the smaller diameter end of the tapered sleeve to prevent the nut from engaging the smaller diameter and of the tapered sleeve when the nut is threaded on the headed fastener.
US07874772B2
The invention provides an improved drain structure of a cutting fluid supplied to a spindle of a milling spindle. The milling spindle 100 comprises a spindle 20 supported within a housing via a bearing 16, and a drawbar 24 having a through coolant passage 22. The cutting fluid C1 passing through the rotary joint 40 and 50 is sent to the through coolant passage 22, but a portion thereof is collected in a drain chamber 110. When the pressure within the drain chamber rises, the drain device 150 pushes open the ball 160 resisting against the spring 170, and the cutting fluid C1 is discharged to the exterior.
US07874770B2
A indexable insert (1) of the present invention has a structure including at least a rake face (2) and a bearing surface (5), the indexable insert (1) including a substrate and a coating layer disposed on the substrate, wherein the coating layer includes one or more layers, and at least one layer of the one or more layers covers the entire surface of the substrate and satisfies the relationship F1
US07874769B2
Method and apparatus are provided for transferring particles from an upper zone through an intermediate zone to a lower zone. The transfer of particles between the zones through valveless conduits is regulated by varying the pressure of the intermediate zone and the flow rate of gas passing through the valveless conduits. A body within the lower zone is in particle communication with a valveless conduit and obstructs the particle flow within the lower zone.
US07874754B1
A drip containing one-piece container for use with a fast curing solvent welding liquid, wherein the container comprises a body, a top, a first and second wall end, and a bottom. The container further comprises a neck, a dauber cap, at least two extensions, and a wiper disposed between the extensions. The dauber cap further comprises a stem extending from the lid and a dauber applicator connected to the stem, wherein the dauber applicator and the stem are stored within the container. The dauber applicator retrieves a portion of the fast curing solvent welding liquid through an openings and the wiper removes portions of the fast curing solvent welding liquid allowing the fast curing solvent welding liquid to fall back into the body of the container and keep the removed portions of the fast curing solvent welding liquid from dripping externally to the container.
US07874737B2
A tapered roller bearing according to the invention is such that when an arithmetical mean roughness as a surface roughness of a large end face of a tapered roller is σ1 and an arithmetical mean roughness as a surface roughness of a large rib surface of an inner ring is σ2, σ1 is 0.04 μm or larger, and a composite roughness that is expressed by a square root of a sum of a squared value of σ1 and a squared value of σ2 is 0.17 μm or smaller. Raceway surfaces of an outer ring and the inner ring and a rolling contact surface of the tapered roller are crowned, and a total crowning amount is set to 50 μm or larger, an outer ring crowning rate is set to 40% or larger, and a roller crowning rate is set to 20% or smaller.
US07874736B2
A roller bearing assembly is provided which is adapted to enhance lubrication performance for preventing seizure and for reducing frictional torque during rotation. The roller bearing assembly includes an inner ring (1), an outer ring (2) and a roller (3) rollably interposed between these inner and outer rings. The inner ring (1) is formed with a rib (4) making contact with a greater end face (7) of the roller (3) for guiding the rolling motion of the roller (3). A recess (5) is formed centrally of the greater end face (7) of the roller (3). A stopper member (6) for preventing oil invasion is fitted in the recess (5) of the roller (3).
US07874735B2
A vehicle wheel bearing apparatus has an outer member (10), an inner member (1), an inner ring (3), and double row rolling elements (6, 6) are freely rollably retained between double row outer raceway surfaces (10a, 10a) and double row inner raceway surfaces (2a, 3a). An end face at the outboard side of the inner ring (3) is adapted to abut a stepped portion (11) formed on the wheel hub (2). The inner ring (3) is secured on the wheel hub (2) by being sandwiched between a caulked portion (2c) and the stepped portion (11). A ratio (α) of the thickness (e), of an end (3c) at the outboard side of the inner ring (3) to abut the stepped portion (11), relative to the inner diameter (d) of the inner ring (3) is limited at or smaller than a predetermined value.
US07874731B2
A valve for a reclosable container comprises first and second opposing layers of a film material, wherein an overlap region of the second layer overlaps the container, and the first layer is sealed to the second layer around a portion of the second layer. The second layer is sealed to the container around a periphery of the overlap region, and opposing surfaces of the first and second layers form a substantially airtight seal therebetween upon direct contact of the layers. First and second offset apertures extend through the first and second layers, respectively. One of the first and second apertures is in fluid communication with an interior of the container and the other of the first and second apertures is in fluid communication with an exterior of the container. Vacuum pressure disposed over both of the first and second apertures causes the first layer to separate from the second layer to allow air to exhaust from the container.
US07874723B2
Method of determining the melt mass flow rate of an ethylene polymer in the polymerization of ethylene or of ethylene with further comonomers, which is carried out at temperatures of from 140° C. to 350° C. and pressures of from 40 MPa to 350 MPa in a reactor to form the ethylene polymer and the ethylene polymer is subsequently cooled in a heat exchanger, which comprises: a) establishment of a correlation between the thermal conductivity of the ethylene polymer in the heat exchanger and the melt mass flow rate of the ethylene polymer, with the individual measurements each being carried out at an essentially constant melt mass flow rate, b) measurement of the thermal conductivity of an ethylene polymer in the heat exchanger c) calculation of the melt mass flow rate from the thermal conductivity measured in b) and the correlation established in a).
US07874720B2
An interference knife apparatus is provided for use with an environmental material mixer. The mixer includes a tub housing at least one auger with blades mounted on the auger flight. The apparatus includes a post rotatably mounted on the outer sidewall of the mixer tub. The post can include one or more knives extending therefrom. Rotating the post moves the knives in and out of the mixer tub through access slots extending through the mixer's sidewall. The combination of the knives and the auger blades provides a “scissors-like” cutting action for cutting the environmental material during auger rotation.
US07874718B2
A system, device, and method for mixing liquids involves pumping a first liquid into a first pump chamber of a pumping apparatus through a channel of the pumping apparatus and pumping a second liquid from a second pump chamber of the pumping apparatus into either the channel or the first pump chamber, preferably while the first liquid is being pumped into the first pump chamber, so that the two liquids are mixed within the pumping apparatus. The second liquid is preferably pumped in a pulsatile mode in which small quantities of the second liquid are pumped at intervals. The quantity and/or the interval can be dynamically adjusted to result in a predetermined concentration of the two liquids. The contents of the first pump chamber are pumped to a receptacle.
US07874710B2
An LED lamp including a lamp housing, an LED light source, a heat sink and a control circuit. The lamp housing has an accommodating space, a plurality of air inlets and a plurality of air outlets, wherein the accommodating space joins an environment through the air inlets and the air outlets. The LED light source and the heat sink are disposed in the accommodating space and the heat sink is connected with the LED light source. The heat sink includes a pedestal and a plurality of heat dissipation fins connected to the pedestal. An air convection channel is located between any two adjacent heat dissipation fins. Air from the environment flows into the accommodating space, passes through the air convection channel, and leaves the accommodating space via the air outlets sequentially. The control circuit is disposed in the accommodating space and connected to the LED light source.
US07874708B1
A T-bar mounting bracket assembly for a luminaire fixture frame having a bracket, a clip vertically adjustable relative to the bracket, the clip extending through an opening in the bracket, a fastener extending through the bracket and the clip and, the fastener spaced from a location where the clip passes through the opening.
US07874707B2
A lighting fixture comprising a reflector 100 and a double-ended elongate lamp 200, the reflector body comprising a casing (110) with a specular cavity having an apex and an aperture rim, wherein the lamp end portions (220, 220′) of the double-ended lamp are enclosed in slots (131, 131′) located in the casing at opposite sides of the aperture rim and substantially flush with the aperture rim, is extremely flat and slim and therefore useful as a recessed down-light in a shelf, a ceiling, or a wall panel.
US07874705B2
The present invention is directed toward a cover for an illumination device including a composite image including selectively visible design elements. The exterior surface of the cover may include a design element viewable regardless of whether the light source is extinguished or illuminated. The interior surface of the cover may further include a design element that is viewable on the exterior surface only when the light source is illuminated. Thus, when a viewer views the exterior of the lamp generally in elevation, the cover selectively displays different designs to the viewer depending on the illumination state of the device.
US07874695B2
An electrical actuator system, especially for hospital and care beds and patient beds, comprising a number of actuators (6,7; 10,11), a control box (12) with a mains-based power supply, and typically also a rechargeable battery package and a control unit with a microprocessor, a number of controls (15,16), an orientation light (17) for mounting under the bed. The system comprises at least one junction box (13,14) and the orientation lighting is, with its own control unit, located in this. This enables a flexible location of the lighting.
US07874692B2
An LED lamp includes a lamp cover consisting of a plurality of sector-shaped connecting bodies, a plurality of fins attached to the lamp cover and a plurality of LED modules attached to the lamp cover and opposing the fins. A locking device is pivotably mounted to the lamp cover and comprises a supporting pole extending in the lamp cover, a plurality of branches pivotably mounted to the lamp cover and the supporting pole. The branches are movable along the supporting pole to be locked at a desired position, whereby an illumination angle of the LED modules of the lamp cover relative to the supporting pole is changeable via movement of the branches along the supporting pole of the locking device. Thus, an illumination area and an illumination intensity of the LED lamp are adjustable.
US07874691B2
A light emitting device (1), which is adapted to be attached to at least one air cylinder (2, 3) that is to be carried by a diver, such as a scuba diver or a smoke diver, comprises an electroluminescent filament and a protective cover enclosing the filament and made of translucent, heat resistant silicone material. The light emitting device (1) further comprises resilient fastening elements (4a, 4b), which are arranged to secure the light emitting device (1) to the air cylinder/cylinders (2, 3) by a force determined by the resilient properties of the fastening elements.
US07874686B2
A reflective marker and method for manufacturing reflective marker, wherein the reflective marker includes an inner body and a reflective covering, and a reflective substance is applied to the inner body and forms the reflective covering together with pellets contained in the substance or applied after the substance has been applied.
US07874665B2
A printer is provided having a media tray, a printhead, and a delivery passage extending from a base of the printer to the printhead past the media tray via which media is supplied from the media tray to the printhead. The base is configured to be received in a recessed region of an upper surface of a first auxiliary media tray in a nested arrangement. The base has a first opening for delivering first auxiliary media supplied by the first auxiliary tray into the delivery passage. A lower surface of the first auxiliary tray is configured to be received in a recessed region of an upper surface of a second auxiliary media tray in a nested arrangement. The lower surface has a second opening for delivering second auxiliary media supplied by the second auxiliary tray into the delivery passage via an auxiliary delivery passage of the first auxiliary tray.
US07874659B2
A cartridge for use in a mobile device including: (a) an inkjet printhead; (b) a print media feed path for directing print media past the printhead in a feed direction during printing; and (c) a drive mechanism for driving the print media past the inkjet printhead for printing.
US07874658B2
A liquid ejection apparatus comprises a liquid cartridge for storing a liquid, a liquid ejection head for ejecting the liquid toward a target, a liquid supply path for guiding the liquid to the liquid ejection head from the liquid cartridge, and a capping device for drawing the liquid from the liquid ejection head. The liquid supply path comprises a plurality of wall surfaces, and a part of the wall surface is formed of a flexible member that is flexed by the inside-and-outside pressure difference of the liquid supply path. A pressure pump for adjusting the pressure of a fluid within the liquid supply path in the upstream side of the flexible member is provided.
US07874657B2
The liquid ejection head comprises: a nozzle from which liquid is ejected; a pressure chamber which accommodates the liquid to be ejected from the nozzle; a pressurizing device which deforms to pressurize the liquid in the pressure chamber to eject the liquid from the nozzle; and a nozzle flow channel through which the pressurized liquid flows from the pressure chamber to the nozzle, the nozzle flow channel having at least a portion in which forces acting toward an axis of the nozzle flow channel onto the liquid flowing inside the nozzle flow channel are not uniform within a cross-section perpendicular to the axis.
US07874650B2
A piezo-electric type page width inkjet printhead includes an intermediate substrate that includes a pressure chamber to be filled with ink to be ejected, a manifold connected to an ink entrance hole to store ink that flows in through the ink entrance hole, a restrictor to connect the manifold to one end of the pressure chamber, and a damper formed through the intermediate substrate corresponding to the other end of the pressure chamber, a lower substrate including a nozzle formed through a portion of the lower substrate, which corresponds to the damper, to eject the ink, an upper substrate formed on the intermediate substrate to seal an upper side of the pressure chamber, and a piezoelectric actuator formed on the upper substrate to generate a driving power to the pressure chamber to eject the ink through the nozzle, wherein the intermediate substrate includes a both-sided copper clad laminate plate including an upper copper film and a lower copper film that are respectively formed on top and bottom surfaces of the laminate plate.
US07874649B2
A piezoelectric element comprises a piezoelectric film disposed on a substrate and a pair of electrodes disposed in contact with the piezoelectric film and utilizing a bending mode. The piezoelectric film includes domains constituted of a tetragonal crystal and including an a-domain which is formed by a crystal having a (100) plane parallel to the film surface of the piezoelectric film, the a-domains include an A-domain having a normal axis of (001) plane substantially parallel to a principal bending direction of the piezoelectric film and a B-domain having a normal axis of (001) plane substantially perpendicular to the principal bending direction of the piezoelectric film, and the A-domains have a volume proportion larger than 50 vol % with respect to the sum of the volume of the A-domains and the volume of the B-domains.
US07874648B2
A method of manufacturing a piezoelectric body, formed from a film made of an ABO3 perovskite oxide crystal epitaxially grown on a substrate, includes forming a film containing an AOx crystal by using an oxide containing an A element and a B element by heating the substrate to a temperature which is equal to or higher than a temperature at which the AOx crystal is formed, and which is lower than a temperature at which the ABO3 perovskite oxide crystal is formed and changing the film containing the AOx crystal into a film made of the ABO3 perovskite oxide crystal by heating the substrate to a temperature which exceeds a temperature at which the AOx crystal can be present, and which is equal to or higher than a temperature at which the ABO3 perovskite oxide crystal is formed.
US07874644B2
A printhead for an inkjet printer. The printhead comprising a wafer assembly defining a plurality of ink supply channels; and plural groups of ink ejection nozzle arrangements extending from the wafer assembly, each group of ink ejection nozzle arrangements sharing a common ink supply channel. Each group of ink ejection nozzle arrangements includes a plurality of ink ejection nozzle arrangements arranged in a pair of rows. Each group of ink ejection nozzles includes one ink spread restriction wall shared by the group, the ink spread restriction wall being interposed between each ink ejection nozzle of the group and so as to at least partially surround each ink ejection nozzle of the group. The shared ink spread restriction wall is spaced apart from each ink ejection nozzle arrangement to define a plurality of ink spread restriction pits between the common ink spread restriction wall and respective ink ejection nozzle arrangements.
US07874636B2
To clean a print head of an ink jet printer, an ink gun is connected to an ink chamber, a solvent chamber, a vacuum source, and an ink collection gutter, which is capable of being connected in a controlled manner to a vacuum source. During cleaning, an interruption of a hydraulic connection between the gun and the ink chamber is ordered. Next, the gun is connected to the vacuum source. Finally, the solvent chamber is hydraulically connected to the vacuum source via a conduit which includes the ink gun.
US07874634B2
An image forming apparatus which forms a halftone image on a print medium (200) using multipass processing of reciprocally scanning a single area by an inkjet head (220) a plurality of number of times, forming dots in one of reciprocal scan operations, and moving the inkjet head (220) to a home position in the other reciprocal scan operation includes a print data generation unit (370) which generates print data of each print-scan operation, a printer engine (180) which prints a halftone image on the basis of the print data generated by the print data generation unit (370), and a sensor (230) which detects the state of printing in up to a print-scan operation immediately preceding a print-scan operation of interest. The print data generation unit (370) corrects print data in synchronism with printing by the printer engine (180) on the basis of the detected printing state.
US07874627B2
An assembly for connecting plates is provided. A first plate has a first opening and a second opening; a metal wire is movably connected to one surface of the first plate, and the metal wire includes a bending portion corresponding to the position of the first opening; a spring connects the first plate and the metal wire; a pressing element is fixed on the metal wire and passes through the second opening of the first plate to protrude from the other surface of the first plate. The second plate has a hook. When the first plate and the second plate are assembled, the hook of the second plate passes through the first opening of the first plate, and the bending portion of the first plate prevents the hook from separating from the first opening by tension force of the spring thus to connect the first plate and the second plate.
US07874624B2
A cushion body 11 is formed by stacking a first sheet-like fibrous structure 4a and a second sheet-like fibrous structure 4b where webs 2 are stacked such that their extending direction conforms with a thickness direction T of the cushion body and between the first sheet-like fibrous structure 4a and the second sheet-like fibrous structure 4b, a load receiving member 4e whose flexing degree to load in the thickness direction T is small is disposed.
US07874618B2
The invention relates to a vehicle seat with a backrest (1) and a seat part (2a), wherein the seat part (2a) can be displaced in the forward and backward direction (4) with respect to a base frame (3, 11) and the backrest (1) has a lumbar spine region (14) which can be deformed in the forward and backward direction (13), wherein a rocker-like element (8) is provided which is arranged in the lumbar spine region (14) such that it can pivot about a horizontally running pivot axle (9), said rocker-like element extending at least partially along the longitudinal direction of the backrest, wherein the pivot axle (9) can be displaced together with the seat part (2a) in the forward and backward direction (4) and a pivotable section (8b) of the rocker-like element (8) is attached to the base frame (3, 11) in a backrest region of the base frame (3, 11).
US07874610B2
A drag reduction device for a motor vehicle is provided that includes a substantially flat plate member preferably rotatably connected to a tailgate assembly. The tailgate assembly has at least one, but preferably two panels defining a cavity. The plate member can be selectively positioned at a first position and a second, third, or fourth position. When in the first position, the plate member is inside the cavity. In the second position, the plate member is substantially vertical, and partially extending outside the cavity. In the third position, the plate member is extending forward, preferably in a horizontal orientation outside the cavity. When in the fourth position, the plate member is extending rearward, preferably in a horizontal orientation outside the cavity. The plate member is of sufficient length when in the second, third, and fourth positions to thereby reduce the coefficient of drag and lift on the vehicle.
US07874599B2
The present invention provides a support structure for a latch actuating lever and a lock actuating lever, which realizes a small and compact door lock apparatus for vehicles. The door lock apparatus includes a latch mechanism for maintaining a vehicle door in a closed state relative to a vehicle body, a latch actuating link coupled to the latch mechanism and actuating the latch mechanism to place the vehicle door in an openable state relative to the vehicle body, a lock actuating link for connecting or disconnecting the latch actuating link to or from the latch mechanism and thus making the latch mechanism operable or inoperable when the latch actuating link is actuated, and a base unit for supporting the latch actuating link and the lock actuating link. The base unit includes an annular support and a support shaft held in the annular support. At least one latch actuating lever, constituting the latch actuating link, is rotatablely supported on either one of the annular support and the support shaft, and at least one lock actuating lever, constituting the lock actuating link, is rotatablely supported on the other one of the annular support and the support shaft.
US07874597B2
A movable member moved forward to a predetermined position can automatically move further forward. The mechanism includes first and second connecting members provided in the movable member and an immovable member. The second connecting member includes a catcher for catching the first connecting member and an urging device for urging the catcher. The catcher is arranged to be able to move or relatively move along a moving direction of the movable member, and held in a waiting position while receiving an urging force by the urging device toward a forward movement direction or backward movement direction of the movable member. When the movable member is moved to the predetermined position, the first connecting member is retained by the catcher of the second connecting member, and upon releasing of retention, the movable member is automatically moved forward to the stopped position by the urging force.
US07874586B2
An airbag folding arrangement for an airbag that includes a housing, an inflation device, and an airbag deployable between a un-deployed and deployed state. The airbag includes a top panel, a bottom panel, a pair of side panels connecting the top panel and the bottom panels, and a crown panel that includes a central portion surrounded by a plurality of outer portions that connect the top panel, the bottom panel, and the pair of side panels. The top panel, bottom panel, and the side panels are radially folded in a direction toward the central portion of the crown panel and the outer portions of the crown panel are rolled in a direction toward the housing and toward the central portion when the airbag is in the un-deployed state such that the central portion is in direct communication with the inflation device.
US07874574B2
An arrangement for retaining a cover to an airbag housing, including a reaction housing. The retaining arrangement includes a removable retainer ring, a plurality of cover tabs extending outwardly from a surface of the cover, and a plurality of housing tabs extending outwardly from a surface of the reaction housing. The plurality of cover tabs and housing tabs are positioned such that each cover tab will align with and abut a corresponding housing tab when the cover is engaged with the air bag housing. The retainer ring includes openings positioned to receive the plurality of cover tabs and housing tabs. The plurality of cover tabs and housing tabs are biased into the openings in the retainer ring to removably secure the reaction housing to the cover.
US07874558B2
A sheet processing apparatus includes an intermediate stacking portion which temporarily stacks, thereon, a sheet conveyed thereto; a discharge portion which discharges sheet stacked on the intermediate stacking portion; an aligning member which is provided downstream of the discharge portion in a sheet conveying direction and has a sheet holding surface capable of holding the lower surfaces of the sheet and a sheet aligning surface capable of abutting against end portions of the sheet in the widthwise direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction, the aligning member being movable in the widthwise direction; a first stacking portion which is provided below the aligning member and stacks, thereon, a sheet discharged from the discharge portion; and a second stacking portion which is provided above the aligning member and stacks, thereon, a sheet conveyed thereto; wherein a standby position of the aligning member is at a position more inward than the outermost position in the widthwise direction, within the range through which the aligning member is movable.
US07874549B2
A cutting board (10) has a base (12) with a planar cutting surface (14). A fixed fence (16) having first and second ends (18, 20) is provided, the fixed fence (16) being mounted to the planar surface (14) of the base (12). A moveable fence (22), has first and second ends (24, 26), with the first of the moveable fence ends (22) being pivotally attached to the first end (18) of the fixed fence (16).
US07874529B2
A recreational accessory and corresponding mounting assembly is disclosed which is adapted and configured for use in combination with a substrate, such as a pier, dock, deck, porch, staircase, etc. The mounting assembly is secured to the substrate and the recreational accessory is removably attached to the mounting assembly. In the complete assemblage, the mounting assembly is optionally cantilevered outwardly beyond the perimeter of the substrate. Accordingly, the recreational accessory does not occupy any surface area of the substrate.
US07874526B2
A pedal system particularly tailored to a Fly-By-Wire (FBW) flight control system includes a double gradient linkage assembly. The double gradient linkage assembly includes a damper system and a spring system that improves yaw axis (azimuth) control of the aircraft. Control is only required when a change in the yaw axis state is demanded. Since only minimal displacement inputs to such a FBW flight control system is required, the travel of the pedals are exceeding compact, such that pilot workload is significantly reduced through the reduction in the frequency and magnitude of aircraft control inputs.
US07874516B2
A structural frame for a fuselage including a lower arched structure (1), a cross-piece (2), supporting a floor element (3) and a connecting lattice (4) between the lower arch (1) and the cross-piece (2), the connecting lattice (4) more particularly may comprise bars (4a, 4b) the ends of which are spliced to the cross-piece (2) and the lower arch (1).
US07874496B2
Embodiments related to the identification of objects via optically readable tags. One embodiment includes an optically readable tag having a data region comprising a two-dimensional array of optically contrasting data features, one or more orientation features located on the tag outside of the data region, and a tracking feature located outside of the data region and having a larger size than the orientation features and the data features.
US07874495B2
Various embodiments of substantially visibly transparent optically readable tags are disclosed. In one disclosed embodiment, a tag formed on a substrate comprises a first bit value structure that comprises a higher reflectance than transmittance at one or more infrared wavelengths and a higher transmittance than reflectance at one or more visible wavelengths, and a second bit value structure that comprises a higher absorbance than transmittance at one or more infrared wavelengths and a higher transmittance than absorbance at one or more visible wavelengths.
US07874494B2
An object comprising first coded data disposed on or in a surface thereof and an identifier is provided. The first coded data identifies a plurality of locations on the surface and the identifier identifies a unique identity of the object. The first coded data and the identifier are distinguishable from each other and are independently readable.
US07874493B2
A method of making RFID devices includes feeding in an interposer web or sheet at a variable (non-constant) speed, cutting single interposers from the interposer web or sheet, and using a rotary transport device to transport the singulated (cut) interposers to an antenna web. The interposers are transferred from the rotary transport device and are attached to the antenna web, being operatively coupled to antennas on the antenna web. The interposers each include an RFID transponder chip and conductive leads. A feeder is used to advance the interposer web or sheet into a cutting zone between the rotary cutter and the rotary transport device. The rotary cutting device may be capable of singulating multiple interposers at one time, and the system may be capable of thus being able to remove interposers that are not to be joined to the antenna web.
US07874491B2
A carrier arrangement having a carrier configured to fix a semiconductor chip, contacts located on the carrier and configured to make contact with the semiconductor chip, and an overvoltage protection in a form of a spark gap arrangement formed between the contacts.
US07874489B2
The present invention provides methods, reagents, and apparatus for authenticating products. Methods of the invention are easy to implement but difficult to replicate, simulate, alter, transpose, or tamper with. In particular, the present invention relates to a product authentication code defined by a signature array of a population of entities, and its use thereof.
US07874486B2
A filter-free projector includes a light source unit to generate a light beam with different color and a color control module coupled to the light source unit for switching the light source unit to emit one color light at a time. A digital mirror device panel having a plurality of mirror elements is provided so as to reflect light fed from the light source unit. Projection lens is positioned in the reflected light path from the digital mirror device panel to project image.
US07874483B2
A portable encoded information reading (EIR) terminal for incorporation in a data collection system can comprise a terminal module communicatively coupled to a wireless interface module via a wired interface. The terminal module can include a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, and an encoded information reading (EIR) device. The wireless interface module can include a microcontroller, a memory, and at least one wireless communication interface. The wireless interface module can establish one or more wireless links with one or more peer EIR terminals, to join a wireless network which is collectively formed by the peer EIR terminals. The wireless interface module can receive or transmit beacons containing at least an identifier of a path selection protocol which is used for unicast, multicast and broadcast frame transmission within the wireless network. The wireless interface module, responsive to receiving a MAC frame from the terminal module, can forward the MAC frame, according to the path selection protocol, to a peer EIR terminal or to a portal which is capable of routing MAC frames between the wireless network and one or more OSI layer 2 networks.
US07874482B2
A parking system using parking meters which accept payment by credit card or smart cards. The user can start the parking payment period by swiping a credit card in the reader. A fixed pre-payment is charged to the card. The payment period is terminated when the same card is swiped a second time. The pre-paid charge is cancelled and the card is charged only for the actual elapsed time.
US07874481B2
A method of maintaining a status of a product item is provided. The product item includes an associated interface surface which has coded data including a plurality of coded data portions indicative of the product item's identity. The method includes, in a sensing device, sensing at least one coded data portion, generating indicating data indicative of the product item identity therefrom, and transferring the indicating data to a computer system. The computer system is responsive to the indicating data to update product status information stored in a data store. The interface surface includes at least one region having visible markings representing a respective product item status. The method including, in the sensing device, sensing coded data in the region and generating therefrom indicating data indicative of the respective product item status. The computer system is responsive to the indicating data to update the status information using the product item status.
US07874478B2
A coin sorting and counting machine and a method for operating it to automatically dispense cash vouchers based on the value of the counted coins, manufacturers' coupons and store coupons. Coins are placed in a hopper tray angled downward from the horizontal. When the hinged tray is lifted, the coins travel over a peak structure, through a waste management system and into the coin sorting and counting apparatus. The value of the coins and the number of coins within each denomination are displayed as the coins are counted. The coins fall into a storage area and the user is issued a cash voucher and a series of manufacturer coupons.
US07874470B2
The described embodiments relate generally to methods and apparatus for use in determining solderability of an electrical component. One particular aspect relates to apparatus comprising a vacuum chamber, a load sensor, a platform and a control module. The load sensor has a contact portion disposed within the vacuum chamber and the platform is disposed in relation to the contact portion and has a component mounting surface and a mounting member for mounting an electrical component to the component mounting surface. The control module causes relative movement between the platform and the load sensor so that a contact surface of the electrical component is brought into close proximity with the contact portion. When the contact portion has solder thereon and the solder is brought into contact with the contact surface, the load sensor measures force arising from wetting of the solder to the contact surface. The force generated under contact changes over time, depending on the degree of solderability of the electrical component. Thus, measurement of the wetting forces over time provides an indication of the solderability of the electrical component.
US07874468B2
A sizer for a garment hanger configured to extend over a garment hanger comprising a body. The body has an outer surface and an inner surface, and defines a cavity with an upper opening and a lower opening. The body further having a central region with a first wall and a second wall spaced apart therefrom, and, a first curved wall spanning between the first wall and the second wall and a second curved wall spanning between the first wall and the second wall. The first and second curved walls are outwardly convex and define a peak region on each of the first and second curved walls. Applying a pinching force upon the first and second curved walls toward each other drives the first wall and second wall further apart, to, in turn, temporarily widen at least one of the lower and the upper openings of the body.
US07874458B2
Disclosed is a multichamber dispensing system for dispensing a mixture containing several substances. Said dispensing system comprises a receiving unit (10) with several chambers (12, 14) which are aligned parallel to each other and each of which is provided with a first end for inserting a plunger (21, 23) as well as a second end encompassing an outlet (11, 13), and with a neck region (15) that is located downstream from the outlet(11, 13) of the chambers (12, 14). The dispensing system further comprises a dispensing unit (30) that is provided with a discharge duct (33) and an adapter section for establishing a fluid-tight connection to the neck region (15) for the receiving unit (10). The inventive multichamber dispensing system also comprises a position ring (40) for axially positioning the dispensing unit (30). Said positioning ring (40) is rotatably mounted on the receiving unit and embraces the receiving unit (20).
US07874457B2
A portable ice bucket apparatus for storing and dispensing ice includes: (a) an upper bucket portion including an insulated bucket with an opening at the top of the bucket and an ice body chute opening in a bottom wall of the bucket; (b) a motorless lower stand portion, the upper bucket portion being detachably attachable to the stand portion; (c) a dispensing mechanism including a movable gate flap within the bucket portion, a spring-loaded lever, and a gate shaft and a dispensing lever within the stand portion, the dispensing lever being coupled to the gate shaft, the gate shaft being coupled to the spring-loaded lever, the gate shaft being coupled with the gate flap; and (d) a water drainage and collection mechanism including a reservoir in the stand portion, and preferably a drain valve; wherein the movable gate flap in a closed position substantially covers the ice body chute opening.
US07874444B2
A thermostatic controller apparatus includes a housing having a front face thereof defining a decorative surface of the housing and adapted for optional attachment of a decorative faceplate covering the decorative surface of the housing. A plurality of decorative faceplates are provided, each having a distinctive visual appearance and adapted for optional attachment to the housing in such a manner that at least one selected faceplate of the plurality of decorative faceplates substantially covers the decorative surface of the housing when the selected decorative faceplate is attached to the housing. The selected decorative faceplate may have a visual appearance that differs from the visual appearance of the decorative surface of the housing, and may also include an aperture that is aligned with an aperture in the housing when the selected decorative faceplate is attached to the housing.
US07874431B2
A filter element for cleaning a fluid having a pleated filter medium designed for radial flow, to the outside of which a circumferential reinforcing thread is applied. The outside of the filter medium is divided into two axial sections, to which the reinforcing thread is applied in a plurality of circumferential thread windings, such that the axial distance between directly adjacent thread windings differs in the two sections.
US07874427B2
A locking system for two linear fluorescent lamps comprises an endcap (10) formed to receive two linear fluorescent lamps (12, 14) (FIG. 3). The endcap (10) has two chambers (16, 18) formed by the outside surfaces of endcap (10) and a central partition (19). Each of the chambers has a forward portion (20) and a rearward portion (22). The endcap (10) has a width W equal to the diameter of the fluorescent lamps, a length L equal to twice the diameter of the fluorescent lamps and a depth, for example, 4 to 6 inches, that is substantially less than the length of the lamps, which can be one to eight feet long. A stop (24) is formed in each of the chambers at the forward portion (20) to retain the lamps within the endcap. Each of the stops (24), in the form of a reverse corner, extends inwardly toward the center of the endcap and has a first leg (26) with a first dimension equal to the width W and a second leg (28) with a second dimension that is greater than one half of said width W but less than the width W. The first leg (26) is provided with a score line (72) that divides the first leg into two segments.
US07874426B2
A rigid crush resistant plastic tube having quickly removable end caps. A hypodermic needle contained in a sterile needle wrapper is placed inside the crush resistant tube so that a portion of the wrapper is folded over the outside distal end of the tube. The end cap is then secured over the folded wrapper portion on the distal end of the tube in a friction fit arrangement to secure the needle wrapper between the cap and tube. In this arrangement, when the end cap is removed, it pulls the needle wrapper out of the protective plastic tube to allow for rapid access and deployment. In use, the plastic tubes are secured with elastic bands inside a carrying case, such as a first aid backpack. As the soft cases are often subject to substantial exterior impacts, the tubing significantly reduces the risk of needle breakage.
US07874406B2
A cooling system for cooling a friction device includes a flow control device which controls a flow of fluid through the friction device. A controller estimates a temperature state of the friction device and calculates a flow command based on the temperature state. The controller operates the flow control device based on the flow command. The temperature state is one of a temperature of the friction device and a thermal energy of the friction device.
US07874402B2
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an acoustic laminate including: a first layer of viscoelastic acoustic barrier material; a sound absorbing/decoupling batt affixed to the first layer of viscoelastic acoustic barrier material, the batt at rest defining a batt plane; the batt including a plurality of batt fibers; the batt further including retaining fibers, wherein the batt fibers and/or retaining fibers are disposed perpendicular to the batt plane and having end portions thereof disposed at a batt surface, the end portions affixed to the viscoelastic barrier material so that either the first layer of viscoelastic acoustic barrier material or the sound absorbing/decoupling batt itself may be retained in spaced relation from a mounting surface when the laminate is so mounted, the retention being achieved in any orientation by bearing a mass load of the batt or first layer of viscoelastic material along the axis of the affixed batt fibers and/or retaining fibers.
US07874398B2
An independently suspended, driven axle shaft set in which the axle shafts are driven by a differential which is rigidly connected to the body of the motor vehicle by a rearward torque arm, whereby powerhop is mitigated thereby. Where the axle shafts are torsionally asymmetric with respect to each other, the differential is a limited slip differential and the relative torsional stiffness therebetween is different by a ratio substantially between about 1.4 to 1 and about 2.0 to 1, wherein powerhop is mitigated synergistically by both the rearward torque arm and the asymmetric axle shafts.
US07874387B2
A track extension in combination with a track system comprises a track system having a track frame, wheels mounted to the frame and adapted to allow cyclic movement of a track about the frame, drive means in the frame adapted to transmit a drive of a vehicle to the track to drive the track in a cyclic movement. An extension frame is releasably secured to an end of the track frame. An idler wheelset is mounted to an end of the extension frame. A track is mounted about the track frame and the extension frame such that a footprint of the track is delimited at an end by the engagement of the track with the idler wheelset. A method is provided to increase a footprint of a track system.
US07874374B2
A tine for a turf aerator comprises a hollow, generally cylindrical tine having a lower section that first contacts the ground as the tine is driven into the ground with the lower section having an open bottom mouth. The tine includes an aeration core exit. A core comprising a splitting or dividing wall is fixedly carried within the hollow tine to split or divide the aeration core into at least two sub-cores or pieces thereof, which are subsequently ejected from the tine through the exit. These two sub-cores dry more quickly than the single larger aeration core that would have been formed and ejected had the core splitter been absent.
US07874369B2
The present invention relates to a split seal for a progressive cavity pump (PCP) drive head stuffing box. In one embodiment, a mechanical seal assembly for a pump is provided. The mechanical seal assembly includes a seal housing; first and second semi-annular mechanical seals, each at least partially disposed in the seal housing bore, and a seal sleeve rotatable relative to the seal housing; third and fourth semi-annular mechanical seals, each disposed at least partially in the seal sleeve bore, at least one of the third and fourth seals rotationally coupled to the seal sleeve; and one or more biasing members biasing the mechanical seals into engagement.
US07874366B2
Providing a cleaning tool having a coiled tubing and an electrical pump assembly for cleaning a well
To perform a cleanout operation in a wellbore, a cleaning tool having a coiled tubing and an electrical pump assembly is run into the wellbore. The electrical pump assembly that is located in the wellbore is activated. In response to fluid flow generated by the electrical pump assembly, removal of debris from the wellbore is caused by directing fluid containing the debris into the coiled tubing for delivery to an earth surface.
US07874357B2
A technique for estimating the permeability profile of a well includes generating a well and formation model. The technique includes producing the well so that hydrocarbons flow from the formation and through the well. The technique includes measuring pressure at a plurality of points along at least a portion of the well without an intervention in the well and estimating a permeability profile along the portion of the well by use of the plurality of pressure measurements.
US07874346B2
A method for manufacturing non lead added anode zinc material for manganese dry batteries comprising compounding a zinc alloy by melting zinc, 0.1 mass % or more and 0.7 mass % or less of bismuth and other impurity elements inevitably contained in zinc in a melting furnace; casting the compounded molten zinc alloy to a molded material in the form of a band or in the form of a bar; rolling the molded material in band form to form a zinc alloy sheet; and punching the rolled zinc alloy sheet in a designated thickness into a designated shape.
US07874344B2
A method for producing a functionally gradient component, such a component having an outer layer of a first material, and an inner core of a second material, there being a gradual change in microstructure across the interface between the two materials, the method having particular application in producing a component formed from two or more aluminium alloys based on the aluminium-silicon (Al—Si) system, the method involving introducing a first molten metal into a mould, and allowing a layer of the first metal to partially solidify against a wall of the mould, decanting the remaining molten portion of the first metal, and introducing a second molten metal into the mould and allowing same to solidify.
US07874338B2
Presented herein is a simple, innovative profile wrapping solution that increases the efficiency of single profile wrapping machines and drastically reduces set up time, by enabling the machine operator to set up a plurality of distinct profile tracks, wherein the set up procedure is facilitated by allowing the cylinder to rotate 90 degree to reposition the profile tracks perpendicularly in front of the operator, allowing easy access to the adjustment pins.
US07874335B2
A pneumatic tire has a tread, a carcass with belt plies disposed below the tread, and a cap ply layer between the tread and the belt plies of the carcass. The cap ply is a leno weave tape having warp yarn in the longitudinal direction and weft yarns in the weft direction. The leno weave tape is wound in a flat helically wound around the belt plies, and cover with a tread of the tire.
US07874332B2
A pneumatic tire includes a column of center blocks (18) partitioned, on a tread center region, by circumferential thin grooves (14) formed along a tire circumferential direction and crosswise thin grooves (15) formed along a tire width direction, and columns of shoulder blocks (19) partitioned by the circumferential thin grooves (14) and main lug grooves (16) on shoulder portions. Each of the center blocks (18) includes one or more sub-thin grooves (17), each of which has a length of 100 to 180% of a circumferential length of the center block (18).
US07874322B2
The object of the present invention is to provide an industrial two-layer fabric which exhibits good hydration property and good air permeability by forming a longitudinal groove on its upper surface side through a weave design without decreasing the number of warps, while at the same time exhibits good fiber supportability, good surface smoothness and high rigidity.The present invention provides an industrial two-layer fabric constituted by at least one upper surface side warp to be woven with at least one upper surface side weft, at least one lower surface side warp to be woven with at least one lower surface side weft, and at least one warp binding yarn to be woven with the at least one upper surface side weft and the at least one lower surface side weft comprising at least one pair of upper and lower warps in which said upper and lower surface side warps are located to be upper and lower, respectively, and at least one pair of warp binding yarns in which at least one yarn constitutes the warp binding yarn, characterized in that all knuckles emerging on the upper surface side formed by the yarns of said pair of warp binding yarns are aligned with knuckles on the upper surface side formed by the upper surface side warp adjacent to said pair of warp binding warps to form a hydrating groove.
US07874310B1
A water cooled valve is provided in the form of a check valve, an air purge valve, a distributor valve, a combination air purge and distributor valve and the like for use in the liquid fuel system of a gas turbine. A movable valve member controls the flow of fluid through the valve's fuel circuit. A separate cooling circuit circulates cooling water through the valve near or alongside the valve member. The water is of a lower temperature than the high temperature liquid fuel, and thereby carries away heat transferred to the valve by the fuel. In one form, the cooling circuit is formed in part by a helical groove in the periphery the valve body housing the valve member. A sealed water jacket surrounds the valve body and has dedicated supply and return ports for coupling the valve to a water supply via water lines. The water ports are positioned tangentially to induce swirling flow inside the valve.
US07874300B2
An applicator 12 and a process for the production of an applicator 12. The applicator serves for distributing a cosmetic preparation on the skin, semi-mucous membrane or mucous membrane and comprises a holding portion 18 and an applicator portion 30 which is injected on to the holding portion 18 in the direction of the longitudinal extent of the applicator 12, wherein both the holding portion 18 and also the applicator portion 30 at least partially comprise plastic material and the plastic material of the holding portion 18 is harder than the plastic material of the applicator portion 30 and wherein the holding portion 18 does not form a core which extends into the applicator portion 30 in the direction of the longitudinal extent.
US07874296B1
Cigarette gas filter is used to filter the gaseous components of main stream smoke. This causes reduction of the delivery of the gaseous constituents of main stream smoke (MSS). The gas filter consists of a narrow annular gap, where the outer side is circumvented by a high permeability wrapper paper. As the cigarette smoke is passed through this annulus gap, the fraction of gases present in the smoke is reduced by diffusion mechanism and due to inflow of air into the annulus by convection mechanism. Since the diffusion coefficient of aerosol particles are several orders of magnitude smaller than the gas molecules, the aerosol particles are kept mainly intact while passing through the annulus. Therefore this filter is applied for reducing the gas/tar ratio. This filter can also be used to filter the gases of non-cigarette smokes.
US07874274B2
An apparatus (10) for the variable setting of control times of gas-exchange valves (9a, b) of an internal combustion engine (1) is provided and includes a drive element (22), a driven element (23), at least one pressure chamber (35, 36), a pressurized medium system (37), and a pressure storage device (43). The pressure chamber (35, 36) and the pressure storage device (43) communicate with the pressurized medium system (37), and a phase position between the driven element (23) and the drive element (22) can be changed by supplying pressurized medium to or discharging pressurized medium from the pressure chamber (35, 36) by the pressurized medium system (37).
US07874273B2
A camshaft adjuster (1), in which an adjustment of the camshaft adjuster is limited by a limiting element (11) is provided. The limiting element (11) is connected by an eccentric to the associated component (3), in particular, to an inner rotor. By use of an eccentric adjustment of the limiting element, the position of the limiting element in the peripheral direction can be adapted according to the production conditions within the tolerance range. In this way, the mounting of the camshaft adjuster is simplified and the achievable accuracy of the limiting position is improved.
US07874272B2
A method of variable valve timing in an internal combustion engine in which the valve opening and closing timing of the actuated gas exchange valves of the internal combustion engine can be varied as a function of engine speed by adjusting means for adjusting at least one camshaft relative to a crankshaft, said internal combustion engine comprising hydraulic valve lash adjusters for adjusting a valve lash of the gas exchange valves, said lash adjusters being configured at least on one of an inlet side and an outlet side as idle stroke elements which, when actuated, at first produce an engine speed-dependent idle stroke and to provide a method of variable valve timing for internal combustion engines comprising a camshaft adjustment and a hydraulic valve adjustment with an idle stroke function that guarantees favorable valve timing in all operational situations of the internal combustion engine and, at the same time, improves the thermodynamic exploitation of such internal combustion engines, at each adjustment of the at least one camshaft, the respective idle stroke of the valve lash adjusters is taken into account.
US07874270B2
An animal restraining shield comprising a planar sheet having a vertical edge and a horizontal edge and an aperture in the planar sheet sized to permit a head of an animal to pass through the aperture, wherein the animal restraining shield is adapted to limit motion of one or more limbs of the animal and wherein the vertical edge extends a downward distance from the aperture comprising at least a full length of a forelimb of the animal as measured from the head of the animal to a foot of the animal.
US07874268B2
Provided are animal containment systems and components, including single-use animal containment cages and modular rack units. Also provided are methods for assembling and using components of the animal containment systems.
US07874263B2
An arrangement for milking a plurality of milking animals comprises an automated milking system (11) provided with a milking robot (13) for automatically milking a milking animal; a milking system (15) provided for batchwise milking of multiple milking animals; an identification arrangement (19, 21) provided for identifying each of the plurality of milking animals prior to being milked; decision means (23) connected to the identification arrangement for deciding, for each of the plurality of milking animals, whether that milking animal should be milked by the automated milking system or by the milking system for batchwise milking; and means connected (25) to the decision means for guiding each of the plurality of milking animals to the automated milking system or to the milking system for batchwise milking depending on the decision made for that milking animal.
US07874255B2
An improved sleeve bearing for locomotive traction motor that provides additional lubrication over and above that of the one central wick currently used. The sleeve bearing is provided with a recirculation system comprised of either at least two additional wicks located near the 6:00 operating location or multiple oil communication and delivery grooves passageways communicating with the oil flinger grooves placed for the purpose of collecting and providing a mechanism for providing additional lubrication for extending the oil-wetted envelope available for supporting the truck-axle journal in the axial direction.
US07874253B2
A projectile structured to be discharged from a firearm includes a body having a nose portion and a tail portion separable from one another when the projectile strikes a target. The body further includes an interface disposed intermediate opposite ends of the body of the projectile structured to removably interconnect the nose and tail portions. Separation of the nose and tail portions such as when striking a soft tissue is caused by the tumbling of the projectile and the cooperative structuring of the interface to facilitate separation of the nose and tail portions. The interface is disposed, dimensioned and structured to define the primary area of contact of the projectile body with the rifling or interior surface of the barrel of the firearm. Another embodiment includes one of the nose or tail portions structured to contain a supplemental payload that is carried to the target upon discharge of the firearm.
US07874250B2
An apparatus includes a component for use in a wellbore, and a nano-based device for activating the component.
US07874248B2
Date can be printed on a business card in a business card case by realizing a business card case with a printing function. The business card case with a printing function includes an upper case (1) provided with a pressing rubber (12) and a pressing block (13) of a printing hammer, a lower case (2) connected to the upper case (1) so as to be freely opened and closed, a card containing section (3) formed in the case, a typing device in which a plurality of date printing type units coupled so as to move up and down among a plurality of type blocks each having a type formed on the upper surface are fixed to a type case (4), and a printing ribbon (5) for printing the date. The date is printed by pressing the print hammer and pressing the business card (34) against the type with the printing ribbon (5) interposed therebetween.
US07874240B2
The present invention is a direct impingement gas operated firearm, having a longitudinally translatable bolt and a rearward locking mechanism coupled to the bolt. The rearward locking mechanism includes a locking lug, laterally shiftable by gas means from a locked position to an unlocked position, and a reinforcement, fixed with respect to the bolt. In the locked position the lug interferes with the reinforcement such that the bolt is restrained from moving longitudinally, and in the unlocked position the bolt is free to longitudinally translate within the firearm.
US07874238B2
The present invention relates to a silencer for reducing muzzle blast and noise of firearms or similar devices. The present silencer has a hollow cylindrical or other shape casing comprising front and rear end caps and an opening aligned along a longitudinal axis defining a passage for a projectile and propellant gases to emerge from the muzzle opening. A plurality of serially placed baffles of symmetrical or slanted orientation and intervening coaxial spacers are positioned within the casing and define a multitude of chambers among the baffles, spacers, and outer housing. The baffles shear propellant gases away from the projectile path and through openings or ports into additional chambers formed between the spacers and outer housing. The arrangement of baffles and spacers provides flow-impeding paths, dispersion, and controlled expansion of gases and lowers gas temperature to reduce audible noise and observable signature of the muzzle blast.
US07874236B2
A metal cutting band saw is provided that includes a main carrier, on which an intermediate carrier is pivotally mounted. The saw frame, which can be adjusted in the direction of the workpiece, is mounted on the intermediate carrier by a swivel support or a parallel guide. The swivel support for connecting the main carrier to the intermediate carrier is located above the workpiece to be processed.
US07874234B2
A lathe for turning a workpiece by means of a headstock and a tailstock includes a lathe bed having an elongate main support structure and bedrails extending along a side of the structure, these rails adjustably supporting the tailstock. Leg supports are provided at opposite ends of the support structure and two pivot connectors each join a respective one of the bed ends to a support leg. The bed can be pivoted about a horizontal axis extending through these pivot connectors between an upright position which can be used when the lathe user is standing and a sideways position which can be used when the user is sitting. In the upright position, the bedrails are on top of the main support structure.
US07874231B2
A hammer that that reduces vibration and provides advantageous balance and mass distribution having a handle portion comprising an I-shape sectional profile and a head comprising a cavity formed therethrough. The hammer may further comprise various nail or other fastener removal structures, such as a claw, slots, notches, or the like. The hammer may further include a nail-starter with magnetic nail retention.
US07874226B2
A method for heating a transmission is provided. The transmission has at least one solenoid valve that hydraulically actuates a valve. The method includes the steps of measuring a transmission temperature, determining whether the transmission temperature is greater than or equal to a desired operating temperature, determining a currently selected gear ratio of the transmission, and overdriving at least one solenoid valve if the transmission has not achieved the desired operating temperature and if overdriving the solenoid valve will not disrupt the operation of the transmission for the currently selected gear ratio.
US07874225B2
A control apparatus for a shift-position changing mechanism includes a detection unit that is provided on a path along which the operation member with a magnetic member moves, and that detects a change in the magnetic field due to a positional change of the operation member; and a determination unit that determines the shift position corresponding to the operated position of the operation member based on the detected change in the magnetic field and predetermined multiple modes of changes in the magnetic field, which correspond to the respective shift positions. The predetermined modes are set such that, when the detected change in the magnetic field is influenced by a change in the magnetic field due to a factor different from the positional change of the operation member, a likelihood that the determination unit determines that the running shift position, at which a vehicle is able to run, is selected is reduced.
US07874224B2
A transmission for a tractor has an input shaft receiving power from an engine, an idle shaft disposed parallel with the input shaft, an output shaft disposed parallel with the idle shaft and transmitting power to a main transmission part, forward/reverse driving gears installed on the input shaft so as to rotate idle, a forward/reverse clutch installed between the forward driving gear and the reverse driving gear to selectively connect the forward driving gear or the reverse driving gear to the input shaft, a forward driven gear installed on the idle shaft and engaged with the forward driving gear, a reverse driven gear installed on the idle shaft and engaged with the reverse driving gear, high speed/low speed driving gears installed between the forward driven gear and the reverse driven gear so as to rotate idle, a high speed/low speed clutch installed between the high speed driving gear and the low speed driving gear to selectively connect the high speed driving gear or the low speed driving gear to the idle shaft, and high speed/low speed driven gears installed on the output shaft and engaged with the high speed driving gear and the low speed driving gear, respectively.
US07874223B2
Constant force mechanisms and adjustable constant force mechanisms are described having two movable sliders constrained along two perpendicular axes and each abutting a resilient member. The mechanisms are adapted to produce an output force that is constant for a given input force. However, when an equilibrium position of one of the two resilient members is adjusted for a given mechanism, a different output force will result. Micro-compliant mechanisms are also described in which the resilient members may be made from one or more different elastomers.
US07874206B2
A fluid sampler operable for taking at least one fluid sample in a subterranean well and associated methods. A fluid sampling method includes the steps of disposing a fluid sampler at a first target location in the well, receiving the fluid sample into at least a first sample chamber of the fluid sampler, pressurizing the fluid sample in the first sample chamber using a pressure source of the fluid sampler, retrieving the fluid sampler to a surface location, isolating the fluid sample in the first sample chamber from the pressure source of the fluid sampler and supercharging the fluid sample in the first sample chamber using a pressure source on the surface.
US07874197B2
An apparatus for measuring a rate of liquid flow through a spray nozzle includes a container with an opening in a top thereof adapted to receive a liquid discharge from a spray nozzle. A level sensor comprises an electrical capacitor oriented substantially vertically in the container and configured such that as liquid rises in the container, a capacitance of the capacitor changes. A processor circuit is connected to the capacitor and is operative to measure the change in capacitance of the capacitor and convert the change in capacitance into a rate of liquid flow into the container, and a display is operative to display the rate of liquid flow. The apparatus is applicable to an agriculture or industrial application whereby an operator can periodically check the flow to determine wear or plugging of a spray nozzle.
US07874194B2
The invention involves a die holder for a press, such as a metal-fabricating press. The die holder can be configured to receive a die, and can include a clamp portion and a wall portion. Preferably, the clamp and wall portions can be positioned in an open configuration or a closed configuration, and the die holder can be adjusted from an unclamped configuration to a clamped configuration. The die holder may have a die-release mechanism useful for overcoming stiction and facilitating removal of the die from the die holder.
US07874187B2
A laundry machine configured to supply a first amount of water to the wash tub wherein a wash plate can be oscillated such that clothes items directly above and in contact with the impeller are frictionally dragged in a oscillatory manner with the wash chamber while continuing to oscillate said wash plate, an additional supply of water is added to said wash tub such that as cloth items lost frictional engagement with the wash plate, the cloth items continue to move along an inverse toroidal rollover path at higher water levels.
US07874174B2
A humidity control system during humidification operation sequentially repeats a first mode in which a second adsorption heat exchanger (82) serves as an evaporator and the remaining adsorption heat exchangers serve as evaporators, a second mode in which a third adsorption heat exchanger (83) serves as an evaporator and the remaining adsorption heat exchangers serve as evaporators and a third mode in which a first adsorption heat exchanger (81) serves as an evaporator and the remaining adsorption heat exchangers serve as evaporators. For example, during the first mode, the first adsorption heat exchanger (81) serving as an evaporator adsorbs moisture in a first air. Furthermore, in the second adsorption heat exchanger (82) serving as a condenser, the adsorbent is regenerated to humidify a second air. Furthermore, in the third adsorption heat exchanger (83) serving as an evaporator, the second air given moisture and heat in the second adsorption heat exchanger (82) is cooled. The humidity control system supplies the second air humidified by the second adsorption heat exchanger (82) and cooled by the third adsorption heat exchanger (83) to a room.
US07874158B2
A compressor diffuser for a gas turbine engine is provided with a dirt separator. The dirt separator ensures the air having moved downstream of the compressor section, and moving toward the combustion section, is separated into a dirtier air flow path directly radially outwardly, and a cleaner airflow path directed radially inwardly. In this manner, the air reaching a combustion section, and the air being utilized for radially inner cooling air is relatively cleaner air. Further, the dirt separator provides a convenient surface for mounting a pressure sensor. In one embodiment, the dirt separator is mounted within the diffuser housing, and in a second embodiment, it is mounted immediately downstream.
US07874149B2
There is provided an exhaust apparatus for a vehicle. The exhaust apparatus includes a plurality of exhaust path forming members constituting an exhaust path from an exhaust port of an engine to an inlet of an exhaust muffler and connected to each other. End portions of the exhaust path forming members, made of different materials, are included in the plurality of exhaust path forming members and are connected to each other by a flange joint.
US07874146B2
An exhaust gas purifying device that is provided in an exhaust passage of an internal combustion engine and purifies exhaust gas, and a reducing agent injection valve that injects fuel to a position upstream of the exhaust gas purifying device in the exhaust passage are provided. A timing for injecting fuel from the reducing agent injection valve is adjusted to match a timing when exhaust gas discharged on an exhaust stroke of each of cylinders of the internal combustion engine reaches the position to which fuel is injected from the reducing agent injection valve. A single injection amount is changed in accordance with a condition of combustion exhaust gas that is discharged on one exhaust stroke of each of the cylinders and reaches the point to inject fuel.
US07874145B2
Control is performed such that when an HC adsorption catalytic converter having an oxygen storage capacity is in a specified temperature range, fuel supply quantity is increased with a first increase ratio relative to basic fuel quantity based on the operating state of an internal combustion engine, in a first specified period after the end of fuel cut, and increased with a second increase ratio smaller than the first increase ratio, in a second specified period succeeding the first specified period.
US07874141B2
The exhaust within an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system should be purged to allow for access to the components of the EGR system. A system and method for purging the EGR system is provided. The system and method may incorporate a purge gas supply that may include: at least one pressurized cylinder, a storage tank, a compressor, or a benign fluid source. The system and method may drive the exhaust out of the EGR system.
US07874135B2
The harvester adapter has a frame structure, for attachment to a combine harvester. At least two crop gathering units are secured to the frame structure. Adjacent crop gathering units are arranged such that a channel with an open leading end is formed between them, with a stalk gathering unit being disposed in driving connection with a harvesting mechanism on at least one side of the channels. The adapter has a collecting auger disposed rearward from the harvesting mechanism and at least one stalk shredder unit attached to the frame structure. The speed of the stalk gathering unit is continuously adjustable by control orders given by the combine harvester and/or by a speed meter disposed on the adapter and/or by the operator, and the stalk shredder units are attached to the frame structure such that their position is adjustable in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel.
US07874111B2
A floor system for use in a conservatory or other annexes includes a panelled floor and a frame construction. The frame construction at least partly surrounds the panelled floor. The floor system is anchored in the ground by at least one ground anchor. The use of ground anchors makes a prior excavation substantially completely unnecessary. The floor system is a dry construction system, in which no construction material containing water are used during construction of the floor system.
US07874107B1
A hard side shelter is convertible between transport and deployed modes. When in the transport mode, the shelter has an envelope that is the same as an ISO cargo container. Side sections unfold from a center section to convert the shelter into the deployed mode. A side section floor is connected to the center section for rotating between being coplanar with the center section floor when in the deployed mode and vertical and lying in a center section side plane when in the transport mode. Each side section has end and middle panels that are turnable relative to each other, and a door assembly that is turnable relative to the middle panels. Locking bars engage the center section floor when the shelter is in the transport mode, and engage the side section floors when the shelter is in the deployed mode. The shelter is handleable by pallet handling systems.
US07874102B2
A decorative surround for potted plants is described. The surround may be a shell having a generally convex outer surface and an aperture in the shell suitable for either receiving or supporting a plant pot. The surround may be supported with respect to the ground or other reference surface by the periphery of the shell or by the bottom of a structure within the aperture, and the surround held against the ground by the weight of the potted plant. Alternatively, the surround may be affixed to the ground with pins or stakes. Another decorative surround is sized so that the aperture is smaller than a maximum diameter of the plant pot, and a strap is provided to hold the plant pot against an inner surface of the shell. The visible surface of the surround may be formed, textured or colored so as to have a visual appearance simulating natural rock.
US07874099B2
An aggregation base for use within a subterranean cavity for detecting subterranean termites includes an elongate member having longitudinally opposite ends, a circumference, and an outer surface. A void extends longitudinally within the elongate member for forming an aggregation site for the termite. The elongate member is open at least at one end in communication with the void. At least one channel extends circumferentially about at least a portion of the circumference of the elongate member at the outer surface thereof and also extends transversely through the elongate member from the outer surface inward to the void.
US07874098B2
Rodent bait station assemblies and methods for assembly and bundling.
US07874091B2
An apparatus for sealing the barrel of an underwater gun between firings is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a magnetically-attractable water-impermeable disk. Via operation of a drive system, the disk is movable between a sealing position, wherein it prevents water from entering the barrel by moving into alignment with the first bore, and a firing position, wherein the first water-impermeable disk moves out of alignment with the first bore.
US07874073B2
To provide a nose hair cutter, comprising a blade configures to cut nose hair, a motor which drives a movable blade of the blade, and a fan which is driven by the motor to suck pieces of the nose hair cut by the blade into a body.
US07874063B2
A thin film magnetic head integrated structure is provided. A plurality of thin film magnetic head bars include a plurality of thin film magnetic head precursors, a plurality of RLG sensors for read head core, and a plurality of RLG sensors for write head core, the read head core including a magnetoresistive element that performs a read process and the write head core including a magnetic pole layer that performs a write process.
US07874058B2
An automotive body transfer method and a transfer system is operable to transfer a vehicle body between a transfer mechanism and a stationary assembly station in an automobile production process. In the method and system hereof, one longitudinal half of each of front and rear pairs of left and right jack-up brackets, formed in lower parts of left and right side sills of the body, is supported by the transfer mechanism, and the other longitudinal half of each of the jack-up brackets is supported by the stationary assembly station, thereby enabling the shape and structure of the transfer mechanism and the stationary assembly station to be simplified.
US07874055B2
An apparatus, method and system for assembling lighting fixtures where reflective inserts are installed into a reflector frame to create a reflective surface for the fixture. According to one aspect of the method, some type of worker-perceivable indication prompts a worker as to which reflective insert should be installed at which mounting location on the reflector frame. The worker does not have to guess or translate written instructions. The method can be used sequentially to provide such assistance for each of a plurality of reflective inserts for a plurality of mounting locations. The method is particularly helpful if the reflective inserts are not identical for each mounting location. According to one aspect of an apparatus according to the invention, a reflector frame is removably mounted to a machine that holds the reflector frame in an indexed position. A controller generates a signal that produces the worker-perceivable indication that correlates for the worker the assigned reflective insert for each mounting position. This can be done with LEDs or other types of lights.
US07874054B2
A method for producing a tubular component, in which, after machining successively respective threaded elements at both ends of the tubular component, a second orientation gauge is screwed onto the second threaded element to check whether a mark on the gauge comes into alignment with an orientation mark that has been drawn on the component, after the first element has been machined and a first orientation gauge has been screwed onto the first element in axial alignment with a mark provided on this gauge. If not, the machining of the second element is repeated with parameters varied accordingly. Such a method may find particular application to the drilling and operation of hydrocarbon wells.
US07874041B2
A suction hose for vacuum cleaner includes a tubular inner part, a jacket part and a locking device. The inner part is variable in length and includes a hose wall having a coil spring integrated therein, the coil spring being configured to automatically return the inner part from an extended position to a shortened position. The jacket part is configured to completely receive the inner part when the inner part is in the shortened position, the jacket part including a tubular shape. The locking device is configured to fix the inner part, in the shortened position, in the jacket part. The locking device includes a tubular member configured to surround the inner part, the tubular member including a first part of a first snap-fit device configured to cooperate with the jacket part so as to connect the tubular member and the jacket part.
US07874022B2
A protective athletic garment includes a pair of shoulder protection plates, a pair of epaulets coupled to the shoulder protection plate, and at least one rear arch plate adapted to cover an upper lumbar region of a back of a user and wrap about each side of a user and at least one front arch plate adapted to cover at least a portion of a chest of a user and having a body portion defining a forwardly-facing first surface and a pair of relief areas extending outwardly from the first surface defining a cavity that is adapted to receive a pectoral area of a user, a lower portion that is adapted to cover an upper abdominal area of a user, and a pair of second side portions adapted to wrap about each side of a user.
US07874017B2
A flexible knee pad of the kind to be worn over the knee of a workman who must kneel down for long periods of time while working on a work surface. According to a preferred embodiment, the flexible knee pad includes an upper knee support cushion against which the workman's knee is laid, a lower pivot support base to rest upon the work surface, and an intermediate pivoting reinforcement plate having a flat bed upon which the knee support cushion is seated. The intermediate pivoting reinforcement plate includes a pair of pivots that are coupled to respective pivot slots formed in the lower pivot support base. Accordingly, the pivoting reinforcement plate, the knee support cushion seated thereon, and the workman's knee are all suspended by and rotatable relative to the pivot support base above the work surface so as to advantageously reduce pressure applied to the workman's knee cap by the work surface should he rock his body and shift his weight back and forth over the work surface.
US07877803B2
Systems, methodologies, media, and other embodiments associated with making an automated immune response on a computer that may be infected with a malicious software like a virus are described. One exemplary system embodiment includes a behavior logic that faciltates identifying that a computer is exibiting a behavior that indicates that the computer may be infected by a malicious software. The exemplary system embodiment may also include an immune response logic that is configured to facilitate identifying a process and/or program related to the behavior. The immune response logic may be configured to automatically make an immune response with respect to the process and/or program.
US07877799B2
A method of performing a service for a requestor on a computing platform includes the requestor providing to the computing platform a specification of the service to be performed, which establishes specified levels of trust for at least some of the processes in the service. The computing platform executes the service according to the specification and logs performance of at least some of the processes for which a level of trust was specified. The computing platform then provides the requestor with a log of the performance of the processes performed according to the specified levels of trust. A computing platform for carrying out services includes a physically and logically protected computing environment for providing trustworthy data to appropriate users of the computing platform. The platform further includes one or more compartments arranged to operate in a sufficiently constrained manner such that processes executed in a compartment are performed reliably.
US07877797B2
A non-modal notification user interface element is displayed persistently but unobtrusively such that a user may easily determine that authentication credentials are required by a background synchronization process. The non-modal notification is configured such that it may be ignored by the user such that their workflow is not interrupted. The background synchronization continues to synchronize the data it can even though the background synchronization may require authentication credentials for a subset of the data to be synchronized. The user may select the non-modal notification user interface element at any point in time in order to supply the required authentication credentials. The non-modal notification is removed from the display when there are no further authentication credentials required.
US07877792B2
Authenticating a first user in a protected network to an application in a DMZ network shared simultaneously with a second user in an unprotected network. The first user supplies a userID and a password to a first server within the protected network for authentication for the application. The first server checks authentication of the first user based on the userID and password. If the first user is authentic, the first server forwards to the application an authentication key for the first user and a selection by the first user pertaining to the application. The application checks authentication of the key, and if authentic, complies with the selection by the first user. The second user supplies another userID and another password to the application. If the other userID and other password are authentic, the application complies with a selection made by the second user pertaining to the application.
US07877790B2
The present disclosure is directed to a system and method to manage data flow in a network. The method can include storing a plurality of profiles of a user, wherein each profile includes user data. The method can also include receiving a request for a portion of user data. The method also includes selecting a type of credential, at least partially based on: an origin of the request, the user data requested, a transaction value, a plurality of data disbursement rules, or any combination thereof.
US07877789B2
Effective aspects of stamping outbound e-mail are combined with a registration system for e-mail senders. A mail sender participates by registering From: line information with a trusted third-party repository known as a stamp authority. When the sender sends an e-mail message, the From: line is compared against the From: line information for the sender stored in the repository. If the result is a match, the e-mail is allowed to be sent. If there is not a match, then the e-mail is prevented from being stamped.
US07877788B1
A method and apparatus for controlling connectivity comprising a connectivity control element coupled between an interface connector and an interface circuit, and an interface controller, coupled to the connectivity control element, for authenticating a peripheral device and controlling connectivity between the interface connector and the interface circuit based upon authentication of the peripheral device.
US07877775B2
When a command for starting up a specific versatile application of a versatile application section is made during an execution of a native application included in a basic processing section, a judgment of the following condition for combining is satisfied: whether or not the specific versatile application is in a paused state, and the specific versatile application has made a request for starting up the native application, is made (step S51). When a judgment that the condition for combining is satisfied is made, an execution of the specific versatile application is restarted (step S56). As a result, it is possible to have a prompt coordination between the basic processing section and the versatile application, while respecting a feeling of presence which is established in the mind of a user.
US07877771B2
According to an aspect, there is provided a digital television (DTV) data stream including program and system information protocol (PSIP) data associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP data including a virtual channel table (VCT) and an event information table (EIT), the EIT comprising: a source identification field identifying a source of an associated event in a DTV data stream; an event identification field indicating an identification of the event; a start time field indicating a star time of the event; a title field indicating a title of the event; and a descriptor comprising: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor; a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event, wherein the at least one category code specifies at least one of a set of basic categories.
US07877770B2
There is provided according to an embodiment, a digital television (DTV) data stream containing a program and system information protocol (PSIP) table associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP table comprising a descriptor which comprises: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor; a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event.
US07877749B2
A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for traversing a process tree in a digital video editing system. A process tree is loaded into a digital video-editing system. The process tree has parent nodes that are dependent on output data from child nodes. Each parent node and each child node represents a digital video processing task to be performed during a traversal of the process tree. Each parent node declares a data definition and data default values. The data definition defines a structure of the data used by that parent node. For each parent node processed, a determination is made regarding whether the data definition for the output data received from a dependent child node is compatible with the data definition declared for that parent node. If the data definition is incompatible, the parent node utilizes the data default values.
US07877742B2
A method, system, and computer program product for generating terminating, pseudo-random test instruction streams, including forward and backward branching instructions. A first instruction stream is generated, including at least one backward branching instruction and at least one forward branching instruction. Each backward branching instruction is preceded by at least one forward branching instruction, which is used to guarantee termination of the loop formed by the backward branching instruction. Backward branching targets are resolved when the backward branching instruction is inserted into the first instruction stream. Forward branching targets remain unresolved in the first instruction stream. A set of potential branch targets is determined for each forward branching instruction. For each forward branching instruction, a branch target is randomly selected from the set of potential branch targets for that forward branching instruction. The final terminating instruction stream consists of the first stream, with all forward branch targets resolved.
US07877739B2
A computer-implemented method for determining whether an array within a loop can be privatized for that loop is presented. The method calculates the array sections that require first or last privatization and copies only those sections, reducing the privatization overhead of the known solutions.
US07877736B2
A method, software application and computer system provides computer language interpretations and optimization for web server testing by first recording user actions associated with an instance of a user interaction with a web server. The actions are analyzed to determine a collection of actions which alter communications with the server or have side effects which alter a future communication with the server. A test program is generated from the collection of actions. The test program is used to perform one or more of functional, load, and monitoring testing of a web server.
US07877730B2
A method for effecting a preliminary software service in at least one productive system of a plurality of logical systems of a software system landscape, wherein the logical systems are interconnected by logical transport paths and each logical system has associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles, the method comprises: providing system role types, each system role being associated to one of the system role types; providing an association of tasks to system role types; providing a transport track that defines a route for software services through logical systems in a particular order and specifies one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system; providing a preliminary software service relating to at least one of the code and the data of at least one productive system; and generating a hot fix instance from the preliminary software service, the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the hot fix instance defining tasks for routing the preliminary software service to at least one productive system and for executing the preliminary software service therein.
US07877729B2
A receiving unit receives a device icon of an input/output device and device layout data including positional information of the device icon from a device-layout managing apparatus. A viewing unit displays a device layout diagram including a device list area and a map area, based on the received device icon and device layout data. An editing unit edits the device layout diagram based on a shift operation received by an input unit from a use, and generates the device layout data including the positional information of the device icon after a shift. A transmitting unit transmits the generated device layout data to the device-layout managing apparatus.
US07877721B2
Compiler flows are provided that can produce functionally equivalent field programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”) and structured application-specific integrated circuits (“structured ASICs”). The flows may include feeding back design transformations that are performed during either flow so that a later performance of the other flow will necessarily include the same transformations, thereby helping to ensure functional equivalence. The flows may include a comparison of intermediate results in order to prove that functional equivalence is being achieved.
US07877713B2
A method is provided to evaluate substrate noise propagation in an integrated circuit design, the method comprising: providing a tile definition that specifies an electrical model associated with instances of the tile; mapping a plurality of respective tile instances to respective locations of the substrate; obtaining respective waveforms indicative of digital switching induced power grid fluctuations associated with the respective identified contacts; and associating a voltage with a selected tile instance of the tile grid that is indicative of substrate noise injection due to waveforms associated with contacts encompassed by the selected tile instance.
US07877704B2
A method and terminal for displaying information on a display, where the information is provided with elements. An element is either having a continuous length presenting a length which is equal to or greater than the size of said display, or a wrapped length presenting a length which is less than the size of said display. The display is further provided with a user interface having a menu structure of items. The user interface is provided with a selectable continuous length item and a wrapped length item. The information is displayed according to the selection made in the menu structure of the user interface, in order to allow the user to toggle between continuous length and wrapped length.
US07877703B1
Methods for the intelligent rendering of information in a limited display environment are provided. Display environments, especially in mobile devices, are limited with regard to physical space and technical capability. The present invention provides for the scaling of information in the display in light of those limitations. Additional methods for intelligently determining information to be or not to be displayed in the environment are further provided. Determinations of information to be displayed may be a result of a user-determination or automatic determinations made by a user device. Zooming and ‘quick look’ features are also provided.
US07877700B2
Techniques for enhancing accessibility to web content are described herein. In some embodiments, a method includes presenting an activation element in association with a web page and detecting activation of the activation element, wherein the detection occurs following an activation event. The method can also include identifying draggable elements and drop zones in the web page and associating identifiers with the draggable elements and the drop zones, wherein the identifiers indicate one or more input events that will move a certain one of the draggable elements to a certain one of the drop zones. The method can also include modifying the web page to display the identifiers in association with the draggable elements and the drop zones, detecting the input events, and moving the certain one of the draggable elements to the certain one of the drop zones.
US07877696B2
Methods and systems for managing presentation of digital images using multiple separate digital media frames each positioned in a separate location and providing images that are viewable within a presentation space, the method comprising the steps of providing access to a source of a plurality of digital images; determining a semantic type defining at least one semantic element of the digital images to be presented; determining the number of the multiple separate digital media frames that are available to be used for presenting the digital images; determining the semantic content of the accessed digital images; selecting digital images for presentation having determined semantic content that corresponds to the determined semantic type; determining a manner for presenting the selected digital images using the determined number of number of digital media frames; and, presenting the selected digital images in the determined manner.
US07877692B2
The subject application is directed to display means adapted to interface with multiple personal electronic devices, such as personal data assistants, cellular telephones, laptops, and the like. An accessible display system includes shared display means and access control means in data communication with the shared display means. The access control means is in data communication with multiple associated mobile computing devices and selectively allows access to the shared display means from the associated mobile computing devices. The shared display means includes at least one of: a display of a fixed computing device, a display of a mobile computing device, and a mobile display, and is adapted for providing feedback to the associated mobile or fixed computing devices. The access control means may be built directly into a desktop computer or into a mobile monitor, or may be a stand alone device.
US07877688B2
A data processing apparatus generating deletion-data management information indicating a deleted portion of moving image data recorded on a recording medium, in response to an instruction to delete the portion of the moving-image data. The deletion-data management information includes a deleted item corresponding to the deleted portion of the moving image data.
US07877682B2
Computer-implemented system and methods for deploying a distributed client-server system, enabling developers to rapidly create and deploy read-write distributed data interfaces for host database systems. The disclosed system is especially advantageous for mobile clients as connection to the server environment can be intermittent without unduly impeding local (disconnected) operations. One important aspect of the invention is an incremental process for executing an application servo in a client device. This process includes building and incrementally maintaining a logical context tree in which each node expresses a complete current state of the execution process.
US07877663B2
Elements of a coding table which are error-free are found at S2. At S3, corresponding elements in an erasure information table are completed, indicating that the elements in the coding array are correct. A counter is initialized at Nmax, which is the maximum number of errors that can be corrected, at S4. At S5, the row of the erasure information table is scanned beginning from the first parity column for empty elements. Each empty parity date element of the erasure information table row is marked as incorrect at S7 For each such element, the counter is decremented at S8. At S9, the elements of the erasure information table are scanned from the first column of the application data and zero padding section for empty elements. At step S11, an empty element is marked as incorrect. At step S12, the counter is then decremented. It is determined at step S13 whether or not the counter is equal to zero. When the counter becomes is equal to zero, operation proceeds to step S14 where the decoder operates to fill remaining empty elements in the erasure information row as correct. Thus, whilst the count of incorrect elements for the row has not exceeded a maximum and whilst empty elements remain, empty elements of the erasure table row are marked as incorrect beginning with parity data elements and then continuing from the application data end.
US07877659B2
Techniques are provided for modeling memory operations when generating test cases to verify multi-processor designs. Each memory operation has associated therewith a set of transfer attributes that can be referenced by a test generator. Using the transfer attributes, it is possible to generate a variety of interesting scenarios that handle read-write collisions and generally avoid reloading or resources. The model provides accurate result prediction, and allows write access restrictions to be removed from sensitive memory areas, such as control areas.
US07877654B2
An addressable interface selectively enables JTAG TAP domain operations or Trace domain operations within an IC. After being enabled, the TAP receives TMS and TDI input from a single data pin. After being enabled, the Trace domain acquires data from a functioning circuit within the IC in response to a first clock and outputs the acquired data from the IC in response to a second clock. An addressable two pin interface loads and updates instructions and data to a TAP domain within the IC. The instruction or data update operations in multiple ICs occur simultaneously. A process transmits data from an addressed target device to a controller using data frames, each data frame comprising a header bit and data bits. The logic level of the header bit is used to start, continue, and stop the data transmission to the controller. A data and clock signal interface between a controller and multiple target devices provides for each target device to be individually addressed and commanded to perform a JTAG or Trace operation. Trace circuitry within an IC can operate autonomously to store and output functional data occurring in the IC. The store and output operations of the trace circuitry are transparent to the functional operation of the IC. An auto-addressing RAM memory stores input data at an input address generated in response to an input clock, and outputs stored data from an output address generated in response to an output clock.
US07877650B2
A scan test architecture facilitates low power testing of semiconductor circuits by selectively dividing the serial scan paths into shorter sections. Multiplexers between the sections control connecting the sections into longer or shorted paths. Select and enable signals control the operation of the scan path sections. The output of each scan path passes through a multiplexer to compare circuits on the semiconductor substrate. The compare circuits also receive expected data and mask data. The compare circuits provide a fail flag output from the semiconductor substrate.
US07877639B2
The present disclosure further relates to information handling systems with failover support for booting an embedded hypervisor, the information handling system. For example, an information handling system with failover support may comprise a processor; one or more applications configured to be executed, at least in part, by the processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor and comprising a basic input/output system (BIOS), the BIOS comprising a BIOS universal serial bus (USB) driver, the BIOS USB driver comprising a mass storage device driver; a primary internal embedded hypervisor non-volatile memory (NVM) card communicatively coupled to the memory, the first NVM card comprising a first bootable hypervisor image; and a back up internal embedded hypervisor NVM card communicatively coupled to the memory, the second NVM card comprising a second bootable hypervisor image.
US07877637B2
A monitoring side core has an input protection part including an access checking part and an address information storage part. Address information of a count RAM area and an access prohibiting mode to the address are stored in the address information storage part in advance by CPU. The access checking part determines whether an address to be accessed through a first communication path by a monitored side core and an access mode are coincident with the stored address and the stored access prohibiting mode. When the coincidence is determined, the access of the monitored side core to the count RAM area of the monitoring side core is prohibited.
US07877636B2
Methods and systems are provided for detecting temporal relationships that are uniquely associated with a selected root cause. The method comprises identifying error codes associated with a root cause, wherein each error code comprises a plurality of event indicators and temporal data describing when the event indicator was generated, analyzing each of the error codes to detect a combination of event indicators that is associated with error codes corresponding to the selected root cause and to a non-selected root cause, and detecting a temporal relationship involving the combination of event indicators, wherein the temporal relationship is uniquely associated with error codes corresponding to the selected root cause.
US07877626B2
In a data storage system, failed disk drives are switched temporarily off-line to be quickly rebuilt by executing a journaling/rebuild algorithm which tracks the updates to the failed disk drive into a journal structure created in a non-volatile memory. The journal information is used to update those data sections of the disk drive affected by updates after the disk drive is failed. The journal information is stored in bit maps indicating which portions of the disk drive have been updated with new data while the disk was failed. As an option, the system permits verification of data consistency on the data section of the disk drive which have not been affected by the updates. The journaling/rebuild of failed disks is applicable, among others, to RAID data storage systems.
US07877622B2
Methods, apparatus, and products for selecting a redundant power supply mode for powering a computer system are disclosed that include detecting, by a voltage monitoring module, an input voltage level of a power supply; determining, by the voltage monitoring module, whether the input voltage level of the power supply is greater than a predetermined threshold value; if the input voltage level of the power supply is greater than the predetermined threshold value, configuring, by the voltage monitoring module, the power supply for an N+N redundant power supply mode having N primary power supplies and N redundant power supplies; and if the input voltage level of the power supply is not greater than the predetermined threshold value, configuring, by the voltage monitoring module, the power supply for an N+M redundant power supply mode having N primary power supplies and M redundant power supplies, where N is greater than M.
US07877618B2
Systems and methods for providing smart power management to one or more external interfaces of an information handling system that is capable of acting as a host for charging and/or otherwise powering one or more external devices via external interface/s that have both data exchange and power transfer capability, such as USB or Firewire interfaces. A host-based power source may be provided that is capable of managing power when a host information handling system is in inactive, and a user-based methodology may be implemented to selectively provide power to one or more external interfaces of a host information handling system based on user need or desire for access to external interface power, even when the host information handling system is inactive.
US07877615B2
Provided are a semiconductor device and a data transmitting method thereof. The method includes transmitting data into a memory through at least one data line, scrambling the data corresponding to at least one mask data, and determining, using the at least one mask data, data integrity of the data transmitted through the at least one data line. The method may also include storing the data transmitted through the at least one data line in the memory according to a data integrity determination result.
US07877608B2
Inter-process communications between a first process and a second process are secured. A first process recognizes that inter-process communications must be initiated with a second process. A first computer that supports the first process submits a request to initiate inter-process communications with a second computer that supports the second process. The second computer replies to a request to initiate inter-process communications by replying to the first computer with a request for information of a digital certificate that authenticates the first process.
US07877603B2
Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for configuring a storage drive to communicate with encryption and key managers. A storage drive receives a request to access a coupled removable storage media for drive operations. The storage drive obtains encryption status for the coupled removable storage media from an encryption manager. The storage drive determines from the obtained encryption status whether to encrypt the coupled removable storage media to access. The storage drive obtains at least one key from a key manager in response to determining to encrypt with respect to the coupled removable storage media. The storage drive performs data operations using the at least one key to encrypt data.
US07877602B2
A mechanism for enabling efficient encryption and integrity validation of network files. When a request to read a file stored in a local network file system is received, the local network file system examines cryptographic attributes associated with the file to determine if the file is encrypted or integrity-verified. If the cryptographic attributes indicate the file is encrypted, the local network file system omits the encryption of the file by the local network file system prior to passing the file to the remote network file system. If the cryptographic attributes indicate the file is integrity-verified, the local network file system omits the integrity-verification of the file by the local network file system prior to passing the file to the remote network file system. The local network file system then transmits the file to the remote network file system.
US07877600B2
An apparatus and method for providing at least one root certificate are disclosed. Specifically, a plurality of root certificates is received and stored. Afterwards, a request is received from a first endpoint device for a desired root certificate, where the desired root certificate is used by the first endpoint device to verify an identity of a second endpoint device. Furthermore, the first endpoint device and the second endpoint device are associated with different certificate hierarchies. The desired root certificate is then sent to at least the first endpoint device.
US07877598B2
A method for transmitting encrypted user data objects to a first telecommunications terminal includes the following steps: first, in a switching component of a telecommunications network, an encrypted user data object that is to be transmitted to the first telecommunications terminal is provided with a reference for acquiring the description of characteristics of the encrypted user data object; the switching component then determines a profile relating to the capacity of the first telecommunications terminal for processing a user data object; in addition, the switching component transmits a request, together with the profile that has been determined for the first telecommunications terminal, to a data provision component (in particular of the provider of the user data objects), in accordance with an address that is contained in the reference, in order to verify whether the user data object that is to be transmitted can be processed by the first telecommunications terminal; the data provision component then communicates information relating to the verification by the switching component and optionally the latter provides an encrypted user data object according to the information relating to the verification and informs the first telecommunications terminal of said provision.
US07877589B2
A method which includes initializing a device following a power cycle. The initialization includes an agent for the device implementing one or more command sequences to configure the device for operation on a computing platform. The one or more implemented command sequences are recorded and a configuration flag is asserted to indicate the device has been configured for operation on the computing platform. The configuration flag is included in a command configuration register. At least a portion of the recorded one or more command sequences and the command configuration register are stored in a persistent memory that includes non-volatile memory resident on the device. Based on an other power cycle, the device is to access the command configuration register. Based on the command configuration register, the device is to determine whether it is to configure itself by implementing the one or more stored command sequences. The device then configures itself based on that determination. Other implementations and examples are described in this disclosure.
US07877582B2
A single register file may be addressed using both scalar and SIMD instructions. That is, subsets of registers within a multi-addressable register file according to the illustrative embodiments, are addressable with different instruction forms, e.g., scalar instructions, SIMD instructions, etc., while the entire set of registers may be addressed with yet another form of instructions, referred to herein as Vector-Scalar Extension (VSX) instructions. The operation set that may be performed on the entire set of registers using the VSX instruction form is substantially similar to that of the operation sets of the subsets of registers. Such an arrangement allows legacy instructions to access subsets of registers within the multi-addressable register file while new instructions, i.e. the VSX instructions, may access the entire range of registers within the multi-addressable register file.
US07877577B2
In implementing an encryption algorithm or the like in a computer, it is difficult to align timing at which an instruction is executed regardless of presence or absence of branch in a case of including a conditional branch instruction. In order to solve the problem, provided is an information processor (1), including: an instruction fetch unit (instruction fetch circuit 200) that fetches an instruction code to be executed to output the fetched instruction code; and an instruction decode unit (instruction decode circuit 300) that decodes the instruction code that is output from the instruction fetch unit, in which the instruction decode unit outputs, upon detection of the instruction code being a conditional branch instruction, a control signal to the instruction fetch unit so that fetch timing of the successive instruction code becomes identical with each other regardless of the presence or absence of the branch due to the branch condition.
US07877575B2
The invention relates to a microprocessor having a plurality of components which are selected from registers (14,16), arithmetic logic units (30,32), memory (36,38), input/output circuits and other similar components where the plurality of components are interconnected in a manner which allows connection between some of the components to be varied under program control.
US07877551B2
A multiprocessor computing system and a method of logically partitioning a multiprocessor computing system are disclosed. The multiprocessor computing system comprises a multitude of processing units, and a multitude of snoop units. Each of the processing units includes a local cache, and the snoop units are provided for supporting cache coherency in the multiprocessor system. Each of the snoop units is connected to a respective one of the processing units and to all of the other snoop units. The multiprocessor computing system further includes a partitioning system for using the snoop units to partition the multitude of processing units into a plurality of independent, memory-consistent, adjustable-size processing groups. Preferably, when the processor units are partitioned into these processing groups, the partitioning system also configures the snoop units to maintain cache coherency within each of said groups.
US07877550B2
Bus controller initiated write-through mechanism with hardware automatically generated clean command
A write-through cache scheme is created. A store data command is sent to a cache line of a cache array from a processing unit. It is then determined whether the address of the store data is valid, wherein the original data from the store's address has been previously loaded into the cache. A write-through command is sent to a system bus as a function of whether the address of the store data is valid. The bus controller is employed to sense the write-through command. If the write-through command is sensed, a clean command is generated by the bus controller. If the write-through command is sensed, the store data is written into the cache array, and the data is marked as modified. If the write-through command is sensed, the clean command is sent onto the system bus by the bus controller, thereby causing modified data to be written to memory.
US07877549B1
In general, this disclosure describes techniques of ensuring cache coherency in a multi-processor computing system. More specifically, a relaxed coherency mechanism is described that provides the appearance of strong coherency and consistency to correctly written software executing on the multi-processor system. The techniques, as described herein, combine software synchronization instructions with certain hardware-implemented instructions to ensure cache coherency.
US07877541B2
Accessing a non-volatile memory array is described, including receiving a first data and a memory address associated with the first data, writing the first data to the non-volatile memory array at the memory address of the first data without erasing a second data stored in the non-volatile memory array at the memory address of the first data before writing the first data.
US07877540B2
Files that are mapped to a logical address range by a host become logically fragmented prior to being sent to a memory system. Subsequently, the logically fragmented portions are reassembled when they are stored in blocks in the memory system. The host supplies information to the memory system regarding file-to-logical mapping of data prior to sending the data. The memory selects storage locations for the data based on the files to which the data belong.
US07877538B2
Systems, apparatus and methods are disclosed for testing performance of a disk drive in a digital home communications terminal. One such method comprises: downloading a disk drive performance test application from a server over a communication channel; executing the test application to measure at least one time for data transfer of a group of sectors on the disk drive; and reporting the time to the server over the communication channel. A digital video recorder comprises: a disk drive; a communication interface; memory storing executable instructions thereon; and a processor configured by the executable instructions. The processor is configured to download a disk drive performance test application from a server over the communication interface; execute the test application to measure at least one time for data transfer of a group of sectors on the disk drive; and report the time to the server over the communication interface.
US07877532B2
An interface and protocol allow a media player to communicate with external accessories over a transport link. The protocol includes a core protocol functionality and a number of accessory lingoes. Examples of accessory lingoes include a microphone lingo, a simple remote lingo, a display remote lingo, an RF transmitter lingo, and an extended interface lingo.
US07877531B2
Disclosed herein is an image processing apparatus including an input section, a bus, a memory interface, an output section, and a control section.
US07877526B2
A data processing system including a processing unit on which a control program runs, a plurality of operating systems (OS's) configured to run under control of said control program, a Peripheral Component Interchange (PCI) bus coupled to the processing unit, and a channel adaptor for data transmission/reception, wherein: the channel adaptor is coupled to the PCI bus on a PCI bus side of the channel adapter, and the channel adapter includes only one connecting port on an input/output (I/O) side of the channel adapter; an input/output process is executed between each OS and said channel adaptor by using input/output process control data specifying input/output (I/O) data, the input/output process control data being provided via a Queue Pair having a Queue Pair identifier and including a Send Queue, Receive Queue and Complete Queue; configuration information is provided, exclusively defining the Queue Pair identifier of said Queue Pair of said input/output process control data which is usable exclusively by each respective OS; said channel adaptor can process a plurality of input/output process control data; and each OS uses said input/output process control data corresponding to a unique usable Queue Pair identifier and defined in said configuration information, and thereby a plurality of OS's control input/output process control data having different Queue Pair identifiers relative to said channel adaptor to execute the input/output process without sharing said input/output process control data for said channel adaptor by different OS's.
US07877524B1
A DMA engine is provided that is suitable for higher performance System On a Chip (SOC) devices that have multiple concurrent on-chip/off-chip memory spaces. The DMA engine operates either on logical addressing method or physical addressing method and provides random and sequential mapping function from logical address to physical address while supporting frequent context switching among a large number of logical address spaces. Embodiments of the present invention utilize per direction (source-destination) queuing and an internal switch to support non-blocking concurrent transfer of data on multiple directions. A caching technique can be incorporated to reduce the overhead of address translation.
US07877523B2
An apparatus and a computer program product are provided for completing a plurality of (direct memory access) DMA commands in a computer system. It is determined whether the DMA commands are chained together as a list DMA command. Upon a determination that the DMA commands are chained together as a list DMA command, it is also determined whether a current list element of the list DMA command is fenced. Upon a determination that the current list element is not fenced, a next list element is fetched and processed before the current list element has been completed.
US07877517B2
Provided are a method, system and program for determining whether to compress data transmitted over a network. A determination is made of compression performance for a compression algorithm to use to compress data to transmit to a target node over a network and of network performance of the network. The determined compression performance and the network performance are used to determine whether to compress the data. The data is compressed in response to determining to compress the data and the compressed data is transmitted to the target node over the network in response to compressing the data. The data is transmitted to the target node uncompressed in response to determining not to compress the data.
US07877501B2
The present invention is directed to voice communication devices in which an audio stream is divided into a sequence of individual packets, each of which is routed via pathways that can vary depending on the availability of network resources. All embodiments of the invention rely on an acoustic prioritization agent that assigns a priority value to the packets. The priority value is based on factors such as whether the packet contains voice activity and the degree of acoustic similarity between this packet and adjacent packets in the sequence. A confidence level, associated with the priority value, may also be assigned. In one embodiment, network congestion is reduced by deliberately failing to transmit packets that are judged to be acoustically similar to adjacent packets; the expectation is that, under these circumstances, traditional packet loss concealment algorithms in the receiving device will construct an acceptably accurate replica of the missing packet. In another embodiment, the receiving device can reduce the number of packets stored in its jitter buffer, and therefore the latency of the speech signal, by selectively deleting one or more packets within sustained silences or non-varying speech events. In both embodiments, the ability of the system to drop appropriate packets may be enhanced by taking into account the confidence levels associated with the priority assessments.
US07877499B2
A data processing apparatus capable of transmitting externally received data to a corresponding information processing device even in a case where a plurality of information processing devices are mountable to the data processing apparatus. First device identification information for identifying an information processing device connected to the data processing apparatus is obtained from the information processing device, and first data is received from an external apparatus. When the first device identification information and second device identification information added to the first data match each other, the first data is transmitted to the information processing device connected to the data processing apparatus.
US07877494B2
A privacy service is provided for use in protection of user data transferred in a network, including a converged network. The privacy service extracts and measures service elements of a message containing user data. The service elements include an identity element, a trust element, a rights element and a security element. The privacy service performs security by comparing service elements with a user defined privacy policy. The privacy policy may also be based on particular factors relating to the application, context, and time of the message. In another embodiment, the privacy service provides controls that indicate when user data is misappropriated as a result of an infringement of the user defined privacy policy. Further the privacy service provides a means to audit and trace deviations from the privacy policy for the purpose of repudiation, or future defense of security threats.
US07877491B2
A switch may be used to force the expiration of a cookie on a user's system by inserting an expiration field into the cookie contained in a network response packet. Additionally, a mechanism is provided to delete or damage a cookie contained in a network request packet, so that server software is not disrupted by the receipt of a cookie. Deleting a cookie results in a cleaner request, but damaging a cookie may be more efficient in certain circumstances. By providing these features, an efficient cookie switching design is provided.
US07877488B1
A system and method is disclosed for automatically setting up a Web site for editing. One embodiment of such a system and method may comprise selecting a common file transfer path from a plurality of common file transfer paths, generating a test file, writing the test file to a storing computer through the file transfer server using the selected common file transfer path, requesting the test file from a Web server hosting the Web site, determining the common file transfer path is valid when the test file is received from the Web server responsive to the requesting, and selecting another common file transfer path from the plurality of common file transfer paths when the test file is not received from the Web server, wherein the method is repeated from the generating step using another common file transfer path.
US07877487B2
Communication networks and associated methods are disclosed for dynamically defining service triggers. Responsive to receiving a session initiation message for a session, an application server defines one or more subsequent service triggers for a service provided by the application server for the session. The subsequent service triggers identify messages or conditions for the session of which the application server desires to be notified. The application server then transmits the subsequent service triggers to a session control function that is setting up or maintaining the session. The session control function then receives a subsequent message for the session. The session control function processes the subsequent message and the subsequent service triggers to determine whether to transmit the subsequent message to the application server.
US07877485B2
Sessions states within virtual machine (VM) environments are maintained. Each VM environment hosts a guest operating system (OS) and one or more application programs running. The guest OS and the application computer programs of each VM environment constitute a session. A connection broker maintains a state machine as to states of the sessions and permits transitions among the states in response to messages, commands, and internal decisions. Different types of agents may send the messages, and the commands. The states of the sessions may include a pending state and a number of other states. The pending state is an interim state that indicates a session is being transitioned from one of the other states to another of the other states. These other states may include an offline state, an online-down state, an online-up state, a suspended state, an active state, an idle state, a disconnected state, and a failed state.
US07877480B2
An authorization mechanism within a peer-to-peer network is presented. A central server that operates a centralized data repository search engine within a peer-to-peer network performs authentication and authorization operations with respect to users that access its services. A user at a peer node reviews peer-to-peer search results that have been gathered and returned by the centralized search engine. When the user desires to retrieve a file from another peer node, the user's peer node must obtain an authorization token from the central server, which authenticates the user or has previously authenticated the user. The user's peer node then presents the authorization token along with a request to retrieve the file from the other peer node. After verifying the authorization token, the other peer node responds with the requested file. If the other peer node cannot verify the authorization token, then the other peer node denies access to the file.
US07877479B2
A bandwidth control system controls the bandwidths used by plural web crawlers. The bandwidth control system receives a connection request from one of the web crawlers for establishing a connection between that web crawler and a content server. The control system records each of the web crawlers in association with a content server to which that web crawler is connected. The control system monitors the traffic on the content servers to which the web crawlers are connected. When the traffic on the content server recorded becomes too heavy, the control system disconnects the web crawler from the content server to which the crawler is connected.
US07877476B2
It is possible to detect communication partner state information between edge nodes without using a broker. Additional information is needed to achieve the aforementioned object.
US07877475B2
A method for display of activity of users at workstations. Each workstation is in a different geographical location. Data relating to a rate of computer input activity of at least one user at each workstation is continuously collected from each workstation, compiled in a central database, and displayed in a display in a representation of the rate of computer input activity of the at least one user at each workstation as a different musical characteristic for each workstation. Each different musical characteristic for each workstation is displayed in accordance with the combined number of input device clicks of the users in each workstation in a given period. The input device clicks are key clicks, mouse clicks, or a combination of key clicks and mouse clicks. The representation of the rate of computer input activity may alternatively comprise a visual swirl across a screen or an activity of a robot.
US07877474B2
A method and an apparatus are provided for automatically generating and administering templates for an event management tool, which is configured for monitoring terminal devices or components of a network. In the templates, monitoring criteria, by which the monitoring of one of the components is to be done, are defined. After the automatic generation of the template, this template is automatically tested. An administration module is also provided, which is configured for organizing and administering all the processes with respect to the templates.
US07877465B2
Under the present invention, a client-based editor is launched (e.g., from a web server or the like) within a client interface such as a browser. Upon being launched, initial configuration parameters are passed from a portal server to the editor. The present invention also provides a “communications tunnel” between the editor and the portal server in the form of a portlet interface on the web server. This is so that any characteristics expressed by the portal server (e.g., changes to the initial configuration parameters) can be pushed to the editor. Moreover, the portlet interface allows the editor to query the portal server to obtain any needed services (e.g. a spreadsheet computation).
US07877464B2
A method to change the IP address of a server from a remote operator station, where that server comprises an HTTP server having a first IP address, and where that server is capable of communicating with one or more remote operator stations. One of those remote operator stations submits to the server, using the first IP address, an IP address change request. That IP address change request includes discontinuing use of the first IP address and commencing use of a second IP address. After receipt of the IP address change request, the server generates an HTML page comprising an embedded applet, where that applet is capable of monitoring the TCP/IP connection between the remote operator station and the server. The server provides that HTML page/applet to the remote operator station. Thereafter, the remote operator station continuously displays the status of the IP address change request using the provided applet. After the IP address change request is completed, the remote operator station communicates with the server using the second IP address.
US07877462B2
The present disclosure includes, among other things, systems, methods and program products for delivering data over a computer network.
US07877460B1
The present invention shows methods and systems for facilitating the distribution, sharing and commentary of electronically published materials such as educational textbooks. The system incorporates a common system for receiving and publishing the documents. Features of the system including layering, iconic mark-up, user notes and comments, user communication and documents/action sharing.
US07877457B2
A method and system for interconnecting a number of peer to peer networks is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a peer to peer gateway communicates with one or more peer to peer networks. The gateway communicates with these networks through the Internet, to which it is connected. The gateway may be configured to perform a number of functions on each of the connected networks, including but not limited to: data storage, searching, data transfer, and data translation.
US07877454B1
Methods of producing and sending an e-message include receiving addressee instructions from a sender for a single sender e-message indicating addresses of first and second intended destinations of at least portions of content of the single sender e-message; associating a first content portion of the single e-message with the first intended destination, the first content portion being intended to be received by the first intended destination; and sending the first content portion toward the first intended destination in a destination e-message such that the first content portion is accessible at the first intended destination and is inhibited from being accessed at the second intended destination.
US07877447B2
A computer-implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing rejected messages. Metadata is extracted from a message for storing information about the message in response to the message being rejected. The metadata is saved in an entry in a file. The file may be examined to identify the rejected messages. An intended recipient is notified of a rejection using the metadata.
US07877445B2
The present invention provides a collaboration system that reduces communication traffic, is platform- and OS-independent, and has high versatility. There are provided a collaboration server connected with a plurality of terminal apparatuses through a network for obtaining, retaining, and distributing a Web page as a work screen used in collaborative work among the terminal apparatuses, and a chat server for managing chat sessions. The collaboration server participates as a chat client in a chat session managed by the chat server and distributes an operation instruction concerning the work screen as a chat message to each terminal apparatus. The work screen is reloaded into each terminal apparatus according to the operation instruction to allow the collaborative work to progress.
US07877444B2
One problem with web-based information is that it is typically presented without being personalized or tailored to fit a particular user's needs and requirements. Another problem relates to calls such as telephone calls, video calls or other multimedia calls made between two or more call members. Here it is often required to provide detailed information during the call. By storing a plurality of web pages and associating each of those web pages with information about one or more potential calls, it is possible to select one of those web pages for provision to a particular call member. For example, a user may store a web page for provision to family members, another for customers, and another for new inquiries. Information about a call is obtained and used to select an appropriate one of the stored web pages. This selected web page is then provided to the call member which is for example a wireless terminal with a web browser arranged to display the web page. The web pages may be stored on a web server or alternatively on the terminal used by the call member to take part in the call.
US07877442B1
A system provides account statistics to a user of a network service. The system provides access, to a user, to the network service. The system determines one of an environmental attribute or context associated with the user's access of the network service. The system provides, contemporaneously with the access of the network service, a document to the user, where the document includes account statistics related to the one of the determined environmental attribute or content.
US07877430B2
Finite impulse response filtering is achieved by broadcasting to at least one compute unit an instruction having a plurality of data samples, a conditional field associated with each compute unit, and a set of operator values for operating on each data sample; providing a function of each the data sample in accordance with an associated set of operator values identified by the conditional field; and combining the functions to obtain an intermediate finite impulse response of the data samples.
US07877413B1
The inventions relate generally to layered computing systems that provide public access to the content of the layers. Also disclosed herein are prioritization schemes usable in a layered computing system, including prioritization by layer type, by assigned priority weights, by access type, by sub-layers and by read-write indicators. Processes may further be associated to layers from which they originate, and priority given to associated layers thereby. Association may also be provided for installer services, thereby depositing an applications updates into its layer. Layers may also contain file reference information including exclusion or inclusion entries indicating what files may be written thereto. Paths recorded in layers may also embed variables to true paths on a layered system. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.
US07877411B1
A method and system for managing files in a server environment includes launching a plurality of Virtual Private Servers (VPSs) in a computing system; copying a content of a file of a VPS to a shared space; providing access to the file copy in the shared space when the VPS attempts to access the file; detecting files with the same content in other VPSs; and providing access to the file copy in the shared space from the other VPSs when they attempt to access their files with the identical content.
US07877410B2
A system and method for providing private inference control is presented. A query count and database including records are maintained. Each record includes attributes, wherein the attributes form inference channels. A data structure is constructed including ciphertext keys, which each relate to one attribute and record. A seed for a pseudorandom function and a secret key for non-malleable encryption are chosen. A query is specified by providing indices identifying one record and attribute by homomorphic encryption. A secure function evaluation is executed upon the inference channels, seed, secret key, query count, and the set of ciphertext keys. An output is generated including the pseudorandom function and an updated set of ciphertext keys subject to sum-consistency of the set of ciphertext keys and a non-inference enabling query. A table of entries is formed by combining each attribute for each record with an output from the pseudorandom function. The entry is provided.
US07877401B1
A method for processing data for pattern matching includes: receiving a first sequence of data values; and generating a second sequence of data values based on the first sequence and one or more patterns and history of data values in the first sequence, wherein the second sequence has fewer data values than the first sequence and all subsequences in the first sequence that match at least one of the one or more patterns are represented in the second sequence.
US07877397B2
Systems and methods that translate queries defined by an entity model, to a dialect recognizable by storage provider (e.g., relational store). A bridge component facilitates translation of a rich object structure into flat relational constructs, which can then be executed by a relational store. Accordingly, queries defined by applications in terms of entity concepts can readily be employed in conjunction with relational data stores. Similarly, results obtained from executing the query can be converted back to a form understandable by the application.
US07877393B2
A method for accessing a file system that includes creating a document index for an active document, identifying a similarity score for each of a plurality of stored documents to generate a list of similar documents, wherein the similarity score is computed by comparing the document index for the active document with a search index for the plurality of stored documents, and displaying the list of similar documents in a file system interface.
US07877383B2
A method of processing information is provided. The method includes collecting text strings of definition candidates from a data source. The definition candidates are ranked based on the text strings.
US07877376B2
In one embodiment, a plurality of materialized views is stored, where each view includes a set of aggregate expressions. Storing each materialized view comprises identifying one or more disjuncts in the set of aggregate expressions, generating a set of disjunct trees that represent the set of aggregate expressions, and storing the set of disjunct trees. When a query that requests aggregated data is received, one or more disjuncts are identified in an aggregate expression specified in the query. A disjunct tree for the disjuncts in the query is generated. Based on the disjunct tree for the query and on the set of disjunct trees for each materialized view, a particular materialized view is determined from the plurality of materialized views. The query is rewritten into an equivalent query that references the particular materialized view, where the equivalent query would retrieve the requested aggregated data from the particular materialized view.
US07877373B2
Under automated alternate plan analysis, a query optimizer generates candidate execution plans. The candidate execution plans are selected as alternate execution plans for the query and execution. Output describing characteristics of each alternate execution plan and/or its execution is generated and/or compared. From this information, it may be determined, for example, whether results returned by any of the alternate execution plans are the same and whether the least cost execution plan is actually the most efficiently executed.
US07877360B2
The embodiments of the invention provide a method of identifying a recovery point in a continuous data protection (CDP) log. More specifically, the method begins by detecting corrupted data in the CDP log and identifying the nature of corruption. Next, the nature of corruption is mapped to applications to identify components that may have caused the corrupted data. The method then finds a time instance of uncorrupted data in the components. Specifically, this can include searching CDP log entries in an order independent of log event age. Alternatively, the process of finding the time instance can include creating a data image of a first copy of uncorrupted data and sequentially apply entries of the CDP log until the corrupted data is reached.
US07877352B2
A system implementable using a programmable processor includes a plurality of pre-stored commands for building an inventory of audio, musical, works or audio/visual works, such as music videos. A plurality of works can be collected together in a list for purposes of establishing a play or a presentation sequence. The list can be visually displayed and edited. A plurality of lists can be stored for subsequent retrieval. A selected list can be retrieved and executed. Upon execution, the works of the list are presented sequentially either audibly or visually. The works can be read locally from a source, such as a CD, or can be obtained, via wireless transmission, from a remote inventory. If desired, establishment of a predetermined credit can be a pre-condition to being able to add items to the list for presentation.
US07877350B2
Determining metadata associated with a graph-based computation includes functionally transforming metadata associated with a first portion of a graph to generate transformed metadata associated with a second portion of the graph; determining a third portion of the graph related to the second portion of the graph; and propagating the transformed metadata from the second portion of the graph to the third portion of the graph.
US07877347B2
A system, method, and computer program product for observing and modifying activity in an actor processor are presented. An observer module is provided for observing a physical property of an actor processor. The observer module comprises a property-observing sensor for detecting and sampling a physical property of the actor processor and for generating an observation signal based on the physical property. The observer module further comprises an observer processor coupled with the property-observing sensor for receiving the observation signal, the observer processor operative to generate an observer output signal based on the observation signal. The observer module permits the observer processor to monitor the actor processor in a manner that isolates an instruction set of the observer processor from direct manipulation by means of an instruction set of the actor processor. Observer processors may be used in a recursive manner to provide a completely-coupled observation module.
US07877346B2
The invention provides techniques for building multiple predictive models of individuals' affinities for attributes of objects and/or services. The accuracies of multiple predictive models are measured and the models are combined based on the measurements, resulting in a more accurate predictive model of individual-specific affinities for attributes of the objects and/or services.
US07877341B2
When a patient enters a medical situation, healthcare professionals can use various amounts of information in evaluating the situation. However, different information can be beneficial dependent on the medical situation. Moreover, personnel can historically use specific information types regardless of the situation. An artificial neuron network is employed to pre-fetch information that personnel likely will want prior to a request from the personnel. In addition, the artificial neuron network can be trained based on results of presented information.
US07877338B2
An information processing apparatus, includes a lower time series data generation unit having a plurality of recurrent neural networks which learn predetermined time series data, and generating prediction time series data. An upper time series data generation unit has recurrent neural networks which learn error time series data that is time series data of errors raised at the time of the learning by the respective plural recurrent neural networks of the lower time series data generation unit. Generation of prediction error time series data that is time series data of prediction errors; and a conversion unit that performs nonlinear conversion for the prediction errors generated by the upper time series data generation unit. The lower time series data generation unit outputs the prediction time series data according to the prediction errors.
US07877336B2
A system for screening nucleotide sequences, a method therefor, a program, a recording medium, and a server on which the screening of nucleotide sequences is executed. The solution comprises a step of storing target nucleotide sequence data and a probe nucleotide sequence, a step of generating complementary sequence data from a probe nucleotide sequence that may be bound to the target nucleotide sequence, and storing a maximum acceptable edit distance between the target nucleotide sequence and the probe nucleotide sequence, a step of reading out each nucleotide sequence data and the maximum edit distance from each storing unit, and evaluating the binding possibility of the target nucleotide sequence data and the complementary sequence data in descending order of edit distance, and a step of storing the result of the binding evaluation in a storage unit.
US07877333B2
Discrete optimization problem are solved using an analog optimization device such as a quantum processor. Problems are solved using an objective function and at least one constraint corresponding to the discrete optimization problems. The objective function is converted into a first set of inputs and the at least one constraint is converted into a second set of inputs for the analog optimization device. A third set of inputs is generated which are indicative of at least one penalty coefficient. A final state of the analog optimization device corresponds to at least a portion of the solution to the discrete optimization problem.
US07877326B2
Methods, systems, devices, and products obtain collaborative authorization in an electronic commerce transaction. One such device includes a commerce profile stored in memory, and a processor communicates with the memory. The commerce profile stores rules for obtaining authorization for the electronic transaction. The processor accesses the commerce profile and, based on the rules, determines whether authorization from a first party is permitted or whether collaborative authorization by a second party is required to authorize the electronic transaction. When collaborative authorization is required, the processor retrieves a collaborative communications address from the commerce profile and communicates the collaborative communications address from the device.
US07877323B2
The present invention generally relates to financial data processing, and in particular it relates to lender credit scoring, lender profiling, lender behavior analysis and modeling. More specifically, it relates to rating lenders based on data derived from their respective consumers. Also, the present invention relates to rating consumer lenders based on the predicted spend capacity of their consumers.
US07877314B2
A method and system for the determination of optimal pricing and allocation of securities in an open, competitive environment. The method and system may also be used in developing pre-markets of other items that are difficult to price and allocate in a competitive manner, such as the underwriting/securitization of contracts for property; future revenue/earning streams from an asset and/or group of assets; underwritten insurance portfolios, intellectual property and other goods and services. The system of price optimization and allocation is accomplished by interactive feedback of information using a display and including competitive participation of individual members of the public (and/or their agents) or institutional buyers over a data network e.g., the Internet, uncovering the nature and identification of demand in a self-organizing fashion. Demand emerges through participants' interaction with the system and with each other, via a graphically-supported, interactive reservation process.
US07877309B2
A system and method for measuring and creating a score for the performance of one or more contributor recommendations on a single stock. According to one embodiment, the score may be derived via a payoff function that depends on a variety of factors. For example, the factors may include one or more of: i) the performance of the stock; ii) the performance of a selected benchmark; iii) the recommendation of the contributor for the stock; and/or iv) other factors. According to one embodiment the payoff function may be designed such that certain desired characteristics are satisfied.
US07877300B2
A system and method of processing an order comprises receiving an order for desired items, and calculating a collective physical parameter(s) of the items such as a total weight of the items, a total volume of the items and/or a total number of cases of the items. The calculated collective physical parameter(s) is compared with a predetermined threshold(s) reflecting a physical capacity or capability of one standard full carrier. The processing of the order is stopped if the collective physical parameter exceeds the threshold.
US07877299B2
A computer-implemented service acts as an intermediary between merchant sites and users thereof, and enables the users to purchase items on the merchant sites without having to create accounts with such sites. A user may invoke the service from a web page of a merchant site, and complete a purchase transaction, without having to browse away from the merchant site. The service may either forward the user's payment information to the merchant's system to enable the merchant to charge the customer, or may charge the user on behalf of the merchant. In some implementations, the service enables users to make single-action purchases from the merchant sites.
US07877297B2
A method and system for conditional transactions are provided. The system provides one or more master accounts wherein each master account is tied to and controlled by one or more subordinated accounts. Each subordinated account may have a configurable/customizable set of permissions defined by the master account. The subordinated account holder would optionally require permission from the master account holder to complete a purchase. The master account holder would have a number of configurable/customizable permission rules to choose from for each subordinate account.
US07877296B2
A text message order processing system includes: means for receiving text messages from consumers purchasing products from one or more merchants, each of the text messages being addressed to an address selected by the consumer and including an identification of the product being purchased and an identification of a device from which the text message was sent; means for parsing each text messages to extract the identification of the product and the identification of the device from the text massage; means for selecting based upon each received text message a payment instrument to be used to pay for the purchase; means for establishing payment information related to the selected payment instrument and delivery information indicating where the purchased product is to be delivered; means for generating for each received text message an order including the established payment information, delivery information and identification of the product being purchased; and, means for submitting the generated order to an order management system of the merchant.
US07877293B2
Disclosed is a method and system of providing user context-based services over computer networks, using mechanisms for collecting and specifying one or more user context elements, each element representing a context associated with the current buyer state and having context attributes and attribute values associated therewith, mechanisms for collecting affective (emotive) data to inform the user context, and also an interactive graphical view to gain insight into available services for assisting in understanding available service information and making decisions on purchasing.
US07877284B2
A method and system for obtaining and storing accurate skills data relative to human resource objects of an enterprise. Relevant data is extracted from runtime processes that monitor the activities of the human resource objects and a metric value indicative of a skill level attained for each of a list of skills is calculated for each human resource object.
US07877277B1
A method and system for administering a disease management program to improve healthcare quality, reduce healthcare costs, and optimize delivery of healthcare services. A multi-condition risk assessment is conducted for all or a substantial portion of a population of program participants, and collected multi-condition risk assessment data are combined with claims data for predictive modeling of future healthcare risk and expense. Participants are risk-stratified into one or more classifications of future healthcare cost risk, and appropriate intervention or delivery of healthcare services is made based on the risk classification.
US07877273B2
A method for minimizing an individual's predisposition for developing a disease including providing personal information of an individual, querying a first database of disease information with the personal information to determine a disease for which the individual has a predisposition for developing, wherein the query produces disease information, querying one or more second databases with at least a portion of the disease information and/or personal information for obtaining second information for reducing the risk for the individual developing the disease and communicating a result of the query of the lifestyle database to the individual.
US07877267B2
Processing gasoline price data in a networked environment. A data source component obtains gasoline purchase transaction data, which includes data indicative of consumer credit purchases of gasoline made by a plurality of consumers. Each of the consumer credit purchases is from an identifiable location. In response to receiving an indication that a gasoline level of a gasoline tank has reached a minimum, a user interface component generates a user request for gasoline price data for a selected geographic region. A processing component processes the gasoline purchase transaction data as a function of the selected geographic region and generates a display including the processed gasoline purchase transaction data for the selected region. The generated display is transmitted to a user computing device.
US07877265B2
A system and method for automated customer feedback allows for automatically collecting and analyzing customer feedback data regarding customer satisfaction and customer task completion with respect to self-service applications and live agents. When contacting a customer service center, customers provide one or more customer tasks. The customers are routed within the customer service center based on the customer task and/or one or more customer characteristics. While interacting with the customer service center, the customers are automatically asked one or more specific survey questions relating to the customers' interaction with the customer service center and the customers' satisfaction levels. The customers provide one or more survey responses to the survey questions. The survey responses are recorded and analyzed in order to modify and update the customer service center and the survey questions in order to increase customer satisfaction and increase customer task completion.
US07877259B2
A method of, and system for, acoustically coding text for use in the synthesis of speech from the text. The method includes marking the text to be spoken with one or more graphic symbols to indicate to a speaker a desired prosody to impart to the spoken text. The markups can include grapheme-phoneme pairs each wherein a visible prosodic-indicating grapheme is employed with written text and a corresponding digital phoneme is functional in the digital domain. The invention is useful in the generation of appealing, humanized machine speech for a wide range of applications, including voice mail systems, electronically enabled appliances, automobiles, computers, robotic assistants, games and the like, in spoken books and magazines, drama and other entertainment.
US07877258B1
Systems, methods, and apparatuses, including computer program products, are provided for representing language models. In some implementations, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method includes generating a compact language model including receiving a collection of n-grams from the corpus, each n-gram of the collection having a corresponding first probability of occurring in the corpus and generating a trie representing the collection of n-grams. The method also includes using the language model to identify a second probability of a particular string of words occurring.
US07877257B2
A method and system to parameterize a spoken language dialog system, includes providing a storage area to store at least one parameter value, integrating a subcomponent with at least one module of the spoken language dialog system, and configuring the subcomponent to access the at least one parameter value and to adjust an operation or output of the module based on the at least one parameter value.
US07877255B2
A method for automatic speech recognition includes determining for an input signal a plurality scores representative of certainties that the input signal is associated with corresponding states of a speech recognition model, using the speech recognition model and the determined scores to compute an average signal, computing a difference value representative of a difference between the input signal and the average signal, and processing the input signal in accordance with the difference value.
US07877251B2
A document translation system is described. In various embodiments, the document translation system improves translations of text or speech (“documents”) that are performed by computing devices (“machine translations”). Upon translating a document into a target language, the system can provide a user interface containing both the original document and a translated document. The translated document can include portions that are translated automatically by a machine translation service, and other portions that have been amended or modified by users. Upon providing the translated document, the system may receive input from a user describing portions of the translated document that should be modified. These modifications may then be stored in corpora that the document translation system can employ during future requests to translate the document. When multiple modifications are stored, the system may select one of the stored modifications during translation, such as based on the document type, reputation of the user who provided the modification, and so forth. The stored corpora can then be employed to improve future machine translations.
US07877248B1
A discrete event system (DES) modeling environment models the occurrence of events independent of continuous model time. In a DES modeling environment, state transitions depend not on time, but rather asynchronous discrete incidents known as events. A user may customize selected parameters of a block or other component able to support at least one entity passing therethrough holding a value of arbitrary data type in a DES modeling environment. For example, a user can enable and disable ports a discrete event execution block in a discrete event execution model using a graphical user interface, such as a dialog box. Based on user-selected dialog inputs, a discrete event execution program can automatically update a specification for a block, for example, by adding ports to the graphical representation of the block.
US07877240B2
A global system model equation including model equations, which contain parameters, of individual components that form the global system. The parameters of the individual components are detected using sensor values from the sensors that are allocated to the individual components and it is determined whether it is possible to adapt the parameters to the sensor values and to solve the global system model equation.
US07877233B2
A process control and manufacturing information database client application is disclosed for rendering and displaying a filtered set of received time-series data. A client application, such as a trending client that graphically displays a series of data point values for a particular observed parameter of a manufacturing process receives, via a data acquisition interface, a set of timestamped time-series data values for an observed parameter from a process control and manufacturing information database. Thereafter, the client application invokes a time-series data filter that includes/supports at least one filtering operation that is applied to the set of timestamped time-series data values to render a filtered data set for plotting/drawing on the graphical display interface. The filtered data set is thereafter rendered by a display function as a series of plotted points on a time-line graph.
US07877215B2
An evaluation method for a rolling bearing part capable of easily and properly detecting deformation of the rolling contact surface of the rolling bearing part formed of raceway rings or rolling element of a rolling bearing. First, the order and amplitude of waviness on the rolling contact surface of the rolling bearing part are obtained by harmonic analysis for the circularity of the rolling contact surface. The order and amplitude of waviness so obtained are logarithmically converted, and the regression line showing a relation between the logarithmically converted order of waviness and the amplitude of waviness is obtained. Based on the deviation from the regression line, the deformation of the rolling contact surface is evaluated.
US07877214B2
Techniques for protein structure analysis are provided. In one aspect, a method of analyzing a multi-domain protein structure comprises the following steps. For at least one domain, a hydrophobic dipole, e.g., defined as a first-order hydrophobic moment of the domain, is calculated. A score representing the orientation of the hydrophobic dipole of the at least one domain relative to a hydrophobic dipole of one or more other domains of the multi-domain protein structure is then calculated.
US07877206B2
Traffic information, including traffic flow information and traffic incident information, obtained through a traffic management system for providing and facilitating the exchange of traffic information between a remote location and a vehicle may be presented to a user on a user display in the vehicle. The traffic information may be presented to the user in several circumstances, either as cued by the user, or automatically presented by the traffic management system. The user display may also automatically display traffic flow and traffic incident information for the direction that the user is traveling or along a route calculated by the navigation device. Further, a window displaying information about an upcoming traffic incident such as distance to the incident and incident details may automatically appear in the user display. Alternately, the user may select a roadway, freeway, or area for which traffic information is desired.
US07877203B2
In a map information processing apparatus including a processor 5 for updating map information containing map data stored in a map information storage device 3, road network data contained in the map data stored in the map information storage device has a data structure in which the road network data is composed of link strings each of which represents a series of roads in a road network as a series of links connecting nodes, the road network being represented by the nodes and the links; each of the link strings is represented by a link string record in which link records defining the links are arranged in order of the series of the links; each link constituting the link strings is provided with an invariable link identifier proper to each link; and node indication information for designating each node included in the link strings is represented by the link identifier of the link having the node as its one end.
US07877200B2
A control system (18) and method for an automotive vehicle (10) includes a roll rate sensor (34) for generating a roll rate signal, a lateral acceleration sensor (32) for generating a lateral acceleration signal, a longitudinal acceleration sensor (36) for generating a longitudinal acceleration signal, and a yaw rate sensor (28) for generating a yaw rate signal. A safety device or system (44) and the sensors are coupled to a controller. The controller (26) determines an added mass and the height of the added mass on the vehicle, or a roll gradient, a roll acceleration coefficient, and/or a roll rate parameter that take into account the added mass and height from the roll rate, the lateral acceleration, the longitudinal acceleration, and the yaw rate of the vehicle, and controls the safety system in response thereto.
US07877194B2
A solenoid valve includes cyclically energizing and deenergizing a solenoid of the solenoid valve to repeatedly fully open and fully close the solenoid valve. When the energizing and deenergizing causes collisions of a moving member of the solenoid valve against at least one of a first and a second seat formed in a housing of the solenoid valve, noises are thus generated by the collisions and occurrence intervals of the noises are detected. Whether the solenoid valve is in normal or abnormal condition is diagnosed based on the detected occurrence intervals of the noises.
US07877188B2
A control system for an internal combustion engine includes: a fuel amount detector; a smoothing calculation unit that calculates a smooth output value, which is obtained by smoothing an output value of the fuel amount detector in a temporal direction; a continuous low speed condition detection unit that detects a continuous low speed condition in which the vehicle speed remains in the low speed region continuously beyond a predetermined time period; a calculation processing unit that successively calculates a maximum value and a minimum value of the smooth output value; a reference setting unit that updates and stores a reference value in response to the engine stoppage and in accordance with the current minimum value calculated by the calculation processing unit; and a fuel supply determination unit that detects a fuel supply to the fuel tank during the continuous low speed condition.
US07877177B2
A system and method for providing a fault tolerant vehicle dynamics control (VDC) is described. The system includes a fault tolerance module that receives an indication of a fault in at least one of the actuators of the VDC and selects a fault compensation mode to maintain the stability of the motor vehicle in light of the received fault indication. The fault tolerance module proceeds by diagnosing at least one fault in at least one of the actuators, selecting a fault compensation mode based on the detected at least one fault and the driving condition, and compensating for the at least one fault by optimally controlling remaining operable actuators according to the fault compensation mode.
US07877167B1
In a method for reducing vibration in an electronic system, at least one component of interest that is subject to vibration is identified, at least one component that is a source of the vibration is identified, a resonant frequency of the at least one component of interest is determined, and the at least one source component is operated at a first frequency other than the resonant frequency during run time of the system.
US07877165B2
In a legged mobile robot control system having leg actuators each driving the individual legs and arm actuators each driving the individual arms, an external force acting on the right arm is detected, operation of the right arm actuators is controlled to produces a handshake posture, and operation of the leg actuators is controlled based on the detected external force acting on the right hand during handshaking, thereby improving communication capability by enabling it to shake hands with humans and to maintain a stable posture during the handshaking.
US07877161B2
A processing system and method for chemical oxide removal (COR) is presented, wherein the processing system comprises a first treatment chamber and a second treatment chamber, wherein the first and second treatment chambers are coupled to one another. The first treatment chamber comprises a chemical treatment chamber that provides a temperature controlled chamber, and an independently temperature controlled substrate holder for supporting a substrate for chemical treatment. The substrate is exposed to a gaseous chemistry, such as HF/NH3, under controlled conditions including surface temperature and gas pressure. The second treatment chamber comprises a heat treatment chamber that provides a temperature controlled chamber, thermally insulated from the chemical treatment chamber. The heat treatment chamber provides a substrate holder for controlling the temperature of the substrate to thermally process the chemically treated surfaces on the substrate.
US07877152B2
A bipolar stimulator probe suitable for application of intramuscular stimulation provides an active stimulator electrode and a reference electrode as part of a single tool. The separation between the electrodes is significantly greater than the electrode separation of known bipolar stimulator probes and bipolar bar electrode configurations. The probe tool may be configured to permit adjustment of the fixed relative position of the electrodes within a given range. By providing a relatively wide spacing between the two electrodes, the tool can be used to approximate the effect of monopolar stimulation with a separate reference electrode, with the electrical stimulus producing less pain to the patient compared to bipolar stimulation where the two electrodes are spaced apart by only 2-4 cm or less.
US07877141B1
An exemplary method includes detecting a first atrial event, initiating a detection window after detecting the first atrial event, detecting a second atrial event during the detection window, classifying the second atrial event as a premature atrial contraction and calling for delivery of an atrial extrastimulus in response to the premature atrial contraction. Various other exemplary technologies are also disclosed.
US07877140B2
A method and device for delivering pre-excitation pacing to prevent or reduce cardiac remodeling following a myocardial infarction is described. The pre-excitation pacing is modulated in accordance with an intravascular pressure measurement in order to balance the beneficial effects of stress reduction with hemodynamic compromise.
US07877139B2
Methods and devices for testing lead impedance in an implantable cardiac stimulus device. A resistor is placed in series with the lead impedance, and a predetermined or known voltage is applied to the resistor and lead impedance. The voltage across the resistor is measured, and it is then determined whether the lead impedance falls within an acceptable range.
US07877135B2
An image data processor comprising an image signal receiver, a histogram generator, a gain calculator, an amplifier, and a signal feeder, is provided. The image signal receiver receives an autofluorescence image signal. The autofluorescence image signal is generated by an imaging device when the imaging device captures an autofluorescence image. The histogram generator generates a histogram of luminance in the autofluorescence image based on the autofluorescence image signal. The gain calculator calculates a gain based on the histogram and a predetermined luminance value. The amplifier amplifies the autofluorescence image signal by the gain. And then the amplifier generates an amplified autofluorescence image signal. The signal feeder outputs the amplified autofluorescence image signal to a monitor. The monitor displays an amplified autofluorescence image.
US07877131B2
A computer-assisted surgery system for guiding an operator in altering a pelvis. A sensing apparatus is provided for tracking a reference tool and a bone altering tool. A position calculator calculates a position and orientation of a pelvic frame of reference as a function of the tracking of the reference tool, and for calculating a position and orientation of the bone altering tool with respect to the frame of reference. A source of posture data and a posture data correction calculator are provided and are operative to provide a display of information allowing an operator to take into consideration the posture data from the source of posture data when altering the pelvis. A display unit is connected to the position calculator and to the posture data correction calculator for displaying the display of information and the bone altering tool with respect to the pelvic frame of reference.
US07877127B2
A method for use and an improved oximeter sensor substrate that is conforming to the shape of the patient's forehead. In one embodiment, the present invention is an oximeter sensor, having a substrate with a shape similar to a shape of at least a portion of a patient's forehead and including a section adapted to substantially fit over a portion of a forehead of a patient; an emitter disposed on the substrate at a position located on the section; and a detector disposed on the substrate at a distance from the emitter. In one embodiment, the substrate includes a hat that holds the emitter and the detector in a spaced-part manner against the patient's forehead.
US07877126B2
A method for use and an improved oximeter sensor substrate that is conforming to the shape of the patient's forehead. In one embodiment, the present invention is an oximeter sensor, having a substrate with a shape similar to a shape of at least a portion of a patient's forehead and including a section adapted to substantially fit over a portion of a forehead of a patient; an emitter disposed on the substrate at a position located on the section; and a detector disposed on the substrate at a distance from the emitter. In one embodiment, the substrate includes a hat that holds the emitter and the detector in a spaced-part manner against the patient's forehead.
US07877121B2
The modular wireless headset includes at least one wearable earpiece and at least one wearable microphone, where the earpiece is physically separate from the microphone. The wearable earpiece is operably to render inbound radio frequencies received from a host device audible. To do this, the wearable earpiece includes, at least, a receiver module, a data recovery module, and a speaker module. The receiver module is operably coupled to convert the inbound RF signals. The data recovery module is operably coupled to recover audio signals from the RF signals. The speaker module is operably coupled to render the audio signals audible. The wearable microphone is operable to convert received audio signals into outbound RF signals, where the outbound RF signals are transmitted to the host device. The wearable microphone includes, at least, an audio input module and a transmitter module. The audio input module is operably coupled to convert received analog audio signals into digital audio signals. The transmitter module is operably coupled to convert the digital audio signals into the outbound RF signals.
US07877108B2
The present invention relates to a method for balancing the distribution of interference between radio cells in a wireless communication system comprising cells in which subcarrier blocks are used for communication. A number of adjacent cells build a cell cluster. Moreover, the present invention relates to a corresponding method adapted for use in a system in which multi beam antennas or multiple antennas are used. Furthermore, the present invention relates to base stations performing the above method as well as a communication system comprising the base stations. To reduce the large average SIR variations without causing additional SIR estimation, measurement and calculation problem as introduced with power control the invention suggests to group subcarrier blocks into a plurality of subcarrier block sets in each cell of a cell cluster, to determine transmission power ranges for each of the cells of said cell cluster, and to assign transmission power ranges to the subcarrier block sets to perform TPC within the ranges.
US07877105B2
In a method for synchronizing a mobile station with the base station in a mobile communication system, a reference-frequency oscillator is re-adjusted. To enable an inexpensive reference-frequency oscillator of simple construction to be used, the frequency variations resulting from a change in the temperature of the mobile station and a change in its location are determined and/or predicted separately. When the frequency variations are large, the mobile station is synchronized with the base station more frequently than when they are small.
US07877104B2
The present invention discloses a method and system for monitoring a wireless network clock compared to an absolute time scale using the user mobile stations themselves. The major advantage is the capability to transfer GPS time to a Mobile Station in a wireless network, and thus to decrease the time necessary for the mobile receiver to perform position calculations, with minimal additional hardware required by the network.
US07877103B2
Non-verbal communications between users of wireless mobile devices are facilitated using image messages. An image message may e.g. convey information about the sender user, in particular, current information about the sender user. In one aspect, a user may select an image message category, and select an image message among the image messages of the selected image message category for transmission, to quickly, efficiently and graphically convey (current) information about the user. The process may be performed to form a mixed media message. Received image message to convey current information may be aged via time and/or color displays.
US07877102B2
A positioning method in a SUPL based position information system, and more particularly, a method for performing periodic positioning capable of processing a periodic positioning request by a location server or a periodic positioning request by a mobile communications terminal when the location server and the terminal respectively manage a trigger generating the periodic positioning, are discussed.
US07877098B2
A method of determining cell reselection in a mobile communication terminal and an apparatus therefor are provided. The method includes receiving system information to calculate a threshold value in consideration of channel quality, a cell reselection weight value, and a cell reselection reference value; and determining whether to perform cell reselection using the threshold value in consideration of the channel quality, the cell reselection weight value, and the cell reselection reference value in a specific wireless environment.
US07877091B2
There is provided a system for executing a container-managed application in a processing device, the system comprising a shared service container providing at least one common service for the processing device, executed in at least one process and at least one container-managed application, each comprising an application executed in a given process and accessing at least one service of the application and the at least one common service using a single service discovery API.
US07877087B2
Operating a mobile terminal may include providing a list in memory of the mobile terminal with the list including at least one identification of a communications device remote from the mobile terminal. An update for the list may be received from outside the mobile terminal over a wireless link, and the list may be automatically updated in the memory of the mobile terminal after receiving the update from outside the mobile terminal. Communications may then be moderated based on the list in the memory. Related systems and computer program products are also discussed.
US07877083B2
A system for verifying and updating a telephone number across service providers. After dialing a telephone number, a contact name and a timestamp in a central repository is compared with a contact name and a timestamp in a storage device. If the contact name in the central repository does not match the contact name in the storage device and the timestamp in the central repository is not more recent than the timestamp in the storage device, a determination is made as to whether the central repository indicates that a new telephone number is associated with the contact name. If a new telephone number is indicated for the contact name, the central repository is queried for the new telephone number. In response to the new telephone number being found, the dialed telephone number is routed to the new telephone number. Also, the storage device is updated with the new telephone number.
US07877078B2
Systems and methods for communicating over a power line are configured to substantially simultaneously communicate over a plurality of wideband frequency ranges. Signals may be communicated two or from a communication node at two different frequencies simultaneously. These signals may be exchanged with different nodes and/or include independent data. In some embodiments, some of the wideband frequency ranges are above 30 MHz.
US07877074B2
Systems and methods for adaptive cancellation of carrier content includes receiving a signal, adaptively detecting an amount of carrier content in the received signal, generating a feedback signal for canceling out the carrier content in the incoming signal, and introducing the feedback signal for canceling out a majority of carrier content in the signal being received.
US07877064B2
The present invention provides methods, apparatus and systems for delivery of digital data to stationary receivers over a terrestrial wireless link at a low data rate using a new coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) scheme. Digital data is encoded and modulated using coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) to produce a data stream. The data stream is communicated to a stationary receiver via a terrestrial wireless link having a ratio of (i) 50% coherence bandwidth to (ii) allocated channel bandwidth of not greater than 50%. The COFDM scheme employed by the present invention overcomes the degradation of multipath fading induced by terrestrial channels, such as the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) broadcast channel.
US07877062B2
An exemplary ambient noise filtering method includes: sampling ambient noise signals to obtain multiple groups of sampled signals; analyzing each group of the sampled signals in each sampling period to determine ambient noise frequency band(s) in each sampling period, wherein the ambient noise frequency band is a frequency band where the ambient noise distributes; determining main noise frequency band(s) by statistically analyzing all the ambient noise frequency bands, wherein the main noise frequency band is a frequency band where the ambient noise concentrates and mainly distributes; and filtering the ambient noise out of signals generated during a communication by filtering the determined main noise frequency band(s) if the main noise frequency band(s) does not have a same range as that of a speech frequency band. Related exemplary mobile phone performing the method is also provided.
US07877059B2
An underwater communications system is provided that transmits electromagnetic and/or magnetic signals to a remote receiver. The transmitter includes a data input. A digital data compressor compresses data to be transmitted. A modulator modulates compressed data onto a carrier signal. An electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna transmits the compressed, modulated signals. The receiver that has an electrically insulated, magnetic coupled antenna for receiving a compressed, modulated signal. A demodulator is provided for demodulating the signal to reveal compressed data. A de-compressor de-compresses the data. An appropriate human interface is provided to present transmitted data into text/audio/visible form. Similarly, the transmit system comprises appropriate audio/visual/text entry mechanisms.
US07877051B2
A fusing unit for an image forming apparatus, including a heating roller to apply heat to a printable medium; a first pressing roller facing the heating roller so as to press the printable medium against the heating roller; a second pressing roller disposed in front of the first pressing roller in a proceeding direction of the printable medium press the printable medium against the heating roller; and a driving unit to transmit a rotation force to the second pressing roller so that a surface linear speed of the second pressing roller is greater than a surface linear speed of the heating roller.
US07877043B2
A constant-velocity joint includes an outer ring having an annular space therein and an opening at one axial end thereof. The annular space is defined by a radially outer wall and a radially inner wall of the outer ring. At least one of the radially outer wall and the radially inner wall has three axially extending track grooves circumferentially spaced apart from each other by 120 degrees. A cage is inserted in the annular space. The cage has pockets at positions corresponding to the track grooves, respectively. A ball is received in each of the pockets so as to roll along one of the track grooves. A pair of diametrically opposed protrusions is formed at radially inner and outer open ends of the pockets of the cage to prevent the balls from coming out of the pockets of the cage.
US07877042B2
An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit for fixing a toner image. The fixing unit includes a heating roller and a pressurizing roller opposed to the heating roller and urged toward the heating roller. A unit case rotatably supports both ends of the heating roller in a longitudinal direction of the heating roller. The unit case is open at one side of the heating roller opposed to the pressurizing roller and covers the other side of the heating roller opposite to the pressurizing roller. A pair of pressurizing roller supporting bodies are respectively provided at both ends in a longitudinal direction of the unit case and rotatably support both ends of the pressurizing roller. A pair of end covers cover both the ends of the heating roller in the longitudinal direction of the heating roller.
US07877039B2
An image forming apparatus may include a casing, and a plurality of image carriers parallelly arranged along one direction in the casing and formed with an electrostatic latent image. The apparatus can further include a plurality of developing agent carriers opposed to the image carriers, for visualizing the electrostatic latent image by feeding a developing agent to the image carriers, and a plurality of developing agent cartridges, parallelly arranged in the one direction to be opposed to the developing agent carriers in the longitudinal direction of the developing agent carriers, and configured to be together attachable/detachable to/from the casing along the one direction, for accommodating the developing agent fed to the developing agent carriers.
US07877036B2
A power supply includes a transformer to transform an input voltage into an output driving voltage for one of a plurality of components of an image forming apparatus, and an output converter to detect the driving voltage being output from the transformer, to amplify the detected driving voltage according to a power control signal, and to output the amplified driving voltage to at least one remaining component in the plurality of components of the image forming apparatus. The power supply can not only control high voltage outputs individually, but also reduces the number of switching transformers being used, as it uses at least one shared switching transformer.
US07877034B2
Disclosed is an image forming apparatus, a sheet finisher and an image forming system; each of them including: a display for displaying a work item for a maintenance in the form of a guidance display; a detection section for detecting whether the work item is executed or not; an energization controller for supplying/blocking power supply to electric components to be maintained; a connection judging section for judging whether the electric components are electrically connected with the power supply or not; and a controller for controlling the display to switch displays of the work item and for controlling the energization controller, in accordance with a detection result of the detection section; wherein the controller causes the display to display an alarm and a guidance display of a corresponding work, according to a judgment of the connection judging section.
US07877032B2
An image forming apparatus includes an image bearing member, a toner image forming member, an intermediary transfer member for forming a primary transfer portion, and a primary transfer member supplied with a transfer voltage. The apparatus also has a voltage source for supplying, to the primary transfer member, a transfer voltage and a voltage of a polarity opposite to the transfer voltage, an image bearing member cleaning apparatus for removing toner from the image bearing member, a secondary transferring member, and an intermediary transfer member cleaning apparatus for electrostatically removing toner from the intermediary transfer member. The apparatus further has a voltage source control apparatus for controlling the voltage source so as to apply, to the primary transfer member, a voltage having an absolute value larger than a discharge threshold and having the polarity opposite to the transfer voltage, when a non-recording toner pattern passes through the primary transfer portion.
US07877027B2
A sheet temperature sensor which detects temperature of a recording medium that is fed is provided downstream in a sheet feeding direction from a fixing device. A controller counts the number of sheets on which an image is continuously formed, and controls the number of sheets discharged by the fixing device per unit time in accordance with the counted number of sheets and the temperature detected by the sheet temperature sensor.
US07877026B2
A radio transmitter integrated circuit includes a photodiode array circuit, a digital conversion module, a transmit baseband processing module, an analog conversion module, an up-conversion module, and a power amplifier circuit. The photodiode array circuit is coupled to convert received light into electrical image signals. The digital conversion module is coupled to convert the electrical image signals into digital image signals. The transmit baseband processing module is coupled to convert the digital image signals into digital transmit baseband or low IF signals. The analog conversion module, the up-conversion module, and the power amplifier circuit are coupled to convert the digital transmit baseband or low IF signals into transmit radio frequency (RF) signals.
US07877004B2
An imaging apparatus is disclosed which analyzes image data of a subject acquired by an image pickup device to select an appropriate combination of exposure time, aperture, and exposure sensitivity upon shooting in order to perform exposure control. As an example of image data analysis methods, there is shown a method of detecting the movement of a characteristic point in an image, or a method of detecting luminance variations in a specific block or area in the image to detect the subject movement. As another exemplary method, a face of the subject is detected. The present invention can also be combined with a shake reduction mode.
US07877001B2
A plurality of standard television broadcast programs recorded on a recording medium are selected. Video and audio signals of one of the selected plurality of standard television broadcast programs are reproduced. Markers are attached to a standard video-and-audio part of the reproduced video and audio signals of the one of the selected plurality of standard television broadcast programs. The standard video-and-audio part is registered. Video and audio signals of another one of the selected plurality of standard television broadcast programs are serially reproduced. The reproduced video and audio signals are compared with the standard video and audio signals of the registered standard video-and-audio part to thereby determine a video-and-audio part of the reproduced video and audio signals, which is substantially matched with the registered standard video-and-audio part.
US07876994B2
An optical fiber array is formed by including m number of optical fibers (where, m is a natural number other than 0), an optical fiber aligning member on a surface of which, at least m number of grooves are formed in parallel, and a cover. An end portion of the optical fiber is disposed in the groove of the optical fiber aligning member, and is held by the optical fiber aligning member and the cover. Furthermore, when being held by the optical fiber aligning member and the cover, by setting a line segment which has connected a point on an outer periphery in contact with the cover, of the optical fiber to be a straight line, the optical fiber is supported at three points by the groove and the cover. Moreover, by setting an angle of formation of the groove to be constant for all the grooves, and by setting arbitrarily a depth of the groove to differ, and by setting arbitrarily a cladding diameter of the optical fiber arranged in the groove, a line segment which has connected a center of each of the m number of optical fibers disposed in the groove is set to be an arbitrary non straight line shape.
US07876992B2
Disclosed are disposable reels and assemblies for holding a cable, thereby aiding the craft in routing cables such as fiber optic drop cables. The reel has a first flange having at least one first tab and at least one first tab slot and a second flange having at least one second tab and at least one second tab slot. First flange is attached to the second flange to form the disposable reel by at least one first tab engaging at least one second tab slot and at least one second tab engaging the at least one first tab slot, thereby forming a hub for the disposable reel that has an accessible space therein. Additionally, fiber optic cable assemblies can further include a connector on one or more ends.
US07876991B2
An optical fiber which reduces transmission loss increase even in a high humidity environment or under water is provided. To solve the above issue, an optical fiber according to the present invention comprises a glass optical fiber coated with at least two coating layers, soft and hard layers. The optical fiber is further coated by a colored resin to make a colored optical fiber. The hard layer and the color layer of the colored optical fiber have a free volume radius of at least 0.290 nm according to positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy.
US07876990B1
An optical waveguide fiber is provided that includes a core and a cladding, where the core includes an alpha profile, wherein alpha (α) is greater than 2.5 and less than 3.0. The core and the cladding provide a fiber with an attenuation of less than 0.331 dB/km at a wavelength of 1310 nm, an attenuation of less than 0.328 dB/km at a wavelength of 1383 nm, an attenuation of less than 0.270 dB/km at a wavelength of 1410 nm, and an attenuation of less than 0.190 dB/km at a wavelength of 1550 nm. Methods for producing the optical fiber are also provided.
US07876988B2
An optical fiber mounting waveguide device and a method for fabricating the same, which provide a low optical connection loss and a high productivity. An under cladding layer (3u), a core (4), and an over cladding layer (3o) are sequentially formed on a substrate (8) to constitute an optical fiber mounting waveguide device (1). An optical fiber mounting groove (2) for mounting an optical fiber (6) is formed on the optical fiber mounting waveguide device (1). An end surface (3a) of the over cladding layer (3o) faces to the optical fiber mounting groove (2). The core (4) and the under cladding layer (3u) are projected toward the optical fiber mounting groove (2) with respect to the end surface (3a) of the over cladding layer (3o).
US07876982B2
A sensor apparatus for sensing parameters of an object may include at least one optical fiber, one or more attaching members and a tensioner. The one or more attaching members may be coupled to the optical fiber and may attach the one optical fiber to an object. The tensioner may be coupled to the optical fiber and may secure the one or more optical fiber against a surface of an object.
US07876975B2
The invention relates to a method for deriving noise statistical properties (NSP) for a signal (S) wherein first distorted noise statistical properties (DNSP) are derived from a distorted signal (DS). In addition the distorted noise statistical properties (DNSP) are subjected to a deconvolution/inversion process (S3) to thereby derive un-distorted noise statistical properties (NSP) for said underlying un-distorted signal (S).
US07876955B2
An image processing system is used for dentistry. Upon creating a false tooth of a patient (59), a plurality of illuminating light of LEDs with different wavelengths emit light and a photographing apparatus (1A) photographs a tooth portion of the patient (59), thereby obtaining image data. The image data is sent to a dentistry filing system (2A) serving as a processing apparatus, and color reproducing data is obtained by calculation. The color reproducing data is sent to a dentistry factory (55) via a public line. Data is searched from a database (56) for calculating a ceramic compounding ratio, compound data of the ceramic false tooth is obtained, matching the color of the tooth portion of the patient (59), and the false tooth approximate to the tooth color of the patient (59) is created.
US07876952B2
A method for reducing a number of shapes, and a computer readable program code adapted to perform said method. The method forms first and second shape patterns. The second shape pattern includes the first shape pattern and error shapes. The error shapes are extracted from the second shape pattern. At least one environment shape corresponding to each error shape is derived from a subset of the error shapes. For example, each error shape in the subset may be expanded to form a corresponding expanded shape, and at least one environment shape corresponding to each expanded shape may be formed by removing all portions of the expanded shape common to the second shape pattern. The environment shape reflects a local geometric environment of its corresponding error shape. A subset of the environment shapes are deleted such that only unique environment shapes satisfying a selection criterion remain.
US07876950B2
An image capturing method and apparatus for pattern recognition of an electronic device are provided in which an electronic device is moved relative to a vision system for positioning the vision system over a target position on the electronic device, and when the vision system is positioned to view the target position, the vision system is operative to capture an image of the target position while the electronic device is undergoing relative motion with respect to the vision system without stopping. Thus, the time taken for pattern recognition can be significantly reduced.
US07876947B2
A method for computer-aided object classification, soft segmentation and layer extraction in computed tomographic colonography includes providing a contrast enhanced computed tomography (CT) digital image of the colon, finding a foreground region of voxels with an intensity higher than a pre-defined foreground threshold, creating a 3D trimap of the colon where the image is segmented into the foreground region, a background region, and an unknown region between the foreground and background, starting from the background, extracting successive layers of the unknown region until the foreground region is reached, and classifying each extracted layer as background or foreground, and generating a foreground matte, a background matte, and an alpha matte, where alpha indicates a mixing ration of foreground and background voxels.
US07876946B2
A method is claimed for correcting truncation artifacts in a tomography method, wherein internal checkpoints having a low level of attenuation are selected within the projection image and external checkpoints are defined by extrapolation based on the internal checkpoints. An adaptation function is then tailored to the internal checkpoints and the external checkpoints. This allows truncation artifacts to be effectively suppressed during the reconstruction of sectional images.
US07876945B2
A method for processing slice images wherein information indicative of at least one quantitative measure is formed from image sets. The image sets are acquired from at least two imaging directions. At least two of the image sets relating to the imaging directions are used for forming the information. A method for reducing misalignments, a module, a system and a computer program product for implementing the method.
US07876932B1
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that can represent an area of a raster image by a centerline. During operation, the system receives a planar map which represents a raster image that contains a region. Note that the region corresponds to a face in the planar map whose edges correspond to the boundaries of the region. Next, the system determines a centerline for a subregion within the region which is currently represented by an outline. The system then transforms the planar map so that the subregion is represented by the centerline.
US07876923B2
A seal consists of an annular thermoplastic body having a relatively thinner annular base and a relatively thicker, compressible annular bead. The annular body has a shape that corresponds to a mounting surface of a loudspeaker.A surface of a rim of a loudspeaker basket is placed in contact with a mold to form a substantially annular cavity, a melted thermoplastic material is injected at low-pressure into the cavity to form a seal adhered to the surface.
US07876920B2
A headset with an active crossover network is provided. The headset is coupled to an audio source using either a wired connection or a wireless connection. The active crossover network, utilizing either analog or digital filtering, divides each channel of the incoming audio signal from the audio source into multiple frequency regions sufficient for the number of drivers contained within each headphone of the headset. The output from the network's filters is amplified using either single channel or multi-channel amplifies. Preferably, gain control circuitry is used to control the gain of the amplifier(s) and thus the volume produced by the drivers. More preferably, the gain of the gain control circuitry is adjustable. The headset includes a power source that is coupled to the amplifier(s) and, if necessary, the network's filters. The power source can be included within some portion of the headset or included within a wireless interface. Alternately, an external power source can be used, for example one associated with the audio source.
US07876919B2
Embodiments of the invention provide microphone assemblies for hearing aids which are resistant to moisture and debris. An embodiment provides a microphone assembly for a CIC hearing aid comprising a microphone housing including a housing surface having a microphone port, a fluidic barrier structure coupled to the housing surface, a protective mesh coupled to the barrier structure and a microphone disposed within the housing. The microphone housing can be sized to be positioned in close proximity to another component surface such as a hearing battery assembly surface. At least a portion of the housing surface and/or the barrier structure are hydrophobic. The barrier structure surrounds the microphone port and is configured to channel liquid and debris away from entry into the microphone port including matter constrained between the housing surface and another surface.
US07876914B2
An exemplary embodiment is a method of processing audio data comprising: characterising an audio data representative of a recorded sound scene into a set of sound sources occupying positions within a time and space reference frame; analysing the sound sources; and generating a modified audio data representing sound captured from at least one virtual microphone configured for moving about the recorded sound scene, wherein the virtual microphone is controlled in accordance with a result of the analysis of said audio data, to conduct a virtual tour of the recorded sound scene.
US07876908B2
For the visualization of the hearing ability or hearing recognition respectively of a person with or without a hearing device at least one hearing dimension as for instance the loudness recognition is being made visible by means of a picture by varying at least one picture parameter such as for instance the brightness. The visualization can also be achieved by fade-in or fade-out of individual objects or a plurality of objects within a picture.
US07876905B2
A method and circuit for deriving a set of multichannel audio signals from a conventional monaural or stereo audio signal uses an auxiliary multichannel spectral mapping data stream. Audio can be played back in stereo and multichannel formats from a conventional stereo signal on compact discs, FM radio, or other stereo or monaural delivery systems. The invention reduces the data rate needed for the transmission of multichannel digital audio.
US07876894B2
In one embodiment, method that can be performed on a system, is provided to security implementations for storage devices. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing a separate encryption seed for each of a plurality of separate addressable blocks of a non-volatile storage device, wherein a common encryption method is to encrypt data to be stored on the plurality of separate addressable blocks. In one embodiment, the storage device is a portable storage device. In one embodiment, encryption seed is an Initialization Vector (IV). In one embodiment, the encryption seeds comprise at least one of a media serial number and a logical block address corresponding to the respective block of the non-volatile storage device. In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises storing at least a part of the separate encryption seed of the separate blocks of the non-volatile storage device within the respective blocks of the storage device.
US07876887B2
Prior to establishing a collect call, the called party agrees to pay an additional fee for any three-way call that may be established during the proposed collect call. If during the collect call, the called party attempts to add a third party to the collect call, a call processing system determines whether the third party's phone number is blocked from accepting a collect call. If the third party's phone number is blocked from accepting a collect call, the number will be dialed in an attempt to establish a three-way call. If the third person's phone number is not blocked from accepting a collect call, the called party to the original collect call will be advised that the phone number entered is not eligible for three-ways calling during the collect call, and the parties to the original collect call will be reconnected. If the original collect call originates from a custodial facility, the call processing system may additionally verify that that the original calling party is not disallowed from dialing any entered number, including the original called party's phone number and any subsequent third party's phone number that may be entered by the original called party, prior to the call processing system dialing said number(s). Service providers, by selectively allowing a three-way call during a collect call, to add a third party whose phone line is blocked from accepting a collect call, will earn revenues from communications that may never otherwise take place.
US07876881B2
A system according to some embodiments may include a treatment head to emit a megavoltage radiation beam toward a volume, a plurality of X-ray sources to emit a respective kilovoltage radiation beam toward the volume while the plurality of X-ray sources are substantially stationary with respect to the volume, a detector to receive the plurality of kilovoltage radiation beams after having passed through the volume, and a processor to generate a three-dimensional image of the volume based only on the plurality of kilovoltage radiation beams received by the detector while the plurality of X-ray sources were substantially stationary with respect to the volume.
US07876880B2
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.
US07876876B2
A radiation image capturing apparatus includes a housing for housing a radiation detector. The housing has a wall inclined with respect to a detection surface of the radiation detector, and the wall defines a space inclined with respect to the detection surface. The space allows heat transfer medium such as air of relatively high temperatures (higher than that of outside air, for example) to rise along a slope defined by the space. If the region around the detection surface is heated to high temperatures, airflow is generated within the space, forcing the relatively high-temperature heat transfer medium away from the vicinity of the radiation detector, thereby allowing the whole radiation detector to be cooled in a uniform manner.
US07876868B2
An interference contribution associated with a selected subcarrier of a plurality of subcarriers associated with a previously transmitted OFDM symbol or a current OFDM symbol is determined. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) output for the current OFDM symbol is also determined. The interference contribution is subtracted from the FFT output of the current OFDM symbol to form a modified FFT output.
US07876859B2
The invention provides a semiconductor device with high yield by reducing an effect of variations in characteristics of a semiconductor element. Further, by reducing an effect of variations in characteristics of a semiconductor element to improve productivity, an inexpensive semiconductor device can be provided. Further, an inexpensive semiconductor device can be provided by forming a semiconductor device in a large amount over a large substrate such as a glass substrate and a flexible substrate. A semiconductor device of the invention includes a demodulation signal generating circuit and an antenna or a wire for connecting the antenna. The demodulation signal generating circuit includes a demodulation circuit and a correction circuit. The correction circuit corrects a first demodulation signal generated from the demodulation circuit and generates a second demodulation signal.
US07876853B2
A system including a phase comparator to compare a first signal and a second signal to generate a phase error signal, and a controller to generate an adjusted phase error signal from the phase error signal in response to an amplitude of at least one of the first signal and the second signal.
US07876852B2
According to the invention, a very narrow-band transfer signal (LS) is generated by serially connecting a frequency modulator (2) and an amplitude modulator (4). The frequency modulator (2) is operated at a modulation index which at least largely suppresses the carrier signal (TS) while the amplitude modulator (4) suppresses the broadband portion of the spectrum by fading out the transfer signal (LS) during frequency-shift keying.
US07876850B2
A method and device for determining decoupled signal parameters of received signals associated with individual antenna elements of an antenna array is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of determining a receiving characteristic of the antenna array, establishing an identity characteristic associated with the antenna array, the identity characteristic independently defining each of the plurality of antenna elements, and determining a decoupled signal parameter of the received signals in view of the receiving characteristic, the identity characteristic and a coupled current associated with said received signals. The device comprises a memory and a processor in communication with the memory for executing code for processing coupled signal inputs in view of a receiving characteristic and an identity characteristic of the antenna array, wherein the receiving characteristic includes a measure of coupling among the antenna elements and the identity characteristic independently identifies each of the antenna elements.
US07876845B2
Communications systems and/or methods are disclosed that can provide extreme privacy, cognitive radio capability, robustness to fading and interference, communications performance associated with M-ary orthonormal signaling and/or high multiple-access capacity. Embodiments can use spread-spectrum waveforms that are featureless, devoid of chipping and devoid of cyclostationary signatures, statistically indistinguishable from thermal noise and able to cognitively fit within any available frequency space (narrow-band, broad-band, contiguous, non-contiguous). Some embodiments maintain all desirable features of classical direct-sequence spread-spectrum communications while providing new dimensions that are important to communications systems. Embodiments of the invention can provide M-ary orthonormal signaling with chipless spread-spectrum waveforms to provide extreme covertness and privacy. Moreover, embodiments of the invention may be used to cognitively and covertly utilize spectrum resources at minimal impact to incumbent users. Further embodiments may be used to provide minimum interference, opportunistic, “white space spectrum” communications.
US07876840B2
Systems and methods for performing OFDM MIMO communications are provided. These include a frame structure; methods of combining various types of MIMO such as STTD and SM; sub-channel definitions; sub-FFT channel constructions; fast control channels; additional modulations; and group antenna transmit diversity; new incremental redundancy schemes.
US07876837B2
Access noise in a spread spectrum communication system (100) is reduced by broadcasting a resource indicator message (116) from a base station (102) and is received by mobile stations (104) in the serving area (103) of the base station. The resource indicator message indicates which resources are supported (202) by the base station, as well as their present availability (204, 206, 208, 210). If a desired resource is not presently available (408), mobile stations will avoid requesting access to that resource (410). When the resource becomes available, access noise can be controlled by having mobile stations wait a randomly selected period of time (414).
US07876836B2
Systems and methods are described for pulse communications using precision timing. A method includes digitally pulse coding a data stream; and modulating a carrier signal using the digitally pulse coded data stream.
US07876823B2
A video encoding apparatus includes selecting one combination, for each block of an input video signal, from a plurality of combinations. Each combination includes a predictive parameter and at least one reference picture number determined in advance for the reference picture. A prediction picture signal is generated in accordance with the reference picture number and predictive parameter of the selected combination. A predictive error signal is generated representing an error between the input video signal and the prediction picture signal. Encoding the predictive error signal, information of the motion vector, and index information indicating the selected combination is included.
US07876821B2
A method for rate control for encoding video sequence, wherein the video sequence includes a plurality of Group Of Pictures, wherein each Group of Picture includes at least and I-frame and an Inter-frame, where the rate control method includes the following steps for the encoding of the Inter-frame in the Group of Picture: determining a desired frame rate based on an available bandwidth of a channel for transmitting the video sequence and an available computational resources for the encoding process; determining a target buffer level based on the desired frame rate and the position of the Inter-frame with respect to the I-frame; and determining a target bit rate based on the target buffer level and the available channel bandwidth, wherein the target bit rate is used for controlling the rate of encoding the video sequence.
US07876816B2
A moving picture coding program directs a computer to perform the procedure of detecting a scene change between images depending on, for example, whether or not summation of absolute values of inter-frame differences has exceeded a threshold, and the procedure of coding image data before a scene change by rough quantization when the scene change is detected.
US07876815B2
Methods and apparatus to qualify a wire-pair for a digital subscriber line (DSL) service are disclosed. An example method comprises modifying a digital subscriber line (DSL) signal received on a wire-pair at a DSL modem to emulate an environmental condition, and qualifying the wire-pair for a DSL service based on a DSL connection rate achieved by the DSL modem during the emulated environmental condition.
US07876814B2
A modem card includes a connector configured to be detachably connected to a computer. The card also includes electronics configured to be powered by a power supply located in the computer and to transmit wireless signals to a communications network at a transmit power. The electronics are configured to vary the transmit power such that the transmit power does not exceed a maximum transmit power. Increases in the transmit power cause a drop in the voltage of the power. The electronics are also configured to determine an adjusted maximum transmit power. The adjusted maximum transmit power is a transmit power at which the signals can be transmitted to the communications system without the voltage dropping below a shut-down voltage. The electronics are also configured to reduce the value of the maximum transmit power to a value that that is less than or equal to the value for the adjusted maximum transmit power.
US07876808B2
Methods and systems for processing signals in a wireless communication system are disclosed. Aspects of the method may include estimating at a receiver, a rate at which a communication channel changes. A length of a filter used to average a noise power estimate and/or a signal power estimate may be adaptively changed based on the estimation of the rate at which the communication channel changes. The communication channel may comprise a common pilot channel (CPICH). At least a portion of a wireless signal received via the communication channel may be descrambled at the receiver to generate a plurality of descrambled bits. At least a portion of the plurality of descrambled bits may be accumulated to generate at least one in-phase (I) component and at least one quadrature (Q) component.
US07876807B2
This invention is directed to a method for estimating and compensating for multipath errors in a pseudorandom noise ranging receiver. The method exploits the asymmetry of the correlation function and proportionately relates it to the magnitude of multipath error. In a pseudorandom noise ranging receiver, the correlation function is obtained by generating the local pseudorandom noise sequences at different programmed non-uniform phases resulting in non-uniformly spaced correlators. Numerically controlled oscillators, code generators and shift registers are programmed to determine the correlation values at non-uniformly distributed points on a correlation function. Curve fitting is undertaken to determine the code phase at which the correlation function peaks. A proportionality constant is applied to the measure of asymmetry of the correlation function to determine the multipath error in the pseudorandom noise signal. A filter is used to detect and eliminate outliers.
US07876805B2
A dynamic compensator for a fiber optic cable having a jacket which is centered along a longitudinal axis, an elongated buffer tube surrounded by the jacket, and an elongated fiber surrounded by the buffer tube and dimensioned to move radially inwards and outwards within the buffer tube. The dynamic compensator includes a cable holder configured to receive and loop a portion of the fiber optic cable so that when the jacket elongates, the fiber extending along the loop is displaced radially inwards so as to release stresses upon end portions of the fiber, and when the jacket shrinks, the fiber is displaced radially outward to increase stresses upon the end portions of the fiber.
US07876802B2
The present invention describes an optically end-pumped laser gain module, comprising a gain medium which is pumped by a light beam that has a larger size on the input face of the medium than on its output face.
US07876800B2
A surface emitting laser having a photonic crystal layer 130 on a substrate 105 with an active layer therebetween, in which the photonic crystal layer includes at least a first periodic structure for resonating in an in-plane direction and a second periodic structure for modulating a light intensity distribution in an in-plane direction. The light intensity in the photonic crystal layer is periodically distributed to a region having high light intensity and a region having low light intensity by the second periodic structure. Further, a conductive film 170 for performing current injection into the active layer is selectively provided just above the region having low light intensity. The surface emitting laser provides suppression of light absorption and highly efficient current injection into an active layer to attain a high power.
US07876798B2
A nitride semiconductor laser device is formed by growing a group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure on a substrate containing no Al. The group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure forms a structure including an n-type semiconductor layer, a p-type semiconductor layer, and a light emitting layer held between the n-type semiconductor layer and the p-type semiconductor layer. The n-type semiconductor layer includes an n-type cladding layer containing Al and an n-type guide layer having a smaller band gap than the n-type cladding layer. The p-type semiconductor layer includes a p-type cladding layer containing Al and a p-type guide layer having a smaller band gap than the p-type cladding layer. A removal region is formed by partially removing the layers containing Al in the group III nitride semiconductor multilayer structure from the substrate.
US07876797B2
A system contains a laser output measurement circuit used in a laser control system (210). The circuits contain a photodiode (109), sample and hold amplifier (202), IC with synchronizer and delay circuits (206), and an analog to digital converter (204). The circuits measure the laser light output (107) while the laser Module (106) transmits signals. The measurement circuit tracks and stores the laser light output (107) signal using a Photodiode Sensor (109) and with a Sample/hold (202). The methods calculate the value of the laser light output (107) from mathematical relationships, which correlate the light output (107) of the laser Module (106) to the current value of the drive signal (100). Some of the distinguishing features in the present invention are 1) feedback information from the photodiode is obtained in a synchronous manner as a snapshot of the laser performance, and 2) the measurements are precise and calibrated, and 3) no disruption of the signal transmission occurs.
US07876792B2
Various exemplary embodiments include a method and related system and monitoring entity including one or more of the following: generating timing information at a master node in a packet-switched network, the timing information specifying a value of a master clock; communicating the timing information from the master node to a plurality of slave nodes over a first plurality of time-division multiplexing (TDM) pseudowires; running a digital phase-locked loop on each slave node to synchronize each slave node to the master clock, wherein each digital phase-locked loop outputs a frequency at which the respective slave node is operating; sending the frequency outputted by each digital phase-locked loop to a monitoring entity over a second plurality of TDM pseudowires; utilizing the outputted frequencies at the monitoring entity to identify all slave nodes that are experiencing timing problems; and implementing a remedial measure for all slave nodes that are experiencing timing problems.
US07876788B2
The invention comprises a method and apparatus for reducing uncertainty in timing on the network. The uncertainty in receive buffers is removed by time stamping the arriving packets before sending the packets to the receive buffer. The uncertainty in the transmission buffer is removed by giving the packets a timestamp in the future, and holding the packets until precisely that time. Time precision is ensured by only releasing time packets at the host physical layer to network boundary at the time specified within the packet.
US07876785B2
The invention relates to a method for transmitting one or more client signals via a packet transport network. According to the method, packets of the one or more client signals are received at an ingress node of the network. Timing information characterizing the timing of the received packets is determined and the received packets are mapped into a container. The container and the timing information are transmitted via the network. At an egress node of the network, the packets are extracted from the container and the packets are timed for further transmission based on the transmitted timing information.
US07876783B2
A method for enhancing a message service of a mobile communication terminal is described. When combining messages, a method for transmitting a message using a mobile communication terminal includes selecting messages stored in a mobile communication terminal; combining the selected messages into at least one message using a predetermined specifier; and sending the combined message to a destination device. In addition, when separating a message, a method for receiving a message from a mobile communication terminal includes selecting a message from a first message box of a destination device; separating the selected message into a plurality of messages; and associating the separated messages with a second message box of the destination device.
US07876781B2
A method of processing a data unit of a first protocol layer for transmission in a data unit based communication system is described, comprising the steps of passing to a second protocol layer a given data unit of said first protocol layer that is to be transmitted, determining a numeric value of a numerically quantifiable parameter associated with said given data unit of said first protocol layer, embedding said given data unit of said first protocol layer into one or more data units of said second protocol layer, performing transmission control for said one or more data units of said second protocol layer in accordance with said numeric value of said numerically quantifiable parameter.
US07876780B2
The invention relates to a method for managing network resources in a network with a network management device (M), a network component (A), and a further network component (B), and a network management device (M), the method comprising the following steps: transmitting a request for an advance reservation of a network resource by the network component (A) to the network management device (M), wherein the request includes information regarding a reservation start time and a reservation end time; transmitting a request for an ad-hoc reservation of a further network resource by the further network component (B) to the network management device (M); allocating the further network resource to the further network component (B) by the network management device (M); and allocating the network resource to the network component (A) by the network management device (M) at the reservation start time, wherein the network resource comprises a part or all of the further network resource.
