US07943049B1
Arsenic is a poisonous metalloid which, because of its hydroscopic nature, is primarily transported through water. Most plant species, including the nopal cactus, produce a sticky substance called mucilage. Mucilage swells in water but is insoluble and can precipitate ions, bacteria and particles from aqueous solutions. The invention includes a method of separating particulates and heavy metals such as arsenic (As) from drinking water using natural flocculants obtained from cactus mucilage. The extraction techniques and the methodology for using the cactus mucilage obtain higher As removal than conventional methods, like aluminum sulfate precipitation.
US07943047B2
Process for the treatment of wastewater from an aldolization process which is contaminated with water-soluble and/or dispersed organic impurities by means of single-stage or multistage extraction with an organic liquid of the aldolization process wastewater which has been set to a pH of from 0 to 6, in which an organic liquid obtained by stripping of the acidified aldolization process wastewater or of the acidified and extracted aldolization process wastewater, condensation of the stripped compounds and phase separation of the condensate is used as extractant for the extraction of organic impurities from the acidified aldolization process wastewater and wastewater having a lower content of organic impurities than the aldolization process wastewater fed to the extraction is taken off from the stripping apparatus.
US07943039B1
A system for collecting the flow of sand and sediment in a water current including a catch basin and a seawater pumping arrangement. The catch basin includes a basin and a transfer tube, the basin having a bottom and a plurality of angled sidewalls defining a basin. The bottom basin aperture therethrough aligned with an aperture formed in the transport tube affixed horizontally below the bottom. The transfer tube preferably includes a wedge-shaped flow-enhancing cavity immediately downstream of the aligned apertures which enhances the flow of the sand and sediment from the basin. A longitudinal catch plate extending within a midportion of the transfer tube below the apertures prevents the sand and sediment from clogging the transfer tube when water flow through the transfer tube is off.
US07943031B2
An apparatus and method for reducing the liquid content of a particulate/liquid dispersion, such as a sewage sludge or mine tailings, are described. The apparatus comprises containment means to contain the material, and means to apply pressure to the contained material therein, the containment means being partly defined by a first filtration membrane permeable to the liquid but impermeable to at least some and more preferably substantially all of the solids contained within the material, in particular configured as a continuous belt press. The filtration membrane comprises a textile or other synthetic material in intimate association with a conducting element so as to constitute where so associated a first electrode. A second sheet material, preferably also a filtration membrane, is similarly associated with a conducting element so as to constitute a second electrode to allow application of a potential difference across the material and drive the dewatering process electrokinetically. Preferably, the apparatus is a belt filter press, and includes means to apply a variable and intermittent voltage to, and insulate from each other, two electrodes configured a continuously moving belts.
US07943014B2
An integrated combustion chamber and fluidized bed pyrolysis reactor. In one embodiment, the combustion chamber is cylindrical and the pyrolysis reactor is provided annularly about the combustion chamber with an annular wall that provides a common surface for heat transfer. A lift tube in fluid communication with the pyrolysis reactor is provided within the combustion chamber for circulating biomass and an inert fluidizable media upwardly through the lift tube; this advantageously increases heat transfer and leads to more rapid pyrolysis. The media and biomass exit the lift tube into either a freeboard area of the pyrolysis reactor or into a low density region of the fluidized bed. A condensable gaseous product is produced during pyrolysis that has economic value. The apparatus and process are especially well suited to the pyrolysis of low density agricultural biomass. The apparatus is compact and particularly well suited to mobile operation.
US07943011B2
The present invention is related to a paperboard product having a basis weight in a range of 100 to 350 pounds per 3,000 square feet. The paperboard comprises at least one coated surface suitable for printing. The at least one coated surface comprising cellulosic fibers and from about 0.05 to about 0.5 wt. % dry basis expanded synthetic polymer microspheres based on total weight of the of cellulosic fiber dispersed thereof. The coated surface has a Parker smoothness less than about 2.0 and a Hagerty/Sheffield smoothness not less than about 20 Sheffield units.
US07943003B2
A low stress to seal, unitary gasket tape is provided that is particularly suited for use in form-in-place gaskets. The gasket tape preferably comprises at least two joined porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) tapes aligned along tape side surfaces and a substantially air impermeable layer there between. The plane of expansion of the ePTFE is substantially parallel to the flange surface providing longitudinal and transverse strength. The substantially air impermeable layer prevents fluid from permeating through the gasket in the radial direction.
US07942999B2
A fabrication method of a rigid-flex circuit board is described as follows. Firstly, a flexible circuit board and at least a cover layer are provided. The cover layer covers a surface of the flexible circuit board. A protection layer is then formed on the cover layer. Next, a substrate is laminated to the surface of the flexible circuit board. The substrate has a conductive layer and a prepreg disposed between the conductive layer and the cover layer. The prepreg has an opening for accommodating the protection layer. Thereafter, the conductive layer is patterned for forming a patterned conductive layer. Afterwards, the protection layer is removed.
US07942994B2
A bonding tool and method A bonding tool and method for bonding together layers of a MEMS transducer device, including at least one layer of a piezoelectric material, and an intermediate reinforcing layer of titanium, or other metal, comprising: positioning the layers above one another and spaced apart by means of spacing members, heating said layers to a bonding temperature, and retracting the spacing members so as to bring the layers together under pressure to effect a bond between adjacent surfaces of the layers, wherein a press head is employed with a compliant caul for evenly distributing the press force; and permitting said layers to cool to an operating temperature in which said piezoelectric layer is under compressive strain and the titanium layer is under tensile strain.
US07942993B2
Method for producing multilayer tailored fiber placement (TFP) preforms using meltable fixing fibers
In a method, multilayer tailored fiber placement (TFP) preforms of any desired thickness may be easily produced without fixing threads or intermediate layers interfering. Reinforcing fibers are sewn onto a substrate using a chemically or thermally meltable fixing thread thus resulting in the formation of a reinforcing fiber structure. The fixing thread firstly serves to fix the reinforcing fibers on the substrate and is subsequently melted so that the fixing thread disintegrates while pre-fixing the reinforcing fibers and may not influence the mechanical properties of the reinforcing fiber structure.
US07942991B1
The present invention is a laminating process which is directed toward economical production methods for scalable amounts of production which develop properties suitable for a broad based product line. In particular, the product is capable of important key components of commercial properties such as adhesion, scratch resistance, chemical inertness, and bending without failure.
US07942990B2
The present invention provides a hybrid inflator including: a pressurized gas and a solid gas generating agent that generates a combustion gas as a gas source, the solid gas generating agent including at least an oxidizing agent and a binder, the pressurized gas including 15 mol % or more of oxygen.
US07942985B2
A soft magnetic alloy for perpendicular magnetic recording medium excellent in saturation magnetic flux density, amorphousness and atmospheric corrosion resistance. The alloy is an Fe—Co based alloy and comprises Fe in an amount satisfying 0.25 to 0.65 of Fe/(Fe+Co) ratio, which is an atomic ratio of Fe and Fe+Co; Zr+Hf in an amount of 6 to 100 at %; Na+Ta in an amount of 0 to 2 at %; Al and/or Cr in an amount of 0 to 5 at %; and the balance Co and unavoidable impurities. A part of Zr and/or Hf can be replaced by B, provided that the amount of B to replace Zr and/or Hf is double in at % of the total amount of Zr and Hf to be replaced and that the total amount of Zr and Hf after replacement is 4 at % or more.
US07942969B2
A substrate cleaning chamber comprises various components, such as for example, a consumable ceramic liner, substrate heating pedestal, and process kit. The consumable ceramic liner is provided for connecting a gas outlet channel of a remote gas energizer to a gas inlet channel of a substrate cleaning chamber. The substrate heating pedestal comprises an annular plate having a substrate receiving surface with a plurality of ceramic balls positioned in an array of recesses. A process kit comprises a top plate, top liner, gas distributor plate, bottom liner, and focus ring.
US07942962B2
Disclosed is a monoazo metal complex represented by the formula (1) wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom, a C1-C4 alkyl group, a C1-C4 alkoxy group, a chlorine atom, a bromine atom or a nitro group; M represents a hydrogen atom, a sodium, a potassium, a magnesium, a calcium, a barium or an aluminum; Mn+ represents a n-valent cation; Metal represents Ni, Fe, Cu, Co or Al; m represents an integer of 1 or 2; and n represents an integer of 1, 2 or 3.
US07942959B2
An ink for ink-jet recording, by use of which the ejection stability and the storage stability are improved while the occurrence of blurring is prevented, includes water, a water soluble organic solvent and a colored particle as a coloring agent. The volume average diameter of the colored particles is about 1 μm to about 5 μm, and the amount of particles having diameters equal to or greater than about 1.5 times the volume average diameter is about 5 vol % or less with respect to the total volume of the colored particles.
US07942953B2
The present invention relates to a filtration unit containing pellets or granules of fine-particle iron oxides and/or iron oxyhydroxides with a large specific surface area, processes for their production and processes for their use in the filtration units.
US07942951B2
A low-maintenance scrubber inlet device is provided for delivering effluent gases to gas scrubbers. The scrubber inlet device may comprise an interior volume configured to receive effluent gases and direct the effluent gases into the scrubber while maintaining the temperature of the effluent gases. In some instances, a heated gas is introduced to maintain the effluent gas temperature. The scrubber interface device is configured to deliver the effluent gas stream from the inlet manifold to the gas scrubbing system, and to have a very low susceptibility to clogging.
US07942943B2
A down-draft fixed bed gasifier is disclosed that produced clean producer or synthesis gas. The gasifier can be installed at a stationary location or can be scaled down to enable placing the gasifier on a trailer that can be moved to the site of biomass generation. The gasifier is vertically oriented and generally cylindrical, and the design allows for a continual input of feedstock into the gasifier with less clogging and without lowering the gas pressure inside the gasifier. The design incorporates an internal catalyst to clean tars from the produced gas, and uses heat from the combustion chamber of the gasifier to heat the catalyst. The flow of air may be either positive flow or negative flow.
US07942925B2
A method and apparatus for reducing blood flow to an aneurysm proximate to a bifurcation having a source blood vessel a first branch vessel and a second branch vessel, the method comprising: providing a first mesh-like tube of bio-compatible material, the first mesh-like tube exhibiting a porosity index pre-selected to skew blood flow about the bifurcation away from the aneurysm; inserting the first mesh-like tube into the source blood vessel and the first branch vessel; and securing the first mesh-like tube to at least one of the source blood vessel and the first branch vessel, whereby blood flowing from the source blood vessel flows without undue impedance to the first branch vessel and the second branch vessel while being skewed away from the aneurysm.
US07942922B2
An expandable stent comprised of a plurality of helical segments is disclosed. In one embodiment, the stent is generally cylindrical in shape having a cylindrical axis, and comprises a first and second set of helical segments. The helical segments in the first set are substantially parallel and have a first pitch forming a first helical angle with respect to the cylindrical axis. The helical segments in the second set are also generally parallel to each other and form a second pitch that differs from the first pitch, thereby forming a second helical angle with respect to the cylindrical axis. In an alternative embodiment, the stent comprises one set of helical segments and a plurality of circumferential elements that are joined together by the helical segments to form a plurality of cylindrical elements which are joined together to form a stent body. The stent may also have endzones.
US07942917B2
A stent is formed from a hollow resilient tube shaped into a helical expanded configuration to form a substantially cylindrical prosthesis that is releasably attached to an actuation shaft for delivery to a treatment site. The stent is deliverable in a substantially linear configuration and deployed with internal fluid pressure, which is delivered through the actuation shaft, to return to the helical expanded configuration. Specifically, injection of a deployment fluid into the resilient tube that forms the stent causes the stent to revert or spring back from the substantially linear delivery configuration to the original helical configuration, and in some applications to dilate a vessel. A ring is attached to a distal end of the stent to couple the stent system to a guidewire for delivery through the vasculature.
US07942916B2
Methods and systems are disclosed for phototreatment in which replaceable containers comprising one or more adjuvant (consumable or re-useable) substances are employed. The adjuvant substance can be, for example, a topical substance or a coolant. Systems are disclosed for using a topical substance to detect contact of a phototreatment device with a tissue, detect speed of a phototreatment device over the tissue, detect regions of tissue that have been treated by a phototreatment device and/or to provide other benefits to the tissue such as improved skin tone and texture, tanning, etc. Safety systems are also disclosed that ensure that a proper consumable substance and/or container is connected to a phototreatment device and/or directed to a proper target. Additionally, cooling systems and methods that utilize phase change materials for extracting heat from a light generating device are disclosed.
US07942909B2
A thread-thru polyaxial pedicle screw fastening system. The fastening system consists of an anchoring bone screw having threads on one end for use in anchoring to the screw to the spine and a spherical connector on the other end operating as a pivot point about which a U-shaped connecting assembly moves in a polyaxial fashion. The U-shaped connecting assembly, for receipt of a spinal connecting rod, has a biased retainer ring for maintaining a positive tension between the connecting assembly and the anchored screw. The system allows for an improved manufacturing step wherein the threaded shank of a bone screws can be passed through a lower portion of the connecting assembly allowing a variety of bone screw sizes to be used with a common sized connector.
US07942905B2
A system for flexibly stabilizing a vertebral motion segment by connecting a first vertebra and a second vertebra is disclosed. The system includes a bumper with a resilient central member. The system is designed such that the resilient central member is compressed in both compression and extension of the bumper or vertebral motion segment. The system includes first and second means for connecting the bumper to the vertebrae.
US07942902B2
An anchor for attaching an elongate member to bone. The anchor includes a longitudinal shaft having a tip at one end adapted to enter bone. A thread extends along the shaft for advancing the shaft into the bone and holding the shaft in place in the bone. A head is mounted on the shaft at a position spaced from the tip. The anchor also includes connector mounts spaced along the head. Each mount is adapted to connect the elongate member to the head.
US07942897B2
A closure device closes an opening in a body cavity. The closure device includes an elongate delivery member and a closure component which is removably connected to the distal end of the delivery member. The closure component has a collapsible backing movable between a non-collapsed position and a collapsed position. The closure component also includes a plurality of fibrous tissue engaging members disposed on the backing and oriented in a non-engaging orientation when traveling in a distal direction and in an engaging orientation when traveling in a proximal direction. The fibrous tissue engaging members become entangled in the backing when the backing is in the collapsed position.
US07942896B2
An aspect of the invention relates to a forceps and collection assembly having multiple components and their related methods of use and manufacture. More specifically, an embodiment of the invention relates to a forceps for obtaining and collecting multiple samples in a collection assembly, such as a pouch. The forceps has multiple components including an insert cutting edge, a molded biopsy jaw, and an insert molded pouch.
US07942892B2
An expandable frame for an embolic filtering device used to capture embolic debris in a body lumen. The expandable frame also includes a filtering element. A nickel-titanium alloy is used to form the frame. Due to limited heat treatment, the frame exhibits linear pseudoelasticity when positioned inside the body lumen. The nickel-titanium alloy includes a ternary element such as iridium, platinum, gold, rhenium, tungsten, palladium, rhodium, tantalum, silver, ruthenium, or hafnium so that the frame is also radiopaque.
US07942887B2
The invention provides a device, assembly, and method for transoral endoscopic restoration of a gastroesophageal flap valve. The invention also provides a self-steering and self-closing tissue fixation device for tissue fixation, and an invaginator device for gripping and maneuvering tissue. The restoration device includes a longitudinal member arranged for transoral placement into a stomach, a tissue shaper carried on the longitudinal member that causes stomach tissue to assume a shape related to a gastroesophageal flap, and a tissue fixation device that maintains the shaped stomach tissue in a shape approximating a gastroesophageal flap. The tissue shaper may include a mold. The device may include the invaginator device for gripping and maneuvering esophageal tissue to aid restoration of the gastroesophageal flap, and may include the tissue fixation device.
US07942886B2
A transabdominal needle introducer for the repair of large ventral incisional hernias comprises a handle connected to a long tubular shaft and a disposable needle cartridge at its distal end. The handle has a round knob or head, and a needle pusher to extrude the needles out. The long tubular shaft contains two metal rods disposed inside thereof, one to change the angle of the cartridge, and the other one to extrude the needles. At the proximal end of the tubular shaft there is a rotatable cylindrical control provided with a spiral groove that moves a metal rod destined to pivot the needle cartridge. The second metal rod inside the shaft is assigned to extrude the needles and is connected to a flexible resilient wire that protrudes at the distal end of the tubular shaft and is provided at its distal end with an oval tip that engages a piston-type pusher inside the needle cartridge. There are two straight needles inside the cartridge that are attached to a single strand of suture at each end, and they can be extruded by action of the needle pusher.
US07942883B2
A tool for separating an acetabular shell of a hip prosthesis from the surrounding pelvic bone includes a fixture which attaches to the acetabular shell and has a chisel guide mounted on it. A chisel associated with the chisel guide is curved to conform to the outer periphery of the acetabular shell, and the chisel guide causes the chisel to circumscribe the acetabular shell as the chisel is inserted between the acetabular shell and the pelvis.
US07942874B2
The invention is concerned with cauterizing and resecting tissue. A pair of electrodes are placed on opposed tissue surfaces, and radio frequency power is applied through the electrodes to cauterizing a tissue mass therebetween. After cauterization has been effected, the tissue may be resected along a plane within the cauterized region with minimum or no bleeding. The tissue mass may then be removed.
US07942873B2
Ablation devices and associated methods are provided for use in ablating the margin of a cavity such as a surgical or body cavity. The ablation apparatus includes an integral or connected elongate probe and an elongate sleeve. Suction can be applied with a vacuum source operably connected to the proximal end region of the sleeve, whereby tissue of the surgical cavity is drawn against the surface of the sleeve. The probe includes one or more electrodes disposed at the probe's distal end region, for ablating tissue when the electrode(s) are activated to create an ablated margin of tissue at least partially surrounding the surgical cavity.
US07942868B2
A surgical instrument has a parallel motion mechanism coupled between an instrument body segment and the instrument's distal end. The parallel motion mechanism changes the end effector's position without changing the end effector's orientation. In an aspect of the invention, the parallel motion mechanism and the body segment have essentially the same cross section so that the parallel motion mechanism can be inserted through a guide tube. In an aspect of the invention, the parallel motion mechanism is telemanipulatively controlled.
US07942867B2
Embodiments of a system including a remotely controlled substance delivery device and associated controller are described. Methods of use and control of the device are also disclosed. According to some embodiments, a delivery device or related device may be placed in an environment in order to pump a material into the environment or into an additional fluid handling structure within the device. Exemplary environments include a body of an organism, a body of water, or an enclosed volume of a fluid. The concentration of a substance in the fluid to be delivered may be modified by a remote control signal. In selected embodiments, a magnetic field, an electric field, or electromagnetic control signal may be used.
US07942859B2
A wearing article includes a flexible chassis and a semi-rigid absorbent panel laid on inner surface of the chassis. A liner defining an innermost layer of the chassis is bonded to the absorbent panel in a fixed zone defined in a crotch region. A passage is formed through the liner at a position put aside from the fixed zone toward a rear waist region to guide feces through this passage. A first elastic member extends along a peripheral edge of the passage so as to be stretchable and contractible. A second elastic member and a third elastic member are paired and laid outside opposite side edges of the passage so as to be stretchable and contractible in a longitudinal direction in a vicinity of the passage.
US07942845B2
Needle-free injection devices having a drive assembly to provide an operative force to effect an injection and a dosing assembly to prepare the device for a subsequent injection. In some embodiments, the dosing assembly is configured to transfer injectate from an injectate source to the injectate assembly. In some embodiments, a portion of energy available to the drive assembly urges the injectate towards the injectate assembly. In some embodiments, the device includes a nozzle assembly having one or more ports.
US07942840B2
Braces are disclosed that are capable of stabilizing an injured limb, particularly an injured wrist. An exemplary brace fits across the injury in contact with the user's hand or foot and, in certain embodiments, in contact with the thumb and/or fingers or toes. The brace typically contains an adjustable casing and in some embodiments a removable support connecting one portion of the user's arm to another. The brace also includes compressible material such as an air cell. Systems and method for use and manufacture of the braces are also contemplated.
US07942838B2
An apparatus for applying pressure to a body part includes one or more bands of compressible or non-compressible material.
US07942837B2
A composite moldable splint having at least a first splinting member with an inner foam layer, an intermediate thermoplastic layer, and an external securing layer. The inner foam layer provides a soft, moisture transmitting, non-latex padding. The intermediate thermoplastic layer provides remoldable shape, and rigidity and strength after heat forming and cooling. The outer securing layer, preferably covered with continuous loop fabric suitable for hook and loop fastening, provides an essentially infinite plurality of attachment points for retaining straps including at least a section of hook fastening material for holding the splint in place. The layers of the composite moldable splint are preferably heat welded to form a strong unitary structure that is resistant to delamination. Composite moldable splints utilizing multiple splinting members are described.
US07942832B2
A medical guide wire includes a core wire having a distal portion, and a cover portion formed of a resin for covering at least the distal portion of the core wire, and is provided with a distal shape portion having a curved portion, wherein the distal portion of the core wire includes a tapered portion continuously varied in outside diameter, and a distal flexible portion provided on the distal side of the tapered portion, and the wire diameter variation rate at the tapered portion is 40 to 55%.
US07942831B2
The present invention is to present a measuring device which can conduct stable extraction and measurement of interstitial fluid. The measuring device comprises: a device body which comprises an extraction part for extracting body fluid from a living body and a measuring part for measuring a biological component contained in the extracted body fluid; a holding member which holds the device body and has an opening part for defining a measurement area on the living body; and a mounting member for mounting the holding member on the living body; wherein the measurement area on the living body is defined by the opening part when the holding member is mounted on the living body by the mounting member.
US07942824B1
The present invention relates to an integrated sleep diagnosis and treatment device, and more particularly to an integrated apnea diagnosis and treatment device. The present invention additionally relates to methods of sleep diagnosis and treatment. The sleep disorder treatment system of the present invention can use a diagnosis device to perform various forms of analysis to determine or diagnose a subject's sleeping disorder or symptoms of a subject's sleep disorder, and using this analysis or diagnosis can with or in some embodiments without human intervention treat the subject either physically or chemically to improve the sleeping disorder or the symptoms of the sleeping disorder. The diagnostic part of the system can use many different types of sensors and methods for diagnosing the severity of the symptoms of or the sleep disorder itself. The treatment part of the system can use a device to physically or chemically treat the subject's symptoms or sleep disorder itself.
US07942820B2
The present invention provides a method for determining the cerebral hemodynamic model for depression, using carotid duplex ultrasound to establish percent stenosis of a right external carotid artery and a left external carotid artery, and transcranial Doppler ultrasound instrument to measure mean flow velocity within the cerebral arteries including the right and left internal carotid arteries, right and left middle cerebral arteries, right and left anterior cerebral arteries, right and left posterior cerebral arteries, and basilar artery. Percent carotid stenosis and mean flow velocity values in cerebral arteries are used to determine the cerebral hemodynamic model associated with depression in men and women, respectively.
US07942813B2
A low cost camera and radio frequency transmitter are detachably coupled to an endotracheal tube to obtain an image in real time of tissue at the distal end of the endotracheal tube. The image recorded by the camera is transmitted to a low cost radio frequency receiver nearby and conveyed to a video monitor to display the image. The use of a wireless transmission system avoids the presence of wires and cords that otherwise might become entangled and cause the endotracheal tube to be inadvertently repositioned or pulled out of the patient.
US07942805B2
A plug which may be positioned in place of a Ventricular Assist Device (“VAD”) within a VAD connector mounted to the heart. The VAD connector may have at least one VAD-engaging feature and may define an opening. The plug may have a body adapted to fill the opening of the VAD connector and may engage the VAD connector. The plug may be installed in place of a VAD when the heart heals, and then removed and replaced by a VAD if the patient's condition deteriorates.
US07942804B2
A novel ventricular assist device is disclosed comprising a pump unit and a motor unit. The pump unit is made up of an impeller, an impeller housing, and a shaft. The impeller and/or the impeller housing are expandable, allowing for custom fitting and positioning of the pump unit within the ventricle. In certain embodiments, the shaft is adjustable, allowing for further customization of fit.
US07942803B2
A prescription method of treating tissue comprises the steps of accepting a prescription tissue treatment plan for the tissue to be treated, positioning seeds relative to each other per the prescription tissue treatment plan such that the positions of seeds relative to each other is only established by the prescription tissue treatment plan, and creating a treatment strand by heating and cooling a material to position the plurality of treatment seeds in the material. The prescription tissue treatment plan specifies a number and a spacing of the seeds to be provided in the treatment strand, the spacing of the treatment seeds being unrestricted by any use of spacers and independently set by and according to the prescription tissue treatment plan.
US07942798B2
A resistance arrangement of a waist-twisting machine, wherein the waist-twisting machine includes a rotating disc for the lower limb of the operator to stand thereon and swiveled under application of force, a rotating handlebar for the upper limb of the operator to hold thereon and swiveled under application of force, and a coupling mechanism for synchronically and reversely coupling the rotating disc and the rotating handlebar. Moreover, a resistance-adjustable apparatus is interposed between the bottom base and the upright rod transmission shaft.
US07942796B2
An exercise device for controlling the rolling movement of a stability ball during exercise. The exercise device has a central base, a plurality of rib-like structures radiating from the central base, each rib-like structure having at least one wing, formed substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the exterior surface of the rib-like structure and protruding outward at a variable distance, and an annular-shaped band connected to each rib-like structure such that the central base, the plurality of rib-like structures, and the annular-shaped band form a cup-like enclosure. A partial, bottom portion of the stability ball is seated securely in the cup-like enclosure. The at least one wing of each rib-like structure is shaped such that it provides an incremental resistance against the rolling movement of the exercise ball as the ball is rolled along a substantially flat surface.
US07942788B2
A foldable treadmill includes a base and two posts are pivotably connected to the base. A handle is pivotably connected between the two posts and includes at least one pivotal end which is connected the two posts. A positioning unit is located between the two posts and includes a transverse link and at least one passive link which has a first end pivotably and is connected to the transverse link. A lever is connected to the transverse link so as to pivot the transverse link. At least one insertion is connected to a second end of the at least one passive link, the pivotal end of the handle having a restriction port with which the insertion is disengageably inserted to restrict the handle from pivoted about the insertion.
US07942780B2
An axle assembly with an electronic locking differential that employs a locking mechanism having components that are fixed to one another along an axis such that they co-translate with one another when the actuator that effects the locking and unlocking of the differential is operated.
US07942776B2
An electrically variable transmission (EVT) is provided with input member and output member, first and second motor/generators, a first and a second planetary gear set, and a final drive gearset. Two torque-transmitting mechanisms that are selectively engagable alone or in different combinations to establish an electric-only operating mode, an input split mode, a compound split mode, and a neutral mode. The first torque-transmitting mechanism may be configured as a one-way clutch in parallel with a friction clutch or a dog clutch, or configured as a lockable one-way clutch. A vehicle having the EVT may be driven electrically using one or both motor/generators, up to a maximum speed of the motor/generators. There are no slipping clutches when operated in an electric-only operating mode, and the engine provides most of the power for high-speed cruising. The EVT can transition from input split mode to compound split mode by synchronous shift.
US07942773B2
A single strand banded V-belt is described featuring at least one ply of a band fabric which traverses the bottom surface and each of the side surfaces of the belt body so as to cover the load-carrying section at the position that it intercepts the side surfaces of the belt body. The ply of band fabric does not overlap with itself. The total sum of the number of plies of band fabric positioned on both side surfaces of the belt body exceed the total sum of the number of plies of band fabric positioned on the top plus bottom surfaces of the belt body.
US07942770B2
A tensioner assembly for a drive system, including a chain, of an internal combustion engine, includes a housing that is fixedly secured to the internal combustion engine. A piston is disposed within the housing. The piston is moveable between retracted and extended positions. The piston generates a force. A pivoting guide operatively extends between the chain of the drive system and the piston. The pivoting guide applies a first portion of the force against the chain. A lever is operatively connected to the piston between the piston and the pivoting guide. The lever translates the force from the piston to the pivoting guide. The tensioner assembly also includes a cam member that is pivotally coupled to the housing and is slidingly engaged with the pivoting guide. The cam member abuts the lever such that movement of the lever by the piston pivots the cam member in a manner that applies a second portion of the force against the pivoting guide in a varying magnitude.
US07942766B2
To obtain a compact structure and to increase at the same time the structural stiffness of an apparatus for plastically deforming and strengthening the links, which are intercoupled by rocker pins, of a complete endless transmission chain, said apparatus comprises a first and a second pair respectively of conical supporting surfaces for the ends which protrude outside said links of the rocker pins of a transmission chain, mounted thereon, said surfaces having a controllable mutual distance, the invention propose to add a third similar pair of supporting surfaces, provided for cooperation with the first and second shaft. This measure also speeds up the treatment of the transmission chain.
US07942754B1
A golf green for a patio, deck, floor, substrate or supporting surface with access from below to cut a hole therein includes a U-shaped cup retaining structure mounted to the substrate underside adjacent the hole and into which a cup is slidably inserted and seated in alignment with the hole and the cup having a passageway into which a plug is inserted with the plug having a through hole for receiving the lower end of the golf flag staff, a plurality of ring inserts for placement within the cup to alter the cup diameter and refine golf putting practice, a cover for placement over the cup to conceal the hole so that the substrate, such as the patio, can be safely traversed, and a ball collection apparatus disposed underneath the substrate and into which balls fall by gravity for collection and eventual retrieval.
US07942751B2
A sporting facility comprises a plurality of rotary elements having flexible components extending therefrom, the rotary elements being arranged so that the flexible components thereof provide a substantially continuous supporting surface, and means for rotating the rotary elements. The flexible components are preferably filaments or fibers, extending perpendicular to the substantially continuous surface. The facility is of particular use in providing an artificial surface for skiing, snow boarding, surfing or the like.
US07942747B2
The present invention is for a storage rack for game controllers and a method of using it. The present invention provides a safe convenient and practical way of storing game controllers when the game controller is not in use by a gamer. The advantage of the present invention is that it organizes the controllers as well as provides a decorative element to a room. The game controller rack includes a vertical member and one or more pairs of cantilever angle members or posts wherein the members have a predetermined lateral spacing and are angled outwardly and upwardly in a predetermined range of angles to provide support for retaining various game controllers.
US07942743B2
A game apparatus includes two LCDs, a touch panel is provided in association with the one LCD. On the touch panel, an operation button corresponding to each player character is set. A setting of the operation button is changed according to an operation state (frequency of usage, operation coordinates position) by a player during playing the game. For example, a size of an operation effective area and a display position of the operation button are changed according to the frequency of usage. Furthermore, at least any one of the operation effective areas and the display position of the operation button is changed according to the operation coordinates position.
US07942735B2
Methods and systems for conducting wagers, such as pari-mutuel wagers. In one exemplary embodiment a series of events, such as horse races, dog races, etc., is identified for which a plurality of bettors may each place at least one wager, and a wagering activity thereon is structured as a contest. Bettors may each be provided with a “play money” bankroll for use in wagering, and play against one another competitively to achieve one or more winning outcomes for the contest as defined by the operator. Alternatively, bettors may have their conventional, live wagers entered into the contest. The prize pool for the contest, which may be multi-tiered, is fixed based on the number of participants and allocated to winners independent of the live wager prize pool, thus not affecting odds for the live wager. The contest wagering activity may be run in parallel with live wagering, and utilizing the same wagering system for administration of both. Wagering systems and a wagering network are also disclosed.
US07942723B2
A length adjuster for connection between two parts of a garment has a flexible tape having an outer end adapted for fixing to one of the garment parts and formed with a longitudinally extending row of grooves and an inner end. A buckle has a base formed with a seat and an upper face from which projects a tooth. A clamp has a lower face turned toward the upper face and pivotal on the base between a position closely juxtaposed with the tooth and a position farther away from the tooth. The tape extends through the buckle between the faces with the grooves open toward and fittable with the tooth and with the inner end fixed in the seat. The tape forms a loop to a side of the buckle opposite the outer end. Structure forms an eye through which the loop passes and through which the tape can slide.
US07942718B2
An educational game having a number of parts where each part has a contact surface with first and second magnets movably joined to and interior face of the contact surface. A rod that defines a longitudinal axis parallel to the contact surface has the first magnet at one end and a second magnet at the opposite end, with the magnets having their polarity reversed to each other. An elongated housing encloses the rod on the interior face of the contact surface, and it moves the rod on the longitudinal axis along the housing.
US07942717B2
A brick assembly with automatically recognizing connecting relationships includes a rod brick, a sleeve brick and a frame brick. The rod brick has an irregular polygon-shaped cross-section and an identification IC. The sleeve brick has the internal bore with the same shape with the cross-section of the rod brick to make the rod brick insert into the sleeve brick only in one direction. Also, the sleeve brick is used to connect the rod brick to the frame brick. The signals, caused by the resistor of the sleeve brick, of the identification IC of the frame brick are detected by a computer system to recognize automatically connecting relationships of these bricks.
US07942707B2
An electrical contact includes a body extending a length from a contacting end to a terminating end. The body includes a base extending between the contacting and terminating ends. A passageway extends through at least a portion of the length of the body. A locking barb is connected to the base of the body. The locking barb extends a length from an engagement end to a locking end. The locking barb is connected to the base of the body at a pivot point located along the locking barb between the engagement and locking ends. The locking barb is pivotable about the pivot point between a locked and an unlocked position. The engagement end of the locking barb extends into the passageway of the body when the locking barb is in the locked position.
US07942705B2
An audio jack can allow electrical connections between an audio plug and an electronic device. The audio jack can include a series of pogo pins operative to extend into an audio jack cavity to provide conductive contacts for an audio plug placed within the audio jack. When an audio plug is inserted in the audio jack, the deflectable tips of each pogo pin can deflect and contact audio plug contact portions or regions. The end of the pogo pins opposite the deflectable tips can be coupled to an appropriate electronic device component, such as a printed circuit board, flex circuit, cable, or any other suitable component to provide a conductive path for signals between the audio plug and the electronic device.
US07942702B2
A modular connector includes a base and at least one adaptor. The base is provided with at least one first assembling port. The first assembling port has an insertion slot therein. The insertion slot has a plurality of insertion holes. Each of the plurality of insertion holes is provided with an electrical-conductive pin extending outside the base. The adaptor has a rear end with an insertion pin and a front end with a connecting port. The connecting port has a tongue therein. The tongue is provided with a plurality of electrical-conductive terminals. One end of each of the electrical-conductive terminals is electrically connected with the insertion pin. The adaptor is assembled in the first assembling port. The insertion pin is inserted into and electrically connected to the insertion slot.
US07942700B2
A device for electrically interconnecting and packaging electronic components. In one embodiment, a modular non-conducting base member having one or more component recesses and a plurality of lead channels formed therein is provided. At least one electronic component is disposed within the recess, and the wire leads of the component routed through the lead channels to a conductive lead terminal. A plurality of lead terminals, adapted to cooperate with the non-conducting base member, are received therein, and adapted to place the device in signal communication with an external printed circuit board. The modular non-conducting base members are assembled or stacked to form a unitary modular assembly. Methods for fabricating the device are also disclosed.
US07942696B2
A pothead connector for connecting a plurality of electrical cables to the terminal block of a submersible motor head is provided. A method of assembly of the pothead connector is also provided. The pothead connector comprises a housing that defines a plurality of passageways that extend in a longitudinal direction and are each configured to receive one of the electrical cables. Each passageway is further configured to receive a shroud that encircles the electrical cable within that one passageway. A first end of the shroud compresses a packing seal to form a liquid impermeable seal with each passageway and with the outer surface of the electrical cable. Each shroud is biased in the longitudinal direction to compress the packing seal by a plurality of spring stacks separated by a plurality of spacers. The second end of the shroud is capable configured to mate with a recess in the terminal block.
US07942695B1
A cable end connector includes a tubular connection member having a coupling portion, a core tube having a stop flange mounted in the coupling portion, a barbed flange and a coupling portion, a plastic outer tubular member having a front tubular coupling portion coupled to the coupling portion, a rear tubular body and an annular packing portion for engaging the coupling portion of the core tube, a retaining sleeve fastened to the rear tubular body, and an insulative holder block mounted in the core tube to hold a metal center pin for the connection of the center conductor of a coaxial cable.
US07942690B2
A cable positioner is formed integrally with a connector and/or a plug, or is shaped and sized to matingly engage a connector and/or a plug. The connector cable positioner can define at least one groove. The groove is sized to secure the cable in a desired position and direct it in a desired direction. The positioner may define at least one retaining tab, or lip, at the extent of at least one groove wall to produce an interference fit with the cable when pushed through the retaining tab, while surrounding the groove enough to effectively create a groove wall more than 180 degrees around the grove to retain the cable in the groove. The at least one tab can pinch, or otherwise secure, at least a portion of the cable to hold the cable in desired position and direction.
US07942689B1
An electrical connector assembly for forming insulation displacement connections with conductors in small wires includes a wire carrier and a base. Pierce points on the base are slid along opposed walls in a slot in the carrier to align small tips on the ends of the pierce points to form electrical connections with a conductor in a wire in the carrier. The connections are located inwardly of the slot walls.
US07942688B2
The invention proposes a locking device for a two-part connector housing. This locking device consists of two locking elements in connection with an actuating handle. The locking elements respectively consist of a one-piece wire element and feature on one end a part that is shaped in the form of an open eyelet and serves for encompassing a bearing pin of a first connector housing half. On the other end, they feature a part that is shaped in the form of an indentation and serves for producing a snap connection with a locking pin of the second connector housing half. Since the locking elements are manufactured of a flexible spring steel wire, they can be elastically bent such that they can be pushed over the bearing pins of an existing connector housing half and engaged at this location in order to allow the retrofitting of an already installed connector with a locking device with superior environmental resistance.
US07942684B1
A connector device includes an inserting connector and a receiving connector, wherein the receiving connector is connected to the electronic device; the receiving connector includes a single control plug terminal and two electric power jack terminals made of a conductor material, the electric power jack terminals being configured to receive the supply of the electric power; the control plug terminal can be extended and retracted in an inserting direction of the receiving connector; the inserting connector is connected to the electric power source; the inserting connector includes a control jack terminal corresponding to the control plug terminal and two electric power plug terminals corresponding to the two electric power jack terminals; and the control jack terminal includes a control switch.
US07942673B2
Dental obturators are used in the preparation of root canals in teeth. The subject obturators are so constructed that they bind at a particular distance into the canal, thereby precluding possible damage at the end of the canal. The obturator is used for positioning of a sealing material placed on a carrier portion of the obturator into the root canal. Disclosed are a variety of structural configurations on a tapered surface of the carrier portion is disclosed.
US07942663B2
A valve gate system for an injection molding machine, having a valve gate unit configured to be in contact with a manifold of an injection molding machine for delivering a molten plastic flow from a hot runner system to an injection chamber. The valve gate unit has a valve pin for controlling the flow of the molten plastic from a hot runner system to an injection chamber and an activating unit coupled with the valve gate unit. The activating unit is configured to be mounted external to a mold unit that houses the injection chamber. In addition, the activating unit has an element that extends through the mold unit to engage the valve pin, so as to control the molten plastic flow from a runner system to an injection chamber.
US07942658B1
A method and apparatus for efficiently forming individual building units is provided, generally includes providing a plurality of molds, each capable of simultaneously forming a plurality of building units. Batches of cementitious slurry are individually mixed in order to control the density of each building unit formed. The ingredients are individually measured and combined into the mixing device. The cementitious slurry is then conveyed or transported and poured into one of the molds. The method provides the ability to control the amount of cementitious slurry in each batch in order to control to the extent possible the quantity of cementitious slurry poured into each mold and the ability to precisely control the dimensions of each building unit produced.
US07942657B2
A combustion apparatus having a housing including an inner surface that defines at least one chamber, a rotor, a rotor shaft, an intake shaft, an exhaust shaft, and a gearing mechanism. The chamber includes an intake valve port and an exhaust valve port, and the rotor shaft is coupled to a gear at one end and has at least two opposing flat surfaces received by an opening in the rotor. The intake and exhaust shafts are geared to the rotor shaft and have at least one opening each that is aligned with the intake and the exhaust valve ports. A gearing mechanism selectively controls the duration in which the openings are aligned with the ports. Two or more rotors may be utilized to produce more power and reduce vibration.
US07942653B2
An electric shower-waste pump and control unit for pumping run-off shower water from a waste outlet to a drain, the unit comprising a housing having a first chamber and a separate second chamber which is water-tightly sealable, a removable housing cover for closing the housing, an electric pump provided in the first chamber, electronic control circuitry provided in the second chamber, and a removable second chamber cover for water-tightly sealing the second chamber against ingress of water leakage from the pump.
US07942652B1
A reciprocating liquid or gas pump is driven by bi-directional force. A prime mover causes eccentric weights to rotate, which in turn cause pistons to be driven in linear paths under bi-directional force. This bi-directional force then drives opposing sets of pistons to pump a fluid. The pressurized fluid can then be used for, e.g., driving a hydraulic motor.
US07942649B2
An electrical driven pump unit having two hydraulic pumps and two electric motors that are fitted in such a way as to make it possible to obtain the unit's power by adding together the power of the two motors.
US07942648B2
Lifetime required of mobile-use fuel cells is secured and prolonged, stabilized pump performance is maintained by preventing bearing seizure and abnormal wear. The shaft (101) of a pump mechanism section (100) and the shaft (201) of a motor section (200) are integrated, and the shafts (101, 201) are supported by two or more ball bearings disposed in the pump mechanism section (100), thereby making it possible to fill grease in the closed spaces of the ball bearings (300), and secure a sufficient lifetime basically with almost no possibility of the grease leaking out, even if it is used at a relatively high environmental temperature.
US07942647B2
An opening 22d of a supply/withdrawal passage 22b is positioned at the center part of the internal wall surface 22c of the operating chamber 26 (concave area 22a), and a pin 24 that protrudes toward the diaphragm 23 is provided in a position that is offset from the center of the wall surface 22c. When the diaphragm 23 is deformed toward the operating chamber 26 by the suction of an operation air into the operating chamber 26 during drawing in the chemical liquid, a part of the diaphragm 23 opposing to the pin 24 rides on the pin 24 and this part becomes a slightly convex shape toward the pump chamber 25. When the operation air is supplied from the opening 22d into the operating chamber 26 during the discharge of the chemical liquid, the deformation begins first from the part of the diaphragm 23 riding on the pin 24.
US07942644B2
A capillary pump is provided for producing pressurized and unpressurized vapor emissions from liquid feed. In its simplest form, the capillary pump incorporates a liquid feed intake, a porous vaporization component, and a heat transfer component. Additional components, such as an insulator component, a feed pre-heat component, a liquid feed reservoir and/or delivery system, an integrated or associated heater component, a vapor collection chamber, a heat distribution component, an orifice component and/or vapor release component, may also be associated with or integrated in the improved capillary pumps. Capillary pump arrays are provided, and numerous applications for capillary pumps are disclosed.
US07942642B2
The subject invention pertains to a method and apparatus for cooling. In a specific embodiment, the subject invention relates to a lightweight, compact, reliable, and efficient cooling system. The subject system can provide heat stress relief to individuals operating under, for example, hazardous conditions, or in elevated temperatures, while wearing protective clothing. The subject invention also relates to a condenser for transferring heat from a refrigerant to an external fluid in thermal contact with the condenser. The subject condenser can have a heat transfer surface and can be designed for an external fluid, such as air, to flow across the heat transfer surface and allow the transfer of heat from heat transfer surface to the external fluid. In a specific embodiment, the flow of the external fluid is parallel to the heat transfer surface. In another specific embodiment, the heat transfer surface can incorporate surface enhancements which enhance the transfer of heat from the heat transfer surface to the external fluid. In another specific embodiment, an outer layer can be positioned above the heat transfer surface to create a volume between the heat transfer surface and the outer layer through which the external fluid can flow.
US07942641B2
A method for simultaneously laser shock peening opposite laser shock peening surfaces on opposite sides of an article, such as a gas turbine engine airfoil, with varying thickness using oppositely aimed laser beams and varying surface fluence of the laser beams over the laser shock peening surfaces as a function of the thickness of the article beneath each one of a plurality of laser shock peened spots formed by the beams on the surfaces. The fluence may be equal to the thickness multiplied by a volumetric fluence factor, the volumetric fluence factor being held constant over the laser shock peening surface. The volumetric fluence factor may be in a range of about 1200 J/cm3 to 1800 J/cm3 and more particularly about 1500 J/cm3. Laser beam energy may be varied with a computer program controlling firing of the laser beam.
US07942635B1
A small twin spool gas turbine engine with a hollow inner rotor shaft having solid shaft ends and an outer rotor shaft having a cylindrical portion on the compressor end that forms a forward bearing support surface and a turbine rotor disk on the turbine end that forms a aft bearing support surface. The inner rotor shaft includes solid shaft ends that project out from the cylindrical portion of the outer shaft on one end and out from the turbine rotor disk on the other end. An inner bearing housing is secured on the solid shaft ends of the inner rotor shaft. A threaded nut on the inner rotor shafts ends provide a compressive load to the inner bearing housings which results in a tension preload to the inner rotor shaft solid ends so that the bearing assemblies for the forward and aft ends of the twin spools do not become lose from the engine operation.
US07942634B2
A wind turbine includes a rotor having one or more rotor blades, a pitch system for controlling the pitch angle of the one or more rotor blades, the pitch system having at least one pitch actuator, a pitch controller for generating pitch actuator control signals and sensor elements for establishing values of pitch performance parameters, and a compensation controller to compensate for disparities between the pitch actuator control signals and the values of pitch performance parameters, according to a control algorithm. The compensation controller is arranged to adjust parameters of the control algorithm of the compensation controller in dependency of the disparities.
US07942633B2
Helicopter rotating hub mounted vibration control system for a rotary wing hub having periodic vibrations while rotating at an operational rotation frequency. The vibration control system includes a housing attachable to the rotary wing hub and rotating with the hub at the operational frequency. The housing is centered about the rotary wing hub axis of rotation and has an electronics housing cavity subsystem and an adjacent rotor housing cavity subsystem. The rotor housing cavity contains a first coaxial ring motor with a first rotor and imbalance mass and a second coaxial ring motor with a second rotor and imbalance mass. The electronics housing cavity contains an electronics control system which receives sensor outputs and electrically controls and drives the first motor and the second motor such that the first imbalance mass and the second imbalance mass are driven at a vibration canceling rotation frequency greater than the operational rotation frequency wherein the helicopter rotary wing hub periodic vibrations are reduced.
US07942632B2
A variable shape inlet guide vane (IGV) system includes a variable-shape IGV flap with a flexible portion that enables the desired spanwise distribution of Cx, alpha, and beta at a fan rotor inlet. An actuation system that rotates a root section of the variable-shape IGV flap to flex the flexible portion such that the twisted shape of the flap can reverse rather symmetrically during actuation from max open to max closed.
US07942628B2
A first compression stage and a second compression stage being arranged at positions adjacent to each other. The first centrifugal impeller and the second centrifugal impeller are arranged in such an orientation that back sides of the first centrifugal impeller and the second centrifugal impeller face to each other. A connection flow path is formed in the first housing and the second housing for introducing the compressed fluid from the first compression stage into the second compression stage. An upstream portion of the connection flow path is formed integrally with the first housing, and a downstream portion of the connection flow path is formed integrally with the second housing.
US07942625B2
A housing is incorporated as part of a compressor having blades that impart to a fluid a momentum along a main gas flow direction and a swirl. The housing includes a channel that has at least one channel wall and defines an axis substantially aligned with the main gas flow direction. The channel is configured to duct at least some of the fluid. The channel wall defines an internal cavity that extends axially within the channel wall. A bleed passage connects and provides fluid communication between the channel and the cavity. The channel wall defines a plurality of injection passages providing fluid communication between the cavity and the channel at a location spaced in a direction opposite the main gas flow direction from both the bleed passage and the blades. The injection passages have a portion configured to direct fluid from the cavity into the channel with a component along the main gas flow direction and a component opposed to the swirl.
US07942624B1
One embodiment of a vertical axis wind generator having a stationary vertical shaft (10) supporting with bearings (12) a larger diameter rotating shaft (11) attached by radial connections (13) and support connections (15) to circular support members (16), which are joined to equivalently spaced vertical connections (14). Attached by hinges (18) to these vertical connections (14) are plates (17) held to a radial position to the shafts (10),(11), when the wind force is on them, by cables (19) controlled by electronically controlled winches (25) attached to the circular support members (16). The wind force will close the plates on the opposite side, thus not affecting the rotation, which is transmitted through amplifying gears (21) to the generators (21). Magnetic levitation, which includes an aluminum rail (23), as shown in FIG. 4 would raise the vertical axis wind generator negating friction.
US07942618B1
A cargo pallet cover and net assembly includes a cargo cover attached to a cargo net. The cargo net is attached to upper and lower side regions of the cargo cover so that the cargo cover and net assembly may be placed over a cargo load in one step. The cargo net is optionally attached at or near the lowermost side regions of the cargo cover so that the cargo cover is substantially prevented from obstructing attachment of the cargo net to a pallet on which the cargo load is supported.
US07942617B2
A control mechanism for a rotary hand tool of the type having a generally cylindrical housing in which a drive motor is located, the housing having a nose portion from which a motor output shaft extends and a grip portion, the mechanism including an electrical control circuit that controls the application of power to and the operation of the motor, and a light touch switch having at least a first position or state and a second position or state coupled to the electrical control circuit for selectively enabling or disabling the control circuit to turn the motor on and off. The switch is disposed on the nose portion of the rotary hand tool such that an operator can actuate the switch substantially without altering the operator's grip on the tool.
US07942614B2
A drilling apparatus contains a drilling tool and a platform. A flexible joint having three degrees of freedom connects the drilling tool to the platform. A clamping element may be provided proximate to an opening formed in the platform. The clamping element is attached to the platform and extends through an opening formed in the structure to fasten to the structure.
US07942612B1
A post hole shoring device is provided for receiving and securing a vertically extended 4×4 post. The post would be placed within a hole, secured with concrete, and the hole formed would be backfilled with the soil removed from the hole. By use of the shoring device around the post at the bottom of the hole, additional vertical support is provided to strengthen the vertical installation and prevent movement of the post. The shoring device can be back-filled over, or even filled with aggregate or concrete to provide additional support at very little cost and without modifying conventional materials or construction techniques.
US07942609B2
A method for trenchless pipe laying, a pipeline is constructed form a starting point to a goal point undercrossing an obstacle wherein the constructing of a bore hole and laying the prefabricated pipeline, which is constructed in one piece on the surface, are done in one work step, wherein at the front end of the pipeline a steerable drilling device is arranged, wherein a pipe thrusting device is arranged at the starting point applying forces from the outside to the pipeline via traction preferably friction by pushing the pipeline from a starting point to a goal point, wherein at the same time the necessary contact forces for drilling are transferred, wherein the cuttings produced during the drilling by the drilling device are removed and transported hydraulically out of the bore hole via a transport line inside the pipeline, and wherein the annular space between pipeline and bore hole wall created during drilling is continuously filled with a drilling suspension.
US07942608B2
A flowline for hydrocarbon which is capable of being reeled and which is unreeled for being laid on the seabed using the reeled lay method is comprised of successive pipe sections having opposing ends which are joined by an anchor collar that is butt welded to the opposing ends. The pipe sections have a jacket on the exterior of the pipe sections, but the pipe sections are able to be reeled. Anchor collars are affixed by butt welding between the ends of adjacent pipe sections. Each anchor collar has a fixture or protrusion radially outward which has an outer diameter less than or at least not more than the outer diameter of the pipe section jacket. The flowline has the same inner diameter at the pipe sections and the collar, and the pipe has the same outer diameter as the collar, while the protrusion protrudes outward from the exterior of the collar. The flowline is anchored on the seabed by unreeling it from a spool, applying a clamp to the collar before delivering it to the seabed, and anchoring the clamp to the seabed. The jacket may expose the fixture or protrusion or may initially cover it and be removed to enable the clamping.
US07942603B2
A traffic control device includes a shell body and at least one receptacle located in the shell body. The receptacle includes a dilatant material.
US07942598B2
The outer surface of an inner cap 3 is fixedly secured to the inner surface of an outer cap 4. In the opened end portion of the inner cap 3, there is formed a rear end shell portion 31 which projects backwardly. On the outer peripheral surface of the rear end shell portion 31, there is provided a ring-shaped outward facing seal portion. In the front end portion of a barrel 6, there is formed a front end shell portion 61 projecting forwardly. In the inner peripheral surface of the front end shell portion 61, there is formed a ring-shaped inward facing seal portion. When a cap 2 is mounted on the pen tip 8 side of the barrel 6, the outward facing seal portion can be closely contacted with the inward facing seal portion in the radial direction.
US07942597B2
An assembly structured to restrict contamination of individuals from association with the heads of stethoscope comprising a housing including a path of travel along which the head portion passes. Different embodiments include the dispensing of cleaning fluid or the delivery of protective barriers onto predetermined portions of the stethoscope heads, while passing along the path of travel. A dispenser assembly and a cooperatively disposed activating assembly are manually operated by moveable, driving engagement with the head portion passing through the housing. The activating assembly is thereby operatively positioned to activate the dispenser assembly when engaged by a head passing along the path of travel. Differently structured dispenser assemblies function to either deliver the cleaning fluid or individually dispense the barriers onto different heads, so as to either facilitate the cleaning or protective covering of exposed surfaces of the stethoscope heads, dependent on the embodiment utilized.
US07942592B2
A camera diaphragm device in which two diaphragm blades, that is, first and second diaphragm blades having respective first and second diaphragm aperture portions whose diameters differ from each other is provided. The diaphragm blades are mounted to blade mounting shafts provided close to each other and in a standing manner, and are separately reciprocatingly rotated by driving pins of respective rotors. When the diaphragm device is set in a minimum diaphragm aperture control state, not only is the first diaphragm blade having the first aperture portion for restricting the minimum diaphragm aperture moved to an aperture portion, but also the second diaphragm blade having the second aperture portion for restricting an intermediate diaphragm aperture is moved to the aperture portion from the same direction. An area of the aperture portion that cannot be covered by only the first diaphragm blade is covered by the second diaphragm blade.
US07942582B2
A sensing part 35 of a sensor 30 for detecting speed of rotation is disposed to face a magnetic encoder 10 through a sensor holder 20, the sensor 30 for detecting the speed of rotation is disposed inward in the radial direction of a hub unit mounting hole NH of the knuckle N of a car body, a connecting portion 34a of a harness 34 is provided with deformation tolerance for allowing deformation of the shape when a load exceeding a predetermined level is applied thereon externally and a shape retaining capacity for retaining and maintaining the shape always as it is when the load is not higher than the predetermined level, and the connecting portion 34a of the harness 34 is, when the load is not higher than the predetermined level, positioned more on the outer diameter side than the outer diameter of a constant velocity universal joint 9 at least until the connecting portion 34a is located out of the hub unit mounting hole NH of the knuckle N.
US07942581B2
An anti-friction layer for a bearing element may comprise a synthetic polymer layer. The polymer layer comprises at least a first part-layer and a second part-layer of a different composition.
US07942579B2
Provided is a rolling guide device which can be produced easily and inexpensively by achieving a reduction in the number of parts constituting a slide member (2) and a reduction in machining worker-hours therefor. The rolling guide device includes: a raceway rail (1); and the slide member (2) assembled to the raceway rail (1) through an intermediation of the large number of balls (3), in which the slide member (2) is formed by bending a metal plate member (4) and has a lateral web (20) and a pair of flange parts (21) to be formed in a channel-like configuration, and in which each of the flange parts (21) has a track groove (30) in which the balls (3) circulate, the track groove (30) including a load straight-line groove (31) allowing the balls (3) to roll while bearing a load, a pair of ball deflection grooves (34) and releasing the balls (3) having rolled through the load straight-line groove (31) from the load while changing their direction, and a non-load straight-line groove (34) transferring the balls (3) from one ball deflection groove (34) to the other ball deflection groove (34).
US07942578B2
A container for comprising fluid, said container comprising a front wall and a rear wall of pliant material being sealed together along the edge portion to produce a closed bag having a top portion (6) and a bottom portion (5) connected by two side portions (3, 4), wherein the side portions of the edge of the bag may be superimposed and when sealed together forms a three-dimensional configuration. The container may be self-supporting and stable.
US07942576B2
The present invention relates to an adjusting positioner for a radiation device, comprising: a clamping device detachably connected to the radiation device to clamp said radiation device; a supporter to which said clamping device is connected and a slide path is defined therebetween, wherein the clamping device clamping said radiation device is movable along said slide path in a predetermined direction; and an adjusting device coupled with said clamping device so as to drive said clamping device to move along said slide path. Since the present invention employs above technical solution, it is easy to adjust the position of the radiation device for example, X-ray device, so that the precisely positioning for the radiation device is achieved and a satisfying positioning accuracy is able to obtain.
US07942573B2
A timepiece includes a platen (10) and a barrel mounted on the platen, the barrel including: a drum (20) with a bottom and side walls; a shaft (14) extending through the drum at the center thereof and provided with pivoting elements (40, 54) on the platen; a leaf spring provided in the drum and co-operating with the shaft at one end and with the drum at the other end; and a lid (28) through which the shaft extends and closing the drum, a ratchet wheel (30) being kinematically connected to the shaft for winding the spring. According to the invention, the drum is pivoted via a first ball bearing (34) having a bushing (36) connected to the platen and another bushing (38) connected to the bottom of the drum.
US07942572B2
A multistage process for the continuous production of an emulsion comprising subjecting at least two immiscible liquids to a sequence of at least two mixing stages carried out in at least two successive stator-rotor devices, wherein a peripheral outlet from a first stator-rotor device is connected to an axial inlet in the successive stator-rotor device by means of a duct in which the Reynold number ReT inside said duct is higher than 5000, and the peripheral velocity of each rotor of said stator-rotor devices ranges from 5 to 60 m/s.
US07942565B2
An illumination device is specified which has a light source (1) suitable for coupling divergent electromagnetic radiation (6) into an optical waveguide (2), the electromagnetic radiation (6) being guided in the optical waveguide (2) on the basis of total reflection the optical waveguide (2) being suitable for changing a main radiating direction (17) of the electromagnetic radiation (6), and the optical waveguide (2) being formed in one piece. Light-emitting diodes are preferably used as the light source (1). The illumination device is particularly well suited to the backlighting of displays.
US07942564B2
An overspeed prevention structure is disclosed herein. The overspeed prevention structure according to the present invention comprises a structural body having a curved convex upper surface; an external light source; and a plastic optical fiber embedded in the structural body and connected electrically to the external light source so as to emit the light outside the structural body.
US07942546B2
A light guide member capable of reducing an unevenness of luminescent color and further a nonuniformity in luminance when obtaining a white color by a color mixture using a plurality of light sources. Also disclosed are a flat light source device and a display device. A protrusion (4) of a cylindrical shape is formed upward a plurality color of LED light sources 5R, 5G, 5B, e.g., RGB color at a backside face of a light guide member (1), and a conical depression (3) is disposed at the position directly over the protrusion. Lights of each color from LED light sources 5R, 5G, 5B are mixed at the protrusion (4), thereafter reflect at the depression (3) and propagate in a horizontal direction at a light guide portion (2).
US07942542B1
There is disclosed a backlit display structure with multiple LED's arranged to transmit light into a light guide plate configured to uniformly illuminate the back of a readily replaceable translucent image sheet. The display may be incorporated with a decorative frame which also may be illuminated by the same or different LED's. The display powered by a rechargeable battery pack may also be incorporated in table top boxes for condiments, straws, napkins or other conveniences for restaurant customers where it is useful for displaying replaceable advertising or current featured menu items. In another form the guide plate does not uniformly illuminate an image sheet but only illuminates temporary marks thereon from a crayon or marker, thereby providing an illuminated blackboard.
US07942538B2
The invention is directed towards an information presenting device and a portable electronic device including such an information presenting device. The information presenting device (16) comprises a first information layer (18) having a first information presentation structure (20) of photo chromatic material changing appearance when irradiated by light (28) of a specific wavelength, a second information layer (22) having a second information presentation structure (24), and a first light source (26) illuminating the second information layer for presenting the second information presentation structure, wherein the first information layer is of a material that is transparent for light emanating at least from the first light source when the first layer is not exposed to light of said specific wavelength.
US07942533B2
A large-sized transportable projection screen comprising an any-shaped fillable hollow body, which is embodied in the form of a structure consisting of fillable tubes. The aim is to develop a large-sized transportable projection screen exhibiting an increased stability and making it possible to obtain an improved projection at daylight. For this purpose, the structure defines a three-dimensional internal space limited on all sides thereof, wherein the tubes are oriented in three directions in space and the internal space is limited by at least one display surface arranged at the level of an edge formed by a part of tubes.
US07942531B2
An edge lit locally dimmed display has a spatial light modulator illuminated by a light source. The light source is positioned at an edge and behind the spatial light modulator. The spatial light modulator is illuminated with a low resolution version of a desired image. The illumination may comprise a series of lighting elements that vary smoothly from one element to another at the spatial light modulator.
US07942520B2
Reflective eyewear include at least one lens and a substantially opaque frame having a main front section with opposed side ends for supporting the at least one lens. The frame further includes at least one retroreflective element attached to the frame to be visible by others in low-light conditions.
US07942513B2
An ink cartridge includes a frame, and a film connected to the frame. The frame and the film define an ink chamber therein, and the ink chamber is configured to store ink therein. The ink cartridge also includes a supporting member configured to support the film, and a movable member pivotably coupled to the supporting member. The movable member is configured to selectively move within the ink chamber in a first direction and in a second direction opposite the first direction based on an amount of ink within the ink chamber, and the supporting member, the movable member, and the film are aligned in a particular direction which is perpendicular to the first direction and to the second direction.
US07942505B2
Provided is an inkjet nozzle arrangement for an inkjet printhead. The arrangement includes a wafer substrate defining sidewalls and a roof portion to form an ink chamber, the roof portion further defining a nozzle aperture, as well as a heater element suspended inside the ink chamber for thermal expansion and subsequent ejection of ink from the chamber via the nozzle aperture. The arrangement also includes a nozzle rim defined about the aperture on the roof portion, said rim having an inner and an outer lip to facilitate ink drop misdirection during ink ejection to minimise cavitation corrosion of the heater element.
US07942501B2
An electrostatic inkjet head providing high pressure to ink in order to enable high quality printing. The electrostatic actuator providing the pressure to the membrane (200) compressing the ink in a chamber (50) with an opening (20) is characterized by an overlapping area of the actuation electrode (300) and the moveable electrode (500) not determined by the area of the membrane (200) covering the chamber (50) with the ink. The maximum pressure that can be applied can be adapted by means of the ratio of the overlapping area (220) of the two electrodes and the area (210) of the membrane (200) covering the chamber (50) with the ink. Use of said head to eject a liquid drug used in an injection system.
US07942496B2
A cradle unit for a printer assembly includes a body having a printhead cartridge support bay for receiving a printhead cartridge that incorporates a printhead, an ink supply for the printhead and a capper for capping the printhead when not in use. A levered frame is positioned within the body and is movable between an open position for allowing access to the printhead cartridge support bay and a closed position to close the printhead support bay. A support frame is positioned within the body. A capper drive mechanism is mounted on the support frame to actuate the capper of the printhead cartridge. A media transport mechanism is mounted on the support frame to feed print media through the body operatively with respect to the printhead.
US07942494B2
A liquid-discharge-failure detecting apparatus includes a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element. The light-emitting element emits a laser beam in a direction that intersects with a direction in which a droplet of liquid is discharged. The beam is elliptical in cross section. The light-receiving element receives a scattered light generated by scattering of the laser beam by the droplet. The light-receiving element is externally adjacent to a circumference of the beam at a position where a beam diameter of the beam is small.
US07942493B2
A disclosed image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium includes an inkjet head having a nozzle surface and inkjet nozzles on the nozzle surface and configured to jet ink droplets from the inkjet nozzles; a recording medium conveying mechanism including a recording medium conveyor and configured to convey the recording medium by the recording medium conveyor into an image forming area facing the inkjet head; a test pattern forming part provided separately from the recording medium conveyor; a control unit configured to perform an image forming test where a test pattern is formed on the test pattern forming part by jetting ink droplets from the inkjet head; and a test pattern detection unit configured to detect the test pattern formed on the test pattern forming part.
US07942492B2
An ink transporting head includes a head main body in which, an ink channel is formed, a transporting electrode which is arranged on an inner surface of the ink channel, an insulating layer which is arranged on the inner surface of the ink channel to cover the transporting electrode, and which changes a wetting angle of liquid on a surface according to an electric potential of the transporting electrode, and a heat generator which heats the ink inside the ink channel. Accordingly, there is provided a liquid transporting apparatus which is capable of suppressing a temperature fluctuation of the liquid inside the liquid channel, and transporting the liquid stably.
US07942481B2
A method of breaking rock which includes the steps of drilling a hole in the rock using a drill rod; leaving the drill rod in the hole; using water flow to direct a propellant charge into the hole through a passage in the drill rod; and at a leading end of the drill rod, firing the propellant charge with, at least, the drill rod and water in the hole and passage providing a stemming function.
US07942480B2
A mini-sized side dump trailer comprising a wheeled frame having a pair of wheels supporting the rearward end thereof and a steerable front wheel assembly of the forward end thereof with a forwardly extending tongue extending from the front wheel assembly for connection to a small vehicle such as a utility terrain vehicle, an all terrain vehicle or a small tractor. The small side dump body may be pivoted to either the first side of the trailer or to the second side of the trailer.
US07942478B2
The present invention provides a human form child car seat comprising: (a) a seat body having (i) a generally human body head and arm shape, including a seat wall and a backrest wall; (ii) a front seat side; (iii) a back side; (iv) a top side; (v) bottom side; (vi) a left side; and (vii) a right side; (b) a top side concave-shaped head support, the head support capable of cradling a juvenile head comprising (i) a left side head support and (ii) a right side head support; (c) a left arm rest and a right arm rest, each having a generally human arm shape, the arm rest terminating in a cup holder having a generally human first shape, the cup holder capable of receivably accepting a geometrically shaped object; and a seat base. The present invention further provides a quick release seatbelt system.
US07942475B2
A composite reinforcement for a vehicle roof opening that provides several advantages over the prior art metal ring design. The reinforcement is a composite bonded to the roof, can be polyurethane, and may include fiberglass, such as long fiber injection (LFI) or glass fiber mat. A honeycomb core can also be disposed within the polyurethane made from cardboard or aluminum. Steel inserts can also be formed within the composite to provide attachment points for a variety of functions, such as sunroof module, structural brackets, and locating assemblies. The steel inserts can have external threads to allow composite material to physically capture the insert during formation of the reinforcement. This roof assembly can be mounted to the vehicle in an optimized manner for ease of assembly, color matching, and to provide structure to support a mounted sunroof assembly.
US07942473B2
An underframe for an automobile including two side rails, a transverse crossbar, a first floor member attached on the side rails and, on either side, a lateral reinforcing member, and a second floor member. Each of the rails includes an extension in a form of a portion under the crossbar, attached to the lower face of the central crossbar and connected to an attachment portion including a front portion that extends gradually towards the respective lateral reinforcement member and that is attached on a longitudinal portion of the respective lateral reinforcement member.
US07942470B2
A skirt assembly kit comprising a skirt panel adapted to be disposed on a trailer to route air about the road trailer is provided, a plurality of upper supports adapted to secure the skirt panel to the road trailer and a plurality of struts adapted to secure the skirt panel to the road trailer. A method of installing an aerodynamic skirt on a trailer is also provided, the method comprising providing a skirt panel, installing the skirt panel on the trailer; and performing an opening in the skirt panel. An aerodynamic skirt kit adapted to mounted to a trailer is equally provided, the aerodynamic skirt kit comprising a skirt panel adapted to define an opening therein adapted to give access through the skirt panel, and an opening closing element adapted to close the opening.
US07942467B2
A support member adapted to secure an aerodynamic skirt to a trailer is provided, the support member comprising a trailer connecting portion; a skirt connecting portion; and an intermediate portion interconnecting the trailer connecting portion to the skirt connecting portion. A kit of resilient struts adapted to resiliently secure an aerodynamic skirt to a trailer is also provided, the kit comprising at least two resilient struts. A method of using a resilient strut to resiliently secure an aerodynamic skirt to a trailer is equally provided, the method comprising providing at least one resilient strut; securing the resilient strut to the trailer; securing the resilient strut to the aerodynamic skirt; and applying a load on the aerodynamic skirt to resiliently bend the at least one resilient strut.
US07942453B2
Coupling device (60) for mechanically and hydraulically coupling a fuel injector (20) to a fuel rail (18) of a combustion engine (22), the fuel injector (20) having a central longitudinal axis (L) and an injection nozzle (31), having a fuel injector cup (32) being designed to be hydraulically coupled to the fuel rail (14) and to engage a fuel inlet portion (24) of the fuel injector (20), and a spring element (36) being part of the fuel injector (20) and being designed to be in a snap-in engagement with the fuel injector cup (32) to retain the fuel injector (20) in the fuel injector cup (32) in direction of the central longitudinal axis (L) facing towards the injection nozzle (31).
US07942451B2
Method for generating a label for a medication in which information about the medication is obtained and printed on the label in a hierarchical manner with more important information in a more prominent location or more prominent type relative to other less important information. The information may be divided into primary information and secondary information with the primary information being placed on the label before the secondary information. The label may be used in a container having a curved front wall, a planar rear wall, a substantially planar bottom wall and a cap engaging with the front and rear walls to seal the container. The rear wall is constructed with a device for removably received an information card containing information relating to the medication.
US07942445B2
A personal ability vehicle (PMV) includes a frame with front and rear subframes. A steering mechanism is mounted on the front subframe and includes a steering front wheel connected to a tiller. The rear subframe includes a suspension mount comprising a pair of rear support legs. An anti-tip suspension includes a pair of trailing arms each mounting a trailing wheel. Each trailing arm is pivotally mounted on a respective support leg whereby the suspension is inevitable through a limited range of motion about a transverse suspension pivotal axis. A pair of spring assemblies are attached to the trailing arms and are adapted for selectively engaging the support legs to provide a counter-rotational torque force around the suspension pivotal axis in order to resist backwards tipping of the PMV, for example, when it is ascending an inclined sloping surface. Relatively uniform proportional, weight distribution on said steering front, main and trailing wheels is maintained throughout a range of loads.
US07942437B2
A detachable tray accessory for a stroller secured by a left and right side member or lock housing member each containing a detachable attaching means that attaches to and releases from a corresponding lock receiver on the stroller assembly or stroller seat. The detachable tray accessory for a stroller includes a support bar for supporting the shape and weight of a flat surface tray removably attachable to the support bar.
US07942433B2
A vehicle has a vehicle body including a head pipe, a lower side bracket disposed below the head pipe for supporting the head pipe upward in a substantial center of the bracket in the vehicle width direction, and a pair of legs of a front fork fixed in vicinities of the ends of the lower side bracket. The lower side bracket is formed to have a downward sloping shape, which slopes from the ends of the lower side bracket toward its center.
US07942427B2
An air suspension includes a plurality of air spring assemblies that each include a piston airbag and a primary airbag mounted over the piston airbag. The primary and piston airbags each have a variable volume that is controlled independently of the other for active suspension control. Each piston airbag includes a piston intake valve and a piston exhaust valve. Each primary airbag includes a control valve that is operable to supply and exhaust air from the corresponding primary airbag. The control valves and piston intake valves operate independently of each other. A compressor supplies air to a supply reservoir which is used to supply air to the primary and piston airbags. The compressor includes a bypass loop that directs exhausted air to a compressor inlet when the compressor is running.
US07942422B2
An elastomeric lip seal joint for sealing the inner liner and grout layers when joining two sections of multiwall pipe having an outer steel casing and an inner liner. The ring-shaped lip seal joint comprises a gasket with insulating material completely covering its outer surface. The insulating material is capable of shielding the gasket from the heat produced when the sections of outer steel casing are welded together. The use of the lip seal joint simplifies the process of joining sections of multiwall pipe. Each side of the lip seal joint is inserted into one of the annular voids at each end of the pipe, thereby sealing the inner liner and grout. A single circumferential weld then joins the outer steel casing. The gasket remains intact during the welding process due to the presence of the insulating material.
US07942418B2
Various embodiments include determining a value of a statistic describing cards that have been dealt from a deck, and modifying the rules of a game based on the statistic.
US07942412B2
A drive control method for a sheet processing machine includes the steps of operating a driving motor of a sheet feed device which feeds a sheet to a sheet processing device that processes the sheet, in synchronism with a rotary member of the sheet processing device, and adjusting a rotary phase of the rotary member of the sheet processing device and a rotary phase of the driving motor of the sheet feed device relative to each other.
US07942411B2
A sheet conveying apparatus has a guide member disposed in a space on a side of a pair of rotating bodies. The guide member is supported such that the guide member can project outward from an outer periphery of one of the rotating bodies located upstream in a sheet conveying direction. When a front end of a conveyed sheet abuts against the guide member and pushes the guide member, the guide member retracts from a projecting position into the space on the side of the pair of rotating bodies, and in this state, the front end of the sheet is guided to a nip portion of the pair of rotating bodies.
US07942401B2
The invention provides an ATM that can stably stack paper money by preventing the rotation of stack rollers when paper money is deposited. The ATM includes feed rollers, stack rollers, and elastic members. The feed rollers convey paper money separated one-by-one by pickup rollers onto a money withdrawal path, or convey paper money conveyed along a money deposit path into a recyclebox. Peripheries of the feed rollers are formed of rubber. Each of the stack rollers includes wings. When paper money is deposited, the stack rollers come in contact with the feed rollers. Peripheries of the stack rollers are formed of synthetic resin. The elastic members push the stack rollers against the feed rollers, and apply elastic forces to the stack rollers such that a frictional force between paper money and the stack rollers is smaller than that between paper money and the feed rollers.
US07942389B2
An evaporator defines an evaporator volume, and boils the liquid inside evaporator volume. A mixing chamber is in communication with the evaporator volume and mixes the vapor or moisture from the liquid in the evaporator with the breathing gas of the patient. The mixing chamber is a separate structure than the evaporator. The mixing chamber and the evaporator are connected by a first connection that is repetitively connectable and disconnectable without significant destruction of a respective connection. A heater is arranged outside of the evaporator and in a heat conducting connection with the evaporator. The heater is a separate structure than the evaporator. The evaporator and the heater are connected by a second connection that is repetitively connectable and disconnectable. A liquid storage tank is in communication with the evaporator and supplies a liquid to the evaporator through a flow channel. The liquid storage tank is larger than the evaporator. The flow channel is formed of a material and has a size to thermally insulate the evaporator from the liquid storage tank.
US07942383B2
A jack for lifting the nose gear on a lightweight aircraft including a wheeled tray adapted to hold weights, a handle for manually moving the jack, and a winch mounted on the jack. The winch including a line adapted to attach to a tie down point on a tail section of the aircraft. Also, a method of using the jack to service the nose gear of alight aircraft including the steps of, loading a weight on a tray, wheeling the tray under a tail section of the aircraft, attaching a line to a tie down point on the airplane opposite the nose gear, and winching the line to apply a downward force on a tail section of the aircraft to lift the nose gear of the airplane off the ground.
US07942377B2
A beach umbrella stand is provided including a foot operated drive assembly. A pole of a beach umbrella stand has a hollow interior portion housing the foot operated drive assembly. The foot operated drive assembly includes a ratchet assembly operated by a foot pedal. The ratchet assembly further includes an auger mounted at least partially within the pole, for driving into the sand. The ratchet assembly is positioned for operation of a pedal by a user's foot.
US07942371B1
Conduit spacers useful in preparing duct banks are disclosed. The conduit spacers are designed for attachment to each other in vertical and horizontal combinations, that is, they may be arranged in side-by-side arrays, up-and-down arrays, or arrays that are both side-to-side and up-and-down. Thus, the conduit spacers include both vertical and horizontal restraints or interlocks. The vertical interlocks are achieved by the use of tapered tabs and tapered slots, both the tabs and the slots having tapers in the same horizontal direction. Horizontal interlocks are made by the use of rails and matching grooves in the sides of the spacers. Thus, both vertical and horizontal interlocks are achieved by assembling the ducts in a horizontal direction, side-by-side as desired for width, and up-and-down as desired for height. The number and length of conduits and the length of the duct banks needed dictate how many spacers are needed.
US07942360B2
A retractable tow strap apparatus for towing a vehicle includes a protective casing and a reel including a hub. The tow strap apparatus further include a tow strap webbing for winding about the hub, means for attaching at least one end of the tow strap webbing to a vehicle to be towed, and means for biasing the reel to wind the tow strap onto the hub. When the tow strap is in a fully extended position, the tow strap apparatus is configured to transmit substantially all of a tension force applied by a towing vehicle to a towed vehicle through only the tow strap. In addition or alternatively, the means for biasing applies a biasing force to automatically wind the tow strap webbing onto the hub. In addition or alternatively, the tow strap webbing is non-disjoint and includes two ends that are each extendable from the casing.
US07942356B2
A horizontal shaft impact crusher includes a housing, an impeller, and a first and a second curtain against which material accelerated by the impeller may be crushed, the second curtain being located downstream of the first curtain. The housing is provided with a first and a second pivot point for mounting a first end of the first curtain in two different positions relative to the impeller, a first adjustment device for mounting a second end of the first curtain, a third and a fourth pivot point for mounting a first end of the second curtain in two different positions relative to the impeller, and a second adjustment device for mounting a second end of the second curtain.
US07942355B2
A self-traveling crushing machine includes: a traveling device; a crushing device that is provided on the traveling device and crushes a to-be-crushed object supplied; an overload escaping section that escapes an overload of the crushing device; and a controller that controls the crushing device. In the self-traveling crushing machine, the crushing device is a jaw crusher in which the to-be-crushed object is supplied to a V-shaped space formed by a fixed jaw and a movable jaw and the movable jaw swings relative to the fixed jaw to crush the to-be-crushed object, and the controller includes: an escape-operation determining section that determines whether or not the overload escaping section has operated; and an information output section that sends the escape operation information to an outside when the escape-operation determining section determines that the escape operation has been conducted.
US07942350B2
A supply line system for conveying a fluid is provided. First and a second conduit segment have at least one inner conduit surface and an outer conduit surface. At least one fluid chamber is within the conduit segments and is formed by the at least one inner conduit surface. At least one electric wire is located between the at least one inner conduit surface and the outer conduit surface. A conduit connection element is connecting the first and second conduit segments, thereby mating the fluid chamber and the electric wire of the first conduit segment with the fluid chamber and the electric wire of the second conduit segment. At least a portion of the quantity of fluid and the electric signals is passed from the first to the second conduit segment. A control system is connected to the electric wire and in communication with at least one device.
US07942335B2
A radio frequency system and a password management method applied to a storage device of the radio frequency system are provided, in which a first access password is stored for deciding whether to permit access to information and a first changed password. The first changed password, a second access password, and a second changed password are received, and the first access password is changed to the second access password, and the first changed password is changed to the second changed password. Accordingly, information access authority in the storage device and a password change authority can be exclusively transferred according to the transfer of management of the storage device, and information leakage caused by a previous manager's password leakage or a third person's password leakage can be prevented.
US07942334B2
A token includes a flat body made of a plastic material. The flat body has at least two parallel faces and a cavity which opens to at least one of the at least two parallel faces. The cavity receives an electronic identification device. At least one plug made of a plastic material is included. The plug is inserted into the cavity to retain the electronic device. The electronic device is in the form a pellet having outer film layers enveloping the electronic elements. The film layers are perforated.
US07942332B2
A camera unit includes a display for displaying an image to be captured; an image sensor for digitally capturing the displayed image; a card reader having a linear scanner for scanning a surface of a removable card to sense a plurality of dots printed on the surface of the removable card, the plurality of dots representing a bit pattern encoding a program script; a card interface for receiving a signal from the card reader indicative of the sensed plurality of dots printed on the surface of the card, and decoding the sensed plurality of dots into the program script; and a printer configured to print a distorted image on print media, the distorted image being a version of the captured image distorted in accordance with the program script.
US07942331B2
A modular barcode scanner for identifying various types of barcodes or the like is provided. The scanner has a housing that has a light source mounted therein and a plurality of walls with one wall at least partially disposed to allow a light path originating from the light source to pass out of the housing to reach the bar codes. The scanner further has a top module mounted on the top of the housing comprising a flat member having light receiving and processing optics as well as subsequent electronic processing devices mounted thereon; and a bottom module mounted on the bottom of the housing having an inner surface with a rotating mirror mounted thereon for directing the light path.
US07942315B2
A method of detecting attempted fraud at a self-service terminal. The method involves providing a classifier having a plurality of input zones, each input zone being adapted to receive data of a different modality. The classifier may be a statistical model. The method also involves mapping inputs from a plurality of sensors in the self-service terminal to respective input zones of the classifier. For each input zone, the classifier independently operates on inputs within that zone to create a weighted set; combines the weighted sets using a dedicated weighting function for each weighted set to produce a composite set; and derives a plurality of class values from the composite set to create a classification result. The classification result can be used to predict the probability of abnormal operation, which may be indicative of fraud.
US07942314B1
A cash dispensing automated banking machine actuated by user cards is in operative connection with a system usable to capture images related to activity that is conducted at or adjacent to the machine. The automated banking machine is positioned at a banking facility including a vault and an entrance. A plurality of cameras are positioned at the facility. Images captured may be analyzed at the bank facility or the remote monitoring center. The monitoring center may operate to assure that employees of the bank facility or others can safely access and/or leave the bank facility.
US07942312B2
In a method and a system for obtaining object data representative of an object, the object is provided with at least one identification carrier on which identification data are stored, the method including:—reading identification data from the identification carrier with a read unit;—determining from the identification data location data of a network location of a server element connected to an electronic network and on which object data representing the relevant object are stored;—sending the identification data on the basis of the location data via a communication connection over the electronic network between the read unit and the server element associated with the determined network location;—the server element determining task data from the identification data;—having the server means execute the associated task on the basis of the task data so as to generate and/or process object data representing the identified object.
US07942309B2
A box sealing belt includes two sealing bands, a gap band and two fastening ears. The two sealing bands are substantially in parallel with each other. The gap band is interconnected between the two sealing bands to form two opposing concave slots therebetween. The two fastening ears are respectively disposed at two opposite ends of either one of the two sealing bands.
US07942308B2
There is provided a method for producing a multi-colored or multi-alloy extruded shape, such as metal tubing for use in forming rings. At least two contrastingly colored metal components or metal components made from different alloys are arranged in a container. The metal components in the container are compressed so as to form a billet of distorted multi-colored or multi-alloy metal. The billet is extruded thereby forming multi-colored or multi-alloy patterns in the extruded shape.
US07942307B2
An apparatus for applying a helical cladding bead to the interior surface of a pipe elbow has a rotor mounted to an elbow carriage so as to be rotatable about a primary axis. The elbow carriage is longitudinally movable parallel to the rotor's rotational axis. A radially-movable elbow collar is mounted to the rotor, and has means for mounting a first end of a pipe elbow. The second end of the elbow passes through a stationary frame with centering means for keeping the elbow's curved centerline tangential to the primary axis. A weld arm, extending from a weld arm carriage into the second end of the elbow, is sinuously configured so that it will not interfere with the elbow. The weld arm is rotatable about the primary axis in coordination with the rotor. A weld head is mounted at the extending end of the weld arm so as to remain spatially fixed regardless of rotation of the weld arm. An integrated drive mechanism rotates the rotor, moves the elbow carriage longitudinally, moves the elbow cradle radially, and rotates the weld arm in synchronization with the rotor, all in a coordinated fashion such that the elbow's center of rotation orbits around the primary axis in a plane perpendicular thereto. The elbow moves through the stationary frame at an average rate equal to one weld bead width per rotation, thus resulting in the deposition of a continuous helical weld bead cladding the interior surfaces of the elbow.
US07942301B2
A stapling system includes a tissue staple, a mandrel, and a pusher. The staple includes a crown at the proximal end and a plurality of prongs extending distally therefrom about a central axis of the staple. Each prong of the staple includes a tab extending towards the central axis. The mandrel receives the staple along an outer surface thereof. The mandrel includes a proximal groove adapted to receive the tab of the corresponding prong. The proximal groove includes a ramp from a proximal portion of the proximal groove to a distal portion of the proximal groove. The mandrel further includes a distal groove adapted to receive the tabs of the prongs and a distal anvil disposed distally of the distal groove. The pusher is disposed around the mandrel abutting and proximal to crown of the staple.
US07942298B2
A stapler includes a base member, a magazine for receiving a plurality of staples, and a drive member including a driver blade movable relative to the magazine for ejecting staples from the magazine one at a time. The stapler further includes an input member pivotally coupled to the drive member. The input member is configured to receive an input force and transmit the input force to the drive member for driving movement of the drive member relative to the magazine. One of the drive member and the input member pivots about a pivot axis that moves relative to the base member along an arcuate path.
US07942290B2
An improved device for distributing tickets or coupons is disclosed that includes a plurality of ticket chutes each having a ticket guide assembly for guiding tickets through the chute and an exit slot and biasing tickets against a drive wheel which engages the tickets. The drive wheel is powered by a motor which uses a drive belt to power a screw gear which in turn rotates and axle on which the drive wheel is attached. The motor is activated by a controller in response to an input signal and the controller may also received input from an optical sensor in the chute for the detection of the tickets and the movement of the motor.
US07942289B2
The invention relates to a device for closing an opening, particularly a man hole. The inventive device comprises a frame (4) and a cover (6) which is articulated to the frame (4) around a first axis (X-X) by means of a hinge (14). The device also comprises a locking means (16) having a locked configuration, whereby the cover is held open in a first position, and an unlocked configuration, whereby said cover (6) is disposed in a second position in which it can be pivoted around the axis (X-X). The aforementioned hinge (14) is designed such that, while resting on the frame, the cover (6) can pivot around a second horizontal axis (Y-Y). Moreover, the cover is pivoted around said second axis (Y-Y) in order to move same between the two positions. The invention is suitable for cast iron man holes.
US07942286B2
A lid arrangement for a container comprises a peripheral portion surrounding an integrally formed central portion. A first scored portion defines a boundary between the central portion and the peripheral portion. A second scored portion is also formed in the central portion. The second scored portion extends substantially parallel to the first scored portion and a strip is formed in the central portion between the first scored portion and the second scored portion. A tab member is connected to the strip of the central portion. The tab member includes a handle that protrudes from the upper surface of the central portion. When a threshold force pulls the handle of the tab member away from the central portion, the strip separates from the peripheral portion along the first scored portion.
US07942284B2
An apparatus removes a tamper-evident seal from a mouth of a container and retains the tamper-evident seal to prevent any of the seal from falling into the container. The apparatus includes a body having a top surface and a bottom surface. A sidewall circumscribes the body and extends substantially perpendicularly from the top surface of the body. A first projection extends substantially perpendicularly from the top surface and is disposed radially inward from the side wall. The first projection includes a first tip, a first portion, and a second portion, wherein an indentation is defined between the first and second portions. The first portion is located between the body and the second portion. The second portion has a diameter that is wider than a diameter of the first portion. A plurality of second projections extend from the top surface of the body.
US07942277B1
A powered saddle rack can be mounted in a trailer tack room. A mounting rod rotates from a storage to a load/unload position. A working frame assembly further rotates to the load/unload position. Once in the load/unload position, a rack raising rod is lifted or lowered, thereby raising or lowering several saddle racks up and down. A portable version doesn't rotate.
US07942274B2
A microporous asymmetrical membrane formed of one or more layers wherein the “tight” side of the membrane has an “opened” face or otherwise highly-porous reticulated surface is described. The microporous asymmetrical membrane has high throughput and high flux, even when used for filtering viscous materials, such as serum or plasma. The membrane's surface can be formed by ablation or solvation, or in a two or more layered structure, through an appropriate selection of casting dopes.
US07942258B2
A digital processor for use in a conveyor belt rip detector, which provides excitation signals at a selected frequency to inverted and noninverted sensor loops on a conveyor belt and then detects corresponding received signals from the sensor loops. The digital processor then performs FFTs on the corresponding received signals to provide respective received signal frequency spectrums. Next magnitude and phase values of the selected frequency in the respective received signal frequency spectrums are used to determine a qualitative state of the sensor loops. The selected frequency has a lowest detected ambient noise level, and the magnitude value is a normalized magnitude value.
US07942257B2
A separation conveyor using a roller belt whose rollers are already rotating before receiving an article to provide immediate pull-away from an infeed conveyor. The rollers of a roller belt extend through the thickness of the belt and into contact with a bearing surface in a reversing segment of a belt path between the returnway and the carryway of the separation conveyor. The rollers are already rotating on the bearing surface in the reversing segment at the infeed end before they contact articles to avoid delays in pulling articles away from the infeed conveyor and onto the separation conveyor.
US07942251B2
Linkage system between a first part and a second part capable of movement relative to each other, incorporating a link capable of transmitting forces between the first and second parts and a frequency control loop for said link incorporating means of measuring a distance separating the first and second parts, a frequency filter for said measurements in a given frequency band and means for comparing these filtered values with a set point, said control loop controlling the link such that it transmits forces only in the given frequency band, the frequency control loop being a position control loop, a speed control loop being incorporated in the position control loop, and a force control loop being incorporated in the speed control loop.
US07942250B2
A bicycle hydraulic brake device includes a housing having a master cylinder, a master piston movably mounted in the master cylinder, a brake operating member and an adjustment mechanism. The brake operating member is arranged to move between a rest position and a brake actuating position and to move the master piston in response to movement of the brake operating member to the brake actuating position. The adjustment mechanism is arranged to adjust the rest position and a free stroke of the brake operating member with an initial travel position of the master piston remaining unchanged. The adjustment mechanism includes a first adjustment member that adjusts a length of a free stroke and a second adjustment member that adjusts the rest position of brake operating member without changing the length of the free stroke.
US07942247B2
In a vehicle disk brake, a motor housing houses in a housing recess a case into which an end of an output shaft liquid-tightly protrudes, and is mounted to a caliper body. A reduction mechanism having an output rotating member is sealed in the case while part of the output rotating member fluid-tightly protrudes from the case so as to be coaxially and operatively connected to a rear portion of the screw shaft. Grease is charged into the case. Thus, the case for housing the reduction mechanism is simply configured while preventing leakage of the grease charged into the case, and mounting of the case to the caliper body is facilitated.
US07942244B2
The invention relates to a lifting assembly (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) comprising: a rack mast, a platform (12, 23, 33, 43, 53, 91), and at least one power unit (100, 300, 400, 500, 600, 800, 900, 901) which is mounted to the mast and which controls the vertical movement of the platform along the length thereof. The invention is characterized in that the power unit comprises a plurality of modular elements including at least one motor block (101, 200, 201, 301, 401, 501, 604, 621, 801, 904), at least one upper roller box (102, 205, 210, 305, 404, 503, 627, 903) and at least one lower roller box (103, 206, 304, 405, 502, 601, 629, 902). According to the invention, each of the modular elements is equipped with mechanical fastening means (610, 611, 612) which are aligned with the mechanical fastening means of an adjacent modular element.
US07942243B1
An intermediate cable fairlead is comprised of a frame assembly, a left and right wheel assembly affixed to the frame assembly, and a pulley wheel attached to the wheel assembly. The intermediate cable fairlead can be attached to a ladder and utilized to move material from the ground up to or over the intermediate cable fairlead. The device can also be utilized as a stop to hold a load in position on a ladder.
US07942241B2
A wearable lightweight fire fighter's personal escape system and method includes a rope, having a distal and proximal end, organized in parallel segments disposed in an inner pouch. The inner pouch is entirely contained in an outer pouch that is appointed to be removably attached to a belt or harness, worn by a fire fighter. The proximal end of the rope exits through an opening in the inner pouch and outer pouch and is attached directly to a lightweight hook, or optionally enters a belay device. The hook has a sharp point for creating a purchase point on soft surfaces, a hook opening having sufficient diameter to surround radiators, steam pipe and the like, and capture rope that surrounds substantial objects. The hook has a central opening appointed for holding a firefighting tool to aid in creating a substantial object. The fire fighter escapes by creating a purchase point and repelling at a high speed or at a controlled speed by adjusting belay friction.
US07942229B2
A vibration damper includes a hub, a first mass, a first resilient coupling, a second mass, and a second resilient coupling. The first mass is disposed concentrically about the hub. The first resilient coupling resiliently couples the first mass to the hub. The first resilient coupling has a first spring constant. The second mass is disposed concentrically about the first mass. The second resilient coupling resiliently couples the second mass directly to the first mass. The second resilient coupling has a second spring constant that is less than the first spring constant. The first mass and the first resilient coupling are configured to attenuate vibration at a first frequency. The second mass and the second resilient coupling are configured to attenuate vibration at a second frequency. The second frequency is lower than the first frequency.
US07942228B2
A truck has improved control with a plurality of wheels each having a single wheel drive and a device for controlling speed and/or torque of the single wheel drives. The control device has a separate controller train for each wheel drive, with each controller train having a differential controller for correcting divided torque depending on steering angle and a wheel slip controller correcting the divided torque or torque value corrected by the differential controller depending on wheel slip and providing a corresponding single wheel drive torque value.
US07942226B2
A motorcycle includes a body frame having right and left frame members 15R and 15L and an air cleaner 10 having an air cleaner case 3 and an air filter element 6. The air cleaner case 3 includes a lower section 3a, a part of which being positioned between the frame members 15R and 15L and an upper section 3b protruding upward from the lower section 3a above the frame members 15R and 15L and laterally extending outward. The upper section 3b is positioned above the frame members 15R and 15L and laterally outward of inner ends 15a of the right and left frame members 15R and 15L. The upper section 3b has a seal section 26. The air filter element 6 is supported and sealed by the seal section 26 so as to divide the inner space of the air cleaner case 3 into an upper space and a lower space.
US07942225B2
Suspension system for a wheeled vehicle and a wheeled vehicle equipped with such a suspension system
A suspension system for a wheeled vehicle is provided, the suspension system being adapted to support at least one wheel of the vehicle and comprising at least one shock absorbing device adapted to be activated as a result of the motion of the at least one wheel in a substantially vertical direction, the suspension system further comprising electrical power generating means in fluid connection with the at least one shock absorbing device so that the activation of said at least one shock absorbing device results in electrical power being generated. Furthermore, the suspension system comprises means for absorbing at least partially the electrical power generated, the absorption of electrical power resulting in the stiffness of said at least one shock absorbing device being varied as a function of the electrical power absorbed.
US07942224B2
Embodiments of the invention provide a lawn mower including a frame, a seat or operator station, one or more handles, and a suspension unit coupled between the frame and the seat or operator station. The lawn mower can include one or more pivot members with a first portion coupled to the frame at a pivot location forward of the seat or operator station and a second portion coupled to the seat or operator station. The one or more pivot members can allow the seat or operator station and the one or more handles to move with respect to the frame while the suspension unit absorbs a portion of shock caused by riding over the uneven terrain. The seat can be positioned at least partially between a first drive wheel and a second drive wheel and at least partially along a drive axis. The seat can be declined with respect to a horizontal plane so that the operator's upper torso leans forward at an angle with respect to a vertical plane when the operator is sitting on the seat.
US07942220B2
A differential steering control system and method for a machine includes a motor for steering the machine in a leftwards or a rightwards direction, a continuously variable transmission for moving the machine in a forwards or a backwards direction, and a control unit connected to the motor and the continuously variable transmission. The control unit determines the speed of the continuously variable transmission and based upon the determined speed, modifies a speed of the motor in order to achieve/maintain a desired turn radius for the machine.
US07942218B2
A cutting element assembly for use on a rotary drill bit for forming a borehole in a subterranean formation. A cutting element assembly includes a cutting element having a substrate. The cutting element assembly additionally includes a superabrasive material bonded to the substrate. The substrate extends from an end surface to a back surface. A base member is also coupled to the back surface of the substrate. Additionally, a recess is defined in the base member and a structural element is coupled to the base member. The cutting element assembly also includes a biasing element configured to selectively bias the structural element.
US07942210B2
In lieu of rigid bars, a tillage reel utilizes a number of elongated flexible elements such as lengths of link chain that are spaced circumferentially around the reel and extend axially thereof. The flexible elements bow outwardly by centrifugal force as the reel rolls along the ground during tillage operations to impact and fracture clods encountered at the lower front extremity of the reel. When the reel is used in connection with strip till operations, the flexible elements bow upwardly and inwardly along the lower periphery of the reel as they engage and conform to the transverse cross-section of the strip till berm, thereby avoiding destruction of the berm notwithstanding the clod-pulverizing action provided by the flexible elements.
US07942209B1
An apparatus for earth working or material moving includes a first and a second blade oriented substantially parallel to one another. The two blades each have non-working blade faces positioned adjacent one another and working blade faces opposite one another. The two blades are moveable with respect to one another in the vertical direction, but fixed to one another in the horizontal direction. In this way, the working face of a first blade may be used in a first direction, and the working face of a second blade may be used in a second direction. The dual blade unit may be pivotally connected to an extending arm so that the angle of the first and second blades with respect to the direction of travel may be adjusted to the specifications of the user.
US07942194B2
A heat sink, wherein a plurality of heat radiation fins are mounted on a base plate to which an electronic device is attached in a heat transmittable manner. The heat radiation fins are erected vertically and in parallel with each other on the reverse face of the base plate to which the electron device is contacted, and extended laterally from the base plate. A heat pipe transports heat between the extended portion of the heat radiation fins and the base plate.
US07942184B2
A vertical cellular blind includes a headrail having first and second tracks; a fabric carriage including a trolley translatable along one of the tracks and a fabric stem releasable connected to the trolley; a cellular fabric panel connected to the fabric stem; a vertical rail bracket translatable along the other of the tracks in the headrail and including a component angularly adjustable relative to the headrail; a vertical rail attached to the panel and connected to the vertical rail bracket; a cord having ends secured in the headrail and extending through the panel and the vertical rail; and a locking handle in the vertical rail having the cord extended therethrough and releasable pinching means in the handle for engaging the cord.
US07942181B2
A machine for bonding layers in a film includes first pay-off unit to unwind a first layer of the film, a second pay-off unit to unwind a second layer of the film, a third pay-off unit to unwind a third layer of the film, a bonding zone to join the various layers of film together, and a winding unit including a reel onto which the bonded film is wound, the bonding zone including at least one bonding unit, the pressing roller being fitted with at least an hydraulic actuator which brings it in contact with the layers of film on the bonding calender, the presser roller and the hydraulic actuator being mounted on a nip rotating around the axis of the bonding calendar so as to vary the position of the point of contact between the presser roller and the calender and hence to vary the breadth of the contact arc, along the surface of the calender, in which the layers are overlapped.
US07942180B2
The invention relates to an installation for applying glue to fibers for the production of fiberboard, especially MDF board or similar wood material board. Said installation comprises a fiber feed unit having at least one fiber feed conduit which opens into a fiber exit tube via e.g. an arched fiber deflection element and receives the air that is used to transport the fibers, a chute which is located downstream of the fiber exit tube, a glue application device which is located between the fiber exit tube and the chute and which has spray nozzles for spraying the fibers that emerge from the fiber exit tube and enter the chute with drops of glue, and a collection device, located downstream of the chute and having a transport device for collecting and optionally carrying off the fibers and a suction device for suctioning air from the chute through the transport belt. The installation is characterized in that the spray nozzles or at least some of the spray nozzles can be transferred from a standby position to a working position and vice versa for applying glue to the fibers.
US07942179B2
The invention relates to a device for dispensing a plurality of labels onto a folio across a travelling path of the folio through the device, the device has a supply of labels, the labels are carried by a carrier; a guide system for guiding the carrier with labels from the supply to a dispenser. The dispensing machine includes an arm, which extends across the folio, and a dispensing wagon, which is arranged on the arm and is adapted to dispense the labels onto the folio while moving along the arm. The device furthermore keeps the carrier stretched between the supply and the dispenser.
US07942174B2
An improved feather board apparatus and method are provided, for use in holding a work piece against a guide surface as the work piece is guided in a feed direction, and for precluding motion of the work piece in a direction opposite the feed direction, through use of a feather board apparatus, having a feather board clamping arrangement which allows for limited amount of pivoting of the feather board about an in feed side clamping point, as the work piece is fed past the feather board.
US07942173B2
A powder filling apparatus that can prevent a screw portion of an auger screw from contacting an inner surface of a metering portion at a funnel lower end portion. The powder filling apparatus includes a funnel that contains powder, and a circular-cylindrical metering portion provided at a lower end portion of the funnel, an auger screw arranged vertically, and a support device that supports the auger screw rotatably. The auger screw has a lower end provided with a screw portion that is arranged within the metering portion. The funnel is suspended from the support device and supported thereto and the metering portion has a center axis made substantially coincident with an axis of rotation of the auger screw.
US07942168B2
The invention provides a pneumatic and/or fluidic module, a method of producing a pneumatic and/or fluidic module and the use of a pneumatic and/or fluidic module, the pneumatic and/or fluidic module comprising at least one pneumatic and/or fluidic conduit provided to form at least a part of a pneumatic and/or fluidic circuit, said at least one pneumatic and/or fluidic conduit comprising a first part along said conduit and a second part along said conduit, wherein said conduit is provided essentially leak-proof along the interface of the first and the second part by means of the first part comprising a first material at the interface of the first and the second part and by means of the second part comprising a second material at the interface of the first and the second part and wherein the first material is more compressible than the second material.
US07942162B2
A flow splitter that divides a two-phase (gas-liquid) inlet stream or a one-phase (liquid-liquid) inlet stream into equal and substantially balanced parts for distribution to an equal number of outlets horizontally oriented and connected to the flow splitter. Because of the design of the flow splitter, no control instrumentation or retention time is required during a split. Openings in each face of the flow splitter help to equalize pressure in the split and allow liquid to fill an end chamber that supports impact forces on a wedge-shaped spreader oriented with its leading edge toward an inlet stream.
US07942160B2
The present invention relates to microfluidic systems, including valves and pumps for microfluidic systems. The valves of the invention include check valves such as diaphragm valves and flap valves. Other valves of the invention include one-use valves. The pumps of the present invention include a reservoir and at least two check valves. The reservoir may be of variable volume. The present invention also relates to a flexible microfluidic system. The present invention additionally relates to a method of making microfluidic systems including those of the present invention. The method includes forming a microfluidic system on a master, connecting a support to the microfluidic system and removing the microfluidic system from the master. The support may remain connected to the microfluidic system or the microfluidic system may be transferred to another substrate. The present invention further relates to a method of manipulating a flow of a fluid in a microfluidic system. This method includes initiating fluid flow in a first direction and inhibiting fluid flow in a second direction and may be practiced with the valves of the present invention.
US07942154B2
The present invention provides a cigarette filter material useful for selectively and efficiently reducing formaldehyde while maintaining a palatable component such as nicotine or tar. The cigarette filter material is obtained by coating-treating a substrate (such as a cellulose acetate fiber) with a solution (particularly, an aqueous solution) containing a polysaccharide having an amino group (e.g. chitosan) and a polar solvent (e.g., water) [and optionally an acid such as a hydroxy acid (e.g., lactic acid)]. A cigarette filter of such a cigarette filter material can efficiently and selectively reduce formaldehyde. For example, the cigarette filter ensures a retention of formaldehyde of not more than 65% while maintaining retentions of nicotine and tar of not less than 80%, respectively, in main stream smoke.
US07942153B2
The present invention provides improved methods and apparatus for skin treatment. The apparatus includes multiple sources of optical energy or several blades that are scanned along a region of skin to form micro-line patterns of damaged tissue. The micro-lines are small in at least one dimension, having a width of less than about 1 mm, and the wounded regions promote beneficial results by stimulation of wound healing and tissue remodeling.
US07942151B2
The present application is directed to a seat having a hard, firm surface designed to treat hemorrhoids. The hard, firm surface of the seat is configured to have a void and two opposing pressure applying points designed to place positive pressure on the area surrounding a hemorrhoid so as to develop a negative pressure within the body which causes the body to draw the hemorrhoids back up into the body.
US07942150B2
A nasal assembly for delivering breathable gas to a patient includes a frame having an integrally formed first connector portion. A nozzle assembly includes a gusset or base portion and a pair of nozzles. At least one inlet conduit is structured to deliver breathable gas into the frame and nozzle assembly for breathing by the patient. A pair of second connector portions are removably and rotatably connected to respective first connector portions of the frame and are in communication with respective inlet conduits, e.g., directly or via angle connectors. A headgear assembly is removably connected to the pair of second connector portions and/or the angle connectors so as to maintain the frame and the nozzle assembly in a desired adjusted position on the patient's face.
US07942148B2
A breathing arrangement includes a patient interface, at least one inlet conduit, and a headgear assembly. The patient interface includes a mouth covering assembly including a cushion structured to sealingly engage around exterior of a patient's mouth in use, a nozzle assembly including a pair of nozzles structured to sealingly engage within nasal passages of a patient's nose in use, and a flexible element connecting the mouth covering assembly and the nozzle assembly. The at least one inlet conduit is structured to deliver breathable gas into at least one of the mouth covering assembly and the nozzle assembly for breathing by the patient. The headgear assembly is removably connected to at least one of the mouth covering assembly and the nozzle assembly so as to maintain the mouth covering assembly and the nozzle assembly in a desired position on the patient's face.
US07942142B2
A concrete saw (10) has an electric motor (24) energized by a battery pack (34) to drive a pair of saw arbors (42) and a battery powered transmission (30) drives rear wheels (16) that provide self propulsion of the saw in cooperation with front wheels (20). A power operated actuator (54) raises and lowers the front wheels (20) to provide upward and downward movement of the saw frame (14) about its rear wheels (16). The battery pack (34) may be lead acid batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries or lithium batteries, and the electric motor (24) has 5 to 15 horsepower, preferably about 10 horsepower, to provide cutting of most conventional concrete jobs.
US07942131B2
In an injection system having a device for metering fuel into an exhaust system of a Diesel engine, and a method for controlling the injection of fuel into the exhaust system, wherein the injection system has a high-pressure pump which feeds fuel to an accumulator under high pressure and injectors which inject fuel from the accumulator into the combustion chambers of the internal combustion engine, a fuel spray nozzle arranged in the exhaust system is in communication with the injection system via a fuel metering unit including a control valve and a metering valve and a pressure regulating valve is arranged between the control valve and the metering valve for controlling the pressure of the fuel being metered by the metering valve for injection into the exhaust system via the spray nozzle.
US07942127B2
A system and method are described for operating an engine of a vehicle, the engine having a combustion chamber. In one example, the method may include controlling a stability of the vehicle in response to a vehicle acceleration; and adjusting dilution in the combustion chamber of the engine to reduce surge in response to the vehicle acceleration. The dilution may be adjusted by adjusting cam timing, for example.
US07942123B2
A variable valve system has a drive shaft having a drive cam, a rockable cam opening/closing an engine valve, a transmission mechanism converting torque of the drive cam into a rocking motion and transmitting it to the rockable cam, a control shaft, and a control cam. When the variable valve system varies a valve lift amount of the engine valve by changing the rocking fulcrum of the transmission mechanism, the rocking fulcrum during a small valve lift control is set in an area outside an arc locus drawn with the drive shaft being a center of the arc and passing through a rocking fulcrum position positioned at a maximum valve lift and also inside an arc locus drawn with a pivot of the one end side of the transmission mechanism being a center of the arc and passing through the rocking fulcrum position positioned at the maximum valve lift.
US07942121B2
A camshaft system for internal combustion engine includes a camshaft having a thrust ring which is lubricated by oil from a control valve which operates a camshaft phaser with lubricating oil, and with the lubricating oil being furnished to the camshaft at crankcase pressure after the oil leaves the camshaft phaser.
US07942112B2
A system and method for preventing formation of a plasma-inhibiting substance within a plasma chamber is provided. In one embodiment, an apparatus that includes a barrier component configured to be disposed within a plasma chamber. The barrier component includes a wall that defines a plasma formation region where a chemically-reducing species is formed from a fluid. A portion of the wall is formed of a substance that is substantially inert to the chemically-reducing species. The wall prevents the chemically-reducing species from interacting with an inner surface of the plasma chamber to form a conductive substance. The barrier component also includes an opening in fluid communication with the plasma formation region. The fluid is introduced into the plasma formation region via the opening.
US07942111B2
A method is proposed for vacuum-coating a substrate using a plasma-CVD method. In order to control ion bombardment during the vacuum coating, a substrate voltage, produced independently from a coating plasma, is applied to the substrate. The substrate voltage is modified during the coating. The substrate voltage is a direct voltage that is pulsed in bipolar fashion with a frequency of 0.1 kHz to 10 MHz. A wear-resistant and friction-reducing multilayer structure of alternating hard material individual layers and carbon or silicon individual layers is proposed.
US07942099B2
Disclosed is a static bearing conveying apparatus having magnetically preloading and motional error correcting functions. The apparatus comprises a guide having a guide surface formed on one side of the guide facing a table, magnetic preload units provided between the guide and the table to generate preload, and a motional error correcting control unit comprising a controller to control the magnetic preload units and a power amplifier to apply electric current according to a control signal from the controller. Each of the magnetic preload units comprises a permanent magnet, a core collinear with magnetic fluxes from the permanent magnet, an electromagnetic coil wound around the core, and a fixing bracket having the permanent magnet supported by the table. The apparatus is simplified in structure of the table and the overall guide, and reduces motional errors of the guide by correcting errors of a floating gap of the static bearings.
US07942097B1
A slapper detonator which integrally incorporates an optical wavequide structure for determining whether there has been degradation of the explosive in the explosive device that is to be initiated by the detonator. Embodiments of this invention take advantage of the barrel-like character of a typical slapper detonator design. The barrel assembly, being in direct contact with the energetic material, incorporates an optical diagnostic device into the barrel assembly whereby one can monitor the state of the explosive material. Such monitoring can be beneficial because the chemical degradation of the explosive plays an important in achieving proper functioning of a detonator/initiator device.
US07942088B2
A rotary cutting unit includes a rotary cutter overlying a rotatable anvil. The anvil includes an axle, at least one anvil portion adapted to co-operate with a knife member of a rotary cutter, and a pair of load transmitting portions adapted to abut a pair of abutment members of the rotary cutter. The pair of load transmitting portions are arranged on each side of the anvil portion. A load receiving member is provided between each load transmitting portion and the anvil portion. Each of the load receiving members is connected to the axle via a bearing. Fluid cylinders apply upward forces to the load receiving members, wherein the total upward force exceeds the weight of the anvil.
US07942084B2
A powered driver and methods are disclosed, the driver including a head having a gapped jaw and housing a motor driven drive transfer assembly for operating a rotatable split socket engageable at a threaded connector. A reaction unit is movably maintained through the head, and a probe is associated with the reaction unit. The methods of this invention include setting a selected rotational limitation at the driver relating to fitting characteristics, operating the driver to cause relative rotation of a connector nut located in the socket and connector body engaged by the reaction unit. One of a plurality of operational modes for driver operations is selected and relative movement of the head and reaction unit are monitored during driver operation. The driver is controlled so that driver operation ceases when a selected combination of events related to operational mode selected and at least one of rotational limitation setting, monitored relative movement or driver operation occurs.
US07942082B1
A crankable hand wrench includes an elongated main handle having opposite end portions, opposite faces extending between the opposite end portions, and a slot in the main handle nearer to one than the other of the opposite end portions, a wrench head attached to and extending from at least the other of the opposite end portions of the main handle, and a crank assembly incorporated by the main handle. The slot is formed through the main handle between the opposite faces thereof so as to open at the opposite faces. The crank assembly includes a crank handle movable between a stored position in which the crank handle is disposed within the slot and a deployed position in which the crank handle extends from the main handle so as to form a substantially L-shaped crank therewith.
US07942072B2
A force sensor includes a substrate, a support layer, a film, a plurality of sensing portions, a plurality of electrodes, a plurality of sensing materials, and a filler. The support layer is disposed on the substrate. The film is supported by the support layer. The sensing portions extend from the film. The electrodes are correspondingly disposed on the sensing portions. The sensing materials are correspondingly disposed on the electrodes. The support layer, the film, the sensing portions, the electrodes, and the sensing materials encapsulated by the filler.
US07942071B2
Turbine comprising a tubular body that receives an upstream stator, a rotor including a propeller and a downstream stator. The trailing edge of the blades of the upstream stator is inclined through a negative angle relative to a normal relative to the axis, and the leading edge of the blades of the propeller is inclined and rounded in an incline directed downstream. The rotational mounting of the propeller in the turbine involves a fixed shaft installed in the upstream and downstream stators, and which carries an upstream bearing bush and a downstream bearing bush, close to the end of the location of the propeller, and a stop formed by a crown of support pins in an upstream and downstream direction. The propeller comprises a tubular hub through which the fixed shaft extends and which has a bearing bush at each end in order to co-operate at the same time with the corresponding bearing bush of the fixed shaft and with the corresponding peripheral stop.
US07942067B2
A method achieving a small spatial restriction and capable of simply measuring with high precision a flow rate of a conductive fluid of an electromagnetic pump is provided. In particular, the method is suitable in measuring a flow amount of each electromagnetic pump in an electromagnetic pump unit where a plurality of electromagnetic pumps are arranged in parallel in one pump vessel. The method includes: measuring, by a magnetic sensor such as a magnetic flux density measuring coil 6, arranged in the vicinity of a outlet end 2 of an electromagnetic pump 1, a magnetic flux density of a magnetic field 4 that is generated in the electromagnetic pump 1 and pushed out from the outlet end 2 of the electromagnetic pump 1 due to a flow of a conductive fluid 5; and measuring a flow amount of the electromagnetic pump 1 from a previously calculated relationship between the magnetic flux density of the magnetic field 4 pushed out from the outlet end 2 of the electromagnetic pump 1 and a flow amount of the conductive fluid 5.
US07942064B2
A system for non-destructively measuring the strength of a cement slurry sample includes an elongate sample container for receiving a cement slurry sample. The elongate sample container has a mass mounted at its first end. A transducer mounted at a second end of the elongate sample container vibrates the elongate sample container and mass. The elongate sample container, mass and transducer have a known resonance. The system calculates the strength of a tested cement slurry within the elongate sample container as a function of variation in resonance of the elongate sample container, mass and transducer.
US07942055B2
Disclosed is an acceleration sensor having a small variation in detection sensitivity, in which one end portion of an oscillation detecting element is fixed so that the free length thereof does not vary. Supporting resins 4a, 4b are formed in one end portion of the oscillation detecting element 3. With the oscillation detecting element being inserted into a through hole 2h of a holding member 2 provided in a case 1, the supporting resins 4a, 4b are in close contact with the inner periphery of the through hole 2h. As a result, the oscillation detecting element 3 is fixed to and held by the holding member 2.
US07942052B2
An inflow port and an outflow port of a bypass passage have openings on a front surface near a projecting end and on a bottom surface, respectively, of a bypass passage forming member. A recess portion is disposed on the front surface of the bypass passage forming member on a circuit housing portion side of the inflow port so as to extend at a predetermined depth over an entire region in a longitudinal direction of a short side of a rectangular cross section of the bypass passage forming member.
US07942048B2
A system for detecting the pressure in a pneumatic vehicle tire which is mounted on a vehicle and/or the speed of the vehicle, having an arrangement composed of load sensors which supplies force signals for a two-dimensional pattern of the distribution of force which is exerted by the vehicle tire in contact with the sensors when the vehicle moves over the arrangement, a computer which is programmed in such a way that it defines the tire pressure and/or the speed on the basis of the distribution of force independently of the method of manufacture or the model of the tire and of the vehicle, and a device for displaying the pressure and/or the speed, is characterized in that the arrangement composed of load sensors comprises at least two series of load sensors which are arranged one behind the other in the direction of travel, wherein at least one row of load sensors is offset with respect to one or more rows of the load sensors by a predetermined absolute value transversely with respect to the direction of travel.
US07942042B2
An apparatus, configured to estimate quantity of fuel stored in a vehicle, includes: a fuel tank; a fuel quantity measure; a filtering processor; a filter gain setter, configured to set a filter gain; and a vehicle status detector, configured to detect which one of a starting state, a halted state, a state achieved immediately after stoppage of the vehicle, and a traveling state, wherein the filter gain setter sets: a first gain as the filter gain when the vehicle is the starting state; a second gain as the filter gain, which is larger than the first gain, when the vehicle is in the traveling state or the state achieved immediately after stoppage of the vehicle; and a third gain as a filter gain, which is larger than the first gain and smaller than the second gain, when the vehicle is in the halted state.
US07942037B2
The present invention relates to a method for detecting residues on a component and particularly on the surface of the component. In order to also allow the testing of surfaces which are difficult to access, without the apparatus outlay growing, the method according to the present invention comprises the following steps: producing a base solution and a reference solution from water, producing a washing solution by adding fresh solvent to the base solution, filling the component to be tested with the washing solution, wetting the entire inner surface of the component with the washing solution, draining the washing solution out of the component, producing a test solution by adding the washing solution to the base solution, comparing the test solution to the reference solution, and testing whether a turbidity occurs in the mixing zone between the washing solution and the base solution, as proof for lubricant on the surface of the component.
US07942028B2
Disclosed is a device and method for forming a curl in a closable container. A process of forming a pre-curl is used, which is followed by a second separate step of forming the completed curl. The two-step process provides for higher tolerances with respect to the shape of the curl that allows the curl to be used as a sealing surface for a recloseable metal bottle. A three-step process provides for even greater tolerances and reduces longitudinal forces by completing the curl using lateral forces.
US07942011B2
A system and method for managing water content in a fluid includes a collection chamber for collecting water from the fluid with a desiccant, and a regeneration chamber for collecting water from the desiccant and transferring it to a second fluid. An evaporator cools the desiccant entering the collection chamber, and a second evaporator cools the second fluid to extract the water. The evaporators use a refrigerant, the flow of which is controlled by a flow control valve. When the temperature in the second evaporator drops below a set point, the refrigerant flow to the second evaporator is stopped, and the refrigerant flow to the first evaporator is increased. This increases the water collection in the collection chamber, and causes a rise in the temperature in the second evaporator. The valve is then opened to increase the cooling in the second evaporator.
US07942003B2
A fuel injector system for injecting fuel into a turbomachine combustion chamber, the system comprising first and second fuel injectors wherein the first injector (22) is positioned in the center of the injector system (20) so as to inject a first fuel spray (42), and wherein the second injector (28) surrounds the first injector in such a manner as to inject a second fuel spray (48) of generally annular shape around the first fuel spray. The injector system further comprises an air admission duct (22) with outlet orifices (62) opening out between the first and second injectors so as to create a separator air film (f1) between the respective combustion zones of the first and second fuel sprays.
US07941992B2
A method and unit for feeding products to a group-forming unit for forming groups of products, each containing a given number of products; an orderly succession of products is fed in a first direction by means of a first conveyor; an orderly succession of products is fed in a second direction, parallel to the first direction, by means of a second conveyor parallel to the first conveyor; and the products are transferred from the first conveyor to the second conveyor by means of a transfer device which is permanently integral with an output end of the first conveyor, is moved in the second direction upon detection of a gap along the first conveyor, and is moved in the opposite direction to the second direction to form, along the second conveyor, a number of consecutive gaps equal to the number of products in each group of products.
US07941983B2
The current invention provides a runner for constructing curved surfaces. The runner has at least two sections with each section having at least two layers. The layers used to prepare the sections are substantially identical. However, when assembled to form a section one layer is reversed compared to another layer. Alternatively, each section may be integrally formed. Adjacent sections are pivotal with respect to one another until secured on a desired radius. The runner of the current invention is suitable for constructing curved walls, archways and other curved structures.
US07941982B2
A curtain wall including an extruded aluminum sill having a first channel for receiving a glazed panel, a sill anchor/access portion for securing the sill to a poured concrete slab or slab wall, and toward the interior side of the sill, a wireway is defined in part by the sill and in part by a wireway cover for concealing power and/or data/telecommunication cables. The wireway cover may also include outlet devices or plugs arranged in a longitudinally spaced relationship.
US07941978B1
A collapsible and deployable hierarchical open lattice assembly comprised of hinge boxes of 12 battens connected by hinge nodes. The hinge nodes are made of a plurality of resilient flexure joints, each joint connected to a batten and giving said batten a 90-degree in-plane rotation capability with a neutral-shaped flexure in a deployed state and a deformed-shaped flexure in a compressed state, whereby a restorative moment is created tending to return said flexure to its neutral state. One or more trusses are formed by sets of four longerons connected to the hinge boxes by the resilient flexure joints. Multiple hub boxes connected by longerons may be used to create a hierarchical truss of trusses in either two or three dimensions. These assemblies may be collapsed to a linear dimension by shearing the hub boxes and trusses in a parallelogram manner. The folding kinematics occur in three stages, which may be performed either sequentially or simultaneously. Initially the trusses connecting the hub boxes are sheared. Then the hub boxes and trusses are sheared in one common dimension to reduce the assembly to a two-dimensional, planar configuration. Finally the hub boxes and trusses are sheared in a perpendicular common dimension to reduce the assembly to a one-dimensional, linear configuration.
US07941975B2
An affordable, sustainable building, comprising substantially entirely mass-produced, prefabricated constituent parts manufactured off-site, the prefabricated constituent parts comprising a foundation, a frame module comprising a plurality of frames, wherein the frame module is secured to the foundation, a reversible connector to connect the plurality of frames to form the frame module, a wall panel configured to be mounted onto the frame module, a floor panel configured to be mounted onto the frame module, and a ceiling panel configured to be mounted on to the frame module. Each constituent part forms part of a library of parts from which the constituent parts are selected. The constituent parts are preferably made in standardized sizes to facilitate efficient mass production. The constituent parts are predominantly made of recyclable material so as to be environmentally friendly. Computer software may be developed to facilitate design and construction of the affordable, sustainable building and to calculate proper attachment points for lifting and moving frame modules.
US07941969B2
The present invention provides for novel methods to facilitate germplasm improvement activities through the use of high throughput, nondestructive sampling of seeds. A method for analyzing a population of haploid seeds generally includes providing a population of seeds comprising haploid seeds, removing tissue samples from a plurality of the seeds in the population using an automated seed sampler system while preserving the germination viability of the sampled seeds, and analyzing the tissue samples for the presence or absence of one or more characteristics indicative of at least one genetic or chemical trait.
US07941967B2
A method provides the steps of: bending a first length of hot rolled steel bar to define a trunk member of a tree frame; bending and welding second cut lengths of hot rolled steel bar onto a bottom end of the trunk member to define feet members; placing a planting pot on top of the feet members with the trunk member extending up through and above the pot; bending and welding third cut lengths of hot rolled steel bar to the trunk member at spaced intervals above the pot to define branch arms; planting flowering vine plants in the pot and braiding the vines up the trunk member and out onto the branch arms; trimming the vines on the trunk member to remove foliage; and allowing foliage of the flowering vine plants to grow on the branch arms to create the appearance of a giant Bonzai tree.
US07941964B2
The present invention is a multiple use fishing assembly. This assembly includes a fishing rod holding unit capable of holding at least one fishing rod. This fishing rod holding unit is designed and configured to have various components removably secured thereto. One component is a removable outrigger assembly. When attached the fishing assembly of the present invention will be a combined fishing rod holding unit and outrigger. If the outrigger is not desired, then the user can remove the outrigger and optionally can removably secure an additional fishing rod holding apparatus. Such a configuration enables the user to select his desired fishing option. Consequently providing an apparatus that can successfully be used for trolling, kite, drift and bottom fishing.
US07941949B2
A multi-flag label label-links a primary container to at least one secondary container. The multi-flag label comprises multiple layers and multiple regions intermediate its length. A back cut separates a first layer into unequal segment lengths. A transparent second layer is removably and adhesively attached to the first layer and is dimensioned such that the first layer frames the second layer with a peripheral boundary. A third layer is permanently bonded to the second layer and terminates adjacent the back cut, thereby exposing the back cut via the second layer. The third and second layers adjacent the back cut provide a parent label region; the remainder of the second and third layers provide a child label region, which region may be die cut into patterns for effecting child label(s). The parent and child labels may comprise information for cross-linking a source container to at least one secondary dose container.
US07941948B2
A point of sale card package, and method for manufacturing same, include an intermediate in the form of a sheet of paper material which is sequentially V-folded twice about a first and a second fold line, extending orthogonally to one another, to form four stacked panels defined by and connected at the fold lines, with a credit-card-like card disposed between two adjacent ones of the stacked panels, and the with separate portions of the peripheries of the stacked panels being adhesively joined together by a pressure sensitive adhesive.
US07941939B2
An article of footwear is disclosed that includes an upper and a sole structure secured to the upper. The sole structure has a midsole element that defines a void, and the void may extend substantially vertically through a central area of the midsole element. The void may also extend between an upper surface and a lower surface of the midsole element to define an interior surface. A plurality of bores are also defined in the midsole element. The bores may extend substantially horizontally through the midsole element, and the bores may extend between an exterior surface of the midsole element and the void.
US07941936B2
A garment drying apparatus including upper and lower housings with an expandable and collapsible wall extending therebetween. The apparatus may include at least one support pole and/or bracket to support the upper housing to expand the wall. The upper and lower housings may include openings to slidably receive ends of the at least one support pole and/or bracket. A blower assembly can be located within the lower housing configured to circulate air through one or more vents, wherein when the wall is in an expanded position, the blower assembly circulates air through the one or more vents and into the chamber to dry and press the garment.
US07941928B2
A pair of scissors having a pair of looped handles has a clip such as a carabiner-style inwardly-opening gate mounted on the outer-most perimeter of one or both of the looped handles. Where the clip is a carabiner, the distal end of each gate, distal from the gates hinge, is oppositely disposed relative to the fulcrum of the pair of scissors. The non-gate portion of each of the looped handles containing a gate includes a hooked portion adjacent the distal end of each gate. The hooked portion includes a stop to limit movement of the gate. A resilient loop is mounted around the levers of the scissors between the handles and fulcrum so as to urge the scissors closed.
US07941919B2
Ribbons containing e.g. inorganic NMOS devices are assembled in electrical contact with ribbons containing e.g. PMOS devices (preferably organic) to enable flexible electronic textile circuits, e.g. displays, to be inexpensive and practical for a wide for a variety of functions. The use of ribbons provides flexibility, reduces costs, and allows testing during assembly and different processes to be efficiently used for different components. This is apparently the first time that ribbons (especially inorganic-device-containing ribbons) have been interconnected to form a flexible CMOS electronic textile.
US07941916B1
A portable memory card including a molded plastic casing formed over a memory device and other circuits mounted on a substrate such that the molding material extends over side edges of the substrate to provide accurate width and thickness dimensions. Contact pads are formed on a lower surface of the PCBA substrate, which is exposed through a bottom of the casing. The PCBA is fabricated on a substrate carrier, then positioned inside of a mold assembly. During the molding process, a rod extends from an upper portion of the mold assembly and pushes the substrate against the lower surface. A vacuum is then applied to hold the substrate against the lower surface of the mold, and the rod is subsequently withdrawn from the mold cavity during injection of the molten molding material. A single cavity mold assembly provides molding material extends over front and back edges of the memory card.
US07941915B2
A display change device is formed by connecting and thereby integrating an installation/removal device and a card display change device together. The card installation/removal device is configured to have at a back side thereof a pressure reception wall, at a further back side of which a position adjustment mechanism part is provided. The position adjustment mechanism part is configured to include a seat member, a moving part, and a drive part. The position adjustment mechanism part is configured to strike and move the card installation/removal device by an eccentric cam. The position adjustment mechanism part moves the eccentric cam far from the pressure reception wall under the condition that a reaction force Fr received by the eccentric cam becomes larger than a force Fa for pulling the moving part 102 toward the pressure reception wall side.
US07941911B2
A method is provided for forming a plurality of regions of magnetic material in a substrate having a first approximately planar surface. The method comprises the steps of fabricating projections in the first surface of the substrate, depositing onto the first surface a magnetic material in such a way that the tops of the projections are covered with magnetic material, and depositing filler material atop the substrate so produced. The filler material may then be planarized, for example by chemical-mechanical polishing. In an alternative embodiment magnetic material is deposited on a substrate and portions of it are removed, leaving islands of material. Filler material is then deposited, which may be planarized.
US07941902B1
The safety belt release mechanism includes a sensor component and a belt release component. The sensor component is installed at a low point within the vehicle. The sensor component contains a water-soluble material that retains a spring in its compressed state so long as the water-soluble material is dry. If the vehicle is immersed in water, the water-soluble material dissolves, releasing the spring. The spring drives a pin into the end of a pressurized gas (e.g., CO2) cartridge, releasing the gas therein. The gas passes through a tube to the belt release component installed upon a belt latch mechanism to drive a pin from an engaged position in the latch to release the latch. While one such assembly is disclosed herein, it is most preferred that one such assembly be installed along each safety belt assembly of the vehicle.
US07941891B2
Wiper lever (10) with a driven wiper arm (12) and a wiper blade (16) linked to it for cleaning windows, particularly those of motor vehicles, which is provided with a band-like, long-stretched-out, elastic supporting element (30), which features, on its lower band surface facing the window, a long-stretched-out, rubber elastic wiper strip (24) that can be applied to it, on whose upper band surface (29), particularly in the longitudinal middle area of the supporting element (30), a coupling part (32) is situated and wind deflector strip partial sections (52) extending to the ends of the supporting element are arranged on both sides of the coupling part (32). An especially harmonic transition between the wiper blade (16) and the wiper arm (12) is achieved in the area of the joint (46, 47) connecting these two wiper lever parts if the wiper lever (10) is provided with a cap (60) to cover the connection area between the wiper blade (16) and the wiper arm (12).
US07941890B1
A window cleaning system includes a control panel that has independently operable switches electrically coupled thereto. A reservoir for housing window washing fluid is nested within an engine compartment. Power operated pumps are mated to the control panel and are in fluid communication with the reservoir. Fluid dispensing assemblies are conjoined to the pumps and are independently activated for soaking a unique vehicle door window. Fluid wiping implements are situated above the fluid dispensing assemblies and cooperate with the fluid dispensing assemblies for automatically removing excess fluid from the door windows. Collection bins include funnels attached to a top surface thereof that receive and store runoff fluids from the door windows. The collection bins include plugs connected thereto for draining runoff water outwardly and away from the vehicle doors. Filters are seated subjacent to the funnels for preventing debris from being deposited into the collection bins.
US07941883B2
A mattress (2) which in plan view comprises an inner portion (4) and an outer portion (6), and the mattress (2) being such that the inner portion (4) is of a size for being slept on by at least one person, the outer portion (6) extends at least partially around the inner portion (4), and the inner portion (4) has a lower compression rate than the outer portion (6) whereby the weight of the person on the inner portion (4) is distributed over a greater area than would be the case if the inner portion (4) had the same compression rate as the outer portion (6), and whereby the outer portion (6) constrains the inner portion (4) and controls lateral expansion of the inner portion caused by the weight of the person on the inner portion (4).
US07941881B2
A bed assembly includes a wheeled base, a sub-frame and mattress support frame. The sub-frame supports a plurality of electrically operated actuators which provide for raising and lowering of the bed. The bed can be lowered to a first low position in which the bed frame is around 38 to 45 centimeters above floor height and to a lower position in which the frame is around 30 centimeters above floor height. The bed is lowered to the first height upon receipt of a first command input and can only be lowered below that first height upon receipt of a second control input distinct from the first control input. Preferably, the bed is lowered at a slower speed from the first low height to its lowermost position.
US07941877B2
A sound system and a head rest for a spa and a spa having a sound system are disclosed. The sound system includes a head rest mountable to a spa and at least one electronic speaker. The head rest includes sound emitting perforations and is mounted to the spa whereby the uppermost rim of the spa remains at a substantially uniform elevation. The electronic speaker is mounted to transmit audible sound through the perforations in the head rest. The head rest may also include a light-transferring insert that is illuminated to provide an enhanced bathing experience. The head rest may also include a fluid flow device, for example, a nozzle for water. The sound system and head rest can be used to introduce audio to a tub, spa, pool, bath, or shower while imposing little or no impact upon the fabrication, storage, or shipping of the tub, spa, pool, bath, or shower.
US07941874B2
Swimming or diving goggles includes a lens unit including two viewing sections. A front face of each viewing section is a portion of a peripheral face of a cone. The cone has an apex and a bottom face, and the peripheral face extends between the apex and the bottom face. A spacing from a top face of each viewing section to a vertical axis passing through a center of the bottom face in the thickness direction is smaller than a spacing from a bottom face of the viewing section to the vertical axis in the thickness direction. A normal plane perpendicular to each of the two viewing sections is at an acute angle with the vertical axis. Each viewing section is a curved face in a circumferential direction about the vertical axis. A frame mechanism is coupled to the lens unit and in intimate contact with eye sockets of a wearer.
US07941871B1
The present invention is directed to a garment (such as a short, shirt, pants and other garments) having a stretchable section preferably of neoprene, that provides for improved comfort and wearability. The other panels or fabric portions of the garment may be constructed of a relatively less stretchable or even a relatively inelastic material, and the stretchable portion is positioned in an “area of flex” of the garment (so that the stretchable portion can “stretch” when the wearer rotates limbs extending into the garment). Related methods are disclosed for garment fabrication and the like.
US07945966B2
The invention relates to a nanoprobe comprising a silica fiber (2) with an end opening having a diameter of less than 100 nm, and a metallic sheath (11). The total diameter of the silica part and the metallic sheath (11) is less than 300 nm. The invention also relates to a method for producing one such nanoprobe.
US07945962B2
In a two-dimensional probe array, an interval between the leading ends of probes adjacent to each other in an X direction is made shorter than that between the leading ends of probes adjacent to each other in a Y direction. Thus, the leading ends of the probes are arranged to form a lattice wherein many rectangles are arranged. Furthermore, the lowest resonance frequency of an actuator which moves a recording medium in the X direction is set higher than the lowest resonance frequency of an actuator which moves the recording medium in the Y direction. At the time of recording or reading information, the recording medium is reciprocated in the X direction at a frequency substantially equal to the lowest resonance frequency of the actuator.
US07945959B2
The present invention discloses a system and method of leveraging mobile telephone provider assets and distribution network to securely deliver security tokens, such as PKI certificates. The invention is not limited to using a mobile telephony infrastructure and other pre-existing distributions can also be used. In the invention, a user requested security token can be delivered to a storefront associated with a mobile telephone provider. The storefront can be one proximate to a requesting user. An optional activation key can also be conveyed to the requesting user. The requesting user can be required to physically travel to the storefront to receive the security token. At the storefront, an identity of the requesting user can be verified, such as through photo identification. The security token can be provided when the requesting user has been successfully verified. Use of the security token can still require activation involving the activation key.
US07945957B2
A method, apparatus and program product initiate generation of a metafile at a client computer. The metafile is evaluated at a network server for a potential viral risk. Program code executing at the server may correlate the evaluated potential risk to a risk level stored in a database. The program code may attach a color designator or other assignment indicative of the assessed risk level to the data. A user at the client computer may act on the data based on the attached risk level.
US07945949B2
A developer can provide complex services to existing legacy applications using one or more components configured to tap into a service abstraction framework. In one implementation, for example, a developer of a remote service provider adds one or more authentication attributes to the remote service provider, and further creates a local client driver that incorporates a client proxy. When a legacy application generates a function request (e.g., to print, send a text message, initiate a voice communication), the client proxy intercepts the request through an appropriate communication subsystem, and relays the request to the server proxy. The server proxy determines the extent to which authentication measures may be required. If required, the client proxy can initiate out-of-band processing with various authentication managers to validate/process the request at the remote service provider.
US07945936B2
A multicasting system includes a delivery server for multicasting a content via at least one upper router and a plurality of lower routers, a plurality of client devices for playing the content multicast by the delivery server and an upper router controller, a content retrieving unit, and a content playing unit. The client device includes an individual storage unit, a content retrieving unit, a content playing unit, a switch time addition unit, and a display controller. The delivery server includes a content delivery unit for delivering each content to the client device. The upper router controller includes a session information retrieving unit, a book scheduling unit, and a schedule information notifier.
US07945934B2
A portable media device for use in cooperation with passenger entertainment systems installed in vehicles, such as automobiles and aircraft, and methods for manufacturing and using same. The portable media device is configured to communicate with one or more content sources, which provide viewing content and which may be proximate to, and/or remote from, the portable media device. Preferably being configured to wirelessly communicate with the content sources, the portable media device can select content from any available content source and can download and present the selected content in any conventional manner. The selected content can be streamed to the portable media device for contemporaneous presentation and/or stored by the portable media device for viewing at any time, including after disembarking the vehicle once travel is completed. As desired, the portable media device likewise can be configured to transmit appropriate upload content to the content sources.
US07945922B2
An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing, a front panel, a strip-shaped decorative member and a projecting portion. The front panel is provided to the housing. The strip-shaped decorative member has a predetermined width and is arranged on the front panel. The projecting portion is integrally formed with the strip-shaped decorative member and includes a surface inclined in a depth direction at a position having a predetermined distance from a front edge of a lower surface of the strip-shaped decorative member. The strip-shaped decorative member including the projecting portion is attached to the front panel while the surface inclined in the depth direction being exposed to a front side.
US07945919B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes a system memory, a device controller, a basic input/output system and a device driver. The device driver of the information processing apparatus forms its own data structure for communication control in the system memory separately from the basic input/output system, saves the address set in the register of the device controller when the device controller executes the communication with the various externally connected devices, sets an address for referring to the own data structure in the register of the device controller in order to make the device controller communicate with the various externally connected devices, and resets the saved address in the register of the device controller after the communication is completed.
US07945915B1
Methods and systems for efficiently interpreting operating system service requests on the same register or vector of a processor or CPU where the operating system service requests are initiated from native and non-native applications are provided. More particularly, a switching layer can enable processing of the operating system service requests by routing control of a particular request to an appropriate kernel subsystem or module based on the type of operating system service being requested and the type of application initiating the request. Additionally, the performance impact of the switching layer for native applications is overcome by dynamically reprogramming the processor or CPU on every change of active process so that only foreign applications are subject to the processing requirements of the switching layer.
US07945908B1
A sponge process, for example within a driver in a guest operating system, is associated in a virtual computer system with each virtual processor in one or more virtual machines. When timer interrupts become backlogged, for example because a virtual machine is temporarily descheduled to allow other virtual machines to run, and upon occurrence of a trigger event, a conventional interrupt is disengaged and catch-up interrupts are instead directed into an appropriate one of the sponge processes. The backlogged timer interrupts are thus delivered without unfairly attributing descheduled time to whatever processes happened to be running while the catch-up interrupts are delivered, and without violating typical guest operating system timing assumptions.
US07945905B2
A data processing system, method, and instructions executable on a computer inspect the quality of software code. A summary report is generated that summarizes aspects of the current status of a software project. The summary report may include which portions of code have been written, which have been edited to predetermined standards, and which remain to be written. Errors in the code may be identified. Warnings associated with portions of the code may be generated, as well as suggested changes to the code. For comparison, the suggested code changes may be displayed along side of the corresponding portions of the pre-existing code that the suggested code is intended to replace. Hard coded values may be automatically identified. Text elements corresponding to each hard coded value may be automatically created. Subsequently, each hard coded value may be automatically replaced by the corresponding text element. Revisions to pre-existing code may be inspected.
US07945899B2
Systems and methods for testing a computer program executing on a remote computer physically distant from a local computer are provided. The local and remote computers are connected via a network. The remote computer includes a redirection device operative to transmit the video output of the remote computer to the local computer via the network connection. The redirection device may also receive user input commands generated at the local computer and provide the input commands to the remote computer as if the input commands were physically generated by a user at the remote computer. The remote computer also includes a software program to be tested. The local computer includes a remote control software application operative to receive and display the video output transmitted from the remote computer. The remote control application also receives user input commands, such as keyboard or mouse commands, generated at the local computer by an automated testing application and transmits the commands to the redirection device. The commands generated by the automated testing program may be utilized to test the execution of the computer program to be tested executing on the remote computer.
US07945893B2
Using a WSDL document to exchange an interface definition for back-end business logic includes automatically mapping various elements of the WSDL document to corresponding XQuery elements to generate an XQuery interface definition “skeleton”. From such an XQuery interface skeleton, an XQuery statement can be generated by filling in the body of the function that implements the logic. The XQuery statement serves as an interface definition for an interface to the function. Furthermore, at runtime a Web Service request that is based on the WSDL document can be translated into an XQuery call into an XQuery function that implements the logic defined in the WSDL document. From there, results are obtained from the XQuery function, translated into the appropriate return format defined in the WSDL, and returned.
US07945892B1
Changes to the outputs of a dependency graph, which has attribute nodes and operator nodes, are detected by forming product proxies for the outputs of dependency graph nodes. The product proxies can be formed by entering information about the dependency graph into a hashing algorithm. Before and after product proxies are then used to determine if the outputs have changed.
US07945886B2
The present invention provides a method a system for facilitating enhanced processing of state diagrams in a state diagram environment. The method may include top-down processing a current state in a state diagram environment; determining whether processing of the current state results in an exception event; and passing the exception event to a superstate that includes the current state when it is determined that the current state results in an exception event. The superstate may be made the current state and it may be determined whether the current state can handle the exception event. When it is determined that the current state cannot handle the exception event, it may be determined whether the current state has a second superstate that includes the current state. An error event may be output from the state diagram environment when it is determined that the current state does not have a second superstate.
US07945885B2
A system for an integrated circuit comprising a plurality of power islands includes a first power manager and a second power manager. The first power manager manages a first power consumption for the integrated circuit based on needs and operation of the integrated circuit. The second power manager communicates with the first power manager and manages a second power consumption for one of the power islands.
US07945881B2
A method of reducing crosstalk induced noise in a physical circuit wiring design constructs a spatial vector for each interconnect wire segment in the physical circuit wiring design. The method compares the spatial vectors of said physical circuit wiring design and identifies any of the spatial vectors that are parallel to each other and have opposite directions. The method may identify all drivers and receivers in the physical circuit wiring design, and trace each interconnect line, starting with its driver, to determine a routed length from the driver to each segment break point of the interconnect line. The method may construct the spatial vector by defining an origin in the physical circuit wiring design. The method determines a starting point and an ending point of the spatial vector with respect to the origin. The starting point of the spatial vector is the break point of the interconnect wire segment closer to the driver. The ending point of the spatial vector is the break point of the interconnect wire segment farther from the driver. The method may define a Cartesian coordinate system with respect to the origin. The Cartesian coordinate system may be orthogonal with the interconnect wire segments of the physical circuit wiring design. The method may define one or more geometry windows in the physical circuit wiring design and compare the spatial vectors in each geometry window.
US07945880B1
In one embodiment of the invention, a method of retiming a circuit is disclosed. The method includes computing an upper bound and a lower bound for a clock period of a clock signal to clock a circuit in response to a netlist of the circuit; selecting a potential clock period for the clock signal to clock registers of the circuit in response to the computed upper bound and the computed lower bound for the clock period; computing an upper bound and a lower bound of a retiming value for each node of the circuit to determine if a retiming of the circuit is achievable with the potential clock period; and computing the retiming value for each node of the circuit to minimize circuit area in response to the computed upper bound and the computed lower bound of the retiming value for each node.
US07945872B2
When performing rule checking locally within any given region of a layout of an integrated circuit, certain data is generated to be checked globally, regardless of boundaries (hereinafter “to-be-globally-checked” data). The to-be-globally-checked data, resulting from execution of a given rule in each region of the IC layout, is merged across all regions, and the same rule (i.e. the given rule) is executed globally on the merged data. When an entire runset has been executed in all regions individually, and also executed globally on the merged data, the results thereof are all merged together to yield a final result of a complete execution of the entire runset over the entire IC layout. In some embodiments, certain additional data that could not be rule checked due to the presence of boundaries of adjacent regions is propagated between successive rules in each region.
US07945871B2
An integrated verification and manufacturability tool provides more efficient verification of integrated device designs than verification using several different verification components. The integrated verification and manufacturability includes a hierarchical database to store shared design data accessed by multiple verification components (e.g., layout versus schematic, design rule check, optical process correction, phase shift mask assignment and OPC verification and machine language conversion). The hierarchical database includes representations of one or more additional, or intermediate layer structures that are created and used by the verification components for operations performed on the design being verified. Use of a single hierarchical database having shared data for access and use by multiple verification components streamlines the verification process, which provides an improved verification tool.
US07945865B2
A degree of confidence is objectively evaluated without permitting a user's subjective evaluation, and a content to be output is determined based on this evaluation.An information processing system comprising: an input section for receiving an input from a user; a signal detection section for measuring a signal concerning an event-related potential of electroencephalograms of the user; a determination section for determining a degree of confidence of the user with respect to the input based on an amount of negative shift in the event-related potential during a predetermined period after the input is received; a control section for determining a content to be presented to the user based on the degree of confidence; and an output section for presenting the determined content to the user.
US07945857B2
An interactive, multi-media presentation viewing system and process for viewing educational or business presentations integrating presentation graphics in the form of presentation slides, video, audio, text, and other streaming media into a powerfully coordinated viewing experience for the end user. The viewing system is an aggregate of synchronized presentation graphics, video, and text displays employing a graphical user interface that allows the user to control all aspects of media playback.
US07945839B2
The present invention discloses a set-cyclic comparison method for an LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) decoder, which applies to a CNU (Check Node Unit) or a VNU (Variable Node Unit). In the systematized method of the present invention, all the input elements are initialized to obtain a matrix. Based on the symmetry of the matrix and the similarity between the rows of the matrix are sequentially formed different sets respectively corresponding to the horizontally-continuous elements having the maximum iteration number in the horizontal and vertical directions, the symmetric non-continuous non-boundary elements, and the boundary elements plus the end-around neighboring elements in the same row. The present invention applies to any input number. Via the large intersection between the compared sets, the present invention can effectively reduce the number of comparison calculations and greatly promote the performance of an LDPC decoder.
US07945836B2
A transmitting unit combines a slot identifier (SI) and a block identifier (BI) in each header that is transmitted with the data to allow a receiving unit to associate previously received data blocks with retransmissions, or retries, of the same respective data blocks in order to perform bit error detection in accordance with a hybrid or selective ARQ protocol. The receiving unit uses the SI and BI contained in the MHBKs to determine a correspondence between a retried data and a previously transmitted data block.
US07945834B2
A testing circuit has scan chain segments (62,64,60) defined between parallel inputs (wpi[0] . . . wpi[N−1]) and respective parallel outputs (wpo[0] . . . wpo[N−1]). The scan chain segments comprise a bank (62) of cells of a shift register circuit, a core scan chain portion (62), a first bypass path around the core scan chain portion (62) and a second bypass path around the bank (60) of cells of the shift register circuit. This architecture enables loading of data in parallel into the core scan chain, or into the shift register (WBR). In addition, each scan chain segment also has a series latching element (80), and this provides additional testing capability. In particular, the shifting of data between the latching elements (80) can be used to test the bypass paths while the internal or external mode testing is being carried out. This testing can thus be part of a single ATPG procedure.
US07945832B2
The disclosure describes a process and apparatus for accessing devices on a substrate. The substrate may include only full pin JTAG devices (504), only reduced pin JTAG devices (506), or a mixture of both full pin and reduced pin JTAG devices. The access is accomplished using a single interface (502) between the substrate (408) and a JTAG controller (404). The access interface may be a wired interface or a wireless interface and may be used for JTAG based device testing, debugging, programming, or other type of JTAG based operation.
US07945826B2
Provided is a test apparatus having a bad block memory for storing a plurality of pieces of fail information in association with blocks of a memory under test, each piece of fail information indicating whether there is a defect in the associated block. The test apparatus writes a test data sequence to a page under test of the memory under test, reads the test data sequence written to the page under test, and compares the read data sequence to the written data sequence. The test apparatus includes an allocation register that stores allocation information for setting which of the plurality of fail conditions for judging whether there is a defect in the page under test are allocated to the plurality of pieces of fail information. The test apparatus detects whether there is a defect corresponding to each of a plurality of fail conditions, outputs the detection result as a fail signal, and updates a plurality of pieces of fail information associated with the block including the page under test using the fail signal corresponding to the allocated fail conditions.
US07945824B2
An apparatus and method for a processor-memory unit for use in system-in-package (SiP) and system-in-package (SiP) integrated circuit devices. The apparatus includes a processing module, a memory module and a programmable system module. The programmable system module is configured to function as an interface between the memory module and the processing module, or as an interface between the memory module and a testing device. The invention facilitates integration and testing of processor-memory units including functional components having different communication protocols.
US07945822B1
Described herein are method and apparatus for storing data to a low-latency random read memory (LLRRM) device using non-aligned data striping, the LLRRM device being implemented on a storage system. The LLRRM device may comprise a bank comprising a plurality of memory chips, each chip being simultaneously accessible for storing data on a plurality of erase-units (EUs). A storage operating system may maintain, for each chip, a reserve data structure listing reserve EUs and a remapping data structure for tracking remappings between defective EUs to reserve EUs in the chip. A defective EU in a chip may be mapped to a reserve EU from the reserve data structure. Upon receiving a data block to be stored to the LLRRM device at the defective EU, the storage operating system may stripe the received data block across a plurality of chips in a non-aligned manner using the remapped reserve EU.
US07945819B2
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for maintaining message state at a message log. Messages are accumulated at a message log in accordance with a message retention policy. Any of a variety of message capture assurances can be used when capturing a message from a message producer within a message log. A message becomes visible to message consumers after the outcome of writing the message is known (either failure or success). Messages are requested using (e.g., monotonically increasing) sequence numbers. Messages are also dropped from the message log in accordance with the message retention policy.
US07945817B1
A method and system for troubleshooting a communications network by recognizing one or more alarm patterns is provided. An incoming status indication (such as an alarm notification) associated with a network resource is received, whereby topological information associated with the network resource is referenced to identify parent(s) and sibling(s) of the network resource. A data structure is referenced to retrieve patterning criteria associated with the parent. The identified network resources are evaluated to determine whether the patterning criteria is met, and if so, then causing an alarm event, such as generation of a synthetic status indication, to be instantiated.
US07945813B1
Method and system are disclosed for redelivering failed messages in asynchronous communication systems. The methods and systems automatically delay redelivery of such failed messages in order to allow required system resources to become available. In one implementation, the methods and systems provide two levels of redelivery: a micro level in which redelivery is attempted right away for a certain number of times, and a macro level in which a predefined, user-selectable delay is imposed before any additional micro level redeliveries are attempted. After a certain number of unsuccessful macro level redeliveries, the message is backed out to a backout queue for manual intervention by a system operator. Such an arrangement reduces or eliminates the burden on the system operator to manually resolve failed message deliveries.
US07945809B2
A recording medium for storing start position information for each zone, a method of managing data using the information, and an apparatus for recording the information and controlling recording and reproduction of data based on the recorded information. In a disc having a plurality of zones which form a group, and a spare area which is allocated at the start portion or the end portion of the group for replacing defects, when start logical sector numbers of each zone are changed by slipping replacement during initialization or reinitialization, the information is stored in the defect management area to thereby increase the compatibility of the medium. In particular, by the method and apparatus of managing data using information stored in a defect management area, generation of errors is prevented in reading or writing due to the change of a physical position of a real-recorded file which are caused by wrong calculation of the start logical sector numbers for each zone.
US07945808B2
A hierarchical fanout connectivity infrastructure is built and used to start a parallel application within a parallel computing environment. The connectivity infrastructure is passed to a checkpoint library, which employs the infrastructure and a defined sequence of events, to perform checkpoint, restart and/or migration operations on the parallel application.
US07945805B2
A design structure for a high speed computer processor system includes a high speed interface for a graphics processor. In a preferred embodiment, the high speed interface includes a front side bus (FSB) that interfaces to a similar high speed interface on the graphics processor.
US07945804B2
A method and system for digitally controlled multi-frequency clocking are provided. The method includes receiving a system reference oscillator clock frequency at a microprocessor including multiple cores. The system reference oscillator clock frequency provides a reference frequency to a local oscillator. The local oscillator supplies a core clock frequency to at least one of the cores. The method further includes adjusting the local oscillator to output the core clock frequency at a frequency greater than the system reference oscillator clock frequency as a function of digital frequency characteristic data associated with the core or cores. The method supports extendibility to larger systems and may support enhanced power management through frequency adjustments at the core level.
US07945801B2
A memory interface circuit is connectable to a DDR-SDRAM which outputs read data in synchronization with a data strobe signal together with the data strobe signal. A clock generator generates internal clock signals and memory clock signals supplied to the DDR-SDRAM. The memory interface circuit determines a delay of arrival of the data strobe signal relative to the corresponding internal clock signal by using a data strobe signal inputted in a read cycle with respect to the DDR-SDRAM, samples the arrived read data, based on a signal obtained by shifting the phase of the arrived data strobe signal, and synchronizes the sampled read data to the corresponding internal clock signal on the basis of the result of determination of the arrival delay.
US07945798B2
A first battery assembly is in a first battery housing that is mechanically engageable with a portable computer, and a second battery assembly is in a second battery housing that is mechanically couplable to the first battery housing. A switch has a first configuration in which communication is established between the portable computer and the first battery assembly and a second configuration in which communication is established between the portable computer and the second battery assembly.
US07945797B2
A system is provided that includes a host system configured with a portable power source and a host power manager. The host power manager is configured to monitor an available power level of the portable power source and at least one power usage by one or more auxiliary devices. The host power manager is further configured to promote less than a full power usage by at least one of the auxiliary devices.
US07945794B2
A portable computer with a power control function is disclosed to include a first body, a hinge, a second body coupled to the first body through the hinge, an optical sensor having a transmitter and a receiver and mounted on the first body, an optical grating connected to the hinge and having a part located between the transmitter and the receiver, a control circuit, and an electronic component. When the second body is turned relative to the first body, the optical sensor generates a first sensing voltage and a second sensing voltage subject to the turning action of the optical grating so that the control circuit controls the power of the electronic component based on the first sensing voltage and the second sensing voltage provided by the optical sensor.
US07945787B2
The present disclosure is directed to a method and system for detecting malware using a remote server. In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present disclosure a hash value for a file is generated. The hash value is transmitted to a remote server. A notification is received from the remote server indicating whether the file comprises malware. At least one operation on the file is prevented if the notification indicates the file comprises malware.
US07945784B1
A method and a system is provided to process data. For example, the method and system may be used to store (e.g., archive) documents. In an embodiment, the method comprises receiving a quantum of data and creating n data pieces of size s from the quantum of data. The method may comprise generating k random numbers of size s, wherein k defines a minimum number of processed data pieces required to reconstruct the quantum of data, and performing polynomial arithmetic modulo prime on the n data pieces. The polynomial arithmetic may utilize polynomial of order k and the prime may be selected based on a bit processing capability of a processor used to process the data. The prime may be 28+1 when the bit processing capability of a processor is 16 bits and 216+1 when the bit processing capability of a processor is 32 bits.
US07945781B1
The presently claimed invention relates generally to digital watermarking and steganographic encoding. One claim recites a method of encoding a watermark in a digital signal. The method includes generating varying key bits; and encoding the varying watermark key bits in the digital signal as a watermark with reference to at least characteristics of the digital signal. The “digital signal” may represent audio, video or imagery. Another claim recites a system for encoding a watermark in a digital signal. The system includes a processor: i) to map pseudo-random key and processing state information to effect an encode/decode map; and ii) to encode a watermark in a digital signal using the encode/decode map and characteristics of the digital signal. Of course other combinations are provided and claimed as well.
US07945780B1
An apparatus for encrypting and decrypting an original data stream is provided. The apparatus comprises: a key including a key-algorithm, an interleaver having at least one dynamically changeable interleaving parameter, and a de-interleaver adapted to communicate with a communication channel.
US07945776B1
Access to a target system is secured by use of an encrypted passphrase that is supplied on-site at the target system by a user requesting access. The encrypted passphrase includes an access credential portion and a one-way encoded portion. The one-way encoded portion is an encoded version of at least some of the access credential portion. A validator at the target system receives and decrypts the encrypted passphrase and identifies the access credential portion and one-way encoded portion. The validator one-way encodes the identified access credential portion and compares the result to the identified one-way encoded portion from the decrypted passphrase. If the results do not match, the validator denies access to the user requesting access. The encoding and decrypting of the passphrase may be performed using keys generated from a secret key/seed related to the target system, unencrypted information such as time/date information, and a user PIN.
US07945772B2
A computer system which includes a CPU for performing various processes by program control and storage elements which store at least one operating system and a BIOS, wherein upon starting a system, the CPU recognizes the system's own hardware configuration, and starts a selected one operating system stored in the storage elements in accordance with the recognized hardware configuration under the control of the BIOS.
US07945758B1
A storage array includes a plurality of directors, each having at least one processor thereon and a global memory distributed among the plurality of directors. A different portion of the global memory is provided on each of the directors. A interconnect fabric is coupled to each of the directors. Global memory accesses performed by one director to access memory of another director through the interconnect fabric. The storage array also includes a plurality of partitioned storage subsystems, each including a separate subset of the directors, where each of the partitioned storage subsystems handles I/O operations for a plurality of logical devices independently of I/O operations for logical devices of other ones of the partitioned storage subsystems, the I/O operations using metadata provided in the global memory of the corresponding directors and containing information that correlates logical device data with physical device data.
US07945755B2
Provided is a memory system that has a plurality of memory banks and a plurality of link controllers. For each memory bank, there is first switching logic for receiving output for each link controller, and for passing on the output of only one of the link controllers to the memory bank. For each link controller, there is second switching logic for receiving an output of each memory bank, and for passing on the output of only one of the memory banks to the link controller. According to an embodiment of the invention, there is switch controller logic for controlling operation of both the first switching logic and the second switching logic to prevent simultaneous or overlapping access by multiple link controllers to the same memory bank, and for preventing simultaneous or overlapping access to multiple banks by the same link controller.
US07945754B2
A multiprocessor system includes processors each having a primary cache and a secondary cache shared by the processors. The processors each include a read unit that reads data from the primary cache, a request unit that makes a write request when the data to be read is not stored in the primary cache, a measuring unit that measures an elapsed time since the write request is made, a receiving unit that receives a read command from an external device, a comparing unit that compares specific information for specifying data, for which the read command has been received, with specific information for specifying data, for which the write request has been made, and a controller that suspends reading of the data according to the read command, when pieces of specific information are the same, and the elapsed time measured is less than a predetermined time.
US07945751B2
A disk image is generated, stored in at least one persistent storage device, comprises at least one software application, and is a root disk image. An inheritance tree comprising a root node associated with the root disk image is created. A new disk image of a disk is generated based on a previously generated disk image associated with a node of the inheritance tree. The new disk image is stored in at least one persistent storage device, and comprises at least one software application of the previously generated disk image and at least one new software application. The new disk image shares at least one data block of the previously generated disk image. A new node is added to the inheritance tree, and is associated with the new disk image. The new node is a child node of the node that is associated with the previously generated disk image.
US07945748B2
When migrating data stored in a storage region assigned to a volume to another storage region, the connection status of the host computer and volume is confirmed. When the host computer and volume are connected, the maximum capacity of the volume requested by the host computer is reserved so that it is exclusively secured in another storage region to which data is to be migrated, and when the host computer and volume are not connected, the current capacity of the volume is reserved so that it is exclusively secured in another storage region.
US07945745B2
A method for exchanging data between a producer and a consumer is provided. The method includes writing the data with the producer without blocking the consumer and without waiting for access to the consumer. The method also includes reading the data with the consumer without blocking the producer and without waiting for access to the producer. The data is exchanged from the producer to the consumer upon reading the data.
US07945744B2
An interface circuit comprising: a first output circuit configured to allow an access signal to be input thereto and output the access signal to a storage circuit, the access signal capable of being changed to one logic level or the other logic level for accessing the storage circuit; a second output circuit configured to output the access signal outputted from the first output circuit; and a comparison circuit configured to compare the number of times a logic level of the access signal inputted to the first output circuit is changed and the number of times a logic level of the access signal outputted from the second output circuit is changed, and output a comparison signal indicating whether predetermined access has been performed based on the access signal inputted to the first output circuit, after at least a part of the access signal is inputted to the first output circuit.
US07945742B2
To provide a technology for stopping recording in an improper state by detecting whether an electronic device is in the process of being carried or not, and so on. Data signals that have been broadcast are received, the data signals are recorded on a storage unit at preset time, a state related to the recording of the data signals is detected, the data signals are recorded, and the recording of the data signals is stopped corresponding to a result of the detection.
US07945739B2
A design structure embodied in a machine readable storage medium for designing, manufacturing, and/or testing a design to reduce the number of memory directory updates during block replacement in a system having a directory-based cache is provided. The design structure may be implemented to utilize a read/write bit to determine the accessibility of a cache line and limit memory directory updates during block replacement to regions that are determined to be readable and writable by multiple processors.
US07945737B2
A computer system includes a memory hub for coupling a processor to a plurality of synchronous dynamic random access memory (“SDRAM”) devices. The memory hub includes a processor interface coupled to the processor and a plurality of memory interfaces coupled to respective SDRAM devices. The processor interface is coupled to the memory interfaces by a switch. Each of the memory interfaces includes a memory controller, a cache memory, and a prediction unit. The cache memory stores data recently read from or written to the respective SDRAM device so that it can be subsequently read by processor with relatively little latency. The prediction unit prefetches data from an address from which a read access is likely based on a previously accessed address.
US07945734B2
A system that provides rapid detection of modifications to content on a removable storage device. The system includes a removable storage device having a code for indicating that modifications were made to the content on the removable storage device. The system also includes a media processor for reading the code of the removable storage device, comparing the code to a previously stored code in a memory, and mounting a pre-established file system database structure for the removable storage device when the value of the code of the removable storage device equals the value of the previously stored code.
US07945728B1
A hard disk drive (HDD) comprises nonvolatile semiconductor (NVS) memory, a life monitor module, and a hard disk controller (HDC) module. The life monitor module evaluates cumulative usage of the NVS memory and selectively generates a usage signal based upon the evaluation. The hard disk controller (HDC) module selectively caches data in the NVS memory and suspends caching of at least selected data in the NVS memory based upon the usage signal.
US07945723B2
An apparatus and method for managing a mapping table of a non-volatile memory are provided. The apparatus includes a non-volatile memory having memory cells, each of which stores data bits in a plurality of pages included in a block according to a plurality of states, each of which has at least two bits, an operating time measuring unit measuring a write operation time on each of the plurality of pages included in the block, and a mapping table generating unit dividing the pages into a plurality of groups according to the measured write operation time and generating a mapping table by using the divided groups.
US07945721B1
A register access request for control and/or status operations from a link is detected using a hardware mechanism and is forwarded to a software-controlled entity for access to a virtual register for control and/or status operations. The software-controlled entity can provide virtual registers in memory associated with the software-controlled entity. The hardware mechanism can form part of an interconnect device and the software-controlled entity is external to the interconnect device.
US07945716B2
A serial buffer having a plurality of virtual queues, which can be allocated to include various combinations of on-chip dual-port memory blocks, on-chip internal memory blocks and/or off-chip external memory blocks. The virtual queues are allocated and accessed in response to configuration bits and size bits stored on the serial buffer. Relatively large external memory blocks can be allocated to virtual queues used for data intensive operations, while relatively small and fast dual-port memory blocks can advantageously be allocated to virtual queues used for passing command and status information. The serial buffer provides an efficient and flexible manner for utilizing available memory, which not only minimizes the access latency but also provides a large amount of buffer space to meet different application needs.
US07945712B2
A job status monitoring system includes a job output unit configured to output a job to a job managing unit of an operating system. The job is issued in response to a job issue request. A status of the job output to a printer is monitored by a monitoring unit. The monitoring unit controls the job managing unit by monitoring the status of the job. An application or utility determines the status of the job by obtaining information about the job from the job managing unit and performs display control based on the determined status of the job.
US07945700B2
A method, system, and program product for communicating with machines connected to a network. Information sent to or from the machines is transmitted using electronic mail or a via a direct connection. The electronic mail may be transmitted over the Internet to a service center or from a service center to a resource administrator, but also may remain within a local or wide area network for transmission between a machine and a resource administrator. E-mail messages may be transmitted from a computer which is attached to a device which is being monitored or controlled and include information regarding the status, usage or capabilities of the attached device. The device may send status messages and usage information of the device to either a resource administrator or to a service center on the Internet through a firewall. The message may be sent directly to the resource administrator station if urgent service is needed by the device. For routine information, the service center may manage all the resources on an intranet and may send predetermined types of information to the resource administrator using e-mail.
US07945693B2
A plurality of content providers provide multiple resources to multiple clients. At least some of the resources are to be served to clients from a shared content delivery network (CDN) formed by a plurality of repeater servers. Each content provider provides at least some resources via one or more content sources associated with that content provider. Transmission data rates from the CDN on behalf of some of the content providers are monitored. Based at least in part on the monitored data rates, requests for resources are directed to a source other than the CDN. Redirection of requests may be based on a pricing policy.
US07945689B2
A method and apparatus is provided for delivering a content file to a client over a packet-switched network. The method begins by determining a suitable throughput required to deliver the content file to the client. Next, the throughput available in a peer-to-peer network for delivering the content file to the client is determined. The required throughput is compared to the available throughput. If the available throughput is less than the required throughput, the available throughput is supplemented with additional throughput. The content is then delivered to the client over the packet-switched network using the available throughput of the peer-to-peer network and the additional throughput.
US07945687B2
A method and apparatus for controlling a database of a mobile communication terminal that can automatically store information about a content file by downloading and storing the content file through an external network; extracting information about the stored content file; and adding information about the extracted content file to the database, wherein even through a content file is downloaded and stored through a protocol other than a MTP, a record of the content file can automatically be added to the database, thus allowing the management of content files using one database.
US07945674B2
A sender's degrees of separation from a recipient may be used to aid in spam filtering or to otherwise handle a communication. The “degrees of separation” represent a metric used to quantify whether/how the recipient is linked to the sender through intermediary people or other entities. A level of “trust” or “legitimacy” about a sender's communication can be inferred by looking at whether the sender is linked to an intended recipient. Typically, user contact lists (e.g., address book, buddy list, and/or white list) are evaluated to determine the number of degrees (or hops) are required to link or relate two users.
US07945654B2
A secure domain name service for a computer network is disclosed that includes a portal connected to a computer network, such as the Internet, and a domain name database connected to the computer network through the portal. The portal authenticates a query for a secure computer network address, and the domain name database stores secure computer network addresses for the computer network. Each secure computer network address is based on a non-standard top-level domain name, such as .scom, .sorg, .snet, .snet, .sedu, .smil and .sint.
US07945652B2
This invention takes the course of evolution and creating a web based computer user work environment for a control management station and its associated systems on the network crossing Intranet, Internet or LAN. Therefore, users can access and manage the control management station and all its associated system through web browser on any other systems or devices. To establish a web based computer user work environment, the resources information on control management station and on associated systems on network need to be collected and convert them to standard structured format for web based communication and further displaying them in web browser. These information need to be collected by control management station at its and the associated systems' boot up time or at the time when a user logins and requests to access and manage these resources.
US07945648B2
A method for dynamically configuring a network component to reroute media streams is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request for content from a first network connected component and determining a type of media service needed for at least a portion of the content. Moreover, the method includes configuring a network data relaying component to forward at least a portion of the content from a second network connected component to a third network connected component.
US07945641B2
A method and apparatus for sending or retrieving data by mobile phone users. The data is stored in a database. The sender or recipient enters into the connection with a manager and provides identification to the manager. Further, the method involves associating an e-mail address or a URL address with the recipient based in part on the identification provided to the manager.
US07945636B2
Systems and methods for providing a multi-tier enterprise level application. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing an architecture and interface for delivering customizable music and advertisements to remote retail locations. A client player computer device is located at the retail location and a server system is located at a remote location. The server system selectively provides broadcast information when an active contract, an active advertisement, and an active schedule are available. The client player computer device establishes a contact with a server at a predetermined time or upon request by the server or another source. The client player computer device executes a broadcast or program schedule that includes music content and advertisements, wherein the advertisements have been purchased as blocks of time by entities and are scheduled to be broadcast at particular times. The music content and advertisements are selectively customizable to provide a dynamic service at the retail location.
US07945627B1
In some embodiments, a layout-based electronic communication classification (e.g. spam filtering) method includes generating a layout vector characterizing a layout of a message, assigning the message to a selected cluster according to a hyperspace distance between the layout vector and a central vector of the selected cluster, and classifying the message (e.g. labeling as spam or non-spam) according to the selected cluster. The layout vector is a message representation characterizing a set of relative positions of metaword substructures of the message, as well as metaword substructure counts. Examples of metaword substructures include MIME parts and text lines. For example, a layout vector may have a first component having scalar axes defined by numerical layout feature counts (e.g. numbers of lines, blank lines, links, email addresses), and a second vector component including a line-structure list and a formatting part (e.g. MIME part) list.
US07945623B2
A system and method for notifying an offline global computer network user of an online interaction in which the offline user could participate. The system and method specify notification criteria of the offline user, monitor activities occurring on the global computer network, compare the activities to the notification criteria, and, if the activities satisfy the notification criteria, forward an offline communication to the offline user, which notifies the offline user of the online interaction. Examples of the online interactions include chat rooms, game sites, instant messaging services, auctions, and calls made over the global computer network. Examples of the offline communication include calls to a wireline telephone, calls to a wireless telephone, messages to a caller identification device, messages to a wireless access protocol device, messages to a one-way pager, and messages to an interactive pager.
US07945620B2
The present invention discloses a chat tool including a chat window configured to permit a user to simultaneously receive chat messages for two or more different chat sessions, thereby permitting side discussions within a secondary chat session. Each of the different chat sessions can correspond to a session specific chat channel. Different chat sessions can include private and public sessions. The participants of a private chat session can be participants of the public chat session and/or can be able to view discussions occurring in the public chat session. Further, members of the public chat session can be unaware of the existence of the private chat session. Any number of private chat sessions can be spawned from a public chat session using an invitation option, which automatically establishes new private sessions for invited individuals.
US07945614B2
A technique for performing message communications while assigning a space and respective time periods or time points at present, in past and in future is disclosed. A space-time object intercepts a message. Alternatively, this object per se executes the processing for immediately transmitting a message to a target object under management with relevancy thereto, for retaining the message by a future time point assigned, or for preparing and sending a message for searching logs in the past, thereby to realize the space-time communications.
US07945612B2
A presence aggregation system provides a presence server that allows users to publish information regarding their availability with the presence server. The presence server maintains a record of each user's published information. When an endpoint publishes information regarding a user's availability at that endpoint with the presence server, the presence server provides all of the user's published information, including the information just published, to each of the user's endpoints, including the endpoint which published the information. This allows each of the user's endpoints to generate an aggregated availability of the user. The presence server may also provide all of the user's published information, including the information just published, to each of the subscribing users' endpoints. This allows the subscribing users to also generate a view of the user's aggregated availability.
US07945610B2
There is provided a convolution operation circuit that performs a convolution operation on a provided digital signal. The convolution operation circuit includes a data dividing section that generates a plurality of divided data obtained by dividing respective amplitude data of the digital signal into a plurality of bit areas, an arithmetic section that performs a predetermined convolution operation on the respective divided data of the respective amplitude data in a time-sharing mode and outputs the result, and a coupling section that couples the divided data output from the arithmetic section for each of the amplitude data.
US07945608B2
Apparatus and method for generating an initial value for a pseudo-random number generator, with an oscillator configured to generate an oscillator signal; and a generator configured to generate the initial value based on the oscillator signal at least during part of a transient of the oscillator.
US07945607B2
A data processing apparatus and method are provided for converting a number between fixed-point and floating-point representations. More particularly, the data processing apparatus comprises a data processing unit operable to execute instructions, with the data processing unit being responsive to a format conversion instruction to apply a format conversion operation to a number to perform a conversion between the fixed-point representation of the number and the floating-point representation of the number. Furthermore, a control field is provided which is arranged to provide a programmable value specifying a decimal point location within the fixed-point representation of the number, and the data processing unit is operable to reference the control field and to control the formal conversion operation in accordance with the programmable value. This enables a single instruction to be used to directly convert between fixed-point formats (where the position of the decimal point may be programmable varied) and floating-point representations.
US07945600B1
Techniques for organizing a corpus of electronic documents. The electronic documents are organized in a manner that facilitates review of the documents. The documents are organized into a concept-based hierarchical collection of folders based upon contents of the documents.
US07945596B2
A programming model for customized data objects is provided. For several embodiments, a method for providing customizable data objects comprises storing an abstract definition of an entity in metadata, the definition including a set of properties of the entity; and generating an entity view class based on the set of properties of the entity and including at least one property of the entity in the entity view. When programming against the entity view class, only those properties included in the entity view class are allowed to be seen or modified.
US07945595B1
In various embodiments, a computerized method includes creating a first item of a list having at least two items that form a portion of electronic content. The computerized method can include creating a second item of the list within the electronic content, as well as converting the second item to a separate paragraph below the first item, wherein the separate paragraph is part of the first item. The computerized method may include creating another item of the list below the separate paragraph, wherein a continuity is maintained between the first item and the another item of the list. The computerized method includes storing the electronic content in a machine-readable medium.
US07945591B2
A method, computer program product, and data processing system for efficiently diagnosing errors and inefficiencies in database application code are disclosed. According to a preferred embodiment, techniques of aspect-oriented programming (AOP) are used to instrument database application code to monitor the usage of database resources. Specifically, pointcuts are defined to intercept accesses of database resources. Advice code associated with these pointcuts is used to collect information about the usage of database resources and to detect certain errors, such as resource leaks, when they occur. In a preferred embodiment, the AspectJ aspect-oriented programming language/system is used to define the pointcuts and advice code.
US07945587B2
Described is a technology by which storage space in the form of allocation units (e.g., clusters of a storage volume) are intentionally allocated so as to likely be non-contiguous for a file's data. For example, random selection of each of the allocation units will likely provide non-contiguous allocation units; on solid state storage media, such a random distribution of a file's data does not significantly affect access times. In one aspect, a file system driver randomly allocates the allocation units, and records the allocation units in association with the file, e.g., in a master file table or similar database. Non-contiguous (e.g., random) allocation may be on demand as storage space is needed, and/or may be performed in anticipation of needing storage space for satisfying a later request. Once the storage space is no longer mapped to a file, reconstructing that file's data in forensic analysis is more difficult.
US07945585B1
A method and system for improving targeted data delivery. One method accesses a user profile based on information about a user from at least one electronic device from a set of electronic devices that is associated with the user. A targeted data offer is received, wherein the targeted data offer defines selection criteria for targeted user profiles. A determination is made as to whether the user profile satisfies the selection criteria. A non-user selected relevancy criteria based on the user profile is then utilized to characterize the targeted data offer.
US07945582B2
A method, system, and computer-readable medium for providing geographic information systems (GIS) data is provided. The steps, functions, and instructions provided include receiving GIS data from a plurality of websites, populating a searchable database with the GIS data, and generating a search-specific electronic summary of GIS data. A method and system for networking users of a GIS data management system is also provided. The steps and functions provided by this method and system include populating a searchable database with GIS data received from a plurality of websites and providing a networking interface interoperable with the database such that users of the GIS data management system are networked according to GIS data queries.
US07945581B2
A system and methods for parallel processing of queries to one or more databases are described herein. One or more databases may be distributed among a subset of slave nodes of a global-results processing matrix. A query to the database may be generated using a query-based high-level programming language. The query-based source code then may be converted to intermediary source code in a common programming language and then compiled into a dynamic link library (DLL) or other type of executable. The DLL is then distributed among the slave nodes of the processing matrix, whereupon the slave nodes execute related portions of the DLL substantially in parallel to generate initial query results. The initial query results may then be provided to a master node of the global-results processing matrix for additional processing, whereby the master node is adapted to execute one or more associated portions of the DLL on the initial query results.
US07945574B2
Disclosed herein is a reproducing apparatus including: a reproduction unit configured to reproduce content data linked to a first item being selected; a selection unit configured to select a second item in response to a request to select the second item, the request being input by a user operating an operation input unit; a determination unit configured to determine whether there exists content data linked to the second item; and a reproduction control unit configured to control reproduction of content data.
US07945573B1
Computer implemented methods and systems are provided for dynamic transcoding to stitch streaming digital content. A selection of a content file is received from a mobile device. An advertisement content file is identified for the selected content file. Attributes of the selected content file are determined. Attributes of the advertisement content file are determined. The advertisement content file and the selected content file are converted so that the attributes of the advertisement content file and the attributes of the selected content file match. The selected content file is stitched with the advertisement content file to produce streaming digital content. The streaming digital content is provided to the mobile device.
US07945570B2
A computer-implemented method, system, and a computer readable article of manufacture identify local patterns in at least one time series data stream. A data stream is received that comprises at least one set of time series data. The at least one set of time series data is formed into a set of multiple ordered levels of time series data. Multiple ordered levels of hierarchical approximation functions are generated directly from the multiple ordered levels of time series data. A set of approximating functions are created for each level. A current window with a current window length is selected from a set of varying window lengths. The set of approximating functions created at one level in the multiple ordered levels is passed to a subsequent level as a set of time series data. The multiple ordered levels of hierarchical approximation functions are stored into memory after being generated.
US07945566B2
In one embodiment the present invention includes a computer-implemented method of information filtering. The method includes storing a user goal. The method further includes generating search results corresponding to the user goal. The method further includes continuously filtering the search results, based on a user context that changes, to obtain a filter result related to the user goal. The method further includes outputting the filter result in accordance with a current user device.
US07945554B2
Methods and systems of providing a job search to a jobseeker are disclosed. Based on previously stored user preferences, job listings can be presented to users. User preferences can be gathered through previous search requests, resume keywords, jobseeker applies to job listings, jobseekers viewing job listings, etc. The search request can include search criteria. As such, preference data related to the jobseeker is identified based on jobseeker online behavior. In one embodiment, a set of jobs listings having associated metadata that match the search criteria is identified. A subset of job listings that match the preference data is identified. The subset of job listings is a subset of the set of job listings. At least the subset of job listings can be provided to the jobseeker. In another embodiment, a set of job listings having associated metadata that match the search criteria and the jobseeker preferences is identified and provided to the jobseeker.
US07945536B2
An extensible markup language document management method includes: receiving a document recovery request from a user; and recovering a version of the document as required by a user from the current version of the document, in accordance with the change records for the document. An extensible markup language document management system includes: a rollback control module, adapted to recover a version of a document as required by a user from the current version of the document, in accordance with change records for the document, upon receiving a document recovery request from the user.
US07945527B2
A computer implemented method and systems used to create and interpret a set of formal glossaries which refer one to the other and are intended to define precisely the terminology of a field of endeavor. Such glossaries are known as intelligent, in the sense that they allow machines to make deductions, with interaction of human actors. Once a word is defined in an intelligent glossary, all the logical consequences of the use of that word in a formal and well-formed sentence are computable. The process includes a question and answer mechanism, which applies the definitions contained in the intelligent glossaries to a given formal sentence. The methods may be applied in the development of knowledge management methods and tools that are based on semantics; for example: modeling of essential knowledge in the field based on the relevant semantics; and computer-aided human-reasoning.
US07945525B2
The embodiments of the invention provide methods for obtaining improved text similarity measures. More specifically, a method of measuring similarity between at least two electronic documents begins by identifying similar terms between the electronic documents. This includes basing similarity between the similar terms on patterns, wherein the patterns can include word patterns, letter patterns, numeric patterns, and/or alphanumeric patterns. The identifying of the similar terms also includes identifying multiple pattern types between the electronic documents. Moreover, the basing of the similarity on patterns identifies terms within the electronic documents that are within a category of a hierarchy. Specifically, the identifying of the terms reviews a hierarchical data tree, wherein nodes of the tree represent terms within the electronic documents. Lower nodes of the tree have specific terms; and, wherein higher nodes of the tree have general terms.
US07945524B2
A machine learning system creates failure-susceptibility rankings for feeder cables in a utility's electrical distribution system. The machine learning system employs martingale boosting algorithms and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms to generate a feeder failure prediction model, which is trained on static and dynamic feeder attribute data. Feeders are dynamically ranked by failure susceptibility and the rankings displayed to utility operators and engineers so that they can proactively service the distribution system to prevent local power outages. The feeder rankings may be used to redirect power flows and to prioritize repairs. A feedback loop is established to evaluate the responses of the electrical distribution system to field actions taken to optimize preventive maintenance programs.
US07945522B2
A method of operating an employment system is provided. The method includes generating a score for each of a plurality of possible results compared to information associated with a user, enabling the user to access a result of the plurality of possible results if the score generated for the result meets a threshold condition, enabling the user to adjust the threshold condition and preventing the user from adjusting the threshold condition beyond a minimum threshold condition. The score can be a bi-directional matching score. The minimum threshold condition can include a minimum score. The minimum score can be determined based on the percentage of the plurality of possible results that would be accessible to the user.
US07945521B2
A process and architecture may be implemented to structure bond financing or refinancing for facilities construction and/or renovation to improve economic and business terms for involved or interested parties, including for education institutions, healthcare companies and/or energy production entities.
US07945518B2
In a method, data processor and mail transport system for a mail item, the mail item has an electronic memory device physically associated therewith that contains electronically stored information that is relevant for the transport of the mail item.
US07945508B2
A system and method for prioritized data delivery in an electronic trading environment are described herein. According to one example embodiment, by prioritizing the messages associated with a tradeable object, the bandwidth and system resource usage may be optimally reduced, and any loss of priority content in the messages sent between the network device and the client device may be reduced. An example method includes associating different priority levels with messages comprising market data. Messages containing market information related to the inside market may be associated to a higher priority level. Whereas messages containing market information relating to the quantities at prices outside the inside market may be associated with a lower priority level. Based on the priority level associated with a message, a network device may send the message directly to the client device or store the message in a data structure until a pre-defined condition is satisfied.
US07945502B2
A method and system for trading electric power on a spot market and dynamically matches bids and asks and routes the electric power in accordance with the matches to effect the settled trades. A control node is arranged for receiving bids and asks via a wide area network. The control node is also connected to a transmission system and a central control of the transmission system to dynamically switch the transmission system to effect the matched bids and asks.
US07945497B2
The invention relates to a system for handling insurance requests, such as new coverage applications, renewal applications, and insurance quote requests. The system includes at least two computerized predictive models whose outputs each serve as inputs to the other. A business logic module is included in the system to process insurance requests with the predictive models to determine one or more sets of recommended policy parameters for the user and to output the determination to the user via a user interface. In various embodiments, the predictive models also output workflow components (such as underwriting workflow components) and price components (such as premium prices) corresponding to output suggested sets of coverage parameters.
US07945493B2
A system for facilitating the processing and settlement of securities trades is provided. The system includes a computer which receives trade execution information indicative of an executed trade by a first trading party and trade order information indicative of an executed trade by a second trading party. The system also includes software for determining block level trade execution information based upon the trade execution information and for determining block level trade order information based upon the trade order information. Further software is provided for comparing the block level trade execution information with the block level trade order information, and for determining that a match exists if the block level trade execution information and the block level trade order information correlate within a set of predefined acceptable trade parameters.
US07945489B2
A method and system handles cost and revenue allocation for service orders. For a service order, there is allowed to be created planned rules for allocation of costs to one or more service providers and for allocation of expected revenues to be received from one or more service receivers, which are forwarded in electronic form, if created, to a cost accounting system. After receipt of a confirmation that the service order has been executed wherein the confirmation includes information about costs actually incurred in executing the service order, there is allowed the creation of revised or newly created rules for allocation of the incurred costs to the one or more service providers and for the allocation of the revenues to be received from the one or more service receivers, which are forwarded in electronic form, if created or revised, to the cost accounting system.
US07945483B2
Embodiments of sales generation, including sales generation employing reverse lead generation using vehicle data systems and methods, are presented herein. In particular, in certain embodiments a user may utilize the vehicle data system to obtain pricing data corresponding to a desired vehicle configuration. When the user is presented with the pricing data associated with the specified vehicle configuration the user may additionally be presented with an upfront price offered by a dealer, where by providing their personal information the user may obtain the name of the dealer offering the upfront price and may additionally be offered the opportunity to purchase the desired, or similar, vehicle at the upfront price.
US07945480B2
A part location system is described that utilizes computer-based techniques for bringing together repair facilities and suppliers to increase the efficiency of locating recycled, used or aftermarket parts using a computer network, such as the Internet. The part location system receives an estimate from a first user over a communication network. The part location system then parses the estimate to extract information that identifies a list of parts needed by the first user and automatically generates a request for quote (RFQ) using the information extracted from the estimate. The part location system then sends the RFQ to suppliers via the communication network. Subsequently, the part location system receives quotations from at least one of the suppliers via the communication network in response to the RFQ and presents the quotations received in response to the RFQ to a repair facility via the communication network.
US07945472B2
The present invention includes a business management tool that is configured to receive and process both first and second data sources for planning, performance and forecasting purposes. The business management tool of the present invention is further configured to utilize essential data including key performance indicators. The foregoing data sets are inputting into an integrated planning, performance and forecasting methodology that integrates historical data and forecasting data to form a closed loop system for managing a business. Lastly, the business management tool of the present invention is adapted to advise managers of those conditions and variables that subject the business to the most risk with regard to revenue planning and forecasting.
US07945469B2
A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described for facilitating interactions between task requesters who have tasks that are available to be performed and task performers who are available to perform tasks. In some situations, the tasks to be performed are human performance tasks that use cognitive and other mental skills of human task performers, such as to employ judgment, perception and/or reasoning skills of the human task performers. In addition, in some situations the available tasks are submitted by human task requesters via application programs that programmatically invoke one or more application program interfaces of an electronic marketplace in order to request that the tasks be performed and to receive corresponding results of task performance in a programmatic manner, so that an ensemble of unrelated human agents can interact with the electronic marketplace to collectively perform a wide variety and large number of tasks.
US07945466B2
A scheduler combines characteristics of a forward and backward schedulers to determine a schedule for activities that require the use of resources. The system handles conflicting requirements for resources by considering target dates and the relative priority of the activities. As a result, higher priority activities are more likely to be scheduled to complete on or before their target date than are lower priority activities.
US07945465B2
A workflow process management application (WPMA) for a specific organization is created via a web application that can be implemented using a web server front end and a database back end. An administrator user operates the application by using a built-in administrative function to create objects such as users, groups, departments, locations, acuities, activities, and skills. The administrator or another suitable user can then use a built-in defining function to finalize objects and create instances of the objects corresponding to the organization. Appropriate users can use the plan function to allocate specific users to specific departments to ensure that all activities are assigned an appropriate amount of workers having the appropriate skills. When (or after) the work is performed the actual workflow data can be electronically gathered (if possible), or manually entered. Reports can then be generated to show differences between the planned workflow and the actual workflow.
US07945463B2
Systems and methods are described for processing queue data and for providing queue messaging over a network. An illustrative queuing system includes a first queue configured to hold resource requests from a plurality of users, and program code stored in computer readable memory configured to determine or estimate whether a resource requested by a first resource request submitted by a first requester will be available when the first resource request will be serviced, and to transmit a message over a network to the first requester indicating that the requested resource will not be available when the queued request is serviced if it is estimated or determined that the requested resource will not be available when the first request is serviced.
US07945459B2
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing health care information to health care providers and for obtaining information pertaining to the practice of a health care provider by providing incentives for provision of such information.
US07945458B1
A care funding and care planning system (10) generates a care plan option report (192) for a care receiver. The system (10) includes a client computer (14) having an input data map (16) for receiving and storing care-receiver data (13) including predetermined, critical categories of care-receiver information. A system processor (36) processes the care-receiver data (13) through knowledge management software (12) to evaluate and select from the care-receiver data (13) at least physical functional status (72), cognitive and sensory status (74), prospective functional status (76), living environment status (84), and long-term care resource status abstractions (88). A meta needs-resource weighting engine (56) assigns care-receiver specific values (160A) to the care-receiver data abstractions (72). A dynamic data base (48) allocates values to the weighted care-receiver data abstractions (72). A report generator (58) produces a care plan options report (192) for the care receiver.
US07945454B2
A system and method of managing medical-related data includes at least one database comprising medical-related data, wherein the at least one database comprises a first module that stores and retrieves data relating to pharmaceutical drugs; a second module that stores and retrieves data relating to medical treatment protocols; a third module that stores and retrieves data relating to healthcare reimbursement data; a fourth module that stores and retrieves data relating to medical billing coding data; and a fifth module that stores and retrieves data relating to medical education data. Furthermore, at least one client system is operatively connected to the at least one database through a communications channel, wherein each of the at least one client system accesses all modules of the at least one database; consolidates data based on user instructions; and broadcasts the consolidated data.
US07945449B2
Certain types of parametric spatial coding encoders use interchannel amplitude differences, interchannel time differences, and interchannel coherence or correlation to build a parametric model of a multichannel soundfield that is used by a decoder to construct an approximation of the original soundfield. However, such a parametric model does not reconstruct the original temporal envelope of the soundfield's channels, which has been found to be extremely important for some audio signals. The present invention provides for the reshaping the temporal envelope of one or more of the decoded channels in a spatial coding system to better match one or more original temporal envelopes.
US07945447B2
A sound coding device having a monaural/stereo scalable structure and capable of efficiently coding stereo sound. even when the correlation between the channel signals of a stereo signal is small. In a core layer coding block of this device, a monaural signal generating section generates a monaural signal from first and second-channel sound signal, a monaural signal coding section codes the monaural signal, and a monaural signal decoding section greatest a monaural decoded signal from monaural signal coded data and outputs it to an expansion layer coding block. In the expansion layer coding block, a first-channel prediction signal synthesizing section synthesizes a first-channel prediction signal from the monaural decoded signal and a first-channel prediction filter digitizing parameter and a second-channel prediction signal synthesizing section synthesizes a second-channel prediction signal from the monaural decoded signal and second-channel prediction filter digitizing parameter.
US07945446B2
Spectrum envelope of an input sound is detected. In the meantime, a converting spectrum is acquired which is a frequency spectrum of a converting sound comprising a plurality of sounds, such as unison sounds. Output spectrum is generated by imparting the detected spectrum envelope of the input sound to the acquired converting spectrum. Sound signal is synthesized on the basis of the generated output spectrum. Further, a pitch of the input sound may be detected, and frequencies of peaks in the acquired converting spectrum may be varied in accordance with the detected pitch of the input sound. In this manner, the output spectrum can have the pitch and spectrum envelope of the input sound and spectrum frequency components of the converting sound comprising a plurality of sounds, and thus, unison sounds can be readily generated with simple arrangements.
US07945445B1
Methods and apparatus for speech recognition based on a hidden Markov model are disclosed. A disclosed method of speech recognition is based on a hidden Markov model in which words to be recognized are modeled as chains of states and trained using predefined speech data material. Known vocabulary is divided into first and second partial vocabularies where the first partial vocabulary is trained and transcribed using a whole word model and the second partial vocabulary is trained and transcribed using a phoneme-based model in order to obtain a mixed hidden Markov model. The transcriptions from the two models are stored in a single pronunciation lexicon and the mixed hidden Markov model stored in a singe search space. Apparatus are disclosed that also employ a hidden Markov model.
US07945444B2
In detection systems, such as speaker verification systems, for a given operating point range, with an associated detection “cost”, the detection cost is preferably reduced by essentially trading off the system error in the area of interest with areas essentially “outside” that interest. Among the advantages achieved thereby are higher optimization gain and better generalization. From a measurable Detection Error Tradeoff (DET) curve of the given detection system, a criterion is preferably derived, such that its minimization provably leads to detection cost reduction in the area of interest. The criterion allows for selective access to the slope and offset of the DET curve (a line in case of normally distributed detection scores, a curve approximated by mixture of Gaussians in case of other distributions). By modifying the slope of the DET curve, the behavior of the detection system is changed favorably with respect to the given area of interest.
US07945429B2
A transient response of a tire is simulated by using a effective data of a physical amount. The physical amount is set as a rolling condition of the tire and varies in time. The effective data of the physical amount is calculated by a convolution integral of a response function of an introduced first-order lag response and a time gradient of time-series data of the physical amount. In a tire model determining method, a time constant of a response function of the first-order lag response is determined from measured transient response data. In a tire transient response data calculating method, a transient response data is calculated by using the effective data of the physical amount which is calculated by using a desired physical amount and the first-order lag response.
US07945424B2
A disk drive emulator for testing a test slot of a disk drive testing system includes an emulator housing, a testing circuit housed in the emulator housing, and an interface connector disposed on the emulator housing and in electrical communication with the testing circuit. The disk drive emulator includes at least one sensor in electrical communication with the testing circuit. The at least one sensor is selected from the group consisting of a temperature sensor, a vibration sensor, and a humidity sensor. The testing circuit is configured to test power delivery of the test slot to the disk drive emulator, monitor the at least one sensor, and monitor connector resistance between the test slot and the disk drive emulator.
US07945420B2
An absolute position measurement apparatus includes an output unit, a phase computing unit, a regression computing unit, a phase difference computing unit, an origin position computing unit, and an absolute position calculating unit. The output unit outputs first signals and superimposed signals formed by superimposing second signals on the first signals. The first signals relate to a position of an object to be measured and the first and second signals have a different cycle. The phase computing unit calculates the phase of the first and second signals. The regression computing unit calculates a regression coefficient of the phase of the first signals. The phase difference computing unit calculates a phase difference between phases of the first and second signals. The origin position computing unit determines an origin position of the object to be measured. The absolute position calculating unit calculates an absolute position of the object to be measured.
US07945417B2
A method for testing VLSI circuits comprises a two-pass diagnostic method for testing a circuit wherein a first pass comprises a conventional test flow wherein an ATPG tool generates a set of test patterns and identifies possible faulty nets within the circuit. A second pass focuses on a designated critical subset of the circuit extracted using a method for extracting a subset for failure diagnosis of the tested circuit. A second pass utilizes an extraction algorithm which extracts one or more critical subsets of the circuit in order to obtain more accurate failure diagnosis.
US07945414B2
A method for detecting abnormality in a fluid supply line is provided that uses a fluid control apparatus with a pressure sensor so that abnormality of malfunction and sheet leaks of a plurality of valves incorporated into the fluid supply line can be checked easily, promptly and accurately by operating the flow rate control apparatus possessing the pressure sensor. Specifically, using a fluid supply line provided with the flow rate control apparatus possessing the pressure sensor equipped with a flow rate setting mechanism, a flow rate/pressure display mechanism, and/or a flow rate self-diagnosis mechanism, abnormality of the control valves, installed with the flow rate control apparatus and on the upstream side and downstream side thereof, is detected by using the pressure value displayed and/or the value diagnosed with a self-diagnosis mechanism of the flow rate control apparatus.
US07945413B2
A method is provided for preventing islanding of a power source connected to an electric AC grid via an interface. The method senses an output voltage waveform of the interface, controls an output current waveform of the interface to track a reference current waveform having a mathematical relationship with the sensed output voltage waveform, and discontinues the output current waveform when the output voltage waveform is sensed to be outside a predetermined waveform range.
US07945403B2
Provided is a signal measurement apparatus, including sampling sections that each sample a signal under measurement having a cycle T with a threshold value, where the threshold values of at least two of the sampling sections are different from each other; a waveform reconfiguring section that shapes a reconfigured waveform having the cycle T by rearranging ordinal ranks of sample values corresponding to each threshold value obtained by the sampling sections, a distribution generating section that generates a timing distribution of edges in the reconfigured waveform corresponding to each threshold value; and a calculating section that calculates rise time or fall time of the signal under measurement based on the timing distribution corresponding to each threshold value.
US07945398B2
A reflow process evaluation device includes, a stress calculation part for calculating an average principal stress acting on a joint portion, wherein a principal stress occurs when a chip and a substrate are joined by solder with a reflow method and a rupture occurrence ratio computation part for computing an occurrence ratio at which the joint portion ruptures based on a relational expression between the occurrence ratio and the average principal stress acting on the joint portion and the average principal stress calculated by the stress calculation part.
US07945397B2
A system includes a plurality of sensors configured to measure one or more characteristics of a gearbox. The system also includes a gearbox condition indicator device, which includes a plurality of sensor interfaces configured to receive input signals associated with at least one stage of the gearbox from the sensors. The gearbox condition indicator device also includes a processor configured to identify a fault in the gearbox using the input signals and an output interface configured to provide an indicator identifying the fault. The processor is configured to identify the fault by determining a family of frequencies related to at least one failure mode of the gearbox, decomposing the input signals using the family of frequencies, reconstructing a gear signal using the deconstructed input signals, and comparing the reconstructed gear signal to a baseline signal. The family of frequencies includes a gear mesh frequency and its harmonics.
US07945395B2
The actual density of liquids is determined with a flexural oscillator that is excited at two different natural vibrations. The presence of air/gas inclusions or other inhomogeneities in a liquid is detected and their influence can be eliminated. In an initial step, the periods of the inherent vibrations and of at least one vibration damping value of the natural vibrations are determined for liquids having different densities ρ and viscosities. Liquid densities as well as the difference between them and between the vibration damping values are determined from this. An inclusion-free curve (KB) which reflects the functional dependence F(ρδ) between the relative density differences and the vibration damping differences is calculated and the exact function determined; i.e. the gas/air inclusion-free curve (KB) is expanded by introducing a deviation bandwidth (ab) to form an inclusion-free curve area (KF), which is stored. The functional value F(ρδ) of the liquid to be tested is determined and a check is performed to ascertain whether it is within the inclusion-free curve area and whether the resulting value of the density ρ is or is not applicable to the liquid being tested.
US07945390B2
A system and method for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) class discovery using gene expression data are provided. The method comprises: acquiring gene expression data of a patient having MCI; and identifying a putative MCI subtype based on an expression signature in the gene expression data, wherein the putative MCI subtype is identified by using a boosting tree.
US07945387B2
A method and apparatus for distributing satellite navigation data is described. In one example, satellite signals are processed at each of a plurality of reference stations to receive a respective plurality of satellite navigation data streams. Packets are formed in response to said plurality of satellite navigation data streams to generate a plurality of packetized satellite navigation data streams. The packetized satellite navigation data streams are sent to a processing system. The processing system removes duplicate packets within said plurality of packetized satellite navigation data streams to generate a combined packet stream. The combined packet stream is then sent into a communication network.
US07945380B2
Method for navigating a vehicle in a road system is provided, in which method data is read from a data-storage medium and automatically transferred to a memory of a navigation device after the data medium is inserted into a data-media drive associated with the navigation device. The transferred data remains available for vehicle navigation even after the data medium is removed from the data-media drive.
US07945379B2
An engine ECU executes a program including the steps of: calculating a coefficient of correlation K in accordance with a result of comparing a waveform of a vibration of a frequency band including a resonance frequency of an engine with a knock waveform model previously created as a waveform of a vibration caused when the engine knocks; calculating a knock intensity N from an intensity of a vibration of a frequency band excluding the resonance frequency of the engine; if knock intensity N is larger than a reference value and coefficient of correlation K is larger than a threshold value, determining that the engine knocks; and if knock intensity N is smaller than the reference value and/or coefficient of correlation K is smaller than the threshold value, determining that the engine does not knock.
US07945368B2
A method of actuating an automatic parking brake for a vehicle, comprising a spring device, designed to absorb the actuating forces, situated in the actuating mechanism of a brake device. This method comprises at least the following steps: application of a preload to the spring device to a value situated in part IV of the operating characteristic, and adjustment of this preload to a level corresponding at least to a minimum braking force required for the vehicle.
US07945367B2
A travel device includes an attitude detector that detects attitude information of a main body, a vehicle velocity detector that detects a vehicle velocity, a pseudo-attitude command generator that generates a pseudo-attitude information command of the main body based on the detected attitude information, the detected vehicle velocity, an input attitude information command and an input vehicle velocity command when accelerating or decelerating a vehicle, and an attitude controller that performs attitude control in such a way that the attitude information detected by the attitude detector follows the pseudo-attitude information command of the main body generated by the pseudo-attitude command generator.
US07945355B2
The invention involves a method comprising the steps of providing (S3) a wind data set (3) including wind data of a plurality of positions, receiving (S4) data for a predicted airplane trajectory (311), providing (S5), based on the wind data set (3), a set of wind data elements (302), each including data concerning wind at a position along the predicted airplane trajectory (311), repeating steps of selecting a subset of wind data elements (302S), creating a wind profile (303), and comparing the wind profile (303) to the set of wind data elements (302), and selecting (S10) to be sent to a subscriber (2, 4) a subset of wind data elements (302S) based at least partly on which a wind profile (303) was created corresponding to the largest extent to the set of wind data elements (302).
US07945353B2
An adaptive control system is provided that scales both gain and commands to avoid input saturation. The input saturation occurs when a commanded input uc exceeds an achievable command limit of umax. To avoid input saturation, the commanded input uc is modified according to a factor μ.
US07945341B2
A graphical user interface for use in phacoemulsification surgical systems that allows a user to select different pulse modes by touching portions of the display screen. The user interface includes first and second display elements. One display element includes a representation of the on-time of the pulses, and the other display element includes a representation of the off-time. The representations show how the on-time and off-time change relative to a position of a controller, such as a foot pedal. The representation show a constant time, or that a time increases or decreases as the foot pedal is pressed. To select a pulse mode, a user can scroll through different pulse representations by touching the screen at the display elements. The selected pulse mode can be continuous, pulse, burst and other modes.
US07945338B2
Within an industrial automation environment, a human-machine interface (HMI) is provided comprising a HMI computer, a display electrically coupled with the computer, and a controller wirelessly coupled with the computer. The controller is configured to detect motion of the controller, and wirelessly transmit motion data related to the motion of the controller to the HMI computer. The HMI computer is configured to receive industrial automation data, wirelessly receive motion data from the controller, process the motion data into control data, and select a first set of industrial automation data for display in response to the control data.
US07945335B2
Embodiments of the present invention are generally related to apparatus and methodology of thermal applicators in cancer therapy. In particular, the present embodiments are directed to a technique called “nanoparticle ferromagnetic resonance heating,” where ferromagnetic resonance heating in addition to an RF hyperthermia treatment is used to cause cell apoptosis and necrosis. An apparatus for carrying out a ferromagnetic resonance heating treatment of a tumor, comprises a volume concentration of super paramagnetic particles contained within the interior of the tumor, the concentration ranging from about 0.1 to about 1 percent; a magnetic field source configured to deliver a gradient DC magnetic field to the region of the tumor; and an energy source configured to deliver to the tumor an RF field at a frequency ranging from about 100 to 200 MHz. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the super paramagnetic particles are selected from the group consisting of maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) based compounds, and yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12) based compounds.
US07945332B2
There are disclosed methods and apparatus for attachment and reinforcement of tissue, and methods and apparatus for reinforcement of tissue. In an embodiment, the apparatus includes an energy applicator configured to apply energy to generate heat within a target tissue to evaporate water to create dried tissue, and denature at least one of collagen and elastin to attach portions together, and a biopolymer applicator configured for to receive the heat generated to allow biopolymer material to change from solid to molten, and to allow the biopolymer to fill dried tissue to reinforce portions of the target tissue and provide a hermetic seal.In another embodiment, the method includes applying energy to tissue surfaces with an energy applicator, and applying a biopolymer material into the tissue surfaces with a biopolymer applicator disposed on a housing in connection with the energy applicator. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US07945331B2
A combined electrical and chemical stimulation lead is especially adapted for providing treatment to the spine and nervous system. The stimulation lead includes electrodes that may be selectively positioned along various portions of the stimulation lead in order to precisely direct electrical energy to ablate or electrically stimulate the target tissue. Embodiments of the stimulation lead include single or multiple lead elements. The multiple lead element embodiments can be selectively deployed to cover a targeted area. The lead may also includes central infusion passageway(s) or lumen(s) that communicates with various infusion ports spaced at selected locations along the lead to thereby direct the infusion of nutrients/chemicals to the target tissue. One embodiment utilizes a dissolvable matrix for infusion as opposed to remote delivery through an infusion pump.
US07945328B2
A strain reliever for a lead of an implantable heart stimulator, the lead including at least one cable having an electric conductor, has a body of electrically conducting material in electric contact with the electric conductor. The body is lockable in a position in electric contact with electric circuitry of the heart stimulator. The body has a fastening arrangement for fastening the proximal end of the cable at the fastening point on the peripheral surface of the body located at a distance from the distal end of the body. A fixing arrangement is provided at the distal end of the body for fixing the cable to extend in the distal direction from a departure point at the body distal end. The cable is intended to extend in a helical path on the peripheral surface of the body between the fastening point and the departure point.
US07945323B2
Methods of treating obesity and/or type II diabetes include applying at least one stimulus to the pituitary gland of a patient with an implanted stimulator in accordance with one or more stimulation parameters. The at least one stimulus is configured to treat obesity and/or type II diabetes. Systems for treating obesity and/or type II diabetes include a stimulator configured to apply at least one stimulus to the pituitary gland of a patient in accordance with one or more stimulation parameters. The at least one stimulus is configured to treat obesity and/or type II diabetes.
US07945316B2
A medical device system for comparing a cardiopulmonary signal to a brain signal. In one embodiment of the invention, a medical device system is provided that includes a brain monitoring element, respiratory monitoring element and a processor. The processor is configured to receive a brain signal from the brain monitoring element and a respiratory signal from the respiratory monitoring element. The processor is further configured to compare the brain signal to the respiratory signal. Methods of comparing a brain signal to a cardiopulmonary signal are also provided.
US07945315B2
A system for use in analysis of electrograms comprising: an input signal generator (302); an input electrode (304) for applying an input signal to a driving region of a heart (316); an output electrode (306a-c) for receiving an output signal at a driven region of the heart; a processing system (300) operable to receive signals indicative of said recorded value from the output electrode for analysing conduction paths through the heart, wherein the signal generator is operable to generate an input signal comprising a plurality of pulses, being spaced from each other by a pacing interval; and the processing system being arranged to identify signal delay between the input signal and the output signal on the basis of the signal received by the output electrode in relation to the plurality of pulses, and to identify a rate of variation in signal delay over a range of values of pacing interval.
US07945297B2
The invention relates to an energy saving headset that comprises a power management unit operable to reduce the power consumption of the headset when a user is not present. The power management unit uses capacitive sensing to detect the presence of the user. Capacitive sensing is advantageous since it provides a flexible and reliable sensor that can accurately detect the presence or absence of a user either by detecting user proximity or user contact. Moreover, in various embodiments, the sensitivity of a capacitive sensor may be adjusted to account for user movement or changes in environmental conditions, such as, for example, the presence of water, or sweat, on the headset to further improve sensing reliability. The invention further relates to headsets using user presence signals based on capacitive sensing to control other functions of the headset or to control external devices to which the headset is connected, either wirelessly or by wires.
US07945296B2
The module for exchanging information by carrier-currents (22, 24) for controlling an electrical member (12, 14) includes first receiver means (34A, 36A) for receiving an information-conveying signal. The first receiver means (34A, 36A) may take on two states, respectively an activated state and a deactivated state. The module (22, 24) further includes second receiver means (34B, 36B) for receiving a wakeup signal for activating the first receiver means (34A, 36A) to switch from the deactivated state to the activated state.
US07945293B2
According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus, includes a discrimination unit which, upon receiving a connection request from a device corresponding to the identification information stored in a memory unit, reads an information of the mode of connection corresponding to the device and discriminates whether the connection request matches the information of the mode of connection, and a transmission unit which, if it is discriminated by the discrimination unit that the connection request does not match the information of the mode of connection, rejects the connection request and transmits to the device a connection request based on the information of the mode of connection corresponding to the device.
US07945290B2
The present invention provides for a wireless radio frequency (“RF”) modem that plugs into a host computer and shares a central processing unit and memory with the host computer, wherein principal modem functions are distributed between the modem and the host computer. In one embodiment, the modem performs RF conversion, and the host computer performs baseband processing and protocol stack control. In another embodiment, the modem performs RF conversion and baseband processing, and the host computer performs protocol stack control.
US07945287B1
A communication device, such as a mobile phone, which implements a voice communication mode, a digital mirror mode, and a sound caller ID mode, wherein the image retrieved from the camera is displayed in an inverted manner when the digital mirror mode is implemented, and upon receiving a phone call, a specific sound corresponding to the caller of the phone call is output from the communication device when the sound caller ID mode is implemented.
US07945280B2
According to the present invention, in response to a propagation environment of a radio channel, based on transmission power control information for controlling transmission power of the radio channel, a receiving apparatus generates information concerning a transmission parameter; notifies the information concerning a transmission parameter to a transmitting apparatus; the transmitting apparatus control the radio channel based on the information concerning a transmission parameter from the receiving apparatus, and thereby, the transmitting apparatus can rapidly change the transmission parameter in response to a fluctuation of the propagation environment of the radio channel.
US07945277B2
A method to indicate delays in a push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) group call may include offsetting a timestamp in a data stream being transmitted to a late listener to indicate a delay from when the data stream was transmitted to a first listener. The data stream includes data convertible to speech. The method may also include transmitting the data stream including the offset timestamp to the late listener.
US07945276B2
A method and terminal device are provided which effect the steps of receiving a message indicating that a user of another terminal device has pressed a talk button, the message including a geographical location of the other terminal device, or any information derived therefrom; and indicating the geographical location of the other terminal device to a user of the terminal device. A further method and terminal device are provided which effect the steps of: in response to a user of a terminal device pressing a talk button, writing information describing the geographical location of the terminal device, or any information derived therefrom, into a message; and sending the message to another terminal device or to a communications network.
US07945275B2
A method in a communications system for handling responses to messages includes a step of sending a message from a first party to a second party. A response to the message is sent, with the response including at least one parameter in breach of a policy for a communication between the first party and the second party. A network controller detects that the response includes at least one parameter breaching the policy. The at least one parameter is modified to be consistent with the policy.
US07945265B2
A system and method for fast network re-entry in a broadband wireless access communication system. A mobile station transmits a first message requiring fast network re-entry to a base station and performs the fast network re-entry together with the base station when receiving a second message approving the fast network re-entry from the base station. The base station receives the first message, authenticates the first message using final session information of the mobile station that is previously stored in the base station, transmits the second message to the mobile station when succeeding in authentication of the first message, and performs the fast network re-entry together with the mobile station.
US07945264B2
A mobile station (107, 200) for use in a cellular communication system (100) includes a processor (214) operable to determine whether the mobile station should undergo cell re-selection by handover from a first base station (101) to a second base station (102), wherein the determination includes comparing a value of a property (RSSI) of a signal received from the second base station with a value of the same property of a signal received from the first base station and calculating whether the difference between the two values is greater than a pre-determined reference difference (SRH), characterised in that the processor is operable to apply in the difference calculation a reference difference (SRH(0), SRH(1) . . . ) which varies as a function of time during an idle mode of operation of the mobile station. Also disclosed is a system and method incorporating the mobile station.
US07945257B2
A method and mobile device that self-terminates a media service if an out-of-coverage condition is detected. The media service operates on top of a connectionless peer-to-peer packet-based transport protocol. The out-of-coverage condition may relate to the mobile device itself or to a remote mobile device engaged in the media service. The loss of coverage by the remote mobile device may be detected by observing whether the remote mobile device has failed to send any data packets for more than a predetermined period of time. If an out-of-coverage situation is detected, then the method or device initiates service cancellation or release.
US07945250B2
A method and arrangement for providing information to a client (200) from a client access network (202) regarding a requested set of users (204), at least some of which are connected to other access networks (206). In response to a client subscription request, the client access network establishes a network subscription with the other access networks. Information updates regarding users in the set are then continuously received and stored in a database (214) of the client access network, whenever the users change their state. In response to a subsequent request for user information from the client, corresponding stored user information is retrieved from the database and sent in a notification to the client.
US07945241B2
Communication networks and methods are disclosed for sharing charging information between a home IMS network and a visited IMS network. If a signaling message for a session is received in the visited IMS network, the visited IMS network assigns a visited charging identifier (e.g., ICID), and shares the visited charging identifier with the home IMS network through signaling messages. Similarly, the home IMS network assigns a home charging identifier, and shares the home charging identifier with the visited IMS network through signaling messages. When CDRs are generated in the home IMS network and the visited IMS network, the networks include the home charging identifier and the visited charging identifier in the CDRs so that billing systems may more easily correlate the CDRs from the different IMS networks.
US07945234B2
Operating a communication device in a half-duplex mode using only overhead channels; and substantially free running a timing reference obtained during reception to allow a timing reference value to drift during transmission.
US07945233B2
Systems and methods for dynamically controlling a tuner are provided. In exemplary embodiments, the tuner receives control signals generated by digital signal processing hardware (DSPHW). These control signals control noise figure and linearity characteristic of components within the tuner by adjusting a current supply to those components, according to a desired configuration determined by the DSPHW. As a result, the DSPHW can optimize power consumption of the tuner while allowing for sufficient tuner performance for reliable demodulation of received signals.
US07945228B2
A receiver has a first semiconductor chip and second semiconductor chip for receiving signals of a first radio frequency band, and a communication unit for performing communication using signals of a second radio frequency band. A second mixing unit in the second semiconductor chip uses second local signals supplied from a second local signal oscillator when the frequency of first local signals fed from a first-local-signal-output terminal to a first-local-signal-input terminal is within a predetermined range from the second frequency band, or uses first local signals supplied from the first-local-signal-input terminal when the frequency of the first local signals fed from the first-local-signal-output terminal to the first-local-signal-input terminal is out of the predetermined range from the second frequency band.
US07945227B2
Provided is an apparatus and method for controlling a voltage gain in an ultra wideband receiving apparatus. The apparatus includes a register for storing an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) value detected in a section where an AGC operation control signal is “ON”; and a voltage gain controller for generating a voltage gain control value by reading the AGC stored in the register during a section where a reception enable signal is “ON”, and transferring the generated voltage gain control value to a voltage gain amplifier.
US07945217B2
A configurable frequency conversion device includes an up-converter, which is arranged to convert an input transmit signal to an interim transmit signal at an intermediate transmit frequency and to convert the interim transmit signal to an output transmit signal at an output frequency. A down-converter is arranged to convert an input receive signal at an input frequency to an interim receive signal at an intermediate receive frequency and to convert the interim receive signal to an output receive signal. Local Oscillator (LO) generation circuitry is arranged to generate multiple LO signals having respective LO frequencies and is coupled to drive the up- and down-converter with the LO signals, and is externally configurable to modify one or more of the LO frequencies so as to modify any of the output frequency, the input frequency, and a separation between the output and input frequencies without changing the intermediate receive and transmit frequencies.
US07945216B2
Single chip wireless transceiver operable to perform voice, data and radio frequency (RF) processing
A single chip wireless transceiver operable to perform voice, data and radio frequency (RF) processing is provided. This processing may be divided between various processing modules. This single chip includes a processing module having an ARM microprocessor and a digital signal processor (DSP), an RF section, and an interface module. The processing module converts an outbound voice signal into an outbound voice symbol stream, converts an inbound voice symbol stream into an inbound voice signal, converts outbound data into an outbound data symbol stream, and converts an inbound data symbol stream into inbound data. These functions may be divided between the ARM microprocessor and DSP, where the DSP supports physically layer type applications and the ARM microprocessor supports higher layer applications. Further bifurcation may be based on voice applications, data applications, and/or RF control. The RF section converts an inbound RF voice signal into the inbound voice symbol stream, converts the outbound voice symbol stream into an outbound RF voice signal, converts an inbound RF data signal into the inbound data symbol stream, and converts the outbound data symbol stream into an outbound RF data signal. The interface module provides coupling between the processing module, the RF section, and with off-chip circuits.
US07945213B2
A portable device for detecting a radio frequency transmission of electromagnetic radiation includes a housing; a controller situated within the housing; memory communicatively connected to the controller; an antenna connected to the controller and configured to receive the radio frequency transmission; and an audio-generating component connected to the controller. The radio frequency transmission of the electromagnetic radiation is harmful to an electrical device and is from a transient electromagnetic device (TED) threat source. The controller is operative for sensing magnitude, duration, and/or repetition of the radio frequency transmission; identifying a class of the radio frequency transmission based on one of the magnitude, duration, and repetition associated with the radio frequency transmission; and causing the audio-generating component to output tones to provide aural discrimination of an identified class of the radio frequency transmission received by the portable device. The identified class is a transient electromagnetic pulse signal from the TED source.
US07945211B2
The method is based on the capability for coordination of the radio activities of two mobile radio transmitting and/or receiving devices. In the case of the method, a value of at least one characteristic variable is first of all determined, which is characteristic of the requirement for coordination of the radio activity of one or both transmitting and/or receiving devices. The coordination of the radio activity of one or both transmitting and/or receiving devices is then activated or deactivated as a function of the value.
US07945202B2
An cleaning apparatus includes: a first brush roll for removing toner from an image carrier; a second brush roll for removing the toner from the image carrier; a first recovery device for recovering the toner deposited on the first brush roll; a second recovery device for recovering the toner deposited on the second brush roll; a first electric field forming device for forming an electric field between the first brush roll and the image carrier; and a second electric field forming device for forming an electric field between the second brush roll and image carrier, wherein the first brush roll and the second brush roll each has a plurality of electrically conductive yarns arranged on a conductive core, and a resistance R2 of each of the yarns used in the second brush roll is smaller than 1×107 Ω/cm.
US07945200B2
Systems and methods of remanufacturing an imaging cartridge include providing the imaging cartridge comprising a developer material supplying roller, a developer roller, a developer blade which regulates a layer of thickness of the developer material on the outer surface of the developer roller, the developer blade held in a first position to exert a first pressure on the outer surface of the developer roller, providing a replacement developer material having a set of characteristics, and adjusting the position of the developer blade to a second position to exert a second pressure on the outer surface of the developer roller, the second position of the developer blade selected to function with the replacement developer material having the set of characteristics.
US07945196B2
A developing device includes a developer supporting member having an elastic layer and a surface layer, and a supply member for supplying developer to the developer supporting member. The surface layer is formed of a mixture containing at least an acrylic resin and a polyether type urethane resin. The developer supporting member and the supply member are configured so that the following equations are satisfied: 20≦A1≦80 0.6≦D≦2.0 45+0.1×A1×D≦F×N≦65 where A1 is a weight ratio (%) of the acrylic resin relative to a total weight of the acrylic resin and the polyether type urethane resin, F is an Asker F hardness (degree) of a surface of the supply member, and N is an overlap amount (mm) representing a biting amount of the supply member relative to the developer supporting member.
US07945194B2
An image formation apparatus includes an image carrier and a toner carrier having a concave portion arrayed in a regular pattern on its surface. A latent image that is carried on the image carrier is developed by toner carried in the concave portion by applying a development voltage to the toner carrier. After the toner carrier has developed the latent image, at least one layer of toner remains in the concave portion.
US07945191B2
An image forming apparatus includes: an image holder; a charging unit that charges the image holder; a latent image forming unit; a developing unit that forms a toner image; a transfer unit that transfers the toner image formed on the surface of the image holder onto a recording medium; a toner-particle removal unit that removes toner particles remaining on the surface of the image holder after the transfer of the toner image by the transfer unit; and an external-additive removal unit that includes a conductive blade disposed to contact the surface of the image holder and removes, after the transfer of the toner image by the transfer unit, external additive remaining on the surface of the image holder using the conductive blade while applying a voltage to the surface of the image holder via the conductive blade.
US07945189B2
An image forming apparatus and an image forming method are provided that realize both the use of a decolorizing toner and a non-decolorizing toner and miniaturization of the apparatus. An image forming apparatus employing an intermediate transfer system includes: a primary transfer belt that carries a transferred toner image; a decolorizing toner process unit that is a process unit configured to form a toner image with a decolorizing toner and transfer the decolorizing toner image to the primary transfer belt; a non-decolorizing toner process unit that is a process unit arranged downstream from the decolorizing toner process unit in a traveling direction of the toner image on the primary transfer belt and configured to form a toner image with a non-decolorizing toner and transfer the non-decolorizing toner image to the primary transfer belt; and a secondary transfer roller that is arranged downstream from the non-decolorizing toner process unit in the traveling direction of the toner image on the primary transfer belt and transfers the toner image on the primary transfer belt to a sheet.
US07945178B2
An image forming apparatus is provided that forms an image using developers of different tone and the same hue. When forming images for measurement for density control, the apparatus performs density control by forming a greater number of density levels of an image for measurement developed using a light developer than the number of density levels of an image for measurement developed using a dark developer. Thus, even if the amount of applied light developer may fluctuate, the fluctuation can be compensated to prevent the occurrence of pseudo-contours that lower image quality.
US07945175B2
The present invention provides a toner container system (such as a toner cartridge) and method for determining the toner consumed by each pixel in an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, so to accurately assess the amount of toner remaining in the toner container. The pixels printed by the image forming apparatus are counted over a portion of toner container life when a known amount of toner is consumed, the rate of toner consumption per pixel is then calculated, and the calculated rate of toner consumption per pixel is used to determine the amount of toner remaining in the container system.
US07945130B2
Apparatus and methods for scrambling optical modes in multimode fibers to achieve uniform light distribution in guided multi-mode light for various applications.
US07945123B2
An information storage medium including graphic data and presentation information, and an apparatus and method of processing the graphic data are provided. The information storage medium includes the graphic data, page composition information which defines page composition of the graphic data, and the presentation information indicating when graphic screen data, which is composed with reference to the page composition information of the graphic data, is output to a display screen. Therefore, a graphic object is reusable in graphic data processing, and accordingly, a time taken to process the graphic data is reducible and memory area may be saved.
US07945111B2
An image processing method for filtering image data, which is constituted with a plurality of pixels, at each pixel position by using pixel values indicated by pixels present within a predetermined range containing a target pixel, includes: determining two arguments that are a first argument defined by a spatial distance from the target pixel and a second argument defined by a difference in signal intensity relative to the target pixel, in correspondence to each of the pixels present within the predetermined range; obtaining a weighting coefficient to be used when filtering each of the pixels present within the predetermined range, based upon a single integrated argument represented by a product of the first argument and the second argument; and filtering the image data by using a filter coefficient corresponding to the weighting coefficient having been obtained.
US07945102B2
An apparatus for encoding data includes a receiving section, a signal-deteriorating factor generation section, and a data-encoding section. The signal-deteriorating generating section generates a signal-deteriorating factor and includes a phase-shifting section to shift a phase of data received at the receiving section. The data-encoding section obtains encoded data by performing encoding processing on the data in which the signal-deteriorating factor is generated and includes an encoding section to perform encoding by use of sub-sampling on the data whose phase is shifted by the phase-shifting section.
US07945100B2
An apparatus and method for detecting a secure document is provided. The apparatus includes an image input unit which receives the image of a document; an edge image detecting unit which detects an edge image of the document having a predetermined size; a similarity checking unit which checks the similarity between the detected edge image and comparative edge images of secure documents which are previously stored; and a document attribute determining unit which determines whether the document is one of the secure documents according to the result of the similarity checking unit.
US07945081B2
A diagnosis aiding system that photographs an examination subject without a photographing order and generates image data of the examination subject, and thereafter links the image data with the examination subject, includes: an image generating unit that photographs an examination subject and generates data of a photographed image of the examination subject; a switching operation unit to input switching information on an examination subject; and a controller that stores one or more photographed images, of a single examination subject, generated by the image generating unit between input of preceding switching information and input of subsequent switching information via the switching operation unit, linking the one or more photographed images with examination subject information on the single examination subject.
US07945080B2
A method is disclosed for visualizing damage in the myocardium. In such a method, CT image data of the heart are made available which were recorded with injection of contrast medium. The myocardium is isolated by segmentation from the CT image data. One or more views of the isolated myocardium are displayed on an image display device, density values being visualized with color coding in the display. At least one embodiment of the method permits visualization of damage of the myocardium based on CT image data, in which damaged areas of the myocardium can immediately be identified without time-consuming analysis.
US07945077B2
An optical hyperspectral/multimodal imaging method and apparatus is utilized to provide high signal sensitivity for implementation of various optical imaging approaches. Such a system utilizes long working distance microscope objectives so as to enable off-axis illumination of predetermined tissue thereby allowing for excitation at any optical wavelength, simplifies design, reduces required optical elements, significantly reduces spectral noise from the optical elements and allows for fast image acquisition enabling high quality imaging in-vivo. Such a technology provides a means of detecting disease at the single cell level such as cancer, precancer, ischemic, traumatic or other type of injury, infection, or other diseases or conditions causing alterations in cells and tissue micro structures.
US07945075B2
Converting a digital image from color to gray-scale. In one example embodiment, a method for converting a digital image from color to gray-scale is disclosed. First, an unconverted pixel having red, green, and blue color channels is selected from the color digital image. Next, the red color channel of the pixel is multiplied by α. Then, the green color channel of the pixel is multiplied by β. Next, the blue color channel of the pixel is multiplied by γ. Then, the results of the three multiplication operations are added together to arrive at a gray-scale value for the pixel. Finally, these acts are repeated for each remaining unconverted pixel of the color digital image to arrive at a gray-scale digital image. In this example method, α+β+≈1 and α>β.
US07945074B2
A stand-off range or at-a-distance iris detection and tracking for iris recognition having a head/face/eye locator, a zoom-in iris capture mechanism and an iris recognition module. The system may obtain iris information of a subject with or without his or her knowledge or cooperation. This information may be sufficient for identification of the subject, verification of identity and/or storage in a database.
US07945068B2
An intra-oral hearing appliance includes an actuator to provide bone conduction sound transmission; a transceiver coupled to the actuator to cause the actuator to generate sound; and a first chamber containing the actuator and the transceiver, said first chamber adapted to be coupled to one or more teeth.
US07945061B1
A real-time implementation of a subspace tracker is disclosed. Efficient architecture addresses the unique computational elements of the Fast Approximate Subspace Tracking (FAST) algorithm. Each of these computational elements can scale with the rank and size of the subspace. One embodiment of architecture described is implemented in digital hardware that performs variable rank subspace tracking using the FAST algorithm. In particular, the FAST algorithm is effectively implemented by a few processing elements, coupled with an efficient Singular Vector Decomposition (SVD), and the realization/availability of high density programmable logic devices. The architecture enables the ability to track the possibly changing dimension of the signal subspace.
US07945055B2
A first signal representation of one or more of the multiple channels is encoded in a first encoding process, and a second signal representation of one or more of the multiple channels is encoded in a second, filter-based encoding process. Filter smoothing can be used to reduce the effects of coding artifacts. However, conventional filter smoothing generally leads to a rather large performance reduction and is therefore not widely used. It has been recognized that coding artifacts are perceived as more annoying than temporary reduction in stereo width, and that they are especially annoying when the coding filter provides a poor estimate of the target signal; the poorer the estimate, the more disturbing artifacts. Therefore, signal-adaptive filter smoothing is introduced in the second encoding process or a corresponding decoding process.
US07945049B2
A first bit sequence is generated using a first pseudorandom bit source. A second bit sequence is generated using a second pseudorandom bit source. A third bit sequence is generated by multiplying the first bit sequence with the second bit sequence over a finite field of even characteristic, modulo a fixed primitive polynomial. A message is received. The third bit sequence is commingled with the message to conceal contents of the message.
US07945032B2
A method and apparatus for connecting and operating plurality of lockers in a multi apartment or multi office building connected via an interface to a video interphone system and via a local guardman or a virtual guardman over a network, for providing access to the building and opening a locker for a deliveryman to deliver packages, parcels and ordered goods. The tenants receiving a message through their video interphone monitor can retrieve the deliveries by opening the specific locker from their video interphone monitor, through the entry panel and through associated accessories.
US07945027B1
A computer-implemented method and system to remotely test message-waiting notifications over a communications network is provided. The method includes receiving broadband signaling from a voicemail platform; converting the broadband signaling to narrowband signaling; and transmitting the narrowband signaling, which generates status notifications, and transmits the status notifications to a remote test location. The system includes a switching element that routes the broadband signaling generated by the voicemail platform. The switching element routes the broadband signaling to a message processing component that executes code that searches a message-waiting-notification database to generate appropriate tones based on the broadband signaling received from the switching element.
US07945024B2
Methods are provided through which X-ray tube power de-rating can be reduced during dynamic focal spot deflection. In one embodiment, a method comprising generating an electron beam, focusing the electron beam to a first position on an anode, defocusing the electron beam on the anode and refocusing the electron beam at a second position on the anode. In another embodiment, a method comprising generating an electron beam, focusing the electron beam to a first position on an anode, inhibiting the electron beam and refocusing the electron beam at a second position on the anode. In another embodiment, a method comprising generating an electron beam, focusing the electron beam to a first position on an anode, steering the electron beam away from a nominal focal spot radius on the anode and refocusing the electron beam at a second position on the anode.
US07945016B2
A dental radiology apparatus includes: a generator (18) emitting X-radiation provided with a collimation device collimating the radiation in an appropriate manner using several forms of collimation slits, at least one radiation sensor (20a, 20b) including a first, a second and a third image acquisition surface which are each positioned opposite an appropriate form of slit in order to use the apparatus in panoramic mode, cone beam tomographic mode and mode determining a trajectory which will be used in panoramic mode respectively. In the third mode a form of slit elongated along a plane P is arranged opposite the third surface corresponding to a part of the second surface along a Z-axis perpendicular to the plane P and the assembly is driven in rotation about an axis parallel to the Z-axis.
US07945007B2
A receiver chain is provided for use in wireless data communication including a plurality of receive antennas and a vector Barker decoder or a CCK decoder. The vector Barker decoder operates on the plurality of received signals, preferably processed through a plurality of channel matched filters. The weightings of the plurality of channels can be done using a slicer variance, a PLL variance or another method.
US07945000B2
An object of the invention is to provide a wireless communication apparatus which can correct error flexibly without wasting consumed resources while maintaining the improvement of reliability resulted from error correction. The wireless communication apparatus (relay station) 12 includes a receiving antenna 41 for receiving signals transmitted from the transmission station, a receiving RF section 42 for high-frequency amplifying the received signal, an error correction decoding section 43 for subjecting the received signal to the error correction decoding processing and outputting soft decision values and decoded bits, an error detection section 44 for subjecting the signal after the error correction decoding processing to the hard decision processing to detect error of the signal subjected to the hard decision processing, a switching section 45 for switching the soft decision values and the decoded bits, a re-coding section 46 for re-coding extracted ones of the soft decision values, a transmission RF section 47 for modulating the re-coded soft decision values and a transmission antenna 48 for transmitting the signal to the receiving station.
US07944996B2
An OFDM reception device includes: a first channel estimation unit for estimating a channel distortion by using a signal that is supplied from the reception unit and has a first time interval; a second channel estimation unit for estimating a channel distortion by using a signal that is supplied from the reception unit and has a second time interval shorter than the first time interval; a selection unit for selecting and outputting one of a signal from the first channel estimation unit and a signal from the second channel estimation unit, according to a control signal from the control unit; and a correction unit for correcting a reception signal supplied from the reception unit, according to the channel estimation signal from the selection unit. The control unit determines the control signal to be supplied to the selection unit, according a reception state of the reception unit.
US07944991B2
Disclosed is a constrained clipping technique for reducing the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) or crest factor of a multicarrier communications signal. This is a transmitter-side processing technique that does not impose any modification at the receiver. Constrained clipping achieves PAR reduction while simultaneously satisfying spectral mask and error vector magnitude (EVM) constraints that are specified by most modern communications standards. The constrained clipping technique includes two independent processing units, one to satisfy an in-band EVM constraint and the other to satisfy an out-of-band spectral constraint. Achievable PAR reduction results vary depending on a particular standard's requirements, but by using constrained clipping on a QPSK WiMax signal with 256 subcarriers, for example, a 4.5 dB PAR reduction at the 10−2 complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) level can be obtained.
US07944983B2
A method of estimating coarse frequency offset of received symbols based on a received frequency domain sample at a kth sub-carrier of a 53rd Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) data symbol in a jth time slot (TS) of a receiver in a China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting (CMMB) mobile television network includes dividing a received sample, Ykj, into two sets of noise only tones and data plus noise tones Dkj, obtaining a received sample only if there is a coarse frequency offset mismatch between a transmitter and the receiver, dividing a summation of a power of the data plus noise tones by a summation of a power of the noise only tones to obtain Λkj, and estimating an integer coarse frequency offset estimate, Δ{circumflex over (f)}Ij, of the received symbols when the Λkj is a maximum.
US07944978B2
Preparing data for transmission includes determining bit loading per frequency bin based on channel estimation data to create a data symbol, performing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the interleaved data symbol array, mapping FFT data output sub-channel to a frequency bin to provide frequency mapped data, and performing an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) on the frequency mapped data to provide IFFT frequency mapped data suitable for transmission using one-dimensional amplitude modulated ultra wideband impulses representing the IFFT frequency mapped data. To recover the data a reverse process is used.
US07944975B2
An inter-frame prediction method in video coding, a video encoder using the same, a bitstream structure, a video decoding method, and a video decoder are provided. The inter-frame prediction method in video encoding includes estimating a motion vector between a current block in an input frame and a reference block in a reference frame corresponding to the current block and a filtering mode defining a spatial effect to be applied to at least one of the current block and the reference block, and interceding the input frame according to the estimated motion vector and the filtering mode.
US07944974B2
A method and apparatus for processing or compressing an n-dimensional digital signal by constructing a sparse representation which takes advantage of the signal geometrical regularity. The invention comprises a warped wavelet packet transform which performs a cascade of warped subband filtering along warping grids of sampling points adapted to the signal geometry. It also comprises a bandeletisation which decorrelates the warped wavelet packet coefficients to produce a sparse representation. An inverse warped wavelet packet transform and an inverse bandeletisation reconstruct a signal from its bandelet representation. The invention comprises a compression system which quantizes and codes the bandelet representation, a decompression system, a restoration system which enhances a signal by filtering its bandelet representation, and a feature vector extraction system for pattern recognition applications of a bandelet representation.
US07944971B1
Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for encoding a video signal that is formed by a series of successive images. Each image includes several sections, and each section has a set of image values. To encode a particular section of a particular image, the method initially partitions the particular section into several sub-sections. For each of at least two particular sub-sections, the method then computes a statistical parameter regarding the image values of the particular sub-section. The method compares the computed statistical parameters, and based on the comparison, selects an encoding technique from a set of encoding techniques to encode the particular section. In some embodiments, the set of encoding schemes includes a first scheme that encodes the selected section without reference to any other section of any other image, and a second scheme that encodes the selected section by reference to at least one other section.
US07944969B2
A method and system for sampling video data uses re-sampling filters having lengths optimized relative to a quantization parameter of video processing. The method uses modeling of an optimal length of the re-sampling filter as a function of the quantization parameter to derive empirical formulas and a look up table for optimal lengths of re-sampling filters. The resulting re-sampling filters are selectively adapted for sampling video data having different bit rates.
US07944965B2
Transform based distortion cost estimation, which may be used to calculate a rate distortion cost associated with a mode for encoding a macroblock, is described. In one embodiment of the invention, a distortion value for a particular mode is estimated within the transform domain, which allows for the elimination of both inverse transformation and inverse motion functions in this calculation. A spatial domain residual of an encoding mode is estimated by identifying a difference, within the transform domain, between a motion compensated prediction residual of a macroblock and its corresponding reconstructed signal. The estimated spatial domain residual may then be used in distortion matrix computations to estimate a distortion level, within the transform domain, for an encoding mode.
US07944956B2
A heat sink has a first flat plate, a partition plate, and a second flat plate. The first flat plate has an upper surface in which a first recess is formed. The second flat plate has a lower surface in which a second recess is formed, and an upper surface on which a semiconductor laser element is mounted. These recesses form a part of a refrigerant channel. The partition plate has a lower surface covering the first recess, an upper surface covering the second recess, and at least one through hole having the first recess communicated with the second recess. The first flat plate and the second flat plate both have a first coefficient of thermal expansion. The partition plate has a second coefficient of thermal expansion lower than the first coefficient of thermal expansion.
US07944953B2
The invention provides a method and apparatus that addresses and resolves the issues currently affecting the ability to offer Enhanced TV, in particular, those issues concerning timing and synchronization, interaction with other modules in the STB, and distribution.
US07944951B2
A broadband switched multiplexer comprising an input broadband demultiplexer (2) comprising a broadband input port (4) for receiving an input broadband signal and at least one output port (5) having a passband; an output broadband multiplexer (3) comprising at least two input ports (6) and a broadband output port (7), each input port having a different passband, each input port passband overlapping a different portion of the demultiplexer output port passband; the demultiplexer output port being in electrical communication with the multiplexer input ports by signal paths (8), each signal path having a switch (13) for opening and closing the path therein.
US07944942B1
A Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) identifier (PPP ID) value of a PPP frame, including data, is converted to an associated Ethernet Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag identifier (ID) value to enable the PPP ID value information to be communicated in an Ethernet frame to the next transmission layer for use in routing the data from the PPP frame.
US07944941B1
A high-speed Ethernet using Thin SONET technology as the physical layer carrier makes use the large embedded base of SONET equipment, and is a step forward in integrating WANs, MANs and LANs. The HS Ethernet also takes advantage or current SONET functionality, such as framing, scrambling, integrity, etc. FEC fields are provided in the TOH for achieving a high level of error correction. The HS Ethernet frame comprises a length-type field generated at the PCS sublayer and a HEC field generated at the PMA layer. The frames are routed within a network using the source address, the destination address and a label.
US07944940B2
A method and apparatus are described for gaining access to a communication medium in a contention-based network, including determining a slot count based on a number of stations in the contention-based network, adjusting the slot count, initiating a frame transmission when the slot count reaches a predetermined value and wherein said number of stations and an address queue are adjusted to reflect a priority. Further, a method and apparatus are described for gaining access to a communication medium in a contention-based network, including receiving a slot count based on a number of stations in the contention-based network, adjusting the slot count, initiating a frame transmission when the slot count reaches a predetermined value and wherein said number of stations and an address queue are adjusted to reflect a priority.
US07944935B2
Data packets having different assigned priorities are multiplexed by operating a queue for each different priority of data packet and assembling groups (80) of the data packets for transmission. Each group has two portions. A first portion (90) of the group is populated with data packets selected from one or more of the queues according to a first rule and a second portion (95) of the group is populated with data packets selected from one or more of the queues according to a second rule. Preferably the first portion contains data packets having the highest priority, and the second portion contains a selection of the data packets having a lower a priority. Selection of data packets for the second portion may depend on criteria such as delay experienced and queue length. The size of the first and second portions may be adapted according to delay experienced and queue length.
US07944934B2
The present invention allows for effective sharing of the hardware memory of a wireless transmit receive unit (WTRU). The memory will be shared among various buffers of different entities. More particularly, memory will be shared among the MAC reordering buffers and the RLC reception buffers.
US07944924B2
A router includes a network ingress processor and a network egress processor. The network ingress processor is configured for modifying a received MPLS packet such that an internal header thereof includes a pre-configured IP flow identifier therein in place of an as-received MPLS flow identifier. Such modifying is performed in response to the network ingress processor parsing a MPLS label stack of the received MPLS packet to determine if an existing MPLS label of the label stack needs to be replaced with an Implicit Null label and in response to determining that there is no other label in the MPLS label stack. The network egress processor includes a flow selector configured for directing packets dependent upon a type of flow identifier included in an internal header thereof, for receiving the modified MPLS packet, and for replacing the internal header with a port-specific header.
US07944923B2
A system includes a physical NIC associated with the computer and including receive rings for storing network traffic addressed to the VNIC, where the receive rings include a local receive ring for storing local traffic and a forwarding receive ring for storing forwarding traffic. The physical NIC further includes a hardware classifier configured to register a local Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the VNIC in a lookup table, receive a packet including a destination IP address, classify the packet as local traffic or forwarding traffic using the lookup table, and store the packet in the local receive ring or the forwarding receive ring based on the type. The VNIC is configured to retrieve the packet from the receive ring, and process the packet in a type-specific manner based on the receive ring where the packet was stored, where the type-specific manner is different for local traffic and forwarding traffic.
US07944917B2
A host device interfacing with a point of deployment (POD) and a method of processing a broadcasting data are disclosed. An IP physical interface unit receives a frame including an internet protocol (IP) packet carrying broadcast data through a network modem. A Routing Engine transforms the frame to an IP packet and routs the IP packet based on a destination information included in the frame. And a Multiplexer generates an IP MPEG packet by appending a Packet Header carrying identification information to the IP packet, multiplexes the IP MPEG packet and forwards the multiplexed IP packet to the POD.
US07944915B2
A virtual private network (VPN) over a telecommunications network is created by sending a request from a first VPN device to a second VPN device for establishing a VPN between the first and second VPN devices. The request includes a first signed certificate having a verified VPN parameter for the first VPN device. A reply is received at the first VPN device from the second VPN device that includes a second signed certificate having a verified VPN parameter for the second VPN device. The VPN is established between the first and second VPN devices based on each verified VPN parameter for each of the first and second VPN devices.
US07944912B2
An IP telephone number query system includes a terminal, a Web server, and an ENUM server. The terminal displays a call recipient profile hypertext markup language (html) that is assigned a HTML document file name. The Web server includes a phonebook searcher that has a plurality of call recipient profile htmls, and returns a selected call recipient profile html in response to a request from the terminal. The ENUM server has a database, a query issuer and a reversed query issuer. The database stores a plurality of NAPTR resource records in association with an ENUM domain name, each NAPTR resource record containing a URI that at least includes a telephone number and a HTML document file name. The query issuer searches the database in response to a query by an ENUM domain name and returns a NAPTR resource record corresponding to the ENUM domain name. The reversed query issuer searches the database in response to a query by a URI of a HTML document file name and returns a URI of a telephone number corresponding to the ENUM domain name having the URI of the HTML document file name.
US07944911B2
A first telephone, which is connected to a network device, can be prevented from becoming communicable with a second telephone, which is connected to the network device over a public network, when the second telephone and a third telephone, which is an Internet telephone, are communicable with each other and a device operating voltage for operating the network device is no longer supplied.
US07944910B2
An ink cartridge includes a case, an ink supply portion, an air intake portion, and at least one resilient member. The ink supply portion is positioned at a front face of the case, and the ink supply portion is configured to dispense ink from an interior of an ink chamber to an exterior of the ink chamber. The air intake portion is configured to draw air into the ink chamber. The at least one resilient member has a first portion positioned at the front face of the case and a second portion which is positioned a predetermined distance away from the front face of the case in a predetermined direction away from the ink chamber. The resilient member extends from the front face of the case further than the ink supply portion in the predetermined direction.
US07944909B2
System, method and apparatus for supporting E911 emergency services in a data communications network
A system, method and apparatus for supporting enhanced 911 (E911) emergency services, in a data communications network that includes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephones. A network system includes a host network communicatively coupled to an E911 database management system, a network access device, and a VoIP telephone communicatively coupled to an input port of the network access device. The network access device is adapted to assign a physical location identifier to an input port, to authenticate the VoIP telephone, wherein the authentication includes receiving a unique device identifier from the VoIP telephone, and to transmit the location identifier and the unique device identifier to the E911 database management system. The E911 database management system is permitted to store the physical location identifier in association with the unique device identifier.
US07944903B2
A multi-cell joint-detection method in a time-slotted CDMA system includes: performing a multiple code set channel estimation on received signal data and obtaining channel estimation results of a home cell and of neighboring cells; adjusting the channel estimation results of the home cell and/or neighboring cells or the estimation result of a combined channel response according to a comparative delay difference between signals of users in different cells; and performing a joint-detection according to the estimation result of the combined channel response obtained by adjusting the channel estimation results of the users in different cells or according to the estimation result of the combined channel response. The MAI between neighboring universal-frequency cells having comparative delays and especially large comparative delays is greatly suppressed and the performance of the time-slotted CDMA system when working in neighboring universal-frequency cells is improved.
US07944896B1
A system provides push-to-talk (PTT) or similar communication service via a radio access network providing wireless mobile packet data communications for mobile stations. A server distributes packets of digitized audio received from a broadcasting mobile station to one or more client devices of other parties. The called client device(s), however, may not all have the same communications capabilities as the broadcasting mobile station. Signaling procedures are adapted to inform the broadcasting station of the capabilities of the other client device(s). This enables the broadcasting mobile station to configure its transmissions of digitized audio through the network for compatibility with the capabilities of the other client device(s). Proper configuration avoids loss of data at the destination, particularly at the start of a PTT transmission, due to transmission in a form or configuration that may be incompatible with one or more of the receiving stations.
US07944877B2
A method for receiving resources allocated from a base station by a terminal in an OFDMA mobile communication system. The method includes receiving, for a data channel, a number of first components, which indicates an amount of resources used with a first resource allocation scheme, and a number of second components, which indicates an amount of resources used with a second resource allocation scheme, from the base station over a common control channel; determining first and second identifier lengths of channel elements for the first and second resource allocation schemes according to the number of first components and the number of second components; receiving resource allocation information including an identifier indicating at least one channel element allocated to the terminal, over a data control channel using one of the identifier lengths; and transmitting and receiving data over a resource of a channel element indicated by the received identifier.
US07944869B2
A mesh node of an infrastructure wireless local area network ‘WLAN’ is coupled to a battery which is coupled to a device that is able to harness energy from a source of renewable energy. Energy management of the mesh node includes conducting simulations of a system comprising the mesh node, the device, and the battery in its current state of charge, determining an admissible load for the mesh node from the simulations, and withholding communication services by the mesh node for one or more periods of time a cumulative duration of which is related to power consumption of the mesh node when handling the admissible load. The simulations involve meteorological data related to the source of renewable energy in the vicinity of the mesh node.
US07944867B2
A control unit controls setting of an operating mode. A timer determines a transmission period of a beacon for notifying presence of a network. A beacon transmitting unit transmits a beacon based on the transmission period. When the control unit instructs to switch from a normal operation mode to a power-saving operation mode, the timer sets a transmission period of the beacon to be longer than a transmission period in the normal operation mode.
US07944866B2
A wireless communication infrastructure entity transmits an offset to a packet format table to a wireless terminal. The wireless terminal uses the received offset to determine the transmission characteristics for packets received from the wireless communication infrastructure entity.
US07944859B2
A network design method for Ethernet-type networks exhibiting capacities sufficient for operation during normal periods as well those as periods when a single node or link has failed.
US07944852B2
A system and method has been provided for the intuitive management of communication networks including a large number of network elements diffused across large geographical areas. The network management system permits the system operator to identify system problems while monitoring the top-level map of the communications network. The organization of network displays permits an operator to “zoom” from the higher levels of network abstraction, depicting a large number of elements across a large geographic area, to local geographical areas where specific problems associated with individual elements can be identified.
US07944848B2
The problem is that a measurement of the average signal quality (average modulation error ratio), does not identify poor quality signals that may be originating from an individual cable modem. The device of the present invention displays the modulation error ratio (MER) for each packet received. Since the media access control (MAC) address is associated with a packet received from an individual cable modem, a graph displaying the MER for each packet received is also displaying the MER for signals from the individual cable modems. Thus a technician viewing the display will be able to identify whether a low MER is a result of an impairment in the network or the from an individual cable modem.
US07944846B1
Described is a method for statically or dynamically enabling a DVMRP router in a DVMRP domain to perform a reverse path forwarding check for an external source. A route report is generated for each known external source and injected into the DVMRP domain. Each route report includes routing information for a respective one of the known external sources. In one embodiment, the route report is generated for each network listed in a unicast routing table maintained on a DVMRP multicast border router and each route report includes unicast routing information for each of the networks and an indicator designating that the routing information is derived from unicast routing information. In another embodiment, if it is determined that routing information for an external source of multicast traffic received at a DVMRP border router is not available, the route report is generated at that time and includes a predetermined metric value.
US07944837B2
A method and system for controlling data flow are provided. The method includes: selecting optional reference data of a flow algorithm to generate configuration information; and performing traffic calculation based on the configuration information to determine hash distribution of the data flow to load balancing links. The flow algorithm is a HASH algorithm. The system includes: a selecting configuring unit, for selecting corresponding reference data according to the optional reference data for the flow algorithm; a controlling information processing unit, for generating a corresponding controlling parameter according to the selected reference data; a forwarding table interface unit, for generating configuration information according to the generated controlling parameter and storing the information in a corresponding forwarding table; a forwarding controlling unit, for completing the traffic calculation according to the configuration information in the forwarding table and determining the hash of the data flow on the load balancing link.
US07944830B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for evaluating the throughput limit of a communication system, such as a network node or system. A throughput limit of a communication system is evaluated by receiving a request to allocate at least one connection of a given data type; obtaining an assigned weight for the at least one connection, wherein the assigned weight is based on the throughput limit and a processing limit indicating a throughput of the communication system for the given data type within a given time window; and determining whether to allocate the at least one connection of a given data type based on whether a sum of the assigned weights for each existing allocated connection for each data type exceeds the throughput limit. The assigned weight for a given data type can be subtracted from the sum upon receiving a request to de-allocate a connection.
US07944828B2
In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method includes accessing data of an egress packet belonging to a flow, storing data associating the flow with at least one queue based on a source of the data of the egress packet. The method also includes accessing an ingress packet belonging to the flow, performing a lookup of the at least one queue associated with the flow, and enqueueing data of the ingress packet to the at least one queue associated with the flow.
US07944823B1
An apparatus for communicating data is provided that includes a cell site element associated with a base transceiver station and operable to receive a plurality of packets associated with a communications flow, the packets including a plurality of subrates. The cell site element is further operable to detect a congestion condition via a measurement of a level in a receive jitter buffer. When the congestion condition exists, individual subrates can be dropped from subsequent backhaul packets until congestion subsides. Single timeslots of the flow are systematically added back during a configured time interval such that congestion abatement will back-off gradually. In more particular embodiments, the cell site element can be informed that congestion exists, whereby a congestion level is assigned to a collection of the subrates. In addition, the cell site element prioritizes the subrates and removes individual samples from one or more of the packets.
US07944817B1
The present invention establishes reserved paths between nodes in a central packet network and in local networks attached to the central network. Each reserved path has a defined bandwidth and may be implemented as an LSP in an MPLS network or as a PVC in an ATM network. Associated with each reserved path is a virtual trunk group representing the same bandwidth as the virtual path. Telephony calls requiring media flows associated with a channel in the virtual trunk group will transport packets along the reserved path associated with the virtual trunk group. Access to the reserved path is limited to telephony media flows associated with a virtual trunk group to ensure adequate bandwidth at all times for the number of channels associated with the virtual trunk group. Backup reserved paths may be associated with the primary reserved path to provide the necessary redundancy required for voice-based telephony applications.
US07944816B2
A system and method are provided for enabling a first network to detect a loop in a second network connected thereto. The first network runs a first instance of a Spanning Tree Protocol and the second network runs either a different instance or no instance. The method includes sending a Remote Loop Detection Packet (“RLDP”) from the ports in bridges of the first network which are connected to the second network. The RLDP includes identifiers such as the source bridge, port and VLAN. The system and method further includes checking for receipt of the RLDP on the same bridge which sent the RLDP. If such a receipt occurs, a loop is detected and one of the ports of the receiving/sending bridge is blocked.
US07944815B2
Methods and systems for fast and reliable network recovery from multiple link failures. In accordance with one example of the method, a master node receives a request from a transit node having a blocked port to open the blocked port for data forwarding, wherein the blocked port is associated with a restored link. The master node starts a health-check timer and transmits a health-check message on its primary port to determine that all failed links of the network are restored. Upon determining that the health-check message is received at its secondary port, the master node transmits a message to each transit node indicating that all failed links are restored. Upon determining that the health-check message is not received at its secondary port before the health-check timer lapsed, the master node transmits a message to the transit node to open the blocked port associated with the restored link for data forwarding.
US07944808B2
A method for generating a transmission slot includes receiving a transmission slot that includes a plurality of data regions and a plurality of control regions, in which each of the data regions include digital spread spectrum data. The method further includes substituting each of the plurality of data regions with at least one OFDM symbol having variable duration, in which each of the at least one OFDM symbol has a cyclic prefix extension (CPE).
US07944804B2
In an optical disk recording method adapted to record information on an optical disk by a light beam incident to the disk in one direction, the disk has a plurality of rewritable recording layers including a first layer nearest to a plane of incidence and a second layer distant from the plane of incidence. A target layer where user data is to be recorded is specified from the first and second layers. Prior to recording the user data to a requested address in the second layer when the target layer is the second layer, a partial region of the first layer corresponding to a same radial position as the requested address in the second layer is set to either a non-recorded state or a recorded state depending on a characteristic of the disk. The user data is recorded to the requested address in the target layer.
US07944803B2
A tone arm assembly for use with a rotatable turntable. The tone arm assembly includes a tone arm body supported adjacent to the rotating turntable being horizontally pivotable about a vertically extending axis. A tone arm tube is provided having a longitudinal axis and a first end and a second end, the first end extending within and being supported by the tone arm body and the second end terminating at a shell for releaseably supporting a pick up cartridge. A counterweight is included which is translatable along a horizontal path parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tone arm tube between a first position and a second position, the first position being closest to the shell and a second position being farthest from the shell to adjust contact pressure between a stylus maintained by the pick up cartridge and a record supported by the rotatable turntable. At least a portion of the counterweight is capable of extending fore and aft of the vertically extending axis when the counterweight is positioned on its horizontal path between its first and second positions.
US07944802B2
A super-resolution optical recording medium has at least a recording layer and a super resolution layer on a substrate. In the recording layer, a minimum recording mark is formed with spaces within a beam spot of a laser beam in recording. The minimum recording mark has a size of a resolution limit of a reproduction optical system or less, and can be reproduced by the reproduction optical system due to the existence of the super solution layer. The minimum recording mark in an AFM image takes the shape of a convex arc on a leading edge thereof and the shape of a concave arc on a trailing edge thereof (the AFM image is a plan view which can be observed on a surface when the light transmission layer is removed), and spaces have the similar shape to these.
US07944795B2
A holographic recoding medium is provided, having holographic pages. Each page has reference mark (RM) placement areas at fixed locations for placing RM patterns. The reference marks are used to calibrate data images of data areas each of which is enclosed by at least three RM regions. Hidden information of the medium is stored by an specific encoded pattern based on existence, types and arrangements of the RM marks.
US07944794B2
An optical disc apparatus that records recording marks in a plurality of mark layers by irradiating predetermined light onto a disc-like volume type recording medium on the basis of information to be recorded is disclosed. The apparatus includes: a first focus position adjusting means for adjusting the position of a focus on which a first light beam focuses within the volume type recording medium, in the direction of an optical axis of the first light beam; a second focus position adjusting means for adjusting the position of a focus on which a second light beam focuses within the volume type recording medium, in the direction of an optical axis of the second light beam; a focus control means for controlling the first focus position adjusting means and the second focus position adjusting means; and a recording control means for forming the recording marks at the positions of respective focuses.
US07944791B2
An information reproducing method using PRML technology which provides asymmetry compensation and also assures media interchangeability. To compensate for asymmetry, target levels are basically adapted to readout signals and either restriction type (1) (time reversal and level reversal symmetry) or restriction type (2) (time reversal symmetry) is imposed between target levels. As a consequence, asymmetry compensation is made regardless of a readout signal distortion such as mark shift which might deteriorate media interchangeability.
US07944787B2
In a method for adjusting a focus position for an optical disc, onto/from which in formation is recorded or reproduced, while adjusting the focus position of an optical reproducing means, upon a recording surface of an optical information recording medium having an area where information of the optical information recording medium is recorded in advance, comprising the following steps of: memorizing plural numbers of information relating to focus positions determined appropriately, which can be obtained from the area where the information of the optical information recording medium is recorded in advance; and adjusting the focus position for the optical disc loaded into an apparatus, from at lease one (1) signal relating to the focus position, which can be obtained from the optical disc, with utilizing a relationship between the plural numbers of information relating to the focus positions determined appropriately, memorized in advance, when reproduction of the information is impossible when the optical disc is loaded into the apparatus, thereby providing the focus position adjusting method and an optical disc apparatus applying the same therein, for enabling an appropriate focus adjustment even in case when DMA area cannot read out due to damages or defects therein.
US07944783B2
Disclosed is a write-once optical disc and method for managing a spare area thereof, the write-once optical disc possibly having a temporary defect management area within one or more spare areas. The method includes the steps of: allocating one or more spare areas including the temporary defect management area at an initial status of the optical disc; and during use of the optical disc, expanding the spare area allocated including the temporary defect management area to set a new spare area. By employing the above optical disc and method, it becomes possible to establish unified regulations on the structures of the spare area and temporary defect management area applicable to the write-once optical disc, so that usage efficiency of the optical disc can be improved.
