US07953717B2
Portions of a B-tree index in a database are locked for concurrency control. In one example, hierarchical lock modes are provided that permit locking a key, a gap between the key and the next key, and a combination of the key and the gap. In another example, key range locking may be applied to the B-tree index using locks on separator keys of index nodes. In another example, key range locking may be applied to the B-tree index using locks on key prefixes.
US07953716B2
A method and system for determining whether a plurality of participants who are participating in a distributed transaction have registered their intention to commit their part of the transaction with a transaction manager, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a message from a participant, the message comprising a character sequence identifying the participant and the part of the transaction which the participant is processing; analyzing the character sequence to determine whether the character sequence further comprises an identifier for identifying whether a subsequent message is to be received by a second participant; and in dependence on the identifier identifying that there are no further subsequent messages to be received, informing each of the participants to commit their part of the transaction.
US07953715B2
Upon receiving a plurality of image files transmitted from a portable telephone 80, a multifunction printer 10 stores, of the image files received this time, the file name of an image file with no data loss into a RAM 76, and controls a printer unit 20 so that print processing of the image file with no data loss is executed. Thereafter, upon receiving the same plurality of image files again, the multifunction printer 10 controls the printer unit 20 so that print processing is executed with respect to, of the image files received this time, a file whose file name was not stored into the RAM 76 as a file with no data loss last time and which is determined to be a file with no data loss this time.
US07953706B2
A method and system for reducing storage requirements and speeding up storage operations by reducing the storage of redundant data includes receiving a request that identifies one or more data objects to which to apply a storage operation. For each data object, the storage system determines if the data object contains data that matches another data object to which the storage operation was previously applied. If the data objects do not match, then the storage system performs the storage operation in a usual manner. However, if the data objects do match, then the storage system may avoid performing the storage operation.
US07953699B2
Systems and methods for reconciling healthcare data between multiple distributed computing nodes that enable an individual node, a topic object, or an intelligent agent to determine synchronization with other nodes, comprising sending source node data to a payload generator, the source node data including difference data, an encapsulated topic object, or intelligent agent communications, generating a payload including the source node data and destination attributes, and sending the payload to a destination node, topic object, or destination intelligent agent, and using the source node data to update destination node data according to destination node, topic object, or destination intelligent agent requirements.
US07953691B2
A performance evaluating apparatus for a rule is provided, which is capable of evaluating a business value of a rule applied to the operation and management of an information system through autonomous control. The performance evaluating apparatus for a rule collects, respectively be fore activation processing that is prescribed by a rule and after completion of the execution of the processing, a rule execution history and a system state information indicating a state of a monitored information system that is necessary for calculation of the business value. The business value is calculated from the collected system state information and rule execution history by a given calculation formula.
US07953684B2
A system and method that optimizes reduce operations by consolidating the operation into a limited number of participating processes and then distributing the results back to all processes to optimize large message global reduce operations on non power-of-two processes. The method divides a group of processes into subgroups, performs paired exchange and local reduce operations at some of the processes to obtain half vectors of partial reduce results, consolidates partial reduce results into a set of regaining processes, performs successive recursive halving and recursive doubling at a set of remaining processes until each process in the set of remaining process has a half vector of the complete result, and provides a full complete result at every process.
US07953683B2
A learning apparatus includes a storage unit configured to store a network formed by a plurality of nodes each holding dynamics; a learning unit configured to learn the dynamics of the network in a self-organizing manner on the basis of observed time-series data; a winner-node determiner configured to determine a winner node, the winner node being a node having dynamics that best match the time-series data; and a weight determiner configured to determine learning weights for the dynamics held by the individual nodes according to distances of the individual nodes from the winner node. The learning unit is configured to learn the dynamics of the network in a self-organizing manner by degrees corresponding to the learning weights.
US07953682B2
This invention generally relates to methods, apparatus and computer program code processing digital data using non-negative matrix factorisation.A method of digitally processing data in a data array defining a target matrix (X) using non-negative matrix factorisation to determine a pair of matrices (F, G), a first matrix of said pair determining a set of features for representing said data, a second matrix of said pair determining weights of said features, such that a product of said first and second matrices approximates said target matrix, the method comprising: inputting said target matrix data (X); selecting a row of said one of said first and second matrices and a column of the other of said first and second matrices; determining a target contribution (R) of said selected row and column to said target matrix; determining, subject to a non-negativity constraint, updated values for said selected row and column from said target contribution; and repeating said selecting and determining for the other rows and columns of said first and second matrices until all said rows and columns have been updated.
US07953681B2
Systems and methods for forecasting print demand are disclosed. Print demand data is collected and stored for each print job processed during a selected time interval, and processed with a computer implemented service manager to obtain a first demand series with multiple demand components and a second demand series with one demand component. Each of the multiple demand components is less than, and the one demand component is greater than, a selected variability level. The service manager is adapted to (1) generate a first demand related forecast with a combination of the multiple demand components, and (2) use a neural network to generate a second demand related forecast with the one demand component. The neural network includes multiple neurons optimally weighted with respect to print-related demand data collected over selected time intervals. The number of neurons is optimized to improve forecasting accuracy and re-optimized after a selected time interval.
US07953678B2
Particular embodiments generally relate to automatically controlling an item. For example, items may include electronic devices, such as televisions, lights, etc, and/or virtual devices, such as applications, etc. In one embodiment, items may be configured using metatags. When a device is connected for operation, one or more metatags for the device are received. A metatag be used to classify the device. For example, the metatag may indicate uses, locations, connections, etc. The use of device (e.g., pathway, reading, etc.) classifies the item in way it can be used. For example, a user may use a pathway light in different ways, such as the user may turn on all lights with the pathway metatag at night. The location indicates the location of the item, such as in the living room, bedroom, etc. The connections indications a type of item, such as a bedroom light, lamp, TV, etc.
US07953668B2
The present invention discloses an apparatus and method for reserving a set of requested rights. In one example, the digital rights data associated with digital content information is found in a remaining rights file using a license index. A portion of the digital rights data is subsequently reserved. A determination is made as to whether a content download associated with the digital content information is successful. If the content download is unsuccessful, then the reserved portion of the digital rights data is cancelled. Alternatively, if the content download is successful, then the remaining rights file is updated to reflect a use of the portion of the digital rights data.
US07953664B2
Methods and systems for transmitting a common image including at least a payment indication of a first-type charge by a first source and a payment indication of a second-type charge by a second source and receiving a user input relating to one or more of the payment indications.
US07953662B2
A global customer activated terminal (CAT) primarily serves traveling customers who require access to their accounts when they are away from their home financial institution and beyond their local regional financial area. The system provides applications that permit users to access their accounts and utilize account profiles and transaction journals within a generic global system approach, and each transaction set provides access to the user's full account profile. The traveling customer is also provided with access to all their accounts linked (as they would locally) to a specific card. The hardware employed in the system supports encryption key downloading, unscrambling and PIN encryption, so that security is instituted at the hardware level. To provide the maximum flexibility at each regional level for product and services offered, regional front end processors and Hosts are the arbitrators of each transaction acceptance and fulfillment, rather than the CAT.
US07953649B2
A method of electronically reporting information in response to an agency's request for information is disclosed. The electronic reporting process allows a user to report data and to file a declaration with the requesting agency. In particular, a tax agency can electronically request income tax information from a taxpayer. The taxpayer's employer can provide its employee's tax information electronically. The taxpayer can file a tax declaration with the tax agency electronically.
US07953640B2
There is provided a method for use by a computing device for determining a value of a portion of content selected by a user. The content can be, for example, a movie or a television program that includes approximately 30 frames per second. Then, data defining a beginning and an ending of the portion of content is received from the user. Metadata associated with at least one frame included in the portion of content selected by the user is processed by the computing device. For example, the metadata can include information describing the subject matter included in the frame or information indicating various attributes of the frame. Thereafter, one or more frame values are determined using the metadata. The value of the portion of content is then determined using the one or more frame values.
US07953634B2
This invention concerns direct currency conversion, that is automatic currency conversion at point of payment for card transactions. In particular it concerns a method for operating equipment associated with a financial transaction. The method includes the steps of: Presenting a card related to a customer's account. Recording a card number from the card. Applying all or part of the card number to a tree structure, and automatically processing that number by the tree one bit at a time to arrive at an end node of the tree coded with information related to the currency of the customer's card account. Determining the currency of the customer's card account. Comparing the currency of the customer's card account with one or more currencies predetermined for the equipment. Where the comparison indicates different currencies, providing direct currency conversion services. In other aspects it concerns the equipment itself, and a method of preparing a tree structure for use by the equipment.
US07953631B1
The subject invention provides for systems and methods that visually enhance paid inclusion listings to facilitate offering a clear and substantial value to paid inclusion advertisers while retaining ordering rights to keep listings relevant to users. More specifically, the systems and methods allow paid inclusion listings to be visually modified at the discretion of the advertiser, the user, and/or the search service provider (e.g., publisher of search results) to facilitate differentiation among advertisers, companies, and the like. The ordering of the enhanced paid inclusion listings is not compromised based on the number or type of enhancement selected by the paid inclusion customer. A search service provider or search result publisher (“service provider”) can offer a plurality, or at least one, of different types of enhancements to paid inclusion customers (“advertisers”) to affect the rendering of any paid inclusion listing to the user.
US07953629B2
The object of the invention is to perform a constructive exchange of information between a user and a provider of products in virtual reality. A user places a product 154 that he is considering buying in a cart, designates product providers, and gives notification thereto of the cart contents. A designated product provider 153, by seeing the cart contents, can learn in what products the user is interested. The product provider 153 can provide to the cart from which the designation arose additional information 155, such as advertisements for its products. The user, by receiving various types of additional information from a product provider that he trusts, can find products that meet his desires, and can enjoy more satisfactory network-based shopping.
US07953628B2
An interactive voter choice system providing voters mechanisms they can use to play more pro-active roles in influencing elections and policy-making by elected representatives in representative bodies than the relatively passive roles ascribed to them in the typical rules and regulations governing these elections, namely mechanisms that enable them to specify in written policy agendas their preferred policy options chosen from a comprehensive database of policy options, transmit their agendas to provide information and instructions to candidates for office, elected representatives and others; request candidates and representatives to use the comprehensive database to specify their preferred policy options in written agendas; and use voters' own agendas to build consensus, coalitions and voting blocs that can run and elect their own candidates for office and induce elected representatives to enact their agendas.
US07953627B2
A method and system are used to identify industry segments with highest potential for new customers or new spending for current customers. This includes receiving data, segregated into each of a plurality of industries, relating to a number of small businesses, cost of goods sold for each of the small businesses, and percentage of cost of goods sold that is spent on raw materials and inventory for each of the small businesses. Capturing data, segregated into each of the plurality of industries, relating to average amount charged per current card member, percentage of the current card members charging the raw materials and the inventory, percentage of card member penetration, and total estimated charging for the current card members. Determining which of the plurality of industries or segments of the plurality of the industries are available for a highest potential for new card members or that are available for a greatest amount of incremental increased charging by the current card members. Communicating with the current card members in each of the plurality of industries or segments and receiving data therefrom based on one or more of the previous steps. Communicating with internal and external sources to capture additional industry-specific charging data. Receiving data relating to industry reports and census data. Generating ranked data sets based on the previous steps.
US07953620B2
A method of risk management across a mission support network is provided, including identifying a mission of the mission support network, and identifying, by a computer processor, assets of the mission support network. The assets include a mission asset to support the mission and a support asset to provide support to the mission asset. Each of the assets is characterized by a criticality index value to measure how important the asset is to a performance of the mission, and a vulnerability index value to measure a vulnerability of the asset to a threat.
US07953616B2
A method for marketing, underwriting, and adjusting damages that are associated with insured loss events but that are not covered by traditional insurance policies. This method permits the marketing of loss expense coverage, underwriting, and claim adjustment processes of insurance to be performed by reference to the loss payments that are made by a specified insurance policy. By referencing insured loss payments, which both a buyer and a seller understand, this method provides an easy way to communicate and transact something that is otherwise difficult or impossible to define or measure.
US07953610B2
An integrated health care delivery network with enabling software and network technology to maximize bed resources, manage varying census levels, and avoid patient diversions through real-time monitoring, automation and communication, is disclosed. Preferably, the present invention is embodied in a bed management system that interfaces with and complements existing Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) systems. The bed management system is an easy-to-use business intelligence application that is designed to allow administrators, clinicians and managers to easily access, analyze and display real-time patient and bed availability information from ancillary information systems, databases and spreadsheets. It enables users to see trends and relationships in hospital (bed) management data directly from their desktop personal computers.
US07953604B2
An audio encoder performs frequency extension coding that comprises determining one or more shape parameters using a displacement vector that corresponds to a displacement of an even number (e.g., an even number of sub-bands between a sub-band in a baseband frequency range and a sub-band in an extended-band frequency range). The shape parameters can be determined on a per-audio-block basis. Restricting a displacement to an even number (in frequency extension coding or in other signal modulation schemes) can improve the quality of reconstructed audio. An audio encoder also can perform frequency extension coding that comprises determining one or more scale parameters at one or more audio blocks, and determining one or more anchor points for interpolating the one or more scale parameters.
US07953600B2
A speech synthesis system receives symbolic input describing an utterance to be synthesized. In one embodiment, different portions of the utterance are constructed from different sources, one of which is a speech corpus recorded from a human speaker whose voice is to be modeled. The other sources may include other human speech corpora or speech produced using Rule-Based Speech Synthesis (RBSS). At least some portions of the utterance may be constructed by modifying prototype speech units to produce adapted speech units that are contextually appropriate for the utterance. The system concatenates the adapted speech units with the other speech units to produce a speech waveform. In another embodiment, a speech unit of a speech corpus recorded from a human speaker lacks transitions at one or both of its edges. A transition is synthesized using RBSS and concatenated with the speech unit in producing a speech waveform for the utterance.
US07953596B2
A method of analyzing time coherence in the noisy signal including the steps of: a) determining a reference signal from the noisy signal by applying treatment (10, 18) to the noisy signal that is suitable for attenuating speech components more strongly than the noise component, in particular by an adaptive recursive predictive algorithm of the LMS type; b) determining (24) a probability of speech being present/absent on the basis of the respective energy levels in the spectral domain of the noisy signal and of the reference signal; and c) deriving (26) a denoised estimate of the speech signal from the noise signal as a function of the probability of the speech being present/absent as determined in this way.
US07953594B2
A method and an apparatus for selecting a vocabulary closest to an input speech from among lexicons stored in memory, wherein a centroid lexicon representing lexicons belonging to a predetermined lexicon group is generated. Two lexicons, having a longest distance therebetween in the lexicon group, are selected using the centroid lexicon from the lexicon group, and a node indicating the lexicon group branches based on the two selected lexicons. A node having low group similarity is selected from among current terminal nodes, including branch nodes, and the above procedure is repeatedly performed on a lexicon group indicated by the selected node.
US07953581B2
A system and method of analyzing a power grid in an integrated circuit includes inputting a circuit design to a test bench, inputting a plurality of initial values for the circuit design in to the test bench, setting a current time t to 0 value for an initial time (t0) of the operation of the circuit design, representing each capacitor in an RC circuit corresponding to the power grid circuit design by the each capacitor's respective time variant equivalent companion model, describing each one of the plurality of RC equivalent circuits mathematically as one of a corresponding plurality of linear equations, storing the plurality of linear equations in a matrix Y0 for time t0, resolving the matrix Y0 to determine a DC operating point, updating the RC equivalent circuits and the corresponding plurality of linear equations at a second time step t1=t+h where h is a time step value equal to the current time t and a next simulated operation time, storing the updated plurality of linear equations in a matrix Y1 for time t1, inverting the matrix Y1 to form inverted matrix Y1−1, resolving the inverted matrix Y1−1, calculating a new time step and setting the current time t to t+h, comparing the new time step h to a plurality of time steps in a time step database, selecting one of the plurality of time steps substantially equal to the new time step and recalling a solution corresponding to the selected time step.
US07953576B2
An apparatus for predicting fan wear-out and impending failure and a method of manufacturing the same. One embodiment provides for (1) a lookup table containing expected fan speeds at given duty cycles; and (2) a processor for comparing a measured fan speed at a given duty cycle with an expected fan speed at the given duty cycle, the processor generating a predicted fan wear-out and impending failure.
US07953575B2
When an electrical submersible pump motor runs, rotary vibrations occur in the same direction as the rotation of the motor. This vibration can be detected by an XY vibration sensor. Depending on the rotation direction, the vibration along the X-axis will be out of phase +90 degrees or −90 degrees with the vibration in the Y-axis. To determine the rotation direction, the vibration sensor measures a vibration of an ESP pump in two axes, recording first and second vibration signals. Next, whether the first signal either leads or lags the second signal is determined by, for example, comparing correlations of the first and second signal with the second signal shifted by plus and minus one-fourth of the period of rotation. Then a direction of a rotation of the electrical submersible pump can be determined responsive to the determination of whether the first signal either leads or lags the second signal.
US07953550B1
A system and method for determining a position of a center pivot irrigation system includes positioning a tower unit on the rotatable arm of the irrigation system, determining a distance between the arm's rotation center and the tower unit, calculating coordinates of the tower unit along a path of the tower unit as the arm rotates, and associating an action of the irrigation system with coordinates of the tower unit location that correspond to the position of the arm where the action is to occur. Optionally, the action of the irrigation system and the coordinates of the location of the tower unit are downloaded to a remote unit located adjacent to the irrigation system. Optionally, current location coordinates of the tower unit are determined using a GPS receiver at the tower unit. Optionally, the current location coordinates are transmitted from the tower unit to the remote unit. Optionally, the current location coordinates are compared to the coordinates of the location of the action. If a substantial match of the current location coordinates with the location coordinates associated with an action is detected, the action may be initiated by the remote unit through controls of the irrigation system.
US07953549B2
In at least one embodiment, a mobile device receives previous route traversal information for a route from a server. During a subsequent traversal of the route, the mobile device determines comparative split information for the subsequent traversal by reference to the previous route traversal information and presents the comparative split information during traversal of the route.
US07953548B2
Techniques are described for determining and providing location-based information, including based on decomposing a geographic area into numerous smaller areas and using one or more layers of polygons to represent various of the smaller areas. In some situations, location-based information for a geographic area is determined efficiently and accurately to reflect actual travel distances and/or times, such as for use in identifying one or more points of interest that are sufficiently proximate to an indicated location (e.g., a current location of a user), and/or to determine actual travel distances and/or times between two or more indicated locations of interest. The location-based information determination may in some situations be performed in a realtime or near-realtime manner after a request is received from a user, such as to interactively provide results to the user that include or are based at least in part on the determined location-based information.
US07953546B1
A traffic control system to control passage of objects through of an intersection. The system can include a means for viewing for capturing images having a pixel with sensors for detecting at least four points in the frequency spectrum. The system can include a marker means for determining a location and field of view of the means for viewing. The system can include a computer with algorithms to process images to provide information about objects. Parameters of the objects can be used to for determine a protocol for allowing objects to pass through the intersection. The invention also relates to a process for regulating movement of bodies including: capturing images, comparing captured images to a known image to determine information about bodies, determining a protocol for allowing the bodies to pass through the intersection, and operating a control signal to allow the discrete bodies to pass through the intersection.
US07953545B2
A method for providing traffic information includes registering a schedule containing the request details of a request for traffic information, receiving real-time traffic data for a time duration in advance of a traffic information provision time, and creating traffic information using the real-time traffic data at the traffic information provision time, and providing the traffic information. A related apparatus is also provided. The traffic information providing method and apparatus reduces an initial waiting duration for the provision of real-time traffic information.
US07953537B2
A control system for a self-propelled patient-support apparatus includes a controller that utilizes a power drive speed control algorithm to control the power output to a motor of a drive mechanism for driving the patient-support apparatus across a floor. The control algorithm normalizes a force input by a user on a user input device, the force indicative of a desired drive speed. The algorithm varies the responsiveness of the output to the drive mechanism based on the current operating conditions of the drive mechanism.
US07953534B2
The invention relates to a vehicle integrated-control apparatus and method that sets a final control target by coordinating a control target primarily set based on an input of a driver with instruction values from the control systems; and that causes a drive control system to control a drive source and a stepped automatic transmission to achieve the final control target. With this apparatus and method, at least one of the control systems, which provide instruction values to be coordinated with the primarily set control target, is notified of a range of control targets that can be achieved at a current shift speed; a range of control targets that can be achieved by changing the current shift speed to a currently achievable shift speed; and a range of control targets that can be achieved without changing the current shift speed to another shift speed.
US07953533B2
A vehicle control apparatus includes an input member; a driving force transmission mechanism that transmits a rotational driving force of the input member to an output member; a mechanical pump that operates by using the rotational driving force of the input member; an electric pump that operates when a rotational speed of the mechanical pump is less than a predetermined operation threshold; an oil pressure control apparatus that performs control operations for the driving force transmission mechanism by supplying operating oil, which is supplied from the mechanical pump and the electric pump, to the driving force transmission mechanism; and a controller that detects a state of the electric pump.
US07953527B2
A method for diagnosing a motor vehicle and a control device for controlling a motor vehicle, a plurality of characteristic values, which are used for controlling the motor vehicle, being adapted. The adapted characteristic values are compared in each case to a threshold value, and an error message is generated if the adapted characteristic value goes beyond the threshold value. Normalized characteristic values are formed by a normalization, and a possibly faulty component of the motor vehicle is identified by a joint observation of a plurality of normalized characteristic values.
US07953516B2
An actuator and a robot are capable of properly adjusting the compliance of the motions of links in response to external forces according to an environment or application. The actuator sets a drive command angular velocity on the basis of a desired motor angular velocity, which is the resultant angular velocity of a desired link angular velocity and a desired driven angular velocity. The component of the desired link angular velocity included in a resultant desired velocity imparts stiffness to the motion of a link, while the component of the desired driven angular velocity included in the resultant desired velocity imparts flexibility to the motion of the link. Thus, the balance between the stiffness and the flexibility of the motion of the link is adjusted by adjusting the resultant ratio between the desired link angular velocity and the desired driven angular velocity.
US07953507B2
A method, system, and program storage device for implementing the method of controlling a manufacturing system, wherein the method comprises providing a plurality of workpieces to be processed on a processing tool, the plurality of workpieces located at processing stations prior to the processing tool, determining auxiliary equipment allocation needs for the processing tool based on characteristics associated with the plurality of workpieces prior to the workpieces arriving at the processing tool, and sending auxiliary equipment to the processing tool based on the allocation needs prior to the workpieces arriving at the processing tool. According to an embodiment of the invention, the processing tool comprises a photolithographic system, the auxiliary equipment comprises a reticle, and the plurality of workpieces comprise semiconductor substrates.
US07953497B1
A stylet is provided which has improved stiffness and buckling strength and can be easily manufactured at low cost. The stylet is comprised of a covering and a core, each of which have different mechanical properties. In one embodiment, the stylet is comprised of an outer tube and an inner rod with a circular cross-section, wherein the rod is inserted inside the tube. The tube can be made from a material which is more resistant to permanent deformation than the inner rod. The inner rod is made from a stiffer material which provides buckling strength. The combination of the stylet and associated stimulation lead may be used to make multiple insertions into body tissue.
US07953490B1
A cochlear implant processing strategy increases speech clarity and provides higher temporal performance. The strategy determines the power spectral component within each channel, and dynamically selects or de-selects the channels through which a stimulation pulse is provided as a function of whether the spectral power of the channel is high or low. “High” and “low” are estimated relative to a selected spectral power, for example. The selected spectral power can be estimated by signal average or mean, or by other criteria. Once a selection of the channels to stimulate has been made, the system can decide that only those channels are stimulated, and stimulation is removed from the other channels. The selected channels are the ones on which the spectral power is above the mean of all the available channels. Fewer channels are stimulated at any time and the contrast of the stimulation is enhanced. Also, the temporal resolution increases as the number of channels that must be stimulated on a given frame decreases. This way, the channels which are presented to the patient are fewer in number and contain more temporal information.
US07953477B2
An apparatus, a method and a computer program for the determination of sympathetic activity are disclosed. The method comprises: receiving heart activity data of a person; determining a recovery heart rate change speed during a recovery heart rate period in the heart activity data; and determining a sympathetic activity state of the sympathetic nervous system of the person based on the determined recovery heart rate change speed.
US07953476B2
A method and system for discrimination of supraventricular tachycardia and ventricular tachycardia events. Morphological features points are extracted from normal sinus rhythm (NSR) complexes and used to generate a NSR template. A numerical convolution is performed using the NSR template and the feature points for each sensed NSR to give a NSR filter output. Using a plurality of NSR complexes, a median NSR filter output template is determined, where the median NSR filter output template has a median value for each value in the NSR filter output. The median NSR filter output template is then used during a tachycardia event to distinguish tachycardia events as either ventricular tachycardia events or supraventricular tachycardia events.
US07953473B2
A lesion identification system for surgical operations has a light marker adapted for placement in the vicinity of a lesion inside an organ of an organism, and a location-identifying device detecting a light emitted from the light marker at an outside of the organ for identifying a location of the lesion. The marker includes a light emitter and an engagement member associated with the emitter to be engageable with a wall of the organ. The engagement member includes a clip. The light emitter emits light with a wavelength in a near-infrared range. The device includes an endoscope comprising an inserter section having an image pickup element picking up a reflected light, involving the light from the light marker, at an outside of the organ, and an image pickup unit allowing the reflected light, picked by the image pickup element, to be generated as an image for display on a monitor.
US07953472B2
A method of treating discogenic back pain in a patient includes the steps of acquiring an image of at least a portion of the patient's spine, locating the spinal disc causing the back pain, and identifying a treatment volume encompassing at least a portion of the spinal disc. The method further includes prescribing a radiation dose to be delivered to the treatment volume, providing a radiation therapy machine, positioning the patient in the radiation therapy machine, programming the radiation therapy machine to deliver the radiation dose to the treatment volume, and delivering the radiation dose to the treatment volume.
US07953446B2
Systems and methods for use in CDMA antenna systems are provided in which signals each having a common overhead component are transmitted on a set of adjacent beams of a sector with a micro-timing offset between signals transmitted on adjacent pairs of beams which is large enough that destructive cancellation substantially does not occur between the pair of beams.
US07953445B2
Embodiments of the invention include a multiple subscription subscriber identity module (SIM) card. The SIM card includes a plurality of sets of subscription parameters from which to select and activate a single set of parameters. The sets of subscription parameters each contain various information, e.g., information such as an Integrated Circuit Card Identifier (ICCID) and an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), and are based on various criteria, e.g., different service regions of use for the electronic device on which the SIM card is installed. A set of subscription parameters is selected for a particular region of use either manually or automatically. The SIM card, which can include a software interface that provides a list of available sets of subscription parameters, is activated by updating the selected set of subscription parameters. Alternatively, a default set of subscription parameters is selected unless a different set of subscription parameters is selected manually from among the plurality of sets of subscription parameters. According to alternative embodiments of the invention, the selected set of subscription parameters can be deactivated and a different set of subscription parameters can be selected and updated to in the SIM card.
US07953442B2
A transmit digital processing system for wireless transmission of HDMI and/or DVI data using an FPGA. The FPGA converts the data into two data streams and includes a front end component multiplexing video data with control data. A complementary receive FPGA is also disclosed.
US07953435B2
In an RF communication system, aspects for supporting cellular or wireless network and broadcast utilizing an integrated single chip cellular and broadcast silicon solution may comprise processing cellular frequency signals and video signals. The processing may be executed by cellular processing modules and video processing modules. The processing of the cellular signals may occur independently of the processing of the video signals. The cellular signals may be received from one or more of: global system for mobile communications (GSM), general packet radio service (GPRS), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), code division multiple access 2000 (CDMA2000), wideband CDMA (WCDMA), and/or high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) systems. The video signals may be associated with video frequency band services, and may be received, for example, from a digital video system.
US07953431B2
A method is provided for displaying a message in a mobile communication terminal. According to one example, the method includes the steps of receiving a first message, displaying the first message on a first display of the terminal, and displaying a message preparation window on a second display of the terminal simultaneously with the display of the first message. Since the terminal user can prepare a response text message to a received text message while viewing the received text message, the preparation of the response text message can be more conveniently achieved.
US07953430B2
A method of managing radio resources and a Node B implementing the same are provided. If the total radio resources used in a cell exceed target radio resources signaled by an RNC, uplink rates are equally allocated to primary UEs and non-primary UEs by controlling the signal strengths of the primary and non-primary UEs.
US07953427B1
An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and article, may operate to reserve access for a source device included in a plurality N of source devices to N−1 logical channels accessible by a set of target devices included in the plurality of source devices by creating a static map, wherein N is a positive integer.
US07953418B2
A method for allocating a spatial radio resource in a communication system includes: determining a threshold according to at least a parameter of the communication system; determining whether at least one wireless communication apparatus in the communication system is a candidate being capable of utilizing the spatial radio resource according to the threshold; scheduling priorities for a plurality of wireless communication apparatuses each being the candidate; and allocating the spatial radio resource according to the priorities of the wireless communication apparatuses each being the candidate.
US07953405B2
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for tagging or identifying bad, faulty or objectionable media resource files in real time, as the media is playing, by users who are exposed to the media. The tagging is simple to use and easy to remember, allowing for increased use of the tagging process to identify, correct and replace bad, faulty or objectionable media.
US07953404B2
In one aspect, a method to collect performance measurements a digital cellular communication network is provided. Radio links of the active set are set up both inside the serving cell and towards one or more adjacent cells belonging to adjacent clusters controlled by respective radio network controllers. Controllers are connected to one another in order to act either as master of the active set in communication with the core network or slave for managing directly controlled radio resources and executing requests from the master devoted to radio link set up or deletion. The master radio controller, when calling a slave for requesting a specific radio link deletion from the active set, also sends to it some information about the cause of that deletion. The slave radio controller when receives the cause information increments a performance measurement counter associated to the specific cause and to the specific cell the radio link deletion is requested for. Operatively, the 3GPP RNSAP Radio Link Deletion Request message is upgraded to include an Element used to specify the “Cause” of the deletion. Periodically the network operator recovers the counters to associate the specific radio link failure events to the specific cells.
US07953401B2
Methods and apparatus for out of service processing with varied behaviors. In an aspect, a method is provided for service acquisition. The method includes determining one or more conditions, wherein each condition is associated with at least one weight, detecting whether an out-of-service event has occurred, and if an out-of-service event is detected: identifying selected conditions and associated weights, and processing the associated weights to determine service acquisition “on” and “off” times. In an aspect, an apparatus includes condition logic configured to determine one or more conditions, wherein each condition is associated with at least one weight, and processing logic configured to detect whether an out-of-service event has occurred, and if an out-of-service event is detected, to identify selected conditions and associated weights, and process the associated weights to determine service acquisition “on” and “off” times.
US07953397B2
A method for informing a subscriber of a mobile telephony network about incoming calls while the mobile telephone of the subscriber is switched off or is not connected to the mobile telephony network. The notification takes place via the mobile telephone of the subscriber as soon as the mobile telephone has re-registered itself in the mobile radio network, and the message including at least the call number of the missed caller. In the event of a calling line identification restriction (CLIR) from the caller, a message is automatically produced and sent to the caller, by which means the caller is prompted, by a dialogue, to temporarily release the call number transmission for the call, such that the call number of the caller can be communicated to the subscriber.
US07953394B2
An apparatus for retrieving electronic mail messages via a wireless network. The apparatus comprises a gateway for sending an electronic mail retrieval reply message to a wireless device in response to receiving an electronic mail retrieval request message from the wireless device. The apparatus further comprises an application module. The application module has computer readable instructions. The computer readable instructions convert the retrieval request message into a format capable of transmission over an external computer network and the computer readable instructions convert the retrieval reply message into a format capable of transmission over a wireless network.
US07953393B2
Provided is a method and apparatus for altering a stored message into a single unified message and controlling a capacity of a message box in a portable communication system. The method includes checking an available capacity of a message box; and when the available capacity is less than a critical value, creating and storing a unified message, which is a unification of a plurality of messages stored in the message box, into a single message.
US07953392B2
A computer implemented method and computer program product for controlling a wireless access point range. In one embodiment, the process identifies a distance between the client device and the wireless access point in response to a request by a client device to access the wireless access point. The process allows the client device to access the wireless access point if the distance from the client device to the wireless access point is within the selected access range for the wireless access point.
US07953388B2
Calls to a wireless telephone number that are to be redirected by a gateway switch to another number can be properly billed, even if the wireless telephone number is ported to another service provider by billing the wireless telephone number subscriber for the charge that would have been incurred by placing a call to the forwarded number from the mobile telephone located in its home service area.
US07953386B2
A method of printing content on a print medium and charging using a mobile telecommunications device, comprising the steps of: identifying the content on the mobile telecommunications device; printing, using a printer module of the mobile telecommunications device, the content on the print medium; and transmitting, using the mobile telecommunications device, billing information to a billing server.
US07953378B2
Systems and methods related to amplifier systems which use a predistortion subsystem to compensate for expected distortions in the system output signal. A signal processing subsystem receives an input signal and decomposes the input signal into multiple components. Each signal component is received by a predistortion subsystem which applies a predistortion modification to the component. The predistortion modification may be a phase modification, a magnitude modification, or a combination of both and is applied by adjusting the phase of the fragment. The predistorted component is then separately processed by the signal processing subsystem. The processing may take the form of phase modulation and amplification. The phase modulated and amplified components are then recombined to arrive at an amplitude and phase modulated and amplified output signal. The predistortion modification is applied to the components to compensate for distortions introduced in the signal by the signal processing subsystem.
US07953369B2
An adaptive inductive ballast is provided with the capability to communicate with a remote device powered by the ballast. To improve the operation of the ballast, the ballast changes its operating characteristics based upon information received from the remote device. Further, the ballast may provide a path for the remote device to communicate with device other than the adaptive inductive ballast.
US07953368B2
Included are: a circuit unit having a non-volatile memory; a circuit unit having a volatile memory; a read-write circuit for reading data from, writing data into, the non-volatile memory, and for reading data from, writing data into, the volatile memory; an antenna and an RF amplifier which are first power supply means for receiving a first radio wave, and for supplying power to the circuit unit; and an antenna and an RF amplifier which are second power supply means for receiving a second radio wave whose frequency is different from that of the first radio wave, and for supplying power to the circuit unit.
US07953366B2
A receiver that can receive several initial signals modulated in a same initial frequency band and/or distinct initial frequency bands and generate a signal modulated in a transmission band to be transmitted on a coaxial cable, comprising a selector that can select several signals from among the received signals; for each selected signal, a mixer capable of transforming the selected signal into a signal at least partly in the transmission band, and a filter capable of extracting from the transformed signal a signal associated with a portion of the transmission band from among several at least partly distinct portions of the transmission band; and means for forming the signal modulated in the transmission band from signals associated with the transmission band portions.
US07953356B2
An image forming apparatus includes a first roller; a second roller; a belt tensely provided between the first roller and the second roller; and a guiding member for guiding an edge of the belt. Further, the belt has an edge surface having a step portion of equal to or smaller than 0.05 mm and a ten-point mean roughness (Rz) of equal to or smaller than 5.0 μm.
US07953351B2
A developer supply case which is detachably attachable to an inserted portion of an image forming apparatus body includes a case body which stores a developer in its inside; an engaging portion which causes an inserting load W when engaged with an engaged portion provided in the image forming apparatus at completion of insertion of the developer supply case into the inserted portion; and a load causing portion which is provided so as to abut part of the inserted portion in insertion of the developer supply case into the inserted portion and causes an inserting load P1 before the engaging portion is engaged with the engaged portion, wherein the inserting load W and the inserting load P1 satisfy the following relation: P1≧W.
US07953344B2
A technique is provided that enables maintaining an appropriate level of image quality even under conditions that the quantity of residual toner increases in an image forming apparatus in which a lubricant is supplied to a cleaning target part from which a residual toner is removed by a cleaning member. In timing when a toner image carried on an image carrier reaches a predetermined transfer position, reaching failure information indicating that a sheet to which the toner image should be transferred does not reach the predetermined transfer position is acquired. In the case where the reaching failure information is acquired, an electric field that is opposite to an electric field generated when transferring the toner image on the image carrier to the sheet is generated between the image carrier and the transfer member.
US07953343B2
An air guide mechanism includes a box unit that incorporates a heating element therein; an air fan unit that is disposed within the box unit; and a guide unit that is disposed on a side of the box unit, wherein the guide unit guides the air to a portion of a round area formed due to the rotation of the vane portion from a first direction having an acute angle with respect to an inclination direction of the vane portion corresponding to the portion of the round area, and to an area, which is at least another portion of the round area and in which the first direction intersects at a non-acute angle with an inclination direction of the vane portion, from a second direction having a smaller angle than the non-acute angle.
US07953339B2
An image forming device according to an aspect includes: a main body; and a first cartridge configured to accommodate a developer and detachably attached to the main body. The first cartridge includes: a rotation body rotatably provided in the first cartridge; a memory device configured to store information concerning the first cartridge; and a first terminal electrically connected to the memory device. The main body includes: a driver configured to rotate the rotation body; and a second terminal electrically connected to the first terminal. The first terminal is provided at a position where a torque produced by rotation of the rotation body acts in the first cartridge.
US07953338B2
A disclosed heating apparatus comprises: a heat generator for receiving electric power supply from a main power source and an auxiliary power unit and generating heat; a heating unit heated by the heat generator; a charging unit for charging the auxiliary power unit with electric power from the main power source; and a control unit configured to control electric power supply to the heat generator. A first maximum value of electric energy charged in the auxiliary power unit in a standby status is less than a second maximum value of electric energy capable of being charged in the auxiliary power unit.
US07953323B2
The present invention provides an optical time multiplexed space switch including a pulsed laser source, and means for producing from the laser source a plurality of wavelengths of pulsed radiation including means for providing permutable multi-wavelength pulse sequences from said multi-wavelength source and means for translating the input data pulses into the multi-wavelength pulse sequence. Each data pulse is subsequently guided through a wavelength selective structure, which may contain delay lines. In the case of time-slot interchange, the pulses are recombined in an interchanged sequence. In the case of tributary space switching different wavelength pulses are switched to generally different outputs and combine with pulses originating from different inputs. Alternatively, instead of or in addition to the means for providing permutable multi-wavelength pulse sequences from the pulsed source, means are provided for the permutation of the multi-wavelength data pulse sequence in reconfigurable wavelength selective structures.
US07953321B2
An optical transmission equipment includes an optical amplifier that is coupled to an optical transmission path and amplifies a first optical signal which is received from the optical transmission path, a first controller that controls the optical amplifier depending on a first optical power of output light from the optical amplifier and a second optical power of reflecting light to the optical amplifier, an optical coupler that branches a second optical signal from the optical amplifier into a first output and a second output, an optical demultiplexer that demultiplexes the first output of the optical coupler, an optical switch or attenuator that receives the second output of the optical coupler, and a second controller that controls the optical switch or attenuator depending on a third optical power of output light from the optical switch or attenuator and a fourth optical power of reflecting light to the optical switch or attenuator.
US07953319B2
In a position controller, a driving mechanism and an image pickup system according to the present invention, an operation of controlling a position of a movable member is performed by using, as a reference value, a first resistance value giving a first change point at which a resistance change rate per unit temperature change in a shape-memory-alloy member changes from a first rate to a second rate different from said first rate. Thus, the present invention makes it possible to control the position of the movable member based on a resistance of a shape-memory-alloy member, without a position sensor.
US07953307B2
An optical circuit comprises a bistable optical waveguide having first and second transmission states, and is more transmissive to light of a given wavelength in the second state than in the first state. First and second light sources emit light of first and second wavelengths, respectively, and are coupled to the waveguide at one end. Selectively transmitting a sufficient amount of light of the first wavelength through the waveguide switches the waveguide into the second state. Selectively transmitting a sufficient amount of light of the second wavelength through the waveguide switches it back to the first state. A sensing light source at the other end of the waveguide transmits a sensing light signal through the waveguide in the opposite propagation direction to that of light of the first and second wavelengths. A sensor detects the amount of the sensing light signal transmitted through the waveguide.
US07953305B2
An optical waveguide device includes; a substrate having an electro-optic effect, and a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide formed substantially in parallel on a top face of the substrate. A groove is formed for cutting only the first optical waveguide, of the first optical waveguide and the second optical waveguide. The groove penetrates from the top face to a bottom face of the substrate. Such a groove can be formed for example by fixing a side face of the substrate on the second optical waveguide side to a supporting base of a dicing machine so that the first optical waveguide is positioned on an upper side and the second optical waveguide is positioned on a lower side, and advancing the dicing saw from the bottom face side to the top face side of the substrate.
US07953302B2
Information indicating an area of an image and information indicating attributes of the image have been stored in an IC chip attached to an original paper. When a copying apparatus performs a character recognition process operation with respect to an image displayed on the original paper, the copying apparatus reads the information related to the area of the image and the information related to the attribute of this area from the IC chip attached to this original paper. Then the copying apparatus separates an area where a character is displayed therefrom. The copying apparatus executes the character recognition process operation with respect to the image of the separated area.
US07953301B2
Disclosed herein is an apparatus and method for searching for 3-dimensional shapes. The apparatus includes, an input means, an acquisition module, a storage means, a comparison and search module, an output means, and control means. The input means receives 3-dimensional image data. The acquisition module acquires a 2-dimensional image data group about the shape of an object represented by the 3-dimensional image data. The comparison and search module compares the respective data of the acquired 2-dimensional image data group with the respective data of the 2-dimensional image data groups that are previously stored in the storage means, and searches for 3-dimensional image data. The control means controls the modules and the means.
US07953296B2
This invention detects an area where image quality greatly changes upon resolution conversion. For this purpose, a block segmentation unit extracts a tile having Tw×Th pixels from a buffer, and stores the tile in a tile buffer. A two-colors ratio calculating unit counts the number of times the number of colors included in a surrounding pixel group positioned near a pixel of interest becomes two during raster scanning of the tile buffer, and calculates a two-colors ratio Cr. A continuous pixel ratio calculating unit calculates, as a run ratio Rr, a ratio at which pixels having the same color continue during scanning of the tile buffer. A difference calculating unit calculates a resolution conversion error Dt when an image of the tile is converted to ½ the resolution. A determination unit determines based on Cr, Rr, and Dt whether a tile of interest is suitable for resolution conversion.
US07953294B2
Apparatuses, computer media, and methods for altering a camera image, in which the source image may be angularly displaced from a camera image. A plurality of points on the camera image is located and a mesh is generated. Compensation information based on the displacement is determined, and a reshaped image is rendered from the mesh, the compensation information, and the camera image. The camera image is reshaped by relocating a proper subset of the points on the camera image. Deformation vectors are applied to corresponding points on the mesh using the compensation information. A correction factor is obtained from an angular displacement and a translation displacement of the source image from the camera image. The deformation factor is multiplied by the compensation factor to form a deformation vector to compensate for angular and translational displacements of the source image from the camera image.
US07953288B2
What is disclosed is a novel system and method for edge transition detection when improve print quality when rendering via high-addressable vector error diffusion in an image processing environment. In order to detect an “ideal” edge and compensate for the adverse effects described in the background hereof, local pixels are detected and local gradient values are calculated and compared against an adjustable threshold to determine the interpolation method needed for that particular pixel. A nearest neighbor interpolation is performed when a local gradient exceeds a predetermined threshold. For example, if the difference between two successive pixels is greater than “200”, nearest-neighbor interpolation is used to calculate the intermediate sub-pixel level(s). Otherwise linear interpolation is used. Dynamically switching between these two interpolation schemes significantly improves the integrity and sharpness of the edges. There is no loss of error information distributed to downstream pixels thereby preserving the gray integrity of the input.
US07953280B2
A distribution-based anomaly detection platform is described that identifies a non-flat background that is specified in terms of the distribution of the data. A resampling approach is also disclosed employing scrambled resampling of the original data with one class specified by the data and the other by the explicit distribution, and solving using binary classification.
US07953264B2
Methods are disclosed for classifying different parts of a sample into respective classes based on an image stack that includes one or more images.
US07953260B2
Predicting movement of soft tissue of the face in response to movement of underlying bone includes storing, for first subjects, data identifying movement of soft tissue of the face in response to movement of underlying bone, and using the data to predict, for a second subject, movement of soft tissue of the face over time in response to movement of underlying bone.
US07953255B2
Virtual environments are presented on displays along with multimedia programs to permit viewers to participate in a social interactive television environment. The virtual environments include avatars that are created and maintained in part using continually updated animation data that may be captured from cameras that monitor viewing areas in a plurality of sites. User input from the viewers may be processed in determining which viewers are presented in instances of the virtual environment. Continually updating the animation data results in avatars accurately depicting a viewer's facial expressions and other characteristics. Presence data may be collected and used to determine when to capture background images from a viewing area that may later be subtracted during the capture of animation data. Speech recognition technology may be employed to provide callouts within a virtual environment.
US07953254B2
A method and apparatus are provided for generating emotional information including a user's impressions in relation to multimedia content or meta data regarding the emotional information, and a computer readable recording medium storing the method. The meta data generating method includes receiving emotional information in relation to the content from at least one client system which receives and reproduces the content; generating meta data for an emotion using the emotional information; and coupling the meta data for the emotion to the content. Accordingly, it is possible to automatically acquire emotional information by using the facial expression of a user who is appreciating multimedia content, and use the emotional information as meta data.
US07953246B1
Techniques for performing motion recognition with minimum delay are disclosed. A processing unit is provided to receive motion signals from at least one motion sensing device, where the motion signal describes motions made by a user. The processing unit is configured to access a set of prototypes included in a motion recognizer to generate corresponding recognition signals from the motion signals in response to the motion recognizer without considering one or more of the prototypes completely in the motion recognizer. Movements of at least one of the objects in a virtual interactive environment is responsive to the recognition signals such that feedback from the motions to control the one of the objects is immediate and substantially correct no matter how much of the motion signals have been received.
US07953243B2
The invention relates to a gasket, and in particular a gasket for acoustically sealing an audio component inside an electronic apparatus. A gasket for acoustically sealing an audio component inside an electronic apparatus, the gasket including a plurality of elongate channels extending through the gasket, the gasket being configured to provide a lower acoustic resistance through the channels than transverse to the channels.
US07953238B1
A horn assembly for high frequency acoustic speakers. In an array of speakers, a spacing between adjacent speakers needs to be less than the wavelength of sound being emitted in order to combine effectively. For high frequency sound, a relatively small wavelength imposes a limitation on such a spacing. Such limitations are sometimes physically difficult to implement. A horn assembly increases the exit dimensions of the small speaker to larger desired dimensions by utilizing one or more plugs that divide a larger horn cavity into smaller horn cavities and creating similar pathlengths thereto. The similar pathlengths and the smaller horn cavities having desired dimensions allow the exiting sound to combine effectively. The overall dimensions of the exit portion of the horn assembly can be selected to match the dimensions of larger bass speakers, thus allowing improved arraying of the high frequency speakers with respect to other larger speakers.
US07953235B2
A directional silicon condenser microphone which has an additional back chamber includes a case having a front sound hole for passing through a front sound; an acoustic delay device for delaying a phase of a sound; a substrate including a chamber case, a MEMS chip having an additional back chamber formed by the chamber case, an ASIC chip for operating the MEMS chip, a conductive pattern for bonding the substrate to the case, and a rear sound hole for passing through a rear sound. The case is fixed to the substrate; and an adhesive for bonding the case and the substrate is applied to an entirety of a bonding surface of the case and the substrate.
US07953231B2
According to one embodiment, an audio output apparatus, includes: a receiver configured to receiver audio information from an audio processor; an output module configured to output the received audio information; a cable configured to connect between the output module and the receiver to communicate the audio information; a tension detector configured to detect whether tension of greater than or equal to a threshold value is applied to the cable; a determination module configured to determine, when the tension detector detects tension of greater than or equal to the threshold value, a control command to be executed by the audio processor; and a transmitter configured to transmit the determined control command to the audio processor.
US07953227B2
The present invention is contemplates an automatic, secure AP configuration protocol. Public/private keys and public key (PK) methods are used to automatically establish a mutual trust relationship and a secure channel between an AP and at least one configuration server. An AP automatically forwards a location identifier to the configuration server, and the configuration server delivers common, AP specific, and location specific configuration parameters to the AP.
US07953223B1
A unified system of programming communication. The system encompasses the prior art (television, radio, broadcast hardcopy, computer communications, etc.) and new user specific mass media. Within the unified system, parallel processing computer systems, each having an input (e.g., 77) controlling a plurality of computers (e.g., 205), generate and output user information at receiver stations. Under broadcast control, local computers (73, 205), combine user information selectively into prior art communications to exhibit personalized mass media programming at video monitors (202), speakers (263), printers (221), etc. At intermediate transmission stations (e.g., cable television stations), signals in network broadcasts and from local inputs (74, 77, 97, 98) cause control processors (71) and computers (73) to selectively automate connection and operation of receivers (53), recorder/players (76), computers (73), generators (82), strippers (81), etc. At receiver stations, signals in received transmissions and from local inputs (225, 218, 22) cause control processors (200) and computers (205) to automate connection and operation of converters (201), tuners (215), decryptors (224), recorder/players (217), computers (205), furnaces (206), etc. Processors (71, 200) meter and monitor availability and usage of programming.
US07953222B2
Provided are a method and apparatus for partially encrypting speech packets, more specifically, a method and apparatus for selecting partial encryption sets used for a partial encryption technique in which compressed speech packets are partially encrypted to obtain the same effect as a full encryption technique. The method includes the steps of: (a) compressing respective speech files stored in a large-capacity speech database into the speech packets using a speech codec; (b) measuring single-bit loss distortion and sequential-bit loss distortion of the speech packets compressed in step (a); (c) generating standards for selecting partial encryption sets based on the measurement results of the single-bit loss distortion and sequential-bit loss distortion; (d) selecting the partial encryption sets according to the generated standards; and (e) encrypting the speech packets using the selected partial encryption sets. In this method, distortion sensitivity caused by loss of a speech packet can be exactly measured in various embodiments so that partial encryption sets can be efficiently and securely selected based on the measurement result. As a result, by reducing the amount of encryption operation, encryption services can be applied in various wireless communication environments.
US07953218B2
Enhanced Origination Services (EOS) for Toll Free (TF) telephone calls consists of uploading instructions to the SMS/800 National Database, which instructions are subsequently downloaded by Signal Control Points (SCPs) in the United States for the routing of TF telephone calls. When a caller dials a TF number, a communication switching device queries the SCP serving the caller's LATA and routes the call according to the EOS instructions for that TF number. EOS instructions route the call to a POTS number in the originating LATA using an IntraLATA Carrier Identification Code. The POTS number is connected to a private gateway, which utilizes the Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS) of the POTS number to perform a translation function, which may replace the received DNIS with the DNIS of the originally dialed TF number. The call is routed over the private network using the private network owner's database for routing instructions for the specific TF number. The call is routed through a dedicated connection to a facilities-based carrier or called party or through a switched connection to an egress SSP or local CO.
US07953213B2
A method of transmitting value via a telephone system, includes receiving a request from a Grantor to designate a predetermined number of minutes that are to be reserved to fund a telephone call between a telephone number associated with a Beneficiary and a telephone number belonging to the Grantor, receiving a request to establish the telephone call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor, establishing the telephone call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor, and deducting from the predetermined number of minutes a number of minutes corresponding to a length of time of the call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor.
US07953211B2
A method for customizing a communications network, including receiving, at a ringback update system, information regarding a machine recognizable feature associated with a printed matter located on an article, where the information is obtained with a feature recognition unit. The feature recognition unit is associated with or resides in or on a communications station associated with a called party, and further the information regarding a machine recognizable feature is transmitted from the feature recognition unit or from a communications station associated with the feature recognition unit. In addition, the method includes accessing, with the ringback update system, a storage device containing at least one announcement, downloading the announcement in response to receiving the information regarding a recognition of a machine recognizable feature and replacing a call signal with at least a portion of the at least one announcement.
US07953192B2
Embodiments of the present general inventive concept relate to a transient signal compensator for apparatuses such as a transceiver or receiver used in a wire/wireless communication and/or a digital signal processor that may be used in the receiver and methods thereof. In one embodiment, a receiver can include an amplifier to amplify a received signal, a digital filter to filter a digital signal corresponding to an output signal of the amplifier, where the digital filter is configured to replace a corresponding value (e.g., stored in a memory) for the digital filter with a gain compensated value during a predetermined delay time after a gain of the amplifier is changed (e.g., from a first gain g1 to a different second gain g2). The gain compensated value to compensate for a transient signal (e.g., related to the change from the first gain g1 to the second gain g2).
US07953187B2
A method and apparatus for receiving a stream of data values from a data medium, wherein the received data values correspond to ideal values but may include added noise that is dependent on previous noise and dependent on data on the data medium, said ideal values being determined by possible values of data on the medium, and for outputting information specifying a sequence of states corresponding to the stream of received data values, said sequence of states corresponding to possible data values on the medium, the apparatus comprising: a first detector, for calculating state sequence likelihood information based on a first noise model and received data values, and for providing said state sequence likelihood information to a second detector; a second detector for calculating weighting values indicating likelihoods that a data value received at a particular time corresponds to a particular state transition, using a second noise model, received data values, and state sequence likelihood information from the first detector; a traceback unit for determining a most likely sequence of data values using said calculated weighting values; and an output for outputting information specifying said determined sequence of states.
US07953185B2
A vehicle communication system has a receiving unit on a vehicle side for inputting a demodulated analog signal to determination units based on a received radio signal from a key unit. Then, one of the two determination units outputs a high-check signal that takes a high value when the analog signal is greater than a high threshold and the other determination unit outputs a low-check signal that takes a low value when the analog signal is smaller than a low threshold. Then, a sync. signal generator successively defines a determination period based on the high and low check signals. Then, a binary level of the analog signal is determined by a level determination unit based on the check signals, along with an estimation and a correction of an indefinite signal when the signal level cannot be determined based on a coding rule and the determination by the determination units.
US07953172B2
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving a signal in a communication system, in which an MCS level or a modulation scheme to be used to an information vector to be transmitted is determined when the information vector is generated, and a codeword vector is generated by encoding the information vector in an encoding scheme corresponding to the determined MCS level or modulation scheme. Thus, a signal can be transmitted in such a manner as to have optimal performance for each MCS level or modulation scheme.
US07953167B2
A communications system for communications by a multicarrier transmission mode between a plurality of communications apparatuses (10, 20) wherein an overall frequency band assigned to the communications system is divided into a plurality of frequency bands each having a constant bandwidth (for example band 1 to band 4) and a specific band (for example band 1) among these divided bands is used to transmit used frequency band information and thereby determine the assignment of the remaining bands (band 2 to band 4) to be used between said communications apparatuses. Here, the specific band is defined as a main band for transmitting control channel information including said used frequency band information and also data channel information. The main band may also be added with an extension band for transmitting further data channel information. Further, the main band and extension band can be changed in the frequency band used along with time or can be changed in the number thereof. Both of the main band and the extension bands are preferably used by multiplexing by some of communications apparatuses.
US07953164B2
A system for performing LS equalization on a signal in an OFDM system comprises a receiver stage for receiving a modulated signal, a demodulation stage for demodulating the received modulated signal to produce a demodulated signal, a channel estimation stage for processing the demodulated signal to provide an output signal corresponding to a channel frequency response and an equalization stage arranged to process the output signal from the channel estimation stage to produce a channel state information signal. The equalization stage is arranged to use the channel state information signal to operate on the demodulated signal from the demodulation stage to produce an equalized demodulated output signal. There is also disclosed a method for performing LS equalization on a signal in an OFDM system.
US07953160B2
A method and apparatus for compressing a plurality of video sequences, is provided where each sequence has information that is common with other video sequences. The ensemble encodes the video sequences into an MPEG compliant transport stream using less predicted frame information than separately encoding each video sequence. One illustrative application involves efficiently encoding and transmitting a user interface such as a program guide, interactive program guide, electronic program guide, navigator and the like. The user interface is illustratively embodied in an interactive program guide (IPG).
US07953154B2
In the motion search in the inter-frame prediction coding, parameters necessary for the motion search, such as sample-point spacing and sample-point number in the step search, are controlled using a unit for calculating the complexity of an image and a unit for estimating the movement amount of the image. This configuration makes it possible to provide the scheme for searching for the high-speed and high-accuracy motion vector, and the image coding device for performing this motion search.
US07953151B2
A first block size motion searching device (4) detects a motion vector with respect to each of blocks by a unit of variable blocks in the smallest first block size. A feature value extracting device (6) detects a feature value between the adjacent blocks. A motion search determining device (7) determines by utilizing the feature value whether or not the motion search should be executed in the second to nth block sizes. A search center generating device (8), a search area generating device (9) and a selected block size motion searching device (10) selects the second to nth block sizes and detects the motion vector. A block size determining device (11) determines the block size having a high efficiency.
US07953148B2
A multi-scanner scans a signal according to several different patterns. A scanning pattern selector determines which scanning pattern produced the most efficient coding result, for example, for runlength coding, and outputs a coded signal, coded most efficiently, and a selection signal which identifies the scanning pattern found to be most efficient.
US07953140B2
A method to process DP bits from multiple fingers within a WCDMA rake receiver is provided. DPCH pilot symbols are received, quantized and channel compensated. Then processing operations for individual fingers for the channel compensated quantized despread DPCH pilot symbols are chosen based on the DPCH slot format. The DPCH pilot symbols are processed based on the DPCH slot format in order to produce processed DPCH pilot symbols in a common format. These processed symbols may then be combined. Other embodiments may further allow for the computation of an SNR estimate based on the combined DPCH pilot symbols.
US07953137B2
A method of generating a code sequence in a wireless communication system is disclosed. More specifically, the method includes recognizing a desired length of the code sequence, generating a code sequence having a length different from the desired length, and modifying the length of the generated code sequence to equal the desired length. Here, the step of modifying includes discarding at least one element of the generated code sequence or inserting at least one null element to the generated code sequence.
US07953132B2
A laser driver circuit comprising a current supply circuit for supplying a laser diode with a current is provided. The current supply circuit comprises a voltage-to-current converter circuit, a current output line for outputting the current generated by the voltage-to-current converter circuit, a current supply line connected to the laser diode, a ground line connected to the ground, and a current path switch for selectively connecting either the current supply line or the ground line to the current output line. The laser driver circuit further comprises a current output prevention circuit for preventing the voltage-to-current converter circuit from generating the current by disconnecting the voltage input line using a voltage input switch so that the voltage is not input to the voltage-to-current converter circuit, when the current output line and the ground line are connected by the current path switch.
US07953130B2
A pulse laser apparatus includes a laser configured to generate a pulse of a laser beam, a fiber amplifier, and a pulse compressor. The fiber amplifier includes a rare-earth doped fiber that exhibits normal dispersion at a wavelength of the laser beam generated from the laser. The pulse laser apparatus further includes a unit configured to give a loss to energy portions in a wavelength region corresponding to a zero-dispersion wavelength of the rare-earth doped fiber and/or a wavelength region longer than the zero-dispersion wavelength within a wavelength spectrum of the laser beam having been chirped in the fiber amplifier.
US07953122B2
Disclosed is a method for synchronizing a bitstream, the method comprising comparing an incoming data byte of the bitstream with a predetermined byte pattern; writing a result of the comparison to a current write address in a FIFO; calculating a difference between a current read address in the FIFO and the current write address; asserting a synchronization signal when the difference equals a predetermined value; the result of the comparison is asserted; and an output of the FIFO at the current read address is asserted.
US07953120B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for efficient synchronization of a sliding buffer window to prevent packet re-injection in an IP network. The steps of the method include receiving a data packet which comprises a packet sequence number. The method initializes a replay counter, an update counter, and a circular buffer window. The circular buffer window may comprise at least one window bank and the circular buffer window may also comprise a current window bank. Furthermore, the method may include determining that the packet sequence number is greater than a maximum current bank value. In response, the method may define shifting the circular buffer window such that a current window bank position is incremented. The method may then include determining that the packet sequence number is inside the current window bank and accepting the data packet. Furthermore, a Double Compare and Swap (DCS) operation may update the bit indicator and increment the update counter and replay counter. Also, a Compare and Swap and Store (CSST) operation may increment the update counter and replay counter and set a shifted window bank. Therefore, DCS and CSST operation may still be used without having to resort to traditional locks with higher overhead. In addition, the buffer window may be an arbitrary size and is not limited to the machine architecture limit for compare and swap operations.
US07953113B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code to receive a user input defining settings at an application layer to form a set of received settings. An adaptive bandwidth control process is executed using the received settings to identify a transmission rate for transmitting data packets across a network. The data packets are transmitted across the network using the identified transmission rate.
US07953109B1
An input/output section for producing a disable signal at a data transmitter enable/disable terminal of a transceiver in response to the transmit disable enable at the disable signal port of a processor independent of the transmit control signal at the transmit signal port of source of data to be transmitted by the transceiver.
US07953098B2
The invention flexibly limits a terminal able to play content and prevents unfair utilization of the content. In one embodiment, an identifier proper to each terminal device is allocated to discriminate each playback equipment. The identifier of a terminal which is allowed to play the content is registered to this license. When the content is played, authentication is performed between the terminal device as a license transfer destination and a memory device as a license transfer source. The identifier of the terminal device itself is transmitted to the memory device as a transfer source at an authenticating time. The memory device collates the identifier sent from the terminal device with an identifier registered to the license. If these identifiers are the same identifier, the memory device transfers the license to the terminal device. In contrast to this, if these identifiers are different identifiers, the memory device stops the transfer of the license.
US07953095B2
Provided is a transmission system with increased degree of freedom in a lane configuration, which corrects disalignment of data sequences in respective channels due to differences in arrival time, thereby freely changing a number of lanes. The transmission system includes: a transmitter; a relay; and a receiver, the transmitter inputting data to be transmitted to the receiver, the relay transmitting the data transmitted by the transmitter to the receiver, the receiver receiving the data transmitted by the relay. The transmitter inserts into the data sequences channel information indicating a channel to which the data sequence is to be output. The relay corrects, based on the channel information, disalignment in an order of arrival of the data sequences received via a plurality of channels, the disalignment being generated by the differences in arrival time of the data sequences among the channels.
US07953092B2
There is disclosed a method of capturing packets and packet receivers to capture packets. A timestamp may be attached to each packet received from a network. Each timestamped packet may be routed to a capture engine of a plurality of capture engines. Each of the plurality of capture engines may save at least some packets determined to match one or more of a plurality of predetermined capture criteria. A list of contiguously captured packets in time-stamp order may be prepared.
US07953088B2
In one embodiment, a method for processing a packet is disclosed. The method includes classifying the packet and determining an action to be taken with regard to the packet. Classifying the packet includes using information in the packet to perform the classification. The determination made as to the action to be taken with regard to the packet is based on the classifying that is performed, and is performed using a plurality of rules. At least one of the rules is configurable. The information in the packet is related to time-to-live (TTL) data corresponding to the packet.
US07953086B2
A first set of instructions associated with an egress of a datagram may be determined, the first set of instructions identifying a first subset of a second set of instructions, the first subset including multiple individual network identifiers identifying which network portion to transmit a replication of the datagram. Which one of the multiple individual network identifiers corresponds to the datagram may be determined from the first subset of the second set of instructions and may be based on the egress of the datagram, wherein each network identifier corresponds to a different egress. The replication of the datagram may be provided to the egress of the determined network identifier for transmission to the network portion as identified by the determined network identifier corresponding to the datagram.
US07953080B2
The invention relates to a method, a device and a system for the discovery of services according to a services entry point discovery protocol, that improves the discovery of audio/video services, in particular when several entry points, or access points, offering different services or different conditions for transmitting services can be offered to a user.
US07953077B2
A method and system for identifying a data structure associated with a packet of data. A processor internal to a packet processor may extract one or more fields in a packet header field of a received packet of data to generate a search key. The internal processor may then be configured to select which table, e.g., routing table, quality of service table, filter table, needs to be accessed using the search key in order to process the received packet of data. A determination may then be made by the internal processor as to whether a CAM or a hash table and a Patricia Tree are used to identify the data structure associated with the received packet of data. Based on table definitions in a register, the internal processor may make such a determination.
US07953074B2
An apparatus and method are provided that enable I/O devices to be shared among multiple operating system domains. The apparatus includes a first plurality of I/O ports, a second I/O port, and a plurality of port initialization logic elements. The first plurality of I/O ports is coupled to a plurality of operating system domains through a load-store fabric. Each of the first plurality of I/O ports routes transactions between the plurality of operating system domains and the switching apparatus. The second I/O port is coupled to a first shared input/output endpoint. The first shared input/output endpoint is configured to request/complete the transactions for each of the plurality of operating system domains. One of the plurality of port initialization logic elements is coupled to the second I/O port and remaining ones of the plurality of port initialization logic elements are each coupled to a corresponding one of the first plurality of I/O ports. The plurality of port initialization logic elements is configured to initialize corresponding links between each of the plurality of operating system domains and the switching apparatus, and between the first shared input/output endpoint and the switching apparatus, to support the transactions, where each of the plurality of port initialization logic elements automatically configures a corresponding polarity for each of the first plurality of I/O ports and the second I/O port, and where the corresponding polarity is in a default polarity prior to being configured.
US07953070B1
In one embodiment, a communication device 204 includes a voice communication module 152 to effect packet-switched voice communications over an untrusted network 140; a secure communication module 228 to create a secured pathway 258 with a selected remote secure communication module 124; and a VPN topology client 232 to contact a VPN topology server 240 to receive VPN topology information 236 that enables the secure communication module to create the secured pathway with the selected remote secure communication module. The VPN topology information includes IP addresses associated with remote secure communication modules, with each of the IP addresses having a corresponding range of node addresses serviced by the respective secure communication module.
US07953064B2
A system is proposed to provide buffer status reporting in a mobile telecommunications environment, particularly applicable to 3GPP networks, which allows the base station to perform Quality of Service aware uplink resource allocation. The system uses two types of buffer status reports—Absolute Buffer Status Reports and Relative Buffer Status Reports. Absolute Buffer Status Reports are sent at application start up or when the buffer level is above or below set threshold values. Otherwise Relative Buffer Status Reports are sent, which encode the present buffer level in terms of the difference from the last transmitted Absolute Buffer Status Report.
US07953058B2
A method is provided for determining a transmission rate of a control response frame for acknowledging data receipt in a wireless local area network. The method includes obtaining transmission parameters of a transmitting station from a data transmission frame received from the transmitting station, searching a receiving station for transmission parameters which correspond to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station, determining the transmission rate of the control response frame according to transmission parameters of the receiving station if the transmission parameters corresponding to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station are found in the receiving station, and determining a maximum rate among a set of basic transmission rates to be the transmission rate of the control response frame if the transmission parameters corresponding to the transmission parameters of the transmitting station are not found in the receiving station.
US07953056B2
Polling method compliant to bluetooth protocol for increasing transfer efficiency and system thereof
A polling method compliant to Bluetooth protocol is utilized for increasing transfer efficiency. In a Bluetooth piconet, a master queries each slave to determine the slaves supporting a predetermined protocol. The master determines a predetermined address as the instruction of the predetermined protocol. When the master sends a polling packet with the predetermined address to the supporting slaves, the supporting slaves can respond in sequence. In this way, even if the supporting slaves increase, the master only has to send one single polling packet for all the supporting slaves responding, increasing the transfer efficiency.
US07953053B2
The invention relates to a method of communication in a wireless communication system comprising a first station and at least a second station wherein each of the station for at least a part of the time controls the communication within the system. The first station encodes and transmits messages having a first format in a first mode using at least one communication channel or having a second format in a second mode using one communication channel. The first and second formats have a common part. The second station receives and decodes at least the common part of messages transmitted either the first mode or the second mode. The common part comprises information on one or more upcoming transmissions of the first station.
US07953048B2
A method and apparatus for reliably and quickly establishing multiple reverse links in multi-carrier wireless networks is provided. Signaling channels are established the on an existing forward link in order to transmit reverse link power control bits and the acknowledgment indications.
US07953044B2
A method for handover in a network is provided. The method includes receiving a first message from a first access network device associated with a mobile node (MN) associated with a first access router. A second message is sent to a second access router associated with a second access network device to initiate handover. A third message in response to the second message is received to establish a tunnel between the first access router and the second access router for handover. Packets designated to the MN are forwarded from the first access router to the second access router through the tunnel.
US07953043B2
Packet switched radio telecommunication system supporting hard handover and method for hard handover
A packet switched radio telecommunication system supporting hard handover adapts Always_on technology to a link between a target packet data serving node (PDSN) and a support PDSN. The support PDSN assigns a temporary IP address to a mobile terminal in its service area, and transmits handover data and the mobile terminal's temporary IP address to the target PDSN via a direct link when the mobile terminal leaves the service area. The target PDSN, upon receiving a registration request for the temporary IP address from the mobile terminal moved to its service area, temporarily registers the temporary IP address in an IP pool. The target PDSN receives down-link frame data for the mobile terminal at the temporarily registered IP address from the support PDSN via the direct link. A new temporary IP address is assigned by the target PDSN when data transmission/reception is complete to the mobile terminal.
US07953040B2
In a radio access network, an access terminal is assigned frequency channels for communication between the access terminal and a radio node of a radio access network based on a strength of a signal determined for the access terminal.
US07953035B2
A method comprising modifying a plurality of access channel (AC) probe parameters using a plurality of intra-user service classes, and accessing an AC using the modified AC probe parameters. The disclosure includes a communications component comprising a processor configured to implement a method comprising recognizing a registration request from an access terminal (AT), wherein the registration request causes a quality of service (QoS) profile comprising an inter-user QoS class for the AT to be requested, retrieving at least one intra-user access service parameter based on the inter-user class, and sending the intra-user access service parameter to the AT. The disclosure also includes a mobile access network comprising an access node (AN) in communication with a plurality of ATs, wherein the AN differentiates service for the ATs based on inter-user service classes and intra-user service class types.
US07953034B2
A method for controlling a user equipment (UE) capable of receiving a point-to-multipoint service in a wireless communication system comprises receiving a point-to-multipoint service and performing a cell reselection in response to completion of the receiving of the point-to-multipoint service. The cell reselection is performed among multiple frequencies. The cell reselection may be performed in response to signaling from the network. The cell reselection may be performed regardless of whether cell reselection criteria are satisfied. The cell reselection criteria may comprise at least one of a cell reselection reference value between frequencies and a cell reselection reference value within a frequency. The cell reselection criteria may be embodied in frequency layer dispersion (FLD) information. Alternatively, the cell reselection criteria may be embodied in frequency lay convergence (FLC) information.
US07953023B2
A method is disclosed for adaptively and intelligently partitioning traffic among a plurality of communications channels, without injecting probe traffic into any of the channels. In accordance with the illustrative embodiment, a source node transmits traffic to a receiving node via K communications channels in accordance with partition coefficients α1, . . . , αK, and the source node receives information regarding the quality of service (QoS) provided by each of the communications channels. The source node adjusts the values of the partition coefficients α1, . . . , αK adaptively based on: the current channel QoS information, prior channel QoS information, the prior values of α1, . . . , αK, and a measure of channel independence for one or more pairs of communications channels.
US07953022B2
A method of controlling data block transmission in a wireless communication system. The method including transmitting a round trip time measurement request comprising a first identifier to a receiving device, receiving a round trip time measurement response comprising a second identifier from the receiving device in response to the round trip time measurement request, and determining a round trip time based on a transmission time of the round trip time measurement request and a reception time of the round trip time measurement response, wherein the round trip time comprises a processing delay for processing the round trip time measurement request and round trip time measurement response.
US07953020B2
A method is disclosed for implementing and reporting network measurements between a source of probe packets and an element, such as a router. The invention exploits commonly implemented features on commercial elements. By exploiting these features, the expense of deploying special purpose measurement devices can be avoided. In one aspect of the invention, a plurality of probe packets is transmitted in a packet network with each of the probe packets having the same key and the same aggregation characteristic. A report is then received from an instructionless element regarding the plurality of probe packets, thereby enabling measurement of a parameter of the packet network.
US07952994B2
A redundancy method in which a network is made redundant with a working path and a protection path. The method includes transmitting a working system supervising frame and a protection system supervising frame from a switch apparatus on transmission side to the working path and the protection path; passing, by a switch apparatus on reception side, the working system supervising frame received from the working path as well as abolishing the protection system supervising frame and passing the protection system supervising frame received from the protection path as well as abolishing the working system supervising frame; and performing a connectivity check for the working path and the protection path by using the passed working system supervising frame and the passed protection system supervising frame.
US07952988B2
An apparatus and method of controlling an action change gap interval in a multi-hop relay cellular network, includes constructing a first symbol included in a first frame as a first interval for a first action change and a second interval for exchanging data; and constructing a last symbol included in the first frame as a first interval for exchanging data and a second interval for a second action change. Accordingly, the system capacity and the system efficiency can be raised by reducing the overhead due to the action change gap in the cellular network.
US07952972B2
An apparatus and method for recording and reproducing data are discussed. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides an apparatus for recording management information on a writable recording medium, the recording medium including one or more temporary management areas being used in a designated order for storing therein temporary management information until the recording medium is closed and a final management area for storing therein final management information when the recording medium is to be closed, the apparatus comprising a pickup adapted for recording data on the recording medium and a microcomputer configured to control the pickup to record data onto a first indicator when closing the recording medium so as to indicate that the recording medium is closed, the first indicator located at the most front position of a first temporary management area being used first among the one or more temporary management areas.
US07952967B2
An information recording medium, a method of recording and/or reproducing data to/from the medium, and a recording/reproducing apparatus using the medium, the medium having a data area including a user data area to record user data, and a spare area to record replacement blocks that replace defect blocks occurring in the user data area, wherein defect list entries include status information of the defect blocks and the replacement blocks, and the status information of the defect blocks in the user data area is changed, and the status information of the replacement blocks in the spare area is changed, in response to the spare area being newly allocated to re-initialize the medium.
US07952957B2
A circuit for generating a read end signal includes a clock transferring unit which receives a clock signal, a write/read status signal and an all bank precharge signal and outputs a delayed clock signal, a read signal detecting unit which receives a read pulse signal and the delayed clock signal and generates a read detection signal having a pulse width corresponding to a certain clock, and a read end signal generating unit which receives a first signal, the delayed clock signal and the read detection signal and generates a read end signal.
US07952956B2
A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell array having a plurality of variable resistance memory cells divided into first and second areas. An I/O circuit is configured to access the memory cell array under the control of control logic so as to access the first or second area in response to an external command. The I/O circuit accesses the first area using a memory cell unit and the second area using a page unit.
US07952953B2
Provided is a semiconductor memory device. The semiconductor memory device includes: a first memory block including a first memory cell; a second memory block including a second memory cell; and a column decoder circuit accessing the first memory cell of the first memory block through a first conductor line and accessing the second memory cell of the second memory block through a second conductor line, wherein the column decoder circuit activates the first and second conductor lines in response to one of an address for reading the first memory cell and an address for reading the second memory cell.
US07952941B2
A method and system to allow reduction of leakage in the bit lines of a memory device. In addition, minimal delay to the bit lines is introduced by the method and system. The memory device has a plurality of bit lines and a plurality of nodes to facilitate access of a respective one of the bit lines. A logic circuit that has a plurality of transistors and each transistor is coupled with the respective one of the bit lines and with a respective one of the nodes to reduce leakage of the bit lines when the transistors are deactivated. A just in time pre-charge method is also used to avoid the requirement of an additional pre-charge device to prevent excessive charge sharing while enabling the reduction of leakage of the bit lines.
US07952938B2
A memory device comprising an optimization component that facilitates erasing memory cells in a substantially homogeneous electromagnetic field and methods that facilitate erasing memory cells in a substantially homogeneous electromagnetic field are presented. The optimization component facilitates selecting a subset of memory cells to be erased at the same time, such that a memory cell in the subset of memory cells has two neighbor memory cells adjacent thereto that are in the subset of memory, or one neighbor memory cell adjacent thereto when the memory cell is an end-row memory cell. The optimization component facilitates performing a Fowler-Nordheim channel erase to erase the subset of memory cells, and a predetermined voltage potential associated with an erase command is applied to each cell of the subset of memory cells to facilitate reducing fringing effect associated with the electromagnetic fields applied to the cells during the erase.
US07952929B2
A method for programming NAND flash cells to minimize program stress while allowing for random page programming operations. The method includes asymmetrically precharging a NAND string from a positively biased source line while the bitline is decoupled from the NAND string, followed by the application of a programming voltage to the selected memory cell, and then followed by the application of bitline data. After asymmetrical precharging and application of the programming voltage, all the selected memory cells will be set to a program inhibit state as they will be decoupled from the other memory cells in their respective NAND strings, and their channels will be locally boosted to a voltage effective for inhibiting programming. A VSS biased bitline will discharge the locally boosted channel to VSS, thereby allowing programming of the selected memory cell to occur. A VDD biased bitline will have no effect on the precharged NAND string, thereby maintaining a program inhibited state of that selected memory cell.
US07952922B2
A method for programming a non-volatile memory array comprising a plurality of memory cells. Each cell is adapted to store a lower and an upper page of data. The method: programs the lower page of predetermined memory cells with first predetermined data and the upper page with second predetermined data. One of the lower page or the upper page of the predetermined memory cells is reprogrammed with the first or second predetermined data, respectively.
US07952917B2
Variable write and read methods for resistance random access memory (RRAM) are disclosed. The methods include initializing a write sequence and verifying the resistance state of the RRAM cell. If a write pulse is needed, then two or more write pulses are applied through the RRAM cell to write the desired data state to the RRAM cell. Each subsequent write pulse has substantially the same or greater write pulse duration. Subsequent write pulses are applied to the RRAM cell until the RRAM cell is in the desired data state or until a predetermined number of write pulses have been applied to the RRAM cell. A read method is also disclosed where subsequent read pulses are applied through the RRAM cell until the read is successful or until a predetermined number of read pulses have been applied to the RRAM cell.
US07952915B2
A novel element capable of simply controlling an in-plane rotational motion of a core (a rising spot of a magnetization) generated in the center of a ferromagnetic dot made by forming a ferromagnetic material into a nanosized disk shape is provided. In addition, a binary information memory element using a core, including a ferromagnetic dot, made of a disk-shaped ferromagnetic material, with a magnetic structure of a magnetic vortex structure, and a current supplier for supplying an alternating current with a predetermined alternating current in the radial direction of the ferromagnetic dot is provided. In the case where the frequency of the current resonates with the intrinsic frequency of the ferromagnetic dot, it is possible to rotate the core in the plane of the dot. Since the core leaks a magnetic field, a microscopic actuator such as a motor can be obtained by using this element. Furthermore, supplying a current having a density not less than a predetermined value reverses the core. This allows the expression of binary information.
US07952914B2
An integrated circuit memory device may include an integrated circuit substrate, and a multi-bit memory cell on the integrated circuit substrate. The multi-bit memory cell may be configured to store a first bit of data by changing a first characteristic of the multi-bit memory cell and to store a second bit of data by changing a second characteristic of the multi-bit memory cell. Moreover, the first and second characteristics may be different. Related methods are also discussed.
US07952902B2
For receiving an input data, a pattern data and a data clock signal and outputting a hit signal and an address signal, a content addressable memory includes a plurality of content addressable memory units connected in series, each content addressable memory unit being adapted to receive the input data and the data clock signal and to output a comparison result signal, and an encoder coupled to the comparison result signal of each content addressable memory unit and adapted for outputting a hit signal and a memory address signal subject to the comparison result signal received.
US07952901B2
A content addressable memory (CAM) is disclosed. The CAM has first and second CAM cells in which each adjacent CAM cell is rotated 180° relative to its neighbor, which provides a compact physical arrangement having overall matched CAM array cell and RAM array cell row heights. Further, an interleaved set scheme can be applied to the CAM cells to provide reduced routing of compare signals and reduced parasitic capacitance.
US07952899B2
The invention relates to an alternating voltage generator (10) comprising a direct voltage source (20) that supplies a power bus, a bus capacitor (11) connected to the power bus, an inverter module (30) supplied by the power bus and equipped with several normally-on JFET power transistors (31a, 31b) in order to deliver an alternating voltage. The generator (10) comprises a current limiting normally-on JFET transistor (12) which is located on the power bus in series between the bus capacitor (11) and the inverter module (30), the limiting current of the limiting transistor (12) being less than the limiting current of each of the power transistors (31a, 31b).
US07952895B2
A control circuit for use in a power converter with an unregulated dormant mode of operation is disclosed. In one aspect a power converter includes a drive signal generator coupled to generate a drive signal to control switching of a power switch to be coupled to the control circuit to regulate a flow of energy to a power converter output in response to an energy requirement of one or more loads to be coupled to the power converter output. An unregulated dormant mode control circuit is included and is coupled to render dormant the drive signal generator thereby ceasing the regulation of the flow of energy to the power converter output by the drive signal generator when the energy requirement of the one or more loads falls below a threshold. The drive signal generator is coupled to be unresponsive to changes in the energy requirements of the one or more loads when dormant. The unregulated dormant mode control circuit is coupled to power up the drive signal generator after a period of time has elapsed. The drive signal generator is coupled to again be responsive to changes in the energy requirement of the one or more loads after the period of time has elapsed.
US07952893B2
An integrated control circuit for controlling a switching power supply, a switching power supply incorporating the same, and a method of controlling the switching power supply, where the control IC includes a current comparator that detects current flowing through a switching device, a flip-flop circuit that controls the ON-period of the switching device, an averaging circuit that converts the peak load current value to a time-average, a comparator that detects an overloaded state from the load current, a delay circuit that sets a time from detecting the overcurrent state to stopping the switching operation, a latch circuit that stops the switching operation for a period of time, a first reference voltage supply used in the current comparator, which has a higher voltage value than a second reference voltage supply used in the comparator.
US07952891B2
An anti-electromagnetic interference (anti-EMI) shielding device for fastening to a PC board is disclosed. The anti-EMI shielding device includes a frame having an upper lid closed onto an open top thereof, the frame including a plurality of side walls sequentially connected to one another to enclose a space therein and having a receiving hole formed on one of the side walls at a predetermined position; a connector including an annular ring portion, a body portion, and a tubular portion following the body portion, the annular ring portion being located at a front end of the connector for engaging with the receiving hole on the side wall of the frame; and a sealing structure forming a 360-degree sealing between the frame and the connector to effectively prevent electromagnetic wave from leaking out of and entering into the shielding device.
US07952888B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a wiring module that enables dense mounting and a reduction in wiring distance. The wiring module in accordance with the present invention includes a base material, a plurality of electronic circuit parts, insulating portions, and conductive portions connected to the electronic circuit parts, the plurality of electronic circuit parts, the insulating portions, and the conductive portions being integrally held on the base material. Wires are composed of a stack of the conductive portions and extend in a direction crossing a surface of the base material and in a direction crossing a direction perpendicular to the base material surface to electrically connect the plurality of electronic circuit parts together.
US07952882B2
A computer storage library is configured to include a plurality of storage media, with individual storage media housed in respective individual storage slots. Each of the storage media slots may communicate with a storage controller, which in turn may communicate with a host through a network connection. A delivery device is provided for enabling a connection between individual storage slots and a host via the controller on demand. The delivery device enables the storage media to remain stationary during the connection process.
US07952879B1
This document describes apparatus and methods for a self-contained assembly having an encapsulated electronic module coupled to a heat removal device by a thermally conductive substance. In an illustrative example, the module includes at least one heat dissipating device thermally coupled by internal members to selected portions of a housing. The module housing includes a flat top surface with a perimeter adjoined to side surfaces. In one example, the heat removal device includes a cavity interior surface with an upper surface to match the module top surface, and side walls that match at least 50% by area of the selected portions of the module side surfaces. The cavity interior surface may receive at least 50% of the housing surface area. The matched portion of the cavity side surfaces may be at least 33% by area of the portion of the cavity upper surface that matches the module top surface.
US07952876B2
The present invention provides a highly reliable electric power converter reduced in parasitic inductance.An electric power converter that includes a capacitor module which has a DC terminal, an inverter which coverts a direct current into an alternating current, and heat release fins which cool the inverter, is constructed so that: the inverter has a power module including a plurality of power semiconductor elements; the power module further has a metallic base, a dielectric substrate provided on one face of the metallic base, a power semiconductor element fixed to the dielectric substrate, and a DC terminal; the metallic base has the heat release fins on the other face; the DC terminal in the power module and the DC terminal in the capacitor module are each formed by stacking flat plate conductors via an insulator; the two positive and negative DC terminals have respective front ends bent in opposite directions; a plane including the bent sections is used as a surface for connecting the power module and the capacitor module; and the insulators overlap each other at the connection surface.
US07952862B2
An electro-optical device includes a panel having an electro-optical material with terminals in an end portion thereof, a wiring board connected to the terminals, a protective member fixed to the panel, a space portion defined by the end portion of the panel and the protective member, and a space filling member provided in the space portion between the end portion of the panel and the protective member.
US07952858B2
A multi-staged hinge assembly and a portable electrical device comprising the multi-staged hinge assembly are provided. The multi-staged hinge assembly utilizes a non-circular spindle to associate with a plurality of movable elements disposed thereon. One of the body portions of the portable electrical device automatically tilts at an angle after the body portion slides by the multi-staged hinge assembly. The user could further adjust the angle to meet the demands of various situations.
US07952857B1
An arc-resistant enclosure for electrical switchgear which includes solid front and back walls, a pair of solid side walls joined to the front and back walls, a ventilated roof joined to the side walls and the front and back walls, and a ventilated base joined to the side walls and the front and back walls. Internal partitions divide the space enclosed by the front, back, side, top and bottom walls into multiple compartments for housing different types of components. The ventilated base forms air-intake ports for admitting ambient air into a plurality of the compartments, and the ventilated roof forms air-exhaust ports for allowing air to be exhausted from the compartments. As air inside the enclosure is heated by the switchgear, the hot air rises through the switchgear compartments and is exhausted through the top air-exhaust ports, and replacement ambient air is drawn into the bottoms of the compartments through the air-intake ports.
US07952853B2
A capacitor for an implantable medical device is presented. The capacitor includes an anode, a cathode, a separator therebetween, and an electrolyte over the anode, cathode, and separator. The electrolyte includes ingredients comprising acetic acid, ammonium acetate, phosphoric acid, and tetaethylene glycol dimethyl ether. The capacitor has an operating voltage ninety percent or greater of its formation voltage.
US07952849B2
One embodiment of the present invention discloses, inter alia, a rail vehicle with a wagon body and with contact devices which are connected to the wagon body and which remain in contact with at least one rail on the track side during operation of the rail vehicle, wherein the wagon body and at least one of the contact devices are connected to each other through an electrical resistance device. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the resistance device includes a greater electric resistance in a voltage region with low voltage than in a voltage region with comparatively higher voltage.
US07952844B2
A chip includes a core circuit, a main electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit, and a secondary electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit. The secondary electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit is disposed beneath a core power ring formed between the core circuit and the main electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit for reaching the aim of protecting the core circuit from damage by electrostatic discharges without area penalty of the chip. Both the main electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit and the secondary electrostatic discharge immunizing circuit include a power clamp and a plurality of current limiters, and keep electrostatic currents from reaching the core circuit with the aid of the power clamp.
US07952836B1
A load beam or load beam component having rails for use with a disk drive head suspension. The load beam or component is formed from a sheet of material having a first thickness. One or more polygons, beams or other structures having the full first thickness are formed in the rails by partial etching other portions of the rails to a non-zero second thickness that is less than the first thickness. The multi-thickness structures in the rails enhance the operational performance characteristics of the load beam or load beam component.
US07952835B2
A head stack assembly (HAS) of a hard disk drive (HDD) includes a swing arm, a connection plate integral with a terminal end of the swing arm, a head slider including a magnetic head for reading/writing data from/onto a disk, and a suspension that is attached to the connection plate, supports the head slider, and has characteristics which minimize the degree to which the magnetic head will run off-track due to vibrations induced in the HDD. The suspension includes two connecting parts having upper surfaces at which the suspension is attached to the connection plate. In the HDD, the upper surface of the connecting part positioned closest to the center of the disk center lies in a plane beneath the plane in which the upper surface of the other connecting part lies. Also, that half of the suspension which is disposed to one side of the central longitudinal axis of the HSA and is located remotely from the center of the disk in the HDD is stiffer than the other half of the suspension which is proximal the center of the disk. To this end, the suspension includes at least one side-rail that renders the suspension asymmetrical.
US07952833B2
An electrical connection assembly includes a body, an electrically insulative layer supported by the body, a first bond pad defined on the electrically insulative layer, a first electrical contact pad defined on the electrically insulative layer and electrically isolated from the first bond pad, a circuit located adjacent to the electrically insulative layer defining a second bond pad and a second electrical contact pad that are electrically isolated from each other, and an electrically conductive bonding material that electrically and mechanically links the first and second bond pads. After setting, the electrically conductive bonding material biases the first and second electrical contact pads against each other in order to create an electrical connection therebetween.
US07952830B2
This application discloses a hard disk drive and operates it based upon using a first and third harmonic amplitude generated from reading a repeated pattern of bits written to a track on a disk surface. Both amplitudes are used to create a first data set and the third harmonic amplitude is used as a single tone to create a second data set. A conversion factor between these two is determine, which may be used to convert the first data set under other conditions into a temperature insensitive table of the electrical stimulus of a vertical micro-actuator and the flying height change of the slider. The hard disk drive may be calibrated during manufacture and/or in the field.
US07952829B2
A circuit includes a slider, a data storage medium and a contact detection circuit electrically coupled to the slider and to the data storage medium. The contact detection circuit is configured to sense an electrical current indicative of contact between the slider and the data storage medium and responsively provide a contact detection output. The electrical current is produced without the application of a separate voltage between the slider and the data storage medium.
US07952825B2
Provided is an apparatus and method of adjusting reference clock frequency in a disk drive. The reference clock frequency adjustment method includes; measuring each servo sector detection time interval, generating an error signal by subtracting initially set reference time interval information between servo sectors from the measured servo sector detection time interval information, and adjusting the reference clock frequency using the error signal such that a constant number of reference clock pulses are generated in each servo sector detection time interval regardless of variation in each servo sector detection time interval.
US07952821B2
A lens barrel includes a holder, a lens frame, and an elastic member. The holder includes a first guide axis and a second guide axis. The lens frame includes a first guide section which is movably fitted around the first guide axis and a second guide section which is movably fitted around the second guide axis, and retains at least one lens. The elastic member exerts an energizing force on the second guide section and is disposed between the holder and the second guide section. The lens frame moves along the optical axis direction of the lens as the first guide section is guided by the first guide axis. The elastic member energizes the lens frame along the optical axis direction of the lens by exerting an energizing force on the second guide section. The distance from the holder to the second guide section is different from that from the holder to the first guide section.
US07952819B2
An optical device is provided. The optical device including an optical member having a first main surface and a second main surface, which respectively serve as an entrance surface and an exit surface for light from a directional light source, and made of a material having a refractive index greater than 1; and a support member at least including swing means for the optical member, wherein the first and second main surfaces of the optical member swingable by the support member are able to be inclined with respect to an optical path of the light from the directional light source.
US07952817B2
A projection lens includes a first lens group with a negative refractive power, a second lens group with a negative refractive power, and a third lens group with a positive refractive power, wherein the second lens group is disposed between the first lens group and the third lens group. The first lens group includes an aspheric lens. The second lens group includes a first lens and a second lens. The third lens group includes a third lens, a forth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens, a seventh lens, an eighth lens, a ninth lens, a tenth lens, an eleventh lens, and a twelfth lens.
US07952813B2
A zoom lens system includes a negative first lens group, a positive second lens group, and a positive third lens group, in this order from the object.Each of the negative first lens group, the positive second lens group and the positive third lens group moves along the optical axis upon zooming.The positive second lens group includes a positive first lens element, a negative second lens element, and a negative third lens element, in this order from the object.The zoom lens system satisfies the following conditions: 2
US07952811B2
Disclosed herein is a zoom lens formed by arranging a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, and a third lens group having a positive refractive power in order from an object side to an image side, wherein at a time of varying power from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, the first lens group is moved, and the second lens group is moved to the object side such that an air interval between the first lens group and the second lens group is decreased and such that an air interval between the second lens group and the third lens group is increased.
US07952810B2
An object is to provide: a zoom lens system that has a reduced overall length, a high resolution, and a variable magnification ratio as high as 9 or greater and that is satisfactorily adaptable for wide-angle image taking where the view angle at a wide-angle limit is 70° or greater; an imaging device employing this zoom lens system; and a thin and compact camera. The zoom lens system has a plurality of lens units each consisting of at least one lens element, and, in order from the object side to the image side, comprises a first lens unit having positive optical power, a second lens unit having negative optical power, a third lens unit having positive optical power, a fourth lens unit and a fifth lens unit. In zooming from a wide-angle limit to a telephoto limit at the time of image taking, at least the first lens unit and the second lens unit move in an optical axis direction, while the fourth lens unit and the fifth lens unit are each consists of one lens element. An imaging device and a camera employ this zoom lens system.
US07952807B2
Optical filters tunable for both center wavelength and bandwidth, having applications such as in astronomy, remote sensing, laser spectroscopy, and other laser-based sensing applications, using Michelson interferometers or Mach-Zehnder interferometers modified with Gires-Tournois interferometers (“GTIs”) are disclosed. A GTI nominally has unity magnitude reflectance as a function of wavelength and has a phase response based on its resonator characteristics. Replacing the end mirrors of a Michelson interferometer or the fold mirrors of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with GTIs results in both high visibility throughput as well as the ability to tune the phase response characteristics to change the width of the bandpass/notch filters. A range of bandpass/bandreject optical filter modes, including a Fabry-Perot (“FP”) mode, a wideband, low-ripple FP mode, a narrowband notch/bandpass mode, and a wideband notch/bandpass mode, are all tunable and wavelength addressable.
US07952805B2
A transparent solar control film may have a single or multiple layer core that includes at least one layer of an orientated thermoplastic polymer material. Infrared radiation absorbing nanoparticles that preferentially absorb at least about 100 times more infrared radiation than visible radiation may be dispersed within the at least one layer of an oriented thermoplastic polymer layer. The transparent solar control film may have a haze value of less than about 5 percent.
US07952798B2
A holding device for retaining a number of microscope slides with tissue specimens, wherein the surfaces of the slides in retained position are located in a common plane. The holding device has an elongated hanger with a clamp for releasably clamping the microscope slides in a hanging position with the surfaces of the slides in the common plane. The microscope slides are clamped at their upper end and are free to fall from their own weight from the hanger by release from the clamp. The clamp preferably is arranged to cooperate with a loading rack having a supporting surface for support of the microscope slides, in which the hanger can be introduced into the rack and the clamp can be actuated so that all microscope slides placed on the supporting surface are clamped in the holding device.
US07952793B2
An electrophoretic particle dispersion including: electrophoretic particles including first particles having a surface thereof covered with a curvature-adjustment portion formed from a curvature-adjustment material, a curvature at the surface of the curvature-adjustment portion being greater than the curvature of the first particles that do not include the curvature-adjustment portion; a crosslinking agent capable of binding the electrophoretic particles via a reversible crosslinked structure; and a dispersing medium in which the electrophoretic particles and the crosslinking agent are dispersed.
US07952787B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for controlling a depth of a cavity between two layers of a light modulating device. A method of making a light modulating device includes providing a substrate, forming a sacrificial layer over at least a portion of the substrate, forming a reflective layer over at least a portion of the sacrificial layer, and forming one or more flexure controllers over the substrate, the flexure controllers configured so as to operably support the reflective layer and to form cavities, upon removal of the sacrificial layer, of a depth measurably different than the thickness of the sacrificial layer, wherein the depth is measured perpendicular to the substrate.
US07952769B2
An image processing system includes a coding device configured to code input image data, and a decoding device configured to decode the coded input image data, wherein, if coding and decoding are repeated on the input image data, the image quality of an image corresponding to the input image data is deteriorated. The decoding device includes an input section inputting quantized data in which the input image data is quantized; and a decoding section dequantizing the quantized data that is input by the input section and converting a dequantized value obtained as a result of the quantization into a value in the vicinity of the boundary of a quantization threshold value within a range corresponding to the dequantized value when the quantization is performed.
US07952762B2
A copy button is pushed to output image data to an external storage medium, such as a USB memory. Then, a process for writing the image data in the USB memory is executed, and an image corresponding to the image data is printed. When the printed image is light, a density controlling button is pushed, and then, the copy button is pushed again. The image data is called up from a RAM, and a process for causing a density of the image data to be darker is executed, via a tone translator of the electronic blackboard. The image data on which image density control has been executed is written over the data previously stored in the USB memory.
US07952756B1
A method includes receiving an input file comprising input color values in a first color space. The at least one input color value includes an over-range color value in the first color space. The method also includes encoding the input color values including encoding each over-range color value as an in-range color value in the first color space to generate encoded input color values. The method further includes creating an output file that includes the encoded color values and an indicator. The indicator indicates that the output file includes encoded color values.
US07952744B2
A method and system for printing documents based on Java commands. A Java printer receives page layout requests and converts the requests into a rasterized image which is transferred to a recording medium. Page layout can be interactively modified. The Java printer also monitors print requests and is configurable using a World Wide Web interface.
US07952742B2
A method in an information processing apparatus of transmitting print data to a printing apparatus that is caused to print is disclosed. The method includes a transmitting process of transmitting, to the printing apparatus, identification information for specifying print data; and an obtaining process of obtaining update information of print data, corresponding with the relevant identification information, being present inside the printing apparatus. And, the transmitting process transmits difference data between the print data corresponding with the update information that the obtaining process has obtained and print data that are intended to be transmitted.
US07952740B2
A communication device includes: a display unit; a storage unit; and an image display control unit. The display unit is capable of displaying two or more pieces of image data at the same time. The storage unit keeps sent historical information containing sent image data and received historical information containing received image data as sent-and-received historical information. The image display control unit controls the display unit to display the sent image data contained in the sent historical information and the received image data contained in the received historical information on the display unit at the same time.
US07952738B2
Provided is an image processing apparatus, comprising a first function-judging unit of judging the function used by an installed application, a second function-judging unit of judging the functions available in the device, and a control unit of terminating and/or eliminating the function unused by the installed application, based on the results obtained in the first function-judging unit and the second function-judging unit when the application is installed.
US07952730B2
An apparatus and method for controlling printing including setting a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in a print job, permitting an application to produce print data, analyzing the print data and searching for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute in the print job is set, and inserting, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to the result of the search for the page break code.
US07952719B2
The present invention provides apparatuses and methods for sample analysis, such as tissue analysis, that integrate high wavenumber (HW) Raman spectroscopy for chemical composition analysis and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to provide depth and morphological information. The invention also provides side-viewing optical probes that are based on a single double clad optical fiber for performing the combined HW Raman spectroscopy and OCT. Intravascular catheter embodiments and related vascular diagnostic methods are also provided.
US07952718B2
Mechanically robust minimal form factor OCT probes suitable for medical applications such as needle biopsy, intraluminal and intravascular imaging are achieved in part by employing compound lenses with some or all of the optical elements, including an optical fiber, to be thermally fused in tandem. To achieve a desired working distance without increasing a diameter of the optics assembly, a spacer can be disposed between the optical fiber and focusing optics. The compound lens configuration can achieve higher transverse resolution compared to a single lens at a desired working distance without increasing the probe diameter. In exemplary needle biopsy embodiments, the optical assembly is encapsulated in a glass housing or metal-like housing with a glass window, which is then selectively passed through a hollow needle. Esophageal imaging embodiments are combined with a balloon catheter. Circumferential and three-dimensional spiral scanning can be achieved in each embodiment.
US07952717B2
A temperature measuring apparatus includes a light source, a first splitter, a second splitter, a reference beam reflector, an optical path length adjuster, a reference beam transmitting member, a first to an nth measuring beam transmitting member and a photodetector. The temperature measuring apparatus further includes a controller that stores, as initial peak position data, positions of interference peaks respectively measured in advance by irradiating the first to the nth measuring beam onto the first to the nth measurement point of the temperature measurement object, and compares the initial peak position data to positions of interference peaks respectively measured during a temperature measurement to thereby estimate a temperature at each of the first to the nth measurement point.
US07952715B2
A printing device calculates a status value of a surface of a print medium to determine the appropriateness of the print medium for printing. Light fluxes are inputted to the surface of the print medium at an incidence angle. An image pickup unit picks up reflection light fluxes and a measurement-target surface status value calculating unit calculates a status value relating to the appropriateness of the print medium for printing based on the picked up luminance information.
US07952714B2
An apparatus for detection of the accuracy of format of a web of corrugated cardboard moved in a conveying direction comprises a light source which emits a light band to the surface of the web of corrugated cardboard in a direction crosswise of the conveying direction and at an angle to the web of corrugated cardboard. A measuring camera detects the different light intensities of the light reflected by the plane portions and the profiled patterns of the web of corrugated cardboard. This electronic image in the camera is evaluated by an evaluation device for determining the distance of the profiled patterns from each other.
US07952711B1
Systems, apparatus and methods for characterizing linear retarders using a waveplate analyzer constructed by polarization rotators. In one implementation of such an analyzer, both the retardation of the waveplate sample and the orientation of optical axis of the waveplate sample can be simultaneously measured.
US07952708B2
A substrate processing system includes a processing module to process a substrate, a factory interface module configured to accommodate at least one cassette for holding the substrate, a spectrographic monitoring system positioned in or adjoining the factory interface module, and a substrate handler to transfer the substrate between the at least one cassette, the spectrographic monitoring system and the processing module.
US07952703B2
There is provided a film measuring device capable of accurately and easily measuring the thickness of a microporous film formed on a battery electrode plate over the entire area of the film. A color CCD sensor 8 shoots the microporous film. A video board 11 converts a color tone of a color image signal obtained by the image pickup into gradation data of respective color components of RGB. After the data conversion, an image processing board 12 extracts line images of the respective color components. A calculator 14 obtains the thickness of the microporous film by referring to pre-measured film thickness reference values corresponding to the gradation data of the green or blue color component, which are stored in a table storage 13 as reference thickness table data, using the gradation data of the line image of the green color component or the blue color component as lookup data.
US07952691B2
A method and system for aligning a tracking beam and a high energy laser (HEL) beam includes a tracking beam and a HEL beam. A detector receives at least a portion of the tracking beam, wherein the tracking beam received at the detector has been reflected from the airborne target. The detector also receives a first portion and a second portion of the HEL beam prior to output through a housing. A processor processes the signals to determine a relationship between the tracking beam and the HEL beam; and generates a control signal to steer the HEL beam to the airborne target based upon the determined relationship.
US07952687B2
The invention relates to measuring device, particularly a distance measuring device for contactlessly measuring distance, comprising a housing (12) made of at least one first material and with at least one electronic component (56), which is arranged inside an interior (48) of the housing (12), as well as with a second material that at least partially surrounds the housing (48). The invention provides that the second material also seals at least one opening (63) of the housing interior (48). The invention also relates to a method for producing a measuring device of the aforementioned type during which the second material is provided as a sealing element that seals at least one opening of the housing interior.
US07952679B2
A display panel includes a first substrate, a thin-film transistor (TFT), an organic layer, a second substrate, a seal line, and a conductive pattern. The first substrate includes a pixel part and a driving part connected to the pixel part. The TFTs are formed in the pixel part and the driving part. The organic layer is formed on the first substrate having the TFTs formed thereon. The second substrate is opposite to the first substrate. The seal line is disposed between an edge portion of the first substrate having the organic layer formed thereon and an edge portion of the second substrate. The seal line combines the first substrate with the second substrate. The conductive pattern is disposed between the seal line and the organic layer.
US07952674B2
A display apparatus, includes: a first substrate; a gate line formed over the first substrate; a data line traversing the gate line, and comprising a source electrode; a drain electrode facing the source electrode to define a channel area; a passivation layer formed over the data line and the drain electrode, and comprising an organic material; a pixel electrode formed over the passivation layer, and comprising a first stem electrode, at least a part of which is overlapped with the gate line or the data line, and a plurality of first branch electrodes contacted to the first stem electrode where one set of the first branch electrodes extend longitudinally in a direction different from the longitudinal extension direction of another set of the first branch electrodes so as to thereby cause opposed twisting of corresponding liquid crystal material.
US07952660B2
A method of fabricating black matrices of a color filter. The method includes forming a light-shielding layer of an organic material, which is repulsive to ink, on a transparent substrate, forming the black matrices by patterning the light-shielding layer, and hard-baking the black matrices to maintain a plurality of pores which are formed in the black matrices in the forming of the light-shielding layer.
US07952659B2
A color filter having two-layered light-shielding sections without a black matrix is provided, which reduces the level difference from the colored materials for pixels with a simple method and makes it possible to remove the color layer on the said sections. A red color layer having stripe-shaped red pixel formation sections and a blue color layer having stripe-shaped blue pixel formation sections are overlapped to form two-layered light-shielding sections. A green color layer having island-shaped green pixel formation sections is overlapped with the red and blue color layers, placing the green pixel formation sections in the overlapped green pixel windows of the red and blue color layers. Only the peripheries of the green pixel formation sections are placed on the light-shielding sections to facilitate the removal of the peripheries by polishing.
US07952656B2
A backlight assembly generating less noise after power is turned ON or OFF, and a liquid crystal display device comprising the backlight assembly. The backlight assembly includes an alignment plate having a plurality of socket insertion holes each having socket insertion hole sidewalls, wherein at least one projection is formed on an inner surface of a socket insertion hole sidewall. An outer surface of a socket inserted into the socket insertion hole comes into physical contact with the projection.
US07952654B2
An information processing apparatus includes a front cover having a display opening to display an image of a display panel, a rear cover which is coupled with the front cover, at least one holder which is formed on a first end of the front cover to prevent the display panel from being separated from the front cover, and a movable holder which is provided on a second end of the front cover to face the holder and prevents the display panel from being separated from the front cover.
US07952648B2
A broadcast module includes a receiver for selecting the signal of a specific channel from the signals of a plurality of channels under control of a controller; a demodulator connected to the output of the receiver; a detector for detecting the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal selected by the receiver; and a comparator for comparing the signal-to-noise ratio detected by the detector with a predetermined level. The broadcast module can reduce the time required to specify a viewable channel.
US07952645B2
A video processing apparatus includes a detector which detects whether pattern portions such as wallpaper portions having a pattern or the like or no-picture area portions having a single color are contained besides contents in a video signal input thereto, and a corrector which corrects the video signal. If the pattern portions are contained in the input video signal, the corrector is controlled so as not to correct the video signal.
US07952643B2
Pipelining techniques to deinterlace video information are described. An apparatus may comprise deinterlacing logic to convert interlaced video data into deinterlaced video data using multiple processing pipelines. Each pipeline may process the interlaced video data in macroblocks. Each macroblock may comprise a set of working pixels from a current macroblock and supplemental pixels from a previous macroblock. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07952642B2
A display system adaptable to changes in video signals and a method thereof display a video signal, which has a first display aspect ratio, in a display system, which has a second display aspect ratio. The display system includes a receiving unit for receiving the video signal, a detecting unit for detecting the first display aspect ratio of the video signal and a comparing unit for comparing the first display aspect ratio with the second display aspect ratio according to the first display aspect ratio detected by the detecting unit, and determining whether at least one covering structure is enabled in the display system so as to show the video signal corresponding to the display system.
US07952634B2
An image sensing apparatus includes a pixel array including an optical black region and effective pixel region, and a scanning unit which scans the pixel array. The scanning unit includes a first shift register which scans the optical black region by a shift operation, and a second shift register which scans the effective pixel region by a shift operation. The second shift register starts the shift operation during a first period when the first shift register scans the optical black region, and scans a readout region serving as a partial region of the effective pixel region during a second period following the first period.
US07952623B2
A solid state imaging device comprises: a semiconductor substrate; and a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged on the semiconductor substrate in a row direction and a column direction substantially perpendicular to the row direction, wherein said plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are divided to first and second groups, when positions of the photoelectric conversion elements of the second group are considered as reference positions, the photoelectric conversion elements of the first group are disposed at positions shifted in a given direction from the reference positions in such a manner that each of the photoelectric conversion elements of the first group adjoins the each of the photoelectric conversion elements of the second group, spectral filters are respectively provided upwardly of light receiving surfaces of the photoelectric conversion elements of the first group, the spectral filters comprising three or more kinds of spectral filters respectively transmitting different color components, and luminance filters are respectively provided upwardly of light receiving surfaces of the photoelectric conversion elements of the second group, the luminance filters each having a spectral characteristic correlated with luminance component of the light.
US07952622B2
An imaging method is provided. The imaging method includes the steps of: carrying out a nonlinear correction on an imaging signal obtained from an image sensor where imaging light is converted into an imaging signal; adding a predetermined number of frames of the imaging signal with the nonlinear correction per frame; carrying out control for appropriately setting each of the correction characteristic of the nonlinear correction in the case of carrying out no frame addition and the correction characteristic of the nonlinear correction in the case of carrying out a frame addition; and selectively outputting either the imaging signal with the frame addition or the imaging signal without the frame addition.
US07952615B2
Apparatus for digital image stabilization using object tracking includes an image signal processing unit that outputs a first digital image obtained under a first exposure value condition and a plurality of second digital images obtained under a second exposure value condition. The apparatus also includes a shaky hand compensating unit that compensates for motion in comparative second digital images relative to a reference second digital image by tracking an object in either a binary image or a reverse binary image of a respective second digital image that has the most objects (i.e., in the binary or reverse image). The compensating unit then generates a shaky hand compensated image by overlapping the motion-compensated images with the reference image. The apparatus further includes an image property correcting unit that corrects a property of the shaky hand compensated image based on a property of the first digital image.
US07952602B2
Apparatus for laser-marking on tape includes a laser arranged to emit a modulated beam of laser-radiation. Projection-optics are arranged to focus a beam to a spot on the tape. The tape is driven under the focal spot for scanning the beam in the length direction of the tape. The projection-optics are rotated reciprocally to scan the focal spot over the tape in a direction transverse to the length direction of the tape.
US07952600B2
The invention provides an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of smoothly and reasonably conducting image formation in case of using a lens (lenses) of which optical magnification is minus. An image forming apparatus of the invention comprises: a line head having lenses of which optical magnification is minus and a light emitter array in which a plurality of light emitting elements are aligned. The lenses are plural in an axial direction (main scanning direction) of an image carrier and a direction (sub scanning direction) perpendicular to the axial direction. A light emitter block composed of “m×n” (in number) light emitting elements is disposed relative to each lens. The “m×n” light emitting elements comprises “n” (in number) light emitting element lines arranged in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction and each light emitting element line includes “m” (in number) light emitting elements aligned in the axial direction. The image forming apparatus further comprises: a control means for actuating the respective light emitting elements to emit lights to be inversed in the axial direction and the direction perpendicular to the axial direction to form an image on the image carrier. In this manner, images of plural colors are formed on the image carrier at once.
US07952592B2
A method for creating a cutout surface for volume rendering includes providing a digitized medical image volume comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a 3-dimensional grid of points, identifying a surface of interest in said image volume, representing said surface-of-interest by a polygonal mesh, extracting a set of curves on said surface-of-interest where a cutout surface will intersect, extending a vector defined on one of said curves toward a viewing point, and sweeping said extended vector along said curve to create said cutout surface.
US07952588B2
Techniques are described for processing computerized images with a graphics processing unit (GPU) using an extended vertex cache. The techniques include creating an extended vertex cache coupled to a GPU pipeline to reduce an amount of data passing through the GPU pipeline. The GPU pipeline receives an image geometry for an image, and stores attributes for vertices within the image geometry in the extended vertex cache. The GPU pipeline only passes vertex coordinates that identify the vertices and vertex cache index values that indicate storage locations of the attributes for each of the vertices in the extended vertex cache to other processing stages along the GPU pipeline. The techniques described herein defer the setup of attribute gradients to just before attribute interpolation in the GPU pipeline. The vertex attributes may be retrieved from the extended vertex cache for attribute gradient setup just before attribute interpolation in the GPU pipeline.
US07952587B2
A programmable processor and method for improving the performance of processors by expanding at least two source operands, or a source and a result operand, to a width greater than the width of either the general purpose register or the data path width. The present invention provides operands which are substantially larger than the data path width of the processor by using the contents of a general purpose register to specify a memory address at which a plurality of data path widths of data can be read or written, as well as the size and shape of the operand. In addition, several instructions and apparatus for implementing these instructions are described which obtain performance advantages if the operands are not limited to the width and accessible number of general purpose registers.
US07952585B2
An interactive animation environment. The interactive animation environment includes at least one user-controlled object, and the animation method for providing this environment includes determining a position of the user-controlled object, defining a plurality of regions about the position, detecting a user input to move the position of the user-controlled object, associating the detected user input to move the position of the user-controlled object with a region in the direction of movement, and providing an animation of the user-controlled object associated with the mapped region. A system and controller for implementing the method is also disclosed. A computer program and computer program product for implementing the invention is further disclosed.
US07952584B2
A delay time of a signal delay caused on a path on an electronic circuit is represented as length in a first direction on a plane having as coordinate axes the first direction and a second direction intersecting the first direction. When there is a pin at which a signal is branched on a path, a delay time on the path at and subsequent to that pin is represented as length in the first direction from an origin position that is different from that of the first delay time in the second direction and the same in the first direction.
US07952583B2
Methods, systems, devices and computer program code (software) products operable within a computer graphics system or other computer system enable quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) light transport simulation by ray tracing: and include constructing a bounding interval hierarchy (BIH), within a computer, using quantized planes to reduce memory requirements while maintaining a selected degree of precision.
US07952577B2
An automatic 3D modeling system and method are described in which a 3D model may be generated from a picture or other image. For example, a 3D model for a face of a person may be automatically generated. The system and method also permits gestures/behaviors associated with a 3D model to automatically generated so that the gestures/behaviors may be applied to any 3D models.
US07952575B2
The invention is directed to a computer program product, a computer system, computer apparatus and a computer-implemented method for creating a parametric surface. The invention provides a base mesh having a plurality of outer or inner vertices with valence greater than two. The vertices define faces and at least one of the vertices is an extraordinary vertex. The invention converts faces of the base mesh into parametric elementary surfaces and trims at least one of said parametric elementary surfaces located in the vicinity of the extraordinary vertex. Trimming is performed according to: (i) at least two parametric elementary surfaces adjacent to a subject parametric elementary surface; and (ii) the base mesh. Next the invention constructs at least one parametric elementary surface, adjacent to the trimmed parametric elementary surface, wherein the resulting parametric elementary surfaces form the parametric surface.
US07952572B2
A source driver includes a hold memory block, a pre-decoding block, a level shifting block and digital-to-analog (DAC) block. The hold memory block stores digital image data. The pre-decoding block generates a data code that includes at least one bit having a first logic level based on the digital image data and generates a plurality of enable signals based on the data code. The level shifting block performs level shifting of the data code based on the enable signals. The DAC block outputs a grayscale voltage that is selected based on the level shifted data code output from the level shifting block. A source driver module and a display device include a plurality of the source drivers.
US07952562B2
A portable information handling system, user interface components thereof, and methods of user control interface and assembly are disclosed. In one embodiment a keyboard assembly, including a large plurality of contacts for a keyboard matrix, connects directly to a palmrest assembly. The palmrest assembly includes a keyboard controller, which decodes keystrokes and then passes the decoded keystrokes to, e.g., an I/O controller on the motherboard of the portable information handling system. This results in greatly improved layout and usage of the motherboard routing spaces, improved reliability, and simplified assembly.
US07952561B2
A method of controlling an application using a motion of an image pickup unit, the method includes storing gestures corresponding to a command to control an application, tracing a motion parameter corresponding to an image that is continuously input, detecting a gesture corresponding to the traced motion parameter from the stored gestures, and outputting a control signal of a command corresponding to the detected gesture.
US07952554B2
In a liquid crystal driver of a liquid crystal display having a structure to switch between image data for partial display from a partial memory and non-display (background pattern), changes in a partial-display area are detected according to a setting command of the partial-display area, and a mask switch is controlled so as to select the background pattern. Timing to write to the last line of the changed partial-display area in the partial memory is determined by an address counter for controlling the partial memory, and the mask switch is controlled so as to select the image data of the partial memory from a next frame.
US07952548B2
An electronic display device having viewing-angle adjusting and stereoscopic-image displaying functions. The display device includes a display unit for displaying an image and a liquid crystal barrier disposed in front of the display unit. The barrier includes: first and second substrates facing each other; a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and second substrates; and a first controller for controlling light transmission, the first controller being disposed at the first substrate facing the liquid crystal layer and including first electrodes spaced apart from each other by an interval along a first direction of the liquid crystal barrier, second electrodes arranged between the first electrodes along the first direction, and a third electrode insulated from the first and second electrodes; and a second controller for adjusting a viewing angle, the second controller being disposed at the second substrate facing the liquid crystal layer and including one or more electrodes.
US07952546B2
A sample/hold circuit is appropriate for a pixel unit including a liquid crystal capacitor and includes a sampling transistor, a sampling capacitor, a first switching transistor, and a second switching transistor. The sampling transistor is coupled to the liquid crystal capacitor for sampling a voltage stored in the liquid crystal capacitor. The sampling capacitor stores the sampling result. The first switching transistor includes a gate and a source respectively coupled to two terminals of the sampling capacitor. The second switching transistor includes a gate and a drain respectively coupled to the terminals of the sampling capacitor.
US07952545B2
Systems and methods are provided for use in correcting flicker of a display (e.g., an LCD display). For example, correction may employ the insertion of at least one transition data frame between display data frames for use in displaying a transition image by pixel elements of the display such that a user perceives display of a constant average luminance by the pixel elements.
US07952543B2
A display apparatus and a drive circuit for adjusting a screen refresh rate of the display apparatus and a method thereof are disclosed. The display apparatus comprises an OLED diode display array and a drive circuit. The drive circuit comprises a detection unit, a clock generating unit, and a timing control unit. The detection unit determines whether a plurality of frames displayed by the OLED diode display array are configured as a dynamic frame. The detection unit generates a first control signal when the displayed frames are not configured as a dynamic frame, and the detection unit generates a second control signal when the displayed frames are configured as a dynamic frame. The clock generating unit generates a clock signal, the frequency of which is a first frequency in response to the first signal, or a second frequency in response to the second signal. The first frequency is greater than the second frequency. The timing control unit sets the screen refresh rate of the display apparatus in response to the frequency of the clock signal.
US07952529B2
An antenna set on a circuit board is provided. The circuit board includes a signal transmitting unit and a grounding unit. The antenna includes a conductive supporting portion, a radiator and a grounding portion. The radiator operating in a first frequency band includes a feeding branch coupled to the signal transmitting unit for receiving a feeding signal. The grounding portion is connected to the radiator through the conductive supporting portion. The grounding portion includes a slot cavity and a grounding branch. The slot cavity is extended from a top surface of the grounding portion into the interior of the grounding portion. The grounding branch is coupled to the grounding unit. A resonant cavity is formed between the radiator and the slot cavity. The resonance of the resonant cavity operates in a second frequency band.
US07952525B2
An antenna device has a substrate of insulation and a conductive flat antenna main body having a predetermined shape. The flat antenna main body is positioned on the substrate. The antenna device also has conductive polarization control elements that are positioned along a transverse line across the flat antenna main body over an insulation region of the substrate. The antenna device further has switching elements each being connected with the flat antenna main body and each of the polarization control elements. The switching elements switch the polarization control elements to select polarization that a flat antenna radiates.
US07952523B2
Systems and methods are presented for passive location of transmitters in which two or more receivers time stamp received signals from target transmitters and the time stamped data for each target signal of interest is isolated to identify a peak power time of arrival for the signal at each transmitter from which differential scan observation values are derived, and for each signal of interest a line of position curve is computed based on the differential scan observation value and corresponding receiver locations, and for each signal of interest an estimated target transmitter location is determined based on an intersection of two corresponding line of position curves.
US07952522B2
A positioning apparatus for a wireless ad-hoc network that can measure distances between network nodes that are in range and connected to each other. The positioning apparatus can calculate 3D positions of some nodes using the distance values using a relative coordinate system, first by measuring distances to neighbored nodes, receiving and sending distance reports to/from neighbors, by second initially advantageously selecting the set of base nodes to which the coordinate system relates, and by calculating positions of the base nodes and other nodes in the network initially, and by third detecting movements in the network and by calculating positions of the moved nodes. The network can compensate for movements of the base nodes, select the base nodes in an advantageous way, and cope with sleeping nodes, with unreliable communication, and with fluctuating network topologies. Neighbor communication is used only if no node is sleeping.
US07952515B2
Narrow virtual transmit pulses are synthesized by differencing long-duration, staggered pulse repetition interval (PRI) transmit pulses. PRI is staggered at an intermediate frequency IF. Echoes from virtual pulses form IF-modulated interference patterns with a reference wave. Samples of interference patterns are IF-filtered to produce high spatial resolution holographic data. PRI stagger can be very small, e.g., 1-ns, to produce a 1-ns virtual pulse from very long, staggered transmit pulses. Occupied Bandwidth (OBW) can be less than 10 MHz due to long RF pulses needed for holography, while spatial resolution can be very high, corresponding to ultra-wideband (UWB) operation, due to short virtual pulses. X-Y antenna scanning can produce range-gated surface holograms from quadrature data. Multiple range gates can produce stacked-in-range holograms. Motion and vibration can be detected by changes in interference patterns within a range-gated zone.
US07952513B2
A system for classifying targets utilizes radar receptions and acoustic signatures of armament projectiles (e.g., bullets from celebratory rifle fire, mortars, cannon fire, artillery shells, or rockets, etc.) to associate ordinances with radar returns to better utilize a radar's resources to acquire and track targets of interest. In one embodiment of the invention the system for classifying targets comprises: a radar system for detecting targets based upon radar receptions; an acoustic system for detecting targets based upon acoustic receptions; and a means for classifying the acoustic receptions into target types; a means for computing range, bearing and time of incidence for the radar receptions and the acoustic receptions; a means for associating the radar receptions and the acoustic receptions according to the classification.
US07952511B1
A method for detecting an object, comprising the steps of defining expected characteristics of scattered electromagnetic radiation to be received at a receiver; attenuating at least a portion of electromagnetic radiation received at the receiver by a presence of an object within a path of electromagnetic information; and detecting the attenuation to indicate a presence of the object. The object may be a low radar profile object, such as a stealth aircraft. The electromagnetic radiation is preferably microwave, but may also be radio frequency or infrared. By using triangulation and other geometric techniques, distance and position of the object may be computed.
US07952506B2
There is provided a technique for reducing the adverse effect of idle tones in the channels in a ΔΣ-type A/D converter including a plurality of channels for converting analog input signals into digital signals. The ΔΣ-type A/D converter includes an L channel for converting a left analog input signal into a digital signal and an R channel for converting a right analog input signal into a digital signal. Each of the L channel and the R channel includes a DC dither circuit for generating a DC addition voltage for shifting the frequency of an idle tone. In the L channel and the R channel, DC addition voltages generated by DC dither circuits are different from each other.
US07952499B1
Random access to run-length encoded data values is provided. A target value is identified by a logical index into a structure of run-length-encoded values. To access the value, a bookmark is selected based on the logical index, on a maximum logical index of the bookmark, and on a specified bookmark distance. An initial run in the structure is located, based on the selected bookmark. A final run is chosen, at most one bookmark distance from the initial run. The target value is the value of the final run. Efficiency heuristics are used when generating bookmarks or creating the structure of run-length-encoded values.
US07952494B2
A map in a navigation apparatus is displayed on a screen with its orientation aligned with an orientation of a facility map that is distributed in a facility when a vehicle having the navigation apparatus is traveling in a facility area that has pre-memorized guide information. When the vehicle is traveling in a meandering section of a road, a rough direction is oriented upward in the map that is displayed on the screen. Furthermore, the map is displayed with an entrance direction, which is determined as a direction at a time of entering an area outside of the road such as a parking or the like, oriented upward under a circumstance that the vehicle is constantly turning its direction.
US07952489B1
Described is a vehicle communication system. The system includes a display installed in, or on, a first vehicle such that the display is viewable by persons in other vehicles or pedestrians proximate the first vehicle. The display is communicatively linked to one or more vehicle systems or a vehicle controller area network whereby based on activation, engagement or utilization of a vehicle system, the display automatically displays a message associated with the activation, engagement or activation of the vehicle system. For example, if a driver of the vehicle applies the brakes, a “STOPPING” message is displayed. Messages may be pre-programmed into the system or custom created and entered by a user. The display may also be used to advertise, alert passersby to an emergency or otherwise communicate with persons in other vehicles or pedestrians.
US07952478B2
An apparatus and method detect microchip tampering by including a capacitance circuit that comprises a protective cover. Dielectric material may be sandwiched between the cover and a backside metal layer, which may be proximate a protected surface of the microchip. Changes in the capacitance of the above circuit caused by alteration of the cover or other component of the capacitance circuit may be sensed and prompt defensive action.
US07952474B2
An alarm filter (22) for use in a security system (14) to reduce the occurrence of nuisance alarms receives sensor signals (S1-Sn, Sv) from a plurality of sensors (18, 20) included in the security system (14). The alarm filter (22) produces an opinion output as a function of the sensor signals and selectively modifies the sensor signals as a function of the opinion output to produce verified sensor signals (S1′-Sn′).
US07952473B2
A liquid level detecting apparatus includes a liquid level sensor of a variable resistance type which includes a sliding contact and a resistor, and which detects a resistance change corresponding to a change of a liquid level of a liquid in a tank and outputs a detection signal based on the change of the liquid level when the liquid level sensor is energized and a controlling unit which controls to supply energization pulses periodically to the liquid level sensor, and controls a displaying portion to display a remaining amount of the liquid in the tank, on the basis of the detection signal output from the liquid level sensor. The controlling unit changes a number of the energization pulses supplied to the liquid level sensor in a predetermined time, on the basis of the detection signal output from the liquid level sensor.
US07952470B2
A collision detection apparatus is provided, which includes a main body, at least an air bag disposed at the periphery of the main body and at least a baro sensor. The air bags communicate with each other. The air bag is connected to the baro sensor to detect the pressure at different time points and the pressure variations. The apparatus judges whether a collision has occurred and the collision force is detected by the baro sensors. The time point of collision occurrence and the collision position according to the pressures of the air bags at different time points are determined.
US07952458B2
A mode-switching transformer with a 1-to-4 impedance ratio having a first planar winding formed in a first conductive level from a first differential mode terminal outside of the winding; a second planar winding formed in a second conductive level from a second differential mode terminal outside of the winding; a via of interconnection of the central ends of the first and second windings intended to be connected to ground; and at least one third planar winding in one of the two conductive levels, interdigited with the first or the second winding from a first common-mode terminal outside of the winding, the internal end of the third winding being connected to the via for direct grounding.
US07952454B2
The device for creating a uniform magnetic field in a zone of interest, in particular for nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging, comprises an arrangement of superconductor coils disposed around a longitudinal axis (z) of the zone of interest. This arrangement of coils comprises at least one stack of a set of modular elements (8) distributed along the longitudinal axis (z), each modular element (8) comprising a rectangular-section conductor of superconductor material that is wound in continuous manner to form of a double pancake coil. The double pancake coil comprises a first single plane pancake coil (10) in the form of a spiral, a second single plane pancake coil (20) in the form of a spiral juxtaposed with and parallel to the first single pancake coil (10), and a transition segment (30) without any internal junction between the first and second single pancake coils (10, 20). Each single pancake coil (10, 20) has a connection end (11, 21) situated at the outer peripheral portion of the pancake coil, and the transition segment (30) enables an offset to be provided along the longitudinal axis (z) that is not less than the transverse dimension of the conductor along said axis.
US07952451B2
The invention relates to a high-pass filter comprising a signal line with several capacitors connected in series as well as a ground line, wherein several inductors are connected between the signal line and the ground line. In order to configure the high-pass filter as a coaxial construction it is suggested in accordance with the invention that the signal line form an inner conductor and the ground line an outer conductor of a coaxial conductor, between which an insulation layer is arranged, and that the inductors be designed as discrete components which are arranged at a distance to one another and between which at least one impedor is connected.
US07952448B2
An adaptive cruise control system and a method for controlling the speed of a vehicle are disclosed. The system generally includes a controller which determines a torque instruction associated with a limit speed of the vehicle which is less than a selected speed. The method generally includes determining a distance between the vehicle and an object detected in the path of the vehicle, determining a torque instruction which is associated with a limit speed which is less than a selected speed from at least the distance, and transmitting the torque instruction to an engine controller of the vehicle.
US07952441B2
An electromagnetic-wave oscillator includes a substrate, an EMW oscillating unit including a gain portion, an EMW resonance portion, an EMW radiating portion, and a ground (GND) portion, and a supplying unit for supplying electric power to the EMW oscillating unit. The ground portion regulates a predetermined reference electric potential for the gain portion, the EMW resonance portion, and the EMW radiating portion. The EMW oscillating unit is disposed on a first surface of the substrate. The supplying unit is disposed on a second surface of the substrate extending on an opposite side to the first surface. The EMW oscillating unit and the supplying unit are electrically connected via a penetrating electrode formed in the substrate.
US07952438B2
An injection locking clock generator can vary the free running frequency of an injection locking oscillator to broaden an operating frequency range of an oscillation signal injected to itself, thereby performing an injection locking with respect to all frequencies of an operating frequency range. The clock generator includes a main oscillator configured to generate oscillation signals of a frequency corresponding to a control voltage, and an injection locking oscillator configured to generate division signals synchronized with the oscillation signals by dividing the oscillation signals, wherein a free running frequency of the injection locking oscillator is set according to the frequency of the oscillation signals.
US07952436B2
A phase lock loop (PLL) circuit is provided. A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) generates an output clock signal based on a control voltage. A controller provides a first digital control word, a second digital control word and a loop factor. A frequency modifier is coupled to the output clock signal, controlled by the controller to divide the output clock signal by the loop factor to generate a feedback frequency. A charge pump is controlled by the up signal and down signal to generate a charge pump current, comprising a first digital to analog converter (DAC) to generate a first current based on the first digital control word when the up signal is asserted. A second DAC generates a second current based on a second digital control word when the down signal is asserted. The controller defines a first relationship between the first digital control word and the loop factor, and the controller defines a second relationship between the second digital control word and the loop factor.
US07952435B2
Embodiments of a phase lock loop and a method for compensating a temperature thereof can output an initial tuning digital value for a voltage controlled oscillator configured to output a desired phase lock loop frequency compensated according to a temperature change. Embodiments of a phase lock loop and a method for compensating a temperature thereof can simultaneously perform a digital coarse tuning and an analog fine tuning to compensate for a temperature in a limited time.
US07952434B2
Power amplifier circuits which constitute an RF power module used for a digital device capable of handling high frequency signals in two frequency bands are disposed over the same IC chip. The power amplifier circuits are disposed around the IC chip, and a secondary circuit is disposed between the power amplifier circuits. Thus, the power amplifier circuits are provided within the same IC chip to enable a size reduction. Further, the distance between the power amplifier circuits is ensured even if the power amplifier circuits are provided within the same IC chip. It is therefore possible to suppress the coupling between the power amplifier circuits and restrain crosstalk between the power amplifier circuits.
US07952426B2
A digital audio signal amplifier and a digital audio signal amplifying method provide safety and power efficiency by integrating a switching mode power supply and a digital audio amplifier into an apparatus. The digital audio amplifier includes a pulse modulation unit generate a pulse modulated audio signal by pulse-modulating an input audio signal, a switching unit to switch a DC voltage based on the pulse modulated audio signal, an insulation transformer to transform the output of the switching unit and to output the result of the transforming, and a low-pass filter to obtain an audio signal corresponding to the input audio signal by low-pass filtering the output of the insulation transformer, and to output the output audio signal. By integrating a switching mode power supply and a digital audio amplifier into an apparatus, the digital audio amplifier satisfies the insulation requirement and at the same time increases power efficiency.
US07952424B2
Charge pump for providing an output current for charging and discharging a filter in accordance with an input signal, said charge pump comprising a first current source connectable with the input signal for driving the current source and adapted to providing a first current equal to a constant current Io plus a variable current Δx, said variable current Δx being directly proportional to the input signal, a second current source connectable with the input signal for driving the current source and adapted to providing a second current equal to the constant current Io minus said variable current Δx, and an output for providing the output current, wherein said output is connected to both the first and second current source in such a way, that the output current is equal to a difference between the first and second current.
US07952420B2
A counting apparatus includes a sampling circuit, and a counting and displaying circuit. The sampling circuit includes an interface, a first electric switch, and a second electric switch. The counting and displaying circuit includes a counter and a display tube. Seven input terminals of the display tube are connected to seven output terminals of the counter correspondingly. A clock-up counting terminal of the counter is connected to the second terminal of the second electric switch.
US07952407B2
An electronic monitor for monitoring characteristics of an AC power line for swells, sags, RMS voltage, impulses, total harmonic distortion (THD) and frequency. The waveform is received at the monitor, scaled to a lower magnitude, rectified by an op amp with zero offset voltage, converted a digital form which is representative of the waveform and processed to determine the occurrence of any irregularity in the AC power waveform. Two DMA channels are used to store each cycle, or groups of cycles, of the waveform into two buffers for further processing. An input surge protective circuit limits impulse voltage to the power supply. Related methods are also disclosed.
US07952406B2
A delay locked loop circuit includes: a voltage level detector for detecting of an external power source voltage level; a phase comparator for comparing phases of reference clock and feedback clock; a clock delayer for designating one of a first delay cell unit and a second delay cell unit as initial delay cell unit and the other as connected delay cell unit, delaying the reference clock by the initial delay cell unit until delay amount of the reference clock reaches a predetermined delay amount, delaying the reference clock by the connected delay cell unit after the delay amount of the reference clock reaches the predetermined delay amount in response to an output signal of the phase comparator, and outputting a delay locked clock; and a delay duplication modeler for changing the delay locked clock to reflect an actual delay condition of the reference clock and outputting the feedback clock.
US07952404B2
A reference circuit and method for mitigating switching jitter and delay-locked loop (DLL) using same are provided. The reference circuit and method determine a number of steps of a fine delay line (FDL) that are equivalent to a step of a coarse delay line (CDL). Switching jitter of the DLL is reduced since the delay of the step of the CDL that is switched when on an underflow or overflow condition of the FDL is detected is equivalent to the delay of the provided number of steps of the FDL.
US07952402B2
A power-on-reset (POR) circuit may comprise a first circuit powered by a first supply voltage and configured to generate a second supply voltage based on the first supply voltage, the second supply voltage having a nominal value lower than a nominal value of the first supply voltage. The POR circuit may also include a second circuit powered by the second supply voltage and configured to generate a POR signal. The second circuit may be configured to assert the POR signal when the second supply voltage reaches a value that is sufficiently high for the second circuit to become operational, keep the POR signal asserted until the first supply voltage reaches a second value that is higher than the nominal value of the second supply voltage by a specified difference voltage value, and deassert the POR signal once the first supply voltage reaches the second value.
US07952401B2
A standby control circuit for an integrated circuit module includes a first control circuit that is responsive, in a normal operating mode of the integrated circuit module, to an asynchronous standby signal indicating a standby mode entry event to output a standby mode signal synchronous with a primary clock signal to indicate a standby operating mode of the integrated circuit module. The standby control circuit also includes a second control circuit which is responsive, in a reduced power mode of the integrated circuit module, to the asynchronous standby signal indicating the standby mode entry event to control the first control circuit to output the standby mode signal synchronous with a secondary clock signal to indicate the standby operating mode.
US07952398B2
A receiver suitable for applications that desire a common-mode voltage range from approximately 0.7V to approximately 0.9V is arranged by coupling first and second differential pair circuit architectures based on first and second current-steering schemes into the same path to generate an output signal. The receiver includes first and second differential pair circuits. The first differential pair circuit is coupled to a first current-steering path via a first port and a second current-steering path via a second port. The second differential pair circuit is coupled to the first current-steering path via a third port and the second current-steering path via a fourth port. A bridge circuit is interposed between the first and second differential pair circuits. The bridge circuit integrates the first and second current-steering paths in a single-stage of the receiver assembly. A bias signal directs the bridge circuit over a set of worst case conditions.
US07952394B2
A signal receiver circuit includes a first level detector for offset-controlling a first output node in response to a pair of first reference signals. A second level detector offset-controls a second output node in response to a pair of second reference signals.
US07952393B2
A semiconductor memory device includes an enable signal generating unit for generating an enable signal in response to an active signal and an internal voltage driving unit driven by the active signal and the enable signal, wherein the internal voltage driving unit drives an internal voltage by comparing the internal voltage and a reference voltage and then generating first and second driving signals, and wherein the enable signal generating unit receives the second driving signal and then determines enablement of the enable signal.
US07952391B2
A digital noise filter circuit includes a gating clock generating circuit and a noise filter circuit. The gating clock generating circuit compares logic levels of an input signal and an output signal of the noise filter circuit. The gating clock generating circuit supplies a gating clock as an operating clock to the noise filter circuit when the logic levels of both signals do not coincide, and halts supply of the gating clock when the logic levels of both signals do coincide. The noise filter circuit removes noise from the input signal and outputting the resultant signal as the output signal.
US07952387B1
A memory initialization file and one or more design files associated with configuring an IC are identified. The memory initialization file is encrypted using one or more encryption algorithms. A configuration bit stream is generated by compiling and assembling the encrypted memory initialization file and the one or more design files. During the programming phase, the configuration bit stream is received at the IC, decoded and logic design and content of encrypted memory initialization file are loaded into the respective logic elements and memory arrays of the IC. The IC then transitions into a user phase where the contents of the encrypted memory initialization file in the memory arrays are decrypted and validated at the on-chip memory within the IC to ensure that the integrity of the content is maintained. Upon successful verification of the integrity of the content, the content within the on-chip memory is available for processing.
US07952384B2
A semiconductor device transmitting a plurality of data using a multilevel signal includes a parity bit control unit generating a parity bit that varies with a number of data in which a most significant bit (MSB) and least significant bit (LSB) are different. A data conversion unit either inversely outputs the MSB or the LSB, or outputs the data without a change in response to the parity bit. Transmission units transmit data provided by the data conversion unit using the multilevel signal.
US07952382B2
An impedance calibration circuit for impedance matching between a semiconductor memory device and an external device includes a driving circuit and a comparing circuit. The driving circuit has a plurality of internal resistances, with one or more of the internal resistances being a variable resistance. The driving circuit compares the impedance of the internal resistances to the input/output impedance of the external device in order to provide a calibration voltage. The comparing circuit compares the calibration voltage to a reference voltage and provides a code signal for calibrating the impedance corresponding to output data with the input/output impedance of the external device. The impedance calibration circuit calibrates an impedance mismatch between the impedance calibration circuit and a data input/output driver by adjusting the impedance of the impedance calibration circuit through the variable resistance.
US07952371B2
An integrated circuit device includes a chip having a power supply terminal, a ground terminal, an input terminal, and an internal circuit formed therein. The chip comprises: a unidirectional device disposed between the input terminal and the ground terminal and directed from the ground terminal to the input terminal; and a ground open detection circuit including a first transistor having the gate connected to the input terminal and the source and the drain connected between the power supply terminal and the ground terminal, a second transistor having the gate connected to the ground terminal and the source and the drain connected between the power supply terminal and the ground terminal, and a comparator for comparing potentials of nodes respectively between drains of the first and second transistors and the power supply terminal, and for outputting a ground open detection signal.
US07952362B2
A device for measuring the loss factor and/or measuring the phase angle between a voltage and a current and/or recording a voltage decay and/or current decay and/or recording partial discharge processes and/or measuring the propagation time on test objects that are to be tested, includes a housing in which at least one measuring circuit is arranged for measuring and/or recording purposes. A terminal adapter (12) is provided on the housing (9) to connect the test object that is to be tested directly to the housing (9).
US07952357B2
A method and receiver system for identifying a location of a magnetic field source using two horizontally displaced tri-axial antennas. In a preferred embodiment two tri-axial antennas are positioned at opposite ends of a receiver frame. Each antenna detects in three dimensions a magnetic field from a source or transmitter. The receiver is maintained in a horizontal plane and the receiver is moved in the horizontal plane until a flux angle measured at each of the two points is zero so that the receiver is in the vertical plane perpendicular to the axis of the source. The depth and location of the source in three dimensions relative to the receiver is determined using the detected field values. The receiver is moved in a direction defined by a line containing the two points of the receiver until a magnitude of the magnetic field detected at each of the two points is substantially the same so that the receiver is positioned above the source.
US07952354B2
A system and method are provided for imaging multiple substances, such as contrast agents and metabolites in vivo, with selective excitation frequencies. A first substance is excited with a frequency selective pulse, then a second substance is excited with another frequency selective pulse. The signals resulting from these pulses are acquired in an order reversed from the order in which the pulses were applied. In some embodiments, more than two substances may be imaged. The system and method thus provide for quick and efficient utilization of the magnetization of multiple substances for spectral-spatial imaging.
US07952348B2
A method of assembling an eddy current probe for use in nondestructive testing of a sample is described. The method includes positioning at least one substantially planar spiral drive coil within the eddy current probe, such that the drive coil is at least one of adjacent to and at least partially within a flexible material. The method further includes coupling at least one unpackaged solid-state magnetic field sensor to the at least one drive coil.
US07952343B2
Apparatus (1) and corresponding method for measuring a current (10) in which a charge integrating circuit (2) integrates charge from the current to be measured (10) and applies a resulting change in voltage to a comparator circuit (4) that compares the input voltage (12) with a threshold voltage level (Vthreshoid) and provides an output (14) responsive thereto to a logic circuit (6) that generates a feedback signal (16) dependent upon the comparator output (14) and provides the feedback signal (16) to the charge integrating circuit (2) that integrates charge from the received feedback signal (16) in opposition to the integrating of the charge from the current to be measured (10). The logic circuit (6) generates an output signal (18), based upon the comparator circuit output (14) and dependent upon the level of the current to be measured (10), for example a pulse (50) of a width (TOUT) dependent upon the level of the current (10). A converter circuit (8) may convert the output signal (18) to digital output data (20).
US07952336B2
The present invention provides a DC/DC up-converter (100) that is implemented in form of a switching regulator (100). The DC/DC converter (100) makes use of a switching transistor (104) that controls a charging current for a capacitive element (112). Moreover, the DC/DC converter (100) provides control means (106, 140) to realize an accurate switch-off of the switching transistor (104) at a point of time when the charging current equals zero. Deviations of a first control means (106) are detected by means of a second control means (140) and a corresponding offset control signal (142) is generated for reducing the first control means' offset in a successive duty cycle.
US07952335B2
The invention relates to a power converter for converting a first electrical power signal into a second electrical power signal having an output voltage Vout with a DC component comprising a control circuit (320) arranged for measuring the output voltage Vout and controlling the operation of the power converter in dependence thereof. The control circuit (320) comprises voltage level shifting means (326) for generating a measurement voltage signal V2 by adjusting the DC component of the output voltage Vout.
US07952334B2
A DC-DC converter includes a series circuit of a switch element Q1 and a switch element Q2 connected to a DC power source, a series circuit of a primary winding P1 of a transformer and a capacitor connected in parallel with one of the switch elements, a rectifying-smoothing circuit of a voltage generated by a secondary winding (S1, S2) of the transformer, a controller to alternately turn on/off the switch elements according to an output of the rectifying-smoothing circuit, first and second timing detectors to detect ON/OFF states of the switch elements, and an ON time storing part to operate in response to a detection signal from the second timing detector and store an ON time of the switch element Q1 based on an OFF time of the switch element Q2. The controller turns on the switch element Q2 only during the stored ON time.
US07952324B2
There is disclosed a system and method for transferring power without requiring direct electrical conductive contacts. There is provided a primary unit having a power supply and a substantially laminar charging surface having at least one conductor that generates an electromagnetic field when a current flows therethrough and having an charging area defined within a perimeter of the surface, the at least one conductor being arranged such that electromagnetic field lines generated by the at least one conductor are substantially parallel to the plane of the surface or at least subtend an angle of 45° or less to the surface within the charging area; and at least one secondary device including at least one conductor that may be wound about a core. Because the electromagnetic field is spread over the charging area and is generally parallel or near-parallel thereto, coupling with flat secondary devices such as mobile telephones and the like is significantly improved in various orientations thereof.
US07952318B2
A system and method for determining stator winding resistance in an AC motor is disclosed. The system includes a circuit having an input connectable to an AC source and an output connectable to an input terminal of an AC motor. The circuit includes at least one contactor and at least one switch to control current flow and terminal voltages in the AC motor. The system also includes a controller connected to the circuit and configured to modify a switching time of the at least one switch to create a DC component in an output of the system corresponding to an input to the AC motor and determine a stator winding resistance of the AC motor based on the injected DC component of the voltage and current.
US07952317B2
The motor driving inverter circuit module includes first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase high voltage drivers generating first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase upper arm and lower arm driving signals in response to input signals for driving the first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase upper and lower arms and a first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase upper arm and lower arm transistors, generating first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase motor driving output signals in response to the first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase upper arm and lower arm driving signals of the first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase high voltage drivers. The first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase high voltage drivers and the first-phase, second-phase, and third-phase upper arm and lower arm transistors are respectively integrated into separate chips.
US07952311B2
The invention relates to a method for variation of a rated current which is specific of a motor by providing a rated current basic value signal (2) depending on a rated current basic value of the motor Irated, and by detecting an actual temperature Tact, providing a corresponding temperature signal (4), determining an actual rated current Iact depending on the rated current basic value signal (2) and the temperature signal (4), and providing a corresponding rated current signal (6). Additionally, the inventive method allows to determine the actual rated current depending on the speed of the motor. The invention also relates to a device for varying the rated current of a motor depending on a temperature and optionally depending on a speed of the motor. The inventive device can be used in a measuring system for determining the utilization rate and for monitoring the temperature of a motor.
US07952308B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for reducing torque ripple in a permanent magnet motor system comprising a permanent magnet motor coupled to an inverter. The method comprises the steps of receiving a torque command, generating a torque ripple reduction signal in response to the torque command, modifying operational control signals in response to the torque ripple reduction signal to generate reduced ripple operational control signals, and providing the reduced ripple operational control signals to the inverter for control of the permanent magnet motor.
US07952305B2
A vehicle comprising a rotatable wheel (e.g., three rotatable wheels), a forward drive mechanism including a forward drive motor (e.g., an internal combustion engine), and a reverse drive mechanism. The reverse drive mechanism includes a reverse drive motor (e.g., an electric motor) adapted to move the chassis in the rearward direction, and a reverse drive control programmed to inhibit operation of the reverse drive mechanism when the forward drive motor is off. In one embodiment, the vehicle includes a battery for operating the reverse drive motor, and the reverse drive control is programmed to inhibit operation of the motor when a characteristic of the battery (e.g., an output voltage) falls below a threshold. The vehicle can further include a temperature sensor for the reverse drive motor. In this embodiment, the reverse drive control is programmed to inhibit operation of the reverse drive motor when the temperature of the motor exceeds a threshold.
US07952304B2
Radiation systems, including apparatuses and methods, for providing multiple independent RF electron accelerators with RF power from a single RF generator. The radiation systems may be employed in radiation treatment systems for treating subject objects by irradiating them from different directions and in inspection systems for producing images of the contents of a container or other volume in multiple planes using RF electron accelerators that receive RF electromagnetic power from a single RF generator. The radiation systems include RF drive subsystems each having a 3 dB directional coupler connected between an RF generator and RF electron accelerators. Each 3 dB directional coupler divides RF electromagnetic power received from the RF generator into equal or unequal portions for delivery to respective RF electron accelerators.
US07952298B2
An apparatus and method for driving a lamp are provided. In one embodiment, an inverter having four switching elements is split into two inverter arms that are deployed at separate terminals of a floating lamp structure to achieve even light output. A controller drives both inverter arms such that power switching lines do not cross the floating lamp structure. In one embodiment, the controller adjusts the brightness of the lamp structure by adjusting the phase difference between outputs of a first inverter arm relative to a second inverter arm. In one embodiment, the controller adjusts the brightness by symmetrically pulse width modulating the outputs of the first inverter arm and the second inverter arm.
US07952297B2
A driving device includes a first switch element to switch between applying or not applying to a light-emitting element a voltage directed to setting the light-emitting element in an ON state, and a constant current control circuit to adjust a current flowing through the light-emitting element when the light-emitting element is in an ON state to a predetermined current value.
US07952296B2
A feedback circuit is utilized in a DC/AC inverter having a first power switch and a second power switch for driving a fluorescent lamp. The feedback circuit includes a protection circuit for disabling the first power switch and the second power switch when no fluorescent lamp is electrically connected, a first capacitor having a first terminal electrically connected to an output of the DC/AC inverter, a second capacitor having a first terminal electrically connected to a ground, and a second terminal electrically connected to a second terminal of the first capacitor, a diode having an anode electrically connected to the second terminals of the first and second capacitors, and a cathode electrically connected to the protection circuit, and a first resistor having a first terminal electrically connected to the cathode of the diode, and a second terminal electrically connected to the ground.
US07952295B2
To a constant-current power supply whose output current can be variably set, light emitting modules can be connected in parallel. A control unit recognizes connection information outputted from an information output unit provided in each of the light emitting modules and varies the output current of the constant-current power supply. Drive can be controlled in response to a state of the connected light emitting modules such as the connecting number of light emitting modules.
US07952286B2
The invention relates to a mercury source for a low-pressure discharge lamp comprising an amalgam body which is arranged on a front surface of a wire or enclosed in a perforated structure. The amalgam body or the perforated structure is provided with a protective coating with a getter effect. The invention enables a simple production process to be implemented with low costs in terms of materials.
US07952283B2
A high intensity discharge lamp comprises an arc tube, which encloses an arc chamber. The arc chamber contains a gas fill and the arc tube is terminated by at least one sealed portion. The sealed portions enclose an electrode assembly. The electrode assembly comprises an electrode, a lead-in wire and an electrically conducting foil. The electrode extends into the arc chamber. The lead-in wire extends outward from the sealed portion for providing electric contact with a power supply. The electrically conducting foil connects the lead-in wire and the electrode and provides a sealed electric connection through a sealed portion of the arc tube. At least one of the electrodes is provided with surface irregularities in a region between the foil and the arc chamber in order to control shape and size of cracks in a seal wall surrounding the electrodes.In the method, an electrode of predetermined geometry and structure is provided with at least one artificial surface irregularity. Subsequently, an electrode assembly comprising said electrode, a seal foil and a lead-in wire is prepared. The electrode assembly is introduced into an arc chamber, the arc chamber is closed with a seal, and the electrode assembly is sealed therein, so that the irregularities of the electrode are formed in a region between the foil and the arc chamber. The electrodes may be provided with artificial surface irregularities also after preparing the electrode assembly.
US07952277B2
A PDP is proposed which has high emission efficiency and which can decrease address discharge voltage. In a column direction of at least one of transparent electrodes, which perform sustain discharge via respective discharge gaps of a pair of row electrodes and constituting a row electrode pair, is set to 150 μm or less, and partial pressure of xenon in discharge gas sealed in a discharge space is set to 6.67 kPa or more. A width of a scan electrode, which is one row electrode of each of the row electrode pair facing the column electrode and to which scan pulse is applied, is wider than a width of the other row electrode of the pair to which discharge sustain voltage is applied.
US07952272B2
In an EL element including a light emitting layer sandwiched between upper and lower electrodes, of light emitted therefrom, light totally reflected at a light emitting layer interface is not taken out, so there is a problem in that light emission efficiency reduces. Therefore, a light scattering layer in which metal particles are dispersed is provided between an electrode and the light emitting layer. According to such a structure, the light from the light emitting layer can be scattered by the metal particles and taken out, thereby improving the light emission efficiency. When plasmon is excited in the metal particles, light confined in the light emitting layer or each layer adjacent thereto can be used, thereby improving light use efficiency.
US07952258B2
A vibration-type actuator having a vibrating body adapted to be deformed for driving and mounted with a contact member having a spring function. The contact member is comprised of a protruding portion adapted to be in contact with a driven body and fixing portions fixed to the vibrating body, and is provided with converting portion disposed between the projecting portion and the fixing portions. The converting portions each have an inclined surface obliquely extending relative to a contact surface provided in the protruding portion for contact with the driven body and extending to a side opposite from the contact surface. The converting portions convert a change in relative distance between the fixing portions caused by deformation of the vibrating body into a displacement of the contact surface.
US07952253B2
A rotary actuator includes an outer enclosure having an inner diameter surrounding a hollow interior. A stack of stator laminations, each having a stator diameter greater than the inner diameter of the outer enclosure when in an unflexed state, are also included in the rotary actuator. Each of the stator laminations is configured to flex into a shape so as to be positionable within the outer enclosure and substantially conform to the inner diameter. The stator lamination thus forms a line-to-line fit with at least a portion of the outer enclosure to form an interface having a desirable reluctance.
US07952247B2
In case there is a malfunction of the magnetic bearing in an electrical machine, in which such magnetic bearings drive a rotary shaft in a stator (10), a safety bearing (14,14′) is provided. According to the present invention, the safety bearing (14,14′) exhibits an outer ring (16,16′) that is mounted on the stator (10), inside of which a revolving ring (22,22′,26) is operated. The safety bearing according to the present invention is particularly suited for machines that have a particularly large and heavy shaft.
US07952244B2
The turbojet comprises a high pressure spool and a low pressure spool driving a fan. In order to produce electricity, it further includes an electricity generator arranged in the fan and taking power therefrom. The generator comprises a rotor incorporated in the fan and a stator incorporated in the fan casing. This disposition for the electricity generator avoids problems of engine operability at low speed and enables mechanical power to be converted into electrical power with high efficiency. In addition, installation and maintenance of the electricity generator are facilitated by the generator being implanted in the fan.
US07952243B2
The invention relates to a device (1) for cooling an electrical machine, in particular an electric motor, the electrical machine having a stator (3) with a stator core (31) and a rotor (4) having a rotor core (41) resting on a rotor shaft (5). Coil windings with axially protruding winding heads (6) are introduced in the stator core (31). According to the invention, the device has at least one cap ring (7) which can be cooled and through which the rotor shaft (5) is guided, the cap ring (7) which can be cooled taking up at least part of an annular intermediate space (ZR) which is in the axial region (BW) of a protruding winding head (6) and the rotor shaft (5). The invention relates to an electrical machine, in particular an asynchronous or synchronous motor, having such a cooling device.
US07952240B2
A rotary electric machine having a stator including a coil; and a cooling unit that cools a coil end of the coil, which projects in an axial direction of the stator, wherein the cooling unit includes: an outer periphery cooling portion that is disposed along an outer peripheral surface of the coil end and includes a plurality of injection holes that inject a cooling medium onto the outer peripheral surface; and an end surface cooling portion that is disposed along an axial end surface of the coil end and includes a plurality of injection holes that inject the cooling medium onto the axial end surface.
US07952233B2
A lavatory system having at least one wash station and at least one electrically operated fixture is disclosed. The lavatory system includes a control system for operating the at least one electrically operated fixture and a power supply system for powering the at least one electrically operated fixture. According to one embodiment, the power supply system includes a plurality of power sources and a switch device. The plurality of power sources are electrically coupled to each other and configured to provide an output voltage for powering the at least one fixture. The electrical coupling of the power sources is selectively adjustable between a first arrangement in which the power sources are electrically coupled to each other in parallel and a second arrangement in which the power sources are electrically coupled to each other in series. The first switch device configured to adjust the electrical coupling of the power sources between the first arrangement and the second arrangement.
US07952232B2
Commands are generated for controlling a state of charge of an energy storage device coupled between an energy source and an auxiliary load. Commands are also generated for providing from the energy storage device to the auxiliary load and for using power from the energy storage device for controlling a DC link voltage, energy source torque, grid side power flow, or combinations thereof. Commands may also be generated to provide frequency compatible power to auxiliary loads of the energy source.
US07952231B1
The present disclosure is a supplemental power system which may operate in conjunction with a power supply to provide supplemental power to a load. Supplemental power system may include a power storage device, a boost converter and a power storage charger. Supplemental power system may supply extra power required for a storage system load at startup whereby the power supply system may be sized for steady state operation of the load.
US07952226B2
A system and method for controlling the radio frequency emissions of a proximity remote keyless system for permitting or denying remote access to premises of a vehicle. The source power is controlled to thereby control when the vehicle is authorized to start. The proximity remote can thus be left in the vehicle and controlled by another external source. The device of the invention is adapted to be inserted between a battery, which powers the proximity remote, and insulates the battery from an associated battery base contact. The device comprises a conductive contact on opposite sides of an insulating plate and at least one wire connected to each conductive contact. The wires can be connected to an external device, thus allowing external electrical or mechanical control of the proximity remote, with the proximity remote being only able to transmit to the vehicle if the battery is connected to the battery base contact.
US07952224B2
A discharge share ratio calculation unit (52) calculates, for each power storage device, a remaining electric power quantity before an SOC is reached with respect to which an allowable discharge electric power is restricted, and calculates a discharge power share ratio between power storage devices according to the ratio of the remaining electric power quantity. A charge share ratio calculation unit (54) calculates, for each power storage device, a chargeable quantity before an SOC is reached with respect to which an allowable charge electric power is restricted, and calculates a charge power share ratio between power storage devices according to the ratio of the chargeable quantity. When electric power is supplied from a power supply system to a drive force generation unit, each converter is controlled according to the discharge power share ratio and, when electric power is supplied from the drive force generation unit to the power supply system, each converter is controlled according to the discharge power share ratio.
US07952205B2
A method of implementing an injection molded soldering process for three-dimensional structures, particularly, such as directed to three-dimensional semiconductor chip stacking. Also provide is an arrangement for implementing the injection molded soldering (IMS) process. Pursuant to an embodiment of the invention, the joining of the semiconductor chip layers with a substrate is implemented, rather than by means of currently known wire bond stacking, through the intermediary of columns of solder material formed by the IMS process, thereby providing electrical advantages imparted by the flip chip interconnect structures. In this connection, various diversely dimensioned solder column interconnects allow for simple and dependable connections to a substrate by a plurality of superimposed layers or stacked arrays of semiconductor components, such as semiconductor chips. In accordance with a further aspect, it is possible to derive a unique design for an IMS mold structure, which contains cavities for forming the columnar fill of solder, and which also incorporates further cavities acting as cutouts for dies or the positioning of other electronic packages or modules.
US07952200B2
A semiconductor device including a chip including an integrated circuit, a conductive layer, a copolymer layer and metal elements. The conductive layer is disposed over the chip and electrically coupled to the integrated circuit. The copolymer is disposed on the conductive layer. The metal elements are electrically coupled to the conductive layer via through-connects in the copolymer layer.
US07952194B2
A voltage regulation module and system for an integrated circuit die. The voltage regulation module includes an interposer situated in a stack between a substrate and the integrated circuit die. The interposer includes a hybrid array of voltage regulation elements for receiving voltage from the power supply and for down-converting the voltage from the power supply into a regulated voltage supplied to the integrated circuit die. The hybrid array of voltage regulation elements includes both high-bandwidth linear regulation elements for providing voltage regulation to areas on the integrated circuit die that intermittently demand relatively high current levels, and low-bandwidth switching regulator elements that are highly power efficient.
US07952191B2
A semiconductor device of the present invention includes a wiring substrate, a plurality of semiconductor chips mounted on the wiring substrate, and a radiation plate arranged over a plurality of semiconductor chips, and having a cooling passage to flow water in a horizontal direction to the wiring substrate. A plurality of semiconductor chips are arranged along the cooling passage, and out of the plurality of semiconductor chips, the semiconductor chip arranged on an inflow side of the cooling passage, has a smaller amount of heat generation than the semiconductor chip arranged on an outflow side of the cooling passage. For example, a memory chip is arranged on the inflow side of the cooling passage, and a logic chip is arranged on the outflow side of the cooling passage.
US07952184B2
Some embodiments include a device having a number of memory cells and associated circuitry for accessing the memory cells. The memory cells of the device may be formed in one or more memory cell dice. The associated circuitry of the device may also be formed in one or more dice, optionally separated from the memory cell dice.
US07952183B2
A element group includes a plurality of semiconductor elements stacked in a step-like shape on a wiring board. The semiconductor elements are electrically connect to connection pads of the wiring board through metal wires. Among the plural semiconductor elements stacked in a step-like shape, the uppermost semiconductor element has a thickness larger than that of the semiconductor element immediately below it.
US07952179B2
A portable memory card and methods of manufacturing same are disclosed. The portable memory includes a substrate having a plurality of holes formed therein. During the encapsulation process, mold compound flows over the top surface of the substrate, through the holes, and down into a recessed section formed in the bottom mold cap plate to form a projection of mold compound on the bottom surface of the substrate.
US07952176B2
A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes providing an integrated circuit having an active side and a non-active side; forming a channel through the integrated circuit; forming an indent, having a flange and an indent side, from a peripheral region of the non-active side; and forming a conformal interconnect, having an offset segment, a sloped segment, and a flange segment, under the indent.
US07952175B2
Provided are a lead frame and a semiconductor package including the same. The lead frame includes a first lead frame portion including a plurality of first leads; an adhesive member disposed such that the first leads are adhered to one surface of the adhesive member; and a second lead frame portion including a plurality of second leads disposed such that the second leads are adhered to the other surface of the adhesive member, wherein the second leads are arranged so as not to overlap with the first leads. The lead frame may optionally include a die pad on which a semiconductor chip is installed.
US07952173B2
A nanometric device comprising a substrate; a plurality of conductive spacers of a conductive material, each conductive spacer being arranged on top of and transverse to the substrate, the conductive spacers including respective pairs of conductive spacers defining respective hosting seats each of less than 30 nm wide; and a plurality of nanometric elements respectively accommodated in the hosting seats.
US07952171B2
A die stack including a die having an annular via with a recessed conductive socket and methods of forming the die stack provide a structure for use in a variety of electronic systems. In an embodiment, a die stack includes a conductive pillar on the top of a die inserted into the recessed conductive socket of another die.
US07952170B2
A system includes a supporting substrate and at least one semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor component includes a semiconductor substrate having a circuit side with integrated circuits and substrate contacts and a back side, a plurality of through interconnects in the substrate, and redistribution conductors on the back side of the substrate. Each through interconnect includes a via aligned with a substrate contact, and a conductive layer at least partially lining the via in physical and electrical contact with the substrate contact. Each redistribution conductor is formed by a portion of the conductive layer.
US07952169B2
An isolation circuit, comprising a first transistor having a gate, a first source/drain terminal, and a second source/drain terminal, a first pad coupled to the gate of the first transistor, the first pad operable to receive an enable signal, a second pad coupled to the first source/drain of the first transistor, the second pad operable to receive a ground potential, a first fuse device coupling the second source/drain terminal to a node, a second fuse device coupling the node to the first pad, a third pad operable to receive a signal to be applied to at least one die, and a second transistor operable to selectively transfer the signal received at the third pad to the at least one die in response to a control signal provided by the node.
US07952156B2
A photoelectric conversion device comprising a photo-electric conversion part including a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer and a photoelectric conversion layer provided between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, wherein light is made incident from an upper part of the second electrode layer into the photoelectric conversion layer; the photoelectric conversion layer generates a charge containing an electron and a hole corresponding to the incident light from the upper part of the second electrode layer; and the first electrode layer works as an electrode for extracting the hole.
US07952155B2
Methods for making a recessed color filter array for a semiconductor imager employing a sidewall spacer for reducing an edge effect from the array are disclosed. In one embodiment, a substrate is provided having an upper surface. Then, a recess is formed into the upper surface of the substrate. The recess has a bottom and a sidewall. Subsequently, a sidewall spacer is formed on the sidewall of the recess. A color resist is deposited into the recess after forming the sidewall spacer. In the embodiment, the sidewall spacer is formed of a material having a surface energy lower than that of a material defining the bottom of the recess. The color resist adheres less to the sidewall than to the bottom of the recess. Thus, the color resist does not conform to a shape of an edge portion of the recess, thereby reducing the edge effect.
US07952154B2
A harsh environment transducer including a substrate having a first surface and a second surface, wherein the second surface is in communication with the environment. The transducer includes a device layer sensor means located on the substrate for measuring a parameter associated with the environment. The sensor means including a single crystal semiconductor material having a thickness of less than about 0.5 microns. The transducer further includes an output contact located on the substrate and in electrical communication with the sensor means. The transducer includes a package having an internal package space and a port for communication with the environment. The package receives the substrate in the internal package space such that the first surface of the substrate is substantially isolated from the environment and the second surface of the substrate is substantially exposed to the environment through the port. The transducer further includes a connecting component coupled to the package and a wire electrically connecting the connecting component and the output contact such that an output of the sensor means can be communicated. An external surface of the wire is substantially platinum, and an external surface of at least one of the output contact and the connecting component is substantially platinum.
US07952152B2
For forming a gate electrode, a conductive film with low resistance including Al or a material containing Al as its main component and a conductive film with low contact resistance for preventing diffusion of Al into a semiconductor layer are laminated, and the gate electrode is fabricated by using an apparatus which is capable of performing etching treatment at high speed.
US07952146B2
An interconnect structure of the single or dual damascene type and a method of forming the same, which substantially reduces the electromigration problem that is exhibited by prior art interconnect structures, are provided. In accordance with the present invention, a grain growth promotion layer, which promotes the formation of a conductive region within the interconnect structure that has a bamboo microstructure and an average grain size of larger than 0.05 microns is utilized. The inventive structure has improved performance and reliability.
US07952145B2
A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, a first p-channel laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) transistor formed over the semiconductor substrate and additional p-channel LDMOS transistors formed over the semiconductor substrate. First drain and gate electrodes are formed over the substrate and are coupled to the first LDMOS transistor. Additional drain and gate electrodes are formed over the substrate and are coupled to the second LDMOS transistor. A common source electrode for the first and second LDMOS transistors is also formed over the substrate.
US07952144B2
A semiconductor device includes a main field effect transistor (FET) and one or more sense FETs, and a common gate pad. The main FET and the one or more sense FETs are formed in a common substrate. The main FET and each of the sense FETs include a source terminal, a gate terminal and a drain terminal. The common gate pad connects the gate terminals of the main FET and the one or more sense FETs. An electrical isolation is disposed between the gate terminals of the main FET and the one or more sense FETs. Embodiments of this invention may be applied to both N-channel and P-channel MOSFET devices.
US07952138B2
An integrated circuit includes a field effect transistor formed in an active area segment of a semiconductor substrate. The transistor comprises: a first source/drain contact region including a first vertical extension and a second source/drain contact region including a second vertical extension and a channel region formed around a recessed channel transistor groove, the groove being formed in the active area segment and extending to a groove depth larger than a lower first contact region depth, wherein the second vertical extension of the second source/drain contact region is arranged above the first extension of the first source/drain contact region, and wherein the recessed channel transistor groove is filled with a conductive gate material at a groove depth lower than the first contact region depth.
US07952137B2
A trench semiconductor device and a method of making the same are provided. The trench semiconductor device includes a trench MOS device and a trench ESD protection device. The trench ESD protection device is electrically connected between the gate electrode and source electrode of the trench MOS device so as to provide ESD protection. The fabrication of the ESD protection device is integrated into the process of the trench MOS device, and therefore no extra mask is required to define the doped regions of the trench ESD protection device. Consequently, the trench semiconductor device is advantageous for its simplified manufacturing process and low cost.
US07952130B2
In an eDRAM-type semiconductor device, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) section and a logic circuit section are formed on a semiconductor substrate, and an insulating layer is formed on the semiconductor substrate. A first capacitor is formed in the insulating layer at the DRAM section, the first capacitor defining a part of memory cell of the DRAM section. A second capacitor is formed in the insulating layer at the logic circuit section. The first capacitor comprises a lower electrode layer formed on an inner wall face of a hole formed in the insulating layer, and the second capacitor comprises a first lower electrode layer portion formed on an inner wall face of a groove formed in the insulating layer, and a second lower electrode layer portion formed on a surface of the insulating layer so as to be integrated with the first lower electrode portion.
US07952128B2
Provided is a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitor, in which trenches (3) are formed in a charge accumulation region (6) of a p-type silicon substrate (1) to reduce a contact area between the p-type silicon substrate (1) and a lightly doped n-type well region (2), thereby reducing a leak current from the lightly doped n-type well region (2) to the p-type silicon substrate (1).
US07952127B2
A storage node structure includes a substrate having thereon a conductive block region; an etching stop layer covering the conductive block region; a conductive layer penetrating the etching stop layer and electrically connecting the conductive block region; an annular shaped conductive spacer on sidewall of the conductive layer, wherein the annular shaped conductive spacer is disposed on the etching stop layer and wherein the annular shaped conductive spacer and the conductive layer constitute a storage node pedestal; and an upper node portion stacked on the storage node pedestal.
US07952118B2
A semiconductor includes a channel region in a semiconductor substrate, a gate dielectric film on the channel region, and a gate on the gate dielectric film. The gate includes a doped metal nitride film, formed from a nitride of a first metal and doped with a second metal which is different from the first metal, and a conductive polysilicon layer formed on the doped metal nitride film. The gate may further include a metal containing capping layer interposed between the doped metal nitride film and the conductive polysilicon layer.
US07952113B2
A flat lighting device (10, 10′) that has light-emitting lighting elements (1) arranged on a carrier, which are connected to current supply and current discharge lines (4′) to supply current. The carrier has the form of a metallic sheet (2), which is covered with an insulating layer (3), on which series connections of a lighting element (3) and a surface resistor (5) are arranged between the current supply and current discharge lines (4′). One lighting element (1) and one surface series resistor (5) of a series connection and the series connections and the current supply and current discharge lines (4′) are connected to one another by conductor paths. There is also a method for producing lighting devices of this type.
US07952111B2
An LED includes a substrate, an LED die, and a packaging layer. The substrate has conductive pins extending therethrough. The LED die is arranged on the substrate and electronically connected to the conductive pins of the substrate. The packaging layer fills in the substrate to encapsulate the LED die therein. A plurality of fillers are distributed in the packaging layer. Each of the fillers has a plurality of nano-particles distributed therein for enhancing a light dispersion of light generated by the LED die.
US07952107B2
An electronically active sheet includes a bottom substrate having a bottom electrically conductive surface. A top substrate having a top electrically conductive surface is disposed facing the bottom electrically conductive surface. An electrical insulator separates the bottom electrically conductive surface from the top electrically conductive surface. At least one bare die electronic element is provided having a top conductive side and a bottom conductive side. Each bare die electronic element is disposed so that the top conductive side is in electrical communication with the top electrically conductive surface and so that the bottom conductive side is in electrical communication with the bottom electrically conductive surface.
US07952105B2
A light-emissive device includes a substrate having a first electrode formed on the substrate. A colloidal light-emitting layer comprising inorganic, light-emissive particles is formed over the first electrode. A second electrode is formed over the light-emitting layer. At least one of the first and second electrodes is transparent. The transparent electrode preferably has a refractive index substantially equal to or greater than the refractive index of the colloidal light-emitting layer. Finally, a light-scattering layer is formed on a side of the transparent electrode opposite the colloidal light-emitting layer.
US07952104B2
A process for manufacturing a thin-film transistor device includes forming a dielectric insulation layer on a substrate, forming an amorphous silicon layer on the dielectric insulation layer, crystallizing the amorphous silicon layer, so as to obtain polycrystalline silicon, forming gate structures on the polycrystalline silicon, and forming first doped regions within the polycrystalline silicon laterally with respect to the gate structures. The crystallizing step includes forming first capping dielectric regions on the amorphous silicon layer, and then irradiating the amorphous silicon layer using a laser so as to form active areas of polycrystalline silicon separated by separation portions of amorphous silicon underlying the first capping dielectric regions.
US07952102B2
In a display device which forms thin film transistors on a substrate, the thin film transistor includes an n-type thin film transistor and a p-type thin film transistor, a gate electrode of one thin film transistor out of the n-type thin film transistor and the p-type thin film transistor forms a metal layer made of a material different from the gate electrode on a gate-insulation-film side thereof, and an LDD layer is formed over a semiconductor layer of at least one of the n-type thin film transistor and the p-type thin film transistor.
US07952095B2
In a display device of the present invention which forms thin film transistors on a substrate, the thin film transistor comprises: a silicon nitride film which is formed on the substrate in a state that the silicon nitride film covers a gate electrode; a silicon oxide film which is selectively formed on the silicon nitride film; a semiconductor layer which is formed at least on an upper surface of the silicon oxide film and includes a pseudo single crystal layer or a polycrystalline layer; and a drain electrode and a source electrode which are formed on an upper surface of the semiconductor layer by way of a contact layer, wherein either one of the pseudo single crystal layer and the poly-crystalline layer is formed by crystallizing the amorphous silicon layer, and a peripheral-side wall surface of the pseudo single crystal layer or the polycrystalline layer is contiguously constituted with a peripheral-side wall surface of the silicon oxide film below the pseudo single crystal layer or the polycrystalline layer without a stepped portion.
US07952094B2
An electro-optical device including a substrate, data lines and scanning lines, thin film transistors being disposed below the data lines and above the substrate. Storage capacitors are disposed over the data lines in a region opposite to the channel region of the thin film transistors in plan view. Each storage capacitor has a pixel-potential-side electrode, a dielectric film, and a fixed-potential-side electrode that have been formed sequentially. The pixel electrodes are disposed over the storage capacitors so as to correspond to the data lines and the scanning lines on the substrate in plan view, and the pixel electrodes are electrically connected to the pixel-potential-side electrodes and the thin film transistors. This abstract is intended only to aid those searching patents, and is not intended to be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims in any manner.
US07952089B2
An object of the invention is to provide a composite material with which a light emitting element can be manufactured to have superior heat resistance, and another is to have durability high enough to be driven stably for a long time. Another object is to provide a composite material with which a light emitting element can be manufactured to achieve both objects. Still another object is to provide a composite material with which a light emitting element can be manufactured to achieve the above objects and to have little increase in power consumption. One feature of a composite material of the invention which can achieve the above objects is to comprise an organic-inorganic hybrid material in which an organic group is covalently bonded to silicon in a skeleton composed of siloxane bonds, and a material which is capable of accepting or donating electrons from or to the organic group.
US07952079B2
An angle-responsive sensor, comprising: a radiation detector adapted to detect ionizing radiation; at least one radiation absorbing element arranged to block radiation from reaching said detector in a manner dependent on a relative orientation of a radiation source, said detector and said element, said detector and said element defining an aim for said sensor; and circuitry coupled to said detector and which generates an output signal which varies as a function of said relative orientation, wherein said detector and said element are arranged to have a working volume of at least 10 cm in depth and having an angular width, such that said signal defines an accuracy of better than 3 mm within one standard deviation, over said working volume.
US07952078B2
A neutron detector including an anode and a cathode. The cathode extends proximate the anode and has a face including boron. The face has varied topography. The varied provides increased surface density.
US07952076B2
A radiation imaging system is configured by a collimator 30A including a detector 21 with a discrete detection pixel corresponding with a pixel and a plurality of radiation passages 31 and looks into a plurality of detectors 21 through one radiation passage 31 to set a step width of rotation around a rotation center axis X1 only for an angle θp made by lines provided by connecting a center detector 21 of the radiation passage 31 and the adjacent two detectors 21. In the case of generating a flat plane projection image for one direction, radio-graphing is carried out on a projection image in a plurality of predetermined angle positions (−θp, 0, +θp) in the circumferential direction of the rotation center axis X1 and thereby one plane projection image is obtained.
US07952075B2
A method of detecting an activator, the method including impinging a receptor material that is not predominately water and lacks a photoluminescent material with an activator and generating Cherenkov effect light due to the activator impinging the receptor material. The method further including identifying a characteristic of the activator based on the light.
US07952073B2
An apparatus for use with an electron beam for imaging a sample. The apparatus has a down-conversion detector configured to detect an electron microscopy signal generated by the electron beam incident on the sample, a direct bombardment detector adjacent to the down-conversion detector and configured to detect the electron microscopy signal, and a mechanism selectively exposing the down-conversion detector and the direct bombardment detector to the electron microscopy signal. A method using the apparatus is also provided.
US07952068B2
Provided are methods for determining the amount of one or more of one or more of epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (D) in a sample using mass spectrometry. The methods generally involve ionizing one or more of E, NE, and D in a sample and detecting and quantifying the amount of the ion to determine the amount of one or more of E, NE, and D in the sample.
US07952067B2
Provided are methods for determining the amount of vitamin C in a sample using mass spectrometry. The methods generally involve ionizing vitamin C in a sample and detecting and quantifying the amount of the ion to determine the amount of vitamin C in the sample.
US07952062B2
A photodetector integrated circuit (PDIC) capable of being used with at least two different types of optical discs includes a photodetector (PD) array and a switch matrix. The PD array includes a center channel PD and a side channel PD electrically isolated from the center channel PD. The switch matrix, which includes a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, can be selectively configured in a plurality of different switch configurations. The side channel PD includes a plurality of electrically isolated PD sections. Each electrically isolated PD section of the side channel PD is adapted to detect light and provide an electrical output signal, indicative of the light detected by the PD section, to a different one of the inputs of the switch matrix. The switch matrix is adapted to combine the electrical output signals provided by the electrically isolated PD sections of the side channel PD in a plurality of different manners, in dependence on which of the plurality of different switch configurations is selected.
US07952047B2
An improved automatic feedback control scheme enhances plasma spraying of powdered material through reduction of process variability and providing better ability to engineer coating structure. The present inventors discovered that controlling centroid position of the spatial distribution along with other output parameters, such as particle temperature, particle velocity, and molten mass flux rate, vastly increases control over the sprayed coating structure, including vertical and horizontal cracks, voids, and porosity. It also allows improved control over graded layers or compositionally varying layers of material, reduces variations, including variation in coating thickness, and allows increasing deposition rate. Various measurement and system control schemes are provided.
US07952041B2
An active-matrix device includes a substrate; a plurality of pixel electrodes provided on a first surface of the substrate; a plurality of switching elements provided to correspond to each of the pixel electrodes, each of the switching elements including a fixed electrode connected to the each pixel electrode, a movable electrode displaceably provided to contact with and separate from the fixed electrode, a driving electrode provided to oppose the movable electrode via an electrostatic gap, and an adhesion-preventing mechanism that prevents adhesion between the movable electrode and the driving electrode; a first wiring connected to the movable electrode; and a second wiring connected to the driving electrode, in which a voltage is applied between the movable electrode and the driving electrode to generate an electrostatic attraction between the movable electrode and the driving electrode so as to displace the movable electrode such that the movable electrode contacts with the fixed electrode to electrically connect the first wiring to the pixel electrode.
US07952038B1
A two-stage switch apparatus includes: a PCB including first and second electrodes; a conductive dome disposed on the PCB; an insulating film covering a surface of the conductive dome on a side opposite to the PCB, and third and fourth electrodes above the conductive dome; and a button actuator provided over a side of the insulating film, which is opposite the PCB. The button actuator includes a conductive elastic body protruding to the side of the insulating film at positions corresponding to both the third and fourth electrodes. An analog portion is formed by the conductive elastic body, the third electrode and the fourth electrode, when the conductive elastic body contacts both the third and fourth electrodes. A digital portion is formed by the conductive dome and the second electrode, when the button actuator is pressed and the conductive dome is indented.
US07952033B2
A microstructure comprises a laminate structure having a first conductor, a second conductor, and an intervening insulator located between the first and the second conductors. The first conductor includes opposite faces in relation to the second conductor, side faces, and edge parts which form the boundaries of the aforementioned opposite faces and side faces. The second conductor includes an extended face extending beyond the edge parts exceeding the first conductor. The insulation film includes an area covering at least part of an edge part and/or at least part of a side face.
US07952027B2
A device for managing a plurality of cables in a multi-cable environment includes a stationary member having a plurality of stationary channel portions. At least one movable member is movably secured to the stationary member. The at least one movable member has a plurality of movable channel portions corresponding in number and general configuration to the plurality of stationary channel portions. A plurality of indicia-bearing areas are provided, corresponding in number, and adjacent, to the plurality of stationary channel portions. The at least one moveable member is moveable between a cable placement position in which cables can be placed in the respective stationary channel portions, and a cable retaining position in which the cables are secured in channels formed by the cooperation of the stationary channel portions and the movable channel portions.
US07952020B2
A water stopping structure includes a water stopping member that has an outer peripheral face which is inclined with respect to an axis direction of a shielded wire, and that is adapted to contract a diameter thereof and attached on an outer face of the shielded wire in a state that the outer peripheral face of the water stopping member is positioned to an end portion of the sheath which is adjacent to an exposed portion of the outer sheath, and a fastening ring that has an inner peripheral face which is corresponded to the outer peripheral face of the water stopping member in inclination. The fastening ring is slid in the axis direction of the shielded wire so as to press the end portion of the sheath of the shielded wire for contracting the diameter of the water stopping member in a state that the inner peripheral face of the fastening ring is arranged on the outer peripheral face of the water stopping member.
US07952015B2
The invention relates to a thermoelectrically active p- or n-conductive semiconductor material constituted by a compound of the general formula (I) (PbTe)1−x(Sn2±ySb2±zTe5)x (I) with 0.0001≦x≦0.5, 0≦y<2 and 0≦z<2, wherein 0 to 10% by weight of the compound may be replaced by other metals or metal compounds, wherein the semiconductor material has a Seebeck coefficient of at least |S|≧60 μV/K at a temperature of 25° C. and electrical conductivity of at least 150 S/cm and power factor of at least 5 μW/(cm·K2), further relates to a process for the preparation of such semiconductor materials, as well as to generators and Peltier arrangements containing them.
US07952014B2
A digital guitar system and method includes a digital guitar and a digital guitar interface device, and a method of converting a conventional guitar into a digital guitar. The guitar is adapted to generate analog audio signals, convert those signals into digital signals, format the digital signals according to a digital communication protocol, and to output the formatted signals. The guitar may include a novel multi-signal guitar pickup that generates some of the analog audio signals. The guitar is further adapted to receive digital signals, convert those signals into analog signals, and output the analog signals. The interface device is adapted to receive digital signals, convert those signals into analog signals, and output the analog signals.
US07952012B2
A computer implemented method allows a DAW to adjust a variable tempo of an audio file independent of a global tempo. The method includes causing the display of a musical arrangement having a global tempo. The musical arrangement includes an audio file having a variable tempo which is independent of the global tempo. The method includes adjusting the variable tempo of the audio file, wherein the variable tempo begins at an initial tempo and adjusts to an end tempo over a set length of time. The method can also include outputting the audio file having the variable tempo in response to a command to play the musical arrangement.
US07952011B2
A key having a key-depression surface with a woody characteristic and durability without the need of a surface treatment and capable of being formed from a simple-shaped uncompressed wood. A key for use as a black key includes a resin part and a compressed wood part secured at its lower surface to an upper surface of the resin part. The compressed wood part is used to constitute a portion of a key top including an upper surface and positioned above an upper surface of white keys which are in a non-key-depression state. The compressed wood part is obtained by compression molding of unprocessed wood. The compressed density in the vertical direction in the compressed wood part is higher toward rearward from a front end of the compressed wood part.
US07952010B2
A keyboard device has a plurality of keys, each key having a support base where one end of each key is supported and is arranged to allow for movement, and a plate that hides the surface of the base. The keys are created with ultrasonic welding once the base and the plate merge. Thus, it is possible to weld while merging the base and the plate together, because the base and the plate are connected by ultrasonic welding. Compared to pasting the two together using traditional adhesives, it is possible to have the base securely bound to the plate. It is then possible to have performers use the device for an extended period of time. The result is the ability to curb the chances of the base and the plate becoming loose.
US07952005B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH677070. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH677070, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH677070 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH677070.
US07952002B2
According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the hybrid corn variety designated CH193307. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CH193307, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CH193307 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to genetic complements of plants of variety CH193307.
US07952001B1
According to the invention, there is provided a novel soybean variety designated XB15M09. This invention thus relates to the seeds of soybean variety XB15M09, to the plants of soybean XB15M09 to plant parts of soybean variety XB15M09 and to methods for producing a soybean plant produced by crossing plants of the soybean variety XB15M09 with another soybean plant, using XB15M09 as either the male or the female parent.
US07951998B2
The present invention is in the field of plant breeding and genetics, particularly as it pertains to the genus, Glycine. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for screening soybean plants containing one or more quantitative trait loci for disease resistance, species of Glycine having such loci and methods for breeding for and screening of Glycine with such loci. The invention further relates to the use of exotic germplasm in a breeding program.
US07951995B2
Compositions and methods related to transgenic glyphosate/ALS inhibitor-tolerant soybean plants are provided. Specifically, soybean plants having a 3560.4.3.5 event which imparts tolerance to glyphosate and at least one ALS-inhibiting herbicide are provided. The soybean plant harboring the 3560.4.3.5 event at the recited chromosomal location comprises genomic/transgene junctions having at least the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:10 and/or 11. The characterization of the genomic insertion site of the 3560.4.3.5 event provides for an enhanced breeding efficiency and enables the use of molecular markers to track the transgene insert in the breeding populations and progeny thereof. Various methods and compositions for the identification, detection, and use of the soybean 3560.4.3.5 events are provided.
US07951991B2
The invention provides polynucleotides encoding plant prenyl protease polypeptides, vectors, host cells, and transgenic plant comprising the polynucleotides. The invention also provides methods of producing transgenic plants that have altered levels of prenyl protease polynucleotides and polypeptides, and transgenic plants that have increased tolerance to an environmental stress as compared to a wild type plant.
US07951989B2
The present invention provides methods of screening an agent for activity using teleosts. Methods of screening an agent for angiogenesis activity, toxic activity and an effect cell death activity in teleosts are provided. Methods of screening an agent for an activity in the brain or central nervous system in zebrafish are provided. The invention further provides high throughput methods of screening agents in multi-well plates.
US07951986B2
Disclosed herein is a process and catalyst for producing an ethylbenzene feed from a polyethylbenzene feed, comprising the step of contacting a benzene feed with a polyethylbenzene feed under at least partial liquid phase conditions in the presence of a zeolite beta catalyst having a phosphorus content in the range of 0.01 wt. % to 0.5 wt. % of said catalyst, to provide a product which comprises ethylbenzene.
US07951979B2
Trisubstituted phenol compounds and methods of using the compounds, e.g., for anesthetizing a subject, are disclosed.
US07951977B2
The present invention provides; a process for producing a compound (IV) comprising a step of reacting a compound (I) with a compound (II) in the presence of an optionally substituted cyclic secondary amine to obtain a compound (III) and a step of sequentially or simultaneously eliminating R1 and R2 from the compound (III), and then cyclizing the R1- and R2-eliminated compound to obtain the compound represented by the formula (IV); a process for producing a high purity compound (IV); an intermediate thereof; and a process for producing an intermediate.
US07951964B2
A fluorine-containing boronic acid ester compound (R1: a linear or branched divalent aliphatic hydrocarbon group having 2 to 10 carbon atom, m: 1 to 5, and n: 3 to 7) having a low melting point is produced by reacting a 3,5-dihalogeno fluorine-containing phenol derivative with a dialkoxyborane The fluorine-containing boronic acid ester compound is highly soluble in organic solvents and has a low melting point. The fluorine-containing boronic acid ester compound can suitably be used as a starting material for the production of conjugated polymer materials or as a curing agent for elastomeric polymer materials.
US07951963B2
A Process for production of 1-(3-(2-(1-benzothiophen-5-yl)ethoxy)propyl)azetidin-3-ol or salts thereof which comprises using as a starting compound as a (phenylthio)acetic acid derivative or salts thereof represented by the general formula: wherein X1 represents a halogen atom, is useful as a safe process for mass production of 1-(3-(2-(1-benzothiophen-5-yl)ethoxy)propyl)azetidin-3-ol or salts thereof which is useful as a remedy for disease of central and peripheral nerve.
US07951962B2
An organic semiconductor compound is represented by a general formula 1: wherein A and B each are an aromatic ring with a conjugated electron system and X and Y each are DR2, ER or G in which D denotes any of C, Si, Ge and Sn, E denotes any of N, P, As and Bi, G denotes any of O, S, Se and Te and R denotes any of H, an alkyl group and an aryl group.
US07951952B2
The invention concerns a novel method for preparing N-aminopiperidine of formula (I):
US07951951B2
The present invention relates to novel bicyclic enamino(thio)carbonyl compounds, to processes for their preparation and to their use for controlling animal pests, especially arthropods, in particular insects.
US07951946B2
A light-emitting material comprising a compound having a partial structure represented by following formula (21) or a tautomer thereof:
US07951945B2
A compound represented by following formula (24): wherein R11 and R12 each represents a substituent; m1 represents an integer of from 0 to 4; m2 represents an integer of from 0 to 6; Z2 represents an atomic group which forms an aryl ring or a heteroaryl ring; Z3 represents an atomic group which forms a nitrogen-containing heteroaryl ring; and n1 represents an integer of from 1 to 3.
US07951941B2
Methods of preparing 5-alkyl-7H-pyrrolo[2,3-d]pyrimidin-4-ols are described, as are novel compounds useful in their preparation. A specific method encompassed by the invention is represented in the following scheme:
US07951939B2
A method of making a porphyrin is carried out by: (a) condensing (i) a 1,9-bis(N,N-)dialkylaminomethyl)dipyrromethane of Formula II: with (ii) a dipyrromethane to produce a reaction product; then (b) oxidizing the reaction product; and then (c) optionally demetallating said reaction product to produce the porphyrin. The reaction is particularly useful for making substituted porphyrins with a wide range of substituents at the A and/or B (the 5 and/or 15) positions.
US07951936B2
A process for producing a polysaccharide sponge comprises the steps of (A) freezing a photoreactive polysaccharide solution, and (B) irradiating the frozen photoreactive polysaccharide solution with light to crosslink the photoreactive polysaccharide, thereby obtaining the polysaccharide sponge. The process includes simplified steps requiring no removal of solvent, and has such an advantage that impurities are easily removed therefrom.
US07951934B2
Disclosed herein are compounds, compositions and methods for modulating the expression of huntingtin in a cell, tissue or animal. Further provided are methods of slowing or preventing Huntington's disease progression using an antisense compound targeted to huntingtin. Additionally provided are methods of delaying or preventing the onset of Huntingtin's disease in an individual susceptible to Huntingtin's Disease. Also provided are uses of disclosed compounds and compositions in the manufacture of a medicament for treatment of diseases and disorders.
US07951928B2
To provide a novel protein that can be a preventive/remedy in neurodegenerative diseases such as polyglutamine diseases based on the finding obtained by revealing the relationship between transcriptional dysfunction and neuronal death. Disclosed is a protein that is one of the following proteins (a) and (b). (a) A protein including an amino acid sequence represented by any one of SEQ ID NOS: 1 to 3. (b) A protein including an amino acid sequence in which one to several amino acids are deleted, substituted or added in the amino acid sequence of (a), the protein having a dominant negative effect on a transcriptional activation factor YAP.
US07951924B2
In one aspect, the present invention concerns RhoB variant polypeptides and isolated degenerate polynucleotides encoding the RhoB variant polypeptides. In another aspect, the present invention concerns nucleic acid constructs containing a polynucleotide encoding a RhoB variant polypeptide, and host cells genetically modified to express such polynucleotides. In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of inhibiting the growth of, and inducing apoptosis in, cancerous cells by contacting the cells with an effective amount of a RhoB variant.
US07951923B2
The present invention provides nucleic acid molecules encoding a fluorescent and chromo-proteins and mutants, variants and derivatives thereof, as well as proteins and peptides encoded by these nucleic acids. The nucleic acid molecules and proteins of interest are isolated from non-Aequorea Hydrozoa species. The proteins of interest include yellow fluorescent protein, phiYFP, from Phialidium sp., green fluorescent protein hydr1GFP and purple chromoprotein, hm2CP from hydroid medusae of sub-order Anthomedusae. Also of interest are proteins that are substantially similar to, or derivatives, or homologues, or mutants of, the above-referenced specific proteins. Also provided are fragments of the nucleic acids and the peptides encoded thereby, as well as antibodies specific to the proteins and peptides of the invention. In addition, host-cells, stable cell lines and transgenic organisms comprising above-referenced nucleic acid molecules are provided. The subject protein and nucleic acid compositions find use in a variety of different applications and methods, particularly for labeling of biomolecules, cell or cell organelles. Finally, kits for use in such methods and applications are provided.
US07951922B2
There are provided a novel optical information recording material or medium excellent in various holographic optical information recording properties such as sensitivity, response speed, long-term storage stability, and repeatability, and a substance therefor. A photoresponsive heterocyclic azo compound contains an oligomer or polymer having a photoresponsive moiety in at least one of the main chain and side chain, and the photoresponsive moiety is a building block represented by the following formula (1): wherein HC1 and HC2 each represent a ring structure, at least one of them being a heterocyclic structure containing 1 or more heteroatom in the ring, R1 and R2 each represent a hydrogen atom or a substituent connected to the ring structure and may be the same or different ones, s and t each represent the number thereof, and X1 and X2 each represent a terminal group or a linking group, at least one of them being a linking group connected to the main chain of the oligomer or polymer and the terminal group being a hydrogen atom or a substituent.
US07951921B2
Provided herein are targetable constructs that are multivalent carriers of bi-specific antibodies, i.e., each molecule of a targetable construct can serve as a carrier of two or more bi-specific antibodies. Also provided are targetable complexes formed by the association of a targetable construct with two or more bi-specific antibodies. The targetable constructs and targetable complexes of the invention are incorporated into biosensors, kits and pharmaceutical compositions, and are used in a variety of therapeutic and other methods.
US07951919B2
Molecules that interfere with the binding of a tumor necrosis factor receptor with its ligand, such as a soluble receptor, have proven usefulness in both basic research and as therapeutics. The present invention provides improved soluble transmembrane activator and calcium modulator and cyclophilin ligand-interactor (TACI) receptors.
US07951918B2
The invention is based, at least in part, on the development of stabilized binding molecules that consist of or comprise a stabilized scFv and methods for making such stabilized molecules.
US07951911B2
Peptides have been generated that have binding affinity to carbon nanostructures and particularly carbon nanotubes. Peptides of or the invention are generally about twelve amino acids in length. Methods for generating carbon nanotube binding peptides are also disclosed.
US07951905B2
The present invention generally relates to tetrahydropyranyl-derivatized amino acids, their syntheses and their incorporation into peptides and peptidomimetics. The tetrahydropyran moiety constrains the side chain of an amino acid, thereby providing a molecule that may act as a sugar- or amino acid-mimetic as well as a scaffold for combinatorial synthesis.
US07951901B2
The production of electrically conductive polythiophenes by reaction of 2,5-dihalogen-3,4-ethylene dioxythiophenes with 3,4-ethylene dioxythiophenes in a solvent or liquid phase is provided. These polythiophenes can be used as a plastic or lacquer additive to provide antistatic properties.
US07951899B2
An enzymatic process for preparing aliphatic polycarbonates via terpolymerization or transesterification using a dialkyl carbonate, an aliphatic diester, and an aliphatic diol or triol reactant. A catalyst having an enzyme capable of catalyzing an ester hydrolysis reaction in an aqueous environment is subsequently added to the reaction mixture. Next, polymerization of the reaction proceeds for an allotted time at a temperature ≦100° C. Finally, the copolymer is isolated from an the catalyst via filtration.
US07951898B2
The present invention relates to biodegradable biocompatible polyketals, methods for their preparation, and methods for treating animals by administration of biodegradable biocompatible polyketals. In one aspect, a method for forming the biodegradable biocompatible polyketals comprises combining a glycol-specific oxidizing agent with a polysaccharide to form an aldehyde intermediate, which is combined with a reducing agent to form the biodegradable biocompatible polyketal. The resultant biodegradable biocompatible polyketals can be chemically modified to incorporate additional hydrophilic moieties. A method for treating animals includes the administration of the biodegradable biocompatible polyketal in which biologically active compounds or diagnostic labels can be disposed. The present invention also relates to chiral polyketals, methods for their preparation, and methods for use in chromatographic applications, specifically in chiral separations. A method for forming the chiral polyketals comprises combining a glycol-specific oxidizing agent with a polysaccharide to form an aldehyde intermediate, which is combined with a suitable reagent to form the chiral polyketal. A method for use in chiral separations includes the incorporation of the chiral polyketals in the mobile phase during a chromatographic separation, or into chiral stationary phases such as gels. The present invention further relates to chiral polyketals as a source for chiral compounds, and methods for generating such chiral compounds.
US07951892B1
Doped polysilanes, inks containing the same, and methods for their preparation and use are disclosed. The doped polysilane generally has the formula H-[AaHb(DRx)m]q-[(AcHdR1e)n]p—H, where each instance of A is independently Si or Ge, and D is B, P, As or Sb. In preferred embodiments, R is H, -AfHf+1R2f, alkyl, aryl or substituted aryl, and R1 is independently H, halogen, aryl or substituted aryl. In one aspect, the method of making a doped poly(aryl)silane generally includes the steps of combining a doped silane of the formula AaHb+2(DRx)m (optionally further including a silane of the formula AcHd+2R1e) with a catalyst of the formula R4wR5yMXz (or an immobilized derivative thereof) to form a doped poly(aryl)silane, then removing the metal M. In another aspect, the method of making a doped polysilane includes the steps of halogenating a doped polyarylsilane, and reducing the doped halopolysilane with a metal hydride to form the doped polysilane. The synthesis of semiconductor inks via dehydrocoupling of doped silanes and/or germanes allows for tuning of the ink properties (e.g., viscosity, boiling point, surface tension and dopant level or concentration) and for deposition of doped silicon films or islands by spincoating, inkjetting, dropcasting, etc., with or without the use of UV irradiation.
US07951891B2
A silicone resin composition for die bonding is provided. The composition includes (A) a straight-chain organopolysiloxane having silicon-bonded alkenyl groups, and with a viscosity of no more than 1,000 mPa·s, (B) a three dimensional network-type organopolysiloxane resin that is either wax-like or solid at 23° C., (C) an organohydrogenpolysiloxane having SiH groups, and (D) a platinum-group metal-based catalyst. The composition produces a cured product with a high hardness, and good heat resistance, transparency, and light transmittance in the low wavelength region.
US07951889B2
In an embodiment, a method is disclosed to increase the activity of an ionic liquid catalyst comprising emulsifying the ionic liquid catalyst with one or more liquid components. In an embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising introducing into a reaction zone a monomer feed and a reduced amount of ionic liquid catalyst and controlling an amount of shear present in the reaction zone to maintain a desired conversion reaction of the monomer. In an embodiment, a catalyzed reaction system is disclosed comprising a reactor configured to receive one or more liquid components and ionic liquid catalyst; a device coupled to the reactor for adding high shear to the liquid components and ionic liquid catalyst; and a controller coupled to the device for adding high shear and configured to control the amount of shear added to a catalyzed reaction zone to maintain a conversion reaction.
US07951888B2
The present invention relates to a linear ethylenic block copolymer comprising in each block at least one ionic hydrophilic unit, which may be different from one block to another, the said ionic hydrophilic unit being present in each block in a proportion of from 2% to 100% by weight relative to the weight of the said block.The invention also relates to a cosmetic or pharmaceutical composition comprising such a copolymer, and also to a cosmetic process for making up or caring for keratin materials using the said composition.
US07951885B2
The present invention relates to a hydrophilic crosslinked polymer, preferably in the form of porous particles, and to the preparation and use thereof. The polymer according to the invention is produced by polymerisation from chain-forming hydrophilic vinyl ethers and crosslinking, preferably heterocyclic divinyl ethers.
US07951881B2
A method comprising (a) providing a catalyst comprising chromium and a support having a pore volume of from about 1.7 ml/g to about 3.5 ml/g and a surface area of from about 450 m2/g to about 700 m2/g, (b) oxidizing the catalyst to form an oxidized catalyst, (c) reducing the oxidized catalyst to form an oxidized reduced catalyst, (d) oxidizing the oxidized reduced catalyst to form an activated catalyst, (e) contacting the activated catalyst with an olefin under conditions suitable to form a polyolefin, and (f) recovering the polyolefin, wherein the polyolefin has a density of greater than about 0.960 g/cc and a melt index of from about 1.3 g/10 min. to about 2.8 g/10 min.
US07951876B2
A multi-functional polymer defined by the formula (Q-R¦n—Z—P2—Y where (Q-R)n is a functionality cluster, Q is a functional group, R is a multi-valent organic group, P2 is a long-chain polymer, n is an integer from about 2 to about 10, Y is a proton, a weak functional group, or a selective functional group, and Z is a branch point where the functionality clusters join the long-chain polymer.
US07951874B2
A K type of copolyarylborane: wherein hydrogen atoms are bonded to the ends; Arn represents at least one of Ar1, Ar2, and Ar3; each of Ar1 and Ar2 represents an arylene radical; Ar3 represents an heteroaromatic arylene radical; Ar1 has a π electron density of no less than that of benzene; Ar2 is capable of hole transport; Ar3 has a π electron density of no greater than that of benzene and less than that of Ar1; x, y, and z respectively represent the molar parts of Ar1, Ar2, and Ar3; each of x, y, and z is in the range of 0-1, and x+y+z=1; and R represents an aryl radical. This K type of copolyarylborane may be of use for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells, organic photodetectors, and organic field-effect transistors.
US07951870B2
Golf ball compositions having in-situ or reactive impact modified silicone-urea or silicone urethane
Modified silicone urea and modified silicone urethane polymers for use in golf equipment components to provide improved impact resistance upon contact with a golf club including reactive polymer alloys formed in situ from silicone-ureas and/or silicone-urethanes and impact resistant polymers and oligomers.
US07951862B2
The present disclosure presents materials comprising hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated polymerized vegetable oils. Non-limiting applications of the polymerized oils, including coatings, binders, blends, and greases are presented. Methods for forming these materials are also disclosed.
US07951857B2
The present invention relates to bituminous compositions suitable for use in paving applications containing water-in-oil bitumen dispersion of paving grade bitumen such as penetration-graded, viscosity-graded and/or penetration-graded varieties that is substantially free of volatile solvents and made by controlling temperature-dependent interfacial rheology through the use of selected surfactants. The invention paving compositions are suitable for use in the construction of load-bearing, high-traffic pavements at a temperature range lower than that required for conventional hot-mix bituminous paving compositions, yet with similar or superior compaction to densities property and at least equal cure rate.
US07951854B2
An ink composition includes: first particles which are insoluble and dispersed in an aqueous dispersion medium, a polarity of the first particles being one of positive and negative; and second particles which are insoluble and dispersed in the aqueous dispersion medium, the second particles including both a cationic group and an anionic group, the second particles having a zeta potential that changes along with a change in pH of the aqueous dispersion medium, percentage of a water-soluble component in the second particles being not higher than 5% by mass.
US07951850B2
A method of forming carbon nanotube-polymer composites includes the steps of forming a mixture solution including a plurality of carbon nanotubes dispersed in a co-solvent. The co-solvent includes an organic solvent and a second solvent being a short chain fluorinated carboxylic acid having a boiling point below 150° C. which is less oxidizing than nitric acid, and is soluble in both the organic solvent and water. The first polymer is mixed with the mixture solution to form a polymer including mixture. The co-solvent is removed from the polymer mixture to form a dispersed nanotube-polymer composite. The second solvent can be trifluoroacetic acid.
US07951838B2
The present invention comprises a new class of compounds useful for the modulation of Beta-secretase enzyme activity and for the treatment of Beta-secretase mediated diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related conditions. In one embodiment, the compounds have a general Formula I wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, A1, A2, A3, A4, X and Z are defined herein. The invention also includes use of these compounds in pharmaceutical compositions for treatment, prophylactic or therapeutic, of disorders and conditions related to the activity of beta-secretase protein. Such disorders include, for example, Alzheimer's Disease (AD), cognitive deficits and impairment, schizophrenia and other similar central nervous system conditions. The invention also comprises further embodiments of Formula II, intermediates and processes useful for the preparation of compounds of Formulas I and II.
US07951832B2
The present invention provides compounds having the general structure I, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof: wherein X is a six-member ring selected from phenyl, pyridine, or pyrimidine; Y is H, an alkenyl, a substituted alkenyl, or alkynyl, and R is H or alkyl. Pharmaceutical compositions for treating various disorders such as cancers, the compositions including compound I are also provided.
US07951824B2
The present invention relates to novel pyridine-2-carboxyamide derivatives of formula (I) useful as metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonists: wherein Y, Z, R1, R2 and R3 are as defined in the specification herein.
US07951822B2
The object is to provide a novel LXRβ agonist that is useful as a preventative and/or therapeutic agent for atherosclerosis; arteriosclerosis such as those resulting from diabetes; dyslipidemia; hypercholesterolemia; lipid-related diseases; inflammatory diseases that are caused by inflammatory cytokines; skin diseases such as allergic skin diseases; diabetes; or Alzheimer's disease. The solving means is a 1,3-dihydroisobenzofuran derivative represented by the following general formula (1) or salt thereof, or their solvate.
US07951815B2
Novel 1,4,8-triazaspiro[4,5]decan-2-one compounds corresponding to formula I processes for the preparation thereof, related methods of treatment and pharmaceutical formulations containing such compounds.
US07951794B2
The invention relates to novel thiophene derivatives, their preparation and their use as pharmaceutically active compounds. Said compounds particularly act as immunosuppressive agents.
US07951784B2
The invention features chemically modified small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that are stable in vivo and retain the ability to form an A-form helix when in association with a target RNA. The features siRNA are effective therapeutics, particularly for targeting SOD1.
US07951781B2
Embodiments include compositions and methods for lower the surface tension of a liquid-air interface by contacting such interface with all or part of a PLUNC polypeptide.
US07951779B2
The present invention relates to a method of protecting cells against damage caused at least in part by apoptosis, comprising administering to subjects a therapeutic dose of leumorphin having cytoprotective activity, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising an effective amount of leumorphin having a cytoprotective activity.
US07951776B2
The present invention relates generally to the identification of biological markers associated with an increased risk of developing Diabetes, as well as methods of using such biological markers in diagnosis and prognosis of Diabetes. The biological markers of the invention may indicate new targets for therapy or constitute new therapeutics for the treatment or prevention of Diabetes.
US07951773B2
Disclosed is a process for preparing a compound of formula (I) by protecting the secondary amide nitrogen atom in the compound of formula (III) to obtain (IV) wherein PGN is a suitable nitrogen protecting group, ring-closing the compound of formula (IV) by cyclizing it in the presence of a suitable catalyst in a suitable organic solvent to obtain (V), and then deprotecting the resulting compound of formula (V) to obtain (I), as outlined in the following scheme. The compounds of formula (I) are active agents for the treatment of hepatitis C viral (HCV) infections or are intermediates useful for the preparation of anti-HCV agents.
US07951768B2
A laundry detergent composition comprising an amphiphilic graft polymer based on water-soluble polyalkylene oxides as a graft base and side chains formed by polymerization of a vinyl ester component, said polymer having an average of less than or equal to one graft site per 50 alkylene oxide units and a mean molar mass of from about 3,000 to about 100,000; from about 0.2% to about 8% of organic solvent; and from about 2% to about 20% of a surfactant system; wherein said detergent composition is in a form selected from: liquid; gel; and combinations thereof.
US07951761B2
A cleaning composition for removing organic deposits from hard to reach surfaces. In its basic embodiment, the cleaning composition comprises: a) a water miscible solvent; b) an inorganic salt; and c) water. The amount of the inorganic salt is at least 20% of the total composition by weight, with at least some of the salt existing in crystalline form at 20° C.
US07951756B2
The present invention relates to a system wherein a pair of relatively movable, facing DLC contact surfaces at least one of which is coated with a DLC film, are further lowered in friction, and the low friction property is stably maintained. The present invention also relates to a lubricant for the system, and a lubricating method. The lubricant for the system having the DLC contact surfaces contains lubricant base oil (A) mainly composed of base oil (X), and sulfur-containing molybdenum complex (B). The base oil (X) is at least one of hydrocracked mineral oils, wax-isomerized mineral oils, and poly-α-olefin base oils, and has a kinematic viscosity of 2 to 20 mm2/s at 100° C., a total aromatic content of not higher than 5 mass %, and a total sulfur content of not higher than 0.005 mass %.
US07951754B2
Environmentally friendly compounds for corrosion inhibition and hydrocarbonaceous deposit removal and methods using such compounds are disclosed and claimed. The compounds are derivatives of heterocyclic bis-quaternary molecules having an amido moiety and are applicable to a variety of oil and gas operations.
US07951752B2
A compound of formula (I): F1 Het is a 5- or 6-membered heterocyclic ring containing one to three heteroatoms, each independently selected from oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur, the ring being substituted by groups R4, R5 and R6; R1 is hydrogen or halo; R2 is hydrogen or halo; R3 is optionally substituted C2-12 alkyl, optionally substituted C2-12 alkenyl, optionally substituted C2-12 alkynyl, optionally substituted C3-12 cycloalkyl, optionally substituted phenyl or optionally substituted heterocyclyl; and R4, R5 and R6 are, independently, selected from hydrogen, halo, cyano, nitro, C1-4 haloalkyl, C1-4 alkoxyl (C(1-4) alkoxyl (C1-4) alkyl and C1-4 haloalkoxy (C1-4) alkyl, provided that at least one of R4, R5 and R6 is not hydrogen. The compounds of formula (I) have plant-protective properties and are suitable for protecting plants against infestations by phytopathogenic microorganisms.
US07951747B1
Transition Metal Sulfides (TMS), such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), are the petroleum industry's “workhorse” catalysts for upgrading heavy petroleum feedstocks and removing sulfur, nitrogen and other pollutants from fuels. We have developed an improved synthesis technique to produce SLTMS catalysts, such as molybdenum disulfide, with potentially greater activity and specificity than those currently available. Applications for this technology include heavy feed upgrading, in-situ catalysis, bio-fuel conversion and coal liquefaction.
US07951743B2
Disclosed is a method of preparing an ultra-high molecular weight, linear low density polyethylene with a catalyst system that comprises a bridged indenoindolyl transition metal complex, a non-bridged indenoindolyl transition metal complex, an alumoxane activator and a boron-containing activator. The ultra-high molecular weight, linear low density polyethylene has a weight average molecular weight greater than 1,000,000 and a density less than 0.940 g/cm3.
US07951742B2
A gas stream containing nitrous oxide and ammonia is contacted with a catalyst composition containing a zeolite. N2O is reduced to N2 and H2O at low temperatures in a highly efficient manner. Ammonia-mediated reduction of nitrous oxide can be effectuated from gas streams having N2O concentrations as low as 1%. The gas stream may also contact a catalytic composition selective for the reduction of NOx. In this way, N2O and NOx treatment may be effectuated in a single process stream.
US07951740B2
A method for regenerating desulfurization sorbents that minimizes the in situ formation of one or more silicates. It has been discovered that regenerating sulfur-laden sorbent particles in a carbon oxide-rich environment unexpectedly reduces the in situ silicate formation rate, as compared to similar sorbents regenerated using conventional methods.
US07951739B2
An improved spent catalyst regenerator which contains sub-troughs branching off from the main trough, distribution troughs which extend outward from the sides of the main trough and the sub-troughs, and downflow tubes extending downward from the bottom of the main trough and sub-troughs.
US07951738B2
The present invention provides a process for production of a zeolite separation membrane with satisfactory separation performance. The process for production of a zeolite separation membrane according to the invention is comprising: a seed crystal-attaching step in which: a sealed body (10), which is obtained by sealing both ends of a cylindrical porous body (11) with sealing members (12a, 12b), is immersed from the sealing member (12a) end into a suspension (22) containing zeolite seed crystals; the suspension (22) is allowed to permeate from the exterior of the porous body (11) to the interior thereof; the zeolite seed crystals are thereby attached to the porous body (11); and a seed crystal-attached porous body is obtained; and a zeolite membrane-forming step in which: the seed crystal-attached porous body is contacted with a reaction solution containing the raw material of a zeolite membrane; the zeolite membrane is formed on the porous body (11); and a zeolite separation membrane is obtained.
US07951734B2
A glass plate for a substrate, which contains no B2O3, and which can be as a glass plate for an LCD panel, which comprises, as a glass matrix composition as represented by mass % based on oxide of SiO2: 68 to 80, Al2O3: 0.1 to 5, MgO: 9.5 to 12, CaO+SrO+BaO: 0 to 2, and Na2O+K2O 6 to 14, and which has a density of at most 2.45 g/cm3, an average coefficient of thermal expansion from 50 to 350° C. of at most 75×10−7/° C., a glass transition point of at least 600° C. and a brittleness of at most 6.5 μm−1/2.
US07951733B2
The present invention provides a blue-violet light blocking glass containing copper (I) halide fine particles that satisfactorily transmits light having a wavelength of 450 nm to 600 nm and sharply blocks light having a wavelength shorter than 450 nm. Specifically, the present invention provides a blue-violet light blocking glass containing a copper (I) halide and silver; for example, 20 to 85% by weight of SiO2; 2 to 75% by weight of B2O3; not more than 10% by weight of Al2O3; 2 to 30% by weight of at least one member selected from the group consisting of Li2O, Na2O, K2O, Rb2O and Cs2O; 1 to 15% by weight of at least one member selected from the group consisting of MgO, CaO, SrO, BaO and ZnO; not more than 10% by weight of at least one member selected from the group consisting of PbO, Nb2O5, ZrO2, La2O3, Y2O3, Ta2O3 and Gd2O3; not more than 5% by weight of at least one member selected from the group consisting of Sb2O3 and As2O3; not more than 5% by weight of SnO2; 0.01 to 10% by weight of a copper (I) halide; and 0.001 to 1% by weight of silver calculated on a metal basis.
US07951726B2
The present invention relates to an organic/inorganic hybrid thin film passivation layer comprising an organic polymer passivation layer prepared by a UV/ozone curing process and an inorganic thin film passivation layer for blocking moisture and oxygen transmission of an organic electronic device fabricated on a substrate and improving gas barrier property of a plastic substrate; and a fabrication method thereof. Since the organic/inorganic hybrid thin film passivation layer of the present invention converts the surface polarity of an organic polymer passivation layer into hydrophilic by using the UV/ozone curing process, it can improve the adhesion strength between the passivation layer interfaces, increase the light transmission rate due to surface planarization of the organic polymer passivation layer, and enhance gas barrier property by effectively blocking moisture and oxygen transmission.
US07951725B2
A translucent solar cell and a manufacturing method thereof are provided. The translucent solar cell at least includes a substrate, a front electrode layer, a photoconductive layer, and a back electrode layer stacked in order. Therein, a plurality of apertures are formed on the front electrode layer. In addition, a plurality of light-transmissive regions are formed on the back electrode layer and further extended in a depth direction so as to reach the plurality of apertures on the front electrode layer. Thus, the projected area of each light-transmissive region is within and smaller than that of the corresponding aperture.
US07951724B2
The present invention is a wafer fixture comprising a housing body, a thrust plate, a flexure clamp, gaskets, flexure pins on an inner circumference of the housing body, locking grooves on an outer circumference of the flexure clamp, and a handle. A wafer may be placed between the gaskets of the housing body and the thrust plate. The flexure clamp may be placed over the thrust plate and secured to the housing body by rotating the flexure clamp such that locking grooves of the fixture plate mate with the flexure pins on the inner circumference of the housing body. The present invention in yet another embodiment is a wafer etch tool comprising a housing, a flexure clamp, and means for securing a wafer between the housing and the flexure clamp upon rotation of the flexure clamp within the housing.
US07951721B2
There is described a method for creating a thermally-isolated microstructure on a slab of mono-crystalline silicon which uses a hybrid dry-then-wet etch technique that when controlled, can produce microstructures without any silicon adhering underneath, microstructures having small masses of silicon adhering underneath, and microstructures that are still attached to the slab of mono-crystalline silicon via a waisted silicon body. When creating the microstructures with a waisted silicon body, the thermal isolation of the microstructure can be designed by controlling the depth of the etching and the size of the waist.
US07951713B2
A method for forming a metal wiring of a semiconductor device capable of efficiently preventing a hillock phenomenon occurred in a subsequent annealing process of a metal wiring process. The method for forming a metal wiring of a semiconductor device includes forming an Al growth stop film on the upper interface of an Al wiring film by reacting implanted reactive ions with a Ti film or the Al in the Al wiring film.
US07951711B2
Methods and compositions for depositing metal films are disclosed herein. In general, the disclosed methods utilize precursor compounds comprising gold, silver, or copper. More specifically, the disclosed precursor compounds utilize pentadienyl ligands coupled to a metal to increase thermal stability. Furthermore, methods of depositing copper, gold, or silver are disclosed in conjunction with use of other precursors to deposit metal films. The methods and compositions may be used in a variety of deposition processes.
US07951703B2
An interconnect connection structure having first and second interconnects and multiple connection elements that electrically connect the first interconnect to the second interconnect is described. The multiple connection elements are formed laterally in a lateral region of the first and second interconnects relative to an overlay orientation of the interconnects. A central region may be free of connection elements so that electro-migration properties of the connection structure are improved and the current-carrying capacity is increased.
US07951702B2
A backside method for fabricating a semiconductor component with a conductive interconnect includes the step of providing a semiconductor substrate having a circuit side, a backside, and a substrate contact on the circuit side. The method also includes the steps of forming a substrate opening from the backside to the substrate contact, and then bonding the conductive interconnect to an inner surface of the substrate contact.
US07951699B2
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes a first step of forming solder film on metal posts of a mother chip, a second step of forming solder balls after the first step by printing a solder paste on the mother chip and heating the mother chip so that the solder paste is ref lowed, a third step of bonding the metal posts of the mother chip and metal posts of a daughter chip to each other in a thermocompression bonding manner by means of the solder film after the second step, and a fourth step of flip-chip-connecting the mother chip on a circuit substrate by using the solder balls. In the second step, the mother chip is heated in a nitrogen atmosphere in which the oxygen concentration is 500 ppm or less.
US07951698B2
A method of fabricating an electronic device using nanowires, minimizing the number of E-beam processing steps and thus improving a yield, includes the steps of: forming electrodes on a substrate; depositing a plurality of nanowires on the substrate including the electrodes; capturing an image of the substrate including the nanowires and the electrodes; drawing virtual connection lines for connecting the nanowires with the electrodes on the image using an electrode pattern simulated through a computer program, after capturing the image; coating an E-beam photoresist on the substrate; removing the photoresist from regions corresponding to the virtual connection lines and the electrode pattern using E-beam lithography; depositing a metal layer on the substrate after removing the photoresist from the regions of the virtual connection lines; and removing remaining photoresist from the substrate using a lift-off process.
US07951675B2
Memory devices having improved BVdss characteristics and methods of making the memory devices are provided. The memory devices contain bitline dielectrics on bitlines of a semiconductor substrate; first spacers adjacent the side surfaces of the bitline dielectrics and on the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate; a trench in the semiconductor substrate between the first spacers; and second spacers adjacent the side surfaces of the trench. By containing the trench and the first and second spacers between the bitlines, the memory device can improve the electrical isolation between the bitlines, thereby preventing and/or mitigating bitline-to-bitline current leakage and increasing BVdss.
US07951672B2
A method that includes measuring stress on at least one of a monitor substrate, a production substrate, and a proxy device on a production substrate to produce stress data, measuring shape on at least one of a proxy device on a production substrate and a production device on a production substrate to produce shape data, and inputting the stress data and the shape data into an elastic deformation calculation to determine a stress value for a production device.
US07951671B2
A method of fabricating a non-volatile memory device includes forming an isolation trench in a semiconductor substrate, and the isolation trench defines first and second fins. The method further includes forming an isolation layer partially filling the isolation trench, forming first and second charge trap patterns respectively covering parts of the first and second fins projecting from the isolation layer, and forming a control gate electrode covering the first and second charge trap patterns and crossing the first and second fins.
US07951668B2
A process for fabricating crown capacitors is described. A substrate having a template layer thereon is provided. A patterned support layer is formed over the template layer. A sacrifice layer is formed over the substrate covering the patterned support layer. Holes are formed through the sacrifice layer, the patterned support layer and the template layer, wherein the patterned support layer is located at a depth at which bowing of the sidewalls of the holes occurs and is bowed less than the sacrifice layer at the sidewalls. A substantially conformal conductive layer is formed over the substrate. The conductive layer is then divided into lower electrodes of the crown capacitors.
US07951665B2
A semiconductor device includes a silicon substrate, a capacitor element having a lower electrode, a capacitor dielectric film, a TiN film, and a W film, and an interlayer insulation film covering the end and a portion of the upper surface of the lower electrode and disposed with a concave portion at a position corresponding to the lower electrode. The lower electrode is disposed selectively at the bottom of the concave portion, the upper surface of the lower electrode is exposed from the interlayer insulation film in the region for forming the concave portion, the side wall for the concave portion of the interlayer insulation film situates to the inner side of the lower electrode from the end of the lower electrode, and the capacitor dielectric film is disposed so as to cover the upper surface of the lower electrode and cover the interlayer insulation from the side wall for the concave portion to the upper surface of the interlayer insulation film.
US07951664B2
Methods of manufacturing resistors, methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices, and structures thereof are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating a resistor includes forming a transistor material stack over a workpiece and patterning the transistor material stack, forming a gate of a transistor in a first region of the workpiece and leaving a portion of the transistor material stack in a second region of the workpiece. A top portion of the transistor material stack is removed in the second region, and a top portion of the workpiece is removed in the first region proximate the gate of the transistor, forming recessed regions in the workpiece in the first region. A semiconductive material is formed in the recessed regions of the workpiece in the first region and over a portion of the transistor material stack in the second region, forming a resistor in the second region.
US07951662B2
A method of fabricating a strained silicon transistor is provided. Amorphous silicon is formed below the transistor region before the transistor is formed. By using the tensile/compressive strainer, amorphous silicon is recrystallized to form a strained silicon layer. In addition, the dopants in the well can be driven in and activated by using the same annealing process with the amorphous silicon recrystallization.
US07951659B2
A method of forming a microelectronic device comprising, on a same support: at least one semi-conductor zone strained according to a first strain, and at least one semi-conductor zone strained according to a second strain, different to the first strain, comprising: the formation of semi-conductor zones above a pre-strained layer, then trenches extending through the thickness of the pre-strained layer, the dimensions and the layout of the semi-conductor zones as a function of the layout and the dimensions of the trenches being so as to obtain semi-conductor zones having a strain of the same type as that of the pre-strained layer and semi-conductor zones having a strain of a different type to that of the pre-strained layer.
US07951650B2
Thermal management is provided for a device. The device may include a substrate having a mounting area on a first surface of the substrate. The device may also include first thermal vias extending from the mounting area to at least an interior of the substrate. The device may also include at least one thermal plane substantially parallel to the first surface of the substrate, the at least one thermal plane being in thermal contact with at least one of the first thermal vias. The device may also include a heat sink attachment area, and second thermal vias extending from the heat sink attachment area to the interior of the substrate, the at least one thermal plane being in thermal contact with the second thermal vias.
US07951648B2
A process comprises forming a first electrical interconnect structure on a surface of a singulated semiconductor chip having an alignment pattern, which is scanned and stored in a scanning device prior to application of a curable underfill coating to the surface of the singulated semiconductor chip. A curable underfill coating is applied to the surface of the singulated semiconductor chip to produce a coated semiconductor chip. The scanned and stored alignment pattern is delivered to an alignment and joining device positioned adjacent to and operatively associated with a substrate having a second electrical interconnect structure alignable to make electrical contact with the first electrical interconnect structure. The coated semiconductor chip is placed in the alignment and joining device so that when the scanned and stored alignment pattern is activated the alignment and joining device positions the coated semiconductor chip so that the first electrical interconnect structure is aligned to make electrical contact with the second electrical interconnect structure. The alignment and joining device is activated to join the coated semiconductor chip to the substrate.
US07951643B2
A method of manufacture of an integrated circuit packaging system includes: providing a base substrate; attaching a base device over the base substrate; attaching a leadframe having a leadframe pillar adjacent the base device over the base substrate; applying a base encapsulant over the base device, the base substrate, and the leadframe; and removing a portion of the base encapsulant and a portion of the leadframe providing the leadframe pillar partially exposed.
US07951634B2
A MEMS device such as an interferometric modulator includes an integrated ESD protection element capable of shunting to ground an excess current carried by an electrical conductor in the MEMS device. The protection element may be a diode and may be formed by depositing a plurality of doped semiconductor layers over the substrate on which the MEMS device is formed.
US07951624B2
A method of manufacturing light emitting diode has steps of providing a package base, providing a light emitting structure and bonding the light emitting structure on the package base. The package base has a first metal layer and a second metal layer respectively formed on a top and a bottom thereon. The light emitting structure has a substrate, a light emitting lamination and a reflective metal layer. The light emitting lamination is formed on the substrate and has an n-type semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer, a p-type semiconductor layer and a transparent electrode layer deposited on the substrate in sequence. The reflective metal layer is formed on a bottom of the substrate. The first metal layer is connected to the reflective metal layer by an ultrasonic thermal press technique. Therefore, the thermal resistance of the finished LED reduces.
US07951614B2
The present invention comprises compositions and methods for making monoclonal antibodies. The present invention further comprises vectors that replicate the immune system components, particularly an antigen-presenting cell (APC) element of the immune synapse. Additionally, the present invention may further comprise synthetic T-cells.
US07951607B2
The present invention provides methods and compositions for detecting, identifying and measuring the abundance of chemical nerve agents. Methods and compositions of the present invention are capable of providing selective detection of phosphorous based nerve agents, such as nerve agents that are esters of methyl phosphonic acid derivatives incorporating a moderately good leaving group at the phosphorus. Selectivity in the present invention is provided by a sensor composition having an alpha (α) effect nucleophile group that undergoes specific nucleophilic substitution and rearrangement reactions with phosphorus based nerve agents having a tetrahederal phosphorous bound to oxygen. The present invention includes embodiments employing a sensor composition further comprising a reporter group covalently linked to the alpha effect nucleophile group allowing rapid optical readout of nerve agent detection events, including direct visual readout and optical readout via spectroscopic analysis.
US07951599B2
A method for determining the hematocrit of a blood sample is provided that includes the steps of: 1) depositing the sample into an analysis chamber operable to quiescently hold the sample for analysis, the chamber defined by the interior surfaces of first and second panels and a height extending there between, wherein both panels are transparent, and the height is such that at least some of the red blood cells within the sample contact both interior surfaces of the panels and one or more lacunae within the quiescent sample extend between the interior surfaces; 2) imaging at least a portion of the quiescent sample, which sample portion contains the red blood cells and one or more lacunae to determine an optical density of the imaged portion of the sample on a per image unit basis; 3) selecting and averaging the optical density values of the image units aligned with the red blood cells contacting the interior surfaces, and assigning an upper boundary value of 100% to the average optical density value of those image units; 4) selecting the optical density values of the image units aligned with the one or more lacunae, and assigning a lower boundary value of 0% to the optical density values of those image units; and 5) determining the hematocrit of the sample by assigning relative values to the optical density value of each image of the imaged sample portion as a function of the upper and lower boundary values, and averaging the relative values.
US07951598B2
The invention relates to a method for differentially hemolyzing whole blood. It discloses methods for detecting an analyte in a liquid sample known or suspected to contain red blood cells and suspected or known to contain eukaryotic cells, the method including the steps of processing the liquid sample with a membrane solubilizing agent under conditions appropriate to lyse cell membranes of red blood cells and at the same time not to cause precipitation of sample constituents, subjecting the processed sample to a chromatographic separation, and detecting the analyte. The differential hemolysis of red blood cells is of advantage in a method of detecting an analyte in a liquid sample that may contain both erythrocytes and nucleated cells. The differential solubilization of red blood cells can be easily combined with an online detection methodology, like LC-MS, and is advantageous in the detection of many analytes, e.g. in the detection of folate or of immunosuppressive drugs, like tacrolimus or sirolimus.
US07951585B2
The present invention relates to gene therapy for tumors, specifically, it relates to the construction of oncolytic adenovirus recombinant, which specifically expresses immune modulatory factor GM-CSF in tumor cells and uses thereof.
US07951571B2
Disclosed are variants of Humicola grisea Cel7A (CBH1.1), H. jecorina CBH1 variant or S. thermophilium CBH1, nucleic acids encoding the same and methods for producing the same. The variant cellulases have the amino acid sequence of a glycosyl hydrolase of family 7A wherein one or more amino acid residues are substituted.
US07951570B2
Disclosed are a number of homologs and variants of Hypocrea jecorina Cel7A (formerly Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase I or CBH1), nucleic acids encoding the same and methods for producing the same. The homologs and variant cellulases have the amino acid sequence of a glycosyl hydrolase of family 7A wherein one or more amino acid residues are substituted and/or deleted.
US07951567B2
A method is provided for producing peroxycarboxylic acids from carboxylic acid esters. More specifically, carboxylic acid esters are reacted with an inorganic peroxide, such as hydrogen peroxide, in the presence of an enzyme catalyst having perhydrolysis activity derived from Bacillus sp. to produce peroxycarboxylic acids.
US07951566B2
A process is provided for producing peroxycarboxylic acids from carboxylic acid esters. More specifically, carboxylic acid esters are reacted with an inorganic peroxide, such as hydrogen peroxide, in the presence of an enzyme catalyst having perhydrolysis activity. The present perhydrolase catalysts are classified as members of the carbohydrate esterase family 7 (CE-7) based on the conserved structural features. Further, disinfectant formulations comprising the peracids produced by the processes described herein are provided.
US07951559B2
The invention relates to the recombinant expression of a peptide of interest in the form of a fusion protein comprising a solubility tag. The fusion protein comprises at least two portions separated by a cleavable peptide sequence wherein one portion is devoid of cysteine residues and the second portion comprises an effective number of cross-linkable cysteine residues. After cell lysis and isolation of the fusion protein, the fusion protein is subsequently cleaved into a mixture of first and second portions. Oxidative cross-linking is used to selectively precipitate one of the two portions to facilitate simple and effective separation of the peptide of interest.
US07951556B2
A mutated prokaryotic cell, which secretes higher amounts of at least one heterologous polypeptide of interest and which has a reduced expression-level of YusZ or YusX, or homologues thereof, when compared with an otherwise isogenic but non-mutated cell, and methods for constructing and using such a cell in the production of polypeptides.
US07951548B2
The present invention provides a screening method/screening kit for an IL-13 production inhibitor, which comprises using (a) a protein comprising the same or substantially the same amino acid sequence as the amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1, or its partial peptide, or a salt thereof; and (b) a ligand capable of specifically binding to the protein; an IL-13 production inhibitor which is obtainable by said screening, and the like. The IL-13 production inhibitor which can be obtained by the screening of the present invention is useful as a prophylactic/therapeutic agent for, e.g., respiratory disease, etc.
US07951544B1
In accordance with the present invention, there are provided methods for determining a prognosis of disease free or overall survival in a patient suffering from cancer. Also provided are methods for predicting the risk of tumor recurrence or spread in an individual having a cancer tumor. Methods for screening a cancer patient to determine the risk of tumor metastasis; methods for determining the proper course of treatment for a patient suffering from cancer; and kits for use in practising the invention methods.
US07951539B2
This invention provides methods, compositions and systems to detect a nucleic acid of interest in a two-stage amplification. The two-stage amplification begins with a first non-enzymatic accumulation of an amplification oligomer that is the target substrate for a second nucleic acid amplification or assay. Two or more amplification oligomers can be used to allow multiplexed amplifications of two or more nucleic acids of interest with deconvolution based on unique detection signals or unique signal locations.
US07951534B2
Methods and compositions for performing nucleic acid duplication and amplification reactions are provided. A single-stranded nucleic acid binding protein is selected and provided in the reaction mixture which is assembled at a low, nonstringent temperature to include all of the necessary reagents for successful nucleic acid duplication or amplification reactions. By incorporating a single-stranded nucleic acid binding protein into the reaction mixture at low temperature, the generation of nonspecific products such as amplification products is improved despite the reaction mixture having been fully assembled at a nonstringent temperature.
US07951524B2
Photoresist additive polymers and photoresist formulations that can be used in immersion lithography without the use of an additional topcoat. The resist compositions include a photoresist polymer, at least one photoacid generator, a solvent; and a photoresist additive polymer. Also a method of forming using photoresist formulations including photoresist additive polymers.
US07951515B2
A photoconductor that includes, for example, a supporting substrate, a photogenerating layer, and at least one charge transport layer, and where the photogenerating layer contains at least one photogenerating component, and a mixture of an ester thiol and a poly(vinyl halide) copolymer.
US07951513B2
A silicon single crystal film having a crystal plane as its principal plane, the crystal plane being inclined at 3 to 5° from any lattice plane belonging to {100} planes or {111} planes is used as a pellicle film. The silicon single crystal having such a crystal plane as its principal plane has effective bond density and Young's modulus thereof which are about 40% to about 50% higher than those of a silicon single crystal with <100> orientation, and therefore a cleavage and crack do not easily occur. Moreover, the silicon single crystal has a high chemical resistance such as hydrofluoric acid resistance, and hardly causes an etch pit and void. Accordingly, the present invention can provide a pellicle comprising a pellicle film for EUV having high transmission, and excellent mechanical and chemical stability, as well as having a high yield, and being practical also in cost.
US07951503B2
A curable resin composition for fuel cell electrolyte films characterized by comprising (1) 100 parts by mass of a monomer having at least one ethylenically unsaturated group per molecule and having, per molecule, either at least one, tonically conductive group or at least one precursor group capable of giving an tonically conductive group through a chemical reaction, (2) 10-400 parts by mass of an oligomer which has, per molecule, at least two reactive groups copolymerizable with the ethylenically unsaturated group of the ingredient (1) and has a number-average molecular weight of 400 or higher, (3) 10-400 parts by mass of a fluororesin, and (4) 0-2,000 parts by mass of a solvent.
US07951496B2
A power generation system is provided. The power generation system includes a fuel cell controller, at least one fuel cell cluster operably connected to the fuel cell controller and a data server operably connected to the fuel cell cluster. The data server is configured to obtain operational data from the fuel cell cluster. In addition, a model server operably connected to the data server. The model server is configured to model the operational characteristics of the fuel cell cluster during the actual operation of the fuel cell cluster and modify the operation of the fuel cell cluster in real-time, based on the operational data obtained by the data server.
US07951486B2
A cap assembly for a secondary battery in which an insulating member is disposed in a partial or entire terminal plate, resulting in improved stability. The cap assembly includes a terminal plate and an insulating member. The insulating member is disposed in a partial or entire region of the terminal plate other than a region to which a negative electrode tab is welded.
US07951475B2
The present invention concerns a vent valve for acid batteries comprising a substantially cylindrical plug portion (28) which is designed for being brought into engagement with a cell opening of the acid battery (1) and which has at least one passage opening communicating the cell interior of the acid battery with the ambient atmosphere, wherein provided in the passage opening is a valve arrangement (29) having an inlet communicating with the cell interior and an outlet connected to the ambient atmosphere. In order to provide a vent valve for an acid battery, in particular an acid battery with fixed electrolyte, which is simple and inexpensive to produce and which affords improved protection against the escape of battery acid, it is proposed in accordance with the invention that at least one turbulence chamber (30) follows the passage opening of the plug portion (28) in the direction of the cell interior and a gas-permeable filter unit (31, 31′) follows the turbulence chamber (30).
US07951467B2
Recent semiconductor device becomes high powered, and on the material of heat sinks on which these devices are mounted, lower thermal expansion coefficient and higher thermal conductivity are needed. For this requirement, material with thermal conductivity as high as Cu alone and also with low thermal expansion coefficient, is needed. An aspect in accordance with the present invention provides, a cladding material in which 1st material layer and 2nd material layer are laminated alternately, wherein thermal expansion coefficient of said 2nd material is lower than the thermal expansion coefficient of said 1st material, and thermal conductivity of said 2nd material is lower than the thermal conductivity of said 1st material, and a total number of laminated layers composed of said 1st material and said 2nd material is 5 or more.
US07951466B2
A titanium alloy material includes a Ti—Al alloy and an oxide film on the Ti—Al alloy. The Ti—Al alloy contains 0.50-3.0 mass % Al and a balance of Ti and unavoidable impurities. The titanium alloy material has excellent hydrogen absorption resistance and can be used as a basic structural material in hydrogen absorption environments.
US07951456B2
A two-component epoxy adhesive composition comprises a) a first component comprising a first epoxy resin and a second epoxy resin being flexibilized by an elastomer, and b) a second component comprising at least one amine compound with one or more primary and/or secondary amino groups having a molecular weight of less than 450 g/mole. The ratio of the total number of amino groups of the amine compound to the total number of epoxy groups of the epoxy resins is from 0.01:1 to 0.5:1. The mixing of components a) and b) results in a wash-off resistant composition upon heat-curing in a crash-stable structural adhesive.
US07951454B2
The present invention provides resin-coated sand containing spherical molding sand with a binder composition, the spherical molding sand having an average particle diameter of 0.02 to 1.5 mm and being produced by a flame fusion method.
US07951447B2
According to the present invention, a method for manufacturing a prepreg sheet includes steps of (A) forming a resin layer 61 on a surface of a supporter 3, (B) winding a reinforcing yarn 10 around the resin layer 61, and (C) embedding at least a part of the reinforcing yarn 10 in the resin layer 61. Preferably, in step (C), the surface of the supporter 3 is relatively moved towards the reinforcing yarn 10.
US07951439B2
A chlorinated rubber composition including a chlorinated rubber, a metal deactivator, an acid acceptor, and an antioxidant respectively at a particular amount is provided. The chlorinated rubber composition is capable of providing a chlorinated rubber composition which can be used in producing a hose exhibiting excellent resistance to degradation by zinc together with the sufficient physical properties such as resistance to thermal aging, oil resistance, and adhesion, as well as a hose produced by using such chlorinated rubber composition for the rubber layer.
US07951433B2
The invention provides a five-ring liquid crystal compound having a CF2O bonding group as a new compound having a general physical properties necessary for compounds, stability to heat, light and so forth, a wide temperature range of liquid crystal phases, a high clearing point, a good compatibility with other compounds, a large dielectric anisotropy and refractive index anisotropy, and an especially high clearing point and an especially large refractive index anisotropy, and provides a liquid crystal composition and a liquid crystal display device.
US07951426B2
Methods of making hydrophilic coatings having anti-fog properties, and hydrophilic articles are provided. In certain example instances, a substrate supports a surfactant and polyethylenimine. The method includes forming a polyethylenimine-solvent mixture; applying a surfactant to a surface of the substrate; and applying the polyethylenimine-solvent mixture to the dried surfactant on the surface of the substrate. After drying or curing, the resulting coating may be hydrophilic thereby allowing water or the like to easily shed therefrom (e.g., providing anti-fog properties).
US07951418B2
This invention relates to the control of radiant thermal energy and more specifically to highly Thermal Infrared (IRT) reflective pigments for use in decorative coatings for buildings or other areas where the control of IRT energy and visual decoration are required. Control of the spread of thermal energy in domestic buildings through passive techniques reduces energy consumption by reducing reliance on heating in cool environments and cooling air-conditioning in warm environments. A number of paint formulations having low emissivity in the thermal infrared exist which are based on variants of conventional decorative paint fluids. There are a number of problems associated with such formulations such as susceptibility to damage and high emissivity for certain color pigmentations. The present invention proposes a low emissivity flake for use in a paint formulation which substantially overcomes the problems associated with the prior art.
US07951411B2
The present invention relates to the formulation and process for preparation of a fried egg product which may be frozen for future heating within a microwave or other oven for consumption by an individual. Various ingredients are added and mixed to each of the liquid egg white and liquid yolk portions. The liquid egg white portion is preheated and then deposited within a mold for slow cooking under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. The liquid yolk portion is preheated and then is added to the mold for placement on the egg white portion. Following a short period of cooking the mold containing the formulated fried eggs is transported to a freezer unit for freezing, packaging, and storage. At a future time the frozen formulated fried egg product may be retrieved for thawing and cooking for consumption by an individual.
US07951410B2
A nutritionally complete infant formula containing sialic acid derived from one or a number of nutritionally appropriate sources is described.
US07951406B2
The present invention relates to extracts and compounds which are isolated from Calomeria amaranthoides, and to derivatives and analogues of such compounds, which demonstrate cytotoxic activity against a variety of cell types exhibiting hyperproliferative cell division.
US07951403B2
A process for forming drug multiparticulates having improved drug crystallinity is disclosed, comprising modifying a conventional melt-congeal process by adding a volatile cospecies either to the molten mixture or to the process atmosphere, or to both.
US07951398B2
The present invention relates to the field of pharmaceutical technology and describes a novel advantageous preparation for an active ingredient. The novel preparation is suitable for producing a large number of pharmaceutical dosage forms. In the new preparation, an active ingredient is present essentially uniformly dispersed in an excipient matrix composed of one or more excipients selected from the group of fatty alcohols, triglycerides, partial triglycerides and fatty acid esters.
US07951393B2
Therapeutic compositions, devices and protocols for the treatment of keloids and other abnormal scars with improved appearance and a much lower recurrence rate. A therapeutic drug delivery device comprises an injectable mixture of a fibroblast inhibitor such as corticosteroid and a slow release carrier such as milled gel sponge dispersed in a fluid medium such as biological saline. The composition can be injected perilesionally in the dermis following excision of the keloid or other scar tissue, to circumscribe the wound. The infiltration of the mixture around the wound can provide a slow release of the fibroblast inhibitor for an extended period of time until normal wound closure can dominate and keloid or abnormal scar recurrence is inhibited.
US07951392B2
The present invention relates to microarray polymeric barriers designed to control the release rate of therapeutic agents. By varying the thickness of the coating or affecting, physically and/or chemically, the constituents of the barrier composition, the release profile of the underlying therapeutic agent can be modified and controlled.
US07951385B2
The invention relates to a strain of Enterococcus mundtii having probiotic qualities. The strain of E. mundtii (ST4SA) produces an antimicrobial peptide which exhibits antimicrobial activity against a broad range of bacteria. The invention also provides an isolated nucleotide sequence which codes for the antimicrobial peptide (peptide ST4SA). Another aspect of the invention relates to a process for the production of a peptide of the invention which comprises cultivating Enterococcus mundtii strain ST4SA in a nutrient medium under micro-aerophilic conditions at a temperature of between 100 C. and 45° C., until a recoverable quantity of said peptide is produced, and recovering said peptide. The isolated peptide of the invention may be used as an antimicrobial agent in a liquid formulation or a gel formulation as a topical treatment and may also be used as an antimicrobial agent following encapsulation in a polymer.
US07951384B2
The present invention discloses the method of making and using a novel, non-infective, paramyxovirus vaccine. Paramyxovirus structural proteins within a virus-like particle (VLP) comprise one example of such a vaccine. It is observed that the presence of matrix protein, alone, is sufficient and necessary to provide an effective VLP release. Co-expression of four paramyxovirus structural proteins, however, result in the release of non-infective VLPs with densities and efficiencies of release similar to that of infective particles. Representative diseases wherein a VLP vaccine might be useful include, but are not limited to, Newcastle disease, measles, respiratory syncytial virus infection, and parainfluenza 3 virus infection.
US07951383B2
The invention provides isolated nucleic acids encoding recombinant genomes or antigenomes of Human Parainfluenza Viruses that are useful as vaccines. The recombinant genomes or antigenomes can be incorporated into expression vectors for production of recombinant viruses in vitro. The invention also provides recombinant Human Parainfluenza viruses having one or more mutations that attenuate replication of the virus in a host.
