US07976595B2
A method of gasification burner online feeding for a coal-water slurry gasifier, where a coal-water slurry line and an oxidizer line are both protected by shield gas. The method may realize online, pressurized and continuous feeding of the gasification burners which are fixed after they stalled for other reasons than their own, thus greatly reducing the probability of accidental shutdown of gasifiers and improving the reliability of long-term service of the multi-nozzle opposed gasifier.
US07976592B2
In a plate type reformer and a fuel cell system including the plate type reformer, the plate type reformer includes: a plate type combustion reactor including a distributing plate having a distributing chamber with a plurality of distributing holes adapted to supply an oxidizing agent, and a combustion plate having a combustion chamber with an oxidizing catalyst layer adapted to generate heat energy in response to the oxidizing agent supplied through the distributing holes of the distributing plate reacting with fuel; a plate type preheater including a channel adapted to introduce a mixed fuel of fuel and water is introduced, the plate type preheater adapted to preheat the mixed fuel with the heat energy generated in the plate type combustion reactor; and a plate type reforming reactor with a reforming catalyst layer adapted to generate hydrogen gas from the mixed fuel preheated by the plate type preheater, the plate type reforming reactor effecting a reforming reaction using the heat energy of the plate type combustion reactor. The plate type combustion reactor is arranged and stacked between the plate type preheater and the plate type reforming reactor and adapted to directly transfer the heat energy from the plate type combustion reactor to the plate type preheater and the plate type reforming reactor.
US07976583B2
Short-chain perfluoroalkylethyl methacrylates copolymerized with vinyl chloride and/or vinylidene chloride, a C12-C22 alkyl (meth)acrylate and one or more thermally crosslinkable or isocyanate-reactive monomers are useful for oil-, water- and soil-repellent finishing of fibrous substrates under particularly mild conditions.
US07976581B2
A method of controlling electric power generation during idle charge in a hybrid electric vehicle. The method includes determining whether an idle charge condition is satisfied; if the idle charge condition is satisfied, calculating a first charge power amount based on whether a load is applied, a gear shift position, and a state of charge of a battery; calculating a target charge speed based on the first charge power amount; calculating an altitude correction coefficient based on atmospheric pressure; calculating a second charge power amount based on the altitude correction coefficient and the first charge power amount; and controlling an amount of power generation and an amount of battery charge based on the second charge power amount.
US07976580B2
A first carpometacarpal joint implant. One embodiment of the invention includes proximal and distal components. The proximal component includes a fixation portion for attachment to one or more elements of a patient's distal carpal row, a ball-type joint portion cantilevered off the fixation portion, and a skid having a concave surface opposite the ball-type joint for engaging a patient's scaphoid bone. The distal component has a fixation portion for attachment to a patient's thumb metacarpal, and a socket-type joint portion that cooperates with the ball-type joint portion of the proximal component.
US07976579B2
An intervertebral disc augmentation implant for implantation between a pair of vertebral bodies comprises a core member having a first height dimension along an axis defined by the pair of vertebral bodies and a cavity running perpendicular to the axis, a first post and a second post each having a bottom portion with a plurality of teeth, and a plug having a tapered portion with engaging mechanisms that are configured to mate with the bottom portions of the first and second post. The first and second posts are disposed substantially in the center of the core member along the axis. The bottom portions of the first and second post extend into the cavity at opposite sides of the cavity. The plug is inserted and advanced in the cavity between the bottom portions of the first and second post, thereby expanding the core member from the first height dimension to a second height dimension.
US07976570B2
A bone plate includes an upper surface, a bone contacting surface, and at least one hole extending through the upper and bone contacting surfaces. The bone plate defines a longitudinal axis. The at least one hole defines a central axis and is elongated in a direction substantially aligned with the longitudinal axis. The hole may include a threaded portion and a non-threaded portion, and the threaded portion may extend through an angle of between about 190° and about 280° with respect to the central axis.
US07976558B2
The present invention relates to a compression device for stimulating the efflux of a body fluid from a body part. The device has a compression unit with a pressure-application region made of a deformable material, the region being formed to generate a repulsive force between the body part and the compression unit. The repulsive force passes through a force maximum then decreases to serve as an indication that the body part is guided sufficiently firmly and far enough onto the compression unit.
US07976552B2
A ligation apparatus includes an insertion tube extending toward one direction, a clamp part which is provided on a distal side of the insertion tube and clamps a living organ, a first control mechanism which is connected to the clamp part via a first control shaft member inserted inside the insertion tube and controls opening-and-closing action of the clamp part by advancing and retracting the first control shaft member, a ligation part which ligates the living organ by closing a pair of arm members provided on the distal side of the insertion tube; and a second control mechanism which is connected to the ligation part via a second control shaft member inserted inside the insertion tube, and closes the pair of arm members and releases the ligation part by advancing and retracting the second control shaft member.
US07976547B2
A cement restrictor for use in surgical procedures such as total hip replacement, for example, includes a pressure transducer and a transmitter electrically coupled to the pressure transducer. The cement restrictor is configured to be placed at a distal end of a pre-drilled bone canal in a patient's femur, for example, such that the pressure transducer may generate an output signal in response to the presence of bone cement injected into the bone canal and around the cement restrictor. The transmitter is configured to transmit this output pressure signal to an external receiver outside the patient's body.
US07976545B2
Broaching instruments divided into multiple parts to reduce the size of incisions necessary to perform a total hip arhroplasty, minimizing trauma to tissue surrounding the hip joint. One approach is to divide the broach head into first and second segments for insertion through posterior and anterior incisions, respectively, and interconnection within the patient. Methods of preparing the proximal medullary canal of a femur for receiving a hip stem implant utilize the multi-part broaching instruments and two-incision techniques to introduce the broaching instruments into the patient for broaching the canal in preparation for receiving the implant.
US07976541B2
Probes that are sensitive to electrode/tissue contact and that are configured to connect an electrode to a power supply and/or provide an indication when the desired level of electrode/tissue contact has been achieved.
US07976523B2
An absorbent product capable of preventing the absorbing rate from significantly lowering with the elapse of time, from the start of use to a final stage when the absorbing capacity of the product reaches a limit, is provided. The absorbent product has a very small re-wet amount. The absorbent product includes a liquid-impermeable surface sheet positioned on the upper side, a liquid-impermeable back sheet positioned on the lower side, and an absorber containing super absorbent polymer to absorb discharged liquid positioned between the surface sheet and the back sheet, wherein a flow passage is provided to allow a part or all of the discharged liquid supplied to the surface sheet to move to a side of the back sheet.
US07976508B2
A medication safety system includes a panel mounted to an IV pole above a multi-channel infusion pump also mounted to the IV pole. The panel includes multiple RFID readers for reading the RFID tags placed on each of the medication containers mounted to the panel. The pump includes a controller that communicates with the RFID readers at the panel to receive the information read by the RFID readers and automatically program the respective pump channel. A verification program verifies that the medication delivery information from the containers matches the patient identified for the pump and the programming parameters of the pump fall within acceptable ranges. In another aspect, the panel contains multiple vibration devices to impart vibrations to the medication of each of the containers mounted to the panel. Those vibrations are sensed by the particular pumping channel to confirm that the correct channel has been programmed for that medication. When the clinician opens the door of the pumping channel, the pump may request information from the RFID reader at the panel for that medication and may wait for receipt of the vibrations in the medication of the tubing mounted into the channel.
US07976488B2
A collapsible gastrointestinal anchor can be characterized in various embodiments by a radial force of about 0.1 Newtons (N) or greater at a compressed diameter of 25 millimeters (mm); by an average spring rate of about 13 Newtons/meter (N/m) or greater in a range of motion between a relaxed diameter and a compressive elastic deformation diameter; or by a radial force over the range of motion of about 0.1 N or greater. Typically, the anchor can be adapted to be retained within a subject's intestine, more typically in the duodenum, or particularly in the duodenal bulb just distal to the pylorus.A gastrointestinal implant device includes the collapsible gastrointestinal anchor and a floppy sleeve. The sleeve is open at both ends and adapted to extend into a subject's intestine, the anchor being coupled to a proximal portion of the sleeve.Also include are methods of implanting the gastrointestinal implant device in a subject, and methods of treating a subject for disease.The disclosed gastrointestinal invention leads to an improved ability to secure anchors and devices in the gastrointestinal tract while tending to minimize migration.
US07976474B2
An illuminated acoustical stimulation ear probe with outer ear illumination and a probe-fit status indicator.
US07976473B2
A method and apparatus for utilizing the benefits of encoded signal transmission and reception to enhance the performance of medical testing devices (100) adapted to evoke and measure biological response signals such as auditory evoked potentials (AEP), and the auditory brainstem response (ABR) signals in particular. Auditory stimuli, such as clicks, are presented to the ear of a human patient, in a predetermined encoded sequence, resulting in the generation of auditory responses and bio-electric response signals in the human patient. These response signals from the patient are acquired and observed, and are processed according to the predetermined encoded sequence in which the auditory stimuli were presented to the patient's ear in order to extract the desired auditory evoked potential signals or ABR signals.
US07976467B2
A meter is provided that includes an improved user interface that enables the user to take a specific action, leading them directly to data input options. Such a user interface could be used to input first selected information, such as whether a test was premeal or postmeal, immediately after receiving a result. Optionally, the user interface may include the ability to add an additional comment after inputting the first selected information. Provision of such a user interface would facilitate simpler capture of the first selected information each time the user performs a test, leading to an enhanced understanding of a patient's level of glycemic control. Designing a user interface to enable first selected information to be entered by a user directly after receiving a result is more likely to engage a patient by making it easy and simple to enter important information. This may enable capture of the information thought to be most pertinent e.g. premeal and postmeal information, enhancing the understanding by patients and their carers of the patient's control.
US07976466B2
Embodiments of the present invention improve the accuracy of measurements and/or in vivo calibrations of a biosensor by (1) using more than one sensor signal value and/or more than one directly sampled and measured value, such as a capillary blood glucose value, and/or by (2) delaying the acquisition of a sensor output value that is compared with a directly sampled and measured value, such as a capillary blood glucose value, during a calibration. In an embodiment of the present invention, the median of a series of measured values, or a median or mean of the medians, may be utilized to provide more consistent and accurate measurement data and/or to compensate for error or artifact.
US07976462B2
Various embodiments of the present invention comprise endoscopes for viewing inside a cavity of a body such as a vessel like a vein or artery. These endoscopes may include at least one solid state emitter such as a light emitting diode (LED) that is inserted into the body cavity to provide illumination therein. Certain embodiments of the invention comprise disposable endoscopes that can be fabricated relatively inexpensively such that discarding these endoscopses after a single use is cost-effective. The endoscope may comprise a lens holder on a distal end of the endoscope for collection of light reflected from surfaces within the body in which the endoscope is inserted. This lens holder may have an inner cavity through which light passes along an optical path. Reflective surfaces on sidewalls of the inner cavity may direct light along this optical path. The endoscope may further comprise an elongated support structure for supporting a plurality of lenses disposed along the optical path. This optical path may lead to a detector onto which images are formed.
US07976455B2
This invention is directed to a device and method of using the device for partitioning a patient's heart chamber into a productive portion and a non-productive portion. The device is particularly suitable for treating patients with congestive heart failure. The device has an inflatable partitioning element which separates the productive and non-productive portions of the heart chamber and in some embodiments also has a supporting element, which may also be inflatable, extending between the inflatable partitioning element and the wall of the non-productive portion of the patient's heart chamber. The supporting element may have a non-traumatic distal end to engage the ventricular wall or a tissue penetrating anchoring element to secure the device to the patient's heart wall.
US07976453B2
An implantable magnet that can freely turn in response to an external magnetic field, thus avoiding torque and demagnetization on the implantable magnet. The implantable magnet can be combined with an electric switching function depending on the orientation of an external magnetic field, thus protecting an implanted coil and/or implant electronics against induction of over-voltage or performing an electric switching function for other various purposes. The magnetic switch may further include, for example, a first switching contact and a second switching contact. A magnetically soft body that includes an electrically conductive surface is shiftable between a first position where the body is in simultaneous contact with the first and second switching contacts, and a second position where the body is out of contact with at least one of the first and second switching contacts. The body and the implantable magnet are positioned such that the body is shifted to one of the first position and the second position as a function of the external magnetic field resulting in a magnetic force between the magnet and the magnetically soft body.
US07976452B2
Disclosed herein are embodiments of long-term ambulatory intra-aortic balloon pump systems for providing left ventricular cardiac assistance to a patient. The systems can comprise an external drive system for supplying a compressed fluid, the drive system operating in accordance with a control program stored in memory, an intra-luminal balloon pump having an elongate inflatable chamber positionable to be lying completely within a descending aorta of the patient, and a percutaneous access device. The percutaneous access device can be a biocompatible implantable portal comprising a communicative passage through an interior bore and an exterior having a neck region adapted to promote autologous cell growth thereon in an implantable region, the neck region having a plurality of channels extending about the neck region.
US07976451B2
A system and methods for transcranial magnetic stimulation, the system including a helmet, a positioning portion, a stimulator and a cooling system, are disclosed. The helmet includes a coil for deep brain magnetic stimulation. The coil has a base portion, and return portions, which may include a protruding return portion and a contacting return portion. The coil is designed to minimize unintended stimulation of portions of the brain, while reducing accumulation of surface charges. The coil is stimulated at several locations and/or at different times so as to focus the electrical field on a specific deep neuronal structure.
US07976448B2
The invention relates to a method for assembling a composite box, in two parts, the method being implemented by a machine having: a conveyor system for bringing an envelope into position; a store for storing the blanks of the trays; means in the form of extractor arms for removing one of the tray blanks from the store and bringing it to the assembly station, facing the envelope; a device for gluing the edges of the envelope and the tongues of the tray blank during the movement towards the assembly station; a framework having two mobile carriages, a first carriage carrying a die for shaping the blank, and a second carriage carrying a tappet for driving the envelope towards the die and a stamp maintaining a counter-pressure using a suitable device against the pressing device of the die.
US07976444B2
A shoulder rehabilitation and exercise device is disclosed which enables a user to perform internal and external rotations of both right and left shoulder. The device is comprised of a base plate, hydraulic damper, restrictor arm, actuator arm, elbow cup and hand grip. A smooth, fluid-like movement is achieved during performance of arcuate internal and external shoulder rotations while also providing automatic increases and decreases in resistance to such motion in response to user effort. In certain preferred embodiments, in addition to such automatic adjustment of resistance, the device includes a means of manually adjusting resistance. The device may be utilized to perform the aforementioned internal and external rotations on a user's right or left side without need for making any adjustments to the machine. Range of motion limitations may be set to control the arcuate degree of internal and external rotations performed. Adjustment in the elevation of a user's forearm via adjustment of the actuator arm is provided. The actuator arm includes an adjustable elbow cup and adjustable hand grip. The device does not store potential energy or produce sufficient momentum to oppose a user's immediate and safe termination of motion.
US07976443B2
An adjustable weight kettlebell includes a weight lifting member that rests on top of a vertical stack of weights. A weight selector is rotatable into and out of underlying engagement of the weight plates to secure a desired amount of mass to the weight lifting member.
US07976437B1
A running surface for a common exercise treadmill has an endless belt made of a rubber like material leaving a smooth finish to its upper and lower surfaces. At least one line of spaced apart holes penetrate the belt along its entire length. The holes enable fastening elements to affix generally circular rods to the upper surface to engage fastening eyelets by means of the fastening elements which are installed into at least one strengthening endless belt positioned below and urging against the lower extremity of the endless belt. The generally circular rods have prefabricated objects such as simulated cobblestones of various sizes and configurations in immediate adjacency to the upper extremity of the endless belt.
US07976436B2
An air spring is used as a resistance device in exercise equipment having a lever arm for exercising arms and legs. In one embodiment, the equipment can be adapted to be used as a stair stepper. In another, it can be adapted to be used on a table surface for exercising hands, wrists and forearms. In still another embodiment, it can incorporate a bike pedal assembly to simultaneously aerobically exercise the legs and arms. The equipment includes resistance level regulating components and a visual indicator using a gauge or similar device to monitor resistance levels.
US07976435B2
A stationary exercise device with adjustable members for varying the stride path and the exercise intensity of a user is disclosed. The stationary device having a stationary frame and a movable frame that moves relative to the stationary frame to vary the exercise intensity of a user.
US07976420B2
The present invention provides an eccentric oscillating type speed reducer that can more effectively be cooled with an extremely simple structure.An eccentric oscillating type speed reducer 1 includes a camshaft 11 having crank portions 11a and 11b, a plurality of externally toothed gear members 12 that respectively have holes, each of which accommodates an associated one of the crank portions, and that are eccentrically moved by rotation of the camshaft, an internally toothed gear member 13 having an inner peripheral surface in which internal teeth to be meshed with external teeth formed on external peripheral surfaces of the externally toothed gear members are formed so as to set the number of the internal teeth to be slightly larger than that of external teeth, and support members 14 respectively positioned at both ends of the externally toothed gear members so as to rotatably support both ends of the camshaft. Further, support members 18 and 19 are integrally coupled to each other via a pillar portion 17. In the eccentric oscillating type speed reducer 1, a coolant passage 30 passing through the integrally coupled support members 18 and 10, and the pillar portion 17 is provided. A coolant, such as cooling water or cooling air, is passed through the coolant passage. Consequently, the eccentric oscillating type speed reducer can efficiently be cooled.
US07976410B2
The present invention provides a multi-piece solid golf ball having a core, an inner cover layer and an outer cover layer. The core is made of a material obtained by molding under applied heat a rubber composition containing (a) a base rubber containing polybutadiene having a stress relaxation time (T80) of 3.5 or less, (b) an unsaturated carboxylic acid and/or a metal salt thereof, and (c) an organic peroxide. The inner cover layer has a Shore D hardness of from 50 to 80, the outer cover layer has a Shore D hardness of from 35 to 60 which is lower than the Shore D hardness of the inner cover layer, and the outer cover layer is formed primarily of a specific, highly neutralized resin mixture. The golf ball as a whole has an excellent rebound, a good, soft feel on impact, an outstanding spin performance, and is capable of achieving an increased distance.
US07976398B2
A golf swing formation aid has a resilient cushion sandwiched between two additional resilient cushions, with sleeves to receive the arms of a golfer holding a golf club to provide between the arms a predetermined spacing during a swing of the golf club by the golfer. A differential in the resilience of the cushions allows for accommodation of the movement of the arms during the swing while maintaining the predetermined spacing. The cushions have different degrees of resilience.
US07976389B2
A tournament gaming system is disclosed including one or more gaming machines programmed for play of at least one tournament game. A plurality of gaming machines may be linked for tournament play, as through a host computer. Qualification for tournament play may be, at least in part, effectuated through participation in one or more primary games at a gaming machine programmed for tournament play. Tournament games may be conducted at a predetermined minimum rate of play. Variable rates of play responsive to specific game outcomes during tournament games are also disclosed.
US07976386B2
Systems and methods are disclosed having a mesh network such as a ZigBee mesh network, a game controller coupled to the mesh network; and a display device coupled to the mesh network.
US07976373B2
Certain non-limiting exemplary embodiments are taught which include a game comprising, a digital processor, digital storage coupled to the digital processor for storing instructions, a display coupled to the digital processor displaying a first plurality of indicia arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns such that there are a plurality of paylines through a contiguous plurality of indicia, a user interface coupled to the digital processor to select a subset of the first plurality of indicia taken along at least one column and to initiate a display of a second plurality of indicia which includes the selected subset of the first plurality of indicia on the display, and an award dispenser providing an award which is at least as large as the largest award associated with the plurality of paylines.
US07976372B2
A game table having a multiplayer interactive display/input device which enables multiple players to simultaneously play primary or base wagering games and/or secondary or bonus games using the display/input device. The display/input device enables multiple players to simultaneously interact with the game table and the various games using the same display/input device. The game table enables multiple players to manipulate displayed objects (such as virtual cards or other game symbols) displayed by the display/input device at the same time. This enables the display/input device to simultaneously display the same game to multiple players in an integrated seamless manner without the need for multiple different sets of display devices and input devices for each of the players.
US07976353B2
A two piece electrical terminal is shown where one part is comprised of a contact member having a contact section in the form of a pin and retention section. A conductor connecting member is comprised of a conductor connecting section and a retaining member. The contact member has a lug extending along one side thereof and the retaining member has a complementary opening which retains the contact member and conductor connecting member together.
US07976340B1
A connector system includes a header connector, a mating connector, and a conductive grounding bridge. The header connector includes a conductive shell that defines an interior chamber and a contact disposed in the interior chamber. The mating connector includes a conductive member and an electromagnetic shield joined to a housing. The shield has an elongated protrusion extending from the shield to an outer end. The header connector and the mating connector couple with each other such that the contact engages the conductive member and the protrusion engages the shell. The grounding bridge is joined to one of the header connector and the mating connector and engages another of the header connector and the mating connector when the protrusion engages the shell. The protrusion is electrically coupled with the shell at the outer end of the protrusion and by the grounding bridge.
US07976336B2
A trigger signal-lighted connector including a terminal housing in which multiple terminals are inlaid; an adapter circuit board having multiple lines of printed circuits, each printed circuit being connected between one of the terminals and one of multiple signal wires, one of the printed circuits being connected to a grounding terminal, while another of the printed circuits being connected to a trigger signal terminal; and an insulation layer wrapping the terminal housing, the adapter circuit board and the signal wires. The insulation layer is made of transparent material and at least one light-emitting component is disposed on the adapter circuit board. One of two electrode pins of the light-emitting component is connected to the printed circuit, which is connected to the grounding terminal, while the other of the electrode pins is connected to the printed circuit, which is connected to the trigger signal terminal.
US07976335B2
A universal mounting supports high intensity LEDs in a lighting fixture with heat removal and electrical connection facilities. A holder includes a peripheral sidewall defining a cavity for accepting a printed circuit board assembly. A support member supports the printed circuit board assembly along the peripheral sidewall. Electrical contact elements are provided the printed circuit board. A thermal conduction member is in thermal communication with the printed circuit board assembly. The receptacle portion removably engages with the holder portion. A plurality of contact sockets conductively engages the electrical contact elements of the holder portion to interconnect the contact elements to external wires. An aperture in the receptacle portion accepts the thermal conduction member, wherein the thermal conduction member passes through the aperture and into a space for dissipating heat from the printed circuit board.
US07976329B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a connector locking device for network cables and methods of utilizing the same. In one embodiment of the present invention, a keyed-release connector locking device comprises a locking tongue support for supporting a locking tongue of a connector, the locking tongue of the connector consisting of a member biased about a front of the connector on a top surface thereof, extending towards a rear of the connector; a first retaining mechanism for engaging a portion of a body of a terminal, the body of the terminal comprising a structure having a housing on a top surface thereof for receiving the first retaining mechanism; and a key-accessible release arm for releasing the retaining mechanism from the portion of the body of the terminal when pivotably engaged.
US07976328B2
An electrical connector for a flexible printed circuit is provided. The electrical connector comprises a connector set, a terminal and a fasten assembly. The connector set has a base, a cover and a pin. The cover is pivotally connecting to the base by the pin and adapted to open or shut the receiving space defined by the base and the cover. The terminal is adapted to be detachably inserted into the receiving space to electrically connect the connector set. The fasten assembly is disposed on the base and the terminal respectively. When the terminal is inserted into the receiving space, the fasten assembly is adapted to fasten the terminal to the base.
US07976327B2
A card connector is adapted to receive first and second electronic cards, each having a plurality of contact pads. The second card being wider than the first card. The connector includes an insulative housing with a plurality of first and second terminals mounted therein for engaging respective ones of the contact pads of the electronic cards when the cards are inserted into the connector. A cover member is pivotally mounted on the housing to permit movement of the cover member between an open position at which one of said first and second electronic cards may be inserted and a closed position at which the electronic card inserted into the cover is operatively positioned within the connector. The cover member has first and second sets of positioning members configured to position and hold electronic cards exclusively at the desired location for such card and wherein some of the positioning members of the first set also act as positioning members of the second set.
US07976323B2
A stacked card connector (100) for receiving different cards comprises: a main base (1), a subbase (2) separately assembled to the main base (1) making repairing or changing the lower contacts easier and occupying less space, a bottom cover (42) placed in a bottom of the main base, and a top shell (41) enclosing the main base (1) and the subbase from a top side of the stacked card connector; the main base and the bottom cover defining a first space (11) with a first inserting opening (15), the subbase and the main base defining a second space (12) with a second inserting opening (16), the subbase and the top shell defining a third space (21) with a third inserting opening (24), the second inserting opening and the third inserting opening arranged in a side along a top-to-bottom direction, the first inserting opening arranged in a side perpendicular to the side where the second and third inserting opening are allocated.
US07976320B2
A power plug is proposed, comprising: an electrode terminal base having a pair of electrically conductive terminals and a ground terminal; a power cable having insulated wires respectively connected to the conductive terminals and the ground terminal; a conductive casing comprised of a casing body covering and connecting with the electrode terminal, an isolating portion disposed on the outer layer of the casing body for isolating outside electrical noise or electromagnetic interference, an insulating layer disposed on the inner layer of the casing body, a cable fastener disposed in the casing body for holding the cable in position and a conductive fixture electrically connecting with the electrode terminal base, thereby ensuring the quality of electric power transmission.
US07976313B2
A patient simulator system for teaching patient care is provided. The system includes a patient simulator. The patient simulator includes a patient body comprising one or more simulated body portions. A respiratory system is positioned within the patient body. The respiratory system includes a pair of lungs and is configured to simulate a respiratory pattern of a patient. A circulatory system is also positioned within the patient body. The circulatory system is configured to simulate at least one circulatory parameter of the patient. The system also includes a control system in communication with the patient simulator. The control system includes a respiratory physiological model for controlling the simulated respiratory pattern of the respiratory system and a circulatory physiological model for controlling the at least one circulatory parameter of the circulatory system. The respiratory physiological model is configured to adjust the simulated respiratory pattern of the respiratory system at least partially based on a treatment administered to the patient simulator by a user.
US07976308B2
Improved dental wedge having curved elongate body approximating the anatomical curvature of a tooth undergoing repair to hold the matrix in conformity with the anatomical curvature of said tooth. The wedges comprising a curved elongate body having proximal and distal ends and tapering from the proximal end to the distal end, the elongate body further having a bottom surface, an inside surface and an outside surface opposite the inside surface, the curvature of the elongate body being towards the inside surface, and the bottom surface adjacent the insertion portion being curved upwards relative to the remainder of the bottom surface. The elongate body may be generally triangular in cross-section, and the inside surface is concave and the outside surface is convex transversely to the elongate body.
US07976301B2
A device for removing an oblong burr from a molded part including an energy source that introduces energy into the burr for removing the burr by heating. The energy source includes an infrared transmitter that irradiates the oblong burr with infrared radiation, a sleeve for receiving the infrared transmitter with an inner face facing the infrared transmitter and an outer face remote from the infrared transmitter, and an outlet region through which energy may be transported in the direction of the burr. The sleeve has an outer coating with a surface facing the outside, and an inner face facing the infrared transmitter which at least partially encloses the sleeve. Infrared radiation emitted by the energy source is concentrated by a radiation-forming element, so that only the burr is irradiated by the infrared radiation. The radiation-forming element may be formed by a gap in the outer coating.
US07976298B2
The invention provides an article, a method and an apparatus of forming expanded plastic materials in a steam chest mold having out of die draw features. This is achieved by means of a cavity pull system. The cavity pull system allows for the provision of molded features outside the die draw and is designed to operate on a cam type system using two stainless steel rods running at a right angle to one another. A gear mechanism allows molded features, e.g. holes, to be formed at any angle on any part design where enough part geometry exists to accommodate the forming features and in the tool for mechanism components. The invention is advantageously employed in the formation of holes outside the die draw in vertically stacked injection tools for energy absorbers used in vehicle bumper fascias. The provision of out of die draw molded features is useful for fascia component locating or attachment.
US07976295B2
A compressor includes a housing, a first scroll member supported within the housing and having a first end plate with a discharge passage, and a second scroll member supported within the housing and having a second end plate with a second spiral wrap extending therefrom and meshingly engaged with the first spiral wrap to form a series of pockets. A first aperture extends through the first end plate and is in communication with a first product of the series of pockets. A modulation assembly axially biases the first scroll member into engagement with the second scroll member when the first aperture is in communication with a suction pressure region of the compressor.
US07976290B2
An air pump has a bracket, a motor, a transmission device and pneumatic cylinder assembly. The bracket is formed from sheet metal and has a backplate, two side plates formed on the backplate and two top plates formed respectively on the side plates. The motor is mounted on the transmission device. The transmission device is mounted on the bracket and is connected to the motor. The pneumatic cylinder assembly is mounted on the bracket and is connected to the transmission device. The bracket formed from sheet metal is light and has a low cost.
US07976287B2
A capacity variable type twin rotary compressor may include a casing, a motor, a first cylinder having a first compression space, a second cylinder fixed to one side of the first cylinder and having a second compression space, first and second intakes respectively formed in the first and second cylinders and each connected to a gas intake pipe, first and second vane slits respectively formed in the first and second intakes first and second rolling pistons eccentrically coupled to the motor and respectively housed in the first and second compression spaces, first and second vanes slidingly received in the first and second vane slits, respectively, an expansion groove formed at the second vane slit separate from the inner space of the casing, and refrigerant switching valves that allow refrigerant of intake and discharge pressures to be supplied into the second compression space and the expansion groove, such that the second vane contacts the second rolling piston to perform a power driving or separates therefrom to perform a saving driving.
US07976282B2
A spar cap for a wind turbine rotor blade. The spar cap may include multiple preform components. The multiple preform components may be planar sheets having a swept shape with a first end and a second end. The multiple preform components may be joined by mating the first end of a first preform component to the second end of a next preform component, forming the spar cap.
US07976277B2
A component such as a turbine blade of a gas turbine engine has a cooling arrangement comprising a cascade impingement array in which cooling air flows from a supply chamber through impingement passages in webs to an internal passageway comprising first and second limbs. The cooling air flow through the limbs, provides improved heat transfer compared with continued impingement cooling in the chordwise direction of the blade.
US07976276B2
A rotor blade assembly for a wind turbine is disclosed. The rotor blade assembly includes a rotor blade having a pressure side, a suction side, a leading edge, and a trailing edge extending between a tip and a root, the rotor blade further defining a pitch axis. The rotor blade assembly further includes a noise reducer mounted to the rotor blade. The noise reducer includes a base plate defining a base line, a plurality of noise reduction features extending from the base line, and a plurality of apertures defined in the base plate. Each aperture is positioned on an opposite side of the base line from the plurality of noise reduction features such that the aperture is fully defined in the base plate.
US07976273B2
A tip turbine engine assembly according to the present invention includes a load bearing engine support structure (12). The engine support structure (12) includes an engine support plane (P) that is substantially perpendicular to an engine centerline (A) and first rotationally fixed member (50) disposed about the engine centerline (A) and cantilevered from the engine support plane (P). A support member extends radially outward from the first rotationally fixed member (50) and structurally supports a second rotationally fixed member (58) that is coaxial with the first rotationally fixed member. A rotor is mounted on the first rotationally fixed member and rotates about the engine centerline (A).
US07976272B2
A compressor for a turbine engine includes an inflatable bleed valve that selectively bleeds core airflow from the compressor. The bleed valve has an inlet leading from the compressor and a passageway leading from the inlet. An inflatable valve selectively obstructs the passageway based upon a controlled supply of high pressure air to the inflatable valve. The supply of high pressure air may be compressed core airflow from an area downstream of the inlet to the bleed valve.
US07976266B2
A power system includes a gas turbine engine. The gas turbine engine may include a first portion, a second portion, and a longitudinal axis. The power system may also include a first moveable support engaged to the first portion of the gas turbine engine. The first moveable support may be operable to at least partially constrain movement of the first portion of the gas turbine engine during operation of the gas turbine engine. Additionally, the first moveable support may be operable to at least partially support the first portion of the gas turbine engine as the first portion of the gas turbine engine is moved away from the longitudinal axis independently of the second portion of the gas turbine engine.
US07976263B2
An integrated high speed robotic mechanism is disclosed for improving transport equipment, integrating an object movement with other functionalities such as alignment or identification. The disclosed integrated robot assembly typically comprises an end effector for moving the object in and out of a chamber, a rotation chuck incorporated on the robot body to provide centering and theta alignment capability, and an optional identification subsystem for identifying the object during transport. The present invention also discloses a transfer robot system, employing a plurality of integrated robot assemblies; a transfer system where a transfer robot system can service a plurality of connected chambers such as FOUP or FOSB; a front end module (FEM); or a sorter system. Through the use of these incorporated capabilities into the moving robot, single object transfer operations can exceed 500 parts per hour.
US07976262B2
This invention relates to a FOUP opener in which a FOUP is placed and the FOUP door of the FOUP can be detached so as to allow access to the interior of the FOUP. The FOUP opener includes a port door having an attaching/detaching mechanism for attaching and detaching the FOUP door and a holding mechanism for holding the FOUP door to be detached, and a port door moving unit for moving said port door holding the FOUP door so as that the FOUP is opened. The port door has a main structure in which said attaching/detaching mechanism is arranged and a surface panel to cover said main structure. The surface panel is detachable from said main structure at a front side of the FOUP opener.
US07976255B2
A vehicle wheel chock for a vehicle restraint system for an auto-rack railroad car which secures a vehicle in the auto-rack railroad car. The vehicle wheel chock is configured to be positioned on a grating adjacent to a tire of the vehicle.
US07976254B2
A securing device for motorcycles and ATVs. The securing device comprises an anchor member that is detachably mounted to a floor of a transport vehicle and a coupling sleeve that engages with the footpeg of the motorcycle. A lever assembly is interposed between the coupling sleeve and the anchor member so movement of the lever member between a secured and release position results in the motorcycle or ATV being urged towards or away from the floor of the transport vehicle.
US07976253B2
A chuck for use with a manual or powered driver having a housing and a rotatable drive shaft extending therefrom is provided. The chuck includes a generally cylindrical body member having a nose section and a tail section. Each of a plurality of jaws is slidably positioned in one of a plurality of angularly disposed passageways in the body. Each jaw has a jaw face formed on one side thereof and threads formed on the opposite side thereof. A nut is rotatably mounted on the body in engagement with the jaw threads so that rotation of the nut moves the jaws axially within the passageways. A locking member, in a first axial position, is rotatable with respect to the driver housing. In a second axial position, it operatively engages the housing and the nut so that the locking member is rotationally held to the housing and the nut so that the nut is rotationally held to the housing. The locking member is axially reciprocal between the first axial position and the second axial position.
US07976249B2
Side milling cutter for manufacturing a stone or rock drill in which the cutting inserts each have a bearing lug with sloped sides, as well as a method of manufacturing a stone or rock drill with such a side milling cutter, and a cutting insert therefor having a bearing lug with sloped sides.
US07976246B1
A system for deploying a deepwater mooring spread from a floating vessel using at least two cranes each having a main block, a deepwater deployment system connected to at least one of the cranes, a reel drive, a structure for supporting the reel drive and a hang-off, a plurality of neutral buoyancy polymer lines deployable by the reel drive connectable to each other and the hang-off with chains and/or with remote operated vehicle connectors, at least two suction piles with anchor chains, and at least two buoys, one for each suction pile for connecting to the neutral buoyancy polymer lines.
US07976244B2
Disclosed is a system and method for installing docks. The system comprises a scaffold portion having at least a first end and a second end. The first end is adapted to be removably secured to a first dock portion. The second end of the scaffold portion has a template thereon adapted for positioning pilings of a second dock portion to be installed. The scaffold includes a support structure upon which a dock builder stands during installation of the second dock portion. The method comprises installing a first dock portion, removably securing a first end of a scaffold portion of a dock installation system to the first dock portion, lowering a second end of the scaffold portion such that the first end of the scaffold portion is cantilevered at the first dock portion, using a template on a second end of the scaffold portion to arrange and position one or more components of a second dock portion to be installed, and installing the second dock portion.
US07976243B2
Apparatus and methods for forming an underground passageway and simultaneously laying therein a conduit or other elongate components comprises a rotary drill member coupled to a rotary and axially movable drill stem. The coupling is one which virtually automatically enables the drill stem to be coupled to and uncoupled from the drill member and comprises interlocking driving lugs carried by the drill stem and the drill member. The driving lugs are sandwiched between telescoped portions of the drill member and the drill stem and thereby are reinforced by such portions of the drill stem and the drill member in such manner as to preclude movement of the driving lugs in both radially inward and radially outward directions.
US07976236B2
An applicator constructed such that when the user clicks a rear end of an inner barrel, a valve mechanism is actuated by moving the inner barrel relative to an outer barrel, whereby an application liquid is supplied to an applying element arranged at a front end part of the outer barrel, and that when a valve seat member and a valve rod member move relatively to each other, the valve mechanism can take a first state in which a piston portion on the front side of the valve rod member comes into sliding contact with a front-side liquid-tight portion inside the valve seat member, a second state in which both of the piston portion on the front side of the valve rod member and piston portion on the rear side of valve rod member do not come in sliding contact with the corresponding liquid-tight portions inside the valve seat member, and a third state in which the piston portion on the rear side of the valve rod member comes into sliding contact with the rear-side liquid-tight portion.
US07976228B2
A device for hands-free self-examination is provided comprising a viewing component having a mirror which is attached to a compliant receptacle. The receptacle being configured to receive filler material thereby enabling the device to be positioned on an irregular surface such that it substantially conforms thereto and enabling the mirror to be manipulated to any orientation.
US07976221B2
A system and method for improving lubrication in a fluid dynamic bearing are disclosed. A fluid dynamic bearing is formed. The fluid dynamic bearing comprises a shaft having an axis of rotation and a surface comprising a first groove at a first depth and a second groove at a second depth, wherein the first and second grooves are for supporting a film of lubricating fluid. The fluid dynamic bearing further includes a hub having an axis coincident to the axis of rotation and a complimentary surface juxtaposed to the shaft which is conducive to supporting the lubricating fluid such that the shaft is rotatably retained.
US07976214B2
A portable watch has a watch case body having front and back sides. A time display portion is disposed at the front side of the case body for displaying time. The back side of the case body has a lid-receiving surface and a concavity that opens at the lid-receiving surface. A back lid is disposed on the lid-receiving surface to close the interior of the watch case body from the back side thereof, and the back lid has marking indicia and a projection that engages with the concavity in the back side of the watch case body to position the back lid in a predetermined position in which the marking indicia align with the 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock direction of the time display portion. A holding ring is threaded onto the watch case body with the back lid clamped therebetween to removably attach the back lid to the watch case body while maintaining the back lid in the predetermined position.
US07976206B2
A light bulb includes a bulb body, a light guide, and at least one light-emitting diode (LED). The bulb body includes a light-transmitting shell and a conductive base. The light-transmitting shell is mounted to the base. A circuit board is fixed at one side of the base and is in electrical connection with the base. The LED is mounted to the circuit board that is arranged at one side of the base, and the LED is in electrical connection with the circuit board to provide an internal light source. The light guide is arranged inside the bulb body and has an end forming a cavity that receives the LED therein, whereby the light guide is set erect on the base. As such, advantages of easy manufacturing, reduced costs, operation safety, increased angular range of illumination, and extended lifespan can be provided.
US07976198B1
An apparatus, method, and system to provide, as one example, up-light for aerial viewing from downwardly aimed wide area, high intensity, lighting fixtures. The method controls a small percentage of light from the fixture to pass up and away for up-light, with the remainder used to produce a controlled, concentrated beam to a target. Some embodiments include a substantial amount of glare and spill light control. An apparatus can include a lamp and fixture with a visor length that is shorter than most conventional spill and glare control visors. The visor allows a controlled, relatively small percentage of direct light from the fixture for a desired or needed level of aerial illumination, but efficiently directs other light to the target. Optionally, a reflective plate is positioned inside the visor to reflect a small percentage of light from the fixture upwardly for up-light. Another embodiment can shift a fraction of light in direction(s) different than the main light output of the fixture.
US07976191B2
An LED light string includes series-connected groups of individual LEDs or sets of LEDs, with each LED or set of LEDs in each group being electrically in parallel with each other LED or set of LEDs and with a parallel group device that regulates voltage within the group when LEDs in that group fail. The current to the LEDs is rectified, either in the light string plug or receptacle, preferably the latter. The color of each light in the group, or colors of each set in the group must be the same but successive groups can include LEDs of different colors. In an alternative embodiment, the LEDs can be oriented so that half light on during the first half of an alternating current cycle and the other half light during the second half of an alternating current cycle.
US07976183B2
A backlight unit capable of preventing its mis-operation and the generation of sparks due to electrical connection defects is disclosed. The backlight unit includes: a plurality of lamps emitting lights; a lamp printed-circuit board including a power supply portion electrically connected to the plural lamps and a connector wiper transferring a drive voltage to be applied to the power supply portion; a connector including a connector housing, engaged with the connector wiper and electrically connected to the connector wiper, and wires electrically connected to the connector housing; and another printed-circuit board, electrically connected to the wires, applying the drive voltage to the lamp printed-circuit board. The connector housing includes stoppers extruded toward the lamp printed-circuit board. The stoppers prevent a contact defect of the connector wiper and the lamp printed-circuit board which is caused by the connector housing.
US07976182B2
An light emitting diode lamp assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present application includes a base, a ballast circuit mounted on a circuit board and operable to provide a desired output current and a light emitting diode electrically connected to the ballast and driven by the output current of the ballast circuit to provide light. The base is filled with a thermally conductive substance and the circuit board is mounted in the base and in thermal contact with the thermally conductive substance such that heat is drawn away from the light emitting diode through the circuit board and into the thermally conductive substance to the base.
US07976175B2
A ring lamp includes a light source having a first hollow cylinder with a lighting device disposed therein. The light source has an emitting surface with a light-emitting direction oriented toward an axis of the hollow cylinder. The lamp also includes a light directing device configured to direct light emission. The light directing device includes a lens system having a lens formed as a second hollow cylinder and configured to focus light into a radial plane which is orthogonal to the axis. The lens system has a ring-shaped aperture diaphragm disposed centrally in an optical path of the light emission behind the lens. The emitting surface of the light source and the lens system have a same length, are coaxial and axially aligned with each other. A radial surface which is defined by an inner radius of the lens system and the length of the lens system spans a delimited volume.
US07976172B2
Light emitted from a lamp enters a color wheel having a region for allowing a predetermined color to pass therethrough, is reflected on a mirror, and enters a DMD. After this, the light is reflected by the DMD and enters a color sensor, which then detects the color of the transmitting light. A projection apparatus automatically synchronizes the control on the rotation of the color wheel and the control on the proceeding direction of the transmitting light by the DMD, based on a color time-division pattern of the transmitting light detected by the color sensor.
US07976170B2
According to the present invention, a plurality of video image data are converted into individual spatial frequency information using Fourier transformation. The individual spatial frequency information is provided to a plurality of information display unit corresponding to the individual spatial frequency information. The spatial frequency information corresponding to the plurality of video image data is displayed on the plurality of information display unit, light is irradiated onto the plurality of information display unit using a plurality of light sources corresponding to the plurality of information display unit. The spatial frequency information that is displayed by the plurality of information display unit is projected by using diffraction light, and a plurality of video images are synthesized on projection surfaces.
US07976169B2
An apparatus (e.g. a display) including a display substrate and a waveguide. The waveguide may guide ultraviolet light from the light source onto the display substrate. The display substrate may include light emitting material configured to emit visible light in response to absorption of the ultraviolet light.
US07976165B2
An image generation unit with a geometry according to which a light input section and a light output section are formed and/or are arranged such that a light incidence axis or direction and an image emission axis or direction are essentially collinear, parallel, or coincident with respect to each other.
US07976164B2
The application relates to a rear projector and a rear projection method. There is provided at least one projection screen, at least two beamers, each of the at least two beamers generating one view of a scene into at least one viewing direction and projecting the view onto the rear side of the projection screen, at least one switcheable diffuser which is switcheable between a transparent state and a diffuse state, wherein in the transparent state each beamer generates a different view of a scene, and wherein in the diffuse state the beamers generate one view of a scene.
US07976156B2
A wearing-orientation selectable contact lens including: an optical zone; a first diopter power region provided in the optical zone; and a second diopter power region having a lens power that is more positive than that of the first diopter power region. A superficial center of the second diopter power region is decentered on a symmetrical meridian from a geometric center of the optical zone. A circumferential positioning member is provided so as to selectively set up: a first stable state where the superficial center of the second diopter power region is positioned to one of left and right side of the eye, and a second stable state where the superficial center of the second diopter power region is positioned to another of left and right side of the eye. A visible indicator mark is provided for identifying a lens orientation of the first stable state and the second stable state.
US07976155B2
An adapter to be applied in contact with an anterior corneal surface. The adapter includes a contact glass portion having a corneal contact surface curvature that is flatter than the undeformed anterior corneal surface. When the contact glass is applied the cornea assumes a deformed state corneal curvature that is parallel to the flatter corneal contact surface curvature. A mount portion circumferentially surrounds the contact glass portion and defines a suction duct that is structured to secure the adapter to the cornea by negative pressure when the suction duct is brought into contact with a surface of the eye surrounding the contact glass portion. The suction duct is partially defined by a peripheral edge of the mount that extends outwardly away from the mount portion and toward but not intersecting or extending beyond a geometric continuation of the corneal contact surface curvature.
US07976153B2
An inkjet printer comprises a body housing a print engine configured to transport and print upon print media; a cover pivotally mounted relative to the body and able to be pivoted to form a guide which can guide print media to the print engine for printing; a support configured to support the print media guided to the print engine and pivotally mounted relative to the cover so that the support can be retracted between the cover and the body; and a stepper motor for driving a sheet feed roller and a paper transport. The stepper motor drives the paper transport when operated in a forward direction, and drives the sheet feed roller when operated in the reverse direction.
US07976152B2
An image recording apparatus comprises a plurality of drums for holding a recording medium on their perimeter faces and for being able to rotate the recording medium, and printing unit, which are arranged as opposed to the perimeter faces of the drums, for being able to make printing on the recording medium. A tension generating unit for applying a tension to the recording medium is arranged in the upstream and the downstream of the drums on the conveyance path of the recording medium. A drum in the downmost stream side of the conveyance path is used as a driving drum, and the other drums are used as driven drums.
US07976142B2
A printer ink cartridge with a spring assembly pressurising the ink to dispense it when the outlet establishes fluid communication with the printer. The cartridge has an outer portion with the spring assembly and a base portion containing a deformable ink membrane for containing ink. At least part of the base portion slides against the outer portion, and the spring assembly presses the deformable ink membrane to dispense ink as the at least part of the base portion slides within the outer portion by application of a force. The cartridge also has an ink outlet for fluid communication with the printer.
US07976139B2
A liquid ejection head includes: a plurality of nozzles which eject liquid; a plurality of pressure chambers connected respectively to the plurality of nozzles; a common flow channel which is provided to be shared by the plurality of pressure chambers and has a plurality of supply flow channel connection ports and a plurality of circulation flow channel ports; a plurality of supply flow channels through which the liquid flows from the common flow channel to the plurality of pressure chambers via the plurality of supply flow channel connection ports; and a plurality of circulation flow channels through which the liquid flow from the plurality of pressure chambers to the common flow channel via the plurality of circulation flow channel ports, wherein the plurality of supply flow channel connection ports and the plurality of circulation flow channel ports are arranged so that a pressure differential of the liquid between the supply flow channel connection port and the circulation flow channel port which are connected to the same pressure chamber is equal in respect of all of the plurality of pressure chambers.
US07976134B2
A method of manufacturing a liquid ejecting head includes: inserting a piezoelectric element unit into a storage portion of a case head while causing a fixed substrate to be struck to an inner surface of the storage portion of the case head by a magnetic force; and joining the piezoelectric element unit and the case head in a state of bringing at least part of side surfaces of the piezoelectric element unit into abutment with an alignment surface of the inner surface of the storage portion.
US07976132B2
A nozzle assembly for an inkjet printhead is provided. The nozzle assembly comprises a nozzle chamber having a roof, the roof having a moving portion moveable relative to a static portion and a nozzle opening defined in the roof, such that movement of the moving portion relative to the static portion causes ejection of ink through the nozzle opening. The nozzle assembly also comprises an actuator for moving the moving portion relative to the static portion, and a mechanical seal interconnecting the moving portion and the static portion. The mechanical seal comprises a polymeric material selected from the group comprising: polymerized siloxanes and fluorinated polyolefins.
US07976130B2
A micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangement for a printhead integrated circuit featuring a nozzle chamber capped by an ink ejection port includes a paddle located in the nozzle chamber below the ink ejection port; an actuator arm having a fixed end fixed to the substrate and a working end displaceable towards and away from the substrate; and a motion transmitting structure interconnecting the working end of the actuator arm and a proximal end of the paddle. The actuator arm and the paddle are formed of the same material.
US07976128B2
There is provided a liquid transporting apparatus which includes a substrate having an insulating surface, a plurality of liquid transporting channels, a common liquid chamber which supplies a liquid to the liquid transporting channels, a plurality of individual electrodes arranged on the plurality of liquid transporting channels respectively, an insulating layer which covers the individual electrodes, a plurality of wire portions which are connected to the individual electrodes respectively, and a driver IC which applies a driving electric potential to the individual electrodes. Accordingly, it is possible to make simple a structure of the liquid transporting apparatus, and to reduce a manufacturing cost.
US07976118B2
A solid ink printer includes a solid ink transportation control system that helps ensure a continuous supply of solid ink to a melting device within a printer. The solid ink transportation control system includes an ink loss measurement circuit configured to identify an accumulated ink mass loss of ink from an ink reservoir in a printer and to generate an ink supply replenish signal in response to the accumulated ink mass loss reaching an accumulated loss threshold, a drive motor electrically coupled to the ink loss measurement circuit, the drive motor being configured to operate in response to the ink supply replenish signal, and an ink stick drive train coupled to the drive motor, at least a portion of the ink stick drive train moving towards a melting assembly in the printer in response to the operation of the drive motor.
US07976117B2
A printhead integrated circuit assembly includes a substrate having a plurality of micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangements formed thereon, each micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangement including a nozzle chamber defined by a crown portion, a skirt portion, and a wall portion; a lever arm included with the micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangement, the lever arm connected at one end to the crown and skirt portions, and at another end to an actuator, the lever arm adapted to move the crown and skirt portions with respect to the wall portion; drive circuitry for supplying a current to the actuator, the current for heating a portion of the actuator to bend the actuator through thermal expansion; containment walls extending from the substrate to surround each micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangement; and a nozzle guard mounted on the containment walls to individually enclose therein, together with the containment walls, each micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangement, the nozzle guard defining therethrough a plurality of apertures aligned with nozzle openings of respective micro-electromechanical nozzle arrangements.
US07976112B2
A stationary drawer glide and cabinet drawer are provided. The stationary drawer glide and cabinet drawer incorporating the drawer glide allow for a user to easily slide open and closed a cabinet drawer without causing damage or warping to the cabinet drawer, even if there are heavy objects in the drawer. The drawer glide includes a fastening portion adapted to be affixed to an interior cabinet wall, and top and bottom portions for supporting a drawer. The drawer glide may be made of a material with a smooth surface with a low coefficient of friction to facilitate easy gliding of the cabinet drawer.
US07976111B2
A support structure for a clothes washing machine is provided. The support structure includes a frame supporting a washing tub rigidly attached thereto, and a drum arranged inside the tub to rotate with respect to a substantially horizontal or slightly tilted axis, the frame having supports for installing a motor for driving the drum. The frame is made up of resistant elements including metallic plate elements shaped by cutting and folding, assembled and joined together by screw or deformation attachment devices, or by welding. The frame can be linked by a suspension system to a base constructed in a similar way, or the frame can be rigidly joined to the base.
US07976110B2
A hybrid braking system that operates in conjunction with a foundation braking system, whether an air, hydraulic, electric, mechanical or electric braking system. Recovered energy is returned to the axle wheels in a controlled manner while the vehicle is in motion and certain criteria are met so as to compensate for aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance for instance but not at a rate to accelerate or launch a vehicle.
US07976108B2
A controller which controls an electric motor in such a manner that a rotational speed detected in a motor rotational speed detecting module 29 becomes a target rotational speed set in a target rotational speed setting module 37 controls, when a deviation between the rotational speed and the target rotational speed is large, a normally open solenoid valve in such a manner that a controlled variable of the normally open solenoid valve becomes smaller when the deviation is small.
US07976106B2
The invention relates to a self-propelled civil engineering machine, in particular a road-milling machine, a road recycler, or a road stabilizer, having a frame carried by a set of running gear, a working unit for performing work required for the civil engineering operation, and in particular a working drum, and a drive unit carried by the frame of the machine, to drive the working drum. A power transmitter is used to transmit the driving power from the drive unit to the working unit. The drive unit of the self-propelled civil engineering machine has a first and a second drive engine, the power transmitter being so designed that the driving powers coming from the first and the second drive engines can be transmitted to the working unit together. With the design of drive according to the invention, a particularly space-saving construction is obtained for the drive and this allows the power of the drive unit to be increased without having to exceed the preset width for transport of the self-propelled civil engineering machine.
US07976103B2
A seat assembly and a method of control. The seat assembly includes a power recliner assembly that allows a seat back to pivot with respect to a seat bottom. The power recliner assembly includes a motor for rotating a recliner mechanism. A switch assembly is electrically coupled to the motor and disables operation of the motor when in an open condition.
US07976102B2
A seat includes a first seat body and a second seat body juxtaposed to and combined with the first seat body. The first seat body has a bottom provided with a first connecting plate. The second seat body has a bottom provided with a second connecting plate movably mounted on the first connecting plate of the first seat body. Thus, the distance and angle between the second seat body and the first seat body can be adjusted freely according to users of different sizes so that the seat is designed to satisfy the requirements of different users.
US07976093B2
A pivotal vehicle-based seat for use in a passenger compartment is disclosed. The rear seat assembly is supported by a seat support that is attached to the rear bulkhead at a first end and to the bottom of the seat base at the second end. The seat support enables the seat base to pivot from a use position to a to a compact storage position.
US07976076B1
The traction material dispensing apparatus mounts within the wheel well of a fender of a vehicle and is therefore visually and physically unobtrusive. The apparatus selectively dispenses traction material both in front of and behind a vehicle tire. A driver-accessed switch controls the apparatus dispensing of material. Of importance is that the manifolds, funnels, and nozzles are gravity fed by the vessel so that agitators and pressurized material flow assistance is not needed. Flappers within each manifold are controlled by the driver-actuated switch and control delivery of the traction material to the nozzles. As with the flappers, flow from the nozzles is controlled by a miniature DC (direct current) motor powered by the vehicle's electrical system. Screens ensure breakup of any clumps and therefore proper dispersion of traction material to the roadway.
US07976065B2
A steering column attachment assembly is disclosed for adjustably locating and securing after market steering columns to an automotive vehicle. The attachment assembly comprises a penannular flexible insert having inner and outer portions. The outer portion of the flexible insert comprises a plurality of sides. The attachment assembly also comprises a strap clamp having inner and outer regions and an opening provided to the inner region for receiving the flexible insert. The inner region and outer region are formed from a plurality of sides corresponding to the plurality of sides of the outer portion of the flexible insert such that the plurality of sides of the flexible insert and corresponding plurality of sides of the inner region of the strap clamp are in contact during assembly. The strap clamp features a plurality of adjustable compression members that engage the flexible insert.
US07976060B2
Seat assembly attachable to a substrate of a vehicle includes a seat having a bottom portion and a back portion coupled at an angle to a rear portion of the bottom portion, a support structure arranged at least partially under the seat and to support the seat on the substrate at a plurality of locations including two rearward locations on opposite lateral sides of the seat and at least one forward location, and a weight measuring system arranged in connection with the support structure for determining an approximate weight of an occupying item of the seat. The weight measuring system includes at least one strain or force measuring sensor mounted to measure at least a portion of the load applied to the seat. The approximate weight of the occupying item may be used to control deployment of one or more occupant restraint systems for the occupying item.
US07976057B2
An automotive Passenger Side Inflatable Restraint (PSIR) hidden door system contained in an automotive instrument panel and a method of scoring the PSIR door system. The system includes forward and rearward doors hingedly connected at first and second hinges, respectively, to a PSIR airbag chute. The system further includes a common tear line of reduced material thickness integrally joining the forward and rearward doors. The common tear line has a substantially non-linear shape with first and second linear ends.
US07976055B2
A curtain airbag module may include an inflator provided above an upper end portion of a B-pillar, a mounting bracket for mounting the inflator, an airbag disposed along a roof side rail under the inflator and connected at a central portion thereof to the inflator, a guide ramp disposed around an upper end portion of a B-pillar trim and holding the airbag therein, thus allowing the airbag to be deployed without being interfered with by the B-pillar trim, and a mounting flap connecting the mounting bracket and the guide ramp.
US07976046B2
Two versions of recumbent human powered three wheeled vehicles are disclosed. Both are of the tadpole type with two front wheels and one rear drive wheel. Both versions lean into turns causing weight transfer toward the inside of turns to prevent rollover during turns at speed.
US07976034B1
A foldable skateboard comprising a center deck, a front deck, and a rear deck, is provided. The foldable skateboard also comprises a pair of articulated pivot devices fixed between the center deck and each of the front and rear decks. The side edges of the front deck, center deck, and rear deck being mutually substantially co-aligned when each articulated pivot device is in a first extended position. The top surfaces of the front deck, center deck, and rear deck being mutually substantially coplanar when each articulated pivot device is in the first extended position. The top surfaces of the front and rear decks inverted with respect to the center deck when each articulated pivot device is in a collapsed position.
US07976033B2
The trolley or shopping cart can be used to transport goods. This trolley includes a support on which two baskets can be stacked on top of one another, a first lower basket and a second upper basket. The support has at least two lateral posts or stanchions which can be engaged directly or indirectly to the baskets on two opposing sides to create a clearance providing direct access to the opening in the lower and upper baskets from the side used to drive the trolley. The position of the lower basket is offset substantially in relation to the upper basket, such that the lower basket extends out further on the side used to drive the trolley.
US07976032B1
The pallet jack apparatus provides lateral fork adjustment between the two forks, each having a forwardly disposed pivoted wheel for added fork support. The lateral fork adjustment is controlled by the horizontal control lever on the stem. The lateral fork adjustment is via a motor with pinion gear which directly drives the first and second fork gears. The apparatus further provides height adjustment for the forks via the vertical control lever on the stem. The control levers are positioned within the handle interior of the oblong circular handle which guards against inadvertent control movements while providing superior leverage for positioning the apparatus.
US07976025B2
Domino wagering games are disclosed in which a player or players place a wager on which domino will be selected, the domino being selected with a domino roulette style wheel or by being revealed after selection from a boneyard. The wagers are based on a bet type as provided in a bet table that comprises a matrix of dominos arranged in columns and rows with paylines corresponding to particular bet types. The paylines are based on the odds that a first domino will be in a particular group as shown on the bet table.
US07976022B1
A game system, in an exemplary embodiment, includes a progressive bonus apparatus connected to a plurality of individual game units. The progressive bonus apparatus receives score contributions from each game unit to, for example, increase a progressive score. Each game unit connected to the progressive bonus apparatus may take the form of an game with a video rotating wheel. The position of the video wheel when it stops rotating indicates a predetermined result.
US07976021B2
A sheet discharge device includes: a sheet discharge path for discharging a sheet to be discharged; a plurality of sheet discharge trays disposed along the sheet discharge path; a plurality of switching guides disposed in the sheet discharge path corresponding to the sheet discharge trays, and being changed a position between a retracting position for being retracted so that the sheet being conveyed can pass through, and a distributing position for distributing a sheet being conveyed to the sheet discharge tray; and a switching mechanism which changes the position of the switching guide between the retracting position and the distributing position. This switching mechanism includes: a switching piece which interferes with the switching guide to switch the position of the switching guide, one transporting member which moves the switching piece among the plurality of switching guides, and a drive member driving the transporting member.
US07976019B2
An improved sheet accumulator for stacking serially fed sheets transported on a paper path includes a guide deck. Above the guide deck, a plurality of parallel belts are positioned to provide a driving force for sheets on the deck. Within the accumulator, a ramp apparatus is positioned across the paper path whereby sheets driven by the belts on an upstream portion of the accumulator deck are driven over the ramp apparatus and deposited in an accumulating region of the accumulator deck on a downstream side of the ramp apparatus. Sheets are stopped by an accumulator stop mechanism located at a downstream end of the accumulating region that prevents movement of sheets by the belts while sheets for an accumulation are being collected. When an accumulation is completed, the accumulator stop mechanism allows sheets to be transported from the accumulating region.
US07976014B2
A feeding device includes a mounting portion capable of having mounting a plurality of recording media mounted in a stacked state thereon, a delivering member which performs a feeding operation in a state in which its contact surface is in contact with a top recording medium of the recording media mounted on the mounting portion to perform delivery of the recording media by using the frictional force generated between the delivering member and the top recording medium as the transporting force, a separating member having an inclined surface against which the leading end of the recording medium delivered by the delivering member can hit up against, the separating member being fixed in place at a downstream side of the mounding portion in a feeding direction of the recording media, a gate member, and a gate urging member.
US07976011B2
When a first feeding unit is not ready to perform air feeding at the beginning of a print job, roll feeding using a second feeding unit is performed; when it is determined that the first feeding unit is ready to preform air feeding, air feeding using the first feeding unit is preformed. Upon execution of a print job by roll feeding, a preparation is started to make the first feeding unit ready to air feeding. When the first feeding unit is ready to execute the print job by air feeding, the print job is executed by exchanging roll feeding to air feeding using the first feeding unit.
US07976007B2
A multiple media feed system includes an adjustable media singulator feeder that is adjustable to feed from a stack of media items a selectable number of media items to form a group of overlapped media items. A thickness sensor is positioned to measure the thickness of media items fed from the stack of media items. A controllable media feeder is positioned to engage and feed media items fed from said stack of media items by the adjustable media singulator feeder. The controllable media feeder is controlled to feed media items when the thickness sensor has determined that the thickness of the selected number of media items is at the controllable media feeder.
US07976006B2
Systems and methods are described that facilitate remotely controlling paper feed-forward mechanisms on multiple printers in a continuous feed print line, to reduce operator movement during simplex and/or duplex printing and increase print line throughput. The remote control detects a print line (e.g., by user input, a beacon signal provided by the print line, or by some other means), and retrieves IP addresses for printers in the detected print line. A display is provided by which the user selects an identified printer to control, and by which the user then activates and/or deactivates the feed-forward mechanism on the selected printer. Optionally, the remote control functionality is provided as a software package installed on a personal digital assistant (PDA) or smartphone.
US07976003B2
To form a consistent non-application area at an end of a spine of a sheet bundle by adjusting either an application start timing or application termination timing of adhesive through an application device.
US07976002B2
A gatherer-stitcher has a folded-sheet feeder and an apparatus for transferring folded sheets from the feeder to a transporting configuration of the gatherer-stitcher. The apparatus has a plurality of shafts or drums with grippers for gripping the folded sheets. The apparatus opens the folded sheets and places them astride the transporting configuration. The apparatus also has a blowing configuration which, as a folded sheet is transferred from one shaft or drum to another, subjects the folded sheet to a surge of air in time with a folded-sheet transportation.
US07975995B2
An engine mount of a vehicle may include a main rubber body defining a main liquid chamber, wherein a fastening bolt for assembling a vehicle engine is coupled to the main rubber body, an inner case supporting the main rubber body, and a housing enclosing the main rubber and the inner case, wherein at least a protrusion is formed on an outer circumference of the inner case, and wherein at least a groove is formed in the housing and the at least a protrusion of the inner case is coupled to the corresponding at least a groove of the housing.
US07975989B2
A beverage dispenser for dispensing beverages includes a touch panel assembly, removable fittings in a carbonator, a carbonator probe, and a carbonator pump assembly removable from a front of the beverage dispenser. The touch panel assembly includes a light source for backlighting a user interface and providing the dispenser with a visual presence. Electrode traces in the touch panel assembly detect interruptions in electrode fields and are accepted as user inputs for dispensing a beverage. A controller conducts the lighting, dispensing, and reconfiguring operations for the flavor selection areas on the user interface. The touch panel assembly further includes provisions for increasing a user interface area to increase visibility of a particular flavor, as well as bonus flavors on a beverage dispenser. The removable fittings each include an orifice for entry of water to be carbonated into the carbonator. The carbonator probe is a single wire probe with timed refill.
US07975985B2
A rod activated water valve includes a valve base that mates with a standard water faucet. A valve housing attaches to the second end of the valve base, and has an inward protruding lip at a bottom end. The valve includes a water flow chamber with a solid cylindrical outer surface and a substantially flat foraminous surface at one end. An aperture is located central to the flat foraminous surface and a top edge of the water flow chamber has a lip for holding an upper plate o-ring. A rod having a rod head at one end passes through the aperture and is held in place by the rod head. A valve stem for selectively blocking the flow of water from the water faucet to the water flow chamber, activated by the rod head and providing a gradual stopping of the flow of water, thereby reducing water hammer.
US07975981B2
An apparatus (such as a valve assembly or other actuator) includes a pressure plate having a first hole and a second hole. The apparatus also includes a plunger configured to selectively cover the second hole of the pressure plate. The apparatus further includes a coil configured to move the plunger away from the pressure plate to uncover the second hole of the pressure plate in order to allow a material to flow through the apparatus. The coil is also configured to move the plunger towards the pressure plate to cover the second hole of the pressure plate in order to block the material from flowing through the apparatus. Pressure may equalize on a first side and a second side of the pressure plate after the plunger covers the second hole of the pressure plate.
US07975980B2
An adjustable water valve of time-controlled type consists of an inner shell and a time-controlled apparatus. The time-controlled apparatus is disposed inside the inner shell and includes an elastomer and a push rod. The elastomer is disposed between a support lid and the push rod. When the push rod is pushed into the inner shell, the water valve is opened, so the user can wash with the water ejected. After certain time, the water pressures are balanced and the elastomer which has been compressed will push the push rod back to its initial position to close the valve.
US07975972B1
An attachment device for attaching an article to a wall surface includes a bracket with an outwardly extending plate having a hole through which an elongated portion of the article can be placed and an attachment plate, perpendicular to the outwardly extending plate, having at least one hole through which the bracket may be attached directly to the wall by a screw. The attachment device additionally includes a housing having a suction cup for attachment to the wall, a coupling for removably receiving the bracket, and an actuator for causing the suction cup to engage and release the wall surface.
US07975969B2
An exemplary rotatable positioning structure includes a first element and a second element. The first element includes a positioning track portion and defining a hole therein. The second element includes a pivot shaft engaging in the hole. The pivot shaft includes a through hole defined therethrough, a restriction portion and a positioning portion. The first element is restricted by the restriction portion of the pivot shaft. The positioning portion and the positioning track portion are capable of making the first element and the second element maintain a fixed position after relatively rotation therebetween.
US07975968B2
A method and a device for detecting the occupied or free status of a section of track by way of a track current circuit, into which a transmitted signal is introduced and from which at least one detection signal is extracted. A longer maximum possible track length is achieved in that the track current circuit is divided into part sections overlapping over half the length thereof. The transmitted signal is introduced in the middle of each part section into which a rail vehicle enters, detection signals being extracted at both ends of the part section or further transmitted over adjacent part sections to the track circuit ends and extracted there. Each part section is provided in the center and the ends thereof with transceiver devices. The central transceiver device functions as a transmitter and the end transceiver devices function as receivers.
US07975967B2
An automatic activation device for a parachute has a pressure input for inputting a pressure value and is provided for operating in selectable working configurations according to which a reference pressure is determined either on the basis of the input pressure value or on the basis of a QNH value. Preferably the device can also operate in another selectable working configuration, where a preset time and a reference fall down speed are used.
US07975958B2
Systems and/or methods for forming a multiple-articulated flying system (skybase) having a high aspect ratio wing platform, operable to loiter over an area of interest at a high altitude are provided. In certain exemplary embodiments, autonomous modular flyers join together in a wingtip-to-wingtip manner. Such modular flyers may derive their power from insolation. The autonomous flyers may include sensors which operate individually, or collectively after a skybase is formed. The skybase preferably may be aggregated, disaggregated, and/or re-aggregated as called for by the prevailing conditions. Thus, it may be possible to provide a “forever-on-station” aircraft.
US07975957B2
An end plug for a roll of material to be inserted into a retention mechanism, includes: a receiving portion for insertion in the roll, an end face for contacting the mechanism and a bearing member for insertion into the mechanism. The bearing member includes a bearing pin having a counter surface facing the end face and at least one portion for locking the end plug in an end position in the mechanism, the locking portion being positioned within a zone defined by a first surface extending towards the end face from an intersection position with the bearing pin, the first surface being inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis of the bearing pin by an angle of 117 and a second surface extending towards the end face from the intersection position, the second surface being inclined with respect to the axis of the bearing pin by an angle of 141.
US07975956B2
The invention relates to a reel mandrel (1) comprising radially mobile expansion segments (2) and/or closing strips (4, 13) arranged on the periphery thereof. According to the invention, the reel mandrel (1) is provided with axially arranged guiding grooves (12) on the periphery thereof, and the expansion segments (2) are provided with ribs (6). The invention further relates to a method for fixing and/or maintaining an expansion segment (2) and/or a closing strip (3, 13) on a reel mandrel (1).
US07975955B2
A continuous sheet processing apparatus has a frame, a roll body accommodating portion disposed inside of the frame for accommodating a roll body formed of a wound continuous sheet, and a cover mounted for undergoing pivotal movement between open and closed positions relative to the frame so as to allow the insertion of the wound continuous sheet into the roll body accommodating portion in the open position of the cover. A processing portion has a processing head and a platen roller confronting the processing head. The processing head performs a processing operation with respect to the continuous sheet drawn out from the roll body accommodating portion in a state in which the cover is in the closed position. The platen roller transports the continuous sheet in a state in which the cover is in the closed position.
US07975954B2
The invention provides a recording tape attaching method and a recording tape attaching apparatus for accurately attaching a recording tape to a reel hub. In the method and the apparatus for winding a recording tape around a hub of a reel, a hub is contacted with a recording tape retained by suction by a retaining member and rotated, thereby generating static electricity, and the recording tape is attached to the hub by attracting the recording tape to the hub by the generated static electricity.
US07975953B2
A device for collection and storage of waste monofilament line or similar materials. The device has a rotating spool mechanism in the form of an inner spool with an outer surface to which line adheres rotated by a rotation operator coupled to the spool. An outer cylinder encloses the spool mechanism. Monofilament line is passed through a window in the outer cylinder and adheres to the outer surface of the spool. The rotation operator is rotated, drawing the line into the device for storage and later disposal.
US07975946B2
A spice mill for cutting up two different spices, in particular salt and pepper, is disclosed. Two spice containers (17, 18) and two grinding mechanisms (50, 50′) are arranged in a base part (10). A cover part (20) can be removed from the base part (10) and serves as a rotary handle. When the cover part (20) is removed, filling openings (15, 16) for the spice containers (17, 18) are opened up. An encapsulated gear mechanism (30) is arranged in the base part (10) between the cover part and the grinding mechanisms. When the cover part (20) is rotated in a first direction of rotation, the gear mechanism (30) drives the first grinding mechanism (50). By contrast, upon rotation in the opposite direction, the second grinding mechanism (50′) is driven. In a preferred embodiment, the gear mechanism is arranged in an upper region of the base part and, together with the base part, bounds the filling openings.
US07975945B1
An anti-jam knife device for a paper shredder is characterized in that a circular parting wheel is provided on a blade shaft and is closely adjacent to a guide-parting plate, with an outer diameter of the parting wheel being higher than a parting knife-edge at a bottom of a notch of the guide-parting plate. Therefore, when shredding plural pieces of paper, the paper is cut first by the guide-parting plate associated with the parting wheel, and is then shredded by plural original sets of blades to prevent from paper jam.
US07975944B2
A modular system for connecting attachments to the extension arm of a construction machine, wherein each module has a standardized coupling arrangement. As a result, each module is compatible with another module to provide great versatility in configuring the machine. Additionally, the system includes a variety of different modules and a mechanism for remotely activating the coupling between modules.
US07975933B2
A rail joint arrangement comprises two rails. The rails have adjacent rail ends separated and thereby forming a gap. The rails have a top end containing a rail head and a bottom end. The gap is defined between the top end and the bottom end of the rails, and the width of the gap is non-uniform throughout its entire length. In addition, the rail joint arrangement comprises at least one electric insulator positioned within the gap. The rail joint arrangement is fastened together by a rail joint bar attaching the two rails together.
US07975932B2
A track structure for railborne vehicles comprising a bed on which rails fastened to sleepers are seated. The structure comprises a concrete trough seated on a substructure and having walls extending in the longitudinal direction. The side walls are spaced apart parallel to one another at least by a sleeper length. A method of manufacturing of the structure is also provided.
US07975928B2
The present invention provides an educational or entertainment system capable of activating audio, web-based streaming or flash video presentations from designated portions of a printed surface containing visual images, comprising a surface containing a plurality of discrete, visually colored zones which code for particular presentations, each of said colored zones being overlaid by or surrounded by a zone of invisible fluorescent substance which can be detected by the use of light outside the visible spectrum and means for detecting the same. The system further includes a portable reader comprising: (i) a sensor pipe, (ii) a means for directing a first beam of light within the visible spectrum, located within the sensor pipe and a means for directing a second beam of light, also within the visible spectrum, located within the sensor pipe, (iii) a detector for detecting light emanating from said invisible fluoprescent substance when light outside the visible spectrum impinges upon it and for detecting light reflected from the visually colored zones, (iv) a means activated by the detector when light emanating from said invisible substance is detected which causes the reader to emit said second beam of light, and (v) means for playing audio, web-based or flash video presentations coded by the visually colored zones when light of a particular wavelength within the visible spectrum is reflected from a visually colored zone and detected.
US07975924B2
Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods of conveying information related to a printed publication. A label having a readable code for attachment to or insertion into a printed publication is used. A reader adapted to read the code on the label or insert and to communicate the code to a computer or device including a microcomputer may be incorporated. An internet site or platform is adapted to receive the code from the computer or a device including a microcomputer and correlate the code to the information. The information related to the code can be displayed at the computer or device including a microcomputer.
US07975910B2
A banking system is controlled responsive to data included on data bearing records. The system includes a deposit accepting machine for accepting deposit items, such as deposit bags, currency, and checks. The machine includes a card reader that can read card data corresponding to financial accounts, and a biometric reader that can read user identification data. The machine also includes an RFID reader that can read signals from RFID tags to obtain deposit information therefrom. The deposit information can include deposit data such as an account number and the deposit amount. The machine also includes a computer that causes a financial account to be credited for the value of deposited items, responsive to data read by the various reader devices.
US07975908B1
An automated banking machine (10) is operative to carry out financial transactions and includes a user interface (15). The user interface includes a card reader (16) which is operative to read data on user cards which identify user's financial accounts. A fascia of the machine includes a keypad (404, 438, 458) through which users input confidential data. Covers (400, 422, 430) prevent unauthorized persons from viewing confidential inputs to the keypad. Alternatively, movable panels (462, 464) are movable to prevent unauthorized viewing of confidential inputs. Alternatively a keypad cover is selectively collapsible to prevent digit access. A visual indicator is operative to indicate to a user that keypad inputs are being encrypted. Disinfecting techniques may be used to disinfect manual contact surfaces of the machine.
US07975905B2
A thermal insulating liner for a container lid has a top sheet and a bottom sheet spaced by a core. The bottom sheet has an exterior metal foil layer. A side edge-to-side edge transverse cut line extends through the bottom sheet proximate each of two opposed ends of the liner. The liner has reduced thickness end margins extending between each said side edge-to-side edge transverse cut line and each of the opposed ends. A die to make the lid liner has a central well and, proximate each end of the die, an upward step to a land with an inside edge of the step having a ramp surface. A first cutting blade protrudes upwardly from the land and a second cutting blade protrudes upwardly above the land at each end of the die and above the level of the first cutting blade.
US07975904B2
The invention provides an intermediate form for use in forming a business type mailer, such as a Z-fold or an eccentric Z-fold mailer. The intermediate form is configured as an individual intermediate that is supplied as a single sheet where a multiple of intermediates is provided in stacked form. Alternatively, the intermediate form is configured such that a multiple of intermediates can be provided as a continuous web or sheet and can be supplied in a roll form. The single sheet intermediate and the web or roll form intermediate are defined with pluralities of patterns of cohesive disposed at certain locations along first and second, or front and back, surfaces of the intermediates such that when provided in a stacked form or a roll form the cohesive patterns do not touch or overlap one another.
US07975891B2
To provide a staple using insertion-cutting blades that are manufacturable inexpensively, by which the strength of the insertion-cutting blades that are necessary when penetrating binding sheets is secured and the penetration of a staple through the binding sheets is executed reliably. The stapler is constituted by including a handle, a frame and a base. The frame is provided, in the vicinity of the front edge portion of a feeding path through which the interlinked staples are fed, with a driver executing the penetration of the staple with respect to the binding sheets. Punching blades are mounted respectively on the right and the left of a staple push down unit at the lower edge portion of the driver main body portion. Each punching blade has a predetermined length and is provided with a blade edge at one edge portion. Also, each punching blade is provided, in the vicinity of the edge portion including the blade edge, with a protrusion portion which has a slope surface at least on a side of the blade edge and which is protruded by a predetermined amount thereof. Here, the protrusion portion is not formed with the full width of the cutting blade, and each cutting blade has a linear portion that is continuous from one edge portion to the other edge portion in the longitudinal direction.
US07975890B2
The purpose of this invention is to provide a switching mechanism for switching stapling modes of a stapler, which mainly comprises a trigger, a supporting member, a slide member, a spring, a hooking member and a torsion spring. When the safety device of the stapler is pushed, the slide member is pushed to open the air valve, and if the trigger is further pressed at this particular moment, the stapling counterforce will make the slide member escape the pressure from the safety device so as to finish a single stapling process. When the trigger is pressed first and then the safety device is pushed, the slide member is pushed to open the air valve, which makes the stapling process to continuous until the trigger is released. In other words, the above process makes a continuous stapling process.
US07975879B2
Temperature controlled liquid dispenser, containers therefore, and bag-in-box container construction
A dispenser for relative rapid cooling or heating of the contents of a liquid storage container provides a receptacle for receiving the liquid storage container therein and positioning a thermal transfer portion of the liquid storage container in thermal conductive relationship with a thermal conduction pad associated with the receptacle. Thermal energy is effectively and efficiently transferred from the thermal conduction pad to the liquid in the liquid storage container. The thermal conduction pad is controlled to provide and maintain the desired temperature to the liquid. The liquid is dispensed directly from the container. Various types of containers can be used in the dispenser, with a special bag-in-box container having a inner container and outer box with thermal conduction windows in the box to provide good heat transfer between the thermal conduction pads and the inner container constituting an aspect of the invention. A special rigid container can also be used.
US07975877B2
A bead feeder for serially delivering beads to a downstream location comprises a bead supply wheel which rotates about a vertical axis. The bead supply wheel includes a bead supply bowl and a plurality of radially arranged channels below the bowl connected to rotate with the bowl. Discharge openings in the bowl are in alignment with the radially arranged channels to delivery beads to those channels, and a bead receiving pocket is positioned at the outer end of each channel. A transfer wheel picks up beads from the bead receiving pockets and transfers those beads to a delivery wheel by vacuum transfer and release. The delivery wheel serially delivers the beads to the downstream location.
US07975873B2
A bracket type biogas storage cover includes a cover with an exhaust vent, characterized in that there are at least two brackets which are used to fix the cover to a biogas digester's opening on the lower edge of the cover.
US07975872B2
The aerating wine glass is a beverage glass having a fluid dynamic structure formed on an inner surface thereof for generating bubbles in the beverage when the beverage is swirled therein. The aerating wine glass is preferably formed as a conventional wine glass, having a receptacle portion, a stem, and a base, with the receptacle portion having an open upper end and a closed lower end. A plurality of protruding members are formed on an inner surface of the receptacle portion so that swirling the beverage received within the receptacle portion causes the beverage to pass over the plurality of protruding members in order to aerate the beverage through the production of air bubbles. Each protruding member may be formed as a hollow tube, allowing the wine to travel both over and through the protruding member in order to generate air bubbles as the wine is swirled.
US07975866B2
Systems and methods for providing a stackable container are provided herein.
US07975863B2
Beverage bottling plant with a beverage bottle closing machine for applying a screw-top bottle closure to a beverage bottle. The ring portion of the screw-top bottle closure has engaging surfaces which engage with engaging surfaces of the bottle to essentially prevent or minimize the rotation of the ring portion upon unscrewing of the screw-top bottle closure.
US07975862B2
A child-resistant package includes a housing having an internal volume for holding items to be dispensed, a cylindrical neck, an end wall on the neck and a dispensing opening in the end wall. A closure has an end wall with a dispensing opening and a skirt. One of the skirt and the neck, preferably the neck, has a channel and the other of the skirt and the neck, preferably the skirt, has a bead for receipt in the channel such that the closure is rotatable on the neck for selectively aligning the dispensing openings to dispense items from within the housing. A child resistance mechanism between the closure and the neck resists rotation of the closure on the neck. The end wall of the closure preferably includes a dosage window, and a disk preferably is disposed between the closure and the end wall of the neck having dosage indicia viewable through the dosage window. A ratchet drive preferably is disposed among the closure, the housing and the disk for indexing the disk upon each rotation of the closure on the neck to align the dispensing openings, but to resist rotation of the disk upon rotation of the closure in the opposite direction.
US07975861B2
A feeding assembly for a baby bottle includes a bottom nipple secured at the top of a bottle base, and having an outlet for providing a maximum flow rate of a feeding liquid. A middle nipple may be provided over the bottom nipple including a plurality of selectable setting outlets, each of which corresponds to a different flow rate setting. The bottle is adjustable, and may be adjusted in use, so that a setting outlet corresponding to a single flow rate setting at a time may receive liquid from the first nipple. In this manner, the maximum flow from the first nipple may be reduced by a setting outlet corresponding to one of the flow rate settings. A top nipple may be provided over the second nipple from which an infant may feed.
US07975860B2
A rack for supporting electronic devices and modules with adjustable rails. The rack has a vertical wall with a set of holes at various elevations, each set of holes including at least a proximal hole evenly spaced apart from a distal hole. A longitudinally-extending rail has a set of clips for selectively securing the rail to the vertical wall, wherein the set of clips includes at least a proximal clip selectively receivable in the proximal hole at a selected elevation for supporting a proximal end of the rail and a distal clip selectively receivable in the distal hole at the selected elevation for supporting a distal end of the rail. The system may include a second rail for securing to an opposing vertical wall of the rack to form a shelf or bay for an electronic device. Each rail may be latched in place and can be selectively installed and removed without use of tools.
US07975859B2
A track system for slidably mounting a frame. The track system includes an upper track parallel to a lower track, and the tracks may be mounted to a wall. A left carriage upright and a right carriage upright are aligned orthogonally to the tracks, and the carriage uprights are slidably connected to the tracks on each end through a roller assembly, each roller assembly having a wheel that is slidably mounted to the corresponding track. The wheel is kept on the track by a stop at either end of the track. A stabilizing support structure fixes the left carriage upright parallel to the right carriage upright. Finally, the carriage uprights each have a bracket at each end, the brackets adapted to hold a frame and projector screen in front of the carriage uprights. The projector screen, frame, carriage uprights, and stabilizing support structure may then slide laterally as a whole.
US07975857B2
A cooking utensil support apparatus for catching and containing runoff from supported cooking utensils has a support body with an integral depressed catch well or basin. The support body further has a pair of spaced-apart and mutually parallel walls, each terminating upwardly in a top edge. The top edge of each wall has a plurality of slots for resting cooking utensils therein. The slots extend downwardly from the top edges in mutually aligned pairs between the walls. A tray is positioned below where the working ends of utensils are positioned when resting in the slots so that runoff drips into the tray for easy disposal.
US07975851B2
A soil remediation apparatus comprises: a trommel screen having an inlet and an outlet; a trommel screen housing, and air extraction means operable to extract contaminant vapors volatilized by the trommel screen during soil aeration from the housing and to contaminant remediation means, such as a biofilter. The trommel screen housing comprises: a trough in which the trommel screen is mounted with its inlet inclined upwards; a front cover mounted at the front of the trough and having an impacted soil inlet in communication with the trommel screen inlet; a rear cover mounted at the rear of the trough and having a vapor discharge outlet above the trommel screen and a treated soil outlet in communication with the trommel screen outlet, and a vapor cover frame at least partially removably mounted to the trough and a flexible vapor cover removably mounted over the frame.
US07975847B2
A container insert for taking up extra space may be placed in a container intended for storage and/or shipment of material to an end user. The insert may be generally longitudinal having a helical configuration that may be expanded and constricted for taking up different volumes of space within the container respective of the amount of material stored therein. The insert may also be elastically deformable or generally pliable and may absorb impact forces for preventing or minimizing damage to the material.
US07975844B2
A one-piece, injection-molded case (10) for containing an optical media disc (85), the case (10) comprising: a front cover (20): a back cover (40); a spine (30) to pivotally connect the front and back covers (20, 40); a flexible, polymeric sleeve (70) to wrap around an external surface of the front and back covers (20, 40) and spine (30); wherein the front and back covers (20, 40) have voids defining cut-out portions (50, 60) to reduce the weight of the case (10).
US07975820B2
The present invention broadly comprises a clutch assembly with a radial flow chamber including a first hub and a carrier. The first hub and carrier form at least one first opening and a first portion of at least one radial chamber or passageway in the clutch assembly. First and second radially disposed segments of the first hub and carrier, respectively, partially define the first portion. A second portion of the chamber is formed between the first segment and a third radially disposed segment connected to a second hub. Openings in the first segment connect the first and second portions. A third portion of the passageway is formed between the second segment and a fourth radially disposed segment. A plate forms at least a portion of an axial barrier with respect to a second clutch in the clutch assembly.
US07975806B2
A lubrication system comprising a bore including an inlet for receiving lubrication, an outlet for distributing lubrication, and a inner passageway extending between the inlet and outlet is provided. The outlet may be provided with a wider opening than the passageway. The outlet may further include a groove having a radius of curvature, and defined by a pair of flat or curved sidewalls, and a pair of curved end walls each extending toward the inner passageway.
US07975801B2
Tire-uniformity components may generate a lateral force on a vehicle body, when the vehicle is in a turning movement. The lateral force may cause vibrations on the vehicle body. The controller controls a motor of an electric power steering system to modulate an assist torque acting on steerable wheels in accordance with the tire-uniformity components. The assist torque is modulated in the same direction as the lateral force. As a result, it is possible to reduce vibrations on the vehicle body, since the modulated assist torque avoids conflict with the lateral force and release the lateral force.
US07975798B2
A method and a device for controlling automatic emergency braking of a motor vehicle to reduce the severity of a collision of a vehicle with an object, the position and/or speed of the object with respect to the host vehicle being determined via an object detection device, and this information being sent to a collision detection device which ascertains whether a collision with an object is imminent and, on detecting a collision, triggers emergency braking and ascertains a collision instant, emergency braking being terminated after the period of time until the determined collision instant has elapsed.
US07975797B2
In a configuration in which a rod is extended by an actuator and raises a hood at a time of a collision with a collision body, when a collision load greater than a predetermined value is input to near a hood pushed up area, the collision energy is efficiently absorbed.In a state in which a hood (12) is maintained in a pushed up position, when a collision load equal to or greater than a predetermined value is input from a hood upper side, a distal end portion (54) of a rod (20) slides towards a vehicle rear side along a pushed up surface (38) of a hood rear portion, while deforming the rod (20) by bending, thereby absorbing collision energy. At this time, before a base of a hinge arm (30) contacts a cowl top side (22), distal end portion (54) of rod (20) catches against a bending portion (60) such that rod (20) is bent further. As a result, when distal end portion (54) catches against bending portion (60), an intermediate reactive force is generated and a base contact load at a final stage of energy absorption can be decreased.
US07975796B2
An axle disconnect system for selectively connecting or disconnecting a wheel-side shaft and a differential-side shaft having a common axis of rotation in a drivetrain of a motor vehicle. In the axle disconnect an output gear is splined to the wheel-side shaft on an outside diameter of the wheel-side shaft, and a translatable collar is splined to the output gear on an outside diameter of the output gear. The collar is arranged to be translated along the common axis of rotation for splined connection with the differential-side shaft while retaining the splined connection with the output gear.
US07975789B2
A wheel assembly with an in-wheel motor includes a motor for driving a wheel, which is arranged in the wheel; a reduction mechanism that reduces the rate of rotational output of the motor and transmits the resultant rotational output to the wheel; an oil tank in which oil collects; an oil pump that is driven by rotational output of the motor; and an oil flow path that leads oil from the oil pump to at least one of the motor and the reduction mechanism. The oil tank is arranged below the reduction mechanism, farther toward a vehicle inside in a vehicle width direction than a brake dust cover, and farther toward the vehicle outside in the vehicle width direction than a lower ball joint.
US07975786B2
There is provided an electric ground working vehicle including a left wheel and a right wheel, at least one caster, a working apparatus, an acceleration operating element for performing acceleration instructions, a turn operating element for performing turn instructions, and a control unit. The left wheel and the right wheel are independently driven by left and right electric motors respectively. The control unit controls a regenerative brake driving unit so that electric power is regenerated from the left and right electric motors to an electric power source unit when the acceleration operating element is not operated during traveling to regeneratively brake the left and right wheels. The control unit controls the brake force of the wheels so that the brake force of the wheel at the inside of a turn, among the left wheel and the right wheel, can be made greater than the brake force of the wheel at the outside of a turn when the acceleration operating element is not operated during traveling and turn instructions are inputted from the turn operating element.
US07975778B2
One embodiment includes an apparatus comprising a steerable well bore drilling tool having a main tool body. The steerable well bore drilling tool includes an inertial measurement unit to output a measurement used to determine an azimuthal deviation and inclination of the steerable well bore drilling tool during a drilling operation.
US07975764B2
A sand consolidation system and a method for use of the system is provided. The consolidation system includes an emulsion having an oil phase and an aqueous phase, wherein the emulsion contains a source of insoluble silica particles and a source of calcium hydroxide, wherein the calcium hydroxide particles are present in the oil phase, and the insoluble silica particles are contained in the aqueous phase. Both types of particles must have average particle sizes which will fit into the pores of the formations.
US07975762B2
A method of increasing biogenic production of a combustible gas from a subterranean geologic formation is described. The method may include extracting formation water from the geologic formation, where the extracted formation water includes at least a first species and a second species of microorganism. The method may also include analyzing the extracted formation water to identify the first species of microorganism that promotes the biogenic production of the combustible gas. An amendment may be introduced to the formation water to promote the growth of the first species of microorganism, and the biological characteristics of the formation water may be altered to decrease a population of the second species in the geologic formation.
US07975760B2
A tool wrench assembly for a blasthole drill includes a fork pivotally fixed relative to at least one actuator that moves the fork between an engaged and a disengaged position.
US07975756B2
The method of producing thin cast strip by continuous casting having a side dam assembly. The side dam assembly includes a side dam having opposite outer surfaces, one surface contacting molten metal and the opposite outer surface having fastening portions capable of attaching the side dam to a side dam holder, to hold the side dam in place during casting without exposed portions of the side dam holder extending substantially beyond the opposite outer surface toward the outer surface for contacting molten metal.
US07975754B2
A thin cast steel strip and method of making thereof with improved resistance to microcracking, where the steel strip is produced by continuous casting and contains a carbon content between about 0.010% and about 0.065% by weight, less than 5.0% by weight chromium, at least 70 ppm of total oxygen and between 20 and 70 ppm of free oxygen, and manganese to sulfur ratio greater than about 250. The carbon content in the cast strip may be below about 0.035%, less than 0.005% by weight titanium, and the average manganese to silicon ratio in the strip produced may be greater than 3.5. The carbon content may be less than 0.035%, the casting speed less than 76.68 meters per minute, and the tundish temperature of the molten metal is maintained below 1612° C. (2933.7° F.).
US07975752B2
Apparatus and method of co-casting metal ingots in direct-chill casting apparatus. The apparatus and method employs at least one divider (divider member or divider wall) that separates a casting mold into two or more chambers for receiving molten metal that is combined into a single ingot. The divider may be moved, angled and/or flexed during casting to produce ingots that are designed primarily for rolling into thin plate or sheet. The ingot has at least one outer layer that is thicker adjacent to the side (width) edges than in the center, and/or thicker adjacent to the butt or head regions. This compensates for wiping of the outer layer from the ingot core during rolling. Also, the divider may be outwardly bowed outwardly towards one of the mold walls during the casting run.
US07975751B2
A permanent casting mould for casting cast parts, in particular cylinder heads, from a molten metal, in particular a molten light metal, includes at least one mould body, which at least partially surrounds a mould cavity reproducing the cast part to be cast and, in the wall of which limiting the mould cavity, a receiver is formed having a shoulder passing into the mould cavity and including a casting mould insert seated in the receiver, which has an upper side associated with the mould cavity surrounded by the respective permanent casting mould, a base body seated in the receiver with play when the casting mould is cold and a support collar which extends over a fraction of the height of the base body of the casting mould insert and is seated with positive fit in the shoulder of the receiver.
US07975750B2
A Coulomb friction damped disc brake rotor, wherein damping is provided Coulomb friction in generally coextensive relation with the braking surfaces of the one or more rotor cheeks. The Coulomb friction damped disc brake rotor has at least one interfacial boundary formed in at least one rotor cheek disposed in generally coextensive relation to the braking surface thereof. The interfacial boundary provides a mechanically distinguishable surface boundary between two surfaces which are in mutual contact such that a state of Coulomb friction exists therebetween.
US07975745B2
In order to provide a good transferable and extremely usable transfer tool in which consumable supplies can be easily replaced while increasing rigidity in use and case assembling procedure is also simple, the transfer tool (A) includes a case body (1) which incorporates a transfer material (T), the case body (1) having a first case (2) for holding replacement parts including at least the transfer material (T); and a second case (3) engageable with and disengageable from the first case (2), for holding unchangeable parts constituting at least a part of feeding mechanism parts which feeds out the transfer material (T) to a transferred object, wherein a holding portion (K) for holding the case body (1) to a base (4) in a state where the first case (2) and the second case (3) are engaged, and a pivoting support portion (L) for pivotably supporting the second case (3) to the base (4) between a use position (P) in which the case body (1) is held to the base (4) by the holding portion (K) and a releasing retention position (Q) in which a holding state held by the holding portion (K) is released to enable the first case (2) and the second case (3) to be engageable/disengageable are formed.
US07975744B2
A substrate bonding apparatus comprises a platen and a press. The press is movable relative to the platen for pressing at least one substrate stack between the press and platen. In one embodiment, a consumable compliant member is disposed between the press and the platen. In another embodiment, the apparatus further comprises a substrate carrier adapted for holding and carrying more than one substrate stack in and out of the apparatus. A method for bonding substrates is also described.
US07975739B1
Preferably, a tire inflation system includes a hub cap secured to a wheel attached to an axle of a vehicle, which provides a source of pressurized air. The tire inflation system preferably includes a rotary union assembly with a rotating portion and a non-rotating portion, the rotating portion attachable to the exterior of the hub cap for rotation with the hub cap. The non-rotating portion preferably includes a stationary shaft in fluid communication with the source of pressurized air, the stationary shaft defining an air passage therethrough which participates in conducting pressurized air to the tire. An end of the stationary shaft preferably provides a first bearing surface and a housing is rotatably mounted thereon for rotation with the hub cap. The rotating portion preferably includes a rotary member rotating with the housing, the rotary member defining a second bearing surface disposed in abutment with the first bearing surface.
US07975733B2
A fluid transfer device for transferring fluid from a first fluid container to a second fluid container such as a piercing member protection device is provided. The fluid transfer device can include a longitudinal axis and a first connection part having a connection means for connecting to a first fluid container. The fluid transfer device can further include a second connection part rotatably mounted to the first connection part by mounting means, and the second connection part can further include connection means for connecting a second fluid container. The mounting means can enable turning of the second connection part with respect to the first connection part. Such a device can allow a user to safely turn e.g., a syringe after assembly to read a volume indication or similar.
US07975730B2
Coloring apparatus comprises a first marker pen having a housing including an absorbent nib containing a liquid or dye of a first color, and a second marker pen having a housing including an absorbent nib containing a liquid or dye of a second color. The housings of the marker pens are dimensioned and shaped to engage opposing end portions of a tubular docking member with their absorbent nibs spaced one from the other. Means are provided to enable relative movement to take place between the pens while in position within the docking member thereby causing the absorbent nibs selectively to make contact with one another within the docking member and to be released from such contact.
US07975727B2
An arrangement for guiding a medium, preferably compressed, gaseous hydrogen, is described. The arrangement encompasses a medium line, a cooling medium return line which surrounds the medium line, and a cooling medium feed line. The cooling medium return line and the cooling medium feed line are hereby preferably arranged in direct heat contact. The arrangement can furthermore be surrounded by a jacket tube.
US07975725B2
A piston accumulator (10) comprises a pressure chamber (40) which is closed on one side by an axially shiftable piston (50) in order to change its volume depending on the axial position of the piston (50). A locking mechanism is provided for retaining the piston (50) in a second position different from a first position against a spring preload (190). The piston accumulator (10) further comprises an electromagnetic apparatus (80) having an armature (150) which is shifted upon axial shifting of the piston (50) from the first into the second position in its turn into an axial position in which a blocking element (175) of the locking mechanism is held by the armature (150) in a radial position so as to block a shift of the piston (50) back in the direction of its first position. For holding the blocking element (175) there is provided a separate interlocking member (170) which is fastened to the armature (150) and is made of a harder material than the armature (150).
US07975723B2
A method of controlling fluid through a layer of a soft compressible (e.g., gel) material including an array of fluid flow paths. The fluid flow paths are normally open, allowing fluid flow. An electric field is applied in regions where fluid flow is undesirable. The electric field compresses the material closing the flow path thereby preventing further fluid flow.
US07975714B2
A low-profile burst disk assembly for safely venting excess pressure from a pressurized fluid system by way of a tortuous fluid flow path. A burst disk plug includes a male thread and is thereby adapted to thread into the body of a pressurizable chamber. The burst disk plug further includes a fluid receiving port placed in fluid communication between the burst disk and one or more bleed channels open to ambient pressure. The one or more bleed channels generally run axially through the burst disk plug, either intersecting or bypassing the male thread. Embodiments with a plurality of bleed channels generally include a distribution manifold positioned in fluid communication between the fluid receiving port and the one or more bleed channels to ensure an even distribution of venting pressure among the bleed channels. A flange surface further deflects pressurized fluid as it escapes from the bleed channels toward the ambient environment, thereby dispersing the resulting thrust in multiple directions and minimizing the effective force exerted on the body of the pressurized fluid system.
US07975709B2
In a reactor cleaning apparatus 1 which cleans an inner wall surface 72 of a reactor 70 which generates polycrystalline silicon, a bell jar of the reactor 70 has a dual structure, a through hole 11 is formed along a vertical direction at a central portion of a substantially disc-like tray 10 placed in a horizontal state, a flange portion 13 in which an opening edge of the reactor 70 is placed is formed at an outer peripheral portion of the tray 10, a shaft 20 is provided through the through hole 11 of the tray 10 so as to be rotatable and movable in the vertical direction, a nozzle device 50 which sprays a cleaning water at high pressure in three-dimensional directions is provided at an upper end of the shaft 20, a drive mechanism 30 which rotates the shaft 20 and moves the shaft in the vertical direction is provided at a base end of the shaft 20, and steam piping 62 capable of supplying the steam within the bell jar of the reactor 70 is provided.
US07975706B2
A make-up compact has a hollow base, a lateral tray, a front cover and a slider. The base has a front surface and an oblique slot. The oblique slot is formed on the front surface and communicates with a chamber of the base. The lateral tray for containing cosmetics is slidably mounted in the base and has an edge and a longitudinal slot formed in the edge. The front cover is movably mounted on the base and has a rear surface and a transverse slot formed on the rear surface. The slider is slidably mounted in the longitudinal slot and protrudes through the oblique slot into the transverse slot. As the front cover moves, the front cover induces the slider to move the lateral tray for improved convenience.
US07975702B2
A device and related method for the removal of subcutaneous adipose layers comprises a laser source; an optical fiber for conveying a laser beam emitted by the laser source; and a hollow cannula for guiding the fiber to the subcutaneous treatment area. The cannula has a curved portion at its distal end, where the curved portion can be shaped to roughly conform to the contour of the patient's body structure. In this way, laser energy from the fiber, applied to the adipose layers, is generally directed away from the lower dermis of the patient, minimizing the risk of non-reversible damage to the dermis, including skin necrosis. In another embodiment, the optical fiber is a side-firing fiber that directs the laser energy away from the dermis. In other embodiments, a radiation detector, such as a thermal or optical sensor, monitors the temperature at the surface of the skin above the treatment area to warn the operator of harmful temperatures in the lower dermis. In another embodiment, a temperature sensitive material is applied to the surface of the skin above the treatment area to warn of harmful dermal temperatures. In another embodiment, a cooling mechanism cools the surface of the skin above the treatment area to prevent damage to the dermis.
US07975698B2
An implant suitable for treatment of treatment of vaginal and/or uterine prolapse and/or pelvic floor reconstruction. The implant comprises a vaginal support member substantially sized or shaped to the portion of the vaginal wall to be supported and at least two extension portions projecting from the support member, wherein at least one extension portion has fixation means for anchoring the extension portion into pelvic paravaginal fibro-fatty issue without being faxed into defined structural tissues. A method of treating treatment of vaginal and/or uterine prolapse and/or pelvic floor reconstruction using the implant is also provided.
US07975694B2
A patient interface includes a body member, a partition, a nasal seal portion, and a port. The partition is integral with the body member, and separates an interior of the member into a first chamber configured to receive a nose of a patient and a second chamber. The nasal seal portion is integral with the partition, and projects therefrom into the first chamber. The nasal seal portion includes a seal surface and a gas passage therethrough. The seal surface is configured to conform with a lower portion of the nose that is surrounding nasal passages of the patient, without entering the nasal passages of the patient, when the patient interface is mounted operatively on the face of the patient. The port integral with the member is in fluid communication with the second chamber for delivery of gas to the patient via the gas passage in the nasal seal portion.
US07975691B2
A CPAP device includes an air stream generator for generating positive pressure, a face mask connected to the air stream generator through a flow supply catheter, a pressure sensor measuring pressure in the face mask, a control circuit controlling the air stream generator, and a pressure detection pipe having a first side and a second side. The pressure sensor is connected to the second side of the pressure detection pipe to measure pressure of the detection hole formed at the first side of the pressure detection pipe and outputs the measured pressure value to the control circuit. The control circuit distinguishes average positive pressure from pressure caused by spontaneous breathing of patient according to values of the pressure in the face mask, which are input from the pressure sensor, and controls a speed of the air stream generator such that preset positive pressure is supplied to the patient.
US07975690B2
The present invention relates to a nasal delivery device for and a method of delivering a substance, in particular one of a liquid, as a suspension or solution, or a powder containing a medicament, especially systemic or topical pharmaceuticals, or a vaccine to the nasal airway of a subject.
US07975686B2
This invention is a trough solar collector that uses the principles of high leverage in order to produce a lightweight, inexpensive thermal solar collector. The parabolic reflectors are held in proper shape by rigid ribs that are spaced apart along the length of the collector. The structure of the trough is held rigid by a unique sun-tracking system that not only guides a long trough row to point it toward the sun, but also maintains the whole length of the row in rigid configuration. Small-diameter cables are wrapped around a rotatable pipe that extends along the row. The cables extend around circular arches attached to the parabolic ribs that provide high leverage for rotating the troughs. Since the arches rotate in unison, the long trough row is maintained in rotational rigidity. Rather than having heavy concrete foundations and heavy structures to support the troughs, lightweight support posts are placed into the ground, and guy wires maintain the position of the posts.
US07975680B1
An arrow rest for a bow. An illustrative embodiment of the arrow rest includes a generally C-shaped arrow rest frame having a frame attachment segment, a guard segment extending from a first end of the frame attachment segment, an arrow support segment extending from a second end of the frame attachment segment, a pin support segment extending from the arrow rest segment and a frame opening defined by the arrow rest frame; a flexible arrow retainer pin extending from the pin support segment into the frame opening; and an attachment mechanism provided on the frame attachment segment of the arrow rest frame.
US07975677B2
A gas introducing structure of an intake path includes a gas introducing path introducing a gas into an intake airflow in the intake path of an internal combustion engine, wherein an inner peripheral surface of the gas introducing path is made of a bottom surface appearing as a straight line at a lower side of a perpendicular cross section of the inner peripheral surface and a curved wall surface appearing as a convex curved line, connecting with each end of the straight line at an angle, at an upper side of the perpendicular cross section of the inner peripheral surface.
US07975676B2
A cooler arrangement of a vehicle includes a charge air cooler which itself includes at least one pipeline for guiding compressed air during cooling and a first tank for receiving the cooled compressed air from the first pipeline, and an EGR cooler which includes at least one second pipeline for guiding exhaust gases during cooling, and a second tank operable to receive the cooled exhaust gases from the second pipeline. A mechanical connection connects an end of the first tank of the charge air cooler to an end of the second tank of the EGR cooler so that the tanks constitute a composite tank unit in a fitted state in the vehicle.
US07975674B2
A fuel pump and a method for controlling a fuel pump. At least two pumps run at a mutual phase displacement such that they are able to receive fuel during different periods of time. A control unit causes a valve, which is only settable in an open position and a closed position, to lead a desired amount of fuel to the respective pump. The control unit places the valve in the open position for a variable portion of the periods so that an individually controlled amount of fuel is led to the respective pump during those periods. Maintenance of good efficiency of the fuel pump and low noise emissions is thus made possible in operating situations where the fuel pump delivers a reduced amount of fuel.
US07975666B2
A technique is provided for improved response of internal combustion engines to increased load demands. The engine is equipped with an air storage tank that stores compressed air. The air may be stored at an elevated pressure (e.g., manifold air pressure) during normal full load operation of the engine. Valving maintains the compressed air isolated during normal operation. During transitory periods of higher power output demand, the compressed air is directed to the engine, and output of a turbo-driven compressor can be vented to avoid surge. The technique allows for quicker reaction to load demands, and improved combustion during transitory periods, and reduced particulate and smoke emissions.
US07975663B2
A cam phaser assembly may include a drive plate assembly, a cavity plate, and a driven plate assembly. The drive plate assembly may include a drive plate and a first vane fixed for rotation with the drive plate. The cavity plate may be rotationally driven by the drive plate and may define first and second chambers. The first vane may extend into the first chamber. The driven plate assembly may be rotationally driven by the drive plate assembly and may include a driven plate and a second vane fixed for rotation with the driven plate that extends into the second chamber.
US07975647B2
A milking apparatus that is used to extract milk from dairy animals includes a vacuum source, a milking liner cooperating with a shell to define a pulsation chamber; and a pulsator in fluid communication with the pulsation chamber and the vacuum source. The pulsator is configured to produce at least a four-phase milking cycle in the milking liner with the cycle including at least an A phase and a C phase. The A phase is wherein the liner is changed from a closed configuration to an open configuration during which the pulsator provides fluid communication between the pulsation chamber and the vacuum source. The C phase is wherein the liner is changed from an open configuration to a closed configuration during which the pulsator allows atmospheric air to flow into the pulsation chamber. A restrictor is disposed in the path of the fluid communication between the pulsator and the pulsation chamber with the restrictor slowing the C phase compared to the A phase.
US07975645B2
A common body (15) of a coater unit (14) is mounted on a robot device (13). A common body gripper (33) is fixedly mounted on a fixed plate (32) of an atomizing head changing and washing device (31). At the time of replacing a used atomizing head (19′) and a used paint cartridge (24′) by a washed atomizing head (19) and a replenished paint cartridge (24), respectively, the common body (15) is gripped and located in a predetermined position by the common body gripper (33). When the common body (15) is gripped by the common body gripper (33), the robot device (13) is put in a reduced power mode attenuating driving forces to leave said common body (15) in a freely movable state by application of an external force.
US07975644B2
A batter applicator with an adjustable coating mechanism is disclosed which includes a frame, a main batter tank, a structure comprising at least one of a submerger and an overflow structure that is adapted to be positioned proximate the main batter tank and actuatable means for tilting the structure relative to a reference horizontal surface.
US07975637B1
A method and apparatus for controlling the temperature of batteries in a hybrid marine vessel utilize a compartment to store the batteries and various conduits to conduct air to and from that compartment. A heat exchanger can draw air from the compartment and cool the air for use in the cabin of the marine vessel. The air from the cabin can be directed into the compartment to provide a flow of air that carries heat away from the batteries in the compartment and toward the heat exchanger.
US07975635B2
An asymmetric sail furling and unfurling device comprises a tubular outer foil and an inner stay foil, the inner and outer foils providing a foil assembly adapted to transmit a torque for furling an unhoisted sail, which is furled on a sheath foil fitted on the outer foil, with the assembly of the foils and sheath being flexible.
US07975618B2
The invention is a hybrid wheel apparatus with a hybrid roadway apparatus that greatly reduces the energy lost due to rolling resistance where operation is on the hybrid roadway, but the system is configured to allow operation on conventional roads as needed.The hybrid wheel system is a steel wheel used in combination with a rubber tired wheel. The hybrid roadway is a low profile steel rail fixed to the otherwise conventional road surface, which is preferably concrete but could also be the very common asphalt composition.Where roadways are appropriately equipped with rails, the rail top surface is elevated over the roadway surface, and dimensions are set so that most of load force is carried on the steel wheel for general forward travel. Where the rail is absent the load is carried on the rubber tire, and the steel wheel is elevated above the roadway surface such that contact between the steel wheel and the roadway is prevented.
US07975616B2
A projectile for cap and ball revolvers and black powder rifles including but not limited to muzzleloaders, black powder cartridges etc. A soft lead body, cylindrical in form and having a front band designed to hold the projectile firmly in place prior to firing. During it's travel in the rifled bore, it then imparts spin to the projectile improving accuracy, range, and making the projectile stable during impact with intended target. Outside diameter of band is not drastic enough to negatively affect trajectory.
US07975615B1
The invention is an aerosol search and rescue (SAR) grenade. A smoke signal is produced that is comparable to the smoke signal produced by a pyrotechnic grenade. An aspirating provides a propellant gas/air mixture to a reservoir of smoke material. A container configuration and gravity operated valve provide for a smoke plume only in the upward direction. The smoke grenade is useful in life rafts. It is also useful in inland areas posing a risk of fire.
US07975598B2
The invention concerns a hydraulic valve arrangement (1) with a supply connection arrangement comprising a high-pressure connection (P) and a low-pressure connection (T), a working connection arrangement comprising two working connections (A, B), which can be connected to a motor (4), a directional valve arrangement (5) located between the supply connection arrangement (P, T) and the working connection arrangement (A, B), and a compensation valve (15) acted upon in a first activation direction by a pressure in a first pressure chamber (33), which is connected to a load-sensing pipe (LS), and, if required, by a spring (32), and in a second activation direction opposite to the first activation direction by a pressure downstream of the directional valve arrangement (5), said pressure acting in a second pressure chamber (34), the compensation valve (15) having an inlet (14) and an outlet (19). In connection with a post-compensated valve, it is endeavored to adjust the load pressures at the working connections (A, B) in dependence of the direction. For this purpose, each working connection (A, B) is connected to a control system, which amplifies the effect of the pressure in the first pressure chamber (33) on the compensation valve (15) in dependence of a pressure ruling at the working connection (A, B).
US07975597B2
Hydraulic machine includes: a casing; a piston slidable therein and separating two chambers; hydraulic switching elements for supplying liquid to and for evacuating the chambers, including at least one connecting rod acting on a distribution member which can adopt two stable positions; and initiating elements having a pusher which, at the end of the piston stroke, can cause a sudden change in the position of the switching elements, under the action of an elastic member to reverse the stroke. Each end of the elastic member is secured to an articulation member respectively accommodated in a housing provided on the connecting rod and on another moving part, each housing being open in a direction substantially opposed to the direction of the force exerted by the elastic member, such that each articulation member can be removed from its open housing against the action of the force, thereby simplifying assembly and disassembly.
US07975595B2
A firearm having a bolt carrier comprising an operating rod slot that is open at an end of the bolt carrier. The bolt carrier also includes a cam slot extending from the operating rod slot. The firearm includes a bolt having a protrusion extending from the bolt which enters and is movable within the cam slot. The firearm further includes an operating rod comprising a piston and a foot. The foot is disposed within the operating rod slot to prevent the separation of the bolt from the bolt carrier and to connect the operating rod to the bolt carrier.
US07975594B2
A device for defense and protection from projectiles, especially shaped charge projectiles, is provided with at least one grille-type protective barrier for the protection of an object by deflection, partial release, release and/or damage to the shell projectile. The protective barrier includes a netting forming meshes that are rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, polygonal and/or rhomboid. Such a device is lighter and easier to install in comparison to conventional protective grilles.
US07975579B1
A system and method are provided for cutting scrap tires along a cut line that is generally parallel with sidewalls of the scrap tires. A base frame supports a cutting blade that is positioned to cut through the tread of a scrap tire lying on its sidewall. A blade engagement arm may be provided to at least partially receive the cutting blade from a back side of the tread portion. A motive system is provided for incrementally moving the cutting apparatus about a circumferential portion of the scrap tire as it is being cut.
US07975578B2
A tool includes a first and a second socket wrench pivotally turnably connected to two ends of a link. Each of the first and second socket wrenches includes a wrench portion and a circular end portion having an axial slot extended through them. The wrench portion of the first socket wrench is internally formed of a hexagonally shaped portion for fitting around a hexagonally-shaped outer surface of a connecting ring of a male F connector to tighten or loosen the connecting ring to or from a female F connector, and the wrench portion of the second socket wrench is internally formed of a constant-torque shaped portion for fitting around the hexagonally-shaped outer surface of the connecting ring to prevent the tool from applying an excessive torque on the connecting ring when turning the same. The tool can be used without being hindered by bent or closely arranged cables.
US07975576B2
A low clearance drive system includes a low clearance socket and/or a low clearance male driver (50). The socket has a reduced depth drive receptacle and a reduced-depth output fastener receiving receptacle. Each of the male driver and the socket drive receptacle has an axial length (L3) or depth which is less than its nominal transverse width (w). The male driver may have a detent ball (55) adapted to be engaged in a detent recess in the female drive receptacle, such that the ball diameter is less than half the nominal transverse drive width and may be either equal to or less than the diameter of the detent recess.
US07975573B2
A ratchet mechanism contains a chamber defined by at least one gear surface, a rotating member positioned at least partially within the chamber, a gear member rotatably attached to the rotating member and positioned at least partially within the chamber, and a stop member engaging the rotating member, such that the rotating member and the stop member rotate in unison. The center of rotation of the gear member is offset from the center of rotation of the rotating member. The gear member includes a gear body having a plurality of gear teeth around an outer periphery thereof. At least a portion of the gear teeth engage the gear surface. The gear member can rotate freely in a first rotational direction, and a portion of the stop member abuts a portion of the gear member to prevent rotation of the gear member in a second, opposed rotational direction.
US07975555B2
An apparatus for simultaneously measuring longitudinal and shear wave speeds in materials under load via echo or transmission is described. The apparatus comprises a housing with an open end, a closed end opposite the open end with a hole in the closed end, and a housing exit port. A spacer resides inside the housing, the spacer having a spacer specimen side and a spacer transducer side. A load transferring body having a transducer hole fits inside the housing and contacts an interior surface of the housing. An ultrasonic transducer fits inside the transducer hole of the load transferring body. A transducer depressing mechanism secures the ultrasonic transducer against the spacer transducer side, whereby users can simultaneously measure longitudinal and shear wave speeds of specimens inserted into the hole in the closed end of the housing and contacting the spacer.
US07975549B2
A non-destructive inspection method, apparatus and system are provided for inspecting a workpiece having a curved surface with at least one predefined radius of curvature. The apparatus, such as an inspection probe, includes a plurality of transducer elements positioned in an arcuate configuration having a predefined radius of curvature and a curved delay line. The curved delay line has an outer arcuate surface having a predefined radius of curvature that matches the predefined radius of curvature of the transducer elements. The curved delay line also has an inner arcuate surface that has at least one predefined radius of curvature that matches the at least one predefined radius of curvature of the curved surface of the workpiece. In addition to the inspection probe, the system includes an excitative source for triggering the transducer elements to emit signals into the workpiece and a computing device to receive the return signals.
US07975548B2
An acoustic apparatus adapted to operate in a gas filled space from a first side of an object to be measured for making a non-contact thickness measurement thereof includes an electro acoustic transducer, a transceiver coupled with the electro acoustic transducer and adapted to excite electro acoustic transducer to output an acoustic signal towards the object to be measured and receive an acoustic response signal therefrom, and a signal processor adapted to process the response signal and determine a thickness of the object. The electroacoustic transducer has a transducer-to-gas acoustic interface, and the transceiver is adapted to operate the electroacoustic transducer so as to emit into a gas filled gap an acoustic broad band pulse towards the object and to receive an acoustic resonance response signal in the acoustic response signal at a level that allows acquisition of the resonance response signal above a predetermined signal to noise level.
US07975546B2
An angular velocity sensor of a horizontally located type, which can easily remove the translational acceleration influence thereto from the lateral direction, is provided. It includes a fixed portion fixed to the surface of a sensor element supporting portion of a casing, an upper detection arm and a lower detection arm, each of them being connected to the fixed portion on sides opposite to each other and extending along a plane parallel to the surface place of the sensor element supporting portion, and a pair of upper vibration arms connected to the fixed portion in such a manner as to form a pair of arms with the upper detection arm in between and extending in a direction parallel to the extending direction of the upper detection arm.
US07975545B2
Proposed is a horizontally located angular velocity sensor hardly affected by a translational acceleration in a lateral direction, and in which a fixed section is easily fixed. The angular velocity sensor includes a fixed section fixed on a support surface. On both sides of the fixed section, an arm section of an upper detection arm and a pair of upper drive arms extending along a plane parallel to the support surface, and an arm section of a lower detection arm and a pair of lower drive arms extending along the plane parallel to the support surface are coupled, respectively. The upper detection arm and the pair of upper drive arms are coupled without the fixed section in between, and the lower detection arm and the pair of lower drive arms are coupled without the fixed section in between.
US07975542B2
Systems and methods for dynamically defending a site from lightning strikes are provided. The systems and methods involve dynamically altering electrostatic fields above the site and/or dynamically intervening in lightning discharges processes in the vicinity of the site.
US07975537B2
Systems and methods for determining an NH3 concentration in exhaust gases from an engine are provided. In one exemplary embodiment, a method includes generating a first signal from an NH3 sensor fluidly communicating with the exhaust gases. The method further includes generating a second signal from an air humidity sensor disposed proximate to an air intake manifold of the engine indicating a humidity level. The method further includes determining an air/fuel ratio associated with the engine. The method further includes determining an NH3 deviation value in a calibration table based on the second signal and the air/fuel ratio, utilizing a controller. The method further includes determining an NH3 concentration value based on the first signal and the NH3 deviation value, utilizing the controller. The NH3 concentration value is indicative of the NH3 concentration in the exhaust gases. The method further includes storing the NH3 concentration value in a memory device, utilizing the controller.
US07975528B2
A method and apparatus for monitoring and determining fuel vapor recovery performance is disclosed. The dispensing of liquid fuel into a tank by a conventional gas pump nozzle naturally displaces a mixture of air and fuel ullage vapor in the tank. These displaced vapors may be recovered at the dispensing point nozzle by a vapor recovery system. A properly functioning vapor recovery system recovers approximately one unit volume of vapor for every unit volume of dispensed liquid fuel. The ratio of recovered vapor to dispensed fuel is termed the A/L ratio, which should ideally be approximately equal to one (1). The A/L ratio, and thus the proper functioning of the vapor recovery system, may be determined by measuring liquid fuel flow and return vapor flow (using a vapor flow sensor) on a nozzle-by-nozzle basis. The disclosed methods and apparatus provide for the determination of A/L ratios for individual nozzles using a reduced number of vapor flow sensors. The disclosed methods and apparatus also provide for the determination of fuel dispensing system vapor containment integrity, and the differentiation of true vapor recovery failures as opposed to false failures resulting from the refueling of vehicles provided with onboard vapor recovery systems.
US07975526B2
A calibration weight arrangement (4, 104) for an electronic balance with a force-transmitting mechanism (1) has a calibration weight (3, 103) adapted to be coupled to the force-transmitting mechanism. The arrangement also has a transfer mechanism and a drive source to manipulate the calibration weight in a guided movement. The drive source includes an actuator (18) cooperating with the transfer mechanism and at least one piezoelectric element (19) which drives the movement of the actuator. The piezoelectric element interacts with a drive wheel (17, 117) that is centrally positioned relative to the calibration weight arrangement and drives a likewise centrally positioned shaft (16, 126). The interaction between the piezoelectric element and the drive wheel occurs during the advance movement in one direction through the repeated engagement and release of a frictional contact force.
US07975524B2
There is provided an inspection method of an oxygen sensor, which includes a sensing portion having a reference electrode, a sensing electrode and an oxygen ion conducting solid electrolyte layer arranged between the reference electrode and the sensing electrode. The inspection method contains the steps of reading a first output value of the oxygen sensor under a condition that the sensing portion of the oxygen sensor is subjected to a first inspection gas and then a second output value of the oxygen sensor under a condition that the sensing portion of the oxygen sensor is subjected to a second inspection gas different in oxygen concentration from the first inspection gas and judging the oxygen sensor to be defective or nondefective based on the first and second output values.
US07975510B2
An I. S. Machine is provided wherein the blow molds are closed to a slightly cracked location whereby applied cooling air can not leak into and pressurize the blow mold thereby damaging the parison during reheat. When reheat is completed, the blow molds are fully closed and the parison is transformed into a bottle by applying compressed air and/or vacuum.
US07975508B2
The present invention provides: a method for producing high silicate glass which has a low Fe concentration and can achieve a high UV transmittance while retaining advantages of Vycor glass that mass-production at low cost is feasible and that complex formation with various photofunctional ions can be effected; and high silicate glass of a high UV transmittance. For obtaining the above high silicate glass, the method is characterized by comprising the steps of: heating borosilicate glass including a heavy metal or rare-earth element (preferably a high-valence heavy metal or rare-earth element) so as to phase-separate the borosilicate glass; subjecting the phase-separated borosilicate glass to acid treatment so as to elute a metal; and sintering the acid-treated borosilicate glass.
US07975504B2
A temperature regulation apparatus includes a dry ice module that encloses dry ice so that the module's outside surface is not hazardous to touch. Insulation, breathable material, or a combination of insulating and breathable materials, allows dry ice sublimation at a sufficiently slow rate within the attached dry ice module to control the ambient temperature in the area to be cooled. The dry ice module can be attached in a location that maximizes the dry ice cooling properties, typically at or near the top of the area to be cooled. Since sublimated carbon dioxide is heavier than normal air, it falls to the bottom of the area to be cooled and builds up. The venting placement in the dry ice module is based upon the make up of the dry ice module and the breathable materials inside of it.
US07975500B2
A refrigerant accumulation and oil recovery device for recovery/regeneration/recharging units for a refrigerant fluid withdrawn from refrigeration or air conditioning plants or heat pumps, characterized by comprising a refrigerant fluid accumulation/evaporation vessel and an oil recovery vessel, said vessels being closed at their top by at least one plate which supports them both, the plate presenting a plurality of passages defining, with said vessels, a part of the charging/recycling circuit of said recovery/regeneration unit, in which said accumulation/evaporation vessel and said oil recovery vessel present at least one wall in common, such that any refrigerant fluid leakage from one of said vessels at the connection interface between said common wall and said plate is recovered into the other.
US07975492B2
A refrigerated display case (10) is provided with an open face (25) and an air flow (30) across the open face (25), which is cooled by a primary refrigeration system (20) and a thermoelectric heat pump (60).
US07975490B2
A method and system for operating a gas turbine engine power system are provided. The system includes a gas turbine engine system that includes a gas turbine engine coupled to an electrical generator through a first shaft wherein the gas turbine engine includes a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine drivingly coupled to the compressor and the electrical generator. The system also includes a variable speed electrical motor coupled to a load through a second shaft and a variable speed drive selectably couplable to the electrical generator during a starting sequence of the gas turbine engine system in a first configuration of the gas turbine engine power system and to the variable speed motor in a second configuration of the gas turbine engine power system.
US07975483B2
The invention relates to a steam power plant comprising at least one steam heater for preparing compressed steam, a main turbine, which is connected downstream of the steam heater, is arranged on a main drive shaft and is a high-pressure or medium-pressure turbine, and a secondary turbine, which is interposed between the steam heater and the main turbine and is arranged on a secondary drive shaft, characterized in that the secondary turbine has an at least 50% higher operating speed when compared with a nominal speed of the main turbine.
US07975480B2
An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for preventing overspeed of a turbocharger. The apparatus includes a two-stage turbocharger system with a high pressure and a low pressure turbocharger. A bypass valve that divides an exhaust flow into a primary exhaust flow and a bypass flow. A relief valve vents a portion of the primary exhaust flow around the high pressure turbocharger. The low pressure turbocharger receives the bypass flow, the primary exhaust flow, and the vented portion of the primary exhaust flow. The apparatus includes a controller having a protection condition module that determines a protection indicator, and a relief valve control module that controls the relief valve according to the protection indicator.
US07975478B2
An internal combustion engine (100) includes an intake manifold (106) and at least one exhaust manifold (108). A first compressor (120) that is operably associated with a first turbine (128) has a first air inlet (126) and a first air outlet (118). The first air inlet (126) is adapted to admit air into the first compressor (120), and the first air outlet (118) is fluidly connected to the intake manifold (106). The first turbine (128) fluidly communicates with a tailpipe (138). A second compressor (124) is operably associated with a second turbine (160) and has a first tributary fluid inlet (152), a second tributary fluid inlet (154), and a second fluid outlet (122). The first tributary fluid inlet (152) is fluidly connected to the tailpipe (138) at a junction (147), the second tributary fluid inlet (154) is adapted to admit air into the second compressor (124), and the second fluid outlet (122) is fluidly connected to the intake manifold (106). The second turbine (160) is fluidly connected to the tailpipe (138).
US07975477B2
A driving device and driving device manufacturing method that ensure stable fixing of an SMA, without causing difficulties in downsizing the device, and without adversely affecting the performance of the SMA. A driving device equipped with a string-shaped shape memory alloy as a drive source includes a base member constituting a basis of the driving device, and a rod-like member which penetrates the base member and is made of the metal fixed onto this base member. The rod-like member is caulked on one end of this rod-like member so that the aforementioned shape memory alloy is pinch-held in-between, whereas power-feeding members to apply current to the shape memory alloy are arranged on the other end of the rod-like member.
US07975473B2
An exhaust manifold may include a manifold body and a flange. The manifold body may include a first tube that forms an exhaust gas inlet. The flange may be coupled to the manifold body and may fix the manifold body to an engine. The flange may include a first aperture having first and second portions located along an axial extent of the first aperture. The first portion may extend to a first end surface of the flange and the second portion may extend to a second end surface of the flange. The first portion may have a first radial width that is less than a second radial width of the second portion. The second portion may receive an end of the first tube therein. The first tube may be fixed to the flange at a location within the first aperture between the first portion and the second end surface.
US07975471B2
An engine has a first cylinder group and a second cylinder group. The first cylinder group and the second cylinder group are connected to a common NOx storage reduction catalyst via their corresponding exhaust passageways and their corresponding three-way catalysts, respectively. When the temperature of the NOx storage reduction catalyst is to be raised, the average air-fuel ratio of the first cylinder group is made rich, and the average air-fuel ration of the second cylinder group is made lean. At this time, in the first cylinder group, the air-fuel of two cylinders is made rich and the air-fuel ration of one cylinder is made lean, and in the second cylinder group, the air-fuel ratio of two cylinders is made lean and the air-fuel ratio of one cylinder is made rich, in accordance with an embodiment.
US07975468B1
An actuator stack is provided and having two or more individual actuators stacked in a longitudinal direction. Each of the two or more actuators having a solid detonation charge; a primer for igniting the detonation charge; and detonation wiring for powering the primer; and wherein at least one of the two or more individual actuators comprise an accelerating nozzle having at least a convergent section terminating at a throat.
US07975467B2
An apparatus for driving a body with 3-degree of freedom angular motion, comprises: a body connected to a fixing part so as to be rotatable centering around a pitch axis, a yaw axis, and a roll axis; a pitch axis driving unit for rotating the body centering around the pitch axis; and a yaw axis driving unit for rotating the body centering around the yaw axis. Since one of the pitch axis driving unit and the yaw axis driving unit restricts the body from rotating centering around the roll axis fixed to the body, the conventional roll-rotation restricting link is not needed between the body and the fixing part. Accordingly, a size of the apparatus is reduced.
US07975463B2
A metal cord includes at least one preformed elementary metal wire. The metal cord has an elongation at break, measured on the bare cord, higher than or equal to 3%, preferably 4% to 6%; an elongation at break, measured on the rubberized and vulcanized cord, which differs in an amount not higher than or equal to 15%, preferably 2% to 10% with respect to the elongation at break measured on the bare cord; a part load elongation, measured on the bare cord, higher than or equal to 0.4%, preferably 0.5% to 1.5%; a part load elongation, measured on the rubberized and vulcanized cord, which differs in an amount not higher than or equal to 15%, preferably 0.5% to 10%, with respect to the part load elongation measured on the bare cord.
US07975462B1
An exemplary floor module suitable for inclusion in the modular floor assembly comprises a support and an overlaying floor sheet. The support includes a support leading edge portion, a support trailing edge portion, and a floor support portion disposed therebetween. The support leading edge portion attaches to the cutter bar of a header. The support trailing edge portion includes a first resilient projection, and the floor support portion includes a second resilient projection. The floor sheet includes a floor sheet leading edge portion, a floor sheet trailing edge portion, and a substantially planar floor portion disposed therebetween. The first resilient projection and the floor sheet trailing edge portion define a trailing slot configured to receive a header frame projection. The second resilient projection and the substantially planar floor portion define a side slot configured to receive a side edge portion of an adjacent floor module.
US07975460B1
A stabilization system used with a crop harvesting header includes a frame carrying a belt to deliver a crop to the header. The frame is independently movable between a first angle between the frame and the header and a second angle between the frame and the header. A member has an inside surface connectable in substantially non-rotational contact to a first structure of one of the frame or the header, and an outside surface connectable in substantially non-rotational contact to a second structure of the other of the frame or the header. In response to rotational movement of the first structure in substantially non-rotational contact with the inside surface, rotational movement of the first structure occurring with respect to the second structure in substantially non-rotational contact with the outside surface, the member provides a stabilizing torsional force between the frame and the header between the first and second angles.
US07975450B2
A tile assembly having a plurality of tiles adapted to join in an interlocking and repeating fashion. A plurality of tile assemblies can be joined to each other to form a roof. Each tile assembly includes left and right center tiles positioned side-by-side. Each tile has a generally diamond shaped main surface with vertically spaced upper and lower apices and laterally spaced lateral apices. Two upper flanges extend upwardly and outwardly from the main surface along upper edges and are joined in an upper flange apex. Each center tile includes two lower flanges that extend downwardly and outwardly from the main surface along the lower edges. The tile assembly includes upper and lower tiles of the same configuration. The upper tile fits over the adjacent upper flanges of the two center tiles, and the lower tile fits beneath the adjacent lower flange of the two center tiles.
US07975445B2
A partition with a frame having two vertical end post members spanned by beam members with each end post member having an internally directed longitudinal slotway open towards the other end post member and within which the ends of the beam members are received and, preferably, with the end post members having a front to back width greater than the front to back width of the beam members such that vertical raceways are defined between the post members outward of the beam members and inward of removable cladding panels coupled to each front and back of the frame outward of the post members. Preferably, channelways through each post member, preferably at the upper and/or lower ends of each post member, provide for access to the vertical raceways via horizontal raceways extending between the posts above and below each beam.
US07975444B2
Adjacent precast reinforced concrete modules or members are secured together by a plurality of coupler systems each including a cast metal coupler body embedded in an edge portion of the first concrete member and connected by a coupling member to a reinforcing bar within the first concrete member. The coupler body has an internal cavity with a side opening and an end opening extending to the cavity, and reinforcing wings border the side opening. The second concrete member has another coupling member rigidly connected to an axially aligned reinforcing bar and includes an end portion with a threaded bore. A bolt is inserted into the cavity through the side opening, aligned with the end opening and then threaded into the bore where the bolt is tightened with a wrench extending into the cavity through the side opening. A reusable locating pin may be used to align the concrete members.
US07975440B2
An end cap for an H-shaped header bar used to secure a corrugated hurricane shutter attachable to a window frame and having a generally inverted U-shaped pocket adapted in size to receive an upper margin of the hurricane shutter and the end cap at each end of the header bar. The header bar cooperates with a lower support channel also attached to the window frame to support and secure the hurricane shutter over the window. An end cap is positionable and attachable within an inner upright side of the pocket to engage with the upper corner of the hurricane shutter preventing substantial lateral expansion movement or corrugation deformation from being struck by flying objects during heavy hurricane wind.
US07975436B2
A cover for a utility trench includes upper and lower surfaces enclosing a hollow cavity, which is subdivided by multiple, transverse channels recessed into an extending transversely across the lower surface. The channels form fused engagements or “kiss offs” with the upper surface, which increase the transverse rigidity of the cover for enhanced load-bearing capacity spanning across the opening formed by the trench. The hollow construction of the cover, which can comprise a suitable plastic, tends to minimize its weight A pair of flanges extend along respective sides of the cover and are bolted to the trench sidewall top edges in overlying relation. A pair of shoulders are formed inside the flanges and are adapted to extend into the trench with the cover positioned thereover. A method of manufacturing a utility trench cover includes rotary molding a hollow cover with kiss offs.
US07975435B2
A barrier is provided to preclude debris from passing into a rain gutter. The barrier includes a screen supported upon a channel. The channel includes a tab positionable between a roof and shingles upon the roof, and with a lip opposite the tab resting upon a portion of a gutter opposite the roof. The channel includes a recess between the tab and the lip. The recess includes a floor defining a lower plane of the channel. Ribs extend from the floor up to an upper plane of the channel in which the screen is supported. The ribs have sufficient height to remain in contact with the screen. Water is drawn through the screen and along the ribs down to the floor of the recess. Apertures in the floor allow the water to fall down through the channel and into the gutter, while debris is precluded from passing through the screen.
US07975433B2
A security door construction has a pair of door hinges fixed to the door, a pair of frame hinges fixed to the frame and a pair of intermediate hinges by combined links which allow the door hinge to swing outside the plane of the door opening when the door is opened through 180°. Slide motion of the door is imparted by a door handle and a reaction rod which acts against a link.
US07975429B2
An apparatus for producing seedlings, wherein rootstocks and scions are nursed on multi-staged seedling culture shelves installed in a closed-type structure surrounded by light-interceptive walls, and wherein the rootstocks and scions are joined to each other to produce grafted seedlings. The grafted seedlings are placed on shelf boards of the seedling culture shelves and covered with a light-transmitting shield including vent holes, and light is projected onto the grafted seedlings through the light-transmitting shield to weld the seedlings. The relative humidity in the light-transmitting shield immediately after the grafting is raised by the evaporation of moisture from the rootstocks and the scions. When photosynthesis is stimulated, gas exchange between the carbon dioxide gas-containing atmosphere within the closed type structure and the atmosphere within the light-transmitting shield are accomplished to replenish an inner space of the light-transmitting shield with carbon dioxide gas.
US07975422B2
A waterfowl decoy motion system comprised of a multiplicity of movable decoys, a first elastic drive belt, means for connecting said first elastic drive belt to said movable decoys, a a primary drive pulley, a secondary drive pulley, an electric motor connected to said secondary drive pulley, and a multiplicity of idler puller assemblies.
US07975412B2
A system and method for installing a decorative exterior on a standard signpost is disclosed. A first exterior shell is mounted on one side of the post, and a second exterior shell is mounted on the other. Discs halves are also provided which, when installed between the post and the shells, cause the shells to be securely fastened to the post. In another alternative system, a midsection of the post cover is installed as a tube that slides over two solid discs that are slid onto the post and supported by grommets.
US07975393B2
A spirit level (1) comprises a planar base (14) for resting, in use, on a surface whose level is to be determined, and levelling means (27) comprising a vial (41) filled with sufficient liquid that an air bubble (47) is formed within the vial (41). The spirit level (1) comprises indicia (43, 45) relative to which the bubble (47) moves as the orientation of the spirit level (1) is altered so as to indicate the orientation of the spirit level. Optical means (29) is provided on the spirit level (1) to provide an image indicative of the position of the bubble (47) relative to the indicia (43, 45).
US07975388B2
A circular power saw (10), composed of a saw assembly (12) with a housing (14, 16) that encloses a motor and a saw blade (18) capable of being driven by the motor, and that includes a handle, whereby the saw assembly (12) is pivotably supported relative to a footplate (22) such that it can be adjusted between a minimum and maximum cutting depth, is protected against kickback by the fact that, during sawing, the saw assembly (12) is decoupled from handling forces acting on the saw blade (18), in particular from the handle (24).
US07975378B1
Described are methods for fabricating high speed metallic electrical interconnects for printed wiring board for high speed transmission of a data signal across an interconnect in a systems. The trench under electrical signal line is made using the separate dielectric layer having through holes opened through that said dielectric layer and aligned with electrical signal line. The layer with through holes aligned with electrical signal line sandwiched in between layer carrying the electrical signal line and a layer carrying ground conducting line for the case of microstrip-type transmission line. The two separate layers with the through-holes opened and aligned with the electrical signal line are needed for the stripline-type transmission line. Multi-layers board having high speed electrical signal lines can be made utilizing the configuration described.
US07975361B2
A robot holds an untreated coarse aluminum casting that is located at a predetermined carrying-in corner with the holding means and carries it to the first machining unit. At the first unit it holds a treated casting treated by the first unit with the holding device as well as transferring the untreated casting from the holding device to the first unit. Then it carries the treated casting that has been treated by the first unit to a second machining unit. At the second unit it holds a second treated casting that has been treated by the second unit with the holding device as well as transferring the treated casting treated by the first unit from the holding device to the second unit. Then it carries the second treated casting treated by the second unit to a predetermined carrying-out corner.
US07975358B2
A mounting assembly for attaching the drive system and stand to a ring in a medicine gantry is disclosed. The mounting assembly includes at least one mounting bar (e.g., two mounting bars), at least one mounting plate and at least one adjuster (e.g., a screw). The mounting bar is securable to a portion of the ring. The mounting bar includes a base and at least one transverse face. At least a portion of the base is substantially parallel to a surface of a portion of the ring and at least a portion of the transverse face is substantially perpendicular to the surface of the portion of the ring. The mounting plate is secured to the drive system and is securable to the transverse face of the mounting bar. Movement of the adjuster moves the drive assembly relative to the mounting bar when the mounting plate is adjacent the transverse face of the mounting bar.
US07975341B2
An oral care instrument, such as a motorized toothbrush, which activates upon exposure to the oral environment of the user, is described. The electrical conductivity of saliva, optionally mixed with toothpaste and water, may be utilized to complete an electrical circuit that powers a motorized device within the instrument.
US07975339B2
A device with a squeegee configuration configured to clean or treat surfaces submersed in liquid is described. The squeegee configuration is preferably contoured to wipe contoured surfaces or flexible such as to conform to a variety of contoured surfaces. The squeegee configuration can be configured with bristles, a sponge or scouring elements. In further embodiments of the invention, the squeegee configuration is configured to draw a vacuum while wiping the surfaces.
US07975333B2
A bed has two safety barrier elements arranged along a common side. Each barrier element (19, 21) is linked to the bed frame (11) by two hinged arms (25, 26; 35, 36) forming a deformable parallelogram mechanism, but only one (19) comprises means of locking in the up position (49), whereas attachment means (45, 46) are installed between the adjacent ends of the two barrier elements for selectively constituting a barrier consisting of a single piece.
US07975331B2
The present disclosure concerns a device for controlling humidity at the surface of a supporting item (3) of the mattress or cushion type and in the vicinity of the body (13) of an individual resting thereon, comprising an envelope (1) formed by at least two parts (11, 12) connected with each other at their peripheral edges (1a, 1b), such as being sealed by welding (1c), defining an inner chamber (13), the two parts having a first part (11) intended to be positioned on the side of said body of the individual, and a second part (12) intended to be positioned on the side of said supporting item (3) of the mattress or cushion type, the first part including a material forming a barrier impervious to air and liquid water and pervious to water vapor, the second part including a material pervious to water vapor, the second part comprising at least one air injection port (4) and means for discharging air comprising perforated or porous areas pervious to air, such as perforations (5).
US07975329B2
A transfer device has a carriage supported on a base, movable between a home position and an extended position. A table assembly includes a lower table fixed to the carriage and an upper table coupled to the lower table, movable between a downward position in forcible contact with the lower table and an upward position having no contact with the lower table. The table assembly moves toward the extended position with the tables in forcible contact to place the table assembly underneath the object to be transferred while keeping the base stationary. The plates are separated to lift the object on the upper table while the lower table remains resting upon the support surface. The table assembly returns to the home position while supporting the object on the upper table and keeping the upper and lower tables separated. The device may operate in a bidirectional manner.
US07975321B1
A combination neck brace incorporated into a body protector which is formed as an entire integrated unit to be worn to protect the neck and the body of a user, including the concept of a foam rubber protector which surrounds the neck region of the body and is incorporated into and made a part of a plastic or fiberglass protective shield which has a body portion that extends around the entire torso of the body so that the neck protector portion is incorporated into the torso protector portion to perform a full integrated unit. The neck protector portion has a rotatable hinge member than enables a neck protector portion to be moved forwardly so that the head can be inserted through the neck protector section and thereafter return to its original position to tightly envelope the neck and provide the protective shield to the neck and head area.
US07975320B2
The invention is directed to protective helmets having vents with a manually operable vent shutter and methods of using same. In one embodiment, a helmet includes an outer shell, an upper liner, a lower liner, and a vent shutter positioned within a space defined by the upper and lower liners. The helmet includes at least one vent formed through the outer shell, upper liner, and lower liner. The helmet further includes an actuator assembly operable to move the vent shutter to open and close the at least one vent. The actuator assembly includes an engagement member, such as a gear. The engagement member engages the vent shutter and effects movement of the vent shutter when rotated relative to the vent shutter about the rotation axis. In another embodiment, the upper liner may be omitted and the vent shutter may be disposed between the interior of the outer shell and the lower liner.
US07975317B2
A protective helmet cap having improved ventilation. The helmet cap includes a cap piece, a cap bill, and a plurality of apertures designed to increase ventilation of the wearer's head under the cap piece. The helmet cap offers impact protection to the wearer's head while also being more comfortable to wear due to the increased ventilation. The helmet cap may also includes structure that helps secure the helmet cap to the wearer's head. The helmet cap may be constructed from a variety of different materials, and may also include additional additives designed to enhance selected characteristics of the helmet cap.
US07979911B2
A first computer process has code including at least one triggering device, and a digital license corresponding to the first process sets forth terms and conditions for operating same. A second computer process proxy-executes code corresponding to each triggering device of the first process on behalf of same. The second process includes a license evaluator for evaluating the license to determining that the first process is to be operated in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in such license. A third computer process includes the code corresponding to each triggering device of the first process and an address of the triggering device in the first process. Thus, the first process is dependent on and cannot be operated without the second process and the third process.
US07979898B2
Methods and systems for providing real-time reporting of software usage includes an agent running on a local computer. The agent identifies new processes started on the computer and checks the new process against a restricted list. If the new process is on the restricted list, the agent automatically performs one or more restriction actions associated with the executable name of the process. The restricted list is contained in a configuration file stored on the local computer. A master configuration file for the local computer is stored on a server and replaces the configuration file when the configuration file is outdated. An authorized administrator may edit the master configuration file by adding or removing executable and DLL names from the restricted list and by adding or removing restriction actions associated with the executable and DLL names on the restricted list.
US07979894B2
Systems and methods for authenticating an applicant. In one implementation, the applicant indicates to an acquirer an existing account for which the applicant wishes to be authenticated. The acquirer sends a message over an electronic funds transfer (EFT) network to an issuer of the account requesting a set of questions to ask the applicant. The issuer replies with a set of questions. The acquirer asks the applicant the questions, and forwards the applicant's answers to the issuer. The issuer compares the answers with known information relating to the account and decides, based on the comparison, whether the applicant is authenticated. The issuer then communicates its decision to the acquirer. Preferably, the messages and their associated replies are added to the set of messages handled by the EFT network, so that authentication may be handled in a standardized way without proliferating applicants' secret information.
US07979877B2
Disclosed is a process for an advertising bidding system in which advertisers can bid on advertising time slots or enhanced ads that can be inserted in either prerecorded or live television programming. A high degree of flexibility is provided by allowing embedded ads to be purchased and displayed in a very short time period. This allows TV broadcasters to increase revenues and allows advertisers to have more flexibility in advertising. Objects can be inserted in the display video broadcast using enhancements such as by using mark-up language overlay pages or by video combination techniques. The effect of these ads can be evaluated for advertising campaigns.
US07979876B2
In the case when password data (PW1) added to a TV broadcasting signal and password data (PW2) transmitted from an Internet connection section (2) have a predetermined correlation with each other, the display section (3) is allowed to display the corresponding contents normally. Therefore, accounting processes are imposed on the transmission of the password data (PW2) so that a normal displaying operation is charged in an indirect manner for each of the contents.
US07979869B2
A method for installing a device driver for a device in a guest domain, that includes obtaining a first device driver for the device by a hypervisor, installing, by the hypervisor, the first device driver into memory allocated to the guest domain, and notifying an operating system in the guest domain of the first device driver after installing the device driver, wherein the operating system communicates with the device using the first device driver.
US07979868B2
Techniques for intercommunication amongst device drivers are described herein. In one embodiment, an application programming interface (API) is provided by a kernel of an operating system (OS) running within a data processing system. The API is accessible by device drivers associated with multiple devices installed in the system. In response to a request from a first instance of a driver via the API, information indicating whether another instance of the same driver is currently started is returned via the API. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
US07979866B2
Methods, systems, and products are provided for monitoring messages in a distributed data processing system. Embodiments typically include putting a message containing a monitoring token on a queue on a server; receiving a call to get the message from the queue on the server; determining, with an API exit running on the server, whether the call to get the message is made by a process running on a remote client or by a process running on the server; and if the call to get the message is made by a process running on the server, removing the monitoring token from the message with the API exit. Many embodiments also include removing the monitoring token from the message with a channel exit running on the remote client, if the call to get the message is made by a process on the remote client.
US07979844B2
This invention teaches a way of implementing formally verified massively parallel programs, which run efficiently in distributed and shared-memory multi-core chips. It allows programs to be developed from an initial abstract statement of interactions among parallel software components, called cells, and progressively refine them to their final implementation. At each stage of refinement a formal description of patterns of events in computations is derived automatically from implementations. This formal description is used for two purposes: One is to prove correctness, timings, progress, mutual exclusion, and freedom from deadlocks/livelocks, etc. The second is to automatically incorporate into each application a Self-Monitoring System (SMS) that constantly monitors the application in parallel, with no interference with its timings, to identify and report errors in performance, pending errors, and patterns of critical behavior. This invention also teaches a way of organizing shared-memory for multi-processors that minimizes memory interference, protects data and increases execution efficiency.
US07979836B2
A semiconductor structure for a dynamic random access memory cell, the structure including: a fin of a fin-type field effect transistor (FinFET) device formed over and spaced apart from a conductive region of a substrate; a storage capacitor connected to a first end of the fin; and a back-gate at a first lateral side of the fin and in electrical contact with the conductive region.
US07979833B2
Debugging a simulation of a circuit core uses a pattern recorder, a pattern player and a pattern checker to record input stimuli provided to a first core, record output generated by the first core due to the input stimuli, provide the recorded input stimuli to a second core, and determine whether output generated by the second core due to the recorded input stimuli matches the recorded output generated by the first core due to the input stimuli.
US07979831B1
Circuit placement for increasing circuit packing density for an integrated circuit is described. A design is synthesized and mapped. Components of the design are placed to provide a first placed design. A congestion density map is generated for the first placed design. A congestion region in the congestion density map is identified and targeted for determining if the first placed design has a control set conflict. A first circuit object associated with the control set conflict is selected and either re-placed or re-synthesized to at least diminish the control set conflict.
US07979824B2
A computer implemented method, apparatus and program product provide automated processes for determining the most cost-effective use of airgaps in a microchip. The performance gains realized by using airgaps for a given net or layer may be calculated. These improvements may be paired to a monetary cost associated with implementing the applicable airgaps at that net/layer. The paired benefit and cost of the airgap scenario may be compared to other possible airgap uses at other layers/nets to determine which airgaps provide the best improvement for the lowest cost.
US07979823B2
Disclosed is a computer implemented method for determining a voltage reference error in a PCB design comprising receiving information about said PCB design, identifying a signal associated with said design, receiving one or more user defined voltage references for said signal, and comparing the user defined voltage reference to the voltages of the power planes adjacent to said signal.
US07979818B1
Approaches for validating a design for a packet processing circuit. A method inputs a high-level language specification of a first format of an input packet. From the input specification, a plurality of high-level input packets having the first format are generated, with each field of each input packet having a value consistent with the packet specification. The packet processing circuit is simulated using a first model with input of the high-level input packets, and a first plurality of high-level output packets are output. The high-level input packets are translated into low-level input packets. The packet processing circuit is simulated using a second model with input of the low-level input packets, and a plurality of low-level output packets are output and translated into a second plurality of high-level output packets. The first and second pluralities of high-level output packets are compared to corresponding expected output packets, and comparison results stored.
US07979814B1
Model evaluation and circuit simulation/verification is performed in a graphical processing unit (GPU). A multitude of first texture data corresponding to size parameters of devices are stored. A multitude of second texture data corresponding to instance parameters of the devices are stored. A multitude of third texture data corresponding to models of the devices are stored. A multitude of fourth texture data corresponding to terminal voltages received by the device are stored. A multitude of links linking each device instance to an associated device model, size parameters and instance parameters are stored. A quad having a size defined by the multitude of links is drawn by the quad in the GPU. Each thread in the quad is assigned to a different one of the multitude of links. The computations are carried out in each thread using the linked data to perform the model evaluation.
US07979812B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that adjusts assist features in a layout to prevent assist features from printing. During operation, the system receives a layout. The system then identifies an assist-feature (AF)-printing hotspot in the layout, wherein the AF-printing hotspot includes a set of assist features and one or more target patterns in proximity to the set of assist features. At least one assist feature in the set of assist features is expected to print during a lithography process. Next, the system modifies the AF-printing hotspot by: (1) modifying the set of assist features; and (2) performing optical-proximity-correction (OPC) on the one or more target patterns. The system then performs a lithography simulation on the modified AF-printing hotspot to determine if: (1) a through-process-window associated with the modified AF-printing hotspot is acceptable; and (2) no assist feature in the modified set of assist features is expected to print. If so, the system replaces the AF-printing hotspot with the modified AF-printing hotspot.
US07979810B2
A method and mobile terminal for selecting a menu are disclosed. The present invention includes arranging at least two of a plurality of displayed menus in a preset manner and executing menus corresponding to a selected terminal input key. By arranging a plurality of activated menu icons in a plurality of directions, selection of a specific icon from a plurality of displayed menu icons by selecting one of the plurality of the directions using navigations keys is facilitated and the speed of selecting a terminal menu is considerably enhanced.
US07979805B2
A processing device may include a display screen and one or more buttons located near the display screen. Pressing one of the one or more buttons may cause the processing device to perform a first function and pressing and holding the one of the one or more buttons may cause the processing device to perform a second function. When the one of the one or more buttons is pressed, the processing device may provide a first feedback describing the first function. When the one of the one or more buttons is pressed and held for at least a predetermined amount of time, the processing device may provide a second feedback describing the second function. In some implementations, a time indicator may be displayed indicating an amount of passing time until the one of the one or more buttons is pressed and held for the predetermined amount of time.
US07979803B2
The embodiments described above utilize and leverage RSS to enable a user to interact more easily with different types of data, or data from different sources that are available over the web. In accordance with at least some embodiments, a hostable and/or customizable control is provided and gives the user the ability to interact with RSS feeds to store and further manipulate collections of items from different RSS feeds.
US07979788B2
A document processing apparatus has an attachment unit and a storage. The attachment unit attaches a comment to an electronic document as additional information. The comment relates to a modification of the electronic document. The storage associates the comment with modified place information and stores them. The modified place information indicates a modified place of the electronic document, when the electronic document is modified based on the comment.
US07979787B2
A method and apparatus for receiving document images including portions linked to one or more electronic addresses. The linked portion of the document is identified using a predetermined visual attribute, such as bold-face text, or delimiters to mark the portion. The document image is then transmitted using, e.g., existing apparatus for transmitting images, such as a facsimile machine. An electronic address associated with the identified portion of the document is also transmitted using existing techniques, such as by touch-tone telephone. The address may be a voice telephone number, facsimile telephone number, World Wide Web address, or any other address with which communication can be established. At the receiving end, both the document image and electronic address are received. Pattern matching is performed on the document image to identify the portion with the predetermined attribute as a linked portion. The received electronic address is then correlated with the linked portion. When the document image is displayed on, e.g., a computer screen, the linked portion is visually identified so that the recipient can access the electronic address by, e.g., clicking on the portion using a mouse. Communication may then be initiated by the recipient with the entity associated with the electronic address.
US07979786B1
The present invention provides techniques for generating a printable representation of multimedia information that can be printed on a paper medium to provide a paper-based interface for the multimedia information. According to the teachings of the present invention, the paper document generated by printing the printable representation on a paper medium also provides an interface for accessing or retrieving multimedia information in electronic form. The paper document may thus be used as an indexing and retrieval tool for retrieving multimedia information.
US07979785B1
A user interface (e.g., a browser window) includes a display area for displaying an image (e.g., a book page image). The image can be rescaled based on the dimensions of the display area, one or more attributes of the image and other factors. In some implementations, a sequence of images are searched for a table of contents. If a table of contents does not exist, one is created by searching the images for white space and/or other attributes that can be used to determined entries in the table of contents. The entries in the table of contents can be hypertext links.
US07979784B2
Method and system for enhancing transmission reliability of video information over wireless channels
A method and system for enhancing transmission reliability of video information over a wireless channel is provided. The video information includes pixels, each having a plurality of components and each component including video information bits that are placed in sub-packets within a packet. Error detection information is determined for one or more sub-packets, and placed in the packet. Then the packet is transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver a wireless channel, wherein the receiver uses the error detection information per sub-packet to check for transmission errors and request retransmission of erroneous video information bits based on their perceptual importance.
US07979771B2
A method for encoding a block of data to allow it to be stored or transmitted correctly in the face of accidental or deliberate modifications, the method including constructing a number n greater than one of original components, each of which is derived from the block and each of which is smaller than the block, and combining original components to construct a number m greater than one of new components, wherein each of the new components is smaller than the sum of the sizes of the original components combined to produce it, wherein the block can be reconstructed from any set of n different components selected from the original components and new components, and wherein a set of n different components selected from the original components and new components contains more redundant information about the block than the set of n original components.
US07979764B2
A method for testing integrated circuits is provided. The method provides for incorporating compression and decompression logic into each sub-component of an integrated circuit, developing test modes that target different sub-components of the integrated circuit, selecting one of the test modes, applying a test pattern to one or more sub-components of the integrated circuit targeted by the one test mode, comparing a response from application of the test pattern to a known good response, and diagnosing the response to determine which part of the one or more sub-components targeted by the one test mode failed when the response does not match the known good response.
US07979759B2
A memory hub device with test logic is configured to communicate with memory devices via multiple hub device ports, and is also configured to communicate on one or more busses in an upstream and downstream direction. The test logic includes a built-in self test apparatus providing logic to simultaneously and independently test the memory devices interfaced to one or more of the hub device ports using read and write data patterns. The test logic also includes configuration registers to hold fault and diagnostic information, and to initiate one or more tests. The memory hub device can further include command collision detection logic, a trace array, buffer transmit mode logic, trigger logic, clock adjustment logic, transparent mode logic, and a configured command sequencer, as well as additional features.
US07979753B2
A digital data recording/reproducing method includes the steps of: interleaving data on a PI code for each PI code of a 208-row ECC block; and converting a short burst error into random errors by dispersing errors on the PI codes. Moreover, the digital data recording/reproducing method increases correction capability against several bytes to several tens bytes of errors generated at random without changing burst error correction length by performing this processing for respective PI codes by using interleave rules that are different as much as possible from one another.
US07979751B2
One process of a processing environment maintains state on behalf of another process of the processing environment, and uses that state to determine if a problem exists with the another process. The one process is a non-volatile process, while the another process is a volatile process.
US07979744B2
Provided are a fault model and rule based fault management apparatus and method for a home network. The fault management apparatus includes: a plurality of fault generation unit formed in a multilevel structure and generating fault notification when a fault is generated; a plurality of fault communication unit for transferring fault notification from one of the fault generation unit; a fault agent unit for transferring each fault notification from a plurality of the fault communication unit; and a fault diagnosis and process unit for receiving the fault notification from the fault agent unit, diagnosing a corresponding fault, and processing the corresponding fault using a fault model, a fault decision rule, and a fault process rule.
US07979743B2
Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for determining the correctness of similar job plan segments in a stream processing application. In one embodiment, a job manager may be configured to identify similar job plan segments based on data formats, functionality, and surrounding processing elements. The job manager plan may be further configured to determine whether the similar segments provide inconsistent results, and if so, to determine which of the inconsistent similar segments is invalid. The job manager may identify an invalid processing element included in the invalid segment. The job manager may also perform corrective actions to address the invalid processing element.
US07979738B2
The present invention discloses a virtual tape library (VTL) backup system, and a method of hard disk drive (HDD) power control in VTL devices. In the VTL backup system, a disk control module (DCM) is added to the VTL device and an agent module is added to the backup server. When a backup or disaster recovery (DR) operation is triggered, the agent module in the backup server can inform the disk control module (DCM) in the VTL device to trigger the VTL device to power on all the HDDs before the operation starts, and to power off all the HDDs after the operation ends. Power saving in the VTL device is achieved through power control over the HDDs.
US07979731B2
A time authentication device identifies clocks that show a time falling within the predetermined permissible range as compared with a time shown by the time authentication device. In a time authentication device embodied as a distribution device, a time-relation information storage unit stores a playback-device-time measured by a clock unit of a playback device, and also stores a distribution-device-time measured by a clock unit when the playback-device-time is acquired. The time authentication unit acquires from the playback device a target time measured by the clock unit, and also acquires an authentication time measured by the clock unit when the target time is received. The time authentication unit then calculates a first difference, a second difference, an authentication difference. If the authentication difference is smaller than or equal to a predetermined threshold, the time authentication unit judges that the clock unit of the playback device is valid.
US07979725B2
A computer measures a processor load and configures itself so that a lesser amount of speculative execution is enabled when the processor is lightly loaded than is enabled when the processor is heavily loaded.
US07979720B2
A computing system includes data encryption in the data path between a data source and data storage devices. The data encryption may utilize a key which is derived at least in part from an identification code stored in a non-volatile memory. The key may also be derived at least in part from user input to the computer.
US07979715B2
A replaceable print cartridge includes a container and a memory coupled to the container. The memory is configured to limit use of printing material that is to be contained in the container.
US07979710B2
A technique for film marking includes coding a print identifier into a binary-coded bit-complement serial number; identifying particular frames that will be used to convey the bits of the binary-coded bit-complement serial number and marking these bit frames in accordance with the particular bit values of the binary-coded bit-complement serial number. The presence of a predefined mark on a bit frame is representative of a binary digit having a value of one, while the absence of the predefined mark on a bit frame is representative of a binary digit having a value of zero.
US07979708B2
A digital rights management is provided. In the digital rights management method and contents service method, a user terminal of the digital contents encodes the digital contents based on specific information of the terminal. When using the digital contents encoded based on the identification of the terminal, the digital contents are decoded using the identification of the corresponding terminal. A billing is performed with respect to the use of the digital contents encoded or decoded based on the identification of the terminal.
US07979702B2
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a decommission command from a management console, determining that the decommission command is authentic, and disabling the manageability functions of a management subsystem on a managed device.
US07979700B2
Various embodiments include an apparatus and a method to secure protected digital document content from tampering by their user, such as unauthenticated use or use violating a policy of the digital document. The digital document file can be transferred from a network node such as a web site server to a digital appliance, such as a computer, in encrypted form. The digital document file can be resident already on a device, and/or be transferred into a device that is connected to the digital appliance. The device (hereafter a DRM device) can internally store the digital document or part of the document. The DRM device may decrypt the digital document when requested to do so. The device may further format the content for usage, for example, convert text into its graphic bitmap representation. Device formatting can include sending plain text data to the digital appliance. The device may further process degradation to the resulted file, for example, reduce the resolution of the graphic representation. The digital appliance uploads the result of the processing or sections of the result of the processing for user access via the digital appliance.
US07979699B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for providing processing capacity on demand. According to the embodiments, a processor package has a plurality of processing elements. One or more of the processing elements may be made active in response to increased demand for processing capacity based on modifiable authorization information.
US07979686B1
A multiplexed hierarchical array of interrupt controllers is configured to enable low latency task switching of a processor. The hierarchical array comprises a plurality of interrupt controllers coupled to a root interrupt controller. For each task that the processor is configured to execute, a corresponding interrupt controller is provided. To switch the processor to a task, the corresponding interrupt controller signals the root interrupt controller which, in turn, sends an interrupt and a Task Identifier to the processor. The root interrupt controller also cooperates with an access multiplexer/demultiplexer to select the corresponding interrupt controller for communication with the processor. By providing interrupt controller selection as well as task identification, the hierarchical array offloads arbitration and context switching overhead from the processor. That is, in response to the interrupt, the processor switches to the identified task and may access a memory address space dedicated to the task.
US07979678B2
A system and method for performing register renaming of source registers in a processor having a variable advance instruction window for storing a group of instructions to be executed by the processor, wherein a new instruction is added to the variable advance instruction window when a location becomes available. A tag is assigned to each instruction in the variable advance instruction window. The tag of each instruction to leave the window is assigned to the next new instruction to be added to it. The results of instructions executed by the processor are stored in a temp buffer according to their corresponding tags to avoid output and anti-dependencies. The temp buffer therefore permits the processor to execute instructions out of order and in parallel. Data dependency checks for input dependencies are performed only for each new instruction added to the variable advance instruction window and register renaming is performed to avoid input dependencies.
US07979674B2
Executing MIMD programs on a SIMD machine, the SIMD machine including a plurality of compute nodes, each compute node capable of executing only a single thread of execution, the compute nodes initially configured exclusively for SIMD operations, the SIMD machine further comprising a data communications network, the network comprising synchronous data communications links among the compute nodes, including establishing one or more SIMD partitions, booting one or more SIMD partitions in MIMD mode; establishing a MIMD partition; executing by launcher programs a plurality of MIMD programs on two or more of the compute nodes of the MIMD partition; and re-executing a launcher program by an operating system on a compute node in the MIMD partition upon termination of the MIMD program executed by the launcher program.
US07979664B2
Provided are a method, system and article of manufacture for return processing in storage pools. A plurality of physical volumes are allocated to a first storage pool. A determination is made whether the first storage pool has more than a threshold number of empty physical volumes. If the first storage pool has more than the threshold number of empty physical volumes, then at least one empty physical volume is returned to a second storage pool.
US07979662B2
In one aspect, a system for indexing transactions over a plurality of communication lines is described. In various embodiments, the system includes a host controller and a plurality of storage devices in communication with one another. Each of the storage devices is configured to store data. The communication lines facilitate communications between the host controller and the plurality of storage devices. A selected one of the storage devices is configured to function as a transaction indexer to monitor the communication lines and index and store selected transaction information associated with operations that occur over the communication lines. While the host controller may be arranged to configure the transaction indexer, the transaction monitoring, indexing and storing are performed substantially automatically by the transaction indexer without requiring further instructions from the host controller.
US07979661B2
Methods, systems, and media to enhance memory overflow management by identifying a memory overflow condition associated with execution of a task and adjusting memory allocation for the task to attenuate the memory overflow condition are disclosed. In particular, embodiments reduce the impact of repetitious memory overflow conditions caused by a specific task by increasing the memory allocation for that task. The memory overflow may also be reported to a technical service provider to help the technical service provider identify and fix the code that is responsible for the memory overflow. Many embodiments monitor an extent of the overflow and determine an allocation correction term based upon the extent of the overflow. In some situations, application of a correction term to increase the memory allocation for the task may advantageously eliminate the cause of the memory overflow condition. In further situations, the impact of the memory overflow condition is attenuated.
US07979653B2
The present invention provides a portable file-copying apparatus which includes a first connecting unit, a second connecting unit, and a control unit. The first connecting unit can receive a first portable storage media which includes an original file. The second connecting unit can receive a second portable storage media. Furthermore, the control unit is connected to the first connecting unit, the second connecting unit, and a memory. The control unit is applied for storing the original file in the memory, and copying the file to the second portable storage media in accordance with a control signal.
US07979646B2
A memory controller to provide memory access services in an adaptive computing engine is provided. The controller comprises: a network interface configured to receive a memory request from a programmable network; and a memory interface configured to access a memory to fulfill the memory request from the programmable network, wherein the memory interface receives and provides data for the memory request to the network interface, the network interface configured to send data to and receive data from the programmable network.
US07979638B2
A system configured to receive a first request for a first datum, query the cache metadata to determine whether the first datum is present in the main memory or the asymmetric cache device (ACD), retrieve the first datum from the main memory when the first datum is present in the main memory, retrieve the first datum from the ACD when the first datum is present in the ACD and not present in the main memory, store a copy of the first datum in the main memory when the first datum is present in the ACD and not present in the main memory, update the cache metadata to indicate that the copy of the first datum is stored in the main memory when the first datum is present in the ACD and not present in the main memory, and retrieve the first datum from the disk when the first datum is not present in the ACD and is not present in the main memory.
US07979631B2
A method of prefetching data in a hard disk drive includes searching for a logic block address (LBA) of data requested by an external apparatus in a history of a non-volatile cache of the hard disk drive, and if the LBA of the data is stored in the history, storing data recorded in a LBA stored after the LBA of the data requested by the external apparatus from among LBAs stored in the history in a buffer of the hard disk drive.
US07979626B2
A transaction log for flash recovery includes a chained sequence of blocks specifying the operations that have been performed, such as a write to a sector or an erase to a block. Checkpoints are performed writing the entire flash state to flash. Once a checkpoint is performed, all of the log entries prior to the checkpoint are deleted and the log processing on recovery begins with the latest checkpoint. If the system is able to safely shutdown, then a checkpoint may be performed before the driver unloads, and on initialization, the entire persisted flash state may be loaded into the flash memory with a minimal amount of flash scanning. If a power failure occurs during system operation, then on the next boot-up, only the sectors or blocks specified in the log entries after the latest checkpoint have to be scanned, rather than all the sectors on the part.
US07979619B2
Methods, systems, apparatuses and program products are disclosed for managing interrupt services in hypervisor and hypervisor-related environments in Message Signaled Interrupts are emulated as other type(s) of interrupt.According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of executing a program includes receiving a MSI (message signaled interrupt). Responsively, a virtual interrupt is generated and an ISR (interrupt service routine) is invoked that handles a line-based virtual interrupt transaction. A surrogate or virtual peripheral device status may also be provided and may be associated with the virtual interrupt. A single device interrupt event may, in certain circumstances, be serviced both as a line-based interrupt and also as an MSI, or as either responsive to run-time context.Embodiments of the present invention enable superior tradeoffs in regards to the interrupt sharing to a greater and more flexible extent than with previous implementations. Moreover, it makes possible interrupt sharing using an ISR that was not expressly designed for interrupt sharing.
US07979613B2
A method for operating a storage system, including storing data redundantly in the system and measuring respective queue lengths of input/output requests to operational elements of the system. The queue lengths are compared to an average queue length to determine respective performances of the operational elements of the storage system. In response to the average queue lengths and a permitted deviation from the average an under-performing operational element among the operational elements is identified. An indication of the under-performing operational element is provided to host interfaces in the storage system. One of the host interfaces receives requests for specified items of the data directed to the under-performing element, and in response to the indication, some of the requests are diverted from the under-performing operational element to one or more other operational elements of the storage system that are configured to provide the specified items of the data.
US07979611B2
A multi-protocol serial interface (MPSI) apparatus can include a controller circuit that is configured to receive information about a type of MPSI utilized for data transfer and that is configured to control a format of the data transfer and input/output timing associated with the data transfer. A data generation and processing circuit is coupled to the controller circuit and is configured to extract information from a buffer memory to generate data for the data transfer according to the format based on the information and is configured to generate the data in a packet format or a bit format based on the information.
US07979610B2
Apparatus, methods, systems, and computer-readable media are provided for remotely controlling the connection between a host computer and a multitude of connected devices. One apparatus described herein includes a multiplexer that has a host port for connection to a host computer, device ports for connection to the devices, and control lines. The multiplexer is operative to connect a device port to the host port based upon the status of the control lines. The apparatus further includes a controller connected to the multiplexer. The controller has an input interface and is operative to receive control data on the input interface that identifies a device port on the apparatus that should be connected to the host port. In response to receiving such control data, the controller is operative to place signals on the control lines that cause the multiplexer to connect the identified device port to the host port. The device port that is connected to the host port can be remotely selected by transmitting the appropriate data to the input interface of the controller.
US07979608B2
Multiple symbol sequences that have been transmitted in parallel using the same transmit clock over a serial point to point link are received. Each symbol sequence includes an instance of a first, non-data symbol. The multiple symbol sequences are buffered and the number of times an instance of a second, non-data symbol that occurs in one of the symbol sequences is changed. A first deskew process is performed, followed by a second deskew process. The first deskew process aligns an instance of the first non-data symbol in every one of the buffered symbol sequences. The second deskew process equalizes the number of instances of the second non-data symbol that follow an instance of the first non-data symbol in every one of the symbol sequences. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
US07979607B2
An apparatus and method of operating a cascadable, instant-fall-through First In, First Out (FIFO) buffer is provided. The method comprises receiving a first data element at an input of a FIFO buffer which includes a plurality of buffer slices including an output buffer slice wherein each of the plurality of buffer slices comprise a data register and a control bit register. A buffer slice is identified which is indicated for storing a data element based on a control bit register for the buffer slice and a control bit register of an adjacent buffer slice on an output side. When data is read from an output buffer slice the FIFO buffer, all data in other buffer slices are shifted down one slice closer to the output side of the FIFO buffer.
US07979601B2
An embedded controller capable of providing direct memory access (DMA) to memory for a host. The controller may include a processor, a memory medium, and an interface coupled to the memory medium. The interface may be configured to couple to a host and receive a DMA request. The DMA request may include a request to read data from a memory location in the memory medium or a request to write data to a memory location in the memory medium. The DMA request may include a relative memory address. The interface may be configured to translate the relative memory address into a first address of the memory medium. Accordingly, the interface may perform operations according to the DMA request using the first address of the memory medium. The processor may be configured to operate according to data stored in the memory medium.
US07979595B2
An external apparatus function extension application system in a host computer is provided. The host computer sets a property value of an external apparatus into firmware that controls the external apparatus connected to the host computer and that is downloaded from the host computer to the external apparatus, and the external apparatus function extension application system includes a unit configured to register a sequence process for setting the property value as a hook function that is called when a predetermined object is generated.
US07979593B2
A library is reset as needed in a manner non-disruptive to a host system providing a host command to a drive interfacing with the host system on behalf of the library during a reset of the library. To this end, the drive confirms a receipt of a host command to the host system on behalf of the library in response to the drive receiving the host command from the host system, and the library commands the drive to transmit the host command to the library subsequent to a reset of the library based on the drive receiving the host command from the host system during the reset of the library.
US07979587B1
A physical layer of a device is connected to a plurality of twisted pairs of wire. The physical layer includes an autonegotiation controller that initially advertises a plurality of operating speeds associated with the device and receives a request for the device to operate at a first operating speed. A cable detector determines whether the physical layer is connected to a sufficient number of twisted pair wires to support the first operating speed. A speed adjuster alters the plurality of operating speeds advertised by the autonegotiation controller in response to the physical layer not being connected to a sufficient number of twisted pair wires to support the first operating speed. The speed adjuster alters the plurality of operating speeds advertised by the autonegotiation controller by masking one of the plurality of operating speeds corresponding to the first operating speed.
US07979586B2
An information processor (1) comprises: a history packet transmitter (11) for transmitting a history packet; a request packet transmitter (12) for transmitting a request packet requesting transmission of a return packet; a packet transmission controller (13) for controlling transmission of a request packet by using a binary search method; a return packet receiver (14) for receiving a return packet transmitted from a server (3); and a port keeping time detector (15) for detecting the port keeping time of a communication processor (2) based on reception of a return packet by the return packet receiver (14). The server (3) includes: a request packet receiver (31) for receiving a request packet; and a return packet transmitter (32) for transmitting a return packet to a port of the communication processor (2) where a history packet passed when the request packet receiver (31) received a request packet. This configuration provides an information processing system for detecting the port keeping time of the communication processor.
US07979580B2
A content delivery and global traffic management network system provides a plurality of caching servers connected to a network. The caching servers host customer content that can be cached and stored, and respond to requests for Web content from clients. If the requested content does not exist in memory or on disk, it generates a request to an origin site to obtain the content. A DNS Server load balances network requests among customer Web servers and directs client requests for hosted customer content to the appropriate caching server. The customer pays a service that provides the content delivery and global traffic management network system a fee for usage of the content delivery and global traffic management network system.
US07979561B2
Provided is a method and system for transmitting information. The method includes determining stream length information for at least one data stream to be transmitted and associating the stream length information with a system parameter message. The system parameter message including the associated stream length information is transmitted separately from the data stream. This process facilitates de-multiplexing of individual streams and the processing of stream data even if one or more individual streams are received in error.
US07979531B2
Methods and systems for network management data collection have been provided. Underutilized computers in the network are allocated as a Network Management Data Collection Client (NMDCC) to collect network management data. The NMDCC receives program files from the network management server. The received program files are downloaded by the NMDCC in a compressed manner via a web service. The downloaded program files are executed for collecting the Network Management Data (NMD). The collected NMD is updated back on the network management server. The downloaded program files are discarded when the NMDCC is not collecting the network management data.
US07979527B2
Methods, systems, and computer program products for managing electronic subscriptions are disclosed. According to one aspect, a method includes monitoring, at an electronic subscription client, receipt of one or more subscription messages associated with an electronic subscription. Interaction with the electronic subscription client by a client may be monitored to determine a viewing frequency of the one or more received subscription messages. Further, a prompt with a control configured for unsubscribing the user from receiving a future subscription message associated with the electronic subscription may be presented based on the determined viewing frequency.
US07979524B2
A relationship visualization system provides a user interface by which a user may select from among entities, elements, and sub-elements as an initial point in a desired relationship for display. The system designates the selected entities, elements, and sub-elements originating endpoints for the desired relationship. The system displays the relationship between entities, elements, and sub-elements to facilitate visualization and management of the information technology system. The relationship comprises a data path. The display of the relationship comprises a graphical view and a tabular view.
US07979521B2
An embodiment of the invention provides a method for communicating event data in a network, including: receiving the event data in a first device, the event data including a native IP address associated with a source of the event data; translating a native protocol of the event data into XML, a resulting XML message including the event data and an identifier associated with the first device; transmitting the XML message from a first location to a second location; determining a new IP address based on the native IP address and the identifier; and including the new IP address in the XML message.
US07979517B1
A system and method for utilizing virtual ports associated with a physical port in a Fiber Channel adapter for use in a clustered storage system is disclosed. A plurality of virtual ports are created and associated with a physical port on a storage system. One of the virtual ports is utilized as a standby port to be used to assume the identity of a port associated with a failed storage system in the cluster. In the event of a failover operation, the standby port is activated and assumes the identity of the failed storage systems port. Data access requests previously directed to the failed storage system are received by the activated virtual port and processed by the surviving storage system.
US07979507B2
According to some embodiments, it may be determined, at a first processing element of a device with a plurality of processing elements, that first data is to be transmitted in association with a first network connection. A first entry associated with the first data may then be stored into a first of a plurality of transmit queues. It may subsequently be determined, at a second processing element of the device, that second data is to be transmitted in association with the first network connection. A second entry associated with the second data may then be stored into a second of the plurality of transmit queues.
US07979495B2
A method for automatically removing a user from an e-mail thread is provided. An e-mail client receives a reply e-mail message. Responsive to a determination that the reply e-mail message is a message to opt-out of an e-mail thread, the e-mail address of a sender of the reply e-mail message is associated with the e-mail thread to form a listed e-mail address. The listed e-mail address is stored. When a new e-mail message is generated that is part of the e-mail thread, the listed e-mail address is automatically excluded from a list of recipients of the new e-mail.
US07979489B2
A method, system and program for notifying users when messaging sessions are recorded are provided. In response to receiving a request to record a messaging session, a requested selection of multiple message entries associated with the messaging session are recorded. Then, multiple users participating in the messaging session are notified of the recording of the requested selection of the multiple message entries from the messaging session. In particular, the output of the messaging session is adjusted for each of the multiple users to distinguish a selection from among the multiple message entries being recorded.
US07979487B2
A microphone device is provided which comprises a main microphone (MM), at least one control microphone (CM) and a digital signal processing unit (DSP) coupled to the main microphone (MM) and the at least one control microphone (CM). The digital signal processing unit (DSP) receives the output of the main microphone (MM) and the output of the at least one control microphone (CM). Based on the output signals, the digital signal processing unit (DSP) is adapted to perform a noise suppression of pop noise in the output signal of the main microphone (MM).
US07979485B2
A circuit for a fast Fourier transform (FFT) operation is provided. The FFT operation circuit includes a plurality of butterfly operation units connected in series. Each of the plurality of butterfly operation units reads a signal in the order in which the plurality of butterfly operation units perform complex multiplication, addition, and subtraction, performs complex multiplication of each sequentially read signal by a complex coefficient corresponding to an FFT length and the stage number of the butterfly operation unit, and performs complex addition and subtraction with the complex multiplied signal. In this way, without disposing a plurality of operation circuits corresponding to a radix, FFT operations corresponding to a plurality of FFT lengths can be performed.
US07979483B1
A multiplexed digital proportional-integral-derivative filter receives error signal samples and operates in different states during sub-cycles of a single system cycle. A single multiplier and a single adder within the filter calculate at least portions of a proportional control signal, an integral control signal and a derivative control signal for one error signal sample during successive sub-cycles. The calculated control signal portions are aggregated to produce a filtered error signal for the respective error signal sample. The original resolution at lower cost, or increased resolution at the original cost, are achieved, as well as full programmability of loop gain with only negligible increase in loop latency.
US07979477B2
Updating a graphical database object in a database via a placeholder control is provided. After a database recordset schema or schema is updated, a determination is made as to whether anew field is to be added to the graphical database object in response to the recordset schema or schema change. If a new field is to be added, the new field is automatically added to the graphical database object. The new field may be positioned to a place in the graphical database object as directed by a user or editor of the database object. The graphical database object may be displayed with the new field as positioned based on the recordset schema or schema change.
US07979475B2
A method, apparatus, and system for configuring, designing, and/or implementing database tables is detailed that provides a framework into which a remainder of database tables are developed. Also detailed is a method to develop this framework of database tables. This so developed framework provides a platform for integrating data from multiple databases. A method is also provided for maintaining and managing master data as a single source of reference data to multiple databases that are based upon this framework.
US07979470B2
A data manipulation method and system. The method includes receiving by a computing system, a multiple data manipulation (MDM) list comprising data objects. The computing system includes a memory unit that comprises data. A data object of the data objects is reviewed. The computing system determines that a new item attribute for the data object comprises a value of null. The computing system determines that an original item attribute for the data object comprises a value of not null. The computing system generates and transmits to DELETE request command to the memory unit. The computing system deletes in response to the delete request command, a first portion of the data.
US07979459B2
Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to matching product information to products. In aspects, a product matching component receives product information. The product matching component normalizes the product information and obtains keywords from the product information. By querying a database of recognized products, the keywords are used to obtain a list of products that potentially match the product information. A confidence level is assigned to each of the potential matches in the list. A match may be returned for the highest matched product or for a selectable number of products whose confidence level(s) exceed a selectable threshold.
US07979455B2
RDF store database designs and efficient techniques for converting SPARQL queries to SQL queries are described that provide faster triplet access, and which can reduce the computational overhead and cost associated with storing large volumes of RDF metadata. In various embodiments RDF data can be stored in de-normalized tables tailored to provide efficient query and storage performance. The provided query conversion techniques provide reliable and efficient query performance.
US07979443B2
In accordance with a method of encoding meta-data associated with tree-structured data, a first set of elements of a plurality of elements in the tree-structured is associated explicitly with explicit meta-data levels, and a second set of elements of the plurality of elements is associated by inheritance with explicit meta-data levels of closest ancestor elements of the first set of elements. The plurality of elements is packed into a plurality of leaf nodes of an index structure. The plurality of leaf nodes is merged into a plurality of non-leaf nodes until a root non-leaf node is generated. The plurality of non-leaf nodes of the index structure is associated with indicators representing ranges of the explicit meta-data levels in the packed first set of elements, such that explicit meta-data level ranges of descendant non-leaf nodes are subsets of explicit meta-data level ranges of ancestor non-leaf nodes.
US07979442B2
Automatic meta-data sharing of existing media method and apparatus are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of a server device includes analyzing a media data of a client device to determine a meta-data identifier associated with the media data and automatically populating a new mark-up language file using an existing media-collection data associated with certain items of the media data. The meta-data identifier may be generated by a client application that is agnostic of a type of media player application compatible with the media data. The new mark-up language file may include an arrangement of the existing media-collection data of the certain items associated with the media data of the client device. A compatibility rating may be determined between the users based on the similar attributes between the arrangement and the other arrangements and enabling each user of the server device to view mark-up language files of the other users.
US07979440B2
Techniques are provided for processing a query using an index. It is determined whether a number of consecutive keys that evaluate to a false-positive when applying a screening predicate in the query exceeds a false-positive predefined value. One or more keys in the index are skipped in response to determining that the number of consecutive keys exceeds the false-positive predefined value.
US07979431B2
A query enhancer module providing a unique method to modify user submitted queries within a web-based, multi-tier enterprise solution. The user submitted query specifies data to be retrieved from a database. Without any user interaction the query enhancer module rewrites the query to specify a subset of the data specified in the user submitted query. This rewritten query is then executed against the database to retrieve the subset of the data. Generally, the subset set of the data comprises the amount of data that can be displayed on a single web page.
US07979429B2
To analyze a data set having one-to-many relation, the number of simultaneous occurrences of data in which two data elements are coexistent is obtained for all combinations of two data elements. A dependence ratio of one data element upon the other data element is calculated from the numbers of simultaneous occurrences. The data elements are grouped based upon the numbers of occurrences of individual data elements and the dependence ratios compared with the predetermined thresholds. Based on the number of occurrences of individual data elements and the dependence ratios, subordinate relations of data elements within the same group are specified and displayed to a user in the form of a tree or balloon figure.
US07979421B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer systems and program products, for executing a query on a subset of data, for example, to facilitate a fast search with a very large result set. In one general aspect, a method of executing a query includes receiving a query for execution on data in the data repository; generating an estimate of a number of results of the query; defining a subset of data in the data repository; determining whether to execute the query on the subset of the data; executing the query on the subset of the data to generate a partial set of results if the query is to be executed on the subset of the data, otherwise executing the query on the data repository to generate a complete set of results; and providing query results.
US07979416B1
A data storage system is disclosed. A flag is maintained in metadata pointing to a block of data. A first value of the flag indicates that the block of data is stored in a user accessible file. A second value of the flag indicates that the block of data is stored in a protected file. The flag pointing to the requested data block is checked upon receipt of a data access request. When the flag has the first value the data access request is permitted. When the flag has the second value, an access control list is checked, and if the requesting client is listed in the access control list permitting the data access request, and if the requesting client is not listed in the access control list denying the data access request.
US07979415B2
A system, media, and method for selecting future queries are provided. The selected future queries are used to transmit appropriate online advertising to a user that issues queries to a search engine. The search engine is coupled to a prediction component that predicts what subject the user is going to be interested in and when the user will be interested in the subject. The prediction component returns a future query using statistical language models representing a query history of the user and aggregate query histories for a community of users.
US07979413B2
In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a method and system are disclosed for constructing an embedded signature in order to facilitate post-facto detection of leakage of sensitive data. The leakage detection mechanism involves: 1) identifying at least one set of words in an electronic document containing sensitive data, the set of words having a low frequency of occurrence in a first collection of electronic documents; and, 2) transmitting a query to search a second collection of electronic documents for any electronic document that contains the set of words having a low frequency of occurrence. This leakage detection mechanism has at least the following advantages: a) it is tamper-resistant; b) it avoids the need to add a watermark to the sensitive data, c) it can be used to locate the sensitive data even if the leakage occurred before the embedded signature was ever identified; and, d) it can be used to detect an embedded signature regardless of whether the data is being presented statically or dynamically.
US07979406B2
Compressing transaction data is provided. A current transaction data point is received. A determination is made as to whether the current transaction data point is a first transaction data point or a subsequent transaction data point of a set of transaction data points for a current variable length aggregation record. A further determination is made as to whether the subsequent transaction data point is within a predetermined tolerance of a predicted transaction data point in response to the current transaction data point being the subsequent transaction data point. The subsequent transaction data point is compressed into the current variable length aggregation record in response to the subsequent transaction data point falling within the predetermined tolerance of the predicted transaction data point.
US07979405B2
Method for automatically associating data with a document based on a prescribed type of the document
A system and method is provided to automatically associate type-specific information with a document of a prescribed type. The type information includes instance-specific type information that can be instantiated to each document of the prescribed type. The type information also includes generic type information that is automatically applied to all documents of the prescribed type. Such generic type information includes policies that govern, for example, the life span of the documents or who can access the documents. Instance-specific type information can be demoted to and promoted from a document of the prescribed type. Generic type information can only be demoted to a document of the prescribed type. Type information may be demoted into a document only when the document is requested.
US07979399B2
A database spread over multiple nodes allows each node to store a journal recording changes made to the database and also allows a journaling component to manage the memory space available for journaling. Two threshold size values may be specified for the journal. The first threshold value specifies a journal size at which to being pruning the journal on a given node. A journal pruning algorithm may be used to identify journal entries that may be removed. For example, once a given transaction completes (i.e., commits) the journal entries related to that transaction may be pruned from the journal. The second threshold value specifies the maximum size of the journal. After reaching this size, journal entries may be written to disk instead of the in-memory journal.
US07979398B2
Techniques provide a file plan including a plurality of containers, wherein each container is capable of providing management information for record information objects assigned to the container, wherein the record information objects represent documents, wherein one of the containers points to a physical record. An electronic record associated with the physical record is stored. The physical record is automatically associated with the electronic record by updating the file plan.
US07979389B2
The present invention relates to a method for performing integrated storage operations on an information store. The present invention comprises identifying a plurality disparate types of storage operations stored in a policy option table. A first storage operation is performed according to a first set of storage criteria stored in the policy option table and a second operation, disparate from the first storage operation, is performed according to a second set of storage criteria stored in the policy option table.
US07979388B2
A method of and system for deriving hierarchical structure from a set of digital objects is presented. The set of digital objects, such as digital images for example, may include a plurality of digital objects each associated with a data tag (such as a date, location, and/or text description, for example) that is part of a flat property set that does not encode the hierarchical relationships of the data objects. The set of digital objects may be filtered by a query and a query engine. Each data tag of each digital object may be compared on the basis of a relationship, such as mathematical equality, proximity in value, and/or similarity of text strings, for example. A hierarchical data structure may be established that includes a parent data segment and a child data segment, each labeled with a related data tag and populated with one or more related digital objects. The hierarchical data structure may be represented by a tree or by nested folders.
US07979385B2
A method for consuming data includes determining a scope of summarization for a data set in response to receiving a request from a summarization program, obtaining a lock on the data within the scope of summarization and consuming the data from the summarization program within the scope of data summarization. The summarization program includes methods configured to obtain concurrent locks on different portions of the data set. The consumption of the data may be governed by specific rules.
US07979370B1
A system for information searching includes a first layer and a second layer. The first layer includes a first plurality of neurons each associated with a word and with a first set of dynamic connections to at least some of the first plurality of neurons. The second layer include a second plurality of neurons each associated with a document and with a second set of dynamic connections to at least some of the first plurality of neurons. The first set of dynamic connections and the second set of dynamic connections can be configured such that a query of at least one neuron of the first plurality of neurons excites at least one neuron of the second plurality of neurons. The excited at least one neuron of the second plurality of neurons can be contextually related to the queried at least one neuron of the first plurality of neurons.
US07979367B2
A system and method for support vector machine plus (SVM+) computations include selecting a set of indexes for a target function to create a quadratic function depending on a number of variables, and reducing the number of variables to two in the quadratic function using linear constraints. An extreme point is computed for the quadratic function in closed form. A two-dimensional set is defined where the indexes determine whether a data point is in the two-dimensional set or not. A determination is made of whether the extreme point belongs to the two-dimensional set. If the extreme point belongs to the two-dimensional set, the extreme point defines a maximum and defines a new set of parameters for a next iteration. Otherwise, the quadratic function is restricted on at least one boundary of the two-dimensional set to create a one-dimensional quadratic function. The steps are repeated until the maximum is determined.
US07979363B1
A system and method for estimating the a priori probability of a class-of-interest in an input-data-set and a system and method for evaluating the performance of the adaptive Bayes classifier in classifying unlabeled samples from an input-put-data-set. The adaptive Bayes classifier provides a capability to classify data into two classes, a class-of-interest or a class-other, with minimum classification error in an environment where a priori knowledge, through training samples or otherwise, is only available for a single class, the class-of-interest. This invention provides a method and system for estimating the a priori probability of the class-of-interest in the data set to be classified and evaluating adaptive Bayes classifier performance in classifying data into two classes, a class-of-interest and a class-other, using only labeled training samples, or otherwise, from the class-of-interest and unlabeled samples from the data set to be classified.
US07979354B2
Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, a utilization permit key may be pre-defined to permit at least one of displaying, editing, storing, copying, and/or transferring of digital data.
US07979350B1
A method for managing wireless account information. A list of applications is presented via a web interface on a computing device. The applications are operable to run on a wireless handheld device and a plurality of billing options are presented. In response to receiving a selection of an application, a wireless account is updated via a link between a web account and a wireless account according to the selected application, such that the selected application is available when a wireless account is accessed via a wireless handheld device.
US07979335B2
The disclosed computer-implemented investment management process particularly in the field of high yield corporate bond financial market consists of five distinct process phases. In a first phase, the financial market under evaluation is researched in order to obtain all the market business information necessary for the following market evaluation phases. The next three phases, as marked by the dotted line, are all part of the central evaluation process that will be described in more detail hereinafter. The first evaluation phase is a filtering phase where the market business information obtained from the previous research phase are filtered in order to separate useful information from non-useful information. In a following phase, the filtered business information at first is input to a subscoring process and thereafter to a scoring process. Finally, the obtained evaluation results (scores) are presented to a user in form of a recommendation displayed on a monitor or printed in paper format.
US07979334B2
A system and method for determining the buying power of an investment portfolio are disclosed which involve providing a set of compliance rules for an investment portfolio, receiving a request to analyze a proposed transaction, and calculating a transaction limit for the proposed transaction based upon the set of compliance rules.
US07979328B1
A method and system for interactive invoice inquiry. In one method embodiment, the present invention receives an invoice. The present invention then stores the invoice in a network-accessible database. Next, the present invention authorizes a requester access to the invoice stored in the network-accessible database. The present invention further authorizes a supplier access to the invoice stored in the network-accessible database. In so doing, the present invention simplifies the resolution of a payment issue for the invoice stored in the network-accessible database.
US07979324B2
Records, including data for a virtual catalog, may be received from a number of sources. Each of the received records may be validated and a determination may be made as to whether one or more previously-received records matches the received record. When two or more records are determined to be matching records, a composite object may be created and information from the two or more records may be included in the composite object. If the matching records include conflicting information, then previously-defined rules may be applied to determine which items of the conflicting information have precedence over other items of the conflicting information. A virtual catalog may be created from the received records and the created composite object based on customized attributes.
US07979301B1
A heuristically developable Internet based taxonomy of data objects presented in multimedia format on web pages replaces inefficient and awkward text boxes traditionally used to submit queries to search engines. The taxonomy is supported by a selection-oriented knowledge base (SOKB) that provides on a server a navigatable network structure configured to selectively construct queries, wherein users communicate with a server via a web browser. The construction of a query is based upon knowledge captured by the SOKB as a result of a sequence of selection steps executed by the user in connection with the navigation of the network structure, whereby at each selection step a choice of classes of data objects is presented to the user. The web pages display a “THAT'S IT” button for the user to recognize the data object the user has in mind and an emergency “HELP” button for immediate assistance from a live agent.
US07979298B2
Risk in business management is analyzed based on a probabilistic network approach which quantifies the impact of operational risk on financial metrics such as Value-at-Risk (VAR) and/or Potential Losses (PL). This approach provides further capability to determine the optimal placement of one or more countermeasures within a system to minimize the impact of operational risks.
US07979295B2
User interaction with a computer system is supported by maintaining, in a computer system, a model comprising several concepts having properties associated therewith and any relationships existing between the several concepts. A current state of the several concepts, properties and relationships reflects a real-world situation that involves a user of the computer system. An output is made to the user that identifies at least a subset of several predefined goals, the model indicating the subset as being possible to accomplish based on the current state. At least a first action of several predefined actions in the computer system is performed, the model associating the several predefined actions with accomplishing respective ones of the several predefined goals. The first action is identified as associated with accomplishing a first goal that the user selects from the subset. The current state is updated based on performing at least the first action.
US07979293B2
Disclosed is a system and method for managing operations of a system. The method includes partitioning the system into a plurality of subsystems. The method further includes, for each subsystem, creating an agent to associate with the subsystem, providing to the agent one or more goals for the subsystem, and providing to the agent an overall objective function for the system. The method also includes using an optimization algorithm involving the agents to manage system operation based on the goals and the overall objective function. The system includes an agent module for providing a set of agents associated with the subsystems, a throughput target module for providing a throughput target for each agent, an objective module for providing, for each agent, a common production throughput objective, and a sampled fictitious play module for providing instructions of a sampled fictitious play algorithm.
US07979291B2
Systems and methods are described for processing queue data and for providing queue messaging over a network. An illustrative queuing system includes a first queue configured to hold resource requests from a plurality of users, and program code stored in computer readable memory configured to determine or estimate whether a resource requested by a first resource request submitted by a first requester will be available when the first resource request will be serviced, and to transmit a message over a network to the first requester indicating that the requested resource will not be available when the queued request is serviced if it is estimated or determined that the requested resource will not be available when the first request is serviced.
US07979289B2
A computerized medical care system provides validation of a diagnosis of a medical condition and requested medical services for treating the medical condition. The medial care system invokes multiple filters to determine the appropriateness of the diagnosis and medical service. Real time feedback is provided based on the determination. If the medical care cannot be validated, the feedback includes the reasons for the failure to validate, and any supporting materials for the lack of validation. The feedback may also prompt the requesting entity to provide additional information to help support the medical provider's position as to why the requested medical care is appropriate.
US07979282B2
Provided are an audio encoding method and apparatus and an audio decoding method and apparatus in which audio signals can be encoded or decoded so that sound images can be localized at any desired position for each object audio signal. The audio decoding method includes extracting a downmix signal and object-based side information from an input audio signal; generating rendering information based on input control data; and generating spatial information based on the rendering information and the object-based side information.
US07979277B2
A speech recognition circuit comprising a circuit for providing state identifiers which identify states corresponding to nodes or groups of adjacent nodes in a lexical tree, and for providing scores corresponding to said state identifiers, the lexical tree comprising a model of words; a memory structure for receiving and storing state identifiers identified by a node identifier identifying a node or group of adjacent nodes, said memory structure being adapted to allow lookup to identify particular state identifiers, reading of the scores corresponding to the state identifiers, and writing back of the scores to the memory structure after modification of the scores; an accumulator for receiving score updates corresponding to particular state identifiers from a score update generating circuit which generates the score updates using audio input, for receiving scores from the memory structure, and for modifying said scores by adding said score updates to said scores; and a selector circuit for selecting at least one node or group of adjacent nodes of the lexical tree according to said scores.
US07979276B2
Voices are prevented from being recognized with poor accuracy when a speaker is not close to a sound pickup device. A speech recognition apparatus (10) includes a sound pickup device (16) picking up sounds, a photographing device (18) photographing images of a speaker making voices into the sound pickup device (16), a voice recognition function unit (132) recognizing voices on the basis of the picked-up voices, and a recognition/learning determination unit (142) restricting the voice recognition function unit (132) from recognizing voices when the photographed images do not contain speaker images showing at least part of the speaker.
US07979272B2
The present invention provides a frame erasure concealment device and method that is based on reestimating gain parameters for a code excited linear prediction (CELP) coder. During operation, when a frame in a stream of received data is detected as being erased, the coding parameters, especially an adaptive codebook gain gp and a fixed codebook gain gc, of the erased and subsequent frames can be reestimated by a gain matching procedure. By using this technique with the IS-641 speech coder, it has been found that the present invention improves the speech quality under various channel conditions, compared with a conventional extrapolation-based concealment algorithm.
US07979257B2
The invention provides an apparatus and methods for performing process simulation and structural analysis using a hybrid model. For example, a method of the invention automatically defines a hybrid solution domain by dividing a representation of a plastic component or mold cavity into two portions—a portion in which a simplified analysis may be conducted, and a portion in which a more complex analysis is required. The method may use as input any form of CAD data that describes the surface of a component or mold. Furthermore, the invention provides methods for simulating fluid flow within a mold cavity by automatically creating a hybrid solution domain, automatically discretizing the domain, and solving for the distribution of process variables within the solution domain.
US07979254B2
A simulation control section 210 of an NC machining simulation apparatus 10 computes a movement path of a mechanical element when performing simulation. A ring buffer 270 memorizes the movement path of the mechanical element. In response to a replay instruction, the simulation control section 210 reads the movement path from the ring buffer 270. The simulation control section 210 then displays the mechanical element on a display device 190 as a solid model based on the movement path for replaying the simulation.
US07979250B2
A method is provided for facilitating installation of one or more electronics racks within a data center. The method includes: placing a plurality of thermal simulators in the data center in a data center layout to establish a thermally simulated data center, each thermal simulator simulating at least one of airflow intake or heated airflow exhaust of a respective electronics rack of a plurality of electronics racks to be installed in the data center; monitoring temperature within the thermally simulated data center at multiple locations, and verifying the data center layout if measured temperatures are within respective acceptable temperature ranges for the data center when containing the plurality of electronics racks; and establishing the plurality of electronics racks within the data center using the verified data center layout, the establishing including at least one of reconfiguring or replacing each thermal simulator with a respective electronics rack.
US07979243B1
In a graphical modeling environment supporting a model having at least two different analysis frameworks operating therein, a system and corresponding method of processing the graphical model modify the model to group model portions together for processing in the same analysis framework. Model parts are identified and associated with the analysis framework in which they operate. Model parts are then grouped based on their association with their analysis framework to form model portions that operate in one of the different analysis frameworks. In instances where topological separation of model portions operating in the same analysis framework occurs, the system and method reconfigure intervening model portions to be amenable with operation in the analysis framework of the surrounding model portions to improve processing efficiency.
US07979239B2
A system and method for monitoring and managing electrical power transmission and distribution networks through use of a deterministic, non-iterative method using an holomorphic embedding and algebraic approximants for determining the real-time load flow in a power generating system having an electrical grid. Such method may be employed for real-time or off-line applications for electric power systems reliability assessment, and is capable of determining whether or not a physical solution to the load flow problem exists, or if the system is in a state of voltage collapse.
US07979222B2
A method of forecasting loads on a distribution network is disclosed. The method employs load profiles in combination with short-term load estimations to forecast expected loads on a distribution network. The predicted loads may then be used by power restoration controllers when performing back-feed capacity checks.
US07979221B2
An electric power meter is disclosed which includes an analog to digital converter for converting sensed voltage and/or current signals to digital signals corresponding thereto. The meter further comprises storage for storing the digital signals. The meter further comprises a processor for performing power calculations upon the digital signals, and converting the calculations and the digital signals into at least one network protocol. The meter further comprises a network interface for interfacing with an external network. A system for modifying the functionality of the electric power meter is also disclosed.
US07979219B2
The invention provides a method for testing a transmission medium used in a full-duplex communication system comprising an endpoint that comprises a transmitting end (TX) and a receiving end (RX); the method comprises the steps of: first, transmitting a transmitted signal which comprises a test signal sequence with a high auto-correlation characteristic; then, receiving a received signal, and performing a correlation operation on the test signal and the received signal; finally, according to the result of the correlation operation, determining the impedance matching condition of the transmission medium.
US07979215B2
Methods of evaluating candidate CGH probe nucleic acid sequences are provided. Aspects of the methods include providing a candidate CGH probe nucleic acid sequence for a target sequence of a copy number variation (CNV) of a genome. A proximity score is then determined for the candidate CGH probe nucleic acid sequence and employed to evaluate the sequence. Aspects of the invention further include computer programming and systems that include the same which are configured to evaluate candidate CGH probe nucleic acid sequences using a proximity score.
US07979210B2
Method for processing seismic data to correct for errors caused by variation in water conditions. In one implementation, the method may include (a) applying a dip correction to a plurality of observed water bottom reflection times using a model water velocity and an estimate of geologic dip; (b) applying a normal moveout (NMO) correction to the dip corrected observed water bottom reflection times using the model water velocity; (c) applying a common mid point (“CMP”) bin centering correction to the NMO corrected, dip corrected observed water bottom reflection times using the model water velocity and the estimate of geologic dip; (d) solving for Δsi, which is an estimate of the difference in slowness between the observed water bottom reflection times and the water bottom reflection times that would have been observed had the water velocity been the same as the model water velocity; (e) solving for an estimate of observed water velocity based on sobs,i=sm+Δsi, where sobs,i is an estimate of observed slowness and sm is defined as the model slowness; (f) layer replacing the observed water bottom reflection times using the estimate of the observed water velocity and the model water velocity; and (g) repeating steps (a) to (f) using the layer replaced observed water bottom reflection times until the changes in the estimate of observed water velocity approach zero.
US07979199B2
A method to generate a clearance request to deviate from a flight plan comprising receiving input from at least one flight-plan-relevant source, determining a revised flight route based on the received input, and generating a preconfigured clearance request message to deviate from the flight plan for a user based on the determining. The method further comprises prompting the user for one of approval and rejection of the clearance request to deviate from the flight plan. The preconfigured clearance request message is downlinked when an approval of the clearance request to deviate from the flight plan is received from the user.
US07979195B2
A valve control system for an internal combustion engine includes a valve actuation system that actuates each of an intake valve and an exhaust valve between N open lift modes where N is an integer greater than one. A control module defines a switching window having a start time based on intake valve timing and an end time based on exhaust valve timing. The control module enables transitioning of at least one of the intake and exhaust valves between the N open lift modes based on the switching window.
US07979185B2
A method for determining a motor vehicle mass which is implemented in conjunction with shifting an automated shift transmission from a current gear to a desired gear. In determining the mass, a value force and movement parameters are determined partly before or after the shift operation and partly during it. For the more rapid and accurate determination of mass, the drive-wheel-related traction force of the drive engine before and after the shift F_zug_vor, F_zug_nach, the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle before and after the shift, a_zug_vor, a_zug_nach, and the acceleration a_roll determined in the traction-force-free phase during the shift are determined, and from these and in accordance with the equation m=F_zug/(a_zug−a_roll), a first mass value m_vor=F_zug_vor/(a_zug_vor−a_roll) is calculated for the beginning of the shift and a second mass value m_nach=F_zug_nach/(a_zug_nach−a_roll) is calculated for the end of the shift.
US07979184B2
An automatic transmission controller system and method are disclosed. In particular, disclosed is a system and method for controlling solenoid pressure control valves associated with an automatic transmission. The automatic transmission controller system comprises a controller which is configured to receive one or more electrical signal inputs for attributing each solenoid pressure control valve with one of a set of I-P calibration curves.
US07979179B2
An apparatus and method for a pitch state estimator is provided. The pitch state estimator generates a pitch state signal for establishing the orientation used in the control of a ground-traversing vehicle. The vehicle has a support for supporting a load which is preferably a human passenger. In one embodiment, the pitch state estimator includes a pitch sensor connected to the vehicle producing a pitch signal representing an estimate of a pitch angle of the vehicle. The pitch angle is associated with a coordinate system referenced to gravity. The pitch state estimator also includes at least one inertial reference sensor connected to the vehicle producing an inertial orientation signal with respect to the vehicle. Further included is a state estimator module for receiving the pitch signal and the inertial orientation signal and calculating a pitch state signal from the inertial orientation signal and the pitch signal sensor. The pitch state signal is provided to a control loop of the vehicle for dynamically maintaining stability of the vehicle.
US07979178B2
A diagnostic tool and method are provided wherein the diagnostic tool includes a wireless communication circuit to retrieve diagnostic software from a remote computing device. When operated, the scan tool can determine if the loaded diagnostic software is appropriate for the vehicle under test. If not, the diagnostic tool can retrieve the appropriate diagnostic software from the remote computing device. The retrieved or second diagnostic software is then operated to reprogram the diagnostic tool to remove the previously loaded software and allow a user to service a vehicle.
US07979177B2
A configurable vehicle computer is enabled based on identification information associated with a driver. Updates to the configurable vehicle computer are stored at a remote location. The updates are downloaded upon an authorized vehicle start-up.
US07979176B2
A control module of a vehicle comprises a drive diagnostic module and a power determination module. The drive diagnostic module determines a slip power of a belt based on engine speed, motor speed, and motor torque. The power determination module determines an accumulated power of the belt based on the slip power, the motor speed, and the motor torque. The control module diagnoses a condition of the belt based on the accumulated power.
US07979175B2
Systems and methods for interruptible autonomous control of a vehicle. Autonomous control is achieved by using actuators that interact with input devices in the vehicle. The actuators (e.g., linkages) manipulate the input devices (e.g., articulation controls and drive controls, such as a throttle, brake, tie rods, steering gear, throttle lever, or accelerator) to direct the operation of the vehicle. Although operating autonomously, manual operation of the vehicle is possible following the detection of events that suggest manual control is desired. Subsequent autonomous control may be permitted, permitted after a prescribed delay, or prevented.
US07979173B2
Method and system for enabling semi-autonomous or autonomous vehicle travel includes providing a vehicle travel management system which monitors the location of vehicles in a travel lane and the location of the travel lane, creating dedicated travel lanes for vehicles equipped with the vehicle travel management system, and managing travel of vehicles in the dedicated travel lanes to maximize travel speed of the vehicles and minimize collisions between the vehicles. The travel management may entail establishing and maintaining communications between the vehicles with the movement of the vehicles being coordinated to enable a minimal distance between adjacent vehicles in the dedicated travel lanes. Entry into the dedicated travel lanes is optimally restricted only to vehicles equipped with the vehicle travel management system.
US07979166B2
The invention relates to a generation facility management system using natural energy, and an object of the invention is to promote introduction of a generation facility by giving a consideration for generated and consumed power.The generation facility management system is characterized in including a generation facility using natural energy and a management server for managing power information on the generation facility, wherein the generation facility includes: an energy obtaining section for obtaining natural energy; a power generating section for generating power from the obtained natural energy; an information control section for creating generated power information on the power generated by the power generating section; and a communication section for transmitting the power information to the management server, and the management server includes an information management section for determining a consideration for the power information transmitted from the generation facility by using predetermined consideration information.
US07979164B2
A system for controlling one or more components of a climate control system is provided that includes one or more controllers in connection with low voltage power lines for powering the one or more controllers. The controllers are further capable of transmitting one or more communication signals via the low voltage waveform. The system includes a thermostat controller, at least one system controller for a heating or cooling system, and a controller for a circulating air blower. The thermostat controller, system controller and circulating air blower controller are connected to each other only through each controller's individual connection to the hot and common low voltage power transmission lines. Each controller is capable of transmitting one or more signals that are superimposed onto the low-frequency low-voltage waveform and include information identifying a destination controller that the signals are intended for.
US07979157B2
A dynamically configurable robotic system and method for performing surgical operations using a plurality of robotic arms remotely controlled by at least one operator console. The system comprises a track system configured for mounting to a patient support table, such that the track system provides a stable operating platform for the robotic arms and for facilitating placement of a proximal end of each of the arms at a selected position about a periphery of the patient support table. the system and method also have a plurality of base stations for operatively coupling each of the robotic arms to the track system, such that each of the base stations include a housing, a first connector for coupling the housing to the track system, the first connector configured for facilitating movement of the housing along the track system while coupled thereto, and a second connector for coupling the housing to the proximal end of at least one of the robotic arms, the second connector configured for providing at least one of power supply, control signalling, and data communication with respect to the coupled robotic arm. The system and method also have a control unit for coupling to at least two of the base stations and configured for dynamically connecting operative remote control between the coupled base stations and a first operator console of the at least one operator console.
US07979155B2
Aspects of the invention relate to systems and methods for improving a sort plan. According to one embodiment, several groups are formed where each group contains articles having an identifier of a hierarchical structure. In certain embodiments, the identifier may include a geographical indication, such as a postal or ZIP code. Further aspects relate to systems and methods for conducting sort plan optimization where at least some prior data is known or otherwise obtainable. In one embodiment, data relating to the quantity of groups within the sort plan, the quantity of articles associated with each identifier, and/or the quantity of articles within each group may be estimated or known. In certain embodiments, such data may be utilized to assign articles to specific bins, including any available bin, and then optimize the sort plan by selecting at least one bin for improvement.
US07979150B2
A method of manufacturing biodegradable/bioresorbable tissue augmentation/reconstruction devices by defining material density distributions at selected time points during a material degradation lifecycle. These different density distributions are then superposed using general linear and/or nonlinear functions that could include both time and degraded base stiffness weighting factors. The material density distribution may be created using topology optimization, image-based design or computed aided design methods to create a degradable device that retains sufficient physical properties (ie modulus, strength, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity) through the material degradation lifecycle process. Thus, any bulk degrading material can be designed using this process for any tissue augmentation/reconstruction application.
US07979149B2
A method of playing audio data by a portable device is disclosed. The method starts with an optical sensor of the portable device sensing a tag on a surface. The tag encodes an identity of the surface and a location of the tag on the surface. Audio data is recorded by an audio system of the portable device. A processor of the portable device determines the identity of the surface and the location of the tag sensed by the optical sensing device on the surface. The portable device communicates the audio data, the identity of the surface and the location of the tag to a computer system where the audio data is associated with the identity of the surface and the location of the tag. Upon subsequent sensing of the tag by the optical sensor, the portable device communicates the identity of the surface and the location of the tag to the computer system, where the audio data associated with the identity of the surface and the location of the tag is retrieved and communicated to the portable device. The audio data retrieved by the portable device is then played back by the portable device.
US07979144B2
According to one embodiment, a pattern forming system includes a patterning tool, a multi-axis robot, and a simulation tool that are coupled to a pattern forming tool that is executed on a suitable computing system. The pattern forming tool receives a contour measurement from the patterning tool and transmits the measured contour to the simulation tool to model the electrical characteristics of a conductive pattern or a dielectric pattern on the measured contour. Upon receipt of the modeled characteristics, the pattern forming system may adjust one or more dimensions of the pattern according to the model, and subsequently create, using the patterning tool, the corrected pattern on the surface.
US07979136B2
A medical data system including a plurality of receivers configured to wirelessly receive medical data via a signal.
US07979131B2
In some embodiments, a paddle lead is implanted within a patient such that the electrodes are positioned within the cervical or thoracic spinal levels. An electrode combination on a first row of electrodes can be determined that is effective for a first pain location with minimal effects on other regions of the body. The first pain location can be addressed by stimulating a first dorsal column fiber due to the relatively fine electrical field resolution achievable by the multiple columns. Then, another electrode combination on a second row of electrodes can be determined for a second pain location with minimal effects on other regions. The second pain location could be addressed by stimulating a second dorsal column fiber. After the determination of the appropriate electrodes for stimulation, the patient's IPG can be programmed to deliver pulses using the first and second rows according to the determined electrode combinations.
US07979113B2
Methods and systems involve classifying the cardiac response to pacing using a multi-channel approach. Multiple cardiac response signals are sensed via multiple sense channels. Each sense channel comprises a distinct combination of electrodes and sensing circuitry. The cardiac response to the pacing pulse is classified based on the morphology of the cardiac response signals. Classifying the cardiac response involves discriminating between capture, fusion, non-capture, and non-capture with intrinsic activity.
US07979111B2
A wireless electrocardiogram (ECG) system is disclosed. The wireless ECG provides for recording potentials on the surface of a body. The wireless ECG includes a plurality of electrodes suitable for attachment to the surface of the body, a voltage measuring circuit for detecting a voltage between a reference voltage level and electrodes, an error detecting circuit, and a transmitting circuit for transmitting the detected voltage signal to a receiver. The disclosed system is robust in that it provides the capability of continuous monitoring of a subject while correcting for defects in an electrode, contact, presence of excessive noise or other developments in addition to providing the customary alarms in the event of disruptions.
US07979109B2
The present invention is directed toward an acoustic, piezoelectric, electric, electro-mechanical or pneumatically driven surface drum driver, in mechanical engagement with a biopsy or acupuncture needle device and a method for its use for diagnosis of small e.g. 100 microns, tumors via the production of magnetic resonance elastographic images (MRE), without artifact production, in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. In a second embodiment, the invention is directed toward an acoustically, pneumatically, piezoelectrically, electrically and/or electro-mechanically driven acupuncture needle, useful for simulating manual single-needle acupuncture treatments via a non-manually manipulated acupuncture needle; and further to a device and process for determination, using twin pneumatically driven surface drivers, of organ stiffness, e.g. brain stiffness, which can be quantified so as to be useful in elucidating and quantifying brain cognitive state, e.g. normal, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's dementia (AD).
US07979096B1
A system for conserving energy in a multi-node network (110) includes nodes (205) configured to organize themselves into tiers (305, 310, 315). The nodes (205) are further configured to produce a transmit/receive schedule at a first tier (310) in the network (110) and control the powering-on and powering-off of transmitters and receivers in nodes (205) in a tier adjacent (315) to the first tier (310) according to the transmit/receive schedule.
US07979095B2
This invention pertains to methods and apparatus for data communications from vehicles, to obtain emergency, concierge and other services, using a voice channel of a digital wireless telecommunications network. Signaling is described for commencing data sessions after establishing a voice channel call. The call may be initiated from the vehicle automatically, and the call taker location may be unattended. Signaling methods are selected for traversing both newer and legacy vocoders for ubiquitous operation.
US07979090B2
A method and a system is disclosed for improving transmission of timing advance messages to a mobile station, in a network employing adaptive antenna systems. In a typical embodiment each TA-message is dedicated to one mobile and sent in the adaptive antenna beam that covers the area where the desired mobile is located.
US07979089B2
A wireless data communication card configured in accordance with an example embodiment of the invention includes a low profile antenna arrangement that does not protrude from the housing of the computing device when the wireless data communication card is inserted into the housing. The low profile design is achieved without compromising the radio frequency (“RF”) characteristics and performance of the wireless data communication card by tuning the antenna arrangement to account for conductive ground structure located within the housing of the computing device. In accordance with one practical embodiment of the invention, the wireless data communication card is compliant with IEEE Standard 802.11(b) and compliant with PCMCIA specifications.
US07979086B1
A multi-mode mobile station is able to wirelessly communicate with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) and with a wireless local area network (WLAN). The WLAN includes a “virtual” visitor location register (VVLR) for storing information about multi-mode mobile stations being served by the WLAN. The VVLR communicates with a home location register (HLR) in the WWAN in order to facilitate roaming between the WWAN and WLAN by the multi-mode mobile station.
US07979075B2
Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) tables are tailored to one or more cells of interest. Tailoring CQI tables to individual cells permits devices such as radio base stations to more reliably and accurately allocate radio resources to those cells since channel conditions vary from cell to cell. According to one embodiment, a table of CQI values is composed by analyzing information indicating channel quality in a cell of interest and generating at least one table of CQI values tailored to the cell of interest based on the information analyzed. The tailored CQI table may be deployed to another device for use in reporting channel quality information. The device may report channel quality by accessing the tailored CQI and identifying the range of CQI values that includes a channel quality estimate derived by the device. The device generates a channel quality information message based on the identified range of CQI values.
US07979059B2
A Fourth generation (4G) Wireless videoconferencing system which employs Quality of Service (QOS) features of a fourth generation wireless network to configure bandwidth on a per call basis. Selection of a videoconferencing terminating subscriber on a video subscriber table in the originating terminal causes the call to be routed directly via the Fourth Generation network to the terminating subscriber terminal and the sending of a class of service to the terminating subscriber terminal embedded in an “alternate caller ID”. The class of service tells the terminating terminal to configure terminating terminal for videoconferencing.
US07979049B2
A method and apparatus for controlling the power consumption of a receiver based on current operating conditions is described herein. A receiver according to the present invention applies a received signal to a variable filter. The received signal includes a desired in-band signal. Depending on the current operating conditions, the received signal may further include one or more unwanted out-of-band blocking signals. A filter controller controls one or more operating parameters of the variable filter to maintain the power ratio at the filter output of the power of the blocking signal(s) to the in-band signal at or below a desired level. In so doing, the present invention controls the receiver power consumption while still providing the desired receiver performance.
US07979040B2
Disclosed herein is a method for adjusting the tuning frequency of a tuning circuit, which is implemented as a parallel circuit of a coil and series circuits Ai each including a capacitor Ci and a switch device Qi (i=one to n, where n denotes an integer at least equal to two), by varying the tuning frequency through control to turn on and off the switch devices Qi in accordance with control data bi, the method for adjusting the tuning frequency of a tuning circuit including the steps of: finding control data bi for a desired tuning frequency from control data bi for a tuning frequency equal to a first frequency and control data bi for a tuning frequency equal to a second frequency; and applying the control data bi found for the desired tuning frequency to the switch devices Qi.
US07979039B2
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a pre-driver to receive data of a first clock phase and to pre-drive the data, a driver coupled to the pre-driver to drive the data onto a link operable to be coupled to a receiver, and an offset driver to drive an offset value associated with the first clock phase onto the link with the data. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US07979025B2
A method and apparatus for handover in a wireless communication device between wireless domains is described. In one example, a signal employing a short-range wireless protocol is detected at the wireless communication device. For example, the short-range wireless protocol may be a near-field communication (NFC) protocol, a radio frequency identification (RFID) protocol, an optical protocol, a BLUETOOTH protocol, and the like known in the art. A handover is requested from the first wireless domain to the second wireless domain in response to the detected signal. In one example, the signal may be broadcast by an access control system to a building and may be configured to control access to the building. In this manner, precise delineation of the handover boundary between wireless domains is provided.
US07979024B2
Methods of transmitting communications signals from a satellite to a wireless terminal include determining a location of the wireless terminal, selecting a plurality of antenna feed elements at the satellite in response to the determined location of the wireless terminal, block coding a plurality of symbols into a number of transmit streams equal to the number of selected antenna feed elements, and transmitting the transmit streams over the selected plurality of antenna feed elements. Block coding the plurality of symbols may include space-code, space-time and/or space-frequency encoding the plurality of symbols. Related satellites, satellite gateways and satellite communications systems are also disclosed.
US07979022B2
Disclosed are a method and system for generating switching a timing signal for separating a transmitting and receiving signal in a RF repeater of a mobile telecommunication network by using a TDD scheme and an OFDM modulation scheme, which transmits a part of a RF signal extracted from a coupler of a RF repeater to a switching timing signal generating circuit when a RF signal transmitted from an Access Point (hereinafter, referred to as “AP”) is transmitted to a RF repeater, locates a frame start position of a RF signal by correlating a reference signal generated in a switching timing signal generating circuit and a RF signal extracted from a coupler, and is capable of transmitting a RF signal by distinguishing between a downlink signal and a uplink signal by using a switching timing signal in a switch when calculating a starting point of a downlink signal and a uplink signal which is included in an RF signal by using an AP's frame standard on the basis of a frame starting location, and transmitting to a RF repeater's switch generating a switching timing signal by using it.
US07979020B2
An image forming apparatus which forms an image electrophotographically, comprises an image transfer unit which transfers a toner image to a recording medium, a fixing unit comprising a heat roller and a pressure roller, a conveying direction change unit which changes a conveying direction of the recording medium discharged from the fixing unit upwardly, a discharge roller which discharges the recording medium, of which conveying direction has been changed by the conveying direction change unit, to a discharge part, and a curl removing roller which is provided on a conveying extending between the conveying direction change unit and the discharge roller and bends the recording medium in an opposite direction from a bend direction imparted to the recording medium at the heat roller.
US07979014B2
An apparatus and method to condition the fuser surface of a fusing or transfusing apparatus for a toner based printing system is described. The apparatus and method integrate the functions of cleaning paper debris and residual toner from the fuser (or transfuse) surface on one hand and the application of a release agent such as silicone oil on the other hand using a single release agent impregnated web. The inventive device includes a release agent application roller and a cleaning roller where the outer surfaces and are selected in preferred embodiments for their respective wetting properties with respect to the release agent used. The fuser surface conditioning device increases the useful life for a fusing or transfusing roll or belt even when low amounts of release agent are applied to the fusing surface such that the amount of release agent that is transferred to the print media is in the range of 0.5 to 5 mg/A4 sheet.
US07979005B2
An electrically conductive pattern forming apparatus has process disposition which reduces contamination of a pattern or inside of the apparatus due to backflow and leakage of a liquid material such as a developing agent or a cleaning liquid. A developing device and a cleaning device in the electrically conductive pattern forming apparatus using an electrophotographic method are disposed in a lower region about the center of a photoreceptor, a solvent removing process is disposed in a region in which the photoreceptor rotates upward, and a transfer liquid applying process and an electrostatic transfer process are disposed above the center of the photoreceptor and in a region in which the photoreceptor rotates downward.
US07978995B2
An image forming apparatus having a process correction mode wherein when a temperature of a fixing device in an image formation system in a power-on state is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the image forming apparatus increases the fixing temperature to the predetermined value. The apparatus sets the process correction mode based on power-on information output from a first detector which detects presence of the power-on state for the fixing device and fixing temperature information output from a second detector which detects a fixing temperature in the fixing device, and sets a priority level for performing a correction processing of the color misregistration to be lower than a correction processing comprising an image density adjustment.
US07978983B2
A self-timed clock circuit and method of generating a self-timed clock circuit. The circuit includes means for charging a circuit node in response to an external reset signal; means for discharging the circuit node in response to a trigger signal generated by a photodiode; means for generating a first signal indicating a logic level of the circuit node; means for generating and delaying a second signal indicating the logic state of the circuit node; means for combining the first and second signals to generate a recharge signal; and means for recharging the circuit node in response to the recharge signal.
US07978981B2
A low cost, high speed, short haul, optic interconnect and data link which employs an array of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays through which several optical signals are simultaneously transmitted through collimating optics that generate multiple, multiple-wavelength optical signals. Each combined optical signal is transmitted to a receiver array comprising a plurality of optical filters and photodetector arrangements that have a number of sections, each having an optical filter to pass a specific optical wavelength, and a mating photodetector element to convert the specific optical signal to an electrical signal. The signals may be coupled between the transmitter array and the receiver array through free space or through optical fibers.
US07978969B2
A camera module (22) that is advantageous in increasing the endurance and impact resistance is provided. The camera module (22) includes a barrel unit (66), a lens holding unit (68), springs (70), an image pickup element (29), and a driving unit (72). The barrel unit (66) includes a front barrel (78) and a rear barrel (80). The driving unit (72) moves the lens holding unit (68) along an optical axis of an imaging optical system (34), and includes magnets (74) and coils (76). The two magnets (74) are disposed on the lens holding unit (68) at positions having the optical axis therebetween and extend parallel to a single imaginary plane which passes through the optical axis. The coils (76) are respectively disposed on the barrel unit (66) at two positions where the coils (76) face the magnets (74).
US07978963B2
The present invention provides a thermal processing apparatus that conducts a thermal process such as an annealing process at a temperature of 400° C. or more to an object to be processed. The apparatus is provided with a processing vessel (4) having a transmitting window (8) in a top part thereof. A table (10) is disposed in the vessel, that supports thereon the object (W) opposed to the transmitting window. A plurality of heating lamps (42A, 42B) are disposed above the processing vessel, that heat the object by irradiating heat rays to the object through the transmitting window. A thermoelectric converter (24) is disposed on the table and configured to at least cool the object. When a temperature of the object is increased, the object is mainly heated by the heat rays from the heating lamps. When the temperature of the object is decreased, the object is forcibly cooled by means of the thermoelectric converter.
US07978951B2
A bulkhead adapter plate that mounts to a face panel of a cable management panel, and a method of making the bulkhead adapter plate. The plate including angled adapter mounting openings formed by performing a minimum number of bending operations.
US07978942B2
A system and method for compensating for non-uniform illumination from a light guide for a display in an electronics device is provided. The system comprises: a memory device storing a data representing a first compensation pattern for generation on the display to block light from a first portion of the light guide relative to light from a second portion of the light guide; a first module to incorporate the stored representation into an image to be displayed on the display; and a second module to generate the image with the stored representation for display on the display. In the system, when the first module generates the first compensation pattern on the display, the first compensation pattern aligns with the first and second portions to reduce an intensity of light from a light source passing through the first compensation pattern from the first portion relative to an intensity of light passing through the first compensation pattern from the second portion from the light source.
US07978941B2
The new single mode circuit (SMC) architecture is invented for photonic integrated circuits (PIC). This architecture allows using multimode waveguides or structures to construct a single mode operated PIC. The multimode sections used in such SMC based PIC possess strong lateral confinement so that the PIC can have high circuit density and high optical performance at the same time. A parallel mode converter structure is also invented here. Based on this parallel mode converter, a low loss optical splitter can be constructed for high index contrast waveguide system.
US07978936B1
Indicating an object is disclosed. Indicating an object includes receiving an indication associated with selecting an image and providing a second indication that a set of one or more objects correspond to the image, wherein the objects have been detected from the image. Indicating an image is disclosed. Indicating an image includes receiving an indication associated with selecting an object, wherein the object has been detected from an image and displaying the image such that a correspondence between the selected object and the image is conveyed.
US07978930B2
A wide-field image input device that joins a series of partial images obtained by continuously imaging an imaging object by an imaging device while the imaging device is manually scanned by a user, thereby generating a wide-field image, includes: a camera position/posture estimation unit for receiving a partial image series and calculating a change state of three-dimensional position and posture of the imaging device as time-series camera position/posture information; a deformation parameter estimation unit for calculating a geometrical deformation parameter between adjacent partial images from the camera position/posture information; an image joining unit for joining the partial images by using the geometrical deformation parameter so as to generate a wide-field image; and a camera scan error detection unit for detecting motion of the imaging device according to the camera position/posture information and outputting a camera scan error detection signal when an error is detected.
US07978929B2
Disclosed are a device and a method for displaying a private image on a public display device. Image sequence pattern is generated for the private image and the corresponding masking image. The masking image is made from the dynamic inverse image of the private image, based on the refresh rate of the display device and the image sequence pattern. The masking image can screen the private image more effectively. The private image and the masking image is displayed on the display device according to the image sequence pattern.
US07978922B2
Images that are contained within documents are compressed to reduce the file size of the document. The compression may occur such that compression steps occur to the image automatically. The compression steps performed are determined based on the information available about the images in a document. The information is used to determine whether or not the image should be compressed as well as what compression method is used.
US07978918B2
An improved method for cropping a main subject from a digital image is disclosed. A skin color map and face map are independently computed and then blended to produce a revised map. A region map is computed by segmenting the digital image into a plurality of regions. A main subject importance map is calculated from the revised map and the region map. The digital image is cropped based on the main subject map.
US07978917B2
In an intelligent video surveillance system, video processing software performs a number of operations on video data received from a camera, including foreground extraction, shadow removal and object tracking. The foreground extraction stage classifies each pixel of a received frame as representing either foreground or background. Since shadow regions can be wrongly classified as foreground, a two-branch shadow removal operation is employed, comprising weak shadow removal (32) and strong shadow removal (33). The purpose of weak shadow removal (32) is to remove only the most severe shadows in each frame. Conversely, the purpose of strong shadow removal (33) is to remove substantially every shadow present in each frame. By comparing the overlap of foreground regions in the two resulting images, it is possible to identify foreground regions that have fragmented due to strong shadow removal, and thereafter classify them as representing a common foreground object. Foreground objects are better defined in terms of their shape and subsequent processing stages will not treat fragmented regions as representing separate objects.
US07978915B2
An edge enhancer for enhancing edges within a video image, forms an edge enhancement signal of odd harmonics of a sinusoid representative of the edge content in an incoming signal. The edge enhancement signal may be added to a version of the incoming signal, thereby sharpening the edge in the incoming signal. This allows edges to be enhanced, increasing the image's rise-time without adding overshoot. Sharper edges are thus produced in much the same way as a square wave may be formed of odd harmonics of a sinusoid.
US07978913B2
A method of image segmentation using graph-theory techniques, in which pixels of an image are represented by the vertices of a graph. A minimum spanning tree is generated and edges of the tree are successively removed according to a morphological property to leave a spanning forest, trees of which correspond to segments of the image. Selection of edges for removal may depend on an energy function of a tree and on the energy function of trees created by removal of that edge.
US07978910B2
A method and apparatus for adaptively filtering an input image are provided. The method includes dividing an input image into a plurality of color domains according to a distribution of colors in the input image, respectively calculating a plurality of filter coefficients for the color domains, and adaptively filtering the color domains using the respective filter coefficients. The apparatus includes a domain classification unit which divides an input image into a plurality of color domains according to a distribution of colors in the input image, a filter coefficient calculation unit which respectively calculates a plurality of filter coefficients for the color domains, and a filtering unit which respectively filters the color domains using the filter coefficients. Accordingly, it is possible to enhance picture quality by addressing the problem of limited texture representation capabilities of existing filtering methods and apparatuses especially for memory color domains.
US07978900B2
The present invention relates to automated document processing and more particularly, to methods and systems for document image capture and processing using mobile devices. In accordance with various embodiments, methods and systems for document image capture on a mobile communication device are provided such that the image is optimized and enhanced for data extraction from the document as depicted. These methods and systems may comprise capturing an image of a document using a mobile communication device; submitting the image to a server; and processing the image to create a bi-tonal image of the document for data extraction. Additionally, these methods and systems may comprise capturing a first image of a document using the mobile communication device; automatically detecting the document within the image; geometrically correcting the image; binarizing the image; correcting the orientation of the image; correcting the size of the image; and outputting the resulting image of the document.
US07978895B2
The present invention is intended to improve the quality of a three-dimensional display image, an MPR display image, or an MIP display image presented by an X-ray CT system that performs a conventional (axial) scan, a cine scan, or a helical scan. The X-ray CT system includes an image reconstruction unit or an image display unit. The image reconstruction unit or image display unit measures deviations of tomographic images in an x direction that is a horizontal direction and deviations thereof in a y direction that is a vertical direction according to the continuity in a z direction of an object that exhibits high CT numbers and that is visualized as a reference in the tomographic images; such as, a cradle, a head holder, the surface of a subject's body, or a bone. The image reconstruction unit or image display unit then compensates the deviations.
US07978893B2
A system and a method as defined herein for scan interrogation of, for example, a label-independent-detection (LID) biosensor, such as for monitoring a surface change or an event on a biosensor for use, for example, in microplate image analysis.
US07978889B2
A method of generating a 3 dimensional object includes providing a volumetric scan of a study object as a series of image slices. An image segmentation algorithm is used to image segment each image slice into at least a first region and a second region, the first region of each image slice corresponds to a first object of the study object, and the second region of each image slice corresponds to a second object of the study object. The first region is selected from a first image slice. Regions of adjacent image slices are statistically compared to the first region using a comparison of touching regions to designate corresponding first regions in the adjacent image slices. The first region of each image slice of the series corresponding to the first object is binned to form a first binned object. A 3 dimensional object of the first binned object is formed.
US07978880B2
Methods and systems for image processing are provided. A method for processing images of a scene includes receiving image data of a reference and a current frame; generating N motion vectors that describe motion of the image data within the scene by computing a correlation function on the reference and current frames at each of N registration points; registering the current frame based on the N motion vectors to produce a registered current frame; and updating the image data of the scene based on the registered current frame. Optionally, registered frames may be oversampled. Techniques for generating the N motion vectors according to roll, zoom, shift and optical flow calculations, updating image data of the scene according to switched and intermediate integration approaches, re-introducing smoothed motion into image data of the scene, re-initializing the process, and processing images of a scene and moving target within the scene are provided.
US07978878B2
The method of processing postal items comprises the following steps: causing the postal items to advance in series past a camera (120) for the purpose of generating an image (1) of one face of each postal item, which face bears postal address information; filtering the image of a current postal item for the purpose of isolating, in the image, at least one region of interest (ROI) containing the address information; and sending the filtered image to an automatic recognition unit (130) for automatically recognizing postal addresses by means of OCR so as to extract the postal address from said filtered image and so as to direct the current postal item to a sorting outlet. In order to construct a filter mask, the method further comprises causing a card (20) of the “separator” type to advance past the camera (120), which card has a face on which said region of interest (ROI) is represented.
US07978875B2
The present invention generally relates to processing audio, video and images. One claim recites a method including: obtaining media signal comprising a steganographic signal hidden therein; utilizing a programmed electronic processor, selecting portions of the media signal for steganographic signal detection, wherein the subset of the media signal is selected based on at least one or more predetermined probability factors, in which a probability factor comprises a selection criteria or rule to identify portions of the media signal which have a higher likelihood of including a steganographic signal relative to other portions of the media signal; and utilizing a programmed electronic processor, analyzing selected portions of the media signal to obtain the steganographic signal. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.
US07978873B2
The present invention provides an acoustic display device for displaying modal patterns in response to sound from a sound source. The display device (10) has a substantially circular housing (12), which housing (12) includes a continuous curved side wall (13a), a substantially flat base wall (13b), and open end (13c). The open end (13c) is closed by diaphragm (14), thereby forming closed chamber (15). Excitation of the diaphragm can be effected by introducing vocal sounds to the underside of the diaphragm via one of a plurality of sound connecting means (22) that include a flexible tubular section (30), which terminates in a mouthpiece (32). A user can place the mouthpiece over their mouth and nose and make vocal sounds, which are delivered to the interior of the chamber (15). The mouthpiece (32) can be substituted with a sound collector (60) having a “horn” shape and an annular flange for engagement with a loudspeaker. The other ends (24) of the sound connecting means (22), within the closed chamber (15), each contain a non-return valve so that pressure within the chamber is maintained. The device can also include weight locating means (21a, 21b, 21c) or magnetic tensioning means (80, 84) for tuning the diaphragm. Removable covers having different markings can assist in analysing the patterns produced. Two or more integral curved spirit levels (38) in conjunction with adjustable feet (40) enable accurate levelling of the diaphragm.
US07978872B2
A driver for a speaker including: an upper housing, a lower housing and a vibration device, wherein said upper housing combines with said lower housing to form a chamber therein. The vibration device is received in the chamber. The vibration device is basically constituted with an acoustic phase equalizer, a diaphragm, a flux guiding plate, a magnet and a yoke. By the design of the flux guiding plate, the magnet and the yoke in present invention, the disadvantage of highly concentrated heat in prior art can be improved and extends the operation period.
US07978863B2
A circuit includes a differential amplifier having a first input for coupling to a first terminal of a microphone and a second input for coupling to a first terminal of a component having an impedance value that is substantially equal to an impedance value of the microphone, where a second terminal of the microphone and a second terminal of the component are coupled to circuit ground. The circuit further includes a first resistance having a first node coupled to a source of microphone bias voltage and a second node coupled to the first terminal of the microphone; and a second resistance having a first node coupled to the source of microphone bias voltage and a second node coupled to the first terminal of the component. Operation of the differential amplifier results in attenuating or suppressing common mode noise and interference present in the microphone bias voltage and in the common potential.
US07978859B2
The present invention relates to a method, a device and a system for preventing unauthorized introduction of content items in a network containing compliant devices and enabling users in the network to be anonymous. A basic idea of the present invention is to provide a CA (206) with a fingerprint of a content item to be introduced in a network at which the CA is arranged. Further, the CA is provided with an identifier of a content introducer (201), which introduces the particular content item in the network. The CA compares the fingerprint to a predetermined set of fingerprints, and content item intro duction is allowed if the content item fingerprint cannot be found among the fingerprints comprised in the set. On introduction of the content item, the CA generates a pseudonym for the content introducer and creates a signed content ID certificate comprising at least said fingerprint and a unique content identifier for the content item and the pseudonym of the content introducer.
US07978855B2
The present invention relates to a method for allocating an authorization key identifier in a wireless portable Internet system. In a privacy key management version 2 (PKMv2) of the wireless portable Internet system, a base station generates PAK identifier, PMK identifier, and authorization key identifier for distinguishing a primary authorization key (PAK) shared by the base station and the subscriber station in an RSA-based authorization, a pairwise master key (PMK) shared by the base station and the subscriber station in an EAP-based authorization, and authorization keys generated by the PAK and the PMK. The base station transmits PAK identifier, PMK identifier, and authorization key identifier to the subscriber station and shares them with the subscriber station. Therefore, the base station and the subscriber station may easily distinguish more than 2 authorization-related keys. In addition, it is possible to transmit the signal message efficiently in the radio channel by reducing the sizes of the PAK identifier, PMK identifier, and authorization key identifier.
US07978854B2
In asymmetric cryptography, initially-set public key and private keys are updated as a function of the chosen prime number pair, a host sending an updated public key exponent and a unique prime-pair key associated with the chosen prime number pair to the client, the client using the unique prime-pair key to look-up and retrieve the chosen prime number pair and determine the updated public key and the updated private key as a function of the retrieved chosen prime number pair, the host and the client encrypting and decrypting exchanged messages with the updated public key and the updated private key without executing another handshake. In one aspect, a large even integer is used by host and client to generate a plurality of prime number pairs, and the unique prime-pair key may be a distance between each prime number of an associated prime number pair.
US07978850B2
A method of manufacturing a device containing a key is disclosed. The method generally includes the steps of (A) fabricating a chip comprising a random number generator, a nonvolatile memory and a circuit, (B) applying electrical power to the chip to cause the random number generator to generate a signal conveying a sequence of random numbers, (C) commanding the chip to program a first arbitrary value among the random numbers into the nonvolatile memory, wherein the device is configured such that the first arbitrary value as stored in the nonvolatile memory is unreadable from external to the device and (D) packaging the chip.
US07978845B2
A powered patch panel (PPP) is disclosed that inserts power in mid-span regions of a network and provides fault-tolerance at the power supply level and the power-plane level. Information such as physical location, port status and policy enforcement information may be locally stored and utilized by a processor of the PPP to achieve network control and monitoring. A network management system and/or element management system may be provided to interface with processors of PPPs to achieve network monitoring, control and policy enforcement goals.
US07978834B2
Described herein is a method of controlling calls for packet switched networks, each network including at least two local area networks (50, 60) and a connecting network (70). The method comprises the steps of determining an acceptable packet loss rate for a call to be established between two of the local area networks, comparing actual packet loss rate to the acceptable packet loss rate, and dropping the call if the actual packet loss rate is greater than the acceptable packet loss rate determining for how long a period the actual packet loss rate has been happening and utilising that period in deciding to drop the call. A recorded announcement may be played when the call is to be dropped. Alternatively, the priority of the transmission of the continuous stream of data can be changed when the actual packet loss rate is not acceptable and the above steps are repeated. Ideally, data relating to dropped calls is stored for future use.
US07978825B2
A radiopaque marker for more effectively orienting a fluoroscopy image to a patient's body position is disclosed. A method for orienting a radiological image with a patient's anatomical position comprises the step of forming a marker with a first side indicator and a second side indicator formed substantially opposite the first side indicator. A device in accordance with the present invention comprises a radiopaque marker comprising a first side indicator, a second side indicator, and a humanoid shape.
US07978823B2
Disclosed is a cascade voltage amplifier for producing an amplified output in pulse or continuous wave form comprises at least one non-final stage with an electron tube configured as a switching and Class A or C amplifying structure. A final stage comprises an electron tube configured as a Class A or C amplifying structure. The at least one non-final stage and the final stage are connected in series, and the amplified output has a voltage of at least 1000 volts. Further disclosed is a method of activating a plurality of cascaded electron tube stages within a common vacuum enclosure. Beneficially, a sufficient amount of energy supplied to the first stage serially propagates through any intervening stage to the final stage so as to facilitate activation of all tube stages.
US07978822B2
An X-ray imaging device and alignment/scanning system include at least one multilayer X-ray mirror mounted on a multi-axis adjustable mirror mount pivotable about a scanning axis. A mirror scanner is coupled with the mirror mount and synchronized with the X-ray source so that the mirror scanner moves the mirror mount about the scanning axis. The invention may include a plurality of mirrors, optionally in a stack, and preferably including first and second mirrors respectively adapted to reflect X-rays of first and second energies. A movable attenuation plate having a window selectively allows X-rays to be transmitted by one of the mirrors and blocks X-rays from the other mirror(s). Sets of the mirrors may be configured in blocks or interspersed. The mirror scanner may be operable at variable speeds to enable selective control of the scanning speed of the mirror.
US07978819B2
A radiosurgery system is described that is configured to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation to a target structure in a patient. In some embodiments, inflammatory ocular disorders are treated, specifically macular degeneration. In some embodiments, other disorders or tissues of a body are treated with the dose of radiation. In some embodiments, the target tissues are placed in a global coordinate system based on ocular imaging. In some embodiments, the target tissues inside the global coordinate system lead to direction of an automated positioning system that is directed based on the target tissues within the coordinate system. In some embodiments, a treatment plan is utilized in which beam energy and direction and duration of time for treatment is determined for a specific disease to be treated and/or structures to be avoided. In some embodiments, a fiducial marker is used to identify the location of the target tissues. In some embodiments, radiodynamic therapy is described in which radiosurgery is used in combination with other treatments and can be delivered concomitant with, prior to, or following other treatments.
US07978810B2
An imaging method is disclosed for variable pitch spiral CT. In at least one embodiment, the method includes spiral scanning of an examination object lying on a patient table, with the aid of a beam emanating from at least one focus, and the aid of a detector arrangement of planar design lying opposite the focus, the detector arrangement supplying output data that represent the attenuation of the beams during passage through the examination object; filtering the output data; weighted back projection of the filtered output data; and visualizing a layer or a volume on a display unit on the basis of the back projected output data. In at least one embodiment, a non constant pitch of the spiral scanning is taken into account computationally during the back projection. In at least one embodiment, a CT machine is disclosed for carrying out the above named method.
US07978803B2
An improved reception port for receiving packet data based on the IEEE 1394 standard. The reception port includes a synchronization FIFO memory for receiving reception data in accordance with a reception clock signal and synchronizing the reception data with an internal clock signal, a decoder for decoding the synchronized reception data, and a shaping FIFO memory for outputting the decoded reception data at a fixed timing.
US07978797B2
A method and system for decoding data received from a channel experiencing two-dimensional inter-symbol interference, as well as systems implementing such a decoding method and system, are disclosed. The method includes an iterative multi-strip equalization method that receives a plurality of channel values associated with a plurality of locations in a plurality of rows of a matrix, computes initial probability values based upon those channel values, applies a BCJR algorithm to symbol probability values based upon bands of rows of the initial probability values, and resolves the results of applying the BCJR algorithm to arrive at a plurality of bands of rows of revised probability values, which are subsequently combined/substituted with one another. The process iteratively repeats until the revised probability values attain a sufficient degree of convergence. By utilizing data from overlapping bands to perform the BCJR algorithm, ISI in both dimensions is addressed.
US07978795B2
An apparatus comprising a slicer configured to produce a symbol decision value and a symbol error value utilizing, at least in part, a slicer input signal; and an automatic gain controller configured to facilitate the automatic control of a gain applied to the slicer input signal by producing a gain control signal, the automatic gain controller comprising a decision-directed amplitude error detector configured to utilize, at least in part, the symbol decision value and the symbol error value to produce an amplitude error signal, and a loop filter configured to utilize the amplitude error signal to produce the gain control signal.
US07978784B2
A wireless communication system and method uses a spatial spreading matrix to distribute the encoded spatial data streams to a number of transmit chains and further uses the spatial spreading matrix for antenna selection computation in a transmitter. The spatial spreading matrix is designed such that a receiver is able to know and utilize the spatial spreading matrix for computing transmission antenna selection, receiver antenna selection and joint transmission/receiving antenna selection. The use of this spatial spreading matrix for antenna selection computation provides increased accuracy in antenna selection for transmission of spatial data streams, where the number of spatial data streams is less than the number of transmit or receive chains between the transmitter and receiver, and the number of transmit or receive chains is less than the corresponding transmission or receiving antennas.
US07978771B2
An encoder generating a decoded signal with an improved quality by scalable encoding by canceling the characteristic inherent to the encoder and causing degradation of quality of the decoded signal. In the encoder, a first encoding section (102) encodes the input signal after down sampling, a first decoding section (103) decodes first encoded information outputted from the first encoding section (102), an adjusting section (105) adjusts the first decoded signal after up sampling by convoluting the first decoded signal after up sampling and an impulse response for adjustment, an adder (107) inverses the polarity of adjusted first decoded signal and adds the first decoded signal having the inverted polarity to the input signal, a second encoding section (108) encodes the residual signal outputted from the adder (107), and a multiplexing section (109) multiplexes the first encoded information outputted from the first encoding section (102) and the second encoded information outputted from the second encoding section (108).
US07978744B2
One facet of a nitride based semiconductor laser device is composed of a cleavage plane of (0001), and the other facet thereof is composed of a cleavage plane of (000 1). Thus, the one facet and the other facet are respectively a Ga polar plane and an N polar plane. A portion of the one facet and a portion of the other facet, which are positioned in an optical waveguide, constitute a pair of cavity facets. A first protective film including nitrogen as a constituent element is formed on the one facet. A second protective film including oxygen as a constituent element is formed on the other facet.
US07978740B1
Systems, devices and methods of generating both a precision electrical timing signal as well as a precision optical timing signal. A novel, modified opto-electronic loop oscillator is used to drive a harmonic mode-locked laser. A novel opto-electronic loop has a larger “Q” factor by increasing the electrical loop oscillating frequency ω0 by using a beat note created by the selection of two optical longitudinal modes from the mode-locked laser. The beat note is detected and divided down to drive a modulator that mode-locks the laser. The frequency division stage also reduces the noise.
US07978736B2
A method and apparatus for efficient provisioning of a VT/TU cross-connect includes checking a state of a control bit that specifies whether to assemble an output from multiple virtual tributary (VT1.5/VT2) or tributary unit (TU11/TU12) connections or handle the output as an synchronous transport signal (STS) or administrative unit (AU-3/AU-4) connection, and switching a predetermined number of entries together based on a state of the control bit.
US07978733B2
A method for generating a subframe including resource distribution information is disclosed. The method for generating a subframe includes arranging resource allocation information in a subframe by sequentially allocating a localized permutation and a distributed permutation, and arranging a subframe control header including a resource unit index in a predetermined location by a system parameter, wherein the resource unit index indicates a frequency resource location of the resource allocation information. When both the localized permutation and the distributed permutation are used, a resource distribution method is transmitted to a user equipment. Therefore, an effect of the distributed permutation can be maximized without a great influence on the performance of the localized permutation, and a problem of decoding failure or latency can be prevented.
US07978726B2
A serial intelligent cell (SIC) and a connection topology for local area networks using Electrically-conducting media. A local area network can be configured from a plurality of SIC's interconnected so that all communications between two adjacent SIC's is both point-to-point and bidirectional. Each SIC can be connected to one or more other SIC's to allow redundant communication paths. Communications in different areas of a SIC network are independent of one another, so that, unlike current bus topology and star topology, there is no fundamental limit on the size or extent of a SIC network. Each SIC can optionally be connected to one or more data terminals, computers, telephones, sensors, actuators, etc., to facilitate interconnectivity among such devices. Networks according to the present invention can be configured for a variety of applications, including a local telephone system, remote computer bus extender, multiplexers, PABX/PBX functionality, security systems, and local broadcasting services. The network can use dedicated wiring, as well as existing wiring as the in-house telephone or electrical wiring.
US07978723B1
A system facilitates initialization of devices in a cable modem network. The system may provide downstream channels for transmitting data to the devices and upstream channels for receiving data from the devices. At least one of the upstream channels may be dedicated to providing initialization opportunities. This dedicated upstream channel(s) includes less than all of the upstream channels. The system may transmit upstream channel identifiers on the downstream channels, where each of the upstream channel identifiers identifies one of the upstream channels. The system receives initialization data on the dedicated upstream channel(s).
US07978722B2
Communication capacity of a node served by a host digital terminal is managed by redistributing communication lines among headend modems for the node in the host digital terminal. Each node has a plurality of communication lines connected to one or more headend modems, and the communication lines are distributed among one or more voiceports. A voiceport list build module is responsive to a line distribution input for headend modems connected to the node served by the host digital terminal. The voiceport list build module builds a voiceport redistribution list for redistributing the communication lines connected to the headend modems for the node. A voiceport redistribution module is responsive to the voiceport redistribution list and moves one or more voiceports from the voiceport's current headend modem to another headend modem whereby the communication lines for the node are redistributed among headend modems communicating with the node.
US07978719B2
Endpoint identifiers are dynamically assigned to network interfaces, in response to a change in physical connection. When a physical connection associated with a network interface is changed, such as a cable coupling the network interface to an endpoint is moved from one location to another location, a new endpoint identifier is assigned to the network interface. The new endpoint identifier is based on the location of the new endpoint.
US07978708B2
A technique configures an intermediate network node to automatically determine whether a route advertised by a routing protocol is important for fast convergence in a computer network. As used herein, an important route needed for fast convergence is a route advertised by the routing protocol, such as an exterior gateway routing protocol (EGP) process executing on the node, as a next-hop address, since external connectivity relies on such a route. Notably, the EGP process interacts with an interior gateway routing protocol (IGP) process executing on the node to identify the route as an important route. Identification of an important route, in turn, allows IGP to process the route in a high priority fashion, thereby facilitating fast convergence.
US07978706B2
At a transmitter, an ATM cell stream is received from the ATM layer and is distributed on a cell-by-cell bases across multiple DSL PHY's. At the receiver, the cells from each DSL PHY are re-combined in the appropriate order to recreate the original ATM cell stream, which is then passed to the ATM layer.
US07978705B2
Methods and apparatus that allow recovery in the event that sequence counts used on receive and transmit sides of a communications link become out of sync are provided. In response to receiving a packet with an expected sequence count from a receiving device, a transmitting device may adjust pointers into a transmit buffer allowing the transmitting device to begin transmitting packets with the sequence count expected by the receiving device.
US07978698B2
A terminal for performing multiple access transmission suitable to a transmission path having varied characteristics includes a transmission/reception section, a control unit, a transfer management section, and an external interface section. Specifically, the terminal refers to an IGMP (MLD) message received by the transmission/reception section to classify a transmitter host and a relay device of the message based on a characteristic of the transmission path, and performs a multiple access transmission of a multicast packet in a form suitable to the characteristic of the transmission path.
US07978696B2
This invention concerns the transmitting and receiving of digital media packets, such as audio and video channels and lighting instructions. In particular, the invention concerns the transmitting and receiving of redundant media packet streams. Samples are extracted (556) from a first (904) and second (906) media packet stream. The extracted samples are written to a buffer (910) based on the output time of each sample (556). Extracted samples having the same output time are written to the same location in the buffer. Both media packet streams are simply processed all the way to the buffer without any particular knowledge that one of the packet streams is actually redundant. This simplifies the management of the redundant packet streams, such as eliminating the need for a “fail-over” switch and the concept of an “active stream”. The location is the storage space allocated to store one sample. The extracted sample written to the location may be written over another extracted sample from a different packet stream previously written to the location. These extracted samples written to the same location may be identical.
US07978689B1
An apparatus. The apparatus includes a network interface card in communication with a telephone, a functional circuit in communication with the network interface card, and an Ethernet port in communication with the functional circuit. The functional circuit is for constructing an Ethernet frame.
US07978687B2
A method of controlling routing in a packet network supported by a transport network allowing the dynamic creation/suppression of links for transporting packets of said packet network, said method including a routing step, a step of informing other routers of said network of the metric assigned to each link of the packet network, and a step of creating/destroying a link. The link may have three states: a non-connected state if said two routers cannot be directly connected, a virtual connection state wherein a virtual metric is assigned to said link between said head end router and said tail end router of the same communication, and a real connection state wherein a real metric is normally assigned to said link.
US07978684B2
A session set-up for communicating data via a data network is disclosed. First, a session establishment between a communication apparatus and a serving entity is requested for a service from the serving entity supporting the service. Then, when a requirement of a user connection for the service is determined, an association with a data network for the service is activated via a core network.
US07978680B1
A clock control system for a reference network device, the clock control system including a reference clock module, a receiver module, and a clock adjustment module. The reference clock module generates reference clock signals. The receiver module receives and determines reference receive times of Y frames based on the reference clock signals. One of X remote network devices generates the Y frames. The receiver module further receives X-1 timestamp frames from X-1 of the X remote network devices based on receipt of the Y frames at respective ones of the X-1 remote network devices. X and Y are integers greater than or equal to 1. At least one of X and Y is greater than 1. The clock adjustment module determines and transmits clock adjustment signals for the X-1 remote network devices based on the X-1 timestamp frames and the reference receive times of the Y frames.
US07978674B1
A method of selecting a type of resource-allocation to use for a call in a cellular wireless system, such as selecting a type of radio configuration to use for the call. According to the method, resource-availability in one more adjacent coverage areas may be used as a basis to select the type of resource-allocation to use in a current coverage area. For instance, given the choice between a radio configuration that consumes less base station power and a radio configuration that consumes more base station power, the radio configuration consuming more base station power may be selected if base station sufficient power is available in one or more adjacent coverage area(s), and the other radio configuration may be selected if insufficient base station power is available in the one or more adjacent coverage area(s). Distance between the mobile station and a current base station may be considered as well.
US07978671B2
In 80211.n, the time during which the band is occupied is prolonged by the use of the frame aggregation method or in accordance with the type of communication frame, and this may influence communication of another apparatus. To solve this problem, a communication frame length (a communication frame to be used and the number of frames to be aggregated) is determined by taking account of priority information of a plurality of communication apparatuses.
US07978669B2
In one embodiment, a method includes characterizing a first packet of a video stream as being associated with a first frame type, wherein the video stream is arranged to be transmitted on a wireless local area network. The method also includes processing at least the first packet of the video stream as being associated with the first frame type if the first packet of the video stream is characterized as being of the first frame type.
US07978665B1
A system may provide a client device with a persistent wireless network browser toolbar for use in, for example, a network browser. The persistent wireless network browser toolbar is provided with a login status indicator, a logout option, and a wireless network signal strength indicator.
US07978657B2
In a multi-radio mesh network system supporting at least two different wireless communication standards and a method of controlling the same, a wireless access switching module determines whether user data en-queued in the queue of a first wireless link and retained on standby cannot be transmitted. The wireless access switching module switches the user data, en-queued in the queue of the first wireless link and retained on standby, to an available second wireless link. The wireless access switching module changes a frame structure according to different wireless access techniques. When access is possible through the second wireless link, a forwarder searches for a local neighbor directly connected to a transmitting node and a receiving node, and forwards the user data. According to the invention, and in contrast to conventional techniques, available multi-wireless resources can be used more efficiently, flexibly and optimally up to the last moment, thereby reducing re-transmission and packet drop. Thus, each hop supports fast data forwarding so as to improve network performance.
