US08078254B2

A patient-specific pelvic coordinate system is produced from a single near AP intra-operative image of the patient, obviating the need for use of a patient tracker.
US08078251B2

A photoplethysmographic sensor designed for use on the presenting portion of a fetus during labor and delivery. The sensor has a non-deployed state in which the sensor presents a smaller footprint, or cross sectional area, for transvaginal insertion. Once the sensor is applied to the fetal tissue it is moved into the deployed state, which has a larger footprint or cross sectional area, than the sensor does in the non-deployed state. The deployed state optimizes the physical distance between the light emitter and the photodetector to maximize the photoplethysmographic measurement accuracy from the fetal tissue.
US08078250B2

A method and apparatus for non-invasively determining the blood oxygenation within a subject's tissue is provided that utilizes a near infrared spectrophotometric (NIRS) sensor capable of transmitting a light signal into the tissue of a subject and sensing the light signal once it has passed through the tissue via transmittance or reflectance.
US08078244B2

A method of measuring glucose concentration in tissue includes measuring scattering coefficients of the tissue at each of a plurality of temperatures and at a selected tissue depth using optical coherence tomography, and determining the glucose concentration in interstitial fluid of the tissue as a function of the measured scattering coefficients.
US08078240B2

A sliding-type portable electronic device for opening bottle covers of bottles is provided, including a housing member and a cover member. The housing member defines a first latching recess. The cover member is slidably attached to the housing member, and defines a second latching recess facing the first latching recess. The second latching and the first latching recess enclose an adjustable latching space configured for latching the bottle covers during opening of the bottle covers.
US08078239B2

A mobile phone includes a microphone and a plurality of speakers, the mobile phone changes its configuration state into at least two states, a closed state in which the microphone is covered, and an open state in which the microphone is not covered. The mobile phone further includes a determination unit configured to determine the configuration state; and an output control unit configured to, on the basis of the determination result by the determination unit, control on/off action of the plurality of speakers and the microphone.
US08078235B2

A method or device includes a telephone with an audio or video effects generator to produce audio or video effects that are transmitted as part of a signal from the telephone.
US08078225B2

A communication device having a chip card configured to authorize a communication, the chip card having an interface connected to a communication controller via a modified standardized bus communication, a first and at least one second data source configured to connect to the communication controller.
US08078222B2

A portable electronic device includes a first main body, an audio processor mounted in the main body, a camera module mounted in the main body, and an earphone signal connected with the first main body. A first input-output port disposed on the main body is coupled with the audio processor and the camera module. The earphone includes a second main body, and a second input-output port coupled to the second main body to facilitate audio signal transmissions between the audio processor and the earphone and output control signals from the earphone to the camera module.
US08078216B2

A wireless device, such as a laptop computer or a cellular phone, may contain confidential information which may be secured by an internal security system. When the device is stolen, the user can provide a portion of a kill code to a wireless service provider. The wireless service provider provides its own portion of the kill code and combines it with the user's supplied code. Then, the service provider may transmit the combined kill code to the wireless device. Upon receipt, the wireless device may erase all confidential information on the device. In other embodiments, it may erase any unlocked block of memory. As still another alternative, the system may also, upon receipt of the combined kill code, disable the operating system.
US08078212B2

Machine-readable media, methods, apparatus and system for allocating power in a MU-MIMO communicating system are described. In some embodiments, an apparatus of a base station in the MU-MIMO communication system may comprise: a power calculating logic to calculate a power for each user of a plurality of users communicating with the base station in the MU-MIMO system, based upon an average power and a power increment. The power calculating logic may further comprise an average power logic to calculate the average power among the plurality of users based upon a total power for the base station to communicate with the plurality of users, and a power increment logic to determine the power increment for the each user based upon at least one of a fairness algorithm and a throughput algorithm, and wherein different users of the plurality of users having different long-term signal to interference plus noise ratios (SINRs) are calculated with different powers. The apparatus may further comprise a power allocating logic to allocate the power to the each user.
US08078210B2

A wireless communication system, including apparatuses and methods, for handling emergency calls from wireless communication devices to emergency services providers and for automatically providing updated location estimates for the wireless communication devices to during such emergency calls absent any request therefor. The updated location estimates are generally provided in response to a detected occurrence of a triggering event within the wireless communication system. In the exemplary embodiments, such triggering events include the passage of a pre-determined threshold period of time and the handover of an emergency call between cells or sectors of the wireless communication system in response to movement of the wireless communication device from which the emergency call is being made. Further, according to at least one exemplary embodiment, the wireless communication system may selectively limit the provision of updated location estimates based on whether movement of a wireless communication device is substantial or insubstantial.
US08078199B2

An implementation method and system for accelerating the paging access of a mobile station in broadband wireless system are disclosed, and this system comprises base stations, mobile stations, an anchor access network gateway, an authenticator and a paging controller. The implementation method includes: (a) the anchor access network gateway sends to the base station a Paging Announce message including at least mobile station identifier and the authenticator identifier of the mobile station; (b) the base station keeps the corresponding relationship of the authenticator identifier and the mobile station, and sends a MOS-PAG-ADV message to the mobile station; (c) after the base station receives the RNG-REQ message from the mobile station, it interacts with the authenticator using the authenticator identifier to obtain the authentication key and perform the authentication; and acquire the information of mobile station from the paging controller; (d) before or after the base station requests the anchor access network gateway to establish a data channel, it sends a RNG-RES message to the mobile station; (e) after the anchor access network gateway receives the Data Channel Establishment Acknowledgement message, it informs the paging controller to delete the mobile station information thereon. The present invention can accelerate the process of paging access of the mobile station.
US08078194B2

A radio device that is capable of positioning itself within a broadcast radio system includes a receiver operable to receive a plurality of broadcast radio signals, each broadcast from a respective one of a plurality of broadcast radio signal sources. The radio device further includes processing circuitry operable to determine respective call station identification information for each of the broadcast radio signal sources from the broadcast radio signals, measure respective signal quality characteristics for each of the received broadcast radio signals, identify station position data associated with each of the broadcast radio signal sources from the respective call station identification information, and calculate a location of the radio device using the signal quality characteristics and station position data associated with at least three broadcast radio signal sources.
US08078190B2

In embodiments, a method of detecting a transmitting device within an obstruction rich environment is disclosed. The method may involve detecting the transmitting device with a wireless transmission detection facility; communicating signal information relating to the detected transmitting device from the wireless transmission detection facility to a central unit; determining the location of the transmitting device; displaying information of the detection and location of the transmitting device through a user interface; and providing an action facility for causing actions related to the detected transmitting device.
US08078189B2

In a method for providing location-based information over a network, a plurality of GPS reference data sets, corresponding to a plurality of respective local areas, are acquired at intervals such that each GPS reference data set is updated on a continuous basis. A plurality of aiding data sets are generated at intervals based on the respective GPS data sets, whereby each aiding data set is updated on a continuous basis. The generated aiding data sets are stored at intervals on a data-storing network server, whereby updated aiding data sets are available on a continuous basis for access by a requesting entity via communication with the data-storing network server.
US08078181B2

In a method of planning cellular communication networks, at least one cost function indicative of the quality of service rendered by the network is defined which takes into account the quality of service of location-based services rendered by the network. That cost function is preferably based on the concept of dilution of precision and is indicative of the quality of service of voice services, data services and location based services jointly. A system is provided for measuring at least one actual network parameter. The measurements provided by the measurement system are compared with the corresponding parameters as planned with the purpose of locating at least one critical point in the network where inadequate quality of service is being provided. Information items indicative of counter measures to be carried out in the network in order to dispense with at least one critical point are provided. The cost function may be optimised by using as input data the location of at least one base station in the cellular communication network.
US08078174B2

An apparatus and method for improving mobile-terminated call set-up performance comprising triggering an inter-radio access technology (IRAT) transition from a source cell to a target cell, remembering the deterministic timing of a plurality of paging occasions in the source cell, and using the deterministic timing for checking at least one paging channel in the source cell during transition to the target cell and before starting to monitor at least one paging channel in the target cell.
US08078164B2

A nomadic server and a related system provides seamless roaming for a mobile communication device between different types of wireless networks, such as WiFi and cellular networks for voice, data and video communication. Use of the nomadic server enables a combination of WiFi and cellular networks for providing access to the cellular phones and make use of the VOIP networks for switching the calls wherever possible. The nomadic server is a telephone communication processing and switching server that will “hold” the present, in-progress telephone communications without dropping, while roaming without losing the present, in-progress communication. For example, a telephone communication can be seamlessly switching between VOIP and cellular telephone networks using the nomadic server. Nomadic server resources interface with the VOIP and cellular network switches to provide the hand-off between networks. This approach enables switching of telephone communications over a VOIP network wherever possible either through WiFi or through cellular networks.
US08078146B2

This invention relates to using consumer devices, such as mobile telephones, to identify, authenticate, locate and contact users of security and asset management systems. Such consumer devices can be used not only with the security systems but also for other uses. A device is initially registered with the security system. As needed, the device is presented to the system for authentication, enabling a person access to a secure area. In addition, the system can determine the person's location in the secure area and can send information messages to the person as well as notifying the person in case of emergency.
US08078143B2

A wireless handset configured to be remotely accessed is described. The wireless handset comprises a user interface, a handset memory, a processor, and a software module. The user interface resident on the wireless handset is configured to enable the wireless handset to be remotely controlled with a remote lock password. The handset memory stores the remote lock password. The processor is adapted to receive a remote lock message from another electronic device. The remote lock message comprises a received password and a target phone number. The software module matches the received password with the remote lock password and then proceeds to send at least one call to the target phone number. Additionally, a method for controlling usage of the wireless handset is also described.
US08078138B2

A start trigger of an emergency call occurs. In this case, an in-vehicle emergency call apparatus mounted in a vehicle does not transmit all the positional data items presently stored in a memory unit to a service center. Alternatively, the in-vehicle emergency call apparatus transmits only the newest positional data item to the service center. Thus, even if a communication link with the service center has a low transmission speed, the positional data of the vehicle can be promptly notified to the service center.
US08078136B2

The interactive authentication system allows a consumer to interact with a base station, such as broadcast media (e.g., television and radio) or PC, to receive coupons, special sales offers, and other information with an electronic card. The electronic card can also be used to transmit a signal that can be received by the base station to perform a wide variety of tasks. These tasks can include launching an application, authenticating a user at a website, and completing a sales transaction at a website (e.g., by filling out a form automatically). The interaction between the base station and the electronic card is accomplished by using the conventional sound system in the base station so that a special reader hardware need not be installed to interact with the electronic card. The user is equipped with an electronic card that can receive and transmit data via sound waves. In the various embodiments, the sound waves can be audible or ultrasonic (which can be slightly audible to some groups of people).
US08078132B2

Disclosed is a method of selectively skipping one or more listen windows during power saving (i.e., sleep mode) operation in a multi-mode radio handset capable of operating on a plurality of radio access networks (RANs). A multi-mode radio handset signals a base station to which it is currently in communication to request that one or more listen windows be skipped considering the delay and jitter requirements of the most time critical application currently running. The request includes data defining a different listen and sleep window sequence. The multi-mode radio handset receives an acknowledgment from the base station indicating that the request has been granted. The acknowledgement includes a start frame parameter that defines when the different listen and sleep window sequence will begin. Upon completion of the different listen and sleep window sequence, the multi-mode radio handset reverts back to the original alternating sequence of listen and sleep windows.
US08078128B2

A voltage-controlled capacitor and methods for forming the same are described. A mechanical conductor membrane of the voltage-controlled capacitor is movable to and from a first position and a second position. An amount of capacitance can vary with the movement of the mechanical conductor membrane. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) voltage-controlled capacitor can be used in a variety of applications, such as, but not limited to, RF switches and RF attenuators.
US08078122B2

Circuitry that generates an interface signal between a first and a second integrated circuit (IC). The circuitry includes a reference circuit that provides a reference signal, an interface circuit, and a circuit element. The interface circuit is implemented on the first IC, operatively couples to the reference circuit, receives the reference signal and a data input, and generates the interface signal. The circuit element is implemented on the second IC, operatively couples to the control circuit, receives the interface signal, and provides an output signal. The reference signal can be a voltage or a current signal, and can be generated in the first or second IC. The interface circuit can be implemented with a current mirror coupled to a switch array, and can be oversampled to ease the filtering requirement. The interface signal can be a differential current signal having multiple (e.g., four, eight, or more) bits of resolution. The circuit element can be, for example, a VGA, a modulator, or other circuits.
US08078121B2

A spacer for use in a mobile device fills the space between a component assembly and a housing. The spacer includes a layer of compressible material for insertion between the component assembly and the housing. A plurality of compressible features are provided on a face of the layer. Upon insertion of the component assembly and assembly of the housing, the compressible features are compressed to fill a gap between the component assembly and the housing without over-compressing the main body of the spacer, allowing the body of the spacer to cushion any subsequent impact to the mobile device.
US08078120B2

A wireless communication device for use in connection with a cellular telephone is disclosed and a transceiver radio such as a citizens band radio. The wireless communication device of the present invention provides enhanced audio broadcasting capabilities for an operator of the device by providing a larger, more powerful speaker than that typically found in a cellular telephone. Thus, the apparatus of the present invention improves cellular telephone usage in a noisy environment such as the cab of a tractor trailer or other vehicle. In another embodiment, the wireless communication device of the present invention is connectable to multiple external devices and is capable of operating the external devices and providing access to a cellular telephone network for such external devices.
US08078118B2

A method and apparatus for processing satellite positioning system (SPS) signals which are weak in level. In one embodiment, a SPS receiver receives at least two signal samples representing, at least in part, common information, wherein the two signal samples are associated with one or more satellite messages. By combining the two signal samples, navigation information (e.g., time, position, velocity, etc.) may be determined based on the combination of the two signal samples. According to another embodiment, the two signal samples are differentially demodulated and summed together to form the combination.
US08078116B2

The method analyzes the operation of a cellular mobile telecommunications network comprising a set of cells each associated with a base station adapted to communicate with a mobile station present in the cell.The method comprises: a) for each cell, collecting one or more variables characteristic of the operation of the network in said cell; and b) supplying the or each characteristic variable in association with the collection cell. The supply step comprises: b1) selecting on a map of the network based on said cells an observation line passing over the map across adjacent cells; and b2) making available a structured representation of the or each characteristic variable for only the adjacent cells crossed by said observation line, in the order in which they are encountered along said line.
US08078114B2

A system and method for determining a signal propagation delay between a transmitter and a receiver, and for adjusting a transmission time based on the propagation delay. A central station inserts a marker into a transmitted signal at a time corresponding to a received timing signal. The MCT receives the signal from the central station and determines a time difference between receipt of the marker and the detection of the time interval event. A transmission by the MCT is adjusted by an amount of time proportional to the time difference.
US08078111B2

Methods and apparatus for using different frequency bands are described. In some embodiments a first frequency band which is a licensed spectrum frequency band is used for peer discovery, device authentication, session establishment between peer devices and/or supporting an ongoing communications through control signaling. When available, a second frequency band, e.g., an unlicensed public frequency band is used for communicating data while the communications session is maintained using one or more control signals communicated in the first frequency band. Data and control signaling may be performed on a time division basis during a time period in which data is communicated.
US08078107B2

A method, apparatus, and system for automatically configuring Bluetooth devices for communication to an outside network is described. A Bluetooth device is paired with a “trusted” Bluetooth device. When paired devices are found, the Bluetooth device automatically configures itself to use the lowest cost connection option from the available set of paired devices that are in proximity with the Bluetooth handheld device. If no device is found, the Bluetooth device may revert to a built-in access method. The network accessed can be the internet or an office network such as an 802.11 network.
US08078105B2

A scroll wheel hinge assembly for an electronic device is described. The scroll wheel hinge assembly may be used for an electronic device that pivotally connects a flip module with a base module having a keypad. The flip module has a front face with an internal display and a back face with an external display. The hinge assembly includes a cylindrical rotatable assembly, a flip-closed position, and a flip-open position. More particularly, the cylindrical rotatable assembly is configured to enable the flip module to rotate in relation to the base module about a rotatable axis associated with the cylindrical rotatable assembly. The cylindrical rotatable assembly also includes either a free-wheel or a touch sensitive component on the exterior of the cylindrical assembly. In the illustrative embodiment, the touch sensitive component is configured to perform a scroll function that includes a scroll-up operation and a scroll-down operation.
US08078104B2

Described is a system having a mobile station and an access point which connects the mobile station to a network. The mobile station has a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation. In the first mode of operation, the mobile station transmits a data packet intended for a further mobile station to the access point and the access point transmits the data packet to the further mobile station. In the second mode of operation, the mobile station transmits the data packet intended for the further mobile station directly to the further mobile station.
US08078099B2

A system and method of applying a known modification to a signal to enable a determination of a signal received by a first node is received directly from a second node or indirectly through a repeater. The repeater receives a primary signal and creates a secondary signal as a function of the primary signal and a known modification, wherein the known modification identifies the repeater. The primary signal is transmitted and injected with the secondary signal as the first signal to the primary receiver.
US08078096B2

A media distribution server presenting interactive media on mobile devices and receives mobile user response interactively. During the presentation of interactive media the user is prompted with multiple choices for their selection, which can be provided using softkeys on the mobile device. The media distribution server prepares the subsequent portions of the interactive media and delivers them to the mobile device. In one embodiment, the necessary text, graphics, audio and video are assembled and integrated dynamically and is presented on the mobile device to the user. Further the mobile user is prompted to approve online purchases, make online appointment requests, show interest in products, etc. while browsing the interactive media on their mobile device. The media distribution server supports such activities as necessary.
US08078094B1

The disclosed architecture provides a co-siting solution to the many different proprietary systems that are being sold today for cellular communications. The architecture is a universal multi-purpose signal distribution chassis for conditioning and distributing cellular communications signals by providing the interface to a wide variety of cellular communications equipment on the market. A receive interface receives signals, amplifies the signals, and splits (or distributes) the signals for communications to various pieces of equipment and technologies that can be employed in a base station tower system, for example. This is particularly useful in co-siting situations where many different types of technologies and equipment are hosted by one set of antennas.
US08078093B2

A recording material processing apparatus includes an image forming apparatus, a post-processing device, a recording material judging section and a recording material transport controlling section. The recording material judging section judges whether the recording material used in the image forming apparatus has post-processing permissible size and thickness or not. And the recording material transport controlling section that, permits when the recording material judging section judges the recording material has the post-processing permissible size and thickness, the recording material to be transported into the post-processing device and prohibits when the recording material judging section judges the recording material does not have the post-processing permissible size and thickness, the recording material to be transported into the post-processing device.
US08078080B2

An image forming apparatus includes a heat source, a toner containing member containing toner, and an electric fan for generating air flow in an air flow path formed between the heat source and the toner containing member. In the image forming apparatus, a temperature of the heat source reaches a glass transition point of the toner. After the electric fan is changed from a driving state to a rest state, a phase transition member for absorbing heat is disposed in a heat transfer path, in which heat transfers, from the heat source to the toner containing member.
US08078069B2

It is judged whether a sufficient time for executing all of three correction processings (a high density correction processing, a halftone correction processing, and a registration correction processing) can be secured or not. When the sufficient time cannot be secured, the high density correction processing as an essential correction processing is executed. A history of the halftone correction processing and a history of the registration correction processing are compared with each other. A date of latest execution of the halftone correction processing and a date of latest execution of the registration correction processing are compared with each other to judge whether or not the execution of the halftone correction processing is earlier, and the registration correction processing and the halftone correction processing are executed, respectively.
US08078062B2

The device is structured to have a first electric modulation signal generator, a second electric modulation signal generator, a two-mode beat light source and an optical intensity modulator. The first electric modulation signal generator generates and outputs a first electric modulation signal. The second electric modulation signal generator generates and outputs a second electric modulation signal of a same frequency as the first electric modulation signal and to which a phase difference of δ radians is provided (δ is a real number satisfying 0≦δ≦π). The two-mode beat light source is driven by the first electric modulation signal, and generates and outputs two-mode beat light. The two-mode beat light is inputted to the optical intensity modulator, and the optical intensity modulator generates and outputs a CS optical pulse train. Light transmittance of the optical intensity modulator is modulated by the second electric modulation signal.
US08078059B2

An optical transmitting circuit (2) modulates multimode oscillation light using an information signal, subjects at least one oscillation-mode light beam of the multimode oscillation light to a predetermined operation, and outputting the result to an optical transmission channel. An optical receiving circuit (8) receives an optical signal transmitted through the optical transmission channel, subjects the received optical signal to an operation reverse to the predetermined operation to recover an optical signal as it was before being subjected to the predetermined operation, and converting the recovered optical signal into an electrical signal, thereby reproducing the information signal.
US08078058B2

The present invention relates to an adaptive and all-optical method for data packet rate multiplication compatible with multiple data rates and/or multiple communication protocols. By performing a real-time pulse width compression on an original electronic or optical packet from an end user or a network interface device, the method generates an optical packet having an identical rate with the original packet while the duration of each pulse being significantly reduced. Then, by eliminating any redundant idle time due to the pulse width compression, the method also shortens data period and thus makes the rate of packet multiplied. The present invention addresses the technical problem of limited data rate in EO/OE conversion as known in the prior art and solves fundamentally the interconnection and communication between networks or systems of different data rates and/or protocols. The method of the present invention thus enables the design of an ultrahigh rate all-optical communication system and network transparent in rate and protocol.
US08078051B2

A method or system including implementing one or more indicators to specify traffic ordering associated with an optical networking protocol and ordering traffic according to the one or more indicators.
US08078043B2

A third group barrel 3 holding a third lens group L3 is controlled to be driven by drivers in yaw and pitch directions orthogonal to an optical axis, respectively. The Y magnet and the Y yoke of the driver in the yaw direction are fixed on the third group barrel 3, and a Y electromagnetic coil is disposed at a Y guide base 24 surrounding the third group barrel 3. As a driver in the pitch direction, a P magnet and P yoke 29 are fixed to the Y guide base 24, and a P electromagnetic coil is fixed to a P guide base at an opposed position. A Y guide bar 25 and a P guide bar 30 are overlapped with projection regions onto planes orthogonal to the optical axis of the Y electromagnetic coil and the Y magnet, and the P electromagnetic coil and the P magnet, respectively.
US08078035B2

An apparatus for generating reproduction list data which designates reproduction of modified image data generated using first image data recorded in a recording medium, in response to an instruction for stopping the recording of the first image data with respect to the recording medium, and for recording the reproduction list data and modified image data in the recording medium.
US08078033B2

A recording apparatus includes a recording unit that records a televised program being received by a receiving unit to a disk-shaped recording medium. The recording apparatus also includes a commercial message detecting unit that detects a switch from main program to commercial message and a switch from commercial message to main program when the recording unit is recording the program. The recording unit records the program to the recording medium with chapter breaks set at first time intervals when commercial messages inserted in the main program are being received by the receiving unit, and set at second time intervals when the main program is being received by the receiving unit.
US08078025B2

The invention discloses a vehicle dynamic measurement device for comprehensive parameters of rail wear, which comprises a vision sensor, a computer and a milometer. A high-speed image acquisition card and a measurement module are installed in the computer. The vision sensor comprises imaging system for rail cross-section and a raster projector which can project more than one light plane perpendicular to the measured rail. The measurement module is used for calculating vertical wear, horizontal wear, the amplitude and wavelength of corrugation wear. The invention also discloses a vehicle dynamic measurement method for comprehensive parameters of rail wear. The invention can increase the sampling rate of image sensing and acquisition hardware equipment with no need of improving the performance of it, thereby satisfy high-speed on-line dynamic measurement requirements for corrugation wear, and the amplitude and wavelength of corrugation wear can be calculated more precisely.
US08078019B2

A fiber-optical, wavelength selective switch, especially for channel routing with equalization and blocking applications. The input signals are converted to light beams having predefined polarizations (41). The beams are then laterally expanded (43), and then undergo spatial dispersion in the beam expansion plane. The different wavelength components are directed through a polarization rotation device, pixilated along the wavelength dispersion direction such that each pixel operates on a separate wavelength. Each beam is passed into a pixilated beam steering array (48), for directing each wavelength to a desired output port. The beam steering devices can be MEMS-based or Liquid crystal-based, or an LCOS array. When the appropriate voltage is applied to a pixel and its associated beam steering element, the polarization of the light passing through the pixel is rotated and the beam steered to couple to the selected output port.
US08078018B2

Some embodiments include communication methods, methods of forming an interconnect, signal interconnects, integrated circuit structures, circuits, and data apparatuses. In one embodiment, a communication method includes accessing an optical signal comprising photons to communicate information, accessing an electrical signal comprising electrical data carriers to communicate information, and using a single interconnect, communicating the optical and electrical signals between a first spatial location and a second spatial location spaced from the first spatial location.
US08078016B2

Techniques are generally disclosed for optical devices that may be used to implement a variety of logic devices or other circuits by optical means. Example optical devices use a photodiode to alter the charge carrier concentration in a waveguide, thereby altering the index of refraction of the waveguide. The photodiode may be driven by an optical signal, which may be coupled to the photodiode through an optical waveguide. The optical signal may be configured to control the phase of coherent light coupled through the waveguide. A variety of logic devices and other circuits may be implemented by allowing the light coupled through the waveguide to constructively or destructively interfere with other coherent light.
US08078013B2

Embodiments of an optical device, an array of optical devices, and a technique for fabricating the optical device or the array are described. This optical device is implemented using two semiconductor layers (such as silicon), one of which includes a heater and the other includes a thermally tunable optical waveguide. Spatially separating these two functions in the optical device results in more efficient heat transfer between the heater and the optical waveguide, reduced heat transfer to the surroundings, and reduced optical losses in the optical waveguide relative to existing silicon-based optical devices.
US08078010B2

To acquire a high-resolution frame from a plurality of frames sampled from a video image, it is necessary to obtain a high-resolution frame with reduced picture quality degradation regardless of motion of a subject included in the frame. Because of this, between a plurality of contiguous frames FrN and FrN+1, there is estimated a correspondent relationship. Based on the correspondent relationship, the frames FrN+1 and FrN are interposed to obtain first and second interpolated frames FrH1 and FrH2. Based on the correspondent relationship, the coordinates of the frame FrN+1 are transformed, and from a correlation value with the frame FrN, there is obtained a weighting coefficient α(x°, y°) that makes the weight of the first interpolated frame FrH1 greater as a correlation becomes greater. With the weighting coefficient, the first and second interpolated frames are weighted and added to acquire a synthesized frame FrG.
US08078002B2

Matte-based video restoration technique embodiments are presented which model spatio-temporally varying film wear artifacts found in digitized copies of film media. In general, this is accomplished by employing residual color information in recovering of artifact mattes. To this end, the distributions of artifact colors and their fractional contribution to each pixel of each frame being considered are extracted based on color information from the spatial and temporal neighborhoods of the pixel. The extracted information can then be used to restore the video by removing the artifacts.
US08077996B2

The present invention discloses a video processing apparatus. The video processing apparatus includes a smooth detecting module and a video processing module. The smooth detecting module categorizes a target position in a target image of a video data as a smooth position or a non-smooth position to generate a categorizing result. The video processing module performs at least one of a plurality of video processing operations upon the target position according to the categorizing result.
US08077993B2

In an embodiment, a method includes receiving values of a first pixel and a second pixel of an image at an input processor element of an image signal processor and distributing fractional parts of a number of values from surrounding pixels to the first pixel and the second pixel non-serially using first and second accelerator units, respectively, of the image signal processor. The method further includes assigning output values to the first pixel and the second pixel based on the values of the first pixel and the second pixel and the fractional parts of the number of values from the surrounding pixels using an output processor element of the image signal processor and outputting the output values to an output device that has a color range that is less than a color range of the image using the output processor element.
US08077991B2

A system and method for improving prediction error coding performance of various video compression algorithms. Various embodiments combine the energy compaction features of transform coding with localization properties of spatial coding. In various embodiments, the effects of pixel “outliers” are removed from the transform and are coded separately as a spatially coded pixel prediction, thereby improving the coding gain of the transform.
US08077972B2

A system for document processing including decomposing an image of a document into at least one data entry region sub-image, providing the data entry region sub-image to a data entry clerk available for processing the data entry region sub-image, receiving from the data entry clerk a data entry value associated with the data entry region sub-image, and validating the data entry value.
US08077967B2

The continuity of at least one image characteristic, such as color, is maintained through image creation, processing and distribution by correlating that characteristic to a frame of reference. During a first processing operation such as image capture, an initial image decision list is generated indicative of at least a one change in at least one characteristic of an image adjusted during that operation. At the completion of that operation, the image is transformed to emulate a film print that serves as the reference for subsequent operations. In this way, the initial image decision list can be modified list to further adjust of the at least one characteristic of the image using the emulated film print during a second image processing operation.
US08077955B2

Frequency filtering of spatially modulated or “tagged” MRI data in the spatial frequency k-space domain with subsequent 2DFT to the spatial domain and pixel-by-pixel arithmetic calculations provide robust ratio values that can be subjected to inverse trigonometric functions to derive B1 maps for an MRI system.
US08077953B2

End-diastolic and end-systolic image frames are automatically selected on a real-time basis from a sequence of X-ray ventricular angiogram images by modeling the angiogram images by a dynamic graphical model and estimating a posterior probability density of the ventricular area in each angiogram image frame using Bayesian probability density propagation and adaptive background modeling. Then, a variation curve plot of expectation values of the posterior probability density of the ventricular area of each angiogram image frame is generated in which peaks and valleys in the variation curve correspond to end-diastolic and end-systolic angiogram image frames, respectively.
US08077945B2

It is intended to propose a technique whereby a nerve cell is morphologically analyzed automatically based on a three-dimensional image of the nerve cell. First, a dendritic projection is traced by using the scale space method. In this step, irregularities are reduced by using the σ-convolution smoothing method and thus the center line of the dendritic projection is identified. Next, a negative curvature is searched for by the Hess tensor method. The part corresponding to the negative curvature in all coordinate axes is judged as the area occupied by “heads”. The center of this area (heads) is referred to as the spine position. Approximation is made on the assumption that the spine head has an ellipsoidal shape. Thus, the minor diameter, medium diameter and major diameter of the ellipsoid are calculated. From the spine position, a perpendicular line is dropped toward the dendritic projection closest thereto and this perpendicular line is considered as the column part. By combining the dendritic projection with the spine head and column thus obtained, the final morphological shape of the nerve cell is obtained.
US08077942B2

A method for designing an abutment tooth which mainly comprises the steps of: setting a reference abutment device with a feature on an analog of a mouth model; positioning a digital abutment with the same configuration as the reference abutment device on the analog to obtain the configuration data of the positioning of the digital abutment on the analog; optimally adjusting the digital abutment by using as a reference the configuration digital data without affecting the configuration of the digital abutment and the analog, thus finishing the design of the abutment.
US08077937B2

The invention provides a reproducible, objective quantification technique that reliably segments white matter structures. The technique receives a seed voxel within the white matter structure from an individual, determines thresholds and selection criteria, creates a binary mask based on the at least one threshold and the at least one selection criteria and calculates the boundary of the white matter structure based on the binary mask. A magnification factor is applied to each component of the eigenvectors of voxels. Boundary voxels are determined wherein each of the boundary voxels has a magnitude above a predetermined value and is located next to a voxel having a magnitude below the predetermined value. A vector is drawn from the seed voxel to a boundary voxel and the boundary voxels are connected together, thereby forming the region of interest within the connected boundary voxels.
US08077929B2

A fingerprint reader is described. The fingerprint reader includes an illumination source that produces light and a camera. An optical window is also part of the reader. The window is positioned so that light from the illumination source passes through the optical window and then is reflected to the camera for imaging a person's fingerprint. A filter may be positioned on or proximate to the optical window. The filter prevents ambient light from reaching the camera. In some situations, the filter will be a dielectric mirror, a dielectric filter, a holographic mirror, a holographic filter, a dichroic mirror or a dichroic filter.
US08077920B2

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for detecting an occurrence of an object in an image. During operation, the system selects a subwindow to be evaluated based upon a currently estimated likelihood of the object being detected within the subwindow. The system then performs an evaluation step on the subwindow to determine if the object exists in the subwindow, wherein performing the evaluation step involves updating the currently estimated likelihood of the object being detected in the subwindow. If evaluation of the subwindow is not complete after performing the evaluation step, the system stores information associated with the subwindow to facilitate subsequent evaluation of the subwindow.
US08077916B2

Using an on-vehicle camera mounted on a vehicle to view the face of a driver as an imaging object, an image processing system judges the presence/absence of the imaging object in the image. An average luminance of an image when light of a particular wavelength is irradiated in an imaging direction is compared to an average luminance of an image imaged when no light is irradiated. When the difference between the average luminance values is equal to a reference value or less, it is judged that the imaging object is absent in the image by imaging.
US08077902B2

A voice coil suspension system comprising a spider formed of flexible dielectric material defining a flexure portion configured to suspend a voice coil for axial displacement and an elongate connector portion for carrying flat electrical conductors for electrically connecting terminals of said voice coil to stationary electric contacts.
US08077901B2

A duct that includes a pair of rib walls which are formed unitarily with a rear cabinet in such a manner that the rib walls face with other in the up and down direction. The duct serves as an air flow passage that extends from a rear-open portion of a speaker box and through which air flow produced by vibration of a speaker body passes. A heat radiating portion of a heat sink is disposed in the duct.
US08077896B2

Outputs of a laser and an inclinometer are used to figure adjustments to a sound producing device's position, where both the laser beam of the laser and an output from the inclinometer characterize a general direction of sound produced by the sound producing device. The laser beam can be one or more colors or patterns each characterizing the general direction of sound produced by the sound producing device. A stadium can have many speaker housings each including a speaker, the laser, and the inclinometer. Each speaker housing is mounted on, and remotely adjustable with respect to, an structural member as to general direction of sound emitted from the speaker housing into the area for stadium seating. The inclinometer's output can be rendered by a monitor seen by an audio engineer who also uses the laser beam's direction to make adjustments to the position of the speaker housing relative to its structural member.
US08077894B2

To prevent stereo lithography (SLA) support structures for parts fabricated in an SLA apparatus from interfering with features in the parts, a structural shield such as a dome may be place around the feature and then discarded at the conclusion of the SLA process.
US08077891B2

A method for wirelessly adjusting one or more hearing devices (1, . . . , 3) with a central unit (4) is presented, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a wireless network (6) wirelessly connecting the central unit (4) to hearing devices (1, . . . , 3), which are responsive to said wireless network (6), detecting said hearing devices (1, . . . , 3), identifying one or more of the detected hearing devices (1, . . . , 3, selecting one or more of the identified hearing devices (1, . . . , 3), establishing a wireless link from the central unit (4) to at least one of the identified hearing devices (1, . . . , 3), and adjusting the at least one identified hearing device (1, . . . , 3). Therewith, an audiologist is able to unambiguously assign one or two hearing devices (1, . . . , 3) in a fitting session, even if multiple hearing devices are within the range of the wireless network (6) or wireless transmitter, respectively.
US08077890B2

A user programmable hearing aid allows a user to select acoustical configuration programs that provide optimum performance for the user. The user may cycle through and evaluate various available programs by operating a single digital rocker switch on the hearing aid housing to switch from one program to the next. When a preferred program is active, the user can press and hold an up control or down control of the digital rocker switch for an extended time to select the currently active program. The user can then use the digital rocker switch to adjust the audio gain for the selected program. The hearing aid may also operate in a Configuration Mode wherein configuration settings may be changed by operating the up and down controls of the digital rocker switch. In the Configuration Mode, a clinician or patient may easily change configuration settings manually, with no need to connect the apparatus to a computer or other programming interface.
US08077879B2

When an abnormality occurs in a supply circuit and its output is decreased, a protect circuit detects the abnormality and outputs a protect signal to an audio circuit. The audio circuit upon detection of the protect signal stops outputting audio so that outputting of an audio noise due to a deficiency in the supplied voltage is prevented. Meanwhile, when no abnormality occurs in the supply circuit, a microcomputer controls the audio circuit by supplying it with such a signal as to allow it to output an audio, or to increase the audio volume, or with a mute signal.
US08077877B1

A courtesy announcement system and method for broadcasting messages audially and visually having a central database server connected to operator workstation computers. Announcements stored and maintained in the database server can be accessed, viewed, modified, and replayed by any of a plurality of operators located at the workstation computers. Operators receive and construct announcements to be broadcast using announcement templates and the broadcasts can be multi-lingual even if the operator is not multi-lingual. Announcement templates includes pre-translated variables, and optional announcement delivery settings permit the operator to conduct the destination of the announcements, when the announcement should be broadcast, and start times for broadcast, among other settings.
US08077876B2

A delivery system is disclosed, which has a transmission apparatus and a plurality of reception terminals communicably connected through a network. The transmission apparatus includes a correction section which pre-obtains a plurality of types of correction coefficients according to acoustic characteristics of the plurality of reception terminals and forms a plurality of corrected audio signals based on an audio signal and the correction coefficients; a conversion section which converts the plurality of corrected audio signals into a plurality of pieces of delivery data; and a delivery server which delivers the delivery data to the reception terminals through the network. Each of the reception terminals includes a communication section which communicates with the transmission apparatus. The transmission apparatus delivers to the reception terminals the delivery data according to the acoustic characteristics thereof.
US08077873B2

An active noise control system generates an anti-noise signal to drive a first speaker group including at least one speaker to produce sound waves to destructively interfere with an undesired sound in at least one quiet zone. The active noise control system receives error signals representative of a combination of undesired sound and destructively interfering sound waves produced by the first speaker group. The active noise control system may select a second speaker group to replace the first speaker group based on the error signals.
US08077871B2

A content processing apparatus includes a read unit which reads encrypted key information from a recording medium, a decryption unit which decrypts the encrypted key information with a device key and dynamic information to obtain key information containing content keys, an update unit which updates the dynamic information, a key information processing unit which updates the key information by extracting a content key corresponding to a move target content from the key information, and removing the content key from the key information, a first encryption unit which encrypts the updated key information with the device key and the updated dynamic information, a second encryption unit which encrypts the content key with a shared key, and a write unit which overwrites the updated encrypted key information on the encrypted key information in the medium and writes the encrypted content key in the medium.
US08077861B2

A data input is divided into two segments; the second segment is also divided into groups. Bits in the first segment are used to control the application of permutation functions to bit groups in the second segment. The transformed data is assembled from the first segment and the permuted groups of the second segment. This data transformation can be applied in combination with a key derivation algorithm, a key wrapping algorithm, or an encryption algorithm to enhance the security of these other applications.
US08077856B2

Driver circuit for driving a transmit signal for a line comprising a signal amplifier which delivers a transmit signal, present at a signal input of the signal amplifier, amplified with a gain to a signal output, a line interface circuit which is connected between the signal output of the signal amplifier and the line, and comprising a hybrid circuit which is connected to the line interface circuit, wherein the hybrid circuit suppresses the transmit signal and couples a received signal received via the line to a signal input of the signal amplifier for the purpose of impedance synthesis.
US08077854B2

An electronic device and a protection cover thereof are provided. The electronic device includes a cap body, a main body, a flexible printed circuit board and a protection cover. The protection cover includes a receiving portion and a combining portion. The receiving portion has a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is coupled to an upper surface of the main body and the second end connects to the combining portion. As the cap body moves from a first position to a second position on the main body, the combining portion is coupled to a bottom surface of the cap body, so that when the cap body rotates in the second position, the protection cover moves along with the cap body and covers the flexible printed circuit board.
US08077853B2

A VoIP adapter for POTS a phone comprises: a POTS phone connector, an IP network interface, two sets of signaling senders, signaling receivers, media senders and media receivers for the POTS phone and the IP network respectively, and a controller for controlling the operations of above components. The VoIP adapter enables the user to carry out VoIP communications using a normal POTS phone and further enables use of advanced VoIP functions via the normal POTS phone, such as Call Hold, Call Transfer, Ad Hoc Conference, etc.
US08077851B2

A Personal-CFC system and method is described for controlling a multiplicity of telephones, for providing extended feature sets globally to all such telephones and for routing of media-rich calls between such telephones and multimedia equipment. The Personal-CFC is a software program that is easily embedded in various devices and it requires no hardware. For example, a mobile Personal-CFC system can be incorporated into a PDA or PC. The end user can use the Personal-CFC system to control other telephones, such as conference telephones, that do not belong to the end user.
US08077849B2

Methods and apparatuses to block calls from reaching destinations. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving a call for a connection to an entity via a reference; based on the reference used for the call, determining a reference of the entity; determining whether the call is to be blocked; and responsive to a determination that the call is not to be blocked, establishing the connection to the entity using the reference of the entity.
US08077848B2

Certain embodiments of the invention provides a method and system for 7-digit dialing in a 10-digit mandatory dialing area. Aspects of the invention may include collecting a dialed string of digits corresponding to a directory number for a dialed call and determining whether an area code should be pre-pended to the collected dialed string of digits. The area code may be transparently pre-pended to a 7-digit dialed directory number if it is determined that the call is for a local area in order to conform with mandatory 10-digit dialing. Otherwise, 10-digits may be collected and used to route the call.
US08077838B2

A method and voice communicator to provide a voice communication is described. The method may include identifying text to be communicated and automatically processing the text to generate an audio equivalent of the text. For example, the text may be scraped from a web page. The method may include identifying an intended recipient of the audio equivalent and thereafter communicating the audio equivalent as a telephone communication (e.g., a voice mail message in a voice mailbox). Thus, identifying the intended recipient may include requesting a telephone number of a sender (caller) of the voice communication. In an embodiment, the method comprises monitoring selection by a user of a contact list available on the voice communicator wherein the contact list includes a plurality of recipient names and their associated telephone numbers. The audio equivalent is communicated to the recipient device over, for example, PSTN or VoIP network.
US08077837B1

Voicemail systems and methods for managing voicemail systems are provided herein. The subject voicemail systems provide a plurality voicemail greeting, each of which are associated with a context tag. The context tag can be, for example, a location, a device parameter, an account parameter, a network parameter, or any other contextual information. Upon receipt of a change in a context tag, the voicemail system determines a new voicemail greeting associated with the new context tag and sets the new voicemail greeting to the active voicemail greeting.
US08077836B2

Transparent voice registration of a party is provided in order to provide voice verification for communications with a service center. Verbal communication spoken by a party during interaction between the party and an agent of the service center is captured. A voice model associated with the captured communication is created and stored in order to provide voice verification during a subsequent call to the service center. When a requester contacts the service center, a comparison of the voice of the requester and a voice model of the person that the requester claims to be is performed, in order to verify the identity of the requester. Additionally, a voice model associated with a party is automatically updated after a subsequent communication between the party and the service center.
US08077825B2

A method is disclosed for acquiring measured data by way of a computed tomography system, wherein the measured data is acquired by a detector unit disposed opposite the radiation source during a rotation of a radiation source around an examination object. In at least one embodiment, the rotation is subdivided into succeeding time segments during each of which measured data is acquired, and each of the succeeding time segments has either a first length or a second length consisting of two predefined lengths.
US08077823B2

A clamp assembly for securing a thermal sleeve and an elbow in a pipe assembly in a nuclear reactor. The clamp assembly comprises a sleeve clamp adapted to be arranged surrounding the elbow at a first joint between the elbow and a thermal sleeve, and comprising a sleeve support adapted to extend across the first joint. The clamp assembly comprises at least one clamp arm with a first end arranged to rest against at least one of a core shroud and a core plate support ring, to provide support for the positioning of the sleeve clamp.
US08077822B2

An apparatus comprising a programmable frequency device adapted to generate a reference clock selected from a set of distinct frequency clocks, wherein the programmable frequency device is further adapted to maintain the same temporal relationship of the triggering edges of the reference clock when switching between the distinct frequency clocks. The apparatus further comprises a phase locked loop (PLL), such as a digital PLL (DPLL), that uses the selected reference clock to establish a predetermined phase relationship between an input signal and an output signal. By maintaining substantially the same temporal relationship of the reference clock when switching between distinct frequency clocks, the continual and effective operation of the phase locked loop (PLL) is not significantly disturbed while changing the reference clock. This may be used to control the power consumption of the apparatus.
US08077814B2

A clock is adjusted by obtaining a first plurality of samples and a second plurality of samples associated with a preamble portion of a data packet. The first plurality of samples and the second plurality of samples are sampled using a clock. A first intermediate value is determined based at least in part on the first plurality of samples and a second intermediate value is determined based at least in part on the second plurality of samples. An ending value associated with an end of the preamble portion is determined based at least in part on the first intermediate value and the second intermediate value. The clock is adjusted based at least in part on the ending value without use of a second order timing loop.
US08077807B1

Circuits and methods are provided for adjusting a frequency of a local clock signal in approximating a frequency of a host clock signal. A phase locked loop generates a local clock signal having a first phase and a first frequency. An offset adjustment circuit receives timing information relating the local clock signal to an incoming data signal and calculates a phase offset and a frequency offset indicative of adjustments to be made to the local clock signal. A first phase interpolator generates a receive clock signal from the local clock signal, the receive clock signal having a second phase and a second frequency responsive to the phase and frequency offsets. A second phase interpolator generates a transmit clock signal from the local clock signal having a third frequency responsive to the frequency offset.
US08077806B2

The wireless reception device has automatic frequency control unit for detecting, from a reception modulation signal frequency-converted to the baseband, a frequency deviation component of a carrier wave between transmission and reception sides that is contained in the reception modulation signal and removing the frequency deviation component from the reception modulation signal, the automatic frequency control unit having a frequency locking operation state and a steady state following the frequency locking operation. The wireless reception device further has modulation component removal unit for generating a synchronization detection reference signal by removing the modulation component of the received modulation signal; and match detection unit that detects a mismatch between the synchronization detection reference signal and the frequency deviation component detected by the automatic frequency control unit, wherein, when the match detection unit detects the mismatch, the automatic frequency control unit are controlled to the frequency locking operation state.
US08077798B2

A DTV transmitting system includes a pre-processor, a block processor, and a trellis encoder. The pre-processor pre-processes enhanced data by expanding the enhanced data at an expansion rate of 1/H. The block processor includes a first converter, a symbol encoder, a symbol interleaver, and a second converter. The first converter converts the expanded data into symbols. The symbol encoder encodes each valid enhanced data bit in the symbols at an effective coding rate of 1/H. The symbol interleaver interleaves the encoded symbols, and the second converter converts the interleaved symbols into enhanced data bytes. The trellis encoder trellis-encodes the enhanced data outputted from the block processor.
US08077796B2

Systems and methods for utilizing new communication standards in wireless local area networks are provided that also support legacy wireless stations. The method can include user equipment determining channel state information, selecting a unitary channel decomposition precoder format based on the determined channel state information and transmitting the precoder format information to a base station. During a return transmission the user equipment can receive user data with the precoder format information and utilize a non-linear detector to demodulate and decode the user data. Based on the reception the user equipment can estimate channel quality; and transmitting channel quality information as feedback.
US08077791B2

Provided is a method for searching for an optimal coder suitable to a dual stream transmission method of a DTV transceiving apparatus, and an encoder and a decoder employing the optimal coder searching method. The optimal coder searching method includes the steps of: a) determining a mixed pattern of normal stream and robust stream; b) determining a trellis structure of the robust stream which is applied to the mixed pattern based on how coders are connected; c) forming a dual stream trellis by mixing a trellis of the normal stream, which is a normal stream trellis, and a trellis of the robust stream, which is a robust stream trellis; d) computing a free distance at departing points of the dual stream trellis structure based on a dual stream free distance computation termination condition; and e) determining the optimal coder based on the free distance.
US08077790B2

A first convolutional coder (building-block trellis coder) is used to establish a minimum squared Euclidian distance (MSED) between signal points within a coded constellation building block. A second convolutional encoder (tiling encoder) is designed to ensure that the building block's MSED is maintained between building blocks once they are tiled onto an integer lattice. When this approach is applied to the trellis code of the WiMAX standard, a 3 dB coding is realized. Recall that Wei's 16-state 4D code suffered from a 1.36 dB due to constellation expansion, resulting in a net 4.66 dB coding gain. Our building block approach recovers 1.33 dB of this loss with only a minor increase in coding complexity. We then use the building block approach to derive simpler and more powerful higher dimensional codes that provide further gains still over the Wei family of multidimensional codes.
US08077789B2

A method and apparatus is disclosed, for digital data transmission using higher order modulation schemes, wherein a plurality of bits is mapped to bit positions of a symbol and the transmission has different error probabilities for at least two out of the bit positions. Bits are selected from a data stream of original bits for repetition and repeated. Repeated and unrepeated bits are mapped to modulation symbols, wherein the mapping of bits to bit positions depends on the error probabilities of the bit positions and on the selection result.
US08077779B2

A method and apparatus for performing motion estimation in a digital video system is disclosed. Specifically, the present invention discloses a system that quickly calculates estimated motion vectors in a very efficient manner. In one embodiment, a first multiplicand is determined by multiplying a first display time difference between a first video picture and a second video picture by a power of two scale value. This step scales up a numerator for a ratio. Next, the system determines a scaled ratio by dividing that scaled numerator by a second first display time difference between said second video picture and a third video picture. The scaled ratio is then stored calculating motion vector estimations. By storing the scaled ratio, all the estimated motion vectors can be calculated quickly with good precision since the scaled ratio saves significant bits and reducing the scale is performed by simple shifts.
US08077778B2

A system, method, and apparatus for decoding and displaying images utilizing two processors and two memory units. The decode process receives images which are encoded according to a predetermined standard. Included with the encoded images are parameters which facilitate the decode and display processes. The decode process decodes the encoded images and the encoded parameters and stores each image in a separate image buffer, and each set of associated parameters in a buffer descriptor structure associated with the image buffer. The decode process is carried on by the first processor. The display process utilizes the parameters associated with the image to determine the appropriate display order for each image, and then display the image accordingly on a display device, based on the associated parameters. The first processor carries on the display of the image on the display device. The second processor determines the display order for the images. The second processor and the second memory can be off-chip.
US08077775B2

A method of adaptively adjusting a QP of a video encoder to control output bit rate including estimating the QP based on a complexity of a previous frame and encoding bit rate information of a current frame to provide an estimated QP, determining a threshold value based on a video quality factor, a target bit rate and a complexity of a previous interval of the current frame or the same interval of the previous frame, and if the estimated QP is greater than the threshold value, adaptively adjusting the estimated QP using the threshold value, the target bit rate and the complexity of the previous interval. The method may include adaptively limiting a change of the QP between frame intervals based on a difference between the QP and the threshold value. Complexity information may be based on an average of minimum SAD values.
US08077769B2

A method of reducing computations utilizing a threshold to increase efficiency and speed of a video encoder is described. Computations of transform and scaling processes of a video encoder are able to be streamlined by utilizing one or more thresholds stored within one or more lookup tables. A selected threshold is compared with a value before scaling. If the value before scaling is less than the threshold, it is known that the coefficient will be zero and thus no further computations are required. Furthermore, the coefficient is set to zero. If the value before scaling is greater than the threshold, then further calculations are performed. The method is able to be extended to eliminate computations in forward transform as well. By skipping computations when the coefficient is zero, the method eliminates wasted computation power and time.
US08077762B2

A method for controlling operation of a multi-pair gigabit transceiver. The multi-pair gigabit transceiver comprises a Physical Layer Control module (PHY Control), a Physical Coding Sublayer module (PCS) and a Digital Signal Processing module (DSP). The PHY Control receives user-defined inputs from the Serial Management module and status signals from the DSP and the PCS and generates control signals, responsive to the user-defined inputs, the status signals, to the DSP and the PCS.
US08077760B2

Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to digital transponders. In one broad aspect, there is provided a digital transponder comprising: (a) an analog to digital converter configured to receive a real analog wideband multi-carrier signal and generate a real digital wideband multi-carrier signal from the real analog wideband multi-carrier signal, the real analog wideband multi-carrier signal spans M element channels, M being an integer greater than or equal to one; (b) a channelizer configured to channelize the real digital wideband multi-carrier signal into 2M channelized digital signals, the 2M channelized digital signals comprising M pairs of channelized digital signals, each pair of channelized digital signals comprising a primary channelized digital signal and a secondary channelized digital signal, the secondary channelized digital signal being an image of the primary channelized digital signal; (c) a switch matrix and signal construction module configured to generate a plurality of intermediate signals from only the primary channelized digital signals, the plurality of intermediate signals comprising pairs of intermediate signals, each pair comprising a primary intermediate signal and a secondary intermediate signal, the secondary intermediate signal being an image of the primary intermediate signal; (d) at least one synthesizer, the at least one synthesizer configured to combine at least one pair of intermediate signals to generate a real digital output signal; and (e) at least one digital to analog converter, the at least one digital to analog converter configured to convert the real digital output signal to an analog output signal.
US08077751B2

A bar-shaped semiconductor laser chip that can hold down a variation in oscillation wavelength is provided. The bar-shaped semiconductor laser chip has a nitride semiconductor substrate and a semiconductor layer formed on the main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate and including a plurality of laser chip portions. The plurality of laser chip portions are arrayed in the [11-20] direction. The main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate is a (0001) plane having an off-angle in the direction along the [11-20] direction. The central part of the main surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate has an off-angle of 0.05±0.1 degrees from the (0001) plane in the direction along the [11-20] direction.
US08077745B2

This disclosure describes techniques to allow for unidirectional disabling of audio-video synchronization. In particular, a synchronization command is defined for packet-based network protocols. The synchronization command can disable audio-video synchronization in a sending direction, a receiving direction, or both the sending and receiving direction. In this way, devices are given more control over audio-video synchronization, and can disable such synchronization in a unidirectional manner only, while maintaining synchronization in the opposite direction.
US08077744B2

The present invention is directed to a digital broadcast system and a data processing method. A broadcast signal in which mobile service data and main service data are multiplexed is transmitted and received. Then, in a broadcasting receiver, mobile service data identification information indicating whether the mobile service data of the broadcast signal provides an internet protocol (IP)-based service is parse from the broadcast signal. And the mobile service data is outputted by using the parsed mobile service data identification information.
US08077738B2

A method for routing packets sent from a user to the internet is provided for systems in which the user is connected to a private network. The method includes: extracting a source network address from the packet; using said source network address to retrieve a user profile for the user; examining said user profile to determine whether to route the packet through the private network or to route the packet directly to the Internet; and routing said packet according to said profile. This allows a user or network provider to choose whether to route packets destined for the Internet directly to the Internet rather than through the private network, thus preventing excessive network traffic on the private network.
US08077735B1

The invention is a method and system for mobile communications. A mobile communicator communicates with a network routing center. The communicator monitors each of two or more wireless carriers for a service characteristic. The communicator selects, based on the monitored service characteristic, one of the two or more wireless carriers. The mobile communicator can then communicate with the network routing center using the selected wireless carrier.
US08077729B2

An MPOA system for establishing communication by using layer 3 protocol on an ATM network, in which data about the layer 3 address of a source of data packets is added to an address resolution request packet which is transmitted in order to establish a shortcut VCC toward a destination of the data packets in each communication node and hence transmitted to the destination, and in the case of accepting the address resolution request packets to be transmitted in order to establish the respective shortcut VCCs toward the destination of the data packets, as for the same communication, from a plurality of the communication nodes, a shortcut VCC is established only between the destination and the communication node remotest from the destination on the network.
US08077727B2

A method may include determining a schedule of flush events for a queue and identifying whether the queue includes information associated with a partial data unit, the partial data unit being a data unit that is less than completely filled with data. The method may include identifying whether the queue should be flushed based on the schedule of flush events, and identifying that the queue includes the information associated with the partial data unit. The method may further include waiting for additional data to add to the queue, in response to identifying that the queue should not be flushed; and sending out the partial data unit, in response to identifying that the queue should be flushed.
US08077726B1

Techniques are described for maintaining a forwarding information base (FIB) within a packet-forwarding engine (PFE) of a router, and programming a packet-forwarding integrated circuit (IC) with a hardware version of the FIB. Entries of the hardware version identify primary forwarding next hops and backup forwarding next hops for the LSPs, wherein the packet-forwarding IC includes a control logic module and internal selector block configured to produce a value indicating a state of the first physical link. The selector block outputs one of the primary forwarding next hop and the backup forwarding next hop of the entries for forwarding the MPLS packets based on the value in response to the packet-processing engine addressing one of the entries of the FIB for the LSPs. Packets are forwarded with the PFE to the one of the primary forwarding next hop and the backup forwarding next hop output by the selector block.
US08077719B2

An access node run as a packet switching apparatus enables IP connection services for a plurality of access methods; e.g., relatively low-speed IP connection, high-speed IP connection, and mobile network IP connection. By using this apparatus of the present invention, cost can be reduced and upgrading to advanced access networks and access services is easily carried out. Provision of the above access nodes implements upgrade-type network services common for diverse protocols. Each access node retains a pathfinding table to which input port, input tunnel identifier and input session identifier entries in a set are registered per session. When routing a packet, by looking up the set of these entries matching with the packet, the associated output port, output tunnel identifier, and output session identifier are obtained. After processing for the packet, appropriate for one of the plurality of access methods and network services, the node forwards the packet over the routed path.
US08077717B2

The present disclosure discloses a method for providing multicast services, which includes receiving a multicast service request sent by a UE through an IMS network, obtaining the media transmission parameters of the multicast media streams, sending a response to the UE through the IMS network with the media transmission parameters carried in the response, and sending the multicast media streams corresponding to the media transmission parameters to the UE. Further, a system providing multicast services and a multicast service support system is disclosed.
US08077710B2

A wireless client device (e.g. a WSD) discovers vacant DTV channels using location information acquired from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. In one aspect of the invention, a wireless client device discovers vacant DTV channels through direct communication with a local DHCP server and a remote primary user database server. In another aspect of the invention, a wireless client device discovers vacant DTV channels from an access device that communicates with a local DHCP server and a remote primary user database server.
US08077709B2

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving configuration data at a particular node of a first set of multiple nodes. The configuration data includes data that indicates a particular zero or more instances for which the particular node is primary among multiple virtual local area network (VLAN) instances to be forwarded. It is determined whether a VLAN indicated in a data packet received at the particular node is included in the particular instances for which the particular node is primary. If so, then the data packet is forwarded. In another embodiment, multiple nodes are configured to perform as a single virtual node, and the single virtual node is configured to forward data packets for the multiple VLAN.
US08077698B2

A method slot and frame synchronization of in a wireless system, the method includes: processing samples and a pair of primary synchronization code forming sequences by a pair of serially coupled filters to provide primary results; finding, in response to the primary results, slots boundaries; processing selected samples and multiple pairs of secondary synchronization code forming sequences by at least a second filter of the pair of serially coupled filters to provide secondary results; wherein the selected samples correspond to the slots boundaries; and detecting secondary synchronization sequences included in a frame in response to the secondary results.
US08077696B2

A wireless communication apparatus for receiving a packet by detecting synchronization timing. The wireless communication apparatus includes: signal receiving means for receiving a transmission signal from a transmission source through an antenna; synchronization-timing detecting means for detecting synchronization timing using a timing detection field included in a header portion of the packet; synchronization-timing adjusting means for estimating and adjusting the amount of synchronization-timing shift detected by the synchronization-timing detecting means; and receive processing means for performing receive processing of the packet in accordance with the adjusted synchronization timing.
US08077693B2

Methods and apparatus for remapping and regrouping transmission resources in a wireless communication system. First, a set of new permutation algorithms based on Galois field operation is proposed. Then the proposed algorithms and the known Pruned Bit Reversal Ordering (PBRO) algorithm are applied to several of various resource mapping schemes, including slot or symbol level Orthogonal Cover (OC)/Cyclic Shift (CS) mapping, cell-specific slot-level and symbol-level CS hopping patterns, and subframe and slot level base sequence hopping patterns.
US08077691B2

A transmitter generates multiple composite pilots with a training matrix and a gain matrix. Each composite pilot includes multiple training pilots generated with multiple columns of the training matrix and scaled with multiple gain elements in a column of the gain matrix. The transmitter transmits each composite pilot via multiple transmit antennas. A MISO receiver obtains received symbols for the multiple composite pilots and derives an estimate of a composite MISO channel. For OFDM, the MISO receiver derives an initial impulse response estimate for each composite pilot, filters the initial impulse response estimates for all composite pilots, and derives a frequency response estimate for the composite MISO channel. A MIMO receiver obtains and processes received symbols for the multiple composite pilots based on the training and gain matrices and derives channel estimates for individual SISO channels between the multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas.
US08077688B2

The present invention discloses a method of user access authorization in wireless local area networks. The method comprises: when a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) user terminal is accessing a WLAN operational network, the WLAN operational network, while authenticating this WLAN user terminal, judging whether to allow this WLAN user terminal to access according to authorization conditions having an impact on the access of this WLAN user terminal, if yes, the WLAN operational network will determine the access rules of this WLAN user terminal according to the said authorization conditions; otherwise, the WLAN operational network will notify the WLAN user terminal about the failure. Different users can be controlled to access the network according to different authorization conditions, and be restricted by different access rules after getting accessed. Thus, the access control capability of a wireless local area network is enhanced and the working efficiency of the network is improved.
US08077685B2

A method and system for avoiding hanging Packet Data Protocol (PDP) contexts in a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network. A time-out period is included in a request message to create a PDP context. The request message is transmitted from a first GPRS Support Node (GSN) to a second GSN. The second GSN receives the request message and transmits a response message to the first GSN. If the second GSN is unable to create the PDP context within the time-out period, the response message informs the first GSN that creation of the PDP context has been aborted. A Network Service Access Point Identifier (NSAPI) may be included in the response message so that the first GSN may request the second GSN to delete the request for creating the PDP context after a N3-T3 timeout of the first GSN has expired.
US08077684B2

A wireless device is capable of communicating within a local area network (LAN) and a personal area network (PAN) concurrently, using a single wireless networking module or circuit. A wireless access point within an infrastructure-based network is used to manage the creation, maintenance, and termination of PANs within the LAN framework.
US08077680B2

A packet-switched handover from a first cell to a second cell in a cellular network is discussed. Packet-switched services are provided for a mobile station in the first cell based on a set of information relating to provision of packet-switched services and a protocol for handling provision of packet-switched services for mobile stations, said protocol being a protocol between a cell and a respective control network element. In a control network element relating to the first cell a first message is received, which indicates a request for a packet-switched handover for a mobile station. In response to said first message, a second message is sent to the second cell. This second message requests creation of a set of information relating to provision of packet-switched services for the mobile station in the second cell, and the second message belongs to said protocol for handling provision of packet-switched services for mobile stations.
US08077679B2

Method and apparatus for providing broadcast overhead information interleaved with a broadcast session in a transmission on a broadcast channel of a wireless communication system. In one embodiment, the information is stored at the receiver to provide quick updating when a user changes to an alternate broadcast channel. In one embodiment, the content server provides an identifier SDP_ID to distinguish among sets of protocol options description sets.
US08077678B2

A radio resource allocating method in an adaptive antenna system is provided. The radio resource allocating method includes selecting one user when there are one or more users allocable to a current spatial frame; calculating a sum of Modulation order Product code Rate (MPR) values with respect to users allocated a same radio resource including the selected user when a total transmit power of a Base Station (BS) is divided by a current spatial frame index; and allocating the selected user to the current spatial frame by taking into account the calculated sum and a sum of MPR values with respect to users allocated to a previous spatial frame. Accordingly, a system throughput or a scheduler performance can be maximized.
US08077664B2

Techniques for reducing the number of bits needed to specify the best precoding vector for each mobile station in a wireless communication network that employs multi-point transmission are disclosed. An exemplary method begins with the estimation of path loss between a mobile station and each of a plurality of geographically separated transmitter sites, each transmitter site having at least one transmitter antenna. Based on the estimated path losses, one of a plurality of pre-determined subsets (codebooks) of a pre-determined set of antenna precoding vectors is selected. A group index identifying the selected subset is then transmitted to the mobile station. Subsequently, a vector index is received from the mobile station, the vector index corresponding to a precoding vector in the selected subset, and data is transmitted to the mobile station, using the precoding vector applied to the transmitter antennas at the plurality of transmitter sites.
US08077662B2

Methods and apparatus are described that enable a deployment of a system of wireless nodes, e.g., femtocells, which can self-configure themselves into a balanced and optimized wireless network. In various embodiments, access points switch between a network monitoring mode in which network monitoring is performed and a communications mode in which the access point serves one or more wireless terminals and communicates traffic data to/from the wireless terminals. Traffic data transmission to wireless terminals are not supported in network monitoring mode. Based on information gathered from one or more access nodes while they operating in network monitoring mode of operation, access point configuration information is generated and one or more access points are automatically configured.
US08077659B2

Estimating a current location of a receiver in a MediaFLO™ (Forward Link Only) mobile multimedia multicast system comprises receiving digital signals comprising a MediaFLO™ superframe comprising orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols; performing slot 3 processing of each medium access control (MAC) time unit of a data channel to identify a transmitter identity (TxID) of each transmitter; identifying corresponding geographical coordinates of each TxID; regenerating the digital signals for each of the transmitters using a local-area differentiator (LID) and a wide-area differentiator (WID) of the transmitters; dividing the digital signals by the corresponding regenerated transmitted signal to obtain channel estimates between the receiver and the corresponding transmitters; detecting a first peak in the channel estimates to determine a distance between the receiver and the corresponding transmitters; calculating a time difference of arrival of the digital signals; and estimating a current location of the receiver.
US08077657B2

Briefly, in accordance with one or more embodiments, in wireless network, keep-alive type packets may be received from a remote application for a mobile station. A determination may be made whether the mobile station is in an idle mode. If the mobile station is in an idle mode, a determination may be made whether a port in a keep-alive type packet is recognized. If the port is recognized, an application server may respond to the keep-alive type packet on behalf of the mobile station so that the mobile station is not required to exit the idle mode to respond to the keep-alive type packets.
US08077653B2

A communication method, a mobile terminal and a computer program are provided. According to the invention, data streaming communication is performed to the mobile terminal, a communication connection request message is received from the network infrastructure in the mobile terminal, the reception of the communication connection request is indicated to a user of the mobile terminal, a first mode change command generated by the user is received in the mobile terminal, suspension of the data streaming communication is requested for on the basis of the first mode change command, and the communication connection is accepted on the basis of the first mode change command.
US08077651B2

Systems, devices, and methods are described for formatting packets for downstream satellite links. The generation of a broadband wireless signal is described, the signal to be transmitted between a gateway and subscriber terminals via satellite. Respective data link layer addresses for the subscriber terminals may each be associated with one or more shortened identifiers for use in lieu of the associated data link layer addresses. This addressing may be included in a stream encapsulation header for an appended data packet. One or more such headers and their appended data packets may then be encapsulated in a baseband frame for transmission within a physical layer frame. Data packets may be fragmented across physical layer frames, and a range of novel formatting techniques may be used to implement the fragmentation.
US08077645B2

A wireless communication terminal is provided. The wireless communication terminal including a first wireless communication section configured to operate in a first clock system; a second wireless communication section configured to operate in a second clock system different from the first clock system, and perform short-range wireless communication; and an asynchronous interface that mediates between the first wireless communication section and the second wireless communication section.
US08077642B2

A method includes transmitting a first signal over a network from a first communication link to a second communication link. The method further includes receiving a second signal with the first communication link from the second communication link. The method further includes canceling signal echo from the first signal present in the second signal with a digital echo canceller. The method further includes providing correction data from a memory array to the digital echo canceller during the cancellation of the signal echo. An associated apparatus is also disclosed.
US08077629B2

Techniques are provided herein for monitoring the performance of a satellite communications system, including techniques for determining the pointing loss of a plurality of user terminals in the satellite communications system using the isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the satellite.
US08077623B2

There is provided a method for routing a plurality of signals in a processor array, the processor array comprising a plurality of processor elements interconnected by a network of switches, each signal having a respective source processor element and at least one destination processor element in the processor array, the method comprising (i) identifying a signal from the plurality of unrouted signals to route; (ii) identifying a candidate route from the source processor element to the destination processor element, the candidate route using a first plurality of switches; (iii) evaluating the candidate route by determining whether there are offset values that allow the signal to be routed through the first plurality of switches; and (iv) attempting to route the signal using one of the offset values identified in step (iii).
US08077622B2

Systems and methods for load balancing services based on fewest connections by decreasing granularity of service selection as a number of fewest connections serviced by the services increases may include establishing, by an appliance, a set of identifiers corresponding to a number of connections serviced by a service, the set comprising a first plurality of identifiers each identifying a predetermined number of connections and a second plurality of identifiers each identifying a predetermined range of numbers of connections. The appliance assigns, to each service servicing connections, an identifier corresponding to the number of connections serviced by the service, at least one of the identifiers selected from the second plurality of identifiers. The appliance receives a request for a service, and forwards the request to a service assigned to the identifier corresponding to a fewest number of connections with at least one service assigned to the identifier.
US08077620B2

Methods and systems for processing a second request before processing of a first request has completed. The first request is associated with a first flow control credit type, and the second request is associated with a second flow control credit type. After a period of time, the second request is selected for processing based on the first flow control credit type and the second flow control credit type.
US08077609B2

The disclosure provides a system and method for providing a service in a packet-switched network at a selected Quality of Service (QoS) level. The method includes receiving a request for a service from a customer gateway at server connected to the packet-switched network; correlating the requested service to available network resources; and enabling the network to provide the requested service based on a result of the correlation.
US08077597B1

Spectral environment estimation systems and methods are provided for use with frequency hopped communications systems. A spectral sensor is configured to receive input signals from a signal aperture and to perform spectral estimations on the input signals to generate a frequency domain spectral estimate. Ordinary spectral characterization circuitry is configured to receive the frequency domain spectral estimate as an input and to produce an ordinary frequency domain spectral environment estimate based on the spectral estimate. Frequency hopping translation circuitry is configured to receive the frequency domain spectral estimate from the spectral sensor as an input and to produce a de-hopped channel domain spectral estimate based on the frequency domain spectral estimate. De-hopped spectral characterization circuitry is configured to receive the de-hopped channel domain spectral estimate as an input and to produce a de-hopped channel domain spectral environment estimate based on the de-hopped spectral estimate. Spectral environment integration circuitry is configured to generate an integrated spectral environment estimate, based on the ordinary frequency domain spectral environment estimate and the de-hopped channel domain spectral environment estimate, for use by networked communications systems or devices in controlling frequency hopped communications.
US08077596B2

Techniques for sending and receiving signaling in a wireless communication system are described. Multiple (e.g., eight) vectors of modulation symbols may be defined and may be orthogonal to one another. Multiple subscriber stations may share transmission resources and may simultaneously send different vectors of modulation symbols in the same tile. Each subscriber station may be assigned multiple sets of at least one vector of modulation symbols usable by that subscriber station to convey signaling, e.g., one set of three vectors for acknowledgement (ACK) and another set of three vectors for negative acknowledgement (NAK). Each subscriber station may send one set of at least one vector in at least one tile to convey a signaling value. Different subscriber stations may simultaneously send different sets of at least one vector in the at least one tile to convey their signaling values.
US08077585B2

An objective lens system for an optical pickup apparatus, includes in order from an object side: a first lens group having negative paraxial power P1 (mm−1); and a second lens group having positive paraxial power P2 (mm−1) for converging a light flux emitted from the first lens group on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium.
US08077582B2

The recording accuracy of information on an optical disc is increased.An information optical system (150) of an optical disc apparatus (110) enables a semiconductor laser (3) to sequentially output specific peak light (LEP) and specific slope light (LES) as an information light beam (LM) and enables the correction lens (162) to change the divergence angle of the specific peak light (LEP) so that an absorption change area (RA) by the specific peak light (LEP) can be positioned at a far position in the recording layer (101). Thus, it is possible to form an energy concentration area (RE) by the specific slope light (LES) in the vicinity of a target position (QG), and the recording accuracy of information on the optical disc (100) can be increased.
US08077580B2

An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus includes an optical pickup, a phase conjugate optical system, a disc cure optical system, and a defect discrimination optical system; and an optical detector that receives a light emitted from the defect discrimination optical system and transmitted through or reflected from an optical information recording medium. A reference light and a signal light emitted from the optical pickup are irradiated onto the optical information recording medium to record and reproduce digital information by using a holography.
US08077575B2

A method of recording information on a recording medium. The method includes determining whether an amount of information recorded in a user data area is equal to or greater than a predetermined value when a finalizing process is performed on the recording medium. The user data area is an area of the recording medium and is used for information recording. The method further includes padding an area subsequent to an area of the user data area in which the information is recorded, by recording dummy information, if the amount of the information is less than the predetermined value, and recording management information for managing the dummy information as a file, in the user data area, for dummy information that has been recorded halfway, if the padding is interrupted.
US08077574B2

An optical drive includes: an optical pickup; a preprocessing circuit which processes an optical signal detected by the optical pickup; nonvolatile memory having stored therein relation information which represents the relation of a signal balance with respect to a signal difference between a TE signal and an FE signal at the time of a predetermined operation of the optical pickup; and a central processing circuit which performs focus control of the optical pickup. The preprocessing circuit generates the signal balance of the optical pickup. The preprocessing circuit also obtains the FE signal and the TE signal with respect to the optical disc. The central processing circuit derives a phase difference and an amplitude difference from the signal balance and the relation information, and calculates, based on the differences and the TE signal, a FE signal suitable for the predetermined operation.
US08077571B1

Detecting a defect on a storage device is disclosed. Detecting includes receiving a signal read from a storage device, sampling the signal to obtain a set of signal samples, wherein the sampling starts at an arbitrary time, computing a defect value for a defect type using the set of signal samples, comparing the defect value with a threshold associated with the defect type, determining whether there is a defect of the defect type based at least in part on the comparison, and in the event that a defect is detected, outputting an indication associated with the defect.
US08077569B2

A device for controlling access to an optical disc includes a control word calculator and a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO). The control word calculator is arranged to calculate a control word corresponding to a radius where the optical disc is accessed. In addition, the NCO is arranged to generate an output frequency according to the control word, wherein the output frequency is utilized for accessing the optical disc. An associated method for controlling access to an optical disc includes: calculating a control word corresponding to a radius where the optical disc is accessed; and generating an output frequency according to the control word, wherein the output frequency is utilized for accessing the optical disc.
US08077568B2

An apparatus including sensors that aid in the location of a stylus within the groove of a rotating record. The location of the stylus corresponds to a portion of an audio waveform present at a unique location within the groove. Using the correspondence between the location of the stylus and the portion of the audio waveform, an external digital source may be synchronized with an analog waveform. A high speed digital data path connects a control unit including a turntable platter to signal processing unit. Software in the signal processing unit synchronizes the analog waveform and digital signals from the external digital source.
US08077566B2

Various embodiments herein include one or more of systems, methods, software, and/or data structures to test and evaluate unformatted optical media such as optical tape and optical discs. Advantageously, testing and evaluation can be performed earlier in the manufacturing process of the optical media to locate defects and/or other problems or issues with the optical media that can be addressed before additional manufacturing steps are performed and possible wasted. The systems and methods include at least two optical pickup units (OPUs), a first of which may be dedicated to writing digital data and the second of which may be dedicated to scanning, locating, tracking and/or reading the written data (when the optical media is moving in a first direction) in one of a plurality of manners. Information (e.g., optical signals such as sum, differential push pull and focus error signals) associated with the writing, scanning and retrieving of data at one or more locations or segments of the optical media may be used part of an analysis of one or more properties (e.g., signal to noise, signal jitter, thickness, roughness) of the optical media.
US08077564B2

A method for improving readability of an optical disc includes: changing a first control parameter of an optical storage apparatus that accesses the optical disc and obtaining a plurality of associated values of an index corresponding to the readability of the optical disc for respective changed/unchanged values of the first control parameter; setting the first control parameter to be an optimal value out of the changed/unchanged values of the first control parameter according to the index; changing a second control parameter with the first parameter set to be the optimal value to obtaining a plurality of associated values of the index for respective changed/unchanged values of the second control parameter; and setting the second control parameter to be an optimal value according to the index. The control parameters having their individual optimal values are utilized for further control during decoding. In addition, an associated optical storage apparatus is further provided.
US08077563B2

In a beam applying method, recording and reproducing operations are performed on an optical recording medium, in which a signal is recorded and reproduced by applying a beam thereto and which has a recording layer on which the signal is recorded, a quarter-wavelength plate formed below the recording layer, a polarizing plate formed further below the quarter-wavelength plate, and a reflecting film formed below the quarter-wavelength plate. The beam applying method includes the steps of; emitting a beam to be applied to the optical recording medium; and driving a quarter-wavelength plate inserted into an optical system serving to guide the emitted beam to the optical recording medium so that the optical axis direction thereof has a predetermined angle difference at the time of performing a recording operation and reproduction.
US08077554B2

The present invention relates to a stimulus-indicating device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for evidencing when a product has been exposed to a designated stimulus for a certain period of time.
US08077552B1

A visual alert device includes a keypad for a user to enter a primary follow-up time period for which a user desires to be visually reminded of its progressive expiration. Based on the entered primary follow-up time period, the visual alert device computes a preliminary and a final follow-up time value, which are associated with a level of response priority that is visually represented by the illumination of corresponding illuminable color segments. Thus, when a timer of the visual alert device reaches each of the preliminary follow-up time value, the primary follow-up time period, and the final follow-up time value, the corresponding color segments are illuminated to indicate the current response priority level.
US08077550B2

An electronic timepiece has a reception unit that can receive satellite signals transmitted from positioning information satellites and acquire time information and positioning information; a time zone data storage component that stores region data dividing geographical information for which time zone information is set into a plurality of regions, and time zone information for each region; a time zone information acquisition component that extracts a region containing positioning information acquired by the reception unit from the region data, and acquires the time zone information for that region; a time zone information display that displays the time zone information acquired by the time zone information acquisition component as a time zone candidate; an input device; a time zone information selection component that selects time zone information from the time zone candidates displayed on the display based on operation of the input device; a time calculation component that calculates the current time based on the time information acquired by the reception unit and the time zone information selected by the time zone information selection component; and a time display that displays the current time.
US08077547B2

The disclosure identifies method and apparatus for seismic exploration which may be used to provide improved positioning of land-based seismic sources in an array. Also described are methods which make use of the improved positioning to allow, in some examples, improved direction or distribution of the energy beam resulting from actuation of the sources. Some methods make use of the described techniques to steer the energy beam; and in some cases at each source or a distribution location, multiple shots will be taken to distribute the beam in multiple orientations relative to the central source point.
US08077544B2

Method for attenuating surface multiple reflections in dual-wavefield seismic data. In one implementation, the method may include: (a) performing wavefield separation on dual-wavefield seismic data to separate events in the seismic data into data sets according to ghost characteristics; (b) applying a multidimensional Surface-Related Multiple Elimination (SRME) to two or more of the data sets to yield an SRME result in a manner that retains surface reflection information affecting surface multiple reflections; and (c) repeating step (b) one or more times.
US08077534B2

A proactive noise suppression system and method for a power supply network of an integrated circuit. The system and method include receiving an IC event sequence to a memory element, correlating the IC event sequence to a storage location in a second memory element, the storage location including an anti-noise response signature, and utilizing the anti-noise response signature to proactively generate an anti-noise response in a power supply network in at least a portion of the integrated circuit at about the time of execution of the first IC event sequence. Anti-noise response signatures may be adaptively updated and/or created based on noise measurements made corresponding to execution of an IC event sequence by the integrated circuit.
US08077527B2

A method and system are provided for maintaining a virtual ground node of an SRAM memory array at a minimum level sufficient for maintaining data retention. A circuit can maintain the virtual ground node at a virtual ground reference voltage of VDD−(1.5*Vth), or maintain 1.5*Vth across the memory cells, where Vth is a threshold voltage of an SRAM memory cell transistor and VDD is a positive supply voltage. By tracking the Vth of the memory cell transistors in the SRAM array, the circuit reduces leakage current while maintaining data integrity. A threshold voltage reference circuit can include one or more memory cell transistors (in parallel), or a specially wired memory cell to track the memory cell transistor threshold voltage. The value of the virtual ground reference voltage can be based on a ratio of feedback chain elements in a multiplier circuit.
US08077525B2

A nonvolatile semiconductor memory device includes: a memory cell array configured to have a plurality of blocks arranged thereon, each of the blocks being configured by an assembly of NAND cell units, each of the NAND cell units including a plurality of nonvolatile memory cells connected in series and word lines configured to commonly connect control gates of the memory cells. A data erase operation is executed by first applying a pre-charge voltage to the word lines, then setting to a floating state the word lines in a non-selected block where erasure of data is not to be executed, applying a certain voltage to the word lines in a selected block where erasure of data is to be executed and applying an erase voltage to a well where the memory cell array is formed, thereby altering a threshold voltage of the memory cells in the selected block.
US08077523B2

A semiconductor memory device includes a transfer circuit and a control circuit. The transfer circuit which includes a p-type MOS transistor with a source to which is applied a first voltage and an n-type MOS transistor to whose gate the drain of the p-type MOS transistor is connected and the first voltage is transferred, to whose source a second voltage is applied, and whose drain is connected to a load. The control circuit which turns the p-type MOS transistor on and off and which turns the p-type MOS transistor on to make the p-type MOS transistor transfer the second voltage to the load and, during the transfer, turns the p-type MOS transistor off to make the gate of the n-type MOS transistor float at the first voltage.
US08077520B1

Methods, apparatuses, and systems for comparing threshold voltages of a plurality of flash memory cells to a plurality of reference voltages. A number of flash memory cells having threshold voltages that fall within each bin of a plurality of bins is determined. The plurality of bins each represent a plurality of threshold voltage ranges. A threshold voltage distribution of the plurality of flash memory cells is calculated based at least in part on the number of flash memory cells that fall into each of the bins.
US08077516B2

In response to a disagreement between a previously generated check code associated with previously programmed data bits and a more recently generated check code generated in response to a read command, the comparison process is changed, between i) a value representing accessed data and ii) a reference applied to such accesses to distinguish between logical levels. For example, the ratio of resistances characterizing input circuits of a sense amplifier and/or the read bias arrangement and/or a read reference of a memory integrated circuit is/are changed.
US08077498B2

A phase change memory cell may be read by driving a current through the cell higher than its threshold current. A voltage derived from the selected column may be utilized to read a selected bit of a phase change memory. The read window or margin may be improved in some embodiments. A refresh cycle may be included at periodic intervals.
US08077485B2

A circuit for transferring amplified resonant power to a load is disclosed. The circuit transfers amplified resonant power, which is generated in an inductor of a conventional transformer when serial or parallel resonance of a conventional power supply is formed, to a load through the conventional transformer. The circuit comprises: a power supply for producing and supplying voltage or current; a power amplifier for generating amplified resonant power using the voltage or current; and a power transferring unit for transferring the amplified resonant power to the load using a transformer.
US08077475B2

An electronic device is disclosed. One embodiment provides a metallic body. A first electrically insulating layer is applied over the metallic body and having a thickness of less than 100 μm. A first thermally conductive layer is applied over the first electrically insulating layer and having a thermal conductivity of more than 50 W/(m·K). A second electrically insulating layer is applied over the first thermally conductive layer and having a thickness of less than 100 μm.
US08077473B1

A lever assembly for use with electronic modules has a handle lever with a self-sprung cantilevered handle section. The cantilevered handle section can be flexed with respect to the non-cantilevered portion of the handle lever during module insertion to automatically engage a catch that prevents the handle lever from inadvertently or accidentally being released and unseating the module. Once the flexing force is removed, compression of the handle section remains at the catch, such that the handle section continues to apply leverage force in the closure direction to hold the module securely in place.
US08077472B2

A printed circuit board of the present disclosure includes a main body, a tin layer, and a solder mask. The main body defines a through hole configured for being connected to a grounding component. The tin layer is formed on a surface of the main body around the through hole. The tin layer contacts the grounding component. The solder mask is formed between a periphery of the through hole and the tin layer. The solder mask is configured to prevent tin cream of the tin layer from flowing into the through hole.
US08077470B2

A cover latch for a portable electronic device includes a housing member forming two latching protrusions, a cover member, a mounting panel secured to the cover member, two latching members pivotally positioned on the mounting panel, and a contact member slidably positioned on the mounting panel. Each of the latching members includes a latching portion for interlocking with one of the latching protrusions. The contact member slides relative to the mounting panel to pivot the latching members to release the interlocking of the latching portions and the latching protrusions.
US08077467B2

A mounting apparatus for a disk drive includes a tray, a bracket, and a latch member. The tray supports the disk drive. A resiliently deformable hook is formed on the tray. The tray defines two pair of first and second sliding slots. The bracket receives the tray and the disk drive, and defines a positioning opening. Two pair of posts are formed at two opposite ends of the latch member. The posts slide and rotate in the sliding slots. A positioning tab is formed the latch member and engages in the positioning opening to prevent the tray sliding out of the bracket. A blocking tab is formed on the latch member, and engages with the hook to remain engagement between the positioning tab and the positioning opening, and to disengage from the hook when the hook is deformed.
US08077464B2

Electronic circuitry comprises a circuit board (34) and at least one component (30,32) mounted on the circuit board (34), wherein the at least one component (30,32) generates heat in use, the circuit board (34) includes at least one aperture (48, 50) aligned with the component (30,32) or a respective one of the components, and the electronic circuitry is configured to provide, in use, a path for coolant fluid to flow through the or each aperture (48, 50) and past the at least one component (30,32).
US08077462B2

A cooling apparatus and method are provided which include an air-to-liquid heat exchanger and system coolant inlet and outlet plenums mounted to an electronics rack door along an edge of the door remote from the edge hingedly mounted to the rack. The plenums are in fluid communication with the heat exchanger and respectively include an inlet and outlet. Coolant supply and return hoses are disposed above the electronics rack and couple the inlet plenum to a coolant supply header and the outlet plenum to a coolant return header. The hoses are sufficiently long and flexible to open or close the door. A stress relief structure is attached to the top of the door and clamps the supply and return hoses in fixed relation to relieve stress on connect couplings at the ends of the hoses to the plenum inlet and outlet during opening or closing of the door.
US08077458B2

An electronic device includes a base, a motherboard having an electronic component, a fan unit, and an airflow guiding cover. The airflow cover includes a top panel and two side panels. An air channel is bounded by the top panel and the side panels. The electronic component is received in the air channel. The air channel includes opposite open ends. The fan unit aligns with one of the open ends of the air channel, to draw airflow in the air channel out. The top panel defines a plurality of through holes adjacent to the fan unit, to discharge a part of the airflow in the air channel out of the airflow guiding cover, for reducing change of the pressure gradient of the airflow, thereby reducing aerodynamic noise.
US08077454B2

A docking assembly for a computer. The docking assembly includes a base station, and a computer-support assembly coupled to the base station. A method for positioning a computer -support assembly for receiving a portable computer comprising moving away from a base station at least one engager member bound to a computer-support assembly. The base station and the computer-support assembly are rotatably coupled to an arm assembly. The method additionally includes moving the computer-support assembly away from the base station while rotating about the arm assembly, and positioning the computer-support assembly in a posture for receiving a portable computer.
US08077452B2

A face panel for a computer housing includes a face panel body and a cover plate assembly. The face panel body includes a surrounding wall having first and second engaging grooves, and a mounting hole. The cover plate assembly is provided in the mounting hole and is assembled to the surrounding wall, and includes a cover plate having a through hole and a first engaging hook for engaging the first engaging groove, and a locking member having a fixed block coupled to the cover plate, a slide block, and a resilient connecting portion interconnecting the fixed and slide blocks to provide the slide block with a restoring force. The slide block includes a second engaging hook for engaging the second engaging groove, and a press portion exposed through the through hole and pressible to enable the second engaging hook to disengage from the second engaging groove.
US08077450B2

A collapsible device includes a cover, a base, a connecting member pivotally mounted to the base, and two slide units. Each slide unit includes a fixing member fixed to the cover, and a receiving member fixed to the connecting member. The receiving member is received in the fixing member, and slidable relative to the fixing member.
US08077443B2

A capacitor structure is provided. In the capacitor structure, a signal electrode plate and an extension ground electrode plate are disposed on the same plane to form a co-plane capacitor structure. Due to slow wave characteristic, the resonance frequency of the capacitor structure is effectively raised and the capacitor structure may be applied in high frequency.
US08077440B2

An ESD protection circuit comprises a first supply line (VDD), a second supply line (Vss), an ESD protection device, preferably being configured as a transistor (MP), which is connected between the first and second supply line (VDD, VSS) and at least one pin (VA) connected to the first and second supply lines (VDD, VSS) via diodes D1, D2. The ESD protection device is controllable by a trigger voltage that is set by a trigger voltage setting circuit (RP, RD, Z1, Z2, Z3). The ESD protection circuit comprises a trigger circuit (1) being connected to the at least one pin (VA) and providing pin specific trigger voltages, wherein the trigger circuit (1) is further connected to the trigger voltage setting circuit.
US08077431B2

A sickle-shaped disk drive spoiler for reducing turbulence of airflow in a hard disk drive is provided. The sickle-shaped spoiler is configured to direct airflow generated by a rotating disk and includes a tapered first end portion configured to direct the airflow toward the inner diameter of the disk and to reduce the airflow on the side of the disk opposing the spoiler.
US08077429B2

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention relate to greatly decreasing vibrations of a rotary disk at a portion where vibration on the disks is to be suppressed in a vibration-suppressing mechanism for rotary disks while enabling the rotary disks to be incorporated in the shroud surface. In one embodiment, the vibration-suppressing mechanism for rotary disks comprises at least one rotary disk and a shroud surface extending along and facing the outer circumferential edges of the disk. The shroud surface is so formed as to possess a portion where a gap between the outer circumferential edge of the disk and the shroud surface becomes small near a portion where the vibration of the disk is to be suppressed.
US08077426B2

A system and method are described for aligning a data axis of one or more circular data-bearing tracks on an annular surface region of a magnetic media-bearing disk, with a spin axis of a spindle of a spinstand or a disk drive. The data axis is perpendicular to the surface region of the disk and the data tracks are concentric with respect to a data axis.
US08077424B2

A magnetic device includes a read sensor, a writer and a synchronization sensor. The magnetic device is configured for writing information to and reading information from a magnetic medium that includes a plurality of discrete magnetic bits. The writer includes a write element, a first return element magnetically coupled to the write element, and a second return element magnetically coupled to the write element. The write element is positioned in between the first and second return elements. The synchronization sensor is located adjacent to the write element of the writer in a closely spaced arrangement, and is configured to generate a signal as a function of a sensed magnetic bit. The signal is used to position the writer element relative to the sensed magnetic bit.
US08077423B1

In one embodiment, the present invention includes an apparatus that includes a circuit that generates control information that controls a height of a read head of a disk drive. The circuit comprises a filter circuit and a detector circuit. The filter circuit receives a read channel signal from the read head and generates a filtered signal. The filtered signal ranges between 1.0 kHz and 500 kHz. The detector circuit receives the filtered signal and generates the control information when the filtered signal exceeds a defined threshold.
US08077422B1

Methods, systems and computer program products for launching one or more reference spiral sets using different tracks are described. In some implementations, a method can be used that includes writing a first spiral set starting at a first track and determining a radial offset. Then a second track is determined based on the radial offset. A second spiral set is also written starting at the second track. A spiral set-to-wedge ratio is determined based on a number of spiral sets to be written. Subsequently, servo information can be written using the first spiral set and the second spiral set. The servo information can include one or more sets of servo wedges, which can be written based on the spiral set-to-wedge ratio.
US08077420B2

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for adaptive control and/or use of a vibration sensor in a hard disk drive (HDD). The HDD, an assembled circuit board and a control circuit are disclosed. The control circuit is configured to electrically couple to piezoelectric devices and includes a sensor interface and a processor. The processor may be configured to receive a sensor reading from the sensor interface and may further be configured to send a gain control signal and/or an input selection signal to the sensor interface. The sensor interface includes pads for electrically coupling to the piezoelectric devices. The sensor interface may respond to the gain control signal by altering a gain of a signal from one pad used and/or may respond to the input selection signal in certain states by disabling one of these signals from affecting the sensor reading. Manufacturing by calibration of the gain control is disclosed.
US08077412B2

An interchangeable lens unit comprises a second lens group support unit, a focus lens, a focus lens support frame, and a focus drive unit. The second lens group support unit supports the focus lens support frame movably in the Z-axis direction and has second cam pins disposed spaced apart around an optical axis. The focus drive unit is a unit for driving the focus lens support frame in the Z-axis direction with respect to the second lens group support unit and is disposed at a different position from those of the second cam followers when viewed in the Z-axis direction.
US08077401B2

A catadioptric imaging system combines a rectifying mirror, a lens system and subsequent image processing. This approach can produce a small form factor desktop document imaging system capable of producing high-quality, high-resolution images of paper documents.
US08077399B1

A four-piece imaging lens module includes a fixed aperture diaphragm, a first lens, a second lens, a third lens and a fourth lens arranged from an object side to an image side in a sequence of: the diaphragm; the first lens of a positive refractive power, having a convex surface on the object side and at least one aspheric surface; the second lens of a negative refractive power with a meniscus shape, having a convex surface on the image side and at least one aspheric surface; the third lens of a positive refractive power with a meniscus shape, having a concave surface on the object side and at least one aspheric surface; the fourth lens of a positive refractive power, having a concave surface on the image side and at least one aspheric surface. The invention is to provide a four-piece imaging lens module with higher definition and higher yield rate.
US08077397B2

A zoom lens includes, in order from an enlargement conjugate side to a reduction conjugate side, a first lens unit of negative refractive power; a second lens unit of positive refractive power; a third lens unit of positive refractive power, the third lens unit having at least three lens elements; a middle lens unit including at least one lens unit; and a last lens unit of positive refractive power. All the lens units, except the first lens unit and the last lens unit, move during zooming. The zoom lens satisfies appropriate conditions.
US08077394B2

A glass lens array module with alignment fixture and a manufacturing method thereof are revealed. A glass lens array is produced by multi-cavity glass molding and alignment members are arranged on a peripheral of non-optical area of the glass lens array. Optical axis of each of two adjacent glass lens arrays is aligned by corresponding alignment members and the glass lens arrays are assembled by glue. A spacer is disposed between the two adjacent glass lens arrays to form a preset interval if needed. Thus a glass lens array module is formed after curing of the glue. Thereby the alignment of the optical axis of the glass lens is achieved easily and optical precision is also attained. Moreover, the manufacturing processes are simplified and the cost is reduced.
US08077383B2

An optical amplifier including: a first amplifying unit amplifying an input light by utilizing a first excitation light and thereby outputting a first amplified light; a second amplifying unit amplifying the first amplified light by utilizing a second excitation light and thereby outputting a second amplified light; and a control unit detecting a first absorption rate of the first excitation light and a second absorption rate of the second excitation light, and controlling a level of the first excitation light and a level of second excitation light based on the first absorption rate and the second absorption rate. The first absorption rate corresponds to a ratio of the first excitation light absorbed in the first amplifying unit, and the second absorption rate corresponds to a ratio of the second excitation light absorbed in the second amplifying unit.
US08077382B2

Provided is a gain-clamped (GC) optical amplifier using a fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) having a Raman cavity. The FRA having a Raman cavity comprises a Raman fiber module (RFM) amplifying and outputting an input optical signal and a resonant cavity generating a Raman laser and a gain clamping laser (GC laser), wherein the resonant cavity is formed as a feedback loop between an input terminal and an output terminal of the RFM. Accordingly, a gain of an optical signal propagating along a core of RFM keeps a constant value regardless of input signal intensity by generating the GC laser for gain clamping between a wavelength band of the Raman laser and a gain band of input signals.
US08077379B2

Broad band white color can be achieved in MEMS display devices by incorporating a material having an extinction coefficient (k) below a threshold value for wavelength of light within an operative optical range of the interferometric modulator. One embodiment provides a method of making the MEMS display device comprising depositing said material over at least a portion of a transparent substrate, depositing a dielectric layer over the layer of material, forming a sacrificial layer over the dielectric, depositing an electrically conductive layer on the sacrificial layer, and forming a cavity by removing at least a portion of the sacrificial layer. The suitable material may comprise germanium, germanium alloy of various compositions, doped germanium or doped germanium-containing alloys, and may be deposited over the transparent substrate, incorporated within the transparent substrate or the dielectric layer.
US08077375B2

A system and method for producing an 8-QAM-modulated signal are disclosed. The methodology, in an exemplary expedient, generally comprises splitting light from a CW laser into two parts; modulating the first part with a first signal and modulating the second part with a second signal; phase shifting the modulated second part by about π/4; combining the modulated first part with the phase shifted and modulated second part to produce a four-level modulated signal; and phase modulating the four-level modulated signal with a third signal with a phase modulation of (0, π/2). Several variations of this method are described herein.
US08077357B2

As provided herein, there are supplied teachings to systems and methods for resizing a digital uniform rosette halftone image composed of multiple colorant separations, by using uniform rosette halftone tile parameters. One approach entails receiving into a digital imaging system, a digital uniform rosette halftone image and a desired resizing factor for that digital uniform rosette halftone image. Subsequently the system will define uniform rosette cells within the color uniform rosette digital halftone image. From the defined uniform rosette cells, a number of uniform rosette halftone tile seams are determined for manipulation. The orientation of the number of uniform rosette halftone tile seams is dictated by the received desired resizing factor. An energy map of the digital uniform rosette halftone image is determined according to an energy metric derived from the multiple colorant separations. The energy of the number of uniform rosette halftone tile seams within the energy map is determined so as to provide indication of at least one low energy determined uniform rosette halftone tile seam. A resizing of the uniform rosette halftone image by manipulating the at least one low energy determined uniform rosette halftone tile seam is performed so as to obtain a resized uniform rosette halftone image. The resized uniform rosette halftone image may then be printed on a printer.
US08077354B2

According to the present invention, a print control apparatus for displaying a print preview, comprises the units adapted to: spool print data created by application; issue a rendering instruction of the spooled print data to a graphic engine together with output information indicating one of a preview setting and a print setting; return a response about one of a color profile for previewing when the output information indicates the preview setting and a color profile for printing when the output information indicates the print setting, as a response to an inquiry about a color profile from the graphic engine that receives the rendering instruction; and display image data rendered by the graphic engine when the output information indicates the preview setting, and outputting the rendered image data to the printer when the output information indicates the print setting.
US08077347B2

An image forming apparatus has a scanning unit capable of forming a plurality of lines of an image simultaneously by scanning, in a main scanning direction, laser beam that has been emitted from a plurality of laser emitting devices. The apparatus has a memory for storing an error characteristic, in a sub-scanning direction with respect to an ideal scanning line in the main scanning direction, of a scanning line scanned by the scanning unit. A line on which image data is read out is changed over in accordance with a line changeover position in the main scanning direction based upon the error characteristic and a revised pixel position in the main scanning direction in the image data.
US08077346B2

The invention provides, as a first aspect thereof, a gap adjustment apparatus that includes: a recording section; a guide axis that supports the recording section in such a manner that the recording section can move while facing a recording target medium, the guide axis being able to move in such a manner that a gap between the recording section and the recording target medium can be adjusted; a cam section that is either provided directly on the guide axis or provided not directly on the guide axis so as to engage indirectly with the guide axis, the cam section being able to rotate so as to move the guide axis; a rotatable member that rotates together with the cam section; an arm section that is provided either as a part of or on the rotatable member and substantially radiates out from a rotation axis line of the rotatable member; and a rotating section that is brought into engagement with the arm section as the recording section moves in a main scan direction and rotates the rotatable member by transmitting a force to the rotatable member via the arm section.
US08077331B2

Described are a printer and a method of controlling it, wherein when an out-of-paper error occurs and printing stops, a control unit clears any data in a receive buffer, and reports the out-of-paper error and print stoppage to a host computer. When a clear buffer command is then received from the host computer, the control unit clears the receive buffer again.
US08077327B2

Relative movement in X, Y and Z axis directions is made between a main spindle and a table 6 for application in a machine tool in which a work is machined. An emitting element 12 for irradiating laser beam 11 and a photosensitive element 13 are disposed on the table 6. A measuring tool 8 with its top end being shaped as a cone form is attached to the main spindle 4. The laser beam 11 is interrupted with the cone form portion 15 of the measuring tool 8 through relative movement between the table 6 and measuring tool 8 before and after machining a work. Detection signal of interruption is generated at the moment of interruption, position is detected, operation processing is performed so that difference in X, Y and Z axes before and after machining is obtained along with values for correction. Positional coordinate values for three axis directions are detected simultaneously with a measuring device of a simple constitution by use of laser beam and values for correction such as of thermal displacement is obtained by operation processing of displacement values.
US08077325B2

Structure profiles from optical interferometric data can be identified by obtaining a plurality of broadband interferometric optical profiles of a structure as a function of structure depth in an axial direction. Each of the plurality of interferometric optical profiles include a reference signal propagated through a reference path and a sample signal reflected from a sample reflector in the axial direction. An axial position corresponding to at least a portion of the structure is selected. Phase variations of the plurality of interferometric optical profiles are determined at the selected axial position. A physical displacement of the structure is identified based on the phase variations at the selected axial position.
US08077323B2

An optical fiber probe for an interferometric measuring device having a mechanical receptacle into which an optical fiber is inserted, having a fiber end piece which projects over the mechanical receptacle and contains optical components for guiding a measuring beam onto a measuring object, and having a reflection zone situated in the fiber for partial reflection of a light beam guided in the fiber. The reflection zone is situated in the fiber end piece. A method for manufacturing such an optical fiber probe. The fiber is separated at a predefined point, a partially reflecting coating is applied to at least one of the separation sites, and the two fiber parts are subsequently reconnected. The optical fiber probes may thus be manufactured with a long fiber end piece, which makes it possible to interferometrically measure deep cavities having a small diameter.
US08077319B2

An apparatus for observing the appearance of the surface (2) of a sample (1), comprising a light source (11) for illuminating said surface (2) from a predetermined direction and means for observing the surface (2). The means of observing the surface (2) comprise a number of substantial flat mirrors (8) located in different directions with respect to said surface (2). The means furthermore comprise an optical system (6,14) for observing said flat mirrors (8). Each flat mirror (8) reflects an image of the surface (2) of the sample (1) to the image receiving part (6) of the optical system (6,14).
US08077316B2

A chemical sensor is disclosed. The sensor has a test chamber for receiving chemicals in a gaseous state, the test chamber having two substantially transparent windows at first and second ends of the test chamber. The sensor uses a pulse operated ultraviolet light emitting diode at the first end of the test chamber emitting at a wavelength close to a maximum in the absorption band of a test chemical, and an electromagnetic sensor at a second end of the test chamber, the sensor being sensitive to the light emitted by the light emitting diode.
US08077309B2

An optical apparatus for measurement of industrial chemical processes. The analyzer uses Raman scattering and performs measurement of chemical concentrations in continuous or batch processes. The analyzer operates at a standoff distance from the analyte (or analytes) and can measure concentrations through an optical port, facilitating continuous, non-destructive, and non-invasive analysis without extracting the analyte or analytes from the process. The analyzer can measure one or several solid, liquid, or gaseous analytes, or a mixture thereof.
US08077307B2

Apparatus for optical inspection includes an illumination assembly, including multiple parallel rows of light sources for emitting light and illumination optics associated with each row for directing the light onto an object under inspection. The multiple parallel rows include at least a first row with first illumination optics including a first array of prisms that are configured to reflect the light emitted by the light sources in the first row, and at least a second row with second illumination optics including a second array of prisms that are configured to refract the light emitted by the light sources in the second row. An imaging assembly is configured to capture an image of the object under illumination by the multiple parallel rows of the light sources.
US08077303B2

A sensor may simultaneously sense the angular position of a first rotatable member relative to a frame of reference and the angular position of a second rotatable member relative to the first rotatable member up to a maximum displacement angle. The sensor may include a first and a second disk, each of which have an annular pattern which alternates between two different levels of optical transparency. The first disk may be coupled to the first rotatable member; and the second disk may be coupled to the second rotatable member. A lighting system may direct light toward the first and the second disks with an orientation that causes an annular illumination pattern to be cast upon an optical sensing array which corresponds to a composite of a portion of the first and the second annular patterns and which spans an angle that is less than or equal to the maximum displacement angle. An optical sensing array may provide signals indicative of the annular illumination pattern. The optical sensing array may have a length which is not substantially greater than the width of the annular illumination pattern cast upon the optical sensing array.
US08077297B2

The present disclosure is directed towards embodiments of systems and methods for discriminating (e.g., masking out) scale bands that are determined to be not of interest from a scalogram derived from a continuous wavelet transform of a signal. Techniques for determining whether a scale band is not of interest include, for example, determining whether a scale band's amplitude is being modulated by one or more other bands in the scalogram. Another technique involves determining whether a scale band is located between two other bands and has energy less than that of its neighboring bands. Another technique involves determining whether a scale band is located at about half the scale of another, more dominant (i.e., higher energy) band.
US08077294B1

Lidar systems and methods are provided. The lidar system includes an optical autocovariance receiver and one or more chemical composition sensors or processors, in addition to a Doppler signal processor for obtaining relative wind speed information. The additional processors may include a high spectral resolution lidar signal processor and/or a differential absorption lidar processor that receive input signals from the optical autocovariance receiver. Receivers that may be incorporated into the lidar system, in addition to the optical autocovariance receiver, include a depolarization receiver, a Raman receiver, and/or an Etalon receiver.
US08077292B2

A projection exposure method that projects the shape of a hole onto a wafer by projecting a diffracted light, which is produced by applying light to a mask having a pattern for forming a hole pattern, onto the wafer through a projection optical system for exposure, wherein, in a plane substantially perpendicular to an optical axis, the light applied to the mask has a first intensity distribution in which the intensity is higher in the vicinity of eight apexes of an octagon centered at the optical axis than in other areas, the mask has a plurality of first opening patterns are arranged in a rectangular lattice configuration having sides parallel to diagonals of the octagon passing through the optical axis, and a plurality of second opening patterns are arranged in a face-centered rectangular lattice configuration having sides parallel to diagonals of the octagon passing through the optical axis.
US08077291B2

A method for determining an offset between a center of a substrate and a center of a depression in a chuck includes providing a test substrate to the depression, the test substrate having a dimension smaller than a dimension of the depression, measuring a position of an alignment mark of the test substrate while in the depression, and determining the offset between the center of the substrate and the center of the depression from the position of the alignment mark.
US08077282B2

A liquid crystal display device that includes: a liquid crystal display panel configured by a pair of substrates sandwiching therebetween a liquid crystal material with a positive dielectric anisotropy; and a flat-shaped common electrode and a pixel electrode disposed on one of the pair of substrates with an overlay, via an insulator layer, between the common electrode and the pixel electrode when viewed from above. In the liquid crystal display device, the pixel electrode is extended in a first direction, and includes a plurality of comb-like electrode sections aligned in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, and the comb-like electrode sections of the pixel electrode are varied in width in the second direction for a plurality of times at intervals shorter than a side extending in the first direction.
US08077274B2

Described herein are the materials, mechanisms and procedures for optimizing various performance parameters of HPDLC optical devices in order to meet differing performance requirements. These optimization tailoring techniques include control and independent optimization of switchable HPDLC optical devices to meet the demanding requirements of anticipated applications for, inter alia, the telecommunications and display industries. These techniques include optimization of diffraction efficiency, i.e., index modulation, polarization dependence control, haze, cosmetic quality, control of response and relaxation time, voltage driving for on and off switching, and material uniformity. This control and independent optimization tailors properties of switchable HPDLC optical devices according to the specific requirements of the application of the switchable HPDLC optical device. The invention disclosed herein retains the desirable attributes of the multi-functional acrylate system for forming HPDLC optical devices, but adds new materials to the acrylate system and/or new process control to the recording to optimize performance parameters as may be needed for specific applications. This results in high optical quality switchable holograms with good diffraction efficiency and low, stable switching voltage.
US08077270B2

An array substrate includes: a base having an active region and a peripheral region adjoining to the active region; a plurality of signal lines disposed on the base; and at least one repair structure disposed on the peripheral region and having at least one first repair line and at least one second repair line having a first sub-line and a second sub-line. The first sub-line is located between the first repair line and the second sub-line. The signal lines have a plurality of groups; the first repair line crosses over at least two of the groups of the signal lines; and at least one of the groups of the signal lines is crossed over by only one of the first sub-line and the second sub-line.
US08077261B2

A correction characteristic storage portion stores coordinates (Xp,Yp) of a break point P and curve approximation range widths Wa and Wb. A basic broken line coefficient calculation portion calculates a coefficient C1 for a straight line OP and a coefficient C2 for a straight line PP′. An auxiliary straight line coefficient calculation portion obtains division points P and Q at which to divide two line segments AP and PB in the proportion in which a curve approximation range is divided by input data X, and calculates a coefficient C0 for an auxiliary straight line PQ. A range determination portion determines whether the input data lies within the curve approximation range. A coefficient selection portion and a primary expression calculation portion perform either correction based on the basic broken line or correction based on the auxiliary straight line according to the determination.
US08077251B2

This invention allows measuring the spectral state of an object more accurately even at low luminance, and implementing high-precision focus detection. A photometry apparatus includes a diffusing optical member which is inserted in the optical path of a photographing lens and has a diffusing surface, and a light unit which receives diffused light having passed through the diffusing surface, and has a first light receiving portion, and a second light receiving portion whose receivable light energy is smaller than that of the first light receiving portion. The first and second light receiving portions are so arranged as to make the parallax of the second light receiving portion with respect to the optical axis of the photographing lens smaller than that of the first light receiving portion.
US08077249B2

An imaging apparatus includes an imaging unit to pick up an image of a subject, a focusing unit to perform focusing on the subject included in an autofocus area in an imaging range of the imaging unit, a display unit to display an image obtained by picking up an image of the subject by the imaging unit, a display control unit to control the display unit to display an autofocus frame representing the autofocus area on the image, a position specification reception unit that is disposed to be superimposed on the display unit and receives user's position specification to the image displayed on the display unit, and a record control unit to record the image on a recording medium in a state where focusing is achieved on the subject when the position specification reception unit receives the position specification in the autofocus frame.
US08077248B2

A lead frame is buried in mold resin to form a mold structure. A wide blade is used to make an indentation having an alignment step in the mold structure. Then, a narrow blade is used to split the mold structure. At the outer perimeter portion of a base which is a separate part separated from the mold structure, an alignment step is formed. Due to the alignment step, an optical element, such as a mirror tube of an imaging optical system, or the like, is readily and quickly attached.
US08077234B2

An image pickup device has a signal processing part configured to perform signal process for the first to third color signals. The signal processing part includes a first color generator configured to generate a fourth color signal corresponding to a reference pixel based on a ratio between a second color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel and a first color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel, a second color generator configured to generate a fifth color signal corresponding to the reference pixel based on a ratio between a third color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel and the first color signal at a pixel located in vicinity of the reference pixel, and a image quality converter configured to generate color signals by performing a predetermined image process based on the first to fifth color signals.
US08077227B2

An imaging device and method for operating the device. The imaging device comprises a pixel array that comprises a plurality of imaging pixels and dark reference pixels arranged in columns and rows. The dark reference pixels produce a noise signal that is subtracted from a pixel signal produced by the imaging pixels to correct row noise. In addition, the imaging device may comprise a hot pixel filtering circuit that blocks the output from hot pixels.
US08077223B2

An image recording method for an image recording medium is used in an image display apparatus that changes an image on a light valve and changes quantity of light which is incident on the light valve via a light control element according to an input image signal. The image recording method includes accommodating a range of brightness information which an object to be imaged indicates, in an entire range of brightness information which an image recording apparatus can record in the image recording medium; and recording a light-control control signal for controlling the light control element when an image signal is recorded on the image recording medium. The light control element is generated on the basis of the range of the brightness information uniformly expanded, in synchronization with the image signal.
US08077218B2

Methods and apparatuses for generating a low dynamic range image for a high dynamic range scene. In one aspect, a method to generate a low dynamic range image from a high dynamic range image, includes: determining one or more regions of the high dynamic range image containing pixels having values that are outside a first range and inside a second range; computing a weight distribution from the one or more regions; and generating the low dynamic range image from the high dynamic range image using the weight distribution. In another aspect, a method of image processing, includes: detecting one or more regions in a first image of a high dynamic range scene according to a threshold to generate a mask; and blending the first image and a second image of the scene to generate a third image using the mask.
US08077208B2

This invention relates to programmable modification of image data of a small compact digital camera. In the method according to the embodiments of the invention sensor data is processed before transferring it to an image processing component. The sensor data is read out from a camera sensor several times during one total exposure time and a data entity representing the final picture is integrated from the sensor data read out during an individual exposure time. The sensor data and/or the data entity are analyzed before the data entity is transferable to the image processing component.
US08077207B2

A camera unit includes a display configured to display an image to be captured. An image sensor is configured to digitally capture the displayed image. A card reader is configured to read a removable data card carrying distortion information. A printer is configured to print a distorted image on print media. The distorted image is a version of the captured image which has been distorted in accordance with the distortion information. The printer includes a replaceable print roll carrying both the print media and ink to be printed upon the print media. A validation apparatus is configured to validate the replaceable print roll and enable the printer to print the distorted image only subsequent to validation of the print roll.
US08077205B2

A method of and system for calibrating an imaging device is described herein. An iterative method that attempts to find the best calibration parameters conditional upon an error metric is used. Regression is used to estimate values in a color space where the calibration is performed based upon a training data set. More calculation steps are required than would be for a regression in raw RGB space, but the convergence is faster in the color space where the calibration is performed, and the advantages using boundary conditions in the color space is able to provide improved calibration.
US08077194B2

A system and method for high resolution video conferencing is shown and described. A transmitting station and a receiving station including video cameras or sensors, a plurality of microphones and speakers, video, audio and communication processing engines are disclosed. Video is processed and transferred through the system allowing for multiple video streams to be produced and audio is processed and transferred through the system allowing for sound to be played back with an indication of position in relation to the videoconferencing system.
US08077190B2

An exposure head, includes: imaging optical systems which are arranged in a first direction; light emitting elements which are arranged in a second direction orthogonal to or substantially orthogonal to the first direction and emit lights to be imaged by the imaging optical systems; a first wiring which is connected with the light emitting element located at a first side in the second direction; and a second wiring which is connected with the light emitting element located at a second side in the second direction.
US08077188B2

A gamma correction device for a liquid crystal display device including LCD panels. The gamma correction device includes a storage device for storing gamma correction data corresponding to chiral directions of LCD panels. A chiral direction data acquisition circuit acquires chirality data on the chiral direction of a LCD panel arranged in the liquid crystal display device. A control circuit sets a gamma correction datum adapted to the chiral directions of the LCD panel arranged in the liquid crystal display device selectively from the stored gamma correction data based on the acquired chirality data. A gamma correction circuit performs a gamma correction process on image signals provided to the LCD panel using the set gamma correction datum.
US08077152B2

The instant disclosure provides and describes a magneto resistive element comprised of a first electrode; a second electrode; and a semi conductive/conductive organic layer disposed between the first and second electrodes, wherein the magneto resistive element has a predetermined resistance (R). The magneto resistive elements provide a magneto resistive response when influenced by an applied magnetic field. The magneto resistive elements can be integrated into a variety of systems including, without limitation, magnetic field detection systems and display devices.
US08077148B2

The present invention relates to a solar powered mouse. The solar powered mouse includes a mouse body, an optical sensor, an internal light source, a secondary battery, a lens and a power management device. The lens is arranged on the mouse body for focusing the external light beams on a solar energy module of the power management device. The light energy of these light beams can be converted into electricity required for charging the secondary battery of the solar powered mouse.
US08077135B2

A source driver of an LCD includes a shift register, a set of data latches, and a detection circuit. The shift register includes a plurality of flip-flops for transmitting a start signal. The set of data latches transmits the display data signal according to output signals of the corresponding flip-flops. When the start signal is recognized as a black insertion signal, the detection circuit resets the shift register, and drives the set of data latches to output the black data signal, and transmits the black insertion signal to the next source driver.
US08077125B2

Disclosed herein is a light-emitting device including: a plurality of light-emitting elements which emit light with light intensities according to the levels of driving currents; a plurality of current generation circuits which are provided in correspondence with the plurality of light-emitting elements, have a plurality of current sources, and combine currents output from the plurality of current sources to output the combined currents as the driving currents; and a plurality of memories which store control signals for controlling the currents output from the plurality of current sources; wherein the levels of the currents of the plurality of current sources are different from one another, and wherein at least one of the plurality of memories is commonly connected to the current sources corresponding to predetermined current in at least two of the plurality of current generation circuits.
US08077121B2

The present invention sufficiently reduces unwanted radiation in a plasma display panel (PDP) display device. The display device includes a PDP having a pair of electrodes, a first, a second, and a third conductive member, and a pair of driving circuits used to apply a voltage to their respective electrodes. Each conductive member has substantially the same width and height as the PDP, and the first, second, third conductive members are disposed on the rear surface of the PDP, in this order on the rear side of the PDP. The PDP and the conductive members are connected electrically to one another in the end portions of these elements, either directly or via the driving circuits, so that the direction of the current flowing in the PDP during driving and discharge coincides with the direction of the current flowing in the third conductive member, and is opposite from the direction of the current flowing in the first conductive member and the second conductive member.
US08077116B2

A multi-frequency antenna comprising an IMD element, one or more active tuning elements and one or more parasitic elements. The IMD element is used in combination with the active tuning and parasitic elements for enabling a variable frequency at which the antenna operates, wherein, when excited, the parasitic elements may couple with the IMD element to change an operating characteristic of the IMD element.
US08077114B2

The invention concerns a process for the production of an electrically conductive structure on a carrier substrate comprising at least two conductor track portions spaced in a region of a width b over the entire width b at between 500 μm and 1 μm and a multi-layer film body. A conductive layer in the form of the conductor track portions is produced on the surface of the carrier substrate. A metallic coating forming the electrically conductive structure is deposited on the conductive layer by application of a flow of current in an electrolyte which contains a dissolved coating metal. In the production of the conductive layer the conductive layer is additionally produced in the form of conductor track extensions which are arranged on both sides of the conductor track portions and which are convexly curved away from the oppositely disposed conductor track portion.
US08077107B2

There is provided an antenna apparatus including: a finite ground plane; a plate-like conductive element configured to include a first conductive plate disposed so as to oppose the finite ground plane and a second conductive plate that shorts a first edge of the first conductive plate to the finite ground plane; and an antenna configured to include an antenna element and a feeding point feeding power to the antenna element, which is positioned in the vicinity of a second edge in a side opposite to the first edge of the first conductive plate.
US08077103B1

A cup waveguide antenna with integrated polarizer and OMT for simultaneously communicating left and right hand circularly polarized electromagnetic waves is adjustable to obtain efficient propagation and reception of electromagnetic waves. The antenna includes a circular waveguide having an orthomode transducer utilizing first and second pins longitudinally spaced apart and oriented orthogonally with respect to each other. Six radially-oriented adjustable polarizer screws extend from the exterior to the interior of the waveguide. A septum intermediate the first and second pins is aligned with the first pin. Adjustment of the polarizer screws enables maximized propagation of and/or response to left hand circularly polarized electromagnetic waves by the first pin while simultaneously enabling maximized propagation of and/or response to right hand circularly polarized electromagnetic waves by the second pin.
US08077095B2

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a multi-band highly isolated planar antenna directly integrated with a front-end module (FEM).
US08077082B1

An antenna assembly for receiving the GPS signals in a global positioning system (GPS) receiver module automatically orients the antenna to better receive the GPS signals. The antenna is oriented by a positioner (e.g., a counterweight) that automatically rotates a frame on which the antenna is mounted. The GPS receiver module may also include multiple antennas oriented in different directions to maintain good reception of the GPS signals in any position. The multiple antennas are oriented in a manner so that the poor reception range an antenna is covered by other antennas. Signals from multiple antennas may be combined or chosen for processing by a GPS processor. Also, multiple GPS receiver modules may be deployed in close proximity so that wireless communication between the GPS receiver modules may be established. The GPS receiver modules with good GPS signals reception may determine its location and send its location information to the GPS modules with poor or no signal reception. The GPS receiver module receiving the location information from other GPS receiver modules may take the location as indicated in the received location information as its location or process the location information further to determine its location.
US08077074B2

Certain embodiments provide a network waveform system that can include multiple radars disposed at different geographical positions within an environment. The multiple radars may be configured to transmit a network waveform. The network waveform may include multiple radar waveforms. Each radar waveform of the multiple waveforms may be transmitted by a specific radar of the multiple radars. The system can also include a computer system coupled with the multiple radars that can include a processor and a memory. The memory may be configured to store information including data received from the multiple radars, data processed by the processor, and processing code executable by the processor. The processing code may include instructions to receive output data from the multiple radars resulting from the transmitted network waveform instructions to jointly process the output data from the multiple radars to determine a measurement of the environment based on the network waveform.
US08077073B2

A pulse detecting equipment includes a log compression processor (105) for logarithm-converting signal levels of a reception signal received at an antenna and input therefrom, with maintained frequency components of the reception signal as input, an AD converter (106) for converting the reception signal as logarithm-converted in signal level, from an analog form into a digital form, a first detector (110) for limiting the reception signal as converted into the digital form to a band of a prescribed first frequency, to obtain a signal, to detect signal levels thereof, a second detector (111) for limiting the reception signal as converted into the digital form to a band of a prescribed second frequency smaller than the first frequency, to obtain a signal, to detect signal levels thereof, and a pulse detector (113) for use of a result of comparison between signal levels detected at the first detector and signal levels detected at the second detector, to detect pulses of a prescribed frequency as a signal transmitted to own equipment.
US08077072B2

A system includes a radar unit configured to provide raw data from scanning an exterior of a structure; and a signal processing and imaging module configured to: process the raw data into markers of interior locations of the structure; and display an image of interior structural features based on the markers. A method includes: scanning a building structure from the exterior of the structure using a radar unit to provide raw data; processing the raw data into markers of interior locations of the structure; estimating locations of interior structural features of the structure from the markers; and displaying an image of the interior structural features.
US08077071B2

Systems and assemblies for simultaneous adaptive camouflage, concealment and deception are provided. The assemblies that can be used in the systems include a vinyl substrate layer and a miniaturized thermoelectric device array secured to the vinyl substrate layer. The miniaturized thermoelectric device array is configured to provide an adaptive thermal signature to a side of the miniaturized thermoelectric device array that faces outward from the vinyl substrate layer. A flexible image display matrix can be secured on the vinyl substrate layer. The flexible image display matrix can be configured to display visual images. A laminate layer can be secured over the vinyl substrate layer covering the flexible image display matrix and the miniaturized thermoelectric device array to provide protection and strengthen the assemblies. One or more nanomaterials can be disposed on the vinyl substrate layer or the laminate layer to provide thermal or radar suppression.
US08077064B2

A method for encoding an input sequence of symbols. The method includes, sequentially, for each symbol in the input sequence, determining an estimated probability for that symbol based on a context model, identifying a codeword associated with a sequence of symbols resulting from appending that symbol to a previous sequence of symbols associated with that estimated probability, using an encoding tree associated with that estimated probability, and storing the codeword in a buffer element of a first-in-first-out buffer, wherein the buffer element is associated with the estimated probability. Stored codewords are output from the buffer in a first-in-first-out order.
US08077060B2

According to one general aspect, an apparatus may include a terminal configured to receive an analog input signal. In various embodiments, the apparatus may also include a multistage amplifier configured to amplify the analog input signal by an amount of gain. In some embodiments, the apparatus may include a distributed threshold adjuster interspersed between the stages of the multistage amplifier configured to adjust the DC voltage of the analog input signal to facilitate a decision by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). In one embodiment, the apparatus may include the ADC configured to convert the amplified analog input signal to a digital output signal.
US08077059B2

The invention is a database adapter providing improved methods for storing and retrieving relational data. Suitable source data is structured as a table with a fixed number of columns of predetermined types and a variable number of rows. The invention reduces the space and time used to store data and the time taken to retrieve stored data. The invention is best implemented inside Object Relational Database Systems, but can also be implemented in any database that can execute routines written in programming languages such as C#, C or Java. Functionally, the invention combines the concept of nested tables with fast compression techniques so that nested tables are practical for solving a wide class of problems.
US08077058B2

A load control system is operable to control the amount of power delivered to a plurality of electrical loads from an AC power source. The load control system includes a plurality of keypads, which each may include a different button assembly having a different button configuration or multiple button configurations. Each keypad is operable to determine the button configuration of the button assembly installed on the keypad in response to simultaneous actuations of the top button and the bottom button of the button assembly for a predetermined amount of time. Each keypad is further operable to store in a memory of the keypad data representing the button configuration. Therefore, after the keypad is installed in the field and the button assembly is replaced, the keypad can be easily configured to operate with the new button assembly.
US08077040B2

The inventions involve material handling apparatus developed to operate in radio frequency rich environments. Articles are provided having at least one large compartment capable of enclosing at least one electronic device or a package populated with a plurality of devices. RFID tags are also provided having three antenna arrays situated on three planes to improve electromagnetic and electrostatic coupling with an external distributed network of devices. Pallets are provided with cellular communications devices to provide track and trace functionality. Sensors and actuators are used in connection with the material handling apparatus.
US08077039B2

This invention relates to a physiological sensor which acquires pre-programmed data from an electrode or an electrode array using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The source of the sensor may be authenticated by means of a wireless interface between an RFID transponder affixed to the electrode array, and an RFID interrogator embedded in the patient interface cable. The criteria for use are then verified to ensure that they are met by the electrode array before beginning signal acquisition. If the criteria are not met, a message is provided to the user via the monitor.
US08077038B2

A RFID monitoring system, which can be used to track and identify RFID tags and tag readers as they are used, can include a computing device including an RFID tag database for storing a list of authorized RFID tags that have been licensed by an intellectual property owner or licensee. The monitoring system may be configured to receive transmitted RFID tag data relating to the location, date, and/or time of detection of tags and other devices. Based on a statistical analysis of this data, the system can determine whether RFID tags and devices are authorized by a rights holder. Other features and embodiments are also disclosed.
US08077029B1

A portable alarm video recording and transmitting device includes first and second component units in wireless communications with each other, the first component unit includes illuminating apparatus for providing lighting and is in communication with audiovisual recording apparatus for capturing and recording pictorial images and audio generating recorded video images that are converted to an electronic signal that is transmitted to the second component unit's communicating apparatus. The second component unit includes an alarm circuit that includes communicating, location determining, and alarm notification apparatus, wherein the communicating apparatus receives the electronic signal from the first component unit's communicating apparatus and is in electrical communication with the location determining apparatus for determining the location of the second component unit and by extension the wearer, with apparatus for encoding the location in the alarm signal transmitted by the second component unit's communicating apparatus along with recorded video images to a monitoring station remote from where the wearer's location, wherein recorded video images may be monitored in real-time. Incoming alarm notification from the remote monitoring station may be received alerting the wearer of impending danger.
US08077028B2

An emergency alert system with the capability of providing audible alerts upon the detection of a possible emergency condition or a malfunctioning system component is provided. An audible alert may include voice phrases that are selected and output based, at least in part, on information associated with the possible emergency condition or malfunctioning system component. The noise in an area may be received and the volume of the outputted voice phrase may be changed based, at least in part, on the noise in the area.
US08077012B2

A system according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a first clock signal generator generating a first clock signal at a first frequency, and a second clock signal generator generating a second clock signal at a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency. The first clock signal is used to calibrate the second clock signal generator. An RFID device according to another embodiment of the present invention includes a crystal controlled first clock signal generator generating a first clock signal at a first frequency, a second clock signal generator generating a second clock signal at a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency, and an activate circuit. The second clock signal generator is inactive until activated by the activate circuit. The first clock signal is used to calibrate the second clock signal generator. Methods are also presented.
US08077004B2

An electrical device is produced by winding wires around a core. The device may be used as a transformer. Wires are inserted into, through and around a first hole and a first side of a core a desired number of times. Thereafter, the wires are extended along either a top or a bottom of the core and then passed through and around a second hole of the core. After the wires are wound around the second hole of the core and a second side of the core, the production of the device is complete.
US08077000B2

Disclosed are an electromagnetic bandgap structure and a printed circuit board. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the electromagnetic bandgap structure can include a dielectric layer; a plurality of conductive plates; a stitching via, configured to pass through the dielectric layer and have a part electrically connecting the conductive plates to each other by connecting through a planar surface that is different from a planar surface of the conductive plates, and a through via. Here, the dielectric layer, the conductive plates and the stitching via can be placed between any two conductive layers, and the through via can be configured to pass through a clearance hole formed in the conductive layer and electrically connect the two conductive layers to each other.
US08076994B2

A packaged RE power device includes a transistor having a control terminal and an output terminal and configured to operate at a fundamental operating frequency, an RF signal input lead coupled to the control terminal, and an RF signal output lead coupled to the output terminal. A harmonic reducer is coupled to the control terminal and/or the output terminal of the transistor and is configured to provide a short circuit or low impedance path from the control terminal and/or the output terminal to ground for signals at an Nth harmonic frequency of the fundamental operating frequency, where N>1. The device further includes a package that houses the transistor and the harmonic reducer, with the input lead and the output lead extending from the package. Multi-chip packages are also disclosed.
US08076988B2

Circuitry and methods are provided. Voltage and current of an electrical load are detected, scaled and biased to derive respective voltage and current signals. Frequency-modulated signals corresponding to the voltage and current signals are respectively derived. The frequency-modulated signals are communicated between different electrical domains by way of optical isolation barriers. The frequency-modulated signals are processed to improve linearity and to time-correlate the signals to discrete samplings of the load voltage and current. Control of a printer or other device is performed using the processed signals.
US08076984B2

A periodic signal generating circuit which is dependent upon temperature for establishing a temperature independent refresh frequency is presented. The periodic signal generating circuit includes a reference voltage generating unit and a periodic signal generating unit. The reference voltage generating unit produces a reference voltage which exhibits a variable voltage level in response to temperature. The periodic signal generating unit produces a periodic signal in response to a set voltage to determine the reference voltage and an oscillation period, wherein a transition timing of the set voltage is controlled by the reference voltage. As a result the periodic signal has a relatively constant period which can be produced regardless of the temperature variation.
US08076977B2

A device includes a digitally controlled oscillator and an interpolator having a data input and a data output coupled to the digitally controlled oscillator. The interpolator may be configured to receive an oscillator control signal at the data input and to provide an interpolated oscillator control signal at the data output. An interpolation rate of the interpolator may depend on the oscillator control signal. Alternatively, a device can include a digitally controlled oscillator having a control input, a sampling unit coupled to the control input of the digitally controlled oscillator, and a timing error detector coupled to an output of the digitally controlled oscillator. The sampling rate of the sampling unit can depend on an output of the timing error detector.
US08076974B2

An RF power amplifier has a final-stage amplifier stage which generates an RF transmit output signal, a signal detector which detects an RF transmit output level, a first detector, a second detector and a control circuit. The final-stage amplifier stage includes a transistor and a load element and performs saturation type nonlinear amplification and non-saturation type linear amplification. The first detector and the control circuit maintain the RF transmit output signal approximately constant with respect to a variation in load at an antenna at the saturation type nonlinear amplification. The second detector and the control circuit reduce an increase in the output voltage of the final stage transistor with respect to an overload state of the antenna at the non-saturation type linear amplification.
US08076968B1

In an embodiment, a charge pump of relatively simple design is provided which can generate sufficient drive voltage for a power switching device from a low-supply-voltage (e.g., 1V). In some embodiments, this charge pump performs better at lower input voltages when there are loading conditions (i.e., when the charge-pump output powers other circuit blocks such as amplifiers and LDO's).
US08076967B2

A device including a controllable semiconductor, sensor, and controller is provided. The controllable semiconductor is associated with a first operating parameter and a second operating parameter, wherein at least the first operating parameter is controllable. The sensor is in communication with the controllable semiconductor device and acquires data relating to the second operating parameter of the controllable semiconductor device. The controller is in communication with the controllable semiconductor device and the sensor, and the controller is configured to access device data associated with the controllable semiconductor, control the first operating parameter of the controllable semiconductor, and receive data from the first sensor relating to the second operating parameter. The controller determines a first predicted value dependent on the device data, compares the data relating to the second operating parameter with the first predicted value, and, if a first condition is detected based on this comparison, dynamically modifies the first operating parameter.
US08076955B2

The configurable logic device comprises a plurality of configurable logic cells (2). A configurable logic cell comprises a plurality of multi-bit registers (20a, 20b, 20c, 20d). At least one is accessible both in a parallel and in a serial fashion. A functional unit (30) therein is coupled to two or more of the registers and comprises a chain of functional unit segments (31, 31′) that each comprise an AND gate (33) and a 1-bit full adder (32) receiving an output of the AND-gate. An output selection facility (50) provides an output signal of the configurable logic cell selected from two or more input signals. At least one of the input signals is provided by one of the multi-bit registers, and another by the functional unit.
US08076954B2

Each of a plurality of memories includes a terminating resistor for preventing signal reflection, and a memory control circuit includes an ODT control circuit for driving the terminating resistor of each memory, and a selector for selecting, from memories except for a memory to be accessed, at least one memory for which driving of the terminating resistor is to be suppressed, in accordance with the memory to be accessed.
US08076947B2

An error factor determination device includes an error factor recording unit which records error factors Eija in a signal generation system which includes a signal generation unit for generating a signal and an output terminal for outputting the signal, a reflection coefficient deriving unit which derives a reflection coefficient Xm of the output terminal based on measurement results R1 and R2 of the signal while the signal is being output from the output terminal and the error factors Eija recorded in the error factor recording unit, and a true/false determination unit which determines whether the recorded error factors Eija are true or false based on the derived reflection coefficient Xm, and a true value of the reflection coefficient.
US08076944B2

Methods and systems for detecting changes in currents are disclosed, including: dividing a main current into two or more subcurrents, combining a first magnetic flux of a first subcurrent of the two or more of the subcurrents with another magnetic flux of another current to generate a combined magnetic flux, and sensing the combined magnetic flux to determine relative changes between the first subcurrent and the other current.
US08076939B2

A system and method for producing an image indicative of characteristics of a radiofrequency (“RF”) coil with a magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”) system is disclosed. The method includes acquiring MR signals while performing a pulse sequence with the MRI system and driving the RF coil at a selected transmission power. This process is repeated a plurality of times to drive the RF coil at a different transmission powers during each repetition. A plurality of images are reconstructed from the acquired MR signals and an image indicative of RF reception characteristics of the RF coil is produced from the reconstructed images. Subsequently, an image indicative of RF transmission characteristics of the RF coil is produced using the image indicative of the RF receiver response. More specifically, only one data acquisition is necessary for each RF coil element to produce the image indicative of the RF transmission characteristics for that coil element.
US08076937B2

A diffusion data processing apparatus comprising a segmenter arranged to segment the diffusion tensor data according to at least one segmentation model representing at least part of a fiber bundle. The segmentation model may comprise macroscopic and/or microscopic information. This leads to a segmentation of the fiber bundle that is robust and less influenced by non-perfections of the data set, such as low signal-to-noise ratio, partial voluming, or other imaging artifacts.
US08076929B2

A method for detecting an anomaly in an assembly of a first and a second object of electrically conductive material forming an intermediate space between them, comprising providing a device (5) comprising a transmitter/receiver arrangement (7) for generating an electromagnetic field, and for measuring a signal indicative of an eddy current which is generated in the assembly by the electromagnetic field; arranging the device in a measurement position within the intermediate space; activating the device so as to receive a signal indicative of an eddy current in the assembly; and comparing the signal with a norm so as to detect if an anomaly is present at the measurement position, and a device for detecting an anomaly in an assembly of a first and a second object forming an intermediate space between them, the device comprising a transmitter/receiver arrangement a fixation means which. is arranged to fix the transmitter/receiver arrangement at a measurement position with respect to the inspection object.
US08076923B2

A system and method for dead-line conductor phase identification is provided. The system includes a receiver unit having a set of current sensors, such as current transformers. The receiver unit current sensors are coupled to conductors having a known phase in a multiphase power line. The current sensors are positioned adjacent a transformer connected to a section of the power line having an open circuit condition. A transmitter unit transmits a current signal on to a conductor at the open circuit section of the power line. The current sensors detect the current signal and the receiver unit transmits a signal to the transmitter unit identifying the phase on which the current signal was transmitted.
US08076921B1

Systems and methods for a self-regulating power supply for MEMS thermal actuators to achieve maximum actuator displacement while preventing over powering. The present invention includes a power supply configured to regulate electrical input power to a MEMS thermal actuator in order to provide the maximum possible electrical input power. Accordingly, the present invention provides a maximum actuator displacement while preventing device failure from over powering. The present invention utilizes resistivity versus temperature properties for silicon or the like to provide a self-regulating power supply that can be utilized to power a variety of MEMS components without requiring custom actuator control circuits for each type of component.
US08076916B2

A power supply module includes an inductor circuit, a switch circuit, a sensor circuit, and a controller. The inductor circuit includes an inductor and a voltage feedback wire returning the terminal voltage of the inductor. The switch circuit is electrically connected to the inductor circuit for driving the inductor circuit. The sensor circuit is electrically connected to the switch circuit and the voltage feedback wire, in which the sensor circuit controls the switch circuit and generates a current feedback signal according to the terminal voltage of the inductor. The controller is electrically connected to the sensor circuit, in which the controller controls the sensor circuit according to the current feedback signal.
US08076913B2

A voltage converter is provided. The voltage converter generates an output voltage signal and comprises a controller, a wave generator, a comparator, and a voltage converting unit. The controller generates a control voltage signal according to the output voltage signal and a first reference voltage. The wave generator generates a saw-wave signal and modifies at least one of an upper limit and a lower limit of a waveform of the saw-wave signal according to the output voltage signal. The comparator generates a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal according to the control voltage signal and the saw-wave signal. The voltage converting unit generates the output voltage signal according to the PWM signal.
US08076912B2

A first pump circuit generates a first voltage for decreasing the distance between primary electrodes. The first voltage is limited to a predetermined limit by a first limiter circuit. A second pump circuit generates a second voltage for keeping the distance between the primary electrodes constant. A third pump circuit generates the second voltage and has a supplying capacity smaller than the first one. The second voltage is limited by second and third limiter circuits. A ripple capacitor is charged up to the second voltage by the second pump circuit and the second limiter circuit within a period of time the first voltage is being generated. When a supplying voltage of the first pump circuit reaches to the first voltage, and a deformation stops, the second voltage is supplied by the third pump circuit and the third limiter circuit instead of the second pump circuit and the second limiter circuit.
US08076909B2

A method and system for monitoring the operating conditions of an electric generator. The system includes a triad sensor array formed within a predetermined section of a fiber optic conductor. The triad sensor array is formed of a group of sensors including a first sensor including a Bragg grating for producing a first signal representative of strain in a stator bar of the generator, a second sensor including a Bragg grating for producing a second signal representative of temperature in the stator bar, and a third sensor including a Bragg grating for producing a third signal representative of vibration amplitude in the stator bar.
US08076904B2

A disclosed circuit for detecting remaining battery capacity includes: a current detection unit detecting a charge and discharge current of a battery; a remaining capacity measurement unit measuring remaining capacity of the battery by integrating the charge and discharge current at first time intervals when the charge and discharge current detected in the current detection unit is not more than a predetermined value and at second time intervals shorter than the first time intervals when the charge and discharge current exceeds the predetermined value; and an interrupt signal generation unit generating an interrupt signal when the charge and discharge current exceeds a reference value and instructing the remaining capacity measurement unit to measure remaining capacity of the battery.
US08076900B1

A portable battery charger, comprising a base assembly housing a first electrical system. The first electrical system comprises a first rechargeable battery with a respective first booster cable port. The first booster cable port has first receiving means to receive removable booster cables. The first electrical system has first recharging means to recharge the first rechargeable battery. The base assembly also houses an air compressor system. The air compressor system comprises an air compressor having means to deliver compressed air through a hose to a valve stem fitting. A head assembly houses a second electrical system. The second electrical system comprises a second rechargeable battery with a respective second booster cable port. The second booster cable port has second receiving means to receive the removable booster cables. The second electrical system has second recharging means to recharge the second rechargeable battery. The head assembly removably mounts onto the base assembly.
US08076897B2

In an AC motor driving circuit, a current source rectifier is provided on the output side of an AC generator and an AC motor is connected to the output side of the current source rectifier through a voltage source inverter. Along with this, one of terminals of each of a plurality of bidirectional switches is connected to its corresponding output terminal of the voltage source inverter, the other terminals of a plurality of the bidirectional switches are lumped together to be connected to one of terminals of a storage battery, and the other terminal of the storage battery is connected to one of DC input terminals of the voltage source inverter. This eliminates need for a large capacitor at a DC link and a reactor in a chopper which were previously necessary, by which the AC motor driving circuit is downsized.
US08076896B2

An inverter controller comprising an AC motor as a load. A rectifying circuit converts AC power from an AC power source into DC power. A smoothing capacitor smoothens a DC voltage from the rectifying circuit. An inverter circuit converts DC power supplied via the smoothing capacitor into a desired frequency. A current detection circuit detects a output current of the inverter circuit. A voltage detection circuit detects a terminal voltage (Vpn) of the smoothing capacitor. A voltage command calculation circuit calculates a voltage command to the AC motor. A speed command calculation circuit calculates a speed command to be used when it is determined that the AC power source is in a power failure state or when the terminal voltage (Vpn) reaches a certain value.
US08076891B2

A motor controller drives and controls a motor to drive a shaft subject to gravity. The motor controller includes a PI control unit which controls the velocity of the motor, a brake which prevents the falling of the shaft in accordance with a brake signal, and a storage unit which detects the brake signal input to the brake. On the basis of the state of the detected brake signal, the storage unit stores the torque command value when the brake signal has changed from off to on, and sets the stored torque command value to an integral component of the PI control unit when the brake signal has changed from on to off.
US08076886B2

A method for providing electrical energy to an actuator is disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the method includes having a first voltage (UBUS) from a data bus; ii) converting the electric current to a current having a second voltage that is higher than the first voltage; iii) storing electrical energy of the second electric current; and discharging the stored electrical energy to an actuator. A device is also disclosed for providing electrical energy to an actuator.
US08076885B2

A power management module for a winch system comprises an overload and low voltage interrupt module within a housing. The overload interrupt determines operating current for the winch system and provides an interrupt signal when the current is greater than a threshold. The low voltage interrupt determines voltage of a power source and provides an interrupt signal when the voltage is less than a threshold. A method of operating the power management module comprises determining operating current of the winch system with an overload interrupt module and voltage of a vehicle power source with a low voltage interrupt module. The overload and low voltage interrupt modules are located within a housing. The overload interrupt provides an interrupt signal when the operating current is greater than a threshold. The low voltage interrupt provides an interrupt signal when the voltage is less than a threshold.
US08076882B2

A method and apparatus is disclosed for controlling a system comprising at least one electric motor. The motor drive circuit includes a reconfigurable active snubber. Under given resonance conditions, the active snubber is configured to use a resistive element to dissipate electrical transients across the commutation circuit.
US08076881B1

A system. The system includes a first module, a second module communicably connected to the first module, a third module communicably connected to the first module, and a fourth module communicably connected to the third module. The first module is configured for determining an angle. The angle is defined by a first rotating reference frame having an axis aligned with a permanent magnet flux of a permanent magnet motor, and a vector of a motor magnetizing flux of the permanent magnet motor. The second module is configured for defining a second rotating reference frame having an axis aligned with the vector, and for transforming a two-phase set of direct currents from the first rotating reference frame to the second rotating reference frame. The first and second rotating reference frames are synchronized. The third module is configured for generating a first direct current reference signal associated with the second rotating reference frame. The fourth module is configured for generating a second direct current reference signal associated with the second rotating reference frame. The first and second desired direct current reference signals are orthogonal.
US08076879B2

A fan controlling circuit for detecting rotational speed of a fan, includes a comparison circuit and a controlling chipset. The comparison circuit receives a rotational speed signal from the fan at one input terminal, a reference voltage at another input terminal, and outputs a filtered rotational speed signal at an output terminal. The controlling chipset receives the filtered rotational speed signal, and outputs control signals to control the rotational speed of the fan.
US08076878B2

The invention relates to a traction drive for the driving and generative braking of a rail vehicle or a combination of rail vehicles, at least one permanent-field synchronous motor and a traction current converter being associated with at least one axle of the rail vehicle or combination of rail vehicles. The traction current converter includes at least one pulse current converter on the engine side, and the clamps of the permanent-field synchronous motor are connected to a change-over switch such that the permanent-field synchronous motor can be connected to a load circuit forming a load, to drive the pulse current converter or for generative braking. According to the invention, the load circuit connected to the permanent-field synchronous motor for generative braking is designed and/or controlled in such a way that the characteristic values of the load circuit can be modified according to the loading of the rail vehicle or combination of rail vehicles.
US08076856B2

An LED lamp includes an optical part, a heat dissipation part and an electric part. The optical part includes main and auxiliary LED light sources thermally attached to the heat dissipation part. The electric part includes a rechargeable battery and a circuitry for converting an external AC power source into first and second DC power sources. The auxiliary LED light source is connected to the first DC power source for providing an auxiliary illumination when the external AC power source is normally supplied or to the rechargeable battery for providing an emergency illumination when the external AC power source is interrupted. The main LED light source is connected to the second DC power source for providing normal illumination when the external AC power source is supplied normally. Photoelectric switches are also provided for controlling the action of the auxiliary LED light source.
US08076850B2

A light emitting tube array is provided which includes: front and rear plates; and a plurality of elongated light emitting tubes each filled with a discharge gas and disposed parallel to each other between the front and rear plates, the front plate being transparent and having an enough rigidity to support the light emitting tubes, the front plate including at least one pair of display electrodes provided thereon in contact with the light emitting tubes as extending perpendicularly to the light emitting tube, the rear plate having an enough flexibility to adapt to variation in sectional dimensions of the light emitting tubes, the rear plate including address electrodes provided thereon in contact with the respective light emitting tubes as extending longitudinally of the light emitting tubes.
US08076849B2

A plasma display panel is disclosed. The plasma display panel includes a front substrate on which first and second electrodes are positioned parallel to each other, a rear substrate on which a third electrode is positioned to intersect the first and second electrodes, and a barrier rib positioned between the front and rear substrates to partition a discharge cell. At least one of the first or second electrode has a single-layered structure. At least one of the first or second electrode includes a plurality of line portions intersecting the third electrode, a projecting portion projecting from the line portion, and a connecting portion connecting at least two line portions to each other. The projecting portion and the connecting portion are positioned in a straight line.
US08076844B2

An organic EL display device includes a glass substrate and a flattening film arranged above the glass substrate. A plurality of anodes are arranged on a surface of the flattening film. A plurality of organic EL layers are arranged on a surface of the anodes. The flattening film has irregularities formed in at least a partial surface in a region outside a region where the plurality of organic EL layers are arranged. According to such a structure, an organic EL display device in which remaining of moisture in an insulating film is suppressed can be provided.
US08076841B2

An organic electroluminescent display apparatus having organic electroluminescent devices each of which is excellent in color reproducibility and has high emission efficiency in which green organic electroluminescent devices each have a delayed fluorescent material and a microcavity, and the hole transport layer of each of the devices has the same thickness as that of the hole transport layer of each of blue organic electroluminescent devices.
US08076838B2

A light emitting device includes a plurality of types of light emitting elements including at least a red light emitting element that outputs red light, a green light emitting element that outputs green light, and a blue light emitting element that outputs blue light. Each of the plurality of types of the light emitting elements includes a first electrode, a second electrode that is disposed on a side for outputting light and has semi-transmissive reflectivity or transparency, a function layer that is formed between the first electrode and the second electrode and includes at least a light emitting layer, a reflective layer that additionally serves as the first electrode or is formed separately from the first electrode in a position for facing the function layer through the first electrode and reflects light generated in the light emitting layer to the second electrode side, and a color filter that is disposed in a position for facing the reflective layer through the function layer and absorbs light having wavelengths in a wavelength range other than a wavelength range of the output light. In addition, at least one type of the light emitting element of the plurality of types of the light emitting elements further includes a semi-reflective layer that is disposed between the reflective layer and the function layer and a transparent layer that is disposed between the reflective layer and the semi-reflective layer.
US08076836B2

A carbon nanotube film includes a plurality of successively oriented carbon nanotubes joined end-to-end by Van der Waals attractive force therebetween. The carbon nanotubes define a plurality of first areas and a plurality of second areas. The first areas and the second areas have different densities of carbon nanotubes. A method for manufacturing the same is also provided. A light source using the carbon nanotube film is also provided.
US08076827B2

An acoustic wave device includes a substrate, a device chip that has a piezoelectric substrate and is flip-chip mounted on a surface of the substrate, a first insulation layer that has a dielectric constant lower than that of the piezoelectric substrate and is provided on a surface of the device chip opposite to another surface that faces the substrate, and a metal seal part that seals the device chip.
US08076821B2

Multiple electrode element capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (“cMUT”) devices and fabrication methods are provided. Some embodiments can include a forward or side looking catheter device having a plurality of cMUT arrays for transmitting and receiving ultrasonic energy. The forward or side looking intravascular device can generally comprise a plurality of cMUT arrays being disposed on a substrate in a spaced apart arrangement. The plurality of cMUT arrays can each comprise a plurality of cMUT elements. At least a portion of the plurality of cMUT elements can comprise a flexible membrane disposed above the substrate and a multiple element electrode. The multiple element electrode can comprise a plurality of electrode elements shaped and sized to have a width less than the width of the membrane, and be further configured to operatively shape the membrane in a reception state to receive ultrasonic energy and a transmission state to transmit ultrasonic energy.
US08076817B2

A multiphase synchronous electrical machine for converting kinetic energy into electrical energy and electrical energy into kinetic energy has a rotor extending along an axis, and a stator, which is provided with a stator pack having slots and with an electrical winding, which extends in part in the slots and in part in a position corresponding to two heads arranged on opposite sides of the stator pack and has bars housed in the slots and connected to one another in a position corresponding to the heads and connection plates, which are welded to the bars, are packed with respect to one another and to the stator pack in an axial direction and are shaped in such a way as to define a prolongation of the stator pack.
US08076816B2

A cooling fan includes a fan housing, a stator mounted in the fan housing and a rotor rotatablely supported by the stator. The stator includes a stator core, an insulating frame attached to the stator core and stator coils wound on the insulating frame and around the stator core. The insulating frame electrically insulates the stator coils from the stator core. The stator core includes a main body and a plurality of claws. Every two neighboring claws define a receiving room therein. The insulating frame includes a bottom portion located at a bottom of the stator core and a plurality of flanges extending upwardly from the bottom portion into the receiving rooms of the stator core, respectively. A height of the flanges is no less than that of the stator core.
US08076814B2

A method is disclosed for arranging and exciting the stator, rotor and various windings of a multi-stage brushless high frequency alternator so that the resulting multiple high frequency sub-phase armature winding outputs can be rectified and commutated into desired phases of power-frequency alternating current (AC) electrical output, including single-phase, split-phase, three-phase and other multiple phase output. Power frequency currents in field windings control output amplitude, output frequency, and output phase. If desired, DC power output can be accommodated as zero power-frequency operation. Devices incorporating this arrangement are suitable of generating fixed frequency electrical power while accommodating variable speed rotation of a generator shaft and offer multiple advantages over existing techniques. The capability to generate speed independent electric power allows natural power sources such as windmills and hydro-power stations to be efficiently coupled to fixed frequency power grids.
US08076807B2

The invention relates to a connection system comprising an external cable guide for electrically connecting at least two components (4, 5) that are arranged at a distance from each other on a motor subassembly (1), the positions of said components being fixed in relation to the housing parts (2, 3) of the motor subassembly (1). Said connection system also comprises at least one electric cable (6) connecting the components (4, 5) that are arranged on the motor subassembly (1) and a support element (7) on the outer side of the housing (2, 3) of the motor subassembly (1) that defines the geometric path of the electric cable (6).
US08076806B2

A spindle motor is provided. The spindle motor includes a base, a bearing housing, a bearing, a rotation shaft, a stator, a bushing, and a rotor. The bearing housing is installed on the base. The bearing is fixed inside the bearing housing. The rotation shaft is installed to be supported by and rotate on the bearing. The stator is disposed around the bearing housing. The bushing is coupled to the rotation shaft. The rotor is coupled to the bushing to rotate through interaction with the stator.
US08076804B2

The invention relates to a primary component (2) for an electric motor (1), said primary component (2) being formed from at least one bundle of laminations (3) and comprises at least one flux guiding element (10) on one or both front faces (S1, S2) to reduce the ripple effect, said primary component (2) being separated from a secondary component (7) by a first air gap (δ1). The primary component (2) has at least one section (δ2) in the region of the flux guiding element (10), said section (δ2) being electrically non-conducting (Kel=0) and having a negligibly low magnetic permeability (μr≅1).
US08076802B2

A method and apparatus for generating on-demand power. The method comprises receiving a peak reactive current request, generating a control signal based on the peak reactive current request, and utilizing the control signal to drive a DC/AC inverter to generate reactive power commensurate with the peak reactive current request.
US08076798B2

A power transfer device (20) is used to transfer an energy consuming device (10) from one A/C power supply (12) to a different A/C power supply (16) without material interruption of the device's operation. In some embodiments, power transfer devices (20) and methods of their use are provided for transferring an energy consuming device (10) from a first power supply (12) to a second power supply (16). In other embodiments, power transfer devices and methods of their use are provided for transferring an energy consuming device (10) from a first power supply (12) to a second power supply (16) when the wiring scheme of the first power supply is uncertain or undetermined.
US08076796B1

An adaptive power supply span powers devices used in telecommunications. It includes a power circuit and control circuit that receives power and sense signals therefrom and provides a control signal thereto and distinguishes between a first network interface load having a constant voltage input power requirement and a second network interface unit load having a constant current input power requirement. A voltage control circuit and current control circuit are interconnected together and connected to the power circuit. A control signal from the voltage control circuit and current control circuit extends to the power circuit. The control circuit maintains a fixed output voltage for constant voltage regulation for the first network interface unit load, if the output current remains below a threshold current. The circuit limits the output current to a regulated value for constant current regulation below the initial maximum value for powering a second network interface unit if the initial output current is greater than the threshold current for a time greater than a threshold time.
US08076786B2

A wire bonding structure includes a chip and a bonding wire. The chip includes a base material, at least one first metallic pad, a re-distribution layer and at least one second metallic pad. The first metallic pad is disposed on the base material. The re-distribution layer has a first end and a second end, and the first end is electrically connected to the first metallic pad. The second metallic pad is electrically connected to the second end of the re-distribution layer. The bonding wire is bonded to the second metallic pad.
US08076777B2

The invention relates to glass compositions useful in conductive pastes for silicon semiconductor devices and photovoltaic cells. The thick film conductor compositions include one or more electrically functional powders and one or more glass frits dispersed in an organic medium. The thick film compositions may also include one or more additive(s). Exemplary additives may include metals, metal oxides or any compounds that can generate these metal oxides during firing.
US08076773B2

A thermal interface member includes a bulk layer and a surface layer that is disposed on at least a portion of a surface of the bulk layer. The surface layer is highly thermally conductive, has a melting point exceeding a solder reflow temperature, and has a maximum cross-sectional thickness of less than about 10 microns.
US08076770B2

A semiconductor device includes a wiring board having connection pads thereon and a semiconductor chip mounted on the wiring board. The wiring board and the semiconductor chip are covered with a sealing portion. Conductive members are extended upward from the connection pads and are exposed from the sealing portion. Rewiring lines are connected to the exposed conductive members. Land portions are arranged on the sealing portion and are electrically connected to the conductive members through the rewiring lines.
US08076765B2

In one embodiment, a semiconductor device package includes: (1) a substrate unit; (2) connecting elements disposed adjacent to a periphery of the substrate unit and extending upwardly from an upper surface of the substrate unit; (3) a semiconductor device disposed adjacent to the upper surface of the substrate unit and electrically connected to the substrate unit; and (4) a package body disposed adjacent to the upper surface of the substrate unit and covering the semiconductor device. A lateral surface of the package body is substantially aligned with a lateral surface of the substrate unit. The package body defines openings that at least partially expose respective ones of the connecting elements. At least one of the connecting elements has a width WC, and at least one of the openings has a width WU adjacent to an upper surface of the package body, such that WU>WC.
US08076764B2

A stacked type semiconductor memory device of having a structure in which a plurality of semiconductor chips is stacked and a desired semiconductor chip can be selected by assigning a plurality of chip identification numbers different from each other are individually assigned to the plurality of semiconductor chips comprising: a plurality of operation circuits which is connected in cascade in a stacking order of the plurality of semiconductor chips and outputs the plurality of identification numbers different from each other by performing a predetermined operation; and a plurality of comparison circuits which detects whether or not each the identification number and a chip selection address commonly connected to each the semiconductor chip are equal to each other by comparing them.
US08076763B2

In example embodiment, there is an integrated circuit (IC) device (5) assembled in a package (5) having a plurality of die including a first device (20) and at least one additional device (30). The IC comprises a substrate (10). A first device die (20), having bonding pads including ground connections, is die attached to the substrate (10). An additional device die (30), having bonding pads including ground connections is disposed on top of the first device die (20). The additional device die is die attached to the first device die. The ground connections of the first device die are connected to the ground connections of the additional device die in order to minimize the electrical interference between the device dies. An additional feature of the embodiment is, ground connections of the first device are connected to the ground connections of the additional device with a conductive adhesive (25).
US08076750B1

The present invention relates to using a trap-rich layer, such as a polycrystalline Silicon layer, over a semiconductor substrate to substantially immobilize a surface conduction layer at the surface of the semiconductor substrate at radio frequency (RF) frequencies. The trap-rich layer may have a high density of traps that trap carriers from the surface conduction layer. The average release time from the traps may be longer than the period of any present RF signals, thereby effectively immobilizing the surface conduction layer, which may substantially prevent capacitance and inductance changes due to the RF signals. Therefore, harmonic distortion of the RF signals may be significantly reduced or eliminated. The semiconductor substrate may be a Silicon substrate, a Gallium Arsenide substrate, or another substrate.
US08076749B2

A semiconductor device includes: a first insulating layer; a semiconductor layer provided on the first insulating layer; a first semiconductor region selectively provided in the semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor region selectively provided in the semiconductor layer and spaced from the first semiconductor region; a first main electrode provided in contact with the first semiconductor region; a second main electrode provided in contact with the second semiconductor region; a second insulating layer provided on the semiconductor layer; a first conductive material provided in the second insulating layer above a portion of the semiconductor layer located between the first semiconductor region and the second semiconductor region; and a second conductive material provided in a trench provided in a portion of the semiconductor layer opposed to the first conductive material, being in contact with the first conductive material, and reaching the first insulating layer.
US08076741B2

A photo sensing element array substrate is provided. The photo sensing element array substrate includes a flexible substrate and a plurality of photo sensing elements. The photo sensing elements are disposed in array on the flexible substrate. Each of the photo sensing elements includes a photo sensing thin film transistor (TFT), an oxide semiconductor TFT and a capacitor. The photo sensing TFT is disposed on the flexible substrate. The oxide semiconductor TFT is disposed on the flexible substrate. The oxide semiconductor TFT is electrically connected to the photo sensing TFT. The capacitor is disposed on the flexible substrate and electrically connected between the photo sensing TFT and the oxide semiconductor TFT. When the photo sensing element array substrate is bent, it remains unaffected from normal operation.
US08076732B2

A semiconductor device includes pMISFET and nMIS formed on the semiconductor substrate. The pMISFET includes, on the semiconductor substrate, first source/drain regions, a first gate dielectric formed therebetween, first lower and upper metal layers stacked on the first gate dielectric, a first upper metal layer containing at least one metallic element belonging to groups IIA and IIIA. The nMISFET includes, on the semiconductor substrate, second source/drain regions, second gate dielectric formed therebetween, a second lower and upper metal layers stacked on the second gate dielectric and the second upper metal layer substantially having the same composition as the first upper metal layer. The first lower metal layer is thicker than the second lower metal layer, and the atomic density of the metallic element contained in the first gate dielectric is lower than the atomic density of the metallic element contained in the second gate dielectric.
US08076730B2

System and method for transistor level routing is disclosed. A preferred embodiment comprises a semiconductor device including a first semiconductor device formed on a first active area in a substrate, the first semiconductor device having a first gate stack comprising a first high-k dielectric layer, a first metal layer and a first poly-silicon layer. The semiconductor device further includes a second semiconductor device formed on a second active area in the substrate, the second semiconductor device having a second gate stack comprising a second high-k dielectric layer, a second metal layer and a second poly-silicon layer. An electrical connection connects the first semiconductor device with the second semiconductor device and overlies the first active area, the second active area and a portion of the substrate between the first active area and the second active area. The electrical connection includes a high-k dielectric layer and a metal layer but not a poly-silicon layer and the metal layer is arranged directly over the high-k dielectric layer.
US08076722B2

A high voltage semiconductor device, such as a RESURF transistor, having improved properties, including reduced on state resistance. The device includes a semiconductor substrate with a drift region between source region and drain regions. The drift region includes a structure having a spaced trench capacitor extending between the source region and the drain region and a vertical stack extending between the source region and the drain region. When the device is in an on state, current flows between the source and drain regions; and, when the device is in an off/blocking state, the drift region is depleted into the stack.
US08076718B2

The invention has an object to provide an insulation gate type semiconductor device and a method for producing the same in which high breakdown voltage and compactness are achieved. The semiconductor device has a gate trench and a P floating region formed in the cell area and has a terminal trench and a P floating region formed in the terminal area. In addition, a terminal trench of three terminal trenches has a structure similar to that of the gate trench, and the other terminal trenches have a structure in which an insulation substance such as oxide silicon is filled. Also, the P floating region 51 is an area formed by implanting impurities from the bottom surface of the gate trench, and the P floating region is an area formed by implanting impurities from the bottom surface of the terminal trench.
US08076710B2

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes forming multiple conductive patterns 13a, forming an intermediate insulating film 16 on all of device isolation insulating films 6 and the conductive patterns 13a, forming a second conductive film 17 on the intermediate insulating film 16, patterning the second conductive film 17, the intermediate insulating film 16, and the multiple conductive patterns 13a, individually, to make the conductive patterns 13a into floating gates 13c and to make the second conductive film 17 into multiple strip-like control gates 17a. In the method, an edge, in a plan layout, of at least one of each of the conductive patterns 13a and each of the device isolation insulating films 6 is bent in a region between the control gates 17a adjacent in a row direction.
US08076696B2

A device is provided that includes a first conductive substrate and a second conductive substrate. A first power semiconductor component having a first thickness can be electrically coupled to the first conductive substrate. A second power semiconductor component having a second thickness can be electrically coupled to the second conductive substrate. A positive terminal can also be electrically coupled to the first conductive substrate, while a negative terminal can be electrically coupled to the second power semiconductor component, and an output terminal may be electrically coupled to the first power semiconductor component and the second conductive substrate. The terminals, the power semiconductor components, and the conductive substrates may thereby be incorporated into a common circuit loop, and may together be configured such that a width of the circuit loop in at least one direction is defined by at least one of the first thickness or the second thickness.
US08076690B2

A semiconductor light emitting apparatus for emitting a desired colored light by coating the top surface thereof with a wavelength conversion member prevents the color unevenness from occurring due to the unevenness of the coating thickness of the wavelength conversion member. The semiconductor light emitting apparatus can include a semiconductor layer having a light emitting layer with a light emitting surface having at least one corner area, a supporting substrate configured to support the semiconductor layer, and a wavelength conversion material layer formed on top of the semiconductor layer, the wavelength conversion layer having a thickness thinner from a center portion of the semiconductor layer to an outer peripheral portion. The at least one corner area can include a non-emitting portion where light cannot be projected. The non-emitting portion can be a light shielding portion, a non-light emission portion or a current confined portion.
US08076681B2

A high-efficiency, white organic electroluminescent device has such a structure that its emission layer is obtained by laminating sub-emission layers of red, green, and blue, respectively. The green sub-emission layer contacting a hole transport layer has a delayed fluorescent material, and the red sub-emission layer has a phosphorescent light emitting material.
US08076674B2

A current pixel circuit of a display device includes a switching transistor which may be turned on in response to the current selection signal to transfer a data signal, a driving transistor for outputting a current corresponding to the data signal, and first and second transistors being turned on in response to the previous selection signal. In the display device, the gate electrodes of the switching transistor of a previous pixel and the first and second transistors of the current pixel are coupled to one scan line for transferring the previous selection signal. Accordingly, the transistors are arranged in the order of the switching transistor of the previous pixel and the first and second transistors of the current pixel on the scan line at an area between two adjacent data lines.
US08076669B2

An organic light emitting display includes an organic light emitting diode formed on a substrate, coupled to a transistor; a photodiode formed on the substrate and including a semiconductor layer including a high-concentration P doping region, an intrinsic region with defects and a high-concentration N doping region; and a controller that uniformly controls the luminance of light emitted from the organic light emitting diode by controlling a voltage applied to the first electrode and the second electrode according to the voltage outputted from the photodiode.
US08076662B2

Phase transitions (such as metal-insulator transitions) are induced in oxide structures (such as vanadium oxide thin films) by applying an electric field. The electric field-induced phase transitions are achieved in VO2 structures that scale down to nanometer range. In some embodiments, the optical and/or dielectric properties of the oxide structures are actively tuned by controllably varying the applied electric field. Applying a voltage to a single-phase oxide material spontaneously leads to the formation of insulating and conducting regions within the active oxide material. The dimensions and distributions of such regions can be dynamically tuned by varying the applied electric field and/or the temperature. In this way, oxide materials with dynamically tunable optical and/or dielectric properties are created.
US08076661B2

A thermally switched optical downconverting (TSOD) filter is a self-regulating device including a downconverter that converts incoming light at a variety of wavelengths into longer-wavelength radiation and then directs it using one or more bandblock filters in either the inward or outward direction, depending on the temperature of the device. This control over the flow of radiant energy occurs independently of the thermal conductivity or insulating properties of the device and may or may not preserve the image and color properties of incoming visible light. The TSOD filter is energy-efficient as it can be used to regulate the internal temperature and illumination of buildings, vehicles, and other structures without the need for an external power supply or operator signals. The TSOD filter has unique aesthetic and optical properties not found in traditional windows, skylights, stained glass, light fixtures, glass blocks, bricks, or walls.
US08076652B2

Post-column reaction-ion chromatography (PCR-IC) analysis of drinking water samples for quantity measurements and species identification of haloacetic acid contaminants therein is provided. With the necessity to chlorinate drinking water to remove harmful bacteria and other potential toxins, haloacetic acid byproducts are generated that may harm humans after consumption as well. A reliable manner of measuring such drinking water supplies for haloacetic acids at locations far from the source and closer to dispensers is highly desirable. The PCR-IC analysis method of the invention has been found to be nearly as reliable as source measuring methods for the same purpose, but with the versatility to measure for such haloacetic acid contaminants anywhere along the drinking water supply line.
US08076638B2

A drift tube structure for ion mobility spectrometer is disclosed comprising electrode sheets and insulation parts arranged in alternation, with each electrode sheet being a mesh metal sheet having a radian or taper portion which is convexly curved toward an ion input. Further, the radian or taper portion of the electrode sheet has meshes of higher transparency. With the above structure of the present invention, an electric field having a periphery of uniform focusing center can be formed in the migration zone. The circular ring configuration of the electric field periphery can shield the migration electric field from any influence of external electric fields. The electrodes are each meshlike and have a circular hole at the center, thus they can focus and collect as many as possible ions that do not move along the central axis, and those ions moving along the central axis can pass through the electrodes transparently.
US08076619B1

A heated stair mat includes a plurality of coextensively shaped mats configured in a staggered arrangement along a plurality of vertical and horizontal walls of the existing steps such that odd ones of the mats cover top surfaces of the existing steps while even ones of the mats cover front surfaces of the existing steps. Each of such mats is provided with a plurality of laterally spanning grooves juxtaposed between the heating elements and formed on top surfaces of the mats respectively. Such grooves have axially opposed open end portions for directing fluids and debris away from the top surface of the mats. The device further includes a plurality of heating elements, a mechanism for rotatably connecting the odd and even mats to each other, and a plurality of ring-shaped couplings.
US08076618B2

The present invention provides a modular fluid warmer and a method of stacking a plurality of modular fluid warmers. As each of the modular fluid warmers is independently operated, the modular fluid warmers are energy efficient. Further, each modular fluid warmer may be equipped with sensors and a controller that reduces the required amount of user interaction with the modular fluid warmer.
US08076612B2

A method provides for welding a conductor to a conductive film which is suited for connection to a circuit board support in order to produce a printed circuit board. The depth or diameter of the conductor is preferably greater than the thickness of the conductive film. At least during the welding process, the conductive film is maintained in contact with a thermal isolation plate having a thermal conductivity less than that of the conductive film. After being placed on the circuit board support, the conductive film is partly etched away to electrically isolate electrical contact points.
US08076596B2

A weighing cell for use in an associated receiving holder, wherein the weighing cell and receiving holder are oriented relative to each other by means of alignment elements and through the use of the weighing cell in the receiving holder for the simultaneous production of a detachable, mechanical, and electrical connection to each other.
US08076581B2

The invention relates to an insulated wire for use in electronic equipment, comprising an electrically conductive core and an insulating layer and/or an insulating jacket consisting of a flame retardant elastomeric composition surrounding the electrically conductive core, wherein the flame retardant elastomeric composition comprises a elastomeric polymer selected from the group consisting of styrenic block copolymers, thermoplastic elastomers and combinations thereof; and a metal salt of a phosphinic acid of the formula [R1R2P(O)O]−mMm+ (formula I) and/or a diphosphinic acid of the formula [O(O)PR1—R—PR2(O)O]2−nMxm+ (formula II), and/or a polymer thereof, wherein R1 and R2 are equal or different substituents chosen from the group consisting of hydrogen, linear, branched and cyclic C1-C6 aliphatic groups, and aromatic groups, R3 is chosen from the group consisting of linear, branched and cyclic C1-C10 aliphatic groups and C6-C10 aromatic and aliphatic-aromatic groups, M is a metal chosen from the group consisting of Mg, Ca, Al, Sb, Sn, Ge, Ti, Zn, Fe, Zr, Ce, Bi, Sr, Mn, Li, Na, and K, and m, n and x are equal or different integers in the range of 1-4.
US08076580B2

A cable for enhancing biopotential measurements, including a core, the core including a first conductive line, a first shield that surrounds the first conductive line, and a first insulator that surrounds the first shield. The cable further includes a control section located outside the core, which includes a second conductive line, a second shield that surrounds the conductive line, and a second insulator that surrounds the second shield.
US08076578B1

An adjustable outlet box assembly for mounting a receptacle or similar electrical device within a wall. The adjustable box includes an outlet box and a bracket that slides with respect to the box. An adjustment screw, accessible from the front of the assembly, can be rotated to move the box with respect to a stud to which the outlet box is secured thereby allowing adjustment of the outlet box face so that it is flush with the wall surface. The bracket provides a front plate for securing to the front of a stud and a side plate having ears for securing to the side of a stud. The adjustment screw engages straps that are bent outwards from the side plate to enable the bracket to slide with respect to the outlet box as well as a rearwardly located integral flange to which the adjustment screw is introduced upon tightening thereof.
US08076577B2

This invention pertains to an adjustable cover for an electrical outlet box. The cover is configured having a generally planar mounting plate with a collar surrounding an opening through this mounting plate. An extension sleeve moves within this opening and adjacent the collar. At least one fastener is located adjacent the opening and is movable between a locked position and an unlocked position. The fastener operates a locking device that engages wedges against the extension sleeve when the fastener is in the locked position and disengages wedges against the extension sleeve when the fastener is in the unlocked position.
US08076574B2

The invention relates to a distribution cabinet (1) having a body (3), comprising an inner body (21) in the form of a body frame (16) made from metal and possibly paneling with shielding plates (13), and an outer body (22), in particular in the form of spaced paneling of the inner body (21), which is preferably made from plastic, and a mounting rack (6) for fixing the internals, which mounting rack is fixed on the inner body (21), the body (3) comprises a plurality of inner bodies (21) next to one another, and at least one attachment element (12) is fixed thereto which allows the use of parts of the outer body (22) of an individual distribution cabinet (1), and to a construction kit and a method for extending a distribution cabinet.
US08076572B2

A water stopping configuration of linear members, includes a liquid water stopping material which is cured after the liquid water stopping material is penetrated into interstices between the linear members bundled together. The water stopping material is a magnetic fluid. The water stopping material is cured in a condition that a magnetic field is applied to the water stopping material from the outside of a covering member which covers an outer periphery of bundled portions of the linear members having the water stopping material penetrated therein so as to gather the water stopping material at a predetermined portion within the covering member.
US08076564B2

Described are methods, systems, and apparatuses, including computer program products, for scoring a musical performance after a period of ambiguity in a rhythm-action game. This is accomplished by displaying a first target music data and a second target music data where the first target music data's tolerance threshold overlaps with a second target music data's tolerance threshold. When a music performance input data is received, the game platform determines if the music performance input data is within both tolerance thresholds. Then scores are determined, based on a degree of matching between the music performance input data and the first target music data and between the music performance input data and the second target music data. The game platform then assigns the music performance input data to whichever target music data has the higher score when the difference between the first and second scores is greater than a predetermined value.
US08076551B2

According to the invention, there is provided seed and plants of the corn variety designated CV683810. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of the variety CV683810, and to methods for producing a corn plant produced by crossing a corn plant of variety CV683810 with itself or with another corn plant, such as a plant of another variety. The invention further relates to corn seeds and plants produced by crossing plants of variety CV683810 with plants of another variety, such as another inbred line. The invention further relates to the inbred and hybrid genetic complements of plants of variety CV683810.
US08076540B2

A soybean cultivar designated 7733084 is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of soybean cultivar 7733084, to the plants of soybean cultivar 7733084, to the plant parts of soybean cultivar 7733084, and to methods for producing progeny of soybean cultivar 7733084 . The invention also relates to methods for producing a soybean plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic soybean plants and plant parts produced by those methods. The invention also relates to soybean cultivars or breeding cultivars, and plant parts derived from soybean, cultivar 7733084. The invention also relates to methods for producing other soybean cultivars, lines, or plant parts derived from soybean cultivar 7733084, and to the soybean plants, varieties, and their parts derived from use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid soybean seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar 7733084 with another soybean cultivar.
US08076539B2

A lettuce cultivar, designated 10-0702022-B, is disclosed. The invention relates to the seeds of lettuce cultivar 10-0702022-B, to the plants of lettuce cultivar 10-0702022-B and to methods for producing a lettuce plant by crossing the cultivar 10-0702022-B with itself or another lettuce cultivar. The invention further relates to methods for producing a lettuce plant containing in its genetic material one or more transgenes and to the transgenic lettuce plants and plant parts produced by those methods. This invention also relates to lettuce cultivars or breeding cultivars and plant parts derived from lettuce cultivar 10-0702022-B, to methods for producing other lettuce cultivars, lines or plant parts derived from lettuce cultivar 10-0702022-B and to the lettuce plants, varieties, and their parts derived from the use of those methods. The invention further relates to hybrid lettuce seeds, plants, and plant parts produced by crossing cultivar 10-0702022-B with another lettuce cultivar.
US08076538B2

The invention provides seed and plants of the pea line designated 08250838. The invention thus relates to the plants, seeds and tissue cultures of pea line 08250838, and to methods for producing a pea plant produced by crossing a plant of pea line 08250838 with itself or with another pea plant, such as a plant of another line. The invention further relates to seeds and plants produced by such crossing. The invention further relates to parts of a plant of pea line 08250838, including the seed, pod, and gametes of such plants.
US08076536B2

The invention provides methods and compositions for identifying transgenic seed that contain a transgene of interest, but lack a marker gene. Use of an identification sequence that results in a detectable phenotype increases the efficiency of screening for seed and plants in which transgene sequences not linked to a gene of interest have segregated from the sequence encoding a gene of interest.
US08076530B2

An absorbent article comprising an absorbent core, which comprises a primary water-absorbing agent that can serve as a acquisition and preferably temporarily storage material for fluids, such as urine, and that has a CRC of up to 20 g/g and that comprises a compound that includes a constitutional unit derived from polyalkyleneglycol and that is other than an unsaturated monomer and that comprises a polyvalent metal salt. The absorbent article is preferably an infant (toddler, baby) diaper, including training pant, or adult incontinent article (e.g. a pad, diaper).
US08076529B2

An intraluminal catheter device having an expandable member formed of a matrix of fiber elements with a therapeutic agent incorporated therein. The therapeutic agent can be coated on the fiber elements in a co-axial configuration. The fiber elements may also have a second coating including a protective substance surrounding the therapeutic agent. The matrix of fiber elements can be formed by electrospinning. A process of delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site includes providing an intraluminal catheter device having an expandable member formed of a matrix of fiber elements, the expandable member having a therapeutic agent dispersed therein, and advancing the catheter device at a desired treatment site. Once at the desired treatment site, fluid is introduced into the inflation lumen to expand the expandable member from a first profile to a second profile, and the therapeutic agent is delivered to the desired treatment site.
US08076527B2

A process for making ethylbenzene and/or styrene by reacting toluene with methane is disclosed. In one embodiment the process can include reacting toluene with methane to form a product stream comprising ethylbenzene and further processing the ethylbenzene to form styrene in an existing styrene production facility.
US08076521B2

In this invention we are disclosing a process for the synthesis of hydrochlorofluoro olefins (HCFO) and/or hydrofluoroolefins (HFO). The process is based on the following steps of liquid phase, noncatalytic fluorination of hydrochloropropenes to form hydrochlorofluoropropenes and/or hydrofluoropropenes, followed by gas phase, catalytic fluorination of the hydrochlorofluoropropenes to form hydrofluoropropenes.
US08076517B2

The present invention provides diacylhydrazine ligands and chiral diacylhydrazine ligands for use with ecdysone receptor-based inducible gene expression systems. Thus, the present invention is useful for applications such as gene therapy, large scale production of proteins and antibodies, cell-based screening assays, functional genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and regulation of traits in transgenic organisms, where control of gene expression levels is desirable. An advantage of the present invention is that it provides a means to regulate gene expression and to tailor expression levels to suit the user's requirements.
US08076516B2

Provided are amine derivative compounds, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, and methods of treating ophthalmic diseases and disorders, such as age-related macular degeneration and Stargardt's Disease, using said compounds and compositions.
US08076509B2

The present invention provides a process for producing acrylic acid from glycerin with a catalyst having a prolonged life. In the process for producing acrylic acid from glycerin, a molar ratio of oxygen to glycerin in a raw material gas is set to be not lower than 0.8 and not higher than 20.
US08076508B2

A process for producing acetic acid is disclosed. The process comprises carbonylating methanol to form a reaction mixture and flashing the reaction mixture to form a vapor stream and a liquid stream. The flash tank is equipped with a distillation column. The vapor stream comprises acetic acid and other volatile components but essentially no catalyst. The liquid stream comprises the catalyst and sufficient amounts of water and acetic acid to carry and stabilize the catalyst. The liquid stream is recycled to the carbonylation and the vapor stream is subjected to further separation to produce essentially pure acetic acid.
US08076494B2

Disclosed is a process for the manufacture of a compound of formula (I) wherein Hal represents fluoro or chloro, and R1 and R2 represent, independently from one another, hydrogen or Hal; in which process a compound of formula (II) is converted to a corresponding alkyl, fluoroalkyl or aryl sulfonic acid ester, which is then reacted with an alkali metal nitrite in the presence of a suitable crown ether in a polar non-nucleophilic solvent at a temperature of −10 to 50° C. to give the compound of formula (I).
US08076492B2

A process for the preparation of trityl olmesartan comprising (a) condensing 4-(1-hydroxy-1-methylethyl)-2-propyl-imidazol-5-carboxylic acid alkyl ester with trityl biphenyl bromide in the presence of a polar aprotic solvent and a base selected from the group consisting of alkali metal carbonates, alkali metal hydroxides, alkali metal alkoxides, and tertiary amines to obtain a compound of formula V, b) deesterifying the compound of formula (V) with a base; and c) reacting the product of step (b) with 4-halomethyl-5-methyl-2-oxo-1,3-dioxolene of formula (IV), wherein X is halogen selected from F or Cl or Br or I, to obtain trityl olmesartan medoxomil of formula. The trityl olmesartan medoxomil may be deprotected to produce olmesartan medoxomil.
US08076490B2

The present invention relates to epothilones C, D, E, and F, their preparation and their use for the production of therapeutic compositions and compositions for plant protection.
US08076476B2

Morpholino compounds are provided having the structure: where R1 is selected from the group consisting of lower alkyl, di(lower alkyl)amino, and phenyl; R2 is selected from the group consisting of lower alkyl, monocyclic arylmethyl, and monocyclic (aryloxy)methyl; R3 is selected from the group consisting of triarylmethyl and hydrogen; and Y is selected from the group consisting of: a protected or unprotected hydroxyl or amino group; a chlorophosphoramidate group; and a phosphorodiamidate linkage to the ring nitrogen of a further morpholino compound or a morpholino oligomer. Such compounds include doubly protected morpholino guanine (MoG) monomers. Also described is their use in synthesis of morpholino oligomers.
US08076467B2

The present invention relates to novel nucleic acid ligands or aptamers that bind to and inhibit the activation of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionate (AMPA) subtype of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Also disclosed is a novel combination of technologies, i.e., SELEX and laser pulse photolysis for the selection and screening of aptamers that inhibit receptor function and are useful therefore, in the treatment of diseases associated with excessive activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors.
US08076458B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a monoclonal antibody which is useful as a diagnostic agent or a therapeutic agent for a disease relating to a polypeptide encoded by Claudin-4 (hereinafter referred to as “CLDN4”) gene or a polypeptide encoded by a Claudin-3 (hereinafter referred to as “CLDN3”) gene, or a method for using the same. Accordingly, the present invention provides a monoclonal antibody or an antibody fragment thereof, which specifically recognizes three-dimensional structure of an extracellular region of CLDN4 and binds to the extracellular region; a monoclonal antibody or an antibody fragment thereof, which specifically recognizes three-dimensional structure of both of extracellular regions of CLDN3 and CLDN4 and binds to the extracellular regions; a hybridoma which produces the antibody; a DNA which encodes the antibody; a vector which comprises the DNA; a transformant obtained by transforming the vector; a process for producing an antibody or an antibody fragment thereof using the hybridoma or the transformant; and a diagnostic agent or a therapeutic agent for a disease relating to a polypeptide encoded by CLDN4 gene and/or CLDN3 gene using the antibody or the antibody fragment.
US08076449B2

The present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition for the treatment and/or prevention of a neurodegenerative disease, comprising the following polypeptide shown in any of (a) to (c): (a) a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence represented by Ser-Ala-Leu-Leu-Arg-Ser-Ile-Pro-Ala-Pro-Ala-Gly-Ala-Ser-Arg-Leu-Leu-Leu-Leu-Thr-Gly-Glu-Ile-Asp-Leu-Pro (SEQ ID NO: 1); (b) a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence having a deletion, substitution, insertion, and/or addition of one or several amino acids in the amino acid sequence consisting of Ser-Ala-Leu-Leu-Arg-Ser-Ile-Pro-Ala-Pro-Ala-Gly-Ala-Ser-Arg-Leu-Leu-Leu-Leu-Thr-Gly-Glu-Ile-Asp-Leu-Pro (SEQ ID NO: 1), and having an activity that inhibits neuronal cell death associated with neurodegenerative disease; and (c) a modified polypeptide from the polypeptide (a) or (b), or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, as an effective ingredient.
US08076448B2

The invention provides methods of extracting a biodegradable polyester with a supercritical fluid effective to obtain a purified biodegradable polyester, such as a purified biodegradable poly(lactide-glycolide) (PLG). The supercritical fluid can be carbon dioxide at an elevated pressure, or can be carbon dioxide with one or more cosolvents. Methods for carrying out stepwise purification of the biodegradable polyester at multiple pressures or multiple temperatures, or both, are also provided. When the polyester is PLG, a purified PLG copolymer is obtained having a narrowed molecular weight distribution with respect to the unpurified polyester. The purified PLG copolymer can have a polydispersity index of less than about 1.7, less than about 2% monomers, and less than about 10% oligomers. The purified PLG copolymer can exhibit a reduced initial burst effect when incorporated into a controlled release formulation such as a flowable implant adapted to be injected into body tissues.
US08076441B2

The present invention relates to a process for cross-linking a silane with the structure (IIa) for the preparation of a product, comprising component (III) twice, in triplicate or in a higher quantity, where the radicals B, R1, Ra, R′, X1 and the indices a and b are defined as above for structure (IIa) and can be identical or different in each case, or for the cross-linking of a condensate, a partial condensate, a polymer or a partial polymer comprising structural units with the structure (IIb) via the bond R1—, characterized in that a silane with the structure (IIa), or an isomer, a re-esterification product or a condensation product of said silane, which condensation product was formed by loss of an alcohol molecule, or a condensate, a partial condensate, a polymer, or a partial polymer comprising structural units of structure (IIb) is reacted with a compound having the structure (IV) Q-R5[-Q′]c,  (IV).
US08076439B2

The present invention has its object to provide a curable composition comprising a reactive silyl group-containing organic polymer component which allows slight bleedout of a liquid compound to occur to the cured product surface and shows good adhesiveness and water-resistant adhesiveness using an amine compound as a non-organotin catalyst.The present invention relates to a curable composition which comprises: (A) an organic polymer having a silicon-containing group capable of crosslinking by siloxane bond formation, (B) a silanol condensation catalyst, and (C) an adhesion promoter, and that the silanol condensation catalyst (B) is an amine compound (B-1) having a melting point lower than 23° C., and that the adhesion promoter (C) comprises an amino group-containing silane coupling agent (C-1) and an epoxy group-containing silane coupling agent (C-2) in a specific proportion.
US08076427B2

Use of release fluids or agents constituting hyperbranched polymers. The three-dimensional structure imparts characteristics that make the hyperbranched polymers useful in xerographic processes. The hyperbranched polymer release fluids or agents may be used with a fuser member having a substrate, an outer layer covering the substrate, and a release coating on the outer layer, wherein the release coating includes a hyperbranched polymer.
US08076426B2

The invention concerns novel cytosine based modules and in particular their application in linear multiple hydrogen bonded arrays to form supramolecular polymers of the formula (II): and the use of these in supramolecular materials.
US08076420B2

Dimercaptan terminated polythioether polymers are disclosed, as are methods for making and using the same.
US08076419B2

Disclosed is a propylene impact copolymer comprising a first polypropylene having an MFR1 within the range from 15 to 40 dg/min; a second polypropylene having an MFR2 within the range from 50 to 190 dg/min; an elastomeric polymer; and wherein the propylene impact copolymer has an MFRICP within the range from 6 to 18 dg/min; a 1% Secant Flexural Modulus of greater than 150 kpsi (1030 MPa); and an Izod Impact at 25° C. of greater than 10 ft-lbs/in (530 J/m). The impact copolymer may be produced in a two or three tandem-reactor system wherein the catalyst composition used in the second reactor to produce the second polypropylene is different from the catalyst composition used in the first reactor to produce the first polypropylene.
US08076413B2

The present invention provides an aqueous metallic coating composition comprising: (A) an aqueous film-forming resin; (B) a curing agent; (C) a phosphoric acid group-containing resin having an acid value of 10 to 200 mg KOH/g and obtained by copolymerizing a phosphoric acid group-containing polymerizable unsaturated monomer (a) represented by formula (1) with other polymerizable unsaturated monomer(s) (b); (D) a nitrogen-containing compound represented by formula (2); and (E) a metallic pigment. The present invention further provides a method for forming a multilayer coating film using the aqueous metallic coating composition.
US08076402B2

A bisphenol monoester compound represented by the formula (1): (in the formula (1), Rs each represent independently a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, and R′ represents an alkyl group of a carbon number of 1 to 6, or a hydrogen atom).
US08076400B2

Provided are an optical material composition and an optical element that not only exhibit desirable anomalous dispersion properties but are also easy to process. The material composition for use in the optical element contains 5 weight % to 50 weight % of niobium (V) oxide fine particles (A), 49 weight % to 94 weight % of an organic compound (B) having one or more polymerizable functional groups in one molecule thereof, and 0.05 weight % to 5 weight % of a polymerization initiator (C).
US08076399B2

A binder composition and asphalt mixture that are suitably used to prepare asphalt pavements are disclosed. The binder composition comprises a resin of vegetable origin, an oil of vegetable origin and a polymer, and the polymer comprises functional groups chosen from carboxylic acid anhydride, carboxylic acid and epoxide groups.
US08076395B2

A heat curable epoxy composition comprising the contact product of an epoxy resin, an epoxy curing agent and an accelerator for the epoxy curing agent, the curing agent or the accelerator comprising a urea compound which is the reaction product of an isocyanate and an alkylated polyalkylenepolyamine having one primary or secondary amine and at least two tertiary amines of the general formula: where R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 independently represent hydrogen, methyl or ethyl, n and m independently are integers from 1 to 6 and; X is an integer from 1 to 10.
US08076394B2

Compositions and methods for printing on specialty media are disclosed. The methods comprise the steps of providing a fixing fluid, providing a dye- or pigment-based ink-jet ink containing an effective amount of a polyvinyl(alcohol-acetate) species, jetting the fixing fluid onto the specialty media forming a coated substrate, and jetting the ink-jet ink onto the coated substrate. Additionally, a gelled printed image on a substrate is disclosed comprising a fixing fluid containing a fixing agent and an aqueous ink-jet ink containing a polyvinyl(alcohol-acetate) species. In both the method and with respect to the image, the polyvinyl(alcohol-acetate) species used can be a known species, or one of a number of new graft copolymers containing a polyvinyl(alcohol-acetate) polymer as one of the constituents of the copolymer.
US08076392B2

An ink composition containing at least a polymerizable composition, a pigment, and a polymer represented by General Formula (1): where R1 represents an (m+n)-valent organic linking group, R2 represents a single bond or divalent organic linking group; A1 represents a monovalent organic group having a pigment adsorption structure that contains at least one selected from organic pigment structure, heterocyclic structure, acidic group, group having a basic nitrogen atom, urea group, urethane group, group having a coordinating oxygen atom, hydrocarbon group having 4 or more carbon atoms, alkoxysilyl group, epoxy group, isocyanate group, and hydroxyl group; the n groups A1 and bonds or groups R2 may independently be the same or different; “m” is 1 to 8, “n” is 2 to 9, and m+n is 3 to 10; P1 represents a polymer skeleton; and the m skeletons P1 may be the same or different.
US08076390B2

The present invention provides a composition for use as an antifouling agent and a method of decreasing fouling of a surface in a marine environment. The composition is a polymeric matrix, the polymeric matrix comprising subunits of at least one structural monomer and at least one ionic monomer. The ionic monomer comprising a salt, that is an anion that is a conjugate base of an acid having a pKa less than about 9 and at least one cation that is a cationic biocide. One embodiment includes guanidinium counterions that undergo ion exchange to slowly release a biocidal component.
US08076389B2

An adhesive composition including an etchant for a hard tissue surface, at least one multifunctional crosslinkable (meth)acrylate monomer with a functionality greater than 4, and water. The adhesive composition is a water-in-oil emulsion.
US08076387B2

The present invention provides an irradiated crosslinked polyethylene containing reduced free radicals, preferably containing substantially no residual free radical. Disclosed is a process of making irradiated crosslinked polyethylene by irradiating the polyethylene in contact with a sensitizing environment at an elevated temperature that is below the melting point, in order to reduce the concentration of residual free radicals to an undetectable level. A process of making irradiated crosslinked polyethylene composition having reduced free radical content, preferably containing substantially no residual free radicals, by mechanically deforming the polyethylene at a temperature that is below the melting point of the polyethylene, optionally in a sensitizing environment, is also disclosed herein.
US08076383B2

The present invention relates to a method for producing a porous resin particle having a functional group X, the method including: dissolving a radical polymerizable aromatic monovinyl monomer and a radical polymerizable aromatic divinyl monomer together with a polymerization initiator in an organic solvent to prepare a monomer solution, dispersing the monomer solution in water in the presence of a dispersion stabilizer to obtain a suspension polymerization reaction mixture, and performing a suspension copolymerization while adding, when 0 to 80% of the entire polymerization time of the suspension copolymerization is passed, a mercapto compound represented by the formula (I): HS—R—X  (I) in which R represents an alkylene group having a carbon number of 2 to 12, and the functional group X represents a functional group selected from a hydroxy group and a primary amino group, to the suspension polymerization reaction mixture; and the porous resin particle obtained by the method.
US08076379B2

The present invention relates to a novel proton-conducting polymer membrane based on aromatic polyazoles which contain sulfonic acid groups and in which the sulfonic acid groups are covalently bound to the aromatic ring of the polymer and which can, owing to their excellent chemical and thermal properties, be used for a variety of purposes. Such materials are particularly useful for the production of polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) in PEM fuel cells.
US08076376B2

Aniline sulfonamide derivatives according to formula I have therapeutic utility, particularly in the treatment of diabetes, obesity and related conditions and disorders: where R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and L are set forth in the description.
US08076365B2

The present invention relates to compounds represented by formula (I) wherein A, B, D, E, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R9, a, b, d and e are as defined herein, their salt or ester and pharmaceutical compositions thereof useful in the treatment of hepatitis C viral (HCV) infection. Said compounds were found to have inhibitory activity against HCV polymerase, especially as inhibitors of HCV NS5B polymerase.
US08076359B2

The present invention relates to disubstituted piperidinyl renin inhibitor compounds having the structure (Formula I) and their use in treating cardiovascular events and renal insufficiency.
US08076358B2

The present invention is directed to 6-substituted-thio-2-amino-quinoline derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment, senility and/or dementia. The compounds of the present invention are inhibitors of β-secretase, also known as β-site amyloid cleaving enzyme, BACE, BACE1, Asp2, or memapsin2.
US08076346B2

The present invention relates to a composition and a method of delivering a barbituric acid derivative to the central nervous system of a mammal in need of treatment for neurological conditions. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of administering an oral dosage form of a sodium salt of 5,5-diphenyl barbituric acid to enhance the bioavailability of 5,5-diphenyl barbituric acid and brain delivery of same.
US08076345B2

Fused heterocyclic compounds are provided according to formula 1: where R1, R2, R3, and m are as defined herein. Provided compounds and pharmaceutical compositions thereof are useful for the prevention and treatment of a variety of conditions in mammals including humans, including by way of non-limiting example, pain, inflammation, cognitive disorders, anxiety, depression, and others.
US08076338B2

The present invention relates to compounds of the Formula (I) and (II) wherein R, R21, R25-R33, m, n, X21-X23, and Q1 are defined herein. The compounds modulate protein kinase enzymatic activity to modulate cellular activities such as proliferation, differentiation, programmed cell death, migration and chemoinvasion. Compounds of the invention inhibit, regulate and/or modulate kinases, particularly p70S6 and/or Akt kinases. Methods of using and preparing the compounds, and pharmaceutical compositions thereof, to treat kinase-dependent diseases and conditions are also an aspect of the invention.
US08076337B2

Derivatives of Et-743 or Et-770 or Et-729 are provided. The derivatives are of the general formula Ia.: wherein the substituent groups take various permitted meanings.
US08076336B2

The invention relates to novel compounds of formula I where R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, Q1, Q2 and Q3 are each as defined below. The compounds of formula I have antithrombotic activity and inhibit especially protease-activated receptor 1 (PAR1). The invention further relates to a process for preparing the compound of formula I and to the use thereof as a medicament.
US08076321B2

The present invention relates to the use of the combination of tyrosine phosphate inhibitors AMN107 and PKC412 for the preparation of a drug for the treatment of a mast cell-related proliferative disease. The present invention is also drawn to a combination treatment of a tyrosine phosphate inhibitor and a TK-inhibitor that is effective against a mast cell-related proliferative disease, including especially systemic mastocytosis (SM) including aggressive SM (ASM) and mast cell leukemia (MCL).
US08076318B2

Provided are caged compounds comprising a ligand that specifically reacts with a receptor not naturally present in mammals. The cage is released from the ligand upon illumination of the compound with light. Also provided are cells transfected with a gene of interest and a gene encoding a receptor, the gene of interest operably linked to a genetic element capable of being induced by the receptor when bound to a ligand, and the receptor not naturally present in the species of the cell. The cells also comprise a caged ligand of the receptor. Additionally provided are methods of inducing a gene of interest in the above cells. Also provided are methods of repressing a gene of interest in a cell using caged ligands of receptors. Methods are additionally provided for inducing elimination of a target sequence in a cell of a species, using a caged ligand and a recombinase.
US08076316B2

The invention provides methods to treating conditions such as prostate cancer, or for ameliorating one or more symptoms associated with prostate cancer, or for agents that modulate the biological activity of the androgen receptor. The invention also provides methods and compositions suitable for therapeutic applications.
US08076309B2

The present invention relates to USP47 (ubiquitin specific protease 47) inhibitors and methods for inducing apoptosis or cell death in a target cell. In certain embodiments, the invention relates to methods and kits to screen for related agents that induce apoptosis. Additionally, the invention relates to assays for screening compounds capable of acting as USP47 inhibitors.
US08076306B2

Disclosed herein are compounds, compositions and methods for modulating the expression of hepcidin in a cell, tissue or animal or preventing, ameliorating or treating anemia. Also provided are methods for prevention, amelioration or treatment of anemia, and for increasing red blood cell count in an animal. Also provided are methods for the prevention, amelioration and/or treatment of low serum iron levels, low red blood cell count and other clinical endpoints of anemia in an animal. These methods may be achieved by administration of compounds or compositions including antisense compounds targeted to a nucleic acid that expresses hepcidin polypeptide combined with an erythropoiesis stimulating agent.
US08076302B2

A novel pyrimidine nucleoside derivative represented by the following formula (1) and a salt thereof, as well as a pharmaceutical composition comprising the same as an active ingredient have excellent antiviral properties and are useful as antiviral therapeutic agents: [wherein R represents a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic ring which may have any one of a C1-C3 alkyl group or a C1-C3 alkoxy group as a substituent, or a C1-C6 alkyl group which has one primary amino group as a substituent].
US08076298B2

The present invention provides a method for preventing and/or treating subjects with acute renal failure caused by a variety of conditions. The method comprises administering to the subject soluble thrombomodulin which does not activate Protein C. In conjunction with standard of care, soluble thrombomodulin that does not activate Protein C will prevent or reduce acute kidney injury and subsequent morbidity and mortality.
US08076293B2

The present invention relates to the use of BiP or a variant, homologue, derivative or fragment thereof in the manufacture of a medicament for the prevention or treatment of bone loss or bone resorption.
US08076283B2

The invention features methods of treating or preventing congestive heart failure by administering a polypeptide containing an epidermal growth factor-like domain encoded by a neuregulin gene.
US08076282B2

It has now been found that after administration to a diseased person or person that is at risk for developing such disease of a neutraceutical or pharmaceutical composition that comprises a/ a lipid fraction comprising at least one of docosahexanoic acid (DHA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA); b/ a protein fraction comprising proteinaceous material from non-human origin which provide at least cysteine and/or taurine; and c/ a mineral fraction comprising at least one of manganese and molybdene, the health of these persons improves. Membrane function of several types of mammalian cells improves, which allows efficient treatment of immune related disorders, such as allergy, autoimmune diseases, cancer, cognitive dysfunction and other diseases of the nervous system, neuropathies, such as diabetic neuropathies and neuropathic pains, neuronal damage during insulin resistance, and gut diseases and support of the development of gut and lung function during growth or recovery.
US08076280B2

The present invention provides an emulsion comprising an organic discontinuous phase which is distributed throughout a continuous aqueous phase,wherein the organic phase comprises, a) an organic solvent which is a liquid at 25° C. and/or, b) an organic phase stabilising material that comprises hydrophobic moieties and is a material which is more soluble in the organic phase than the aqueous phase, and the emulsion further comprises an encapsulated fragrance, said fragrance is encapsulated in microparticles. The present invention also relates to personal care compositions comprising emulsions containing encapsulated fragrances for improved fragrance delivery.The present invention also relates a method of use that comprises application of an effective amount of a liquid or solid personal care composition comprising an emulsion that contains a fragrance encapsulated in microparticles to at least one part of the body.
US08076275B2

Antioxidant additives for lubricating oils are prepared by reacting an acidic molybdenum compound or salt thereof and a basic nitrogen compound where the temperature of the process does not exceed 120° C., resulting in a product color that is light in intensity.
US08076266B2

Urea Phosphite is a new composition of matter useful as a fertilizer and as a fungicide. It is made by reacting phosphorous acid with urea. Urea Phosphite is characterized by being a liquid produced in an unprocessed reaction, and by having phosphite as a phosphorus source and urea as a nitrogen source. The reaction products may be separated, blended with an admix and spray dried, or dissolved in water. This new composition of matter avoids the pitfalls of pathological acerbation reported with the use of phosphite fertilizers and fungicides. When blended with an admix, this new composition is also believed to have the ability to break dormancy in temperate fruiting crops.
US08076261B2

The present invention features a method for preparing a PtCo nanocube catalyst, the method comprising dissolving a platinum (Pt) precursor, a cobalt (Co) precursor, a surface stabilizer and a reducing agent in a solvent to prepare a solution; heating the solution under an inert gas atmosphere; maintaining the temperature of the solution to obtain PtCo alloy nanocubes; adsorbing the PtCo alloy nanocubes on a carbon support to obtain a catalyst; and removing the surface stabilizer from the catalyst. The disclosed method for preparing a PtCo nanocube catalyst enables preparation of nanocubes with uniform size and cubic shape through a simple process and application for development of high-efficiency fuel cells by preventing change in shape, surface area and composition caused by agglomeration of the nanocubes.
US08076260B2

After a titanium nitride (TiN) thin film is formed on a silicon substrate, cobalt (Co) fine particles and nickel (Ni) fine particles are deposited in a mixed state on the titanium nitride (TiN) thin film, and CNTs are sequentially grown from the cobalt (Co) fine particles and the nickel fine particles by varying growth conditions.
US08076259B2

A process for the preparation of a catalyst paste comprising the following steps: a) obtaining a slurry in an organic solvent containing at least: a1) a support bearing functional groups; a2) a trialkylaluminum of formula (Ra)3Al wherein Ra, equal to or different from each other is a C1-C20 hydrocarbon radical optional containing heteroatoms belonging to groups 13-17 of the periodic table of the elements; a3) a compound of formula (I) (R1)x-A-(OH)y  (I) wherein: A is an atom of group 13 or 15 of the Periodic Table; R1 equal to or different from each other, are C1-C40 hydrocarbon radicals optionally containing heteroatoms belonging to groups 13-17 of the periodic table of the elements; Y is 1 or 2; X is 1 or 2; provided that x+y=3; a4) a transition metal organometallic compound; b) washing the resulting slurry one or more times with oil.
US08076257B1

A bismuth sodium titanate (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3) base material is modified by the partial substitution of aliovalent A-site cations such as barium (as BaO) or strontium (as SrO), as well as certain b-site donor/acceptor dopants and sintering aids to form a multi-phase system, much like known “core/shell” X7R dielectrics based solely on BaTiO3. The resulting ceramic dielectric composition is particularly suitable for producing a multilayer ceramic capacitor (10) that maintains high dielectric constant (and thus the capability of maintaining high capacitance) over a broad temperature range of from about 150° C. to about 300° C. Such capacitors (10) are appropriate for high temperature power electronics applications in fields such as down-hole oil and gas well drilling.
US08076253B2

An opal-finished fabric having a stereoscopic pattern is provided, in which both the fiber-decomposed part and the non-decomposed fiber part are rich in color expression, and the fiber-decomposed part having a sufficient strength with a thin material having highly transparent appearance in the fiber-decomposed part. The fabric is an opal-finished fabric obtained with two or more kinds of fibers and formed with a fiber-decomposed part showing a transparent appearance by removing at least one kind of the fibers and a non-decomposed fiber part, in which for solving the problems, the fiber-decomposed part contains mainly nylon fibers, and the non-decomposed fiber part contains mainly colored polyester fibers and non-colored nylon fibers. The non-decomposed fiber part is preferably constituted by a layer containing mainly polyester fibers and a layer containing mainly nylon fibers. The stretchability thereof can be improved by using the fabric further containing polyurethane fibers or weaving the fiber-decomposed part with an atlas stitch structure or a two-needle stitch structure.
US08076252B2

In a substrate processing method, a substrate to be processed is mounted on a mounting table in a processing chamber of a substrate processing apparatus, and while heating the substrate by a heating unit through the mounting table to a processing temperature of 700° C. or higher, the substrate is processed. The substrate to be processed is loaded into the processing chamber, a first preliminary heating is performed until the substrate reaches a prescribed temperature while being mounted on the mounting table. Then, substrate supporting pins of the mounting table are elevated, and a second preliminary heating is performed in a state where the substrate is held on the substrate supporting pins. Then, the substrate supporting pins are moved down to mount the substrate on the mounting table and a process such as plasma oxidation is performed thereon.
US08076247B2

A method is provided for processing a workpiece in a plasma reactor chamber. The method includes coupling, to a plasma in the chamber, power of an RF frequency via a ceiling electrode and coupling, to the plasma, power of at least approximately the same RF frequency via a workpiece support electrode. The method also includes providing an edge ground return path. The method further includes adjusting the proportion between (a) current flow between said electrodes and (b) current flow to the edge ground return path from said electrodes, to control plasma ion density distribution uniformity over the workpiece.
US08076242B2

A method for forming an amorphous silicon thin film is disclosed. In some embodiments, a method includes loading a substrate into a reaction chamber; and conducting a plurality of deposition cycles on the substrate. Each of at least two of the cycles includes: supplying a silicon precursor to the reaction chamber during a first time period; applying radio frequency power to the reaction chamber at least partly during the first time period; stopping supplying of the silicon precursor and applying of the radio frequency power during a second time period between the first time period and an immediately subsequent deposition cycle; and supplying hydrogen plasma to the reaction chamber during a third time period between the second time period and the immediately subsequent deposition cycle. The method allows formation of an amorphous silicon film having an excellent step-coverage and a low roughness at a relatively low deposition temperature.
US08076225B2

A method for manufacturing a solid-state image capturing device according to the present invention, in which from a plurality of light receiving sections for photoelectrically converting incident light into signal electric charge, the signal electric charge is read to an electric charge detection section through transfer sections located under respective reading gate electrodes, each electric charge detection being shared by each of the plurality of light receiving sections, the method including: transfer section impurity region forming step of performing an ion implantation process from an ion implantation direction wherein the location of an edge surface of an impurity region of the transfer section and the location of an edge surface of the reading gate electrode corresponding to the impurity region match each other at each reading gate electrode.
US08076220B2

A semiconductor device has a transparent dielectric substrate such as a sapphire substrate. To enable fabrication equipment to detect the presence of the substrate optically, the back surface of the substrate is coated with a triple-layer light-reflecting film, preferably a film in which a silicon oxide or silicon nitride layer is sandwiched between polycrystalline silicon layers. This structure provides high reflectance with a combined film thickness of less than half a micrometer.
US08076214B2

A display substrate includes a signal line, a thin-film transistor (“TFT”), a key pattern, a light-blocking pattern, a color filter, a pixel electrode and an alignment key. The signal line and the key pattern are formed on a substrate. The TFT is electrically connected to the signal line. The light-blocking pattern is formed on the substrate and covers the signal line, the TFT and the key pattern. The color filter is formed in a unit pixel area of the substrate. The pixel electrode is formed on the color filter and is electrically connected to the TFT. The alignment key is formed on the light-blocking pattern, and a position of the alignment key on the substrate corresponds to a position of the key pattern on the substrate.
US08076210B2

A method for fabricating a metal-oxide semiconductor transistor is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate structure on the semiconductor substrate; and performing a first ion implantation process to implant a first molecular cluster having carbon, boron, and hydrogen into the semiconductor substrate at two sides of the gate structure for forming a doped region, wherein the molecular weight of the first molecular cluster is greater than 100.
US08076204B2

A graphene layer is formed on a surface of a silicon carbide substrate. A dummy gate structure is formed over the fin, in the trench, or on a portion of the planar graphene layer to implant dopants into source and drain regions. The dummy gate structure is thereafter removed to provide an opening over the channel of the transistor. Threshold voltage adjustment implantation may be performed to form a threshold voltage implant region directly beneath the channel, which comprises the graphene layer. A gate dielectric is deposited over a channel portion of the graphene layer. After an optional spacer formation, a gate conductor is formed by deposition and planarization. The resulting graphene-based field effect transistor has a high carrier mobility due to the graphene layer in the channel, low contact resistance to the source and drain region, and optimized threshold voltage and leakage due to the threshold voltage implant region.
US08076197B2

A CMOS image sensor includes a substrate including silicon, a silicon germanium (SiGe) epitaxial layer formed over the substrate, the SiGe epitaxial layer formed through epitaxial growth and doped with a predetermined concentration level of impurities, an undoped silicon epitaxial layer formed over the SiGe epitaxial layer by epitaxial growth, and a photodiode region formed from a top surface of the undoped silicon epitaxial layer to a predetermined depth in the SiGe epitaxial layer.
US08076194B2

A method of fabricating a MOS transistor is disclosed. The method includes the steps of: providing a semiconductor substrate; forming at least a gate on the semiconductor substrate; forming a protective layer on the semiconductor substrate, and the protective layer covering the surface of the gate; forming at least a recess within the semiconductor substrate adjacent to the gate; forming an epitaxial layer in the recess, wherein the top surface of the epitaxial layer is above the surface of the semiconductor substrate; and forming a spacer on the sidewall of the gate and on a portion of the epitaxial layer, wherein a contact surface of the epitaxial layer and the spacer is above the surface of the semiconductor substrate.
US08076187B2

A method of fabricating a polycrystalline silicon thin film for a thin film transistor (TFT), a mask pattern used for the method, and a method of fabricating a flat panel display device using the method and the mask pattern. In one embodiment, a mask pattern includes a plurality of regions, each of the regions having at least one of one or more transparent portions or one or more non-transparent portions. A total area of the one or more transparent portions and the one or more non-transparent portions in one of the regions is substantially equal to a total area of the one or more transparent portions and the one or more non-transparent portions in at least one other of the regions. A total area of the transparent portions in the mask pattern is different from a total area of the non-transparent portions in the mask pattern.
US08076184B1

A semiconductor device has a base carrier with first and second opposing surfaces. A plurality of cavities and base leads between the cavities is formed in the first surface of the base carrier. The first set of base leads can have a different height or similar height as the second set of base leads. A concave capture pad can be formed over the second set of base leads. Alternatively, a plurality of openings can be formed in the base carrier and the semiconductor die mounted to the openings. A semiconductor die is mounted between a first set of the base leads and over a second set of the base leads. An encapsulant is deposited over the die and base carrier. A portion of the second surface of the base carrier is removed to separate the base leads. An interconnect structure is formed over the encapsulant and base leads.
US08076176B2

The thermal management and method for large scale processing of CIS and/or CIGS based thin film overlaying glass substrates. According to an embodiment, the present invention provides a method for fabricating a copper indium diselenide semiconductor film. The method includes providing a plurality of substrates, each of the substrates having a copper and indium composite structure. The method also includes transferring the plurality of substrates into a furnace, each of the plurality of substrates provided in a vertical orientation with respect to a direction of gravity, the plurality of substrates being defined by a number N, where N is greater than 5. The method further includes introducing a gaseous species including a selenide species and a carrier gas into the furnace and transferring thermal energy into the furnace to increase a temperature from a first temperature to a second temperature, the second temperature ranging from about 350° C. to about 450° C. to at least initiate formation of a copper indium diselenide film from the copper and indium composite structure on each of the substrates.
US08076172B2

A method of manufacturing a solid-state imaging device, where a signal circuit is formed on an insulating interlayer on a first side of a semiconductor substrate in which a photoelectric conversion part is formed and light is incident on the photoelectric conversion part from a second side thereof. The method includes the steps of: forming an on-chip color filter and an on-chip microlens on the second side where light is incident; and forming an opening in a pad part on the second side where light is incident.
US08076169B2

The invention relates to a method of fabricating an electromechanical device including an active element, wherein the method comprises the following steps:a) making a monocrystalline first stop layer on a monocrystalline layer of a first substrate;b) growing a monocrystalline mechanical layer epitaxially on said first stop layer out of at least one material that is different from that of the stop layer;c) making a sacrificial layer on said active layer out of a material that is suitable for being etched selectively relative to said mechanical layer;d) making a bonding layer on the sacrificial layer;e) bonding a second substrate on the bonding layer; andf) eliminating the first substrate and the stop layer to reveal the surface of the mechanical layer opposite from the sacrificial layer, the active element being made by at least a portion of the mechanical layer.
US08076166B2

A method for fabricating an optically pumped semiconductor apparatus, having the following steps: provision of a connection carrier assembly (50) comprising a plurality of connection carriers (14) which are permanently connected to one another mechanically, arrangement of a surface-emitting semiconductor body (1) on a connection carrier (14) in the connection carrier assembly (50), and separation of the connection carrier assembly (50) into individual semiconductor apparatuses.
US08076163B2

A plurality of particles of from about 5 nm to 100 μm possessing predetermined isoelectric points in the pH range of from about 2.5 to 11 is used in a method of detection of a plurality of analytes, wherein the isoelectric particles of each isoelectric point further contain as label and a member of a binding pair capable of interacting with a selected analyte. The particles that form specific binding pairs are recovered and separated by isoelectric focusing followed by the detection of the labels associated with the particles. A flow cytometer may be used as a detector of the isoelectric particles.
US08076159B2

Briefly described, embodiments of this disclosure include ligand-regulable transactivation systems, methods of producing ligand-regulable transactivation systems, methods of using ligand-regulable transactivation systems, reporter polynucleotides, method of producing reporter polynucleotides, activator fusion proteins, methods of producing activator fusion proteins, methods of regulating gene expression in vitro and in vivo for gene therapy, methods of screening estrogen receptor modulators with therapeutic treatments (e.g., anticancer, antiosteoporosis, and hormone replacement treatments), method of screening compounds (e.g., drugs and environmental pollutants) for the estrogenic effect, methods of evaluating the estrogen receptor pathway under different pathological conditions are provided, and the like.
US08076146B2

A method for evaluating rubber is provided which can evaluate the degree of crosslinking of a crosslinked rubber product within a short period of time without performing any specific treatment. In the above method, the amount of energy shift of the peak (such as the peak of C12p3/2 of chlorinated butyl rubber) of a constituent element of the rubber is measured by photoelectron spectroscopy, and the degree of crosslinking of the rubber is evaluated from the amount of energy shift. In addition, a method for manufacturing a rubber product is also provided which includes the steps of measuring the amount of energy shift of the peak of a constituent element of the rubber product by a photoelectron spectrometer which is installed in a manufacturing line and then feeding back measurement result to adjust heat molding conditions so as to obtain a desired degree of crosslinking.
US08076139B1

The present invention generally relates to processes and compositions for the transfection of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. More specifically, the present invention relates to processes for the transfection of CHO cells suspended in an aqueous medium using a transfection composition containing nucleic acid and linear polyethyleneimine.
US08076138B2

The invention provides methods employing iterative cycles of recombination and selection/screening for evolution of whole cells and organisms toward acquisition of desired properties. Examples of such properties include enhanced recombinogenicity, genome copy number, and capacity for expression and/or secretion of proteins and secondary metabolites.
US08076136B2

The present disclosure provides ex vivo-derived mineralized three-dimensional bone constructs. The bone constructs are obtained by culturing osteoblasts and osteoclast precursors under randomized gravity vector conditions. Preferably, the randomized gravity vector conditions are obtained using a low shear stress rotating bioreactor, such as a High Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV) culture system. The bone constructs of the disclosure have utility in physiological studies of bone formation and bone function, in drug discovery, and in orthopedics.
US08076117B2

Methods, kits, and systems for removing microbial biofilms from surfaces of objects (such as, e.g., explanted medical devices) are disclosed. The methods, kits, and systems rely on the use of acoustic energy in the presence of microbubbles to enhance biofilm removal while retaining viability of the microorganisms in the biofilm. The microbubbles may be provided in a variety of manners such as, e.g., vortexing a liquid, obtaining a suspension that includes pre-formed protein-stabilized microbubbles, etc.
US08076112B2

The present invention provides a fermentation process for producing a fermentation product from starch-containing material wherein one or more antibacterial agents are added before and/or during fermentation.
US08076111B2

An organic acid is produced by allowing a bacterium which has an ability to produce an organic acid and has been modified so that expression of yidE gene is enhanced, or a product obtained by processing the bacterium, to act on an organic raw material in a reaction mixture containing carbonate ions, bicarbonate ions, or carbon dioxide gas to produce the organic acid, and collecting the organic acid.
US08076091B2

The invention relates to an MDR family P-glycoprotein located on human chromosome 7p15-21, polynucleotide sequences encoding this P-glycoprotein and fragments thereof. This gene is utilized in methods for assessing cancer cell susceptibility to therapies directed against multidrug resistance, and for the design of diagnostic and therapeutic methods relating to cancer multidrug resistance. The invention also relates to methods for determining whether a test compound may inhibit multidrug resistance.
US08076085B2

The present inventors have discovered that the presence of antibodies reactive with residues 94-117 of the PreS1 component of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in an individual with HBV infection correlates closely with the effectiveness of interferon (IFN) in treating the individual. Methods and means based on this finding are provided herein.
US08076071B2

Methods for producing interfering RNA molecules in mammalian cells are provided. Therapeutic uses for the expressed molecules, including inhibiting expression of HIV, are also provided.
US08076068B2

The present invention provides 4-nucleotide (4mer) RNA motifs that confer immunostimulatory activity, in particular, IFN-α-inducing activity to a RNA oligonucleotide. The present invention also provides RNA oligonucleotides, including siRNA, with high or low immunostimulatory activity. The present invention further provides the use of the RNA oligonucleotides of the invention for therapeutic purposes.
US08076063B2

The present invention is directed to sensitive and accurate multiplexed assays for target analyte detection and detection of methylation in nucleic acid samples.
US08076062B2

The present invention is directed to the field of nucleic acid diagnostics and the identification of base variation in target nucleic acid sequences. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of such genotypic characterization of a target population of HIV and the subsequent association, i.e., correlation, of this information to phenotypic interpretation in order to correlate virus mutational profiles with drug resistance. The invention also relates to methods of utilizing the mutational profiles of the invention in drug development, i.e., drug discovery, drug design, drug modification, and therapy, treatment design, clinical management and diagnostic analysis.
US08076057B2

Methods for making extrusion dies using a LIGA process, a German acronym for lithography (Lithographie), electroplating (Galvanoformung), and molding (Abformung), are described. The resulting extrusion dies can be used, for example, for extrusion of cellular ceramic substrates, precision extrusion of optical fiber or optical fiber precursors, or other applications where profile extrusion requires high dimensional precision and/or has otherwise intricate patterns.
US08076041B2

A heat insulating member is sandwiched by a first separator and a second separator. The heat insulating member functions as a heat insulating layer to prevent the temperature decrease of electricity generating cells. A first impurity removal flow path is formed in the space enclosed by the grooves on the surface of the second separator and a partition plate. A second impurity removal flow path is formed in the space enclosed by the grooves on the surface of a third separator and the partition plate. The impurity removal flow paths function as filters to remove the impurities contained in the reaction gases. A terminal functions as a current collecting layer to collect the electricity generated in the electricity generating cells. An end laminated body functions as a heat insulating layer to prevent the temperature decrease of the electricity generating cells, impurity removal layers to remove the impurities contained in the reaction gases and a current collecting layer to collect the electricity generated in the electricity generating cells.
US08076029B2

A primary cell having an anode comprising lithium and a cathode comprising iron disulfide (FeS2) and carbon particles. The electrolyte comprises a lithium salt dissolved in a solvent mixture which contains 1,3-dioxolane and isosorbide dimethyl ether. The solvent mixture may comprise 1,3-dioxolane, 1,2-dimethoxyethane and additive isosorbide dimethyl ether. The isosorbide dimethyl ether comprises typically between about 2 and 15 percent by weight of the solvent mixture and improves cell service life and performance. A cathode slurry is prepared comprising iron disulfide powder, carbon, binder, and a liquid solvent. The mixture is coated onto a conductive substrate and solvent evaporated leaving a dry cathode coating on the substrate. The anode and cathode can be spirally wound with separator therebetween and inserted into the cell casing with electrolyte then added.
US08076027B2

A negative electrode for a secondary battery includes a separator; a negative electrode active material layer which is fixed to the separator and can store and emit lithium ions; and a current collector layer formed on the side of the separator opposite to the negative electrode active material layer. The negative electrode active material layer contains at least one selected from the group consisting of silicon, silicon alloys, compounds containing silicon and oxygen, compounds containing silicon and nitrogen, compounds containing silicon and fluorine, tin, tin alloys, compounds containing tin and oxygen, compounds containing tin and nitrogen, and compounds containing tin and fluorine.
US08076023B2

A non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery including an electrode assembly, a non-aqueous electrolyte, and a substantially rectangular battery case for housing the electrode assembly and the non-aqueous electrolyte. The thickness α, the width β, and the height γ of the battery case satisfy the relation α<β≦γc. The electrode assembly includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a porous heat-resistant layer disposed between these electrodes. The positive electrode includes a positive electrode active material layer, and the negative electrode includes a negative electrode active material layer. The ratio of the pore volume included in a predetermined area of the porous heat-resistant layer to the battery theoretical capacity is 0.18 to 1.117 ml/Ah. The predetermined area has the same area as the positive electrode active material layer. The porosity of the porous heat-resistant layer is 35 to 85%.
US08076019B2

An energy storage module for current supply of an electrical apparatus, in particular for an electrical hand-held machining tool, has a plurality of cells for storage of electrical energy, at least one cell support mounting the cells, being in contact with the cells, enclosing the plurality of cells and made from a heat-conductive material, and at least one cooling body formed on the cell support.
US08076012B2

Disclosed are a magnetic thin film capable of providing a high uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, Ku, while suppressing the saturation magnetization Ms thereof, and a method for forming the film; and also disclosed are various devices to which the magnetic thin film is applied. The magnetic thin film comprises a Co-M-Pt alloy having an L11-type ordered structure (wherein M represents one or more metal elements except Co and Pt). For example, the Co-M-Pt alloy is a Co—Ni—Pt alloy of which the composition comprises from 10 to 35 at. % of Co, from 20 to 55 at. % of Ni and a balance of Pt. The magnetic thin film is applicable to perpendicular magnetic recording media, tunnel magneto-resistance (TMR) devices, magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAM), microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices, etc.
US08076005B2

High density oxide films are deposited by a pulsed-DC, biased, reactive sputtering process from a titanium containing target to form high quality titanium containing oxide films. A method of forming a titanium based layer or film according to the present invention includes depositing a layer of titanium containing oxide by pulsed-DC, biased reactive sputtering process on a substrate. In some embodiments, the layer is TiO2. In some embodiments, the layer is a sub-oxide of Titanium. In some embodiments, the layer is TixOy wherein x is between about 1 and about 4 and y is between about 1 and about 7. In some embodiments, the layer can be doped with one or more rare-earth ions. Such layers are useful in energy and charge storage, and energy conversion technologies.
US08076000B2

The present invention relates to new combinations of tie-layers and backing layers and/or substrates for making (1) new multilayer structures formed from one or more ionomers and one or more tie-layers, and optionally a backing layer to form laminates, (2) new composite articles made from these laminates in combination with optional substrate materials, and (3) new methods of making composite articles from these laminates by shaping and subsequently contacting them with a substrate material.
US08075983B2

The present invention provides, in a HUD device employing a high-functional windshield such as a sound-insulation glass having a multi-layer interlayer, a windshield for a vehicle which does not produce double images and has excellent visibility without deteriorating functionality of the windshield. In a laminated glass having a multi-layer interlayer having a wedge-shaped thickness profile sandwiched by glass sheets, the multi-layer interlayer has layers having different hardness, the thickness of first resin layers having high hardness is at least 0.3 mm in a region within 400 nm from a lower side, which prevents the generation of optical distortion of the laminated glass and efficiently prevents double display images.
US08075961B2

A glass bonding material contains vanadium and phosphor as main glass components, and comprises in amounts converted as oxides of the elements in the components, 45 to 60% by weight of V2O5, 15 to 30% by weight of P2O5, 5 to 25% by weight of BaO, or contains a glass comprising at least vanadium, phosphor, barium and antimony, wherein the glass comprises in amounts converted as oxides, 15 to 35% by weight of BaO and Sb2O3 in total, and a weight ratio of BaO/Sb2O3 or Sb2O3/BaO is 0.3 or less.
US08075960B2

The invention provides a liquid crystal composition that satisfies at least one characteristic among the characteristics such as a high maximum temperature of a nematic phase, a low minimum temperature of a nematic phase, a low viscosity, a large optical anisotropy, a large dielectric anisotropy, a small pretilt angle, a large specific resistance, a high stability to ultraviolet light, and a high stability to heat, or provides a liquid crystal composition that is properly balanced regarding at least two characteristics. The invention provides an AM device that has a short response time, a large voltage holding ratio, a high contrast ratio, a long service life and so forth. A liquid crystal display device contains the liquid crystal composition having a nematic phase that includes three components, wherein the first component is a specific difluoroalkenyldicyclohexane compound having a small viscosity, the second component is a specific compound having difluoromethyleneoxy bond having a large dielectric anisotropy, and the third component is a specific terphenyl compound having a large optical anisotropy.
US08075947B2

Optical thin-film-forming methods are disclosed that form optical thin film on a base plate arranged in a vacuum chamber. An exemplary method includes the steps of retaining the base plates on a plurality of retaining frames of a base-plate retainer, heating the base plate, and emitting a deposition material from a deposition source. The retaining frames are configured to make the entire base plate uniformly heated.
US08075945B2

In a coating method, such as a droplet discharge method which requires baking, it is an object of the present invention to reduce the baking temperature at the time of forming a wiring and a conductive film. As a feature of the present invention, a composition, in which nanoparticles of a conductive material are dispersed in a solvent, is discharged using a droplet discharge method, and then dried to vaporize the solvent. Then, pretreatment using active oxygen is performed. After which, baking is then performed, whereby a wiring and a conductive film are formed. By performance of the pretreatment by active oxygen before the baking, a baking temperature at the time of forming the wiring and conductive film can be reduced.
US08075944B2

In case of forming films in plural positions with an ink jet head having plural nozzles, to provide a method of efficiently correcting an aberration in the liquid droplet applying position resulting for example from a distortion of a substrate, thereby producing an electron source with a high production yield. Positions of device electrodes 2, 3 on the electron source substrate 1 are detected by fetching in advance a surface image of the substrate 1, then a position of an electroconductive film 4 is calculated as a liquid droplet applying position, and an inclination angle θ of the ink jet head 11 is so regulated that a pitch of the nozzles 12 matches a pitch d of the obtained liquid droplet applying positions.
US08075940B2

A method for coating bioactive material and a structured coated with a bioactive material are disclosed. The bioactive material coating method includes: flowing a coating solution, produced as a bioactive material is dissolved in a mixed solvent, inside a structure having a lumen; and coating the bioactive material on at least one of inner and outer surfaces of the structure, with different concentrations. The mixed solvent is mixed with two or more solvents having different features. The occurrence of the strangulation of blood vessels and inflammation can be reduced. An increase in the size of the myofibroblast is not suppressed. The coating solution is produced as a medication is dissolved in a mixed solvent, where the mixed solvent is produced as a polar solvent and a nonpolar solvent are mixed with each other at a certain ratio.
US08075939B2

A method of producing an animal feed that is free from transmittable degenerative encephalopathies is provided. Central to the method is alkali treatment of animal material at a pH of at least 8.5 under temperature conditions below 100 C at atmospheric pressure. This method provides a decontaminated animal feed produced under relatively low temperature and pressure conditions that are achievable in standard animal carcass rendering facilities.
US08075933B2

Method for the preparation of fermented dry or semi-dried meat products, with partial substitution of the animal fat and direct incorporation of olive oil Method for the preparation fermented dry or semi-dried meat products, with direct incorporation of olive oil. The said method includes the following phases: (a) mixing of the meat with cultures, sugars, preservatives and auxiliary salts, (b) admixture of olive oil and fat, (c) mixing until the desirable meat-fat grain is achieved, (d) stuffing of the meat paste in casings, (e) fermenting of the product in a chamber with relative humidity 95-80% and temperature of 25-20° C., (f) dehydration in a chamber 10 with relative humidity 80-75% and temperature 12-17° C. For the partial fermenting process products, the stages (e) and (f) are modified as follows: (e′) fermenting of the product in a chamber with relative humidity 75-60% and temperature of 25-30° C. for 24-30 hours, (f′) heating of the product up to core temperature of 55° C. and dehydration with relative humidity 75-80 % and temperature of 12-17° C. The fermented dry and semi-dried meat products with direct incorporation of olive oil, which are produced according to this method, have excellent stability from a structure point of view (consistency) and keep the physical and chemical characteristics of the olive oil.
US08075927B1

The present invention discloses a non-toxic, long-lasting tire dressing with pet repellent qualities which enhances the appearance of a vehicle's tires while deterring animals from urinating on the tires. The present invention relates to a new pet repellent tire dressing includes silicone, a solvent, citronella oil, cinnamon oil, and piper nigrum oil. In one embodiment, the citronella oil ranges from about 0.1% to 4% by weight, the cinnamon oil ranges from about 0.04% to 1.6% of the solution by weight, the piper nigrum oil ranges from about 0.01% to 0.4% of the solution, by weight, a solvent and silicone. In one embodiment, the pet repellent tire dressing also includes a dye up to the amount of 0.02% by weight.
US08075925B2

A canola protein isolate having a protein content of at least about 90 wt % (N×6.25), preferably at least about 100 wt %, and consisting predominantly of the 2S protein and substantially free from the 7S and 12S proteins is prepared. In one aspect, canola oil seed meal is extracted with aqueous protein solution at an elevated temperature to preferentially extract 2S protein from the meal to produce a canola protein solution containing predominantly 2S protein. The 2S canola protein is recovered as an isolate. In another aspect, canola oil seed meal is initially extracted with water to preferentially extract 7S and 12S canola proteins followed by extraction of the canola oil seed meal with aqueous saline solution to extract 2S protein from the meal. 2S canola protein isolate is recovered from the saline extract. In another aspect, the canola oil seed meal is extracted with aqueous saline solution to extract 2S, 7S and 12S proteins from the meal. The aqueous protein extract solution is heat treated at an elevated temperature to precipitate 7S and 12S proteins and leave a 2S protein solution from which the isolate may be recovered. In a further aspect, the aqueous protein solution is concentrated prior to the heat treatment.
US08075922B2

Contrary to current opinion that nitrite in general oxidizes hemoglobin with elimination of active nitric oxide, deoxygenated hemoglobin reacts with low concentration inorganic nitrite to produce very stable iron nitrosyl hemoglobin which on delivery into the body is converted to a hemoglobin capable of nitric oxide delivery and provides vasodilator and antiplatelet activity. This provides basis for ameliorated risk blood product transfusions.
US08075913B2

A method for producing a cationic liposomal preparation comprising a lipophilic active compound with physical and chemical stability during manufacturing, storing and reconstituting, and further a cationic liposomal preparation obtainable by this method as well as specific cationic liposomal preparations as well as pharmaceutical compositions are disclosed.
US08075912B2

The invention relates to a transdermal therapeutic system (TTS), preferably in the form of a transdermal plaster, that contains an active substance and an agent which can destroy the active substance. The TTS further includes a means of bringing the active substance, e.g. buprenorphine, and the agent, e.g. potassium permanganate, into contact when the TTS is removed from the skin of the patient, thereby causing the active substance to be destroyed.
US08075910B2

The present invention provides oral dosage compositions, and methods of making thereof, which contain an edible oil, preferably containing an omega-3 fatty acid, and admixed therein one or more water soluble vitamins and/or minerals, for example vitamins B6, B9, and/or B12. The present invention also provides a method of making the composition comprising mixing the edible oil and one or more water-soluble vitamins and/or minerals to form a suspension or emulsion of the water-soluble vitamins and/or minerals in the edible oil. The mixture can be inserted into capsules, gelcaps, or caplets for oral consumption. An additional aspect of the invention is that the edible oil can coat particles of the water-soluble vitamins and/or minerals, which may preferably provide the vitamins and/or minerals improved absorption in the body due to increased resistance to degradation in the acidic environment of the stomach.
US08075908B2

A method for inhibiting formation of adhesions following abdominal surgery which involves application of an anti-static fatty acid ethoxylated amide (Cocamide DEA) in a matrix that is placed in the peritoneal cavity at the conclusion of an abdominal surgery and which releases this anti-adhesive chemical over a predetermined time in a range from about five to seven days. Tests conducted on laboratory rats established that the method reduced the incidences of adhesions from 100 percent (100%) in a test model to near zero percent (0%) in the treated animals. In an alternative embodiment, Andrographalide was delivered through a drug pump with similar results. In still another embodiment, an effective amount of Rapamune was delivered, via a pump, into the abdominal cavity, again with similar results.
US08075907B2

The invention relates to a PMMA revision bone cement having powder and liquid component, in which the powder component contains two or more granular antibiotics whose grain size distribution is equal in that the main screening fraction each of the individual antibiotics is in the same grain size range, in particular in the range of 100-250 μm or 150-250 μm.
US08075905B2

A process by means of which the colonization by plaque on dental materials can be permanently prevented or delayed without the product properties of the dental material being negatively influenced. The process involves equipping the dental material with anti-plaque substance, namely at least one molecularly dispersely distributed octenidine salt or dequalinium salt. Also disclosed is a dental material so equipped.
US08075902B2

New devices and methods for diagnosis and compositions and methods for treatment of cancers use combinations of antimicrobial agents and agents that can reverse dormancy and hibernation pathways. We unexpectedly found that surprisingly low doses of anti-hibernation compounds can substantially inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro and can successfully treat cancers, including metastatic cancer. We also unexpectedly found that antimicrobial agents and anti-HDS compounds together can increase the degree of inhibition of cancer cell growth in a synergistic fashion. We conclude that combination therapy with antimicrobial agents and anti-HDS compounds can be effective in treating human patients with cancer.
US08075892B2

The present invention concerns the treatment of disorders characterized by the overexpression of ErbB2. More specifically, the invention concerns the treatment of human patients susceptible to or diagnosed with cancer overexpressing ErbB2 with a combination of an anti-ErbB2 antibody and a chemotherapeutic agent other than an anthracycline, e.g. doxorubicin or epirubicin. The invention further provides a method of treating cancer in a human patient comprising administering effective amounts of an anti-ErbB2 antibody and a cardioprotectant to the patient.
US08075891B2

The invention relates to an epitope protection assay for use in diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic intervention in diseases, for example, involving polypeptide aggregation, such as prion infections. The methods of the invention first block accessible polypeptide target epitope with a blocking agent. After denaturation of the polypeptide, a detecting agent is used to detect protein with target epitope that was inaccessible during contact with the blocking agent. The invention also relates to novel amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-specific epitopes and their uses to make antibodies, and to the novel antibodies and uses thereof.
US08075890B2

Variant immunoglobulins, particularly humanized antibody polypeptides are provided, along with methods for their preparation and use. Consensus immunoglobulin sequences and structural models are also provided.
US08075884B2

This application provides methods and compositions for modulating and/or depleting CD200 positive cells.
US08075883B2

Adsorbent carbon microspheres are administered to treat irritable bowel syndrome or symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome.
US08075880B2

In accordance with the present invention, EC progenitors can be used in a method for regulating angiogenesis, i.e., enhancing or inhibiting blood vessel formation, in a selected patient and in some preferred embodiments for targeting specific locations. For example, the EC progenitors can be used to enhance angiogenesis or to deliver an angiogenesis modulator, e.g. anti- or pro-angiogenic agents, respectively to sites of pathologic or utilitarian angiogenesis. Additionally, in another embodiment, EC progenitors can be used to induce reendothelialization of an injured blood vessel, and thus reduce restenosis by indirectly inhibiting smooth muscle cell proliferation.
US08075879B2

Certain attenuated mutants of Brucella, especially B. melitensis, B. abortus, B. suis and B. ovis, when administered to a human or animal trigger a protective immune response such that subsequent challenge with virulent Brucella of the same species does not result in disease or results in much less severe symptoms. Functional inactivation of galE, a virB gene or the operon (ORFs 1087-1090) comprising the gene encoding β-hexosaminidase (BMEI1087) and a lytic murein transglycosylase gene (BMEI1088). A specific example of the attenuated galE mutant which produces a protective immune response is B. melitensis GR024. The specific example of an inactivated ORF1087-1090 operon is B. melitensis GR026; it has an insertion mutation in the promoter region upstream of ORF 1090. Vaccination with live cells of either or both of these mutants results in a T cell response which protects the human or animal against challenge with virulent B. melitensis. Similar strategies for protective immunity using live attenuated mutants are useful for B. abortus, B. suis and B. ovis as well.
US08075878B2

An antiviral/immunomodulatory response in an animal is induced by oral administration to an infected animal, including humans, of a human α-interferon. Methods of conferring resistance or mitigating the effects of exposure to a virus including avian influenza are described.
US08075872B2

The invention relates to a dosage form that is thermoshaped without being extruded and that is safeguarded from abuse, comprising at least one synthetic or natural polymer having a breaking strength of at least 500 N in addition to one or more active substances that could be subject to abuse and optionally physiologically acceptable adjuvants. The invention also relates to a corresponding method for producing said dosage form.
US08075868B2

There is provided an iron arsenate powder which is produced from an arsenic containing solution and wherein the concentration of arsenic eluted or released from the powder is very low. The iron arsenate powder is a powder of dihydrate of iron arsenate, which has a crystal structure of rhombic system and which has lattice constants of a=0.8950 to 0.8956 nm, b=1.0321 to 1.0326 nm and c=1.0042 to 1.0050 nm at room temperatures and atmospheric pressure. The iron arsenate powder can be produced by a method comprising the steps of: adding ferrous ions to an arsenic containing solution to cause the molar ratio (Fe/As) of iron to arsenic in the solution to be not lower than 1; adding an oxidizing agent to the solution; heating the solution to a temperature of not lower than 70° C. while stirring the solution, to allow a reaction; and carrying out a solid-liquid separation to wash the obtained solid part.
US08075863B2

The present invention relates to the synthesis and processing of materials, including nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Methods and devices are presented for controlling the growth and/or assembly of nanostructures, in some cases using small channel-type environments (e.g., microfluidic channels). In these micro-scale environments, forces can be applied to nanostructures during their growth process, for instance, to control the rate and/or direction of growth of the nanostructures. These forces can also be used to direct the assembly of nanostructures into ordered configurations such as strands or other assemblies having micro- and macroscopic length scales. In some embodiments, multiple forces are applied simultaneously to direct the growth and/or assembly of nanostructures.
US08075859B2

A nanocomposite particle, its use as a catalyst, and a method of making it are disclosed. The nanocomposite particle comprises titanium dioxide nanoparticles, metal oxide nanoparticles, and a surface stabilizer. The metal oxide nanoparticles are formed hydrothermally in the presence of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The nanocomposite particle is an effective catalyst support, particularly for DeNOx catalyst applications.
US08075851B2

Described herein are automated, integrated microfluidic device comprising a chemical reaction chip comprising for performing chemical reaction, a microscale column integrated with the chip and configured for liquid flow from the column to at least one flow channel, and wherein the fluid flow into the column is controlled by on-chip valves; and comprising at least two on-chip valves for controlling fluid flow in the microfluidic device.
US08075850B2

A specimen collection apparatus and method is provided that allows for obtaining a specimen of evidence from a crime scene or evidence of any event and the sequential use and transfer and analysis of such evidence in a manner which maintains a demonstrable chain of custody.
US08075845B2

The present invention relates to a heat-exchanger reactor comprising a vessel, at least one dividing member selected from plates, walls, or spiral sheets, which dividing member separates heat exchanging fluids into at least one heat exchanging zone from fluids into at least one mixing zone, and at least one flow-directing device having one or more ports or one or more injection ports, which flow-directing device is inserted into the mixing zone. The present invention relates also to uses of the heat-exchanger reactor.
US08075844B2

An ozone generator for generating ozone by applying a specified process to oxygen by discharge includes a first raw material gas supply unit for supplying the oxygen as a first raw material gas, and a second raw material gas supply unit for supplying an oxide compound gas as a second raw material gas, in which, by excited light, excited and generated by a discharge in the oxygen and the oxide compound gas, the oxide compound gas is dissociated, or the oxide compound gas is excited accelerating dissociation of the oxygen, and ozone is generated. In this way, ozone generation efficiency is raised.
US08075841B2

A method and sensor for the detection of luminescence radiation generated by at least one luminophore is disclosed. In the context of the present invention the biosensor comprises a grid (120) defined as arrays of apertures with the apertures having a first dimension below and a second dimension above the diffraction limit of the excitation light (102) in a medium, a polarizer (115), and luminophores (117) positioned in a volume selected from the group consisting of: the volume inside the apertures of the grid (120), the volume in between the array of slits (120) and the polarizer (115) and a volume that extends into the polarizer (115), wherein the grid (120) providing a transmission axis extending in a first direction and the polarizer (115) providing a transmission axis extending in a second direction, the first direction and the second direction being substantially perpendicular with respect to each other, wherein the excitation radiation (102) is polarized such that it is substantially suppressed by one of the at least one grid (120) and polarizer (115) and substantially not suppressed by the other of the at least one grid (120) and polarizer (115).
US08075838B2

A compression molding which is high in both dimensional accuracy and mechanical strength is difficult to manufacture by a powder molding process. Especially, a molding including a soft magnetic material with high soft magnetic properties is difficult to manufacture. A composite metal molding according to the present invention includes metal particles and the carbide of a resin intervening among the particles. It is manufactured by coating metal particles with a resin, molding the prepared molding material under pressure into a predetermined shape, and heating the prepared pressurized preform to calcine the resin and weld mutually the particles. The carbide of the resin has a weight ratio of 0.001 to 2% to the metal particles when the particles have their proportion expressed as 100. The particles have a weld ratio of 10 to 80%. The particles preferably contain a soft magnetic material and the resin is preferably a furan resin.
US08075833B2

A method for forming a container includes receiving a parison, enclosing the parison with a mold that includes a cavity, and inflating the parison in said mold to form a blow molded container with a moveable region at the cavity. The method further includes repositioning the moveable region before filling the blow molded container.
US08075832B2

A solution casting apparatus includes a drive roller as a conveying means. The drive roller conveys a polymer film peeled from a belt, the polymer film still containing a solvent. The drive roller has corrugation valleys and corrugation peaks formed on a peripheral surface along a circumferential direction of the drive roller. Each of the corrugation valleys and the corrugation peaks has a substantially semicircular cross section. The corrugation valleys and the corrugation peaks are disposed alternately in an axial direction of the drive roller. A pitch Pv between the corrugation valleys and a pitch Pm between the corrugation peaks are in the range of 0.01 to 2 mm, and a height Hv-m from a lowest point of the corrugation valley to a highest point of the corrugation peak is in the range of 0.01 to 1 mm. A curvature radius Rv of the corrugation valley and a curvature radius Rm of the corrugation peak are in the range of 0.1 to 0.5 mm.
US08075831B2

This invention discloses a method for preparing a preform for two-stage injection-stretch-blow-moulding (ISBM) from polypropylene resin produced with a Ziegler-Natta catalyst system and having a melt flow index MI2 of from 1 to 20 dg/min, wherein polypropylene is injected at a melt temperature of at least 265° C. Also disclosed are the preforms obtainable by the method, the use of the preforms for preparing bottles, and the bottles prepared from the preforms.
US08075824B2

A polyimide film made of a multicomponent polyimide comprising two or more different polyimide components including (A) a polyimide component A being raw materials of a polyimide A and/or a polyimidation product of the raw materials and (B) a polyimide component B being raw materials of a polyimide B and/or a polyimidation product of the raw materials. The polyimide components A and B are different, for example, such that the absolute difference between solubility parameter SPA of the polyimide A and solubility parameter SPB of the polyimide B, |SPB-SPA|, is 0.5 MPa1/2 or more. The polyimide film has markedly modified surface properties as compared with a polyimide film in which all the same raw materials as used in the film of the invention are randomly bonded to one another.
US08075821B2

Disclosed herein is a method for manufacturing a composite having nanofibers uniformly dispersed in a metal, polymer or ceramic matrix. The method comprises mixing the nanofibers with a metallic, polymeric or ceramic material, followed by uniformly dispersing the nanofibers in the material via deformation of the metal, polymer or ceramic matrix by application of mechanical energy to the material; and imparting a directionality to the nanofibers via application of a mechanical mass flowing process to a composite material with the nanofibers uniformly dispersed in the metal, polymer or ceramic matrix. With the method, since the nanofibers can be uniformly dispersed in the metal, polymer or ceramic matrix via a simple mechanical process, the composite can be manufactured through a simple process, thereby enhancing manufacturing efficiency.
US08075819B2

An upper press platen supports an upper mold member slidable vertically within a surrounding upper trim frame. A lower press platen supports a lower trim frame surrounding a lower mold member slidable vertically within the lower trim frame. The lower mold member defines a cavity connected to a vacuum source, and one or two heated sheets of material are positioned between the trim frames and mold members which are then closed to clamp peripheral portions of the sheets between the trim frames. The lower heated sheet is vacuum formed into the cavity and the sheets are fused together with heat and pressure to form a part which is then cooled. The mold members shift downwardly as a unit within the trim frames to shear the peripheral portions of the sheets from the part. The trimmed part and peripheral portions are removed after the trim frames and mold members open.
US08075818B2

A method for producing a microporous polyolefin membrane formed by fine fibrils, the membrane comprising (A) a polyolefin having a weight-average molecular weight of 5×105 or more or (B) a composition containing Component (A), connected to each other, and having micropores of 0.05 to 5 μm in average pore size and crystal lamellas of Component (A) or (B) being in a specific alignment state. The method includes extruding a solution of Component (A) or (B) in a solvent into a gel-like formed article; thermally setting the article, with or without stretching, at least at the crystal dispersion temperature of Component (A) or (B), but at melting point of Component (A) or (B) plus 30° C. or lower; and removing the solvent.
US08075814B2

An apparatus for layerwise manufacturing of a three-dimensional object by solidification of a material, which can be solidified via electromagnetic radiation, includes a source for the electromagnetic radiation, a building space for manufacturing the three-dimensional object, a coupling window, for transmitting the electromagnetic radiation into the building space and a heating element for heating the coupling window. By the heating element the temperature of the lens is increased during the building of the three-dimensional object. By the increased temperature the accumulation of contamination on the coupling window is prevented.
US08075812B2

A method of separating a poly(arylene ether) from a solvent includes treating a poly(arylene ether)-containing solution with a devolatilizing extruder to form an extruded composition, and cooling the extruded composition with a cooling device that does not immerse the extruded composition in water. The composition may be used to isolate a poly(arylene ether) from the solvent-containing reaction mixture in which it is prepared, or to remove solvent from a multi-component poly(arylene ether)-containing thermoplastic composition.
US08075808B2

The photostabilizing electronic excited state energy—particularly singlet state energy from a UV-absorbing molecule has been found to be readily transferred to (accepted by) α-cyanodiphenylacrylate compounds of formulas (I) and (V) having an alkoxy radical preferably in the four (para) position (hereinafter methoxycrylenes) on one or both of the phenyl rings: wherein at least one of R1 and R2 is a straight or branched chain C1-C12 alkoxy radical, preferably C1-C8, more preferably C1-C4, and most preferably methoxy, and any non-alkoxy radical R1 or R2 is hydrogen; and R3 is a straight or branched chain C1-C24 alkyl radical, preferably C12-C24, more preferably C20; wherein A and B are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of oxygen, amino and sulfur; R1 and R3 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of C1-C30 alkyl, C2-C30 alkylene, C2-C30 alkyne, C3-C8 cycloalkyl, C1-C30 substituted alkylene, C2-C30 substituted alkyne, aryl, substituted aryl, heteroaryl, heterocycloalkyl, substituted heteroaryl and substituted heterocycloalkyl; R2 is selected from the group consisting of C1-C30 alkyl, C2-C30 alkylene, C2-C30 alkyne, C3-C8 cycloalkyl, C1-C30 substituted alkyl, C3-C8 substituted cycloalkyl, C1-C30 substituted alkylene, C2-C30 substituted alkyne; R4, R5, R6 and R7 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of C1-C30 alkoxy straight chin on branched and a, b, c and d are each either 0 or 1, and a, b, c and d add up to 1, 2, 3, or 4.
US08075807B2

An electrode paste for a solar cell comprising electrically conductive particles, lead-free glass frit, a resin binder and zinc oxide particles, wherein zinc oxide particles having a specific surface area of 6 m2/g or less are contained at 10% by weight or more based on the total amount of zinc oxide.
US08075803B2

The invention relates to a method for producing ionic liquids and ionic solids which takes recourse to a novel, especially modular production process. According to the inventive method, those salts from an ionic carbonate, hydrocarbonate or monoalkyl or monoaryl carbonate precursor (cationic synthesis module) are produced that comprise the desired quaternary ammonium, phosphonium, sulfonium or the analogous quaternary heteroaromatic cation. This precursor can be produced and stored efficiently and with a high degree of purity.
US08075800B2

A polishing slurry containing a slurry dispersing particles of tetravalent metal hydroxide in a medium therein and an additive, characterized in that the additive is a polymer containing at least one kind of monomer component selected from a group of monomers represented with a general formulae (I) and (II) below (In the general formulae (I) and (II), R1 denotes hydrogen, a methyl group, a phenyl group, a benzil group, a chlorine group, a difluoromethyl group, a trifluoromethyl group or a cyano group, R2 and R3 denote hydrogen or an alkyl chain having 1 to 18 carbon atoms, a methylol group, an acetyl group or a diacetonyl group, and a case where both are hydrogen is not included. R4 denotes a morpholino group, a thiomorpholino group, a pyrrolidinyl group or a piperidino group.) The invention provides a polishing slurry in which particles form a chemical reaction layer with a polishing film to be removed with a very small mechanical action of the particles and mechanical removal by a pad without scratches and the additive realizes high planarity.
US08075794B2

Provided is a magnetic graphite nanoplatelet, and a method of manufacturing nanocomposites by introducing the magnetic nanoplatelets into a composite matrix. Expanded crystalline graphite, in the form of graphite nanoplatelets, is mixed with magnetic particles to adhere the particles to the nanoplatelets. The magnetic graphite nanoplatelets are combined with a composite matrix, typically a polymer, to form a nanocomposite. In the presence of an applied magnetic field, the magnetic graphite nanoplatelets orient and align consistent with the magnetic field to yield a composite having enhance mechanical, electrical and thermal properties.
US08075793B2

A process of preparing magnetic graphitic materials from graphite in a second container (3) that reacts with one of more transition metal oxide and in a first container (2) at a volume ratio of 1:1, in a closed reactor (1), heated up to a temperature between 600° C. and the melting temperature of the transition oxide (s) for 6 to 36 hours, under a pressure of 10 atmospheres with the help of a transfer inert gas through an inlet (5) and vacuum between 10−2 torr to 10−7 torr through an outlet (6), obtaining at the end of the process a graphitic material with long-lasting magnetic properties at room temperature. The material obtained exhibits a complex structure, with pores, bunches, pilings and edges of exposed graphenes and finds application in nanotechnology, magnetic images in medical science, applications in communication, electronics, sensors, even biosensors, catalysis or separation of magnetic materials.
US08075780B2

The present invention is an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane having a nominal molecular weight cut off (NMWCO) of from about 0.5 KD to about 10 KD wherein the membrane surfaces have a charge that is either positive or negative. The present invention is also a method of using the charged UF membrane to purify and concentrate synthetic biological molecules by using the charged surface either to repel the synthetic biomolecules retaining them in the retentate or to attract the synthetic biomolecules preferentially for filtration through the membrane.
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