US08135384B2
A process for controlling radio transmission and/or reception to enforce certain constraints with either single or multiple radio communication is disclosed. In one embodiment, the enforcement control may be by the corporate administrator (such as an Information Technology (IT) department) that is responsible for the company's wireless devices. In other embodiments, the enforcement control may be by a regulatory group having governmental control over wireless communication. In yet another embodiment, the enforcement control might be by a provider group, such as a provider of a local private or semi-private wireless network desiring certain controls over the users of the network.
US08135383B2
A method includes storing at least one user datum received from a user in a secure storage portion of a memory within a mobile communication device. Authentication information is received into the mobile communication device. The at least one user datum is transmitted from the mobile communication device to a recipient in response to entry of the authentication information, while preventing the user of the mobile communication device from reading the at least one user datum.
US08135379B2
A portable telecommunications system (PTS) allows mobility and rapid deployment with minimal on-site configuration. PTS systems exchange multicast packets including location and identification information. A protocol manager sets up these communications channels, manages exchanges between PTS systems, and passes the data to or from internal system nodes. The PTS system detects when another PTS system is operating in close physical proximity and automatically perform actions, such as adjustment of transmission power level, to maintain service to the user base.
US08135375B2
A gain-controllable stage (CLN, A1, A2 . . . , A7, ACC) comprises a reactive signal divider (CLN) followed by an amplifier arrangement (A1, A2 . . . , A7, ACC). The reactive signal divider (CLN) may be in the form of, for example, a capacitive ladder network. The gain-controllable stage (CLN, A1, A2 . . . , A7, ACC) has a gain factor that depends on a signal division factor that the reactive signal divider (CLN) provides. The reactive signal divider (CLN) forms part of a filter (LC). The signal division factor is adjusted on the basis of a frequency (F) to which the receiver is tuned and a signal-strength indication (RS).
US08135366B2
A wireless communication circuit has a second control circuit which reduces the gain of the differential converter when the signal level of the RF signal is at least a specified level and the RF signal includes a disturbing wave of a predetermined level or higher.
US08135362B2
A method of communicating using evolutionary synthesis for band-limited voice and data channels.
US08135361B2
By compensating for a detection result of the detector in feedback control of output power of the power amplifier, the polar modulation transmission apparatus is able to realize accurate transmission power control. Polar modulation transmission apparatus 100 has detector 106 that detects output power of power amplifier 103, PAPR calculating section 131 that calculates the PAPR of the spread modulated signal, compensation value generating section 134 that outputs a compensation value corresponding to the calculated PAPR and an arithmetic operator that performs an arithmetic operation using the compensation value and a detection result obtained by detector 106. By this means, it is possible to compensate for the sensitivity of detector 106 (measurement sensitivity) that changes depending on the β parameter and mode and make the sensitivity of detector 106 (measurement sensitivity) virtually constant.
US08135357B1
A switchable inductor-capacitor-inductor (L-C-L) network, which includes an integrated T/R switch, can advantageously bridge a PA and an LNA of a wireless device. The first inductor can function as an RF choke that provides power to the PA. In one embodiment, the first inductor can be advantageously implemented using the bond wires already attached to the PA, thereby requiring no additional inductors to provide the integrated T/R switch and minimizing use of valuable silicon area. The second inductor can function as a source inductor for and cancel an input parasitic capacitance of the LNA. A set of capacitors can act as blocking capacitors to provide DC isolation between the LNA and the PA, thereby protecting the LNA from high voltages. The L-C-L network can also advantageously function as an impedance matching network for at least one of the PA and the LNA.
US08135344B2
An electronic device having a communications module with a first set of data rates can be enabled to use the communications module to process signals received from a source that uses a second set of data rates. The device may generate packets, frames, etc. at the first set of data rates using the communications module from the signals received from the remote source by sampling signals at one or more of the first set of data rates. The device may then reconstruct data or payloads originally transmitted in the signals at the second set of data rates from the packets generated at the first set of data rates. Thus, the device can process signals or transmissions at the second set of data rates using the first set of data rates without requiring additional receivers or communications modules to process the signals.
US08135341B2
A radio channel control method for controlling, in a radio communication system having a transmitter and a receiver, a radio channel from the transmitter toward the receiver. The method includes receiving a signal transmitted from the transmitter by the receiver, measuring reception quality of the signal, generating information which indicates increment or decrement of the reception quality, and controlling a modulation or coding for the radio channel based on the information.
US08135340B2
Methods and systems for a configurable finite impulse response (FIR) filter using a transmission line as a delay line are disclosed and may include selectively coupling one or more taps of a multi-tap transmission line to configure delays for one or more finite impulse response (FIR) filters to enable transmission and/or reception of signals. The delays may be configured based on a location of the one or more selectively coupled taps on the multi-tap transmission line. The FIR filters, which may include one or more stages, may be impedance matched to the selectively coupled taps. The multi-tap transmission line may be integrated on the chip, or a package to which the chip is coupled. The multi-tap transmission line may include a microstrip structure or a coplanar waveguide structure, and may include ferromagnetic material. The distortion of signals in the chip may be compensated utilizing the FIR filters.
US08135336B2
A repeater including a first wireless unit that performs transmission and reception using a frequency for communicating with a base station and a second wireless unit that performs transmission and reception using a frequency for communicating with a mobile station performs a follow-up communication after broadcast communication. The repeater causes, while the second wireless unit transmits a broadcast communication signal (TCH (voice data)) to the mobile station, a transmitter (TX) provided on the first wireless unit to regularly transmit a switching signal (UI signal (for designating a direct communication wireless channel, and for setting a direct communication simplex call) for switching the mobile station to a broadcast communication channel.
US08135333B2
A method to transmit a broadband multimedia resource locator using a narrowband communication system embeds the broadband multimedia resource locator into a narrowband audio stream and transmits the narrowband audio stream to one or more receiving communication devices over the narrowband communication system. The receiving communication device(s) subsequently extract the broadband multimedia resource locator from the narrowband audio stream and use the broadband multimedia resource locator to access a broadband communication system to retrieve multimedia content.
US08135331B2
A system for mobile devices that facilitates the creation and dissemination of user interest surveys to a plurality of mobile devices and PCs/laptops that comprise a user interest survey client component. A computer or PC comprising an user interest survey generator is used to generate audio assisted user interest surveys and communicate it to a distribution server for dissemination. Recipient devices, such as PCs and Mobile devices comprise an user interest survey client component to receive and present user interest survey to a user, gather user interest information, and to send it back to the distribution server or an alternate destination.
US08135329B2
A toner conveyer device for use din an image forming apparatus includes a toner conveyer belt conveys waste toner, a screw member that receives the waste toner from the toner conveyer belt and conveys the waste toner to a housing unit, and a scraping member that scrapes waste toner that adheres to the screw member.
US08135327B2
An image forming apparatus includes a photosensitive member, a charging device, a developing device, a thickness detecting unit and a parameter setting unit. A photosensitive layer is formed on a surface of the photosensitive member. The charging device charges the photosensitive member. The developing device forms a toner image on the surface of the photosensitive member. The thickness detecting unit detects a thickness of the photosensitive layer on a basis of a value of a current supplied to the charging device. When the thickness detecting unit detects the thickness of the photosensitive layer, the parameter setting unit sets at least one of a charge parameter for the charging device and a development parameter to be different from that used in forming an image on a recording medium by transferring a toner image formed on the surface of the photosensitive member onto the recording medium.
US08135320B2
An image forming apparatus for transporting a recording medium on which an image is formed includes a guide plate. The guide plate guides the recording medium to a predetermined position in the image forming apparatus and includes a flexible sheet member and a rigid holding member. The rigid holding member holds the flexible sheet member such that the flexible sheet member projects from a front end of the rigid holding member. The projecting portion of the flexible sheet member includes at least three flexible sub-portions having a different bend-stiffness per unit area from each other, and the bend-stiffness per unit area is reduced toward a downstream side in a sheet guide direction.
US08135319B2
A transferer, including a guide member having a plate-shaped guide face and leading a transfer material after a toner is transferred thereonto, wherein the guide member has an edge pointing to the feeding direction of the transfer material and having plural comb-like structures perpendicular to the feeding direction thereof.
US08135315B2
A developing unit includable in a process cartridge and in an image forming apparatus includes a developer bearing member including a magnetic field generator and a nonmagnetic hollow member, a developer container, an agitation/conveyance member, a developer regulating member to regulate the thickness of a layer of the two-component developer. The magnetic field generator has first and second magnetic poles to generate respective magnetic forces for removing the developer from the developer bearing member after the developer passes the development region. The second magnetic pole generates a magnetic force to attract the developer to form a magnetic brush on the developer bearing member. The developer regulating member includes a magnetic member outwardly disposed on an exterior perimeter surface of the developer bearing member upstream from the developer regulating member, and one planar surface of the magnetic member faces the second magnetic pole across an effective development region.
US08135308B2
In an image transferring apparatus of the invention, a transfer roller which comes in press contact with a sheet sent through a sheet conveyance path and transfers a toner image formed by an image forming section onto the sheet is constructed to be capable of being pulled out from a main body frame, and after pulling from the main body frame, when it is again mounted to the main body frame, it can be easily mounted to the main body frame without receiving a reaction force caused by a pressing force to bring the transfer roller into press contact with the sheet.
US08135307B2
Rollers including a tension roller are arranged in parallel. A pair of supporting members supports both ends of the rollers. A transfer belt is supported by the rollers. A biasing member applies a tension to the transfer belt by biasing the tension roller in a predetermined direction. The tension roller is movably supported in a straight-line direction. The biasing member is arranged in an area surrounded by the supporting members and the transfer belt in a direction of traversing from one supporting member to other supporting member.
US08135304B2
A process cartridge is detachably mountable to a main assembly of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, which includes a rotating force applying portion. The cartridge includes an electrophotographic photosensitive drum, a developing roller, a first frame unit supporting the drum, a second frame unit supporting the roller and swingably connected with the first frame unit, a coupling, mounted to the drum, for receiving a rotating force for rotating the drum from the rotating force applying portion when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly, first, second and third cartridge side portions to be positioned engageable respectively with first, second and third main assembly side positioning portions provided in the main assembly to regulate movement of the first frame unit in a longitudinal direction of the drum or to position the drum in a radial direction when the cartridge is mounted to the main assembly, and first unit side and drum side regulating portions.
US08135302B2
An image forming apparatus including a primary transfer unit to transfer toner images of plural colors on image carriers onto an intermediate transfer member; a secondary transfer unit to transfer the toner images onto a transfer material; and a pre-secondary transfer discharge unit to discharge charges of the toner images, wherein the discharge unit includes a scorotron having a grid electrode and a discharging electrode; an opposing electrode opposed to the grid electrode through the intermediate transfer member; a first voltage unit to apply a reverse polarity voltage of the toner images to the discharging electrode; a second voltage applying unit to apply a same polarity voltage of the toner images to the grid electrode; a cleaning unit of the grid electrode; a current detecting unit; and a controller to control a timing to clean the grid electrode according to the detected current.
US08135294B2
A record medium determining device 1, which determines a kind of a record medium 16 by irradiating a laser light 17 to a surface of the record medium 16, detecting a received light position and a received light intensity of a reflected light 18 by a line sensor 14, and comparing a distribution state of the received light position and the received light intensity with a previously determined distribution state, is disposed on the upstream side of a record medium conveyance path 653 with respect to a fixing unit.
US08135290B2
An image forming apparatus which can draw out a pre-fixing conveying portion and a fixing device from an apparatus body has an abutment member which can abut a conveying surface of the pre-fixing conveying portion and can be separated therefrom, the abutment member being separated from the conveying surface of the pre-fixing conveying portion when the apparatus body is operated and abutting the conveying surface of the pre-fixing conveying portion in the event that a jam is detected by a sheet detection sensor.
US08135281B2
A Free Space Optics (FSO) connector is provided with a method for interfacing to an electronic circuit card electrical connector via the FSO connector. The method transceives electrical signals via an electronic circuit card electrical connector. Using an FSO connector, the method converts between electrical signals and optical signals, and transceives optical signals via free space. In one aspect, the optical signals are initially received via free space along a first axis, and reflected along a second axis. Further, the optical signals may be initially transmitted along the second axis and reflected into free space along the first axis. In another aspect, the optical signals are transceived in a plurality of directions in free space. For example, optical signals may be transmitted and received in four mutually-orthogonal axes.
US08135270B2
When the total number of pairs of a feature point and a corresponding point, which are detected from a first image data and a second image data that are in focus, respectively, exceeds a predetermined threshold th1, a parallax histogram generation unit is controlled to generate a histogram of parallax amount, and a representative parallax information determination unit is controlled to determine an amount of representative parallax from bins in the histogram of parallax amount. According to a search direction determined by a focus adjustment unit, the representative parallax information determination unit determines significance of each bin in the histogram based on whether a frequency f of the bin is greater than a predetermined threshold th2. The representative parallax information determination unit determines the amount of representative parallax based on amounts of parallax in the significant bin. A stereoscopic display control unit determines clipping ranges of the first image data and the second image data based on the determined amount of representative parallax.
US08135269B2
An optical device includes a shooting optical system including an AF lens, an AF lens driving apparatus for driving the AF lens, a detection unit for detecting a defocus amount corresponding to a difference between an image pickup position of an object and an imaging position of the object which is formed by the shooting optical system, and a control unit for drive-controlling the AF lens driving apparatus to reduce the defocus amount. The control unit detects a shooting magnification of the shooting optical system and changes a method of controlling the AF lens driving apparatus to reduce the defocus amount based on the shooting magnification.
US08135259B2
In the a data structure, a subtitle area of the recording medium stores a text subtitle stream including text subtitle data and at least one of global style information and local style information. The global style information provides at least one of composition information and rendering information, and the local style information provides font information for at least a portion of the text subtitle data.
US08135255B2
Provided is an optical fiber including: a core at a center thereof; a first cladding adjacent to the core to cover a circumference of the core; and a second cladding adjacent to the first cladding to cover a circumference of the first cladding, where 0.35%≦(Δ1−Δ2)≦0.65%, 0.30%≦Δ1≦0.55%, −0.20%≦Δ2≦−0.05%, 0.22≦a/b≦0.34, and 4≦b√|Δ2|≦10 hold, and loss increase resulting when the optical fiber is wound on a mandrel having a diameter of 20 mm is 0.5 dB/turn or smaller at a wavelength of 1550 nm, where Δ1(%) is a specific refractive index difference of a maximum of a refractive index distribution of the core with reference to a refractive index of the second cladding, Δ2(%) is a specific refractive index difference of a minimum of a refractive index distribution of the first cladding with reference to the refractive index of the second cladding, a(μm) is a radius of a boundary between the core and the first cladding with respect to a center of the core, and b(μm) is a radius of a boundary between the first cladding and the second cladding with respect to the center of the core.
US08135248B2
An opto-electric hybrid board which includes an optical waveguide portion 2, an electric circuit board 1, and optical elements mounted on this electric circuit board 1. In the optical waveguide portion 2, a linear core 22 for an optical path and protruding alignment marks 24 for positioning of the optical elements and each having a surface formed with a recessed portion 24a for identification are formed on a surface of a translucent under cladding layer 21. The above-mentioned core 22 is covered with an over cladding layer 23. The above-mentioned alignment marks 24 are covered with a translucent resin film 25 so that the recessed portion 24a of each of the above-mentioned alignment marks 24 is formed as a hollow portion A filled with air.
US08135245B2
A fiber optic sensing system comprises a housing disposed in a flow path, and a fiber optic sensor. The fiber optic sensor comprises an optical fiber secured in the housing, a Bragg grating, a light source for transmitting light to the optical fiber, and a detector for detecting light filtered by the Bragg grating of the optical fiber and monitoring wavelength changes of the detected light. The fiber is substantially perpendicular to the flow path. The housing defines an opening at an upstream side to allow flow through the flow path to exert a pressure on the optical fiber and cause a deformation of the Bragg grating.
US08135244B1
A fiber-based optical pressure-sensor, made using semiconductor nanocrystal quantum dots (NQDs) as the active transducing material, provides response time fast enough for shock wave measurements. For NQDs, the shift in band gap as a result of applied pressure can be observed as a shift of the photoluminescence (PL) peak. Further, the shift of the principal absorbance feature allows pressure measurements faster than those obtainable by following the PL peak.
US08135243B2
New electro-optic (EO) phase modulator devices and geometries, as can be constructed using a transparent conductive component.
US08135238B2
The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can facilitate more efficient free view generation in Ray-Space by way of a Radon transform. The architecture can render virtual views based upon original image data by employing Ray-Space interpolation techniques. In particular, the architecture can apply the Radon transform to a feature epipolar plane image (FEPI) to extract more suitable slope or direction candidates. In addition, the architecture can facilitate improved block-based matching techniques in order to determine an optimal linear interpretation direction.
US08135235B2
Provided are method and apparatus of pre-processing in WDR (wide dynamic range) image processing, the method of pre-processing of WDR image processing including: (a) receiving luminance and chrominance signals having different exposure times, and analyzing the correlation between a luminance signal having a first exposure time and a luminance signal having a second exposure time that is longer than the first exposure time; (b) based on the result of the analysis, dividing each of the luminance signal having the first exposure time and the luminance signal having the second exposure signal, into at least one of a bright region, a transition region, and a dark region; and (c) normalizing the regions of the luminance signal having the first exposure time to respectively correspond to the regions of the luminance signal having the second exposure times.
US08135232B2
An image evaluation apparatus includes a pixel extraction unit, an intra-pair difference calculation unit, an inter-pair difference calculation unit and an evaluation unit. The pixel extraction unit extracts, from an input image, a pixel region including a pair of block-boundary pixels in a boundary position of coding blocks and a pair of non-block-boundary pixels in a position other than the boundary position. The intra-pair difference calculation unit calculates a difference between the extracted pair of block-boundary pixels as a first difference, and a difference between the extracted pair of non-block-boundary pixels as a second difference. The inter-pair difference calculation unit calculates a difference between the first difference and the second difference as an amount of block distortion of the extracted pixel region. The evaluation unit evaluates an amount of block distortion of the input image based on the calculated amount of block distortion of the extracted pixel region.
US08135229B1
An image processing method and device for processing multiple rows of pixels of an image simultaneously with a single instruction. The processing includes selecting a pixel window having a plurality of pixels of an image spanning across multiple rows and columns, building vertical and horizontal load registers to include the plurality of pixels of the selected pixel window, and simultaneously processing selected pixels of the plurality of pixels included in the vertical and horizontal load registers using a single instruction, wherein the vertical and horizontal load registers are shifted when the selected pixels are processed. Accordingly, a method and device for efficient processing of an image is provided.
US08135228B2
An apparatus and method of generating an immersion is provided. The apparatus for generating the immersion includes: a foreground/background separation unit to separate an input image into a foreground area and a background area using lightness information of the input image; an edge classification unit to classify the foreground area into an edge area and a non-edge area using the lightness information; a detail enhancement unit to enhance detail of the edge area of the foreground area; and a blurring performing unit to perform blurring of the non-edge area and the background area.
US08135227B2
A method of augmenting sight in an individual. The method comprises obtaining an image of a scene using a camera carried by the individual; transmitting the obtained image to a processor carried by the individual; selecting an image modification to be applied to the image by the processor; operating upon the image to create a modified image using either analog or digital imaging techniques, and displaying the modified image on a display device worn by the individual. The invention also relates to an apparatus augmenting sight in an individual. The apparatus comprises a camera, carried by the individual, for obtaining an image of a scene viewed by the individual; a display carried by the individual; an image modification input device carried by the individual; and a processor, carried by the individual. The processor modifies the image and displays the modified image on the display carried by the individual.
US08135226B2
In an image encoder, a first quantization section which is selected when normal image quality is required performs quantization by dividing a wavelet transformation coefficient by a quantization step size and by thereafter rounding down a fraction thereof. On the other side, a second quantization section which is selected when high image quality is required performs quantization by dividing a wavelet transformation coefficient by a quantization step size, by adding 0.5 to the addition result, and by thereafter rounding down a fraction thereof. Therefore, the width of a dead zone where coefficients are quantized to a value of 0 is narrower than that in the first quantization section, and higher image quality is obtained accordingly.
US08135225B2
A method for coding an RGB color space signal is disclosed. In accordance with the method, a base plane is encoded using an independent mode, and an enhanced plane is encoded by referring to the base plane without converting the RGB color space signal into YCbCr color space signal to reduce a redundancy between RGB planes and improve a compression ratio of an image.
US08135222B2
An image processing method comprises: clustering images of a set of images to generate a plurality of scenes each comprising an unordered cluster of images; ordering images within scenes respective to video coherence to generate ordered scenes comprising ordered sequences of images; and generating video content as images ordered in accordance with the ordered sequences of images comprising the scenes. In some embodiments, the video content is converted to video comprising video frames played at a predetermined frame rate.
US08135221B2
A method for determining a classification for a video segment, comprising the steps of: breaking the video segment into a plurality of short-term video slices, each including a plurality of video frames and an audio signal; analyzing the video frames for each short-term video slice to form a plurality of region tracks; analyzing each region track to form a visual feature vector and a motion feature vector; analyzing the audio signal for each short-term video slice to determine an audio feature vector; forming a plurality of short-term audio-visual atoms for each short-term video slice by combining the visual feature vector and the motion feature vector for a particular region track with the corresponding audio feature vector; and using a classifier to determine a classification for the video segment responsive to the short-term audio-visual atoms.
US08135214B2
An image processing device corrects a color of a specific area in a target image into an appropriate color. A representative brightness value represents the specific area in a first color space that has a brightness index value. Representative color component values represent the specific area in a second color space that has no brightness index value and a plurality of color component values. The color of the specific area is corrected based on the representative brightness and color component values. The brightness of the specific area is corrected by modifying the brightness index value in the first color space and the color component values in the second color space. First and second brightness correction degrees are set on the basis of the representative brightness value.
US08135213B2
A physical quantity interpolating method includes interpolating a third vector sandwiched between first and second vectors on the basis of a ratio of vector products computed using coordinate data of the first and second vectors and coordinate data of the third vector, the first and second vectors representing physical quantities.
US08135208B1
A method and apparatus of calibrating a vision based robotic system is disclosed. The apparatus includes a first camera, a second camera, a calibration block having an alignment mark, and a robotic tool having an alignment fiducial. The method includes using the first camera and the calibration block to determine a first camera center position, using the second camera and the calibration block to determine a second camera center position, using the second camera and the robotic tool to determine a robotic tool center position, and calculating a first camera to tool offset value.
US08135196B2
The invention relates to a pivotal poly-plane imaging unit having a first and a second imaging planes arranged relative to each other at an offset angle and recording projection images of an moving examination object at a fan angle β. First and second projection images are recorded in different relative positions at respective instants by pivoting the imaging planes at an angle at least 180°+β. Characteristic structures in the first and second projection images are detected. The characteristic structures are segmented by a vectorial representation and triangulated to obtain a three-dimensional representation of the characteristic structures. Three-dimensional displacement vector fields are determined that indicate displacements of the three-dimensional representation of the characteristic structures relative to a reference instant. A three-dimensional image is reconstructed using the three-dimensional displacement vector fields to display a state of the moving examination object at the reference instant.
US08135194B2
A method for producing an artifact-corrected image of negative jaw impression in a recipient jaw comprising, forming a negative impression of said recipient jaw, producing a first digital image of said negative jaw impression, producing a second digital image, including said artifacts of said negative jaw impression in said recipient jaw and using said first digital image to produce an artifact-corrected computer representation of said negative impression in said recipient jaw.
US08135192B2
An image processing apparatus for extracting images from a continuous image sequence includes a storage unit that stores image information about images constituting the image sequence; an image reading unit that reads the image information from the storage unit; and an image change amount calculating unit that calculates a predetermined image change amount between at least two images using the image information read by the image reading unit. The apparatus also includes an image change amount information adding unit that adds information about the image change amount calculated by the image change amount calculating unit to a corresponding image; and an image extracting unit that extracts a preset number of images from the image sequence based on the information added to each image by the image change amount information adding unit.
US08135189B2
A method for segmenting organs in digitized medical images includes providing a set of segmented training images of an organ, computing a surface mesh having a plurality of mesh cells that approximates a border of the organ, extracting positive examples of all mesh cells and negative examples in the neighborhood of each mesh cell which do not belong to the organ surface, training from the positive examples and negative examples a plurality of classifiers for outputting a probability of a point being a center of a particular mesh cell, computing an active shape model using a subset of center points in the mesh cells, generating a new shape by iteratively deforming the active shape model to fit a test image, and using the classifiers to calculate a probability of each center point of the new shape being a center of a mesh cell which the classifier was trained to recognize.
US08135185B2
A method of finding the location of an occluded portion of a blood vessel relative to a three-dimensional angiographic image of a subject's vasculature includes identifying the location of the occluded portion of the blood vessel on each of a series of displayed two dimensional images derived from the three dimensional image data in planes substantially transverse to direction of the occluded portion of the vessel. The identified locations in the occluded portion of the vessel can then be used to determine the path of the occluded portion of the vessel.
US08135175B2
An image processing system and the like capable of accurately recognizing lane edges defined by dotted lane marks are provided. According to an image processing system (100) of the present invention, a first processing unit (110) searches a road surface image captured by a vehicle-mounted camera for a “small area,” which is composed of high- or low-luminance pixels and satisfies “eligibility conditions” on the “size,” “shape,” and “arrangement” in the road surface image. Additionally, a second processing unit (120) recognizes “lane edges” of the lane along which the vehicle travels on the basis of the “small area.” Furthermore, a third processing unit (130) sets a “search range” of the small area searched by the first processing unit (110) on the basis of a result of the foregoing recognition of the lane edges by the second processing unit (120).
US08135172B2
An image processing apparatus estimates an estimated object region including an object on an input image on the basis of a stored object data, obtains a similarity distribution of the estimated object region and peripheral regions thereof by at least one classifier, and obtains an object region coordinate and a template image on the basis of the similarity distribution.
US08135164B2
A speaker of the present invention includes the following: a diaphragm that includes an inner periphery coupled to a voice coil, and a corrugation provided at the intermediate position between the inner periphery and an outer periphery; a speaker edge for supporting the outer periphery of the diaphragm; and a damping member attached to an outer peripheral part of the diaphragm outside the vicinity of an outer periphery of the corrugation. The effective vibration area of an inner peripheral part of the diaphragm inside an inner periphery of the corrugation is substantially half or less of the total effective vibration area. The damping member is configured as a damping portion by extending an overlap portion of the speaker edge overlapping with the diaphragm to the vicinity of the outer periphery of the corrugation. This configuration can suppress the vibration transmission at high frequencies to the outer peripheral part of the diaphragm outside the corrugation, allows only the inner peripheral part of the diaphragm inside the corrugation to mainly vibrate at high frequencies, and also can suppress a resonance in the outer peripheral part of the diaphragm outside the corrugation. Thus, the speaker can have both an excellent high frequency response and an excellent mid-high frequency response.
US08135158B2
A sound reproduction system includes one or more arrays of drive units, coupled with sound processing allowing improved steerability, directional control, width control, and/or beam overlay. A speaker column may comprise two arrays facing one another, the drive units being perpendicular to the speaker unit front, with the acoustic output of each line array being compressed, turned and output from an elongate slot. The drive units may be staggered with respect to those in the opposing array. The arrays may be arc-shaped else straight. Selective delays to simulate an arced pattern. Differential delays applied to the drive units in a sub-array allow beam steering. Additional drive units, such as high frequency drivers, may be added along the length of the elongate slot or elsewhere to increase the dynamic frequency range of the speaker system. A collocated sound processor and amplifier output stage may be integrated with the speaker unit.
US08135153B2
A method and appertaining system provide for automatically adding a wax guard to a hearing aid shell impression. The location of a canal, tip of the canal, and central line of the impression are automatically identified in a digital 3D representation of a hearing aid shell impression. A first wax guard plane is determined at a predefined flip distance from the canal tip along the central line, and a second wax guard plane is determined at a predefined canal tip offset distance from the canal tip along the central line. A size and position for a feature of the wax guard is calculated based on predefined parameters, and the wax guard is constructed utilizing the calculated side and position. The type of wax guard can be a bell bore design, an open design, a Philip design, or a flip design.
US08135149B2
A wireless communication device includes a speaker grille, a built-in speaker provided behind the speaker grille, and an output amplifier connected to the built-in speaker. A voltage applied to the output amplifier is increased to a level higher than the level of voltage applied to the output amplifier while audio signals are being produced, and instead of the audio signals, low-frequency continuous signals are applied to the output amplifier. By increasing the voltage applied to the output amplifier to a level higher than the level of voltage applied to the output amplifier while audio signals are being produced, the amplitude of the voltage applied to the speaker is increased. Also, instead of the audio signals, low-frequency continuous signals are applied to the output amplifier so that the speaker produces a higher sound pressure than while audio signals are being produced to discharge water in the speaker grille under the sound pressure.
US08135140B2
An active noise control system generates an anti-noise signal to drive a speaker to produce sound waves to destructively interfere with an undesired sound in a targeted space. The speaker is also driven to produce sound waves representative of a desired audio signal. Sound waves are detected in the target space and a representative signal is generated. The representative signal is combined with an audio compensation signal to remove a signal component representative of the sound waves based on the desired audio signal and generate an error signal. The active noise control adjusts the anti-noise signal based on the error signal. The active noise control system converts the sample rates of an input signal representative of the undesired sound, the desired audio signal, and the error signal. The active noise control system converts the sample rate of the anti-noise signal.
US08135131B2
A method for generating a compressed RSA modulus, allowing up to two thirds of the bits of a modulus N to be fixed. N has a predetermined portion NH, which comprises two parts Nh and Nm. A candidate RSA modulus that shares the Nh part is generated, and the candidate is then modified using Euclidian-type computations until it shares both Nh and Nm. Also provided is an apparatus for calculating compressed RSA moduli according to the method and a computer program product.
US08135129B2
A method and a circuit for protecting a numerical quantity contained in an integrated circuit on a first number of bits, in a modular exponentiation computing of a data by the numerical quantity, including: selecting at least one second number included between the unit and said first number minus two; dividing the numerical quantity into at least two parts, a first part including, from the bit of rank null, a number of bits equal to the second number, a second part including the remaining bits; for each part of the quantity, computing a first modular exponentiation of said data by the part concerned and a second modular exponentiation of the result of the first by the FIG. 2 exponentiated to the power of the rank of the first bit of the part concerned; and computing the product of the results of the first and second modular exponentiations.
US08135127B2
A process and a system are disclosed for detecting activity, e.g., three way calling, call forwarding, or the like, during a phone call. The process includes, and the system is configured for, establishing the call path between a first party and a second party, adding a reference tone to the call path, observing a reflected tone from the call path, and determining a relationship between the reference tone and the reflected tone. Information relating to the relationship may be reported for further analysis.
US08135126B2
Establishing a conference between a customer at a customer terminal and a live agent at an agent station, by (a) accepting a call request from the customer terminal, (b) requesting that an available live agent take the call request, (c) when a live agent becomes available to take the call request, passing customer information to the agent station associated with the available live agent, and (d) establishing a conference from the agent station associated with the available live agent to the customer terminal. The conference may be an audio-video conference. The audio-video conference may be compliant with the H.323 standard. The call request may generated in response to an event sensed by an API which was previously downloaded to the customer terminal from a web server. The call request may be generated in response to a trigger event. The trigger event may be a customer request for a live agent, adding an item to a virtual shopping cart, adding items having a total purchase prices of more than a predetermined threshold to a virtual shopping cart, removing an item from a virtual shopping cart, dwelling at a certain web page for more than a predetermined length of time, rendering certain content, rendering a certain sequence of content, filling out a form, or issuing a particular command. The customer information may include an Internet protocol address of the customer terminal, a video capability of the customer terminal, and/or a browser type used by the customer terminal.
US08135122B1
A computer for processing a call originated by a call originator to a call target. The computer includes memory having at least one region for storing computer executable program code and processor for executing the program code stored in the memory. The program code includes code for processing a telephone number of the call target, code for accessing a database storing a plurality of outgoing telephone numbers, code for identifying one of the plurality of outgoing telephone numbers based on the telephone number of the call target, and code for originating the outbound call to the call target and including the identified outgoing telephone number into a caller ID field of the outbound call.
US08135120B2
Restriction on call connections is controlled by grouping a plurality of terminals. One or more groups each including one or more terminals are provided. Each of the one or more groups is associated with the maximum number of calling terminals and a group restriction relaxing ratio indicating a relaxing degree of restriction with respect to a predetermined normal restriction ratio. Restriction on a call connection of a terminal belonging to a group is controlled on the basis of a group restriction ratio assigned to the group when the number of terminals being making phone calls is less than the maximum number of calling terminals that is provided for the group. The group restriction ratio is calculated using the predetermined normal restriction ratio and the group restriction relaxing ratio associated with the group.
US08135118B2
An incoming call from a public communication network is sensed in a communication apparatus that is capable of switching between an automatic response mode and a manual response mode as a response to an incoming call. If incoming of a specific call signal has been sensed, the response to this incoming call is switched from the automatic response mode to the manual response mode.
US08135114B2
A method and apparatus for creating an answer tone for a computing device with phone capabilities or a telephone is disclosed.
US08135112B2
The present invention is directed towards processing security images of people subjected to X-ray radiation. The present invention processes a generated image by dividing the generated image into at least two regions or mask images, separately processing the at least two regions of the image, and viewing the resultant processed region images either alone or as a combined image.
US08135101B2
A method of performing data equalization in a communication receiver with transmit and receive diversity includes (a) for each i-th receiver antenna and j-th transmitter antenna, calculating a channel response matrix Hi,j from multi-path channel estimates, (b) each i-th receiver antenna, calculating a channel gain matrix Gi from the channel response matrices Hi,j and a scalar noise factor β, (c) calculating the middle column c0 of Gi−1, (d) calculating a filter coefficient vector wi,j from the middle column c0 of Gi−1 of and the Hermitian transpose Hi,jH of the corresponding channel response matrices Hi,j, (e) filtering input data ri received at each i-th receiver antenna with the corresponding filter coefficient vectors wi,j, (f) despreading the filtered input data from each i-th receiver antenna, (g) applying phase compensation to the despread data, and (h) combining the despread data from all antennas to obtain received equalized data.
US08135096B2
Aspects of a method and system for the extension of frequency offset estimation range based on correlation of complex sequences may include partitioning each of a received sample sequence and a local replica sample sequence into three or more similar length contiguous sample sub-sequences. For each of the three or more similar length contiguous sample sub-sequences, a correlation coefficient may be determined between corresponding sample sub-sequences of the partitioned received sample sequence and the local replica sample sequence. A plurality of phase differences may be determined based on adjacent ones of the determined correlation coefficients, and the determined plurality of phase differences may be averaged to generate a phase increment estimate. The communication system may be compliant with a wireless standard, comprising UMTS EUTRA (LTE), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16), and/or WLAN (IEEE 802.11).
US08135089B2
A digital transmission apparatus having a base unit constructed in such a manner that n-bit digital signals transmitted from a plurality of (N) remote units are extended into (n+log2N) bits in corresponding bit extending units, with respect to an addition result in an adding unit, an arithmetic operation of (2n−1−1)/|addition result| is executed in a gain arithmetic operating unit, when an arithmetic operation result is smaller than “1”, the arithmetic operation result is set into a gain coefficient, when the arithmetic operation result is equal to or larger than “1”, “1” is set into the gain coefficient, further, the addition result is multiplied by the gain in a multiplying unit, and a bit contraction for discarding upper log2 N bits excluding a sign bit and returning to n bits is executed in a bit contracting unit.
US08135078B2
A device and method for performing a channel profile estimation for an OFDM-based wireless communication system uses an averaged frequency coherence metric to select a particular channel profile, which is a current channel profile estimate. The averaged frequency coherence metric is derived using correlations between pilot subcarriers of an OFDM-based signal at predefined subcarrier locations for multiple frames of the OFDM-based signal. The selected channel profile may be used for channel estimation, as well as for link adaptation, to improve the performance of these processes.
US08135077B2
A broadcast receiver and a method of processing data are disclosed. The broadcast receiver includes a broadcasting module, at least one function module, and a controller. The broadcasting module receives and processes mobile broadcast signal. The function module outputs at least one of a video output and an audio output. The controller controls output of at least one of video output and audio output corresponding to each of the broadcasting module and the function module, when a mode shift occurs between the broadcasting module and at least one the function module.
US08135075B2
The invention relates to a process for automatic processing of multimedia streams (F1, F2, F3) intended to be reproduced on a reproduction terminal (T), including the following steps, implemented at the demand of a user (UT) of the terminal and consisting of: reproducing a first stream on the terminal (step E1), then interrupting the reproduction of the first stream and reproducing a second stream on the terminal (step E4), According to the invention, consisting of: associating with each stream (F1, F2, F3) a preference indicator (IC1, IC2, IC3) specifying whether the corresponding stream (F1, F2, F3) is a principal stream or a secondary stream (step EM) recording the first stream simultaneously with reproduction of the second stream if the first stream is a principal stream (step E6). The invention also relates to a system, a recording device and a computer program suitable for the implementation of the process for processing the streams.
US08135073B2
A video stream containing encoded frame-based video information includes a first frame and a second frame. The encoding of the second frame depends on the encoding of the first frame. The encoding includes motion vectors indicating differences in positions between regions of the second frame and corresponding regions of the first frame, the motion vectors defining the correspondence between regions of the second frame and regions of the first frame. The first frame is decoded and a re-mapping strategy for video enhancement of the decoded first frame is determined using a region-based analysis. Regions of the decoded first frame are re-mapped according to the determined video enhancement re-mapping strategy for the first frame so as to enhance the first frame. The motion vectors for the second frame are recovered from the video stream and the second frame is decoded.
US08135071B2
A method, and apparatus, and logic encoded in one or more computer-readable tangible medium to carry out a method. The method is to code an ordered sequence of quantized transform coefficients of a block of image data using a hybrid coding method that includes determining a breakpoint location in the sequence between a low-frequency region and a high-frequency region; coding the low-frequency region using a selected low-frequency variable length coding method; coding the high-frequency region using a selected high-frequency variable length coding method; and coding the location of the breakpoint. The breakpoint location is determined as a function of properties of neighboring blocks such that little if any information needs to be sent to a decoder about the breakpoint of a block or multi-block partition, and the decoder can use the properties of neighboring blocks to determine the breakpoint used to code a to-be-decoded sequence or sequences of a block or a multi-block partition.
US08135067B2
The invention is related to methods and apparatus that decode robustly encoded video bitstreams. One embodiment of a decoder can advantageously reconstruct a predictive-coded video object plane (P-VOP) from a standard motion vector and the previous frame; from a redundant motion vector and a frame prior to the previous frame; or from both. Advantageously, this permits the decoder to display a frame based on a reconstructed VOP in the presence of unfavorable environmental conditions, such as interference, delays, and the like, which could otherwise corrupt a previous frame that is used as a reference by a standard decoder, such as a standard MPEG-4 decoder. One embodiment is advantageously backwards compatible with standard MPEG-4 compliant bitstreams and retrieves redundant motion vector information from user data video packets. One embodiment includes at least one extra frame buffer or memory, which stores a reference frame corresponding to a redundant motion vector.
US08135066B2
Data processing apparatus arranged to receive successive images from a video camera and to receive audio data from a microphone comprises means for detecting inter-image motion in the video images; means for detecting audio signals in the associated audio data satisfying one or more predetermined audio criterion; and activation means, for activating a control function of the data processing apparatus in response to a predetermined sequence of a detection of inter-image motion satisfying one or more predetermined motion criterion and a detection of an audio signal in the associated audio data which satisfies the predetermined audio criteria.
US08135059B2
Analog signals encoded with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) pass through a coaxial cable at a particular baud rate. These signals have a carrier frequency individual to the TV station being received. They are mixed with signals from a variable frequency oscillator to produce signals at a particular intermediate frequency (IF). An analog-digital converter (ADC) converts the IF signals to corresponding digital signals which are demodulated to produce two digital signals having a quadrature phase relationship. After being filtered and derotated, the digital signals pass to a symmetrical equalizer including a feed forward equalizer (FFE) and a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) connected to the FFE in a feedback relationship. The DFE may include a slicer providing amplitude approximations of increasing sensitivity at progressive times. Additional slicers in the equalizer combine the FFE and DFE outputs to provide the output data without any of the coaxial cable noise or distortions. The equalizer outputs and initially the derotation outputs, and the slicer outputs, servo (1) the oscillator frequency to obtain the IF frequency, (2) the ADC sampling clock to obtain the digital conversion at a rate related to the particular baud rate and (3) the derotator. The servos may have (1) first constants initially after a change in the station selection and (2) second time constants thereafter. The ADC gain is also servoed (1) initially in every ADC conversion and (2) subsequently in every nth ADC conversion where n=integer>1. The above recover the QAM data without any of the coaxial cable noise or distortions.
US08135054B2
The invention relates to a radiofrequency receiver, notably for satellite positioning applications, needing to operate in an environment where interference is dense, notably when it involves pulses transmitted by DME beacons. Below the useful signal suppression threshold, amplitude or power are inverted to improve the dynamic interference response time. Advantageously, the useful signal suppression threshold and the set point power or amplitude are determined by analyzing the amplitude or power probability density function in its part enriched with low amplitude/power samples.
US08135044B2
A method of formatting a digital broadcast transport stream packet, a digital broadcast transmitter, and a signal processing method thereof, includes constructing a transport stream packet that includes a stuffing region for an insertion of a known supplementary reference signal (SRS) data therein, randomizing the packet that includes the stuffing region is randomized, and the SRS data is inserted into the stuffing region of the randomized packet. Adding a parity for an error correction to the packet into which the SRS data has been inserted, the packet to which the parity has been added is interleaved, and a trellis encoding of the interleaved packet is performed. Inserting a segment sync signal and a field sync signal into the trellis-encoded packet, and a vestigial side band (VSB) modulation and an RF conversion of the packet are performed to transmit the VSB-modulated and RF-converted packet.
US08135040B2
Channel changing can be accelerated by multicasting a bouquet of multicast burst streams from a server. In an example implementation, each multicast burst stream is delayed sufficiently so that a past independent frame is available for delivery to and display by a client device without waiting for a future independent frame. A multicast burst segment of a multicast burst stream includes a portion in which the bandwidth exceeds the nominal data rate of the underlying resource being streamed. The temporal delay between adjacent multicast burst streams in a multicast bouquet is set responsive to a maximum client delay time for tuning to a new resource stream.
US08135035B2
Disclosed is a system including a plurality of modulators for receiving at least one of first data signals from a termination and for receiving at least one of second data signals from other than the termination and for combining the at least one of first data signals and the at least one second data signals into an output signal having a plurality of data channels for delivery to a plurality of modems where the at least one of second data signals bypass the termination.
US08135028B2
A network device has a communications link to allow the device to communicate with customer devices and a processor. The processor is to receive neighbor discovery messages from requesting customer devices, examine the neighbor discovery messages to determine if the neighbor discovery message should be forwarded to other of the customer devices, and respond to the requesting customer devices.
US08135013B2
Internet Protocol (IP) switch and method for switching an IP frame to an IP destination address. The IP switch includes access ports, interswitch ports, and a switching table. Each access port is connected to a corresponding host in a LAN. The interswitch ports are configured to be statically connected to routers within the Internet in connections that cannot be overwritten by dynamic learning. The switching table includes entries, each entry having an IP address, a port identifier, and a routing protocol internal metric indicative of confidence in the entry. The method for switching the IP frame includes: receiving the IP frame, reading the IP destination address from the IP frame, ascertaining a matching IP address in the switching table that matches the IP destination address, directing the IP frame to a specific port, transmitting the IP frame from the specific port to the IP destination address.
US08135012B2
A router for routing data redundantly relative to a network. The router includes a circuit card having a processor, a user port for connecting at least one user device with the processor, and a plurality of interface ports for redundantly connecting the processor with the network to provide active redundant communication with the user device(s). This router can have a small form factor, can be ruggedized, and can provide fast redundant routing through redundant network backbones.
US08135009B2
A network of switches with a distributed name server configuration and caching of remote node device information is disclosed. The network preferably comprises a first switch coupled to a second switch. Each of the switches directly couple to respective node devices. The first switch maintains a name server database about its local node devices, as does the second switch. The second switch further maintains a information cache about remote node devices. The name server preferably notifies other switches of changes to the database, and the cache manager preferably uses the notifications from other switches to maintain the cache. The name server accesses the cache to respond to queries about remote node devices. The cache manager may also aggregate notification messages from other switches when notifying local devices of state changes. Traffic overhead and peak traffic loads may advantageously be reduced.
US08135000B2
A method selects a buddy with which a user wants to connect. The buddy has a buddy identification listed in a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations. The user using a user telephone means to which is associated identification information. A call is initiated from the user telephone means to an Internet-enabled computing device and has associated thereto calling line identification (CLID) information. The CLID information is compared to the user telephone means identification information. The CLID information is validated using the comparison and upon positive validation, the user providing the buddy identification; consulting the pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations for a match between the buddy identification and one of the Internet-accessible destinations; and advising the user of a successful or unsuccessful match. Alternatively, a call is placed to a party which does not necessarily belong to a pre-identified group of Internet-accessible destinations.
US08134994B2
In the scheduling method of the present invention, scheduling grant messages for a user equipment are transmitted beginning in any time slot of a frame for a channel so long as the scheduling grant message does not exceed the frame. The scheduling grant message indicates user equipment is approved to transmit on an uplink dedicated channel. This downlink transmission and subsequent uplink dedicated channel transmission have a timing relationship such that no more than one user equipment will begin transmitting on a respective uplink dedicated channel at a time.
US08134986B2
An apparatus includes a storage unit to store communication parameters and a configuration processing identifier allocated to the communication parameters and an acquisition unit to acquire a configuration processing identifier from another apparatus. The apparatus determines whether to use communication parameters stored in the storage unit or acquire communication parameters from other communication apparatus, based on the configuration processing identifier stored in the storage unit and the configuration processing identifier acquired by the acquisition unit.
US08134985B2
A system includes a wireless switch and a plurality of wireless nodes. A mobile device connects to the wireless switch by communicating a packet to the wireless switch via two or more of the plurality of wireless nodes.
US08134982B2
An apparatus and method for random access in a wireless communication system are provided. In the method, a random access response message is received. The random access response message is analyzed to determine a status of a random access process. A count variable value is updated according to the status. And the count variable value is compared with at least one reference value to determine a random access period. By adaptively changing the period of periodic ranging in a wireless communication system, the probability of success is increased while the waste of resources is decreased.
US08134981B2
An apparatus including a second stage correlator for receiving input data from a first stage correlator, wherein said second stage correlator includes a memory is described. A method for performing a second stage correlation on data including resetting a read pointer and a write pointer, alternatively multiplexing input data into one of a pair of storage registers, concatenating contents of the pair of storage registers, writing the concatenated contents into a memory in accordance with the write pointer, outputting the concatenated contents from the memory into a read register in accordance with the read pointer, updating the read address pointer and updating the write address pointer is also described.
US08134980B2
A communication system, such as a wireless CDMA system, detects markers with fewer errors by having field units transmit the markers at different power levels (e.g., 9 dB for one marker and 11 dB for another marker). The difference in power levels of the markers allows the base station to identify the request markers using alternative criteria with a low probability of error, where the alternative criteria may include comparing the markers to respective energy level thresholds, monitoring occupancy of time slots, occupancy of mutually exclusive code channels, or combinations thereof. For example, in one particular embodiment, a request marker, which is generally a high priority marker, is transmitted with higher power, which improves the probability of detection and reduces the probability of false detection of the request marker.
US08134974B2
A mobile communications system including a network with a source network node and a target network node that supports a handover procedure, and a mobile terminal that is allowed to access the source network node and access the target network node according to the handover procedure, in which information related to a reception status of user data is delivered between at least two among a group including the mobile terminal, the source network node, and the target network node such that the target network node may receive status information from the source network node and the target network node may receive a status report from the mobile terminal.
US08134973B2
A mobile terminal that ensures smooth, continuous communications sessions even when in transit, regardless of base station capabilities and functionalities, in a packet-switched data communications network. With this terminal, each of a plurality of lower interfaces 101-1 to 101-M, when its associated access mechanism is in an active state, can obtain a connection to packet-switched data communications network 150 using its home-address HoA.1 or its care-of-address CoA.BS1. When lower interface 101-a loses its connection obtained using the care-of-address CoA.BS1, multiple access decision unit 104 instructs mobility support unit 102 to set up a binding of the home-address HoA.1 and either one of the home-address HoA.2 and the care-of-address CoA.BS2 of another lower interface 101-b. Mobility support unit 102 sets up the binding according to the instruction from multiple access decision unit 104.
US08134971B2
A method and system for transmitting/receiving data in a heterogeneous communication system. A terminal accesses a first controller of a first communication system supporting a first communication service to make a communication path to the first communication system. After making the communication path to the terminal, the first controller determines whether it is possible to provide the first communication service to the terminal over the first communication system. If it is not possible, the first controller transmits to an interworking unit a first request indicating that the terminal requires the first communication service over the second communication system. The interworking unit transmits a second request to a second controller of the second communication system in response to the first request, the second request indicating that the second controller provides the first communication service to the terminal. Upon receiving a response to the second request, the interworking unit controls the first controller to provide the first communication service to the terminal over the second communication system according to the response.
US08134970B2
The present invention provides methods and systems for transmitting content in a wireless communication network. The method includes caching a content in each base station of a set of base stations in the wireless communication network. The content includes a plurality of packets. In response to caching the content, a first base station belonging to the set of base stations transmits a first group of packets of the content to a mobile station. The method further includes handing over the mobile station to a second base station. The second base station belongs to the set of the base stations. The second base station resumes transmission of a second group of packets of the content to the mobile station.
US08134966B2
A transmission device is disclosed that includes a frequency scheduling unit configured to allocate resource blocks as a unit to each user, the resource blocks being blocks of consecutive frequency subcarriers divided from a system bandwidth, constitute a first group including consecutive plural resource blocks, constitute plural second groups, each including one or more resource blocks of the plural resource blocks constituting each first group, and allocate the resource blocks of either the first group or one or more the second groups; a mapping unit configured to allocate transmission data to the resource blocks in accordance with the allocation; and a control information generating unit configured to generate control information with respect to a mobile station to which either the first group or one or more the second groups are allocated.
US08134965B2
A method of transmitting and receiving data using a superframe structure is disclosed. A method for transmitting data through a superframe including a superframe header, includes generating the superframe which includes a data region including user data and includes a dedicated control region including data region allocation information indicating resource allocation for the data region, and transmitting the superframe. The dedicated control region is arranged at at least one of locations except for a subframe of the superframe header. A user equipment which does not have to transmit and receive data decodes only data region allocation information using information of the data region indicated by a dedicated control region, thereby minimizing power loss, reducing a feedback delay, and reducing system overhead using a superframe structure.
US08134964B2
A network address assigning and allocating method and a routing method for a long-thin wireless network are provided. First, a plurality of nodes in the long-thin wireless network is classified into a plurality of clusters, in which nodes ranging from a child node of a bridge node to a next bridge node are classified as the same cluster. Then, a network address is assigned to each of the nodes, in which the network address includes a cluster ID and a node ID, the cluster ID is used for identifying the clusters and for routing a packet between the clusters, and the node ID is used for identifying the nodes in each of the clusters and for routing a packet in the cluster. Thereby, the routing and network transmitting efficiency of the long-thin wireless network can be improved.
US08134953B2
The present invention provides a method of determining characteristics of access classes in a wireless communication system. In one embodiment, a method is provided for implementation in an access network of a wireless communication system. The method includes mapping, at the access network, a plurality of priority levels to a plurality of access classes. Each access class is associated with at least one parameter used by access terminals to establish a wireless communication link with the access network. The method also includes transmitting, from the access network to a first access terminal, information indicating the mapping of the plurality of priority levels to the plurality of access classes in response to receiving a request to establish a communication session between the first access terminal and the access network.
US08134951B2
In one embodiment an apparatus comprises a transceiver in data communication with an associated network and control logic coupled to the transceiver. The control logic is operable to send data to the associated network and receive data from the associated network via the transceiver. The control logic is configured to determine a network element for processing a data stream. The control logic is configured to acquire the network element from the associated network responsive to determining the network element for processing the data stream.
US08134943B2
In an embodiment, an application server determines a priority associated with a given multicast message for transmission to at least one access terminal, configures the given multicast message to indicate the priority of the given multicast message and forwards the configured multicast message to an access network for transmission to the at least one access terminal a number of times based at least in part on the indicated priority. Alternatively, the application server can indicate, in the configured multicast message, the number of times to transmit the given multicast message. The priority, or number of times to transmit the given multicast message, can be conveyed to the access network by a flag inserted into the configured multicast message by the application server. The access network determines the number of times to transmit the given multicast message to the at least one access terminal based on the flag.
US08134939B2
A ring communication network according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a plurality of nodes in which a single one of the nodes is configured for full channel conversion and the remaining nodes, other than the single node, are configured for no channel conversion. Links with no more than W channels couple the nodes. The ring communication network also may include N nodes and links connecting the nodes for carrying data in W channels such that N≧2 log2 W−1 where W is a power of 2. Each of the N nodes includes switches connected such that each channel of a first one of the links adjacent to any one of the N nodes can be switched to no more than W−1 channels of another one of the links adjacent any one node.
US08134937B2
Distributed content storage system, content storage method, node device, and node processing program
A node device included in a distributed content storing system configured that a plurality of content data are distributed and stored in a plurality of node devices mutually communicable through a network, and node information of the node device storing the above content data is registered in the node device administrating the content data, the node device including: a content receiving means for receiving the content data broadcasted; a storage determining means for randomly determining whether content data as much as a unit are stored when the content data as much as the unit are received; a storing means for storing the content data thus determined; and a registration message transmission means for sending a registration message, provided to make own node information as the node device storing the content data, to the node device administrating the content data when the content data are stored.
US08134933B2
A method (400) for use in a wireless communications system (100) with a first transceiver (110) and a second transceiver (130) which communicate with each other, which system is a TDD-system, with communication divided into time frames with time slots. According to the method, the first transceiver transmits (410) a dedicated signal for use as a communications quality indicator by the second transceiver, and the second transceiver reports (420) measurements of the dedicated signal to the first transceiver. The dedicated signal is by the first transceiver in one or more TDD time slots, and the second transceiver measures (430) the individual signal strength of the dedicated signal in at least a first and a second time slot and transmits (440) measurement reports to the first transceiver based on the individual measurements in the first and second time slots of the dedicated signal.
US08134922B2
Disclosed are, inter alia, methods, apparatus, computer-storage media, mechanisms, and means associated with loss of reducing flooding in a bridged network, typically including a device directly connected to multiple upstream bridges. These bridges are configured such that the device receives broadcast/multicast traffic from a single interface of one of the bridges, while allowing unicast traffic over each of the communications links connecting the device to the bridges. In one configuration, the device implements virtual machine(s), each including a virtual network interface associated with a MAC address; and the directly connected bridges are configured, for each particular MAC address of these MAC addresses of the virtual interfaces, such that one and only one of the bridges will forward packets having the particular MAC address as its destination address over a communications link directly connected to the device.
US08134919B2
A method and device for protecting Ethernet Tree (E-Tree) services are disclosed. An ID is configured for each branch of the E-Tree. The method includes: determining a branch that needs to perform switching; notifying the ID of the branch that needs to perform switching to a work E-Tree through a root UNI of a protect E-Tree; and switching data over the branch that needs to perform switching from the work E-Tree to the protect E-Tree according to the ID of the branch that needs to perform switching. In the embodiments of the present invention, because an ID is configured for each branch of the E-Tree, the branch corresponding to the ID may be triggered to perform protection switching as required, thus implementing branch switching.
US08134915B2
According to one embodiment, providing network redundancy includes configuring a session registrant database to have one or more virtual standby states. Each virtual standby state corresponds to an active router. The session registrant database receives session information from the active router(s) and determines that an active router has failed. A virtual standby state corresponding to the failed router is set to a virtual active state. A second router is configured to have a standby state associated with the set virtual active state. The session information received from the failed router is transferred to the second router, and the second router is configured to have an active state.
US08134912B2
An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a subscriber station (SS) operable to communicate with a base station (BS) and at least one additional subscriber station (SS) in a wireless metropolitan area network, wherein the at least one additional SS attempts to overhear a first message from the SS and piggy back a second message for the overheard message from the SS's uplink data to the BS with its uplink data.
US08134892B2
A timepiece includes: a housing (10), a movement (12) provided in the housing, a piece of glass (14) closing the housing, a dial (60) provided between the movement and the glass, wherein the dial can assume a first state in which the elements located behind the dial opposite the glass are visible from the glass side and a second state in which the elements are hidden, a mobile part capable of movement between at least one first position and at least one second position respectively corresponding to the first and second states of the dial, and display members (16) provided between the dial and the glass. The timepiece further includes a lid movably mounted relative to the housing and kinematically connected to the mobile part for urging the same from the first to the second position.
US08134883B2
A memory circuit includes a plurality of word lines, a plurality of bit lines, and a plurality of memory cells. Configurations of the plurality of memory cells are determined depending on the data (“high” or “low”) which is stored in the memory cells. Data array such as a program stored in the memory circuit is analyzed in advance. In the case where “high” is the majority data, memory cells storing “high” are formed with vacant cells in which a semiconductor element is not formed.
US08134880B2
A semiconductor integrated circuit has a plurality of memory devices each comprising a memory cell array which includes a plurality of memory cells to store data, a spare part which includes a redundant cell to avoid a memory cell judged to be defective in the plurality of memory cells and conduct redundancy repair on data, and a switching circuit to avoid the defective memory cell and conduct switching to the redundant cell; and a repair code decoding circuit comprising a storage circuit which stores a repair code, a decoder which outputs a repair decoded signal obtained by decoding the repair code, wherein the switching circuit respectively in the memory devices avoids a memory cell corresponding to the repair decoded signal and conducts switching to the redundant cell of the memory devices in accordance with the repair decoded signal.
US08134879B2
A semiconductor memory device includes banks of unit cells, wherein two or more adjacent banks of the banks share a redundancy circuit configured to perform a defect repair operation when an address for accessing a defective unit cell is input.
US08134875B2
A data storage system includes a first circuit board, a plurality of sockets coupled to the first circuit board, an connector coupled to each of the sockets for coupling each of the sockets to external circuitry, and a plurality of memory modules, each memory module disposed within one of the sockets. The memory module includes a circuit board, an integrated circuit device having configurable blocks, DRAM devices that form parallel channels of DRAM memory and flash memory devices that form parallel channels of flash memory. The memory module also includes an interface electrically coupled to the integrated circuit device for coupling input and output between the integrated circuit device and external circuitry.
US08134869B2
An electrically alterable non-volatile multi-level memory device and a method of operating such a device, which includes setting a status of at least one of the memory cells to one state selected from a plurality of states including at least first to fourth level states, in response to information to be stored in the one memory cell, and reading the status of the memory cell to determine whether the read out status corresponds to one of the first to fourth level states by utilizing a first reference level set between the second and third level states, a second reference level set between the first and second level states and a third reference level set between the third and fourth level states.
US08134864B2
In general, the invention is directed to techniques for reducing the amount of switching current that is utilized within a magnetic storage (e.g., MRAM) device. An example apparatus includes a fixed magnetic layer that provides a fixed direction of magnetization, an exchange-coupled magnetic multi-layer structure, and a non-magnetic layer placed between the fixed magnetic layer and the exchange-coupled magnetic multi-layer structure. The exchange-coupled magnetic multi-layer structure includes a recording layer configured to record information and an assisting layer having a lower anisotropy than the recording layer. The exchange coupling between the recording and assisting layers is operable to switch a magnetization direction of the recording layer. In some cases, the exchange-coupled magnetic multi-layer structure may further include a spacer separating the recording and assisting layers and configured to weaken an exchange coupling between the recording and assisting layers.
US08134859B1
A non-volatile memory cell including an antifuse element having a programming node and a control node, a capacitor element, a precharge element, an access element, and a leakage element. The antifuse element is configured to have changed resistivity (representing a change in logic state) after the programming node is subjected to one or more voltage pulses. The capacitor element, coupled to the programming node, is configured to provide the one or more voltage pulses to the programming node. The precharge element, coupled to the programming node, is configured to increase the one or more voltage pulses provided to the programming to node. The access element, coupled to the control node, is configured to allow determination of the logic state of the antifuse element based on current flow through the access element. The leakage element is coupled to the control node and configured to modify the current flowing through the access element when the resistivity of the antifuse element has not been changed.
US08134856B2
Data protection scheme during power-up in spin transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory
A Spin Transfer Torque Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) array including a plurality of bit cells, a power-up controller, and a first plurality of precharge transistors is disclosed. The plurality of bit cells are each coupled to one of a plurality of bit lines and word lines. The power-up controller is configured to provide a power-up control signal to control the voltage level of at least one of the bit lines or the word lines during power-up. The first plurality of precharge transistors are respectively coupled to at least one of the plurality of bit lines or the plurality of word lines, each precharge transistor being configured to discharge a corresponding bit line or word line to a desired voltage level based on the power-up control signal.
US08134853B2
Providing a serial array semiconductor architecture achieving fast program, erase and read times is disclosed herein. By way of example, a memory architecture can comprise a serial array of semiconductors coupled to a metal bitline of an electronic memory device at one end of the array, and a gate of a pass transistor at an opposite end of the array. Furthermore, a second metal bitline is coupled to a drain of the pass transistor. A sensing circuit that measures current or voltage at the second metal bitline, which is modulated by a gate potential of the pass transistor, can determine a state of transistors of the serial array. Because of low capacitance of the pass transistor, the serial array can charge or discharge the gate of the pass transistor quickly, resulting in read times that are significantly reduced as compared with conventional serial semiconductor array devices.
US08134849B2
An AC to DC power converter with hold up time function has a charging switch and a mode switch. The charging switch is connected between an output capacitor of a PFC controlling circuit and an energy-storage capacitor. The mode switch is connected between the energy-storage capacitor and an input of the PFC controlling circuit. The charging and mode switches are controlled by a PFC controller. When AC power is normal, the charging switch turns on and mode switch turns off. Meanwhile, the energy-storage capacitor and the output capacitor are connected in parallel to store energy in the energy-storage capacitor. When the AC power source is interrupted, the charging switch turns off and mode switch turns on. Therefore, the energy-storage capacitor is disconnected from the output capacitor. The PFC circuit obtains power from the energy-storage capacitor and continuous to supply an output voltage for a while.
US08134841B2
According to one embodiment, there is provided a printed-wiring board, includes a first base member including a component mounting face, a first electronic component with a through-electrode mounted on the component mounting face, a second base member stacked on the first base member via an insulating layer covering the first electronic component, a hole part provided in the second base member and communicating with the through-electrode of the first electronic component, and a second electronic component mounted on the second base member and circuit-connected directly to the through-electrode via the hole part.
US08134840B2
A circuit board in which the attachment strength of a frame member to a substrate can be improved, and a mobile electronic apparatus are provided.A circuit board 16 has: a substrate 28; plural electronic components 29 which are mounted on the substrate 28; and a frame member 30 which is attached to the substrate 28 so as to surround the electronic components 29. A resin portion 36 is formed by a resin which is filled into the frame member 30. The circuit board 16 has: a lower bent portion 41 (contact portion) which is disposed in a basal end portion 38B of a wall portion 38 of the frame member 30 along the substrate 28; and a raised portion 42 which is disposed in an outer end portion 41A of the lower bent portion 41.
US08134836B2
A packaged heat dissipating assembly for an intermediate bus converter (IBC) has a frame being mounted on and around the IBC and a heat sink being mounted on the frame. The packaged heat dissipating assembly is easily detached from the IBC. Therefore, a broken bus converter module (BCM) or heat sink is easily replaced separately. Consequently, heat dissipating designs and maintenance of a server or communication equipment is facilitated and maintenance costs of the IBC and the server or communication equipment are lowered.
US08134835B2
The present invention relates to a clamping device for compression clamping of one or more semiconductor devices and associated semiconductor components with a desired compression force equally distributed across the opposing surfaces of the devices and associated components. The semiconductor devices and components are located between opposing jaws that are joined together by at least two tie rods, which compressively load the opposing jaws to apply the desired compression force to the semiconductor devices and components. The desired compression force is first achieved in even distribution between independent clamp pressure set point assemblies and the first jaw, where each of the independent clamp pressure set point assemblies is associated with one of the tie rods. Upon final assembly of the clamping device the desired pressure force is achieved across the semiconductor devices and components by compression of the opposing jaws between the one or more semiconductor devices and associated semiconductor components until the clamp pressure indicator elements associated with each of the clamp pressure set point assemblies indicates the desired compression force has been applied.
US08134833B2
An evaporator is disclosed for a cooling circuit. The evaporator includes a housing having at least one wall for contacting a heat emitting device. A channel, the cross section of which is small enough to allow convection boiling, and a separation volume are located in the evaporator. The separation volume is located at a vapor exiting port of the channel. The evaporator can include a liquid reservoir.
US08134829B2
The invention discloses a foldable electronic device having a folding module pivotally connected to a first body and a second body. The folding module has at least one folding member with a first connecting portion and a second connecting portion defined thereon, wherein the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion are foldable along a first folding line defined there between, and the first connecting portion and the second connecting portion are connected to the first body and the second body respectively. With such, the structure of the folding module is simplified, the cost is reduced and the folding module is also easy to be assembled and repaired.
US08134818B2
A surge suppressor for protecting electronic equipment by suppressing damaging surges of low frequency signals in a radio frequency (RF) transmission line, while allowing RF signals of a desired frequency range to pass through the transmission line. The surge suppressor can comprise a housing, a center pin connected to a stub, and at least one interface pin conductively coupled to the cable and capacitively coupled to the center pin. The surge suppressor can have a signal pass through bandwidth approximately 10 times exceeding the bandwidth of traditional quarter wavelength stub (QWS) devices, a higher return loss, and higher surge attenuation level. The surge suppressor can be symmetrically insertable into a cable providing an RF communication line.
US08134801B2
A magnetic recording and reading device, free from coil windings, includes a naturally magnetic material that defines a pair of opposite magnetic poles and defines a magnetic field. A conductor in operable association with an integrated circuit array provided at each of the magnetic poles controls direction and flow of current in the conductors.
US08134800B2
A stop position adjusting device for an accessor mechanism in an information recording device using a recording cartridge, includes: the accessor mechanism; a first moving mechanism; a second moving mechanism; and an image taking section. The accessor mechanism inserts the recording cartridge into a cell and takes out the recording cartridge from the cell. The first moving mechanism moves the accessor mechanism in a first direction. The second moving mechanism moves the accessor mechanism in a second direction different from the first direction. The image taking section is provided on the accessor mechanism and detects a position of a mark provided near the cell. An adjustment of a stop position of the accessor mechanism for the cell is executed based on the position detected by the image taking section.
US08134798B1
A disk drive is disclosed having a plurality of disk surfaces, wherein each disk surface comprises a plurality of data tracks, and each data track comprises a plurality of data sectors. When a read command is received from a host, data is read from first and second data sectors on first and second disk surfaces, respectively, in response to the read command, wherein the first data sector stores data at a first data rate, and the second data sector stores data at a second data rate substantially less than the first data rate. The data is transferred to the host at a substantially constant average transfer rate. In this manner, the disk drive does not appear abnormal to a benchmark program that reads a plurality of data sectors across multiple disk surfaces.
US08134792B2
A preamplifier and method writes data synchronized with the passing of a write head in a magnetic storage device over bit islands in discrete patterned recording media. The preamplifier contains a write pre-driver that conditions write data, a synchronization circuit that accepts a delay offset value and a write clock and produces a delayed clock, and a write output driver that is gated by the delayed clock to produce write pulses for magnetizing the bit islands. Gating the write output driver using the delayed clock results in more accurate synchronization than delaying the write data into the preamplifier due to the reduction of the overall length and variability of interconnects and transistors in the intervening circuitry. Write clock generation circuitry, as well as bit position sensor circuitry for use with bit position signals produced by a read head or by a separate bit position sensor, are optionally integrated into the preamplifier, close to the write output driver and write head, for further improvements in delay accuracy and stability. Write pulses produced by the preamplifier are thus well aligned with the bit islands, resulting in higher magnetization and an improved bit error rate.
US08134786B2
Embodiment of invention discloses a system and a method for determining a three-dimensional (3D) location of a folding point of a ray between a point in a scene (PS) and a center of projection (COP) of a camera of a catadioptric system. One embodiment maps the catadioptric system, including 3D locations of the PS and the COP on a two-dimensional (2D) plane defined by an axis of symmetry of a folding optical element and the PS to produce a conic and 2D locations of the PS and COP on the 2D plane, and determines a 2D location of the folding point on the 2D plane based on the conic, the 2D locations of the PS and the COP. Next, the embodiment determines the 3D location of the folding point from the 2D location of the folding point on the 2D plane.
US08134779B2
Disclosed is a system for aligning a 3D image display device. The system for aligning the 3D image display device comprises: a display panel showing a left eye image and a right eye image, and having a display panel align mark at a circumference of the display panel; a plurality of 3D filter including a transparent substrate, and a retarder converting a left eye image into a first polarized light and a right eye image into a second polarized light on the transparent substrate; a plurality of 3D filter align mark having a retarder pattern formed at a circumference of the 3D filter on the transparent substrate of the 3D filter, and a reflection plate formed on the retarder pattern; and a vision system taking pictures of the display panel align marks and the 3D filter align marks.
US08134775B2
An optical amplifier includes a light source that outputs light having an intensity corresponding to a supplied driving power; a modulator that modulates the light output from the light source in response to an input modulation signal; a Raman amplifier that performs Raman amplification on the light modulated by the modulator using a highly-nonlinear medium; and a driver that supplies the driving power to drive the light source and inputs the modulation signal to the modulator. The driver starts inputting the modulation signal to the modulation unit before the intensity of the light propagating through the Raman amplifier exceeds an intensity value at which stimulated Brillouin scattering occurs in the Raman amplifier.
US08134772B2
A micromirror device includes an elastic hinge for supporting a mirror on a substrate, and an address electrode for deflecting the mirror. The device further includes a protective layer and an oriented monolayer laid to cover a stopper also functioning as an address electrode provided below the mirror and between the mirror and the substrate.
US08134764B2
An image processing device includes a CSA accumulator, a first register, a CPA adder and a central processing unit. The CSA accumulator includes a first input for receiving a processing signal and a second input for receiving a previous result of the CSA accumulator. The first register includes an input coupled to the CSA accumulator and an output coupled to the second input end of the CSA accumulator. The CPA adder is coupled to the first register. The CPA adder is used for processing an addition operation on all carries outputted from the first register. The central processing unit includes an input coupled to the CPA adder and an output end for outputting an output signal comprising processed image measurement data.
US08134755B2
An image reading apparatus according to an aspect of the invention includes a first reading unit which reads a surface of a document and a second reading unit which reads the other surface of the document. The first and second reading units include off-axial imaging units respectively. The off-axial imaging unit includes plural imaging mirrors in which off-axial reflecting surfaces having curvatures are formed. In the off-axial imaging unit, an incident direction and an outgoing direction of a reference axis light beam are different from each other. The off-axial imaging units are provided such that vertical directions of the first and second reading units become identical while an incident side of the light beam is located below an outgoing side with respect to the imaging unit.
US08134751B2
Systems and methods consistent with disclosed embodiments provide for a method for previewing documents by associating one of a plurality of copy protection templates with a document; and viewing the document using one of a plurality of options associated with a user-interface by blending an image corresponding to the copy protection template with an image of at least one page in the document, wherein the options comprise: a print preview option that permits the viewing of a printed version of the document; and a copy preview option that permits the viewing of a duplicated version of the document. In some embodiments, the method may be invoked using document processing software and/or software associated with a print driver.
US08134745B2
An image processing apparatus, which includes an image processing unit to perform image processing for image data corresponding to an image to be formed on a printable medium; and a compensation unit to performs compensation processing on the image processed image data by increasing, by a compensation amount, a depth of shade of a pixel arranged in a printing direction adjacent to a solid pixel having a depth of shade greater than a predetermined value, so as to compensate for a depth deterioration of the adjacent pixel.
US08134734B2
A system and method for verifying that a document is included in a document management system is disclosed. This system and method includes radio frequency scanning at least a portion of the document, generating document data dependently upon the radio frequency scanning, comparing the generated document data to stored document data, the stored document data generated dependently upon a prior radio frequency scanning of at least a portion of the document, and outputting an indication of the document being included in the document management system as determined by the comparing.
US08134731B2
Provided is a printing device for preparing print data from image data and sequentially printing the print data, the printing device including: a print instruction receiving unit which receives a print instruction with the selection of the image data; and a print data preparing unit which, when the print instruction is received by the print instruction receiving unit with the selection of a plurality of pieces of image data including JPEG data and RAW data before a development process, performs a process of preparing the print data from the JPEG data among the plurality of pieces of selected image data prior to a process for performing the development process with respect to the RAW data and preparing the print data if at least a predetermined amount of print data in a print standby state, in which printing is not completed by the printing device, is not present, and performs the process for performing the development process with respect to the RAW data and preparing the print data prior to the process of preparing the print data from the JPEG data if the at least predetermined amount of print data in the print standby state, in which printing is not completed by the printing device, is present.
US08134726B2
A method of enabling bi-directional communication in a point and print (PnP) architecture between a printer and a client includes initiating a PnP installation to receive a printer component at the client from a printer server. The printer component is received at the client from the printer server and a spooler process is enabled on the client to load the printer components on the client. A new thread, which executes in the context of the spooler process such that the new thread inherits the system access token from the spooler process, is used to copy the printer component to the system folder on the client. From the new thread, the printer component is registered and executed from the system folder in an elevated system context.
US08134713B2
Sensor electrodes and wiring patterns can be formed with fewer processes, and easy assembly without interference between the wires and optical substrates is realized. Provided is a variable spectroscopy element (1) that includes two optical substrates (3a, 3b) that oppose each other at a distance therebetween and that include reflection films (2) on the opposing surfaces; actuators (3c) that change the distance between the optical substrates; sensors (6) having electrode portions (6a, 6b) that detect the distance between the optical substrates on the opposing surfaces; inclined surfaces (5) that are provided on at least one of the optical substrates (3a (3b)), in the outer peripheral parts of the opposing surfaces, and gradually increase the distance from the other optical substrate (3b (3a)) radially outward and in the plate-thickness direction; and connecting patterns (6e, 6f) that are provided on the inclined surfaces (5) and connect wiring patterns (6c (6d)) that connect to the electrode portions (6a (6b)) of the sensor (6) and connecting patterns (6e, (6f)) that are disposed radially outward with respect to the wiring patterns (6c, (6d)) and connect to wires (7) that output signals from the electrode portions (6a, (6b)) to external parts.
US08134712B1
An apparatus and method for estimating ore quality using color correlations is disclosed. The apparatus and method quantify ash or grade concentration in process streams arid/or samples in real time, allowing for the optimization of ore processing operations, The apparatus and method employ a light beam at a given wavelength, which allows for the measurement of ash content or grade.
US08134711B2
In one aspect, the present invention relates to a device for remote sensing of emissions of a vehicle driven on a road. In one embodiment, the device includes a source for emitting a beam of light and transmitting the emitted light through an exhaust plume emitted from the vehicle to the surface of a lane of the road on which the vehicle is driven, wherein the transmitted light is scattered at the surface of the lane; a detector for receiving at least one portion of the scattered light scattered from the surface of the lane; and a processor for processing the received light therein to provide one or more spectra of the received light so as to determine components and concentrations of the exhaust plume. The source and the detector are located in the same side of the road.
US08134709B2
In a method of aligning a substrate, a first alignment mark in a single shot region on the substrate may be identified. A second alignment mark in the single shot region may be selectively identified in accordance with the identification of the first alignment mark. The substrate may then be aligned using identified any one of the first alignment mark and the second alignment mark. Thus, although the substrate may be accurately aligned, the accurately aligned substrate may not be determined to be misaligned.
US08134707B2
A polarimetry technique for measuring optical activity that is particularly suited for high throughput screening employs a chip or substrate (22) having one or more microfluidic channels (26) formed therein. A polarized laser beam (14) is directed onto optically active samples that are disposed in the channels. The incident laser beam interacts with the optically active molecules in the sample, which slightly alter the polarization of the laser beam as it passes multiple times through the sample. Interference fringe patterns (28) are generated by the interaction of the laser beam with the sample and the channel walls. A photodetector (34) is positioned to receive the interference fringe patterns and generate an output signal that is input to a computer or other analyzer (38) for analyzing the signal and determining the rotation of plane polarized light by optically active material in the channel from polarization rotation calculations.
US08134702B1
An optical device for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy includes a substrate, and at least one antenna established thereon. The at least one antenna including at least two segments, where each segment is formed of a metal having a predetermined volume and a predetermined contact angle with respect to the substrate. A gap is located between the two segments. The gap has a controllable size such that the at least one antenna resonates at a predetermined frequency that corresponds with the gap.
US08134701B2
A defect inspecting apparatus of the invention solves a problem that in a defect inspecting apparatus, because of improving detection sensitivity of a microscopic defect by reducing a detection pixel size, a focal depth becomes shallow, a height of imaging is varied due to environmental change and the detection sensitivity of a defect becomes unstable. This apparatus comprises an XY stage, which carries a substrate to be inspected and scans in a predetermined direction, and a mechanism having a system of irradiating a defect on the inspected substrate at a slant and detecting the defect by a detection optical system disposed on the upper side, which corrects a height of imaging in real time for change in temperature and barometric pressure in order to keep the imaging in a best condition.
US08134697B2
A degradation in throughput is prevented even in cases where it is necessary to reduce a pixel size during inspection according to a finer circuit pattern. In an inspection method and an inspection apparatus in which an inspected sample having a circuit pattern is irradiated with a charged particle beam to generate a signal, an image is obtained from the signal, and in which a defect of the circuit pattern is detected from the image, the inspection is performed while an inspected pixel size in a direction in which the charged particle beam is scanned relative to the inspected sample and an inspected pixel size in a stage moving direction are separately set. The stage is moved while the inspected sample is placed thereon.
US08134694B2
Diamonds may be identified as grown by the use of chemical vapor deposition. One or more diamonds may be placed on a surface and exposed to short wavelength light. Diamonds that fluoresce red may be identified as grown by the use of chemical vapor deposition. In some embodiments, the diamonds are cooled prior to exposure to the short wavelength light.
US08134685B2
A liquid recovery system is used by an immersion exposure apparatus. The liquid recovery system comprises: a plate that has a first surface and a second surface on the side opposite the first surface; and a liquid recovery part, at least part of which opposes the second surface with a first gap interposed therebetween. The liquid recovery system recovers the liquid on a movable object that opposes the first surface of the plate via the liquid recovery part.
US08134683B2
In a lithographic projection apparatus, adjustment of the projection system, e.g. to compensate for lens heating effects, is performed by determining a region of interest for a given pattern and illumination arrangement, the region of interest being a non-circular region of a pupil plane of the projection system through which substantially all of the radiation of the modulated beam that contributes to formation of the image passes; obtaining a set of basis functions that are orthogonal over the region of interest; expressing the wavefront in the pupil plane in terms of the basis functions that are orthogonal over the region of interest and a set of coefficients; and determining a value of a control setting to minimize the values of the coefficients.
US08134669B2
Disclosed is a liquid crystal display device including a TFT substrate on which a picture element electrode is provided for each picture element, a counter substrate having a common electrode provided thereon, and a liquid crystal contained between the TFT and counter substrates, the liquid crystal display device achieving to shorten response time (rise time) by utilizing the following phenomenon that when a voltage applied to the picture element electrode changes from a first voltage (e.g., black display voltage) to a second voltage (e.g., white display voltage), transmittance increases to maximum transmittance with a change in the state of the alignment of liquid crystal molecules and then decreases to transmittance in a stable state corresponding to the second voltage.
US08134665B2
A liquid crystal display apparatus includes a first polarizer located on one side of a first substrate, a second polarizer located on the opposite side of a second substrate, a liquid crystal layer formed of liquid crystal molecules and between the first and the second substrates so that the liquid crystal molecules may be aligned in parallel to the first or the second substrate and to which an electric field is applied in parallel to the first substrate, and a lighting device. The first or the second polarizer includes a polarization layer and supporting materials located on both sides of the polarization layer, reducing light leakage and a color shift in a black display state when viewed from the oblique direction.
US08134657B2
One embodiment of the present invention is an optical component, including a first main surface and a second main surface wherein a plurality of two-dimensionally arranged first convex parts are arranged on the first main surface, each of the first convex parts being independent and an aspherical micro lens having an approximate semispherical shape or an approximate elliptic semispherical shape, or having a rounded tip, and a plurality of second convex parts of the height of which is lower than the height of the plurality of the first convex parts, the second convex parts comprising a lens extending in a one dimensional direction, the lens being arranged in one or two directions.
US08134645B2
A television system has a television viewing mode and a guide mode. The guide mode includes an electronic program guide (EPG), which provides the viewer program information for tuned programs, and a tape index guide (TIG), which provides information for programs recorded on a video cassette. In both guides, real time images of a program are displayed in a PIP window on the television screen and guide information is displayed in the background. In both guides, the viewer may switch between a currently telecast program or a recorded program. The viewer may access either guide from the television mode and vice versa. In the guide mode, the viewer may independently switch the guide information and the type of program, i.e., tuned or recorded, in the PIP window.
US08134643B2
A high quality image is achieved by reducing the occurrence of combing noise in a synthesized image having an inserted image of a different frame frequency. A feature amount of a screen produced by an input interlace-scanned video signal is extracted, a film mode on a screen-by-screen basis from the feature amount extracted is detected, the input interlace-scanned video signal to be a synthesized image is decided from a local area in the screen, and the film mode detection is controlled not to output the film mode detection result, based on the decision result.
US08134641B2
Methods and apparatuses for processing a video signal are provided, in which a video signal for an interlaced scanning mode is received that has a first field and a second field. Further, a determination is performed as to whether the first field and the second field are inverted with respect to each other, and the first field and the second field are recovered if the first field and the second field are determined to be inverted with respect to each other. Thus, a video signal can be generated for a progressive scanning mode on the basis of the recovered first and second fields. Thus, an odd field can be correctly distinguished from an even field, which are included in a video signal for an interlaced scanning mode.
US08134638B2
A display including a first housing, a display panel and an image capturing module is provided. The first housing has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The display panel is disposed on the first surface. The image capturing module includes a second housing and an image capturing unit. The second housing is mounted on the first housing. The second housing has an opening, which passes through the first surface and the second surface. The two ends of the image capturing unit are respectively pivotally connected to the innerwall of the opening so that the image capturing module is rotatably disposed on the display.
US08134635B2
An image capturing apparatus includes an optical system which forms an image of a subject. An image sensor converts the image formed by the optical system into a video signal. A focus operating unit changes the focusing status produced by the optical system according to a manual operation. An autofocus unit adjusts the focus of the optical system so as to be able to obtain the best in-focus condition according to the video signal from the image sensor. The autofocus unit is adapted to adjust the focus of the optical system within the focusing range determined according to a characteristic of the optical system after a change of the focusing status by the focus operating unit.
US08134630B2
One or more charge storage regions in a charge-coupled device (CCD) shift register can contain residual charge that did not transfer to a reset drain during a reset operation. An image sensor drains the residual charge from each charge storage region by shifting the residual charge to an adjacent charge storage region and resetting the CCD shift register one more time. The process of resetting the CCD shift register, shifting the residual non-image charge to an adjacent charge storage region, and resetting the CCD shift register again can be repeated any number of times.
US08134623B2
An image sensor has a per-column ADC arrangement including first and second capacitors for correlated double sampling, and a comparator circuit. The capacitors are continuously connected to, respectively, the analog pixel signal and a ramp signal without use of a hold operation. The comparator circuit comprises a differential amplifier having one input connected to the junction of the two capacitors and another input connected to a reference signal. The reference signal is preferably sampled and held from a reference voltage. The use of a differential amplifier as first stage of the comparator addresses problems arising from ground voltage bounce when a large pixel array images a scene with low contrast.
US08134619B2
An image sensor and method for column noise reduction may reduce decrease the visibility of fixed pattern noise. The image sensor may include an analog processing circuit and a digital processing circuit. The analog processing circuit may be configured to selectively permutate columns of pixel data based on a permutation signal, each column of pixel data including pixel data associated with at least one pixel in a pixel array. The digital processing circuit may be configured to convert the permutated pixel data into digital data and selectively re-order the columns of pixel data based on the permutation signal. The method for capturing an image may include selectively permutating columns of analog pixel data based on a permutation signal, converting the permutated analog pixel data into the digital domain and selectively re-ordering columns of the digital permutated pixel data based on the permutation signal.
US08134613B2
The present invention particularly relates to an image processing apparatus in which motion blur contained in a blurred image can be eliminated. An area specifying unit 103 specifies a non-mixed area formed of a foreground area consisting of foreground object components which form a foreground object and a background area consisting of background object components which form a background object, or a mixed area in which the foreground object components and the background object components are mixed. A separating/blur-eliminating unit 1503 simultaneously performs processing for separating the foreground object components and the background object components from the pixel data of the mixed area and processing for eliminating motion blur from the separated foreground object components based on a result obtained by specifying the area. The present invention is applicable to an image processing apparatus in which a difference between a signal detected by an image-capturing device and the real world is considered.
US08134611B2
A correction signal capturing section of a skin color correction processing section of an image processor captures WB-corrected R1G1B1 signal values, a WB inverse correction section performs inverse correction, a YCbCr conversion section converts obtained R2G2B2 signal values into Y1Cb1Cr1 signal values. A skin color pixel region detection section detects pixels corresponding to skin color pixel regions, a skin color correction section performs skin color correction to the Y1Cb1Cr1 signal values and obtains Y2Cb2Cr2 signal values, and a RGB conversion section converts the obtained Y2Cb2Cr2 signal values into R3G3B3 signal values. A WB correction section performs WB correction to the R3G3B3 signal values and obtains R4G4B4 signal values. An output section outputs the image signals of the image reconstructed by applying said R4G4B4 signal values to the skin color pixel regions and by applying said R1G1B1 signal values to the pixel regions other than the skin color pixel regions.
US08134610B2
An image capturing apparatus includes an optical system that forms an image of light and a gradation processing section that converts gradation of a captured image captured through the optical system in accordance with a spatial frequency transfer characteristic of the optical system. The image capturing apparatus may further include a light receiving section that receives light from a subject through the optical system, and the gradation processing section may convert gradation of a captured image obtained by light received by the light receiving section in accordance with a spatial frequency transfer characteristic at the position at which the light receiving section is provided.
US08134607B2
A recording apparatus of the present invention includes a recording unit for recording in a recording medium, motion image data in accordance with a predetermined movie recording method and recording still image data in accordance with a still image recording method different from the movie recording method, a conversion motion image generation unit for generating conversion motion image data in accordance with the movie recording method with use of the still image data recorded in the recording medium, and a sub-information generation unit for generating sub-information data related to the still image data that is used for the conversion motion image data generated by the conversion motion image generation unit, in which the recording unit records the conversion motion image data and the sub-information data in the recording medium in accordance with the movie recording method in a multiplexing manner.
US08134605B2
In order that a digital video (DV) camera function as a WWW server in a network, an image capturing section captures an image of a subject. A DV encoder encodes an image signal input from the image capturing section. A recording and playback section plays back DV data recorded in a DV cassette tape. An IP packet assembling/disassembling section assembles a DV signal input from the DV encoder, a DV signal input from the recording and playback section, or an HTML file input from a WWW server processing section into IP packets, and outputs them to an IEEE 1394 interface. The IEEE 1394 interface transmits, via the network, the IP packets input from the IP packet assembling/disassembling section to a personal computer which accessed the DV camera.
US08134604B2
Movement of an imaging device is detected using a camera shake detection sensor or a motion vector obtained from an image signal, and camera shake correction is performed by shifting an extraction frame (valid photographing region) within a photographable maximum region based on the motion detection result. When movement of the imaging device is causing a face region located at the edge of the extraction frame to move towards out of the frame, it is determined that the movement is due to camera shake, and the extraction frame is moved so that the face region can stay within the frame. Meanwhile, when movement of the imaging device is causing the face region to move inward within the frame, it is determined that the movement is due to a pan or tilt operation, and position control is performed so that the deliberate movement is not inhibited.
US08134602B2
In a first operational amplifier, an input signal is input to the negative input terminal, a reference voltage is input to the positive input terminal, a feedback path from the output terminal to the negative input terminal is formed, and the input signal is amplified by a predetermined amplification factor. In a second operational amplifier, an output from the first operational amplifier is input to the positive input terminal, the reference voltage is input to the negative input terminal, and a pair of outputs having opposite polarities to each other and used for performing BTL drive of a load are obtained at the output terminal. Using the above arrangement, a low-frequency signal can be amplified.
US08134586B2
A beam light scanning apparatus capable of reducing influences of variations in characteristics of circuits disposed in a signal path extending until a laser driver and speeding up image data transfer for scan and exposure. Data of each line is distributed by an image data I/F into data trains of two channels, i.e., an odd-numbered pixel train and an even-numbered pixel train. The data in the two-channel trains are written by writing units into a plurality of memories in parallel for each of the trains in response to a line sync signal. During the same processing cycle as that for the writing, the data are read out of the memories in parallel by reading units. The data of two channels are combined by a multiplexer into a data train in the original order of pixels in each line, and a driving signal based on the combined data is generated by a PWM. A laser is driven by the driving signal.
US08134584B2
Disclosed are an image forming apparatus capable of, and method of, improving color registration. The image forming apparatus can employ a beam deflector having a double-sided mirror portion that pivots to bi-directionally scan multiple light beams on multiple photosensitive media at different phases by using both mirror sides of the double-sided mirror portion. The individual monochromic images developed on the photosensitive media are transferred onto a transfer medium to overlap one another in phase to form a full color image.
US08134581B2
The present invention relates to a bistable matrix-addressable display element comprising a substrate, a bistable electrically modulated imaging layer having a reflection maximum, at least one conductor, and at least one field-spreading layer between said bistable electrically modulated imaging layer and said at least one conductor, wherein said field-spreading layer has a sheet resistance (SER) of less than 109 Ohms per square and a method of imaging the display comprising identifying an area to be updated of said bistable matrix-addressable display element, wherein said area to be updated comprises rows of pixels; and applying a sequence of drive signals having a 4-phase approach to image said bistable matrix-addressable display element, which may be characterized as a planar reset, left-slope selection method.
US08134568B1
A system and method for representing multiple prefetchable memory resources, such as frame buffers coupled to graphics devices, as a unified prefetchable memory space for access by a software application. A graphics surface may be processed by multiple graphics devices, with portions of the surface residing in separate frame buffers, each frame buffer coupled to one of the multiple graphics devices. One or more redirection regions may be specified within the unified prefetchable memory space. Accesses within a redirection region are transmitted to a prefetchable memory of a single graphics device. Accesses within the unified prefetchable memory space, but outside of any redirection region may be broadcast to all of the prefetchable memories of the multiple graphics devices.
US08134564B2
A portable computer including a display unit, and a video processor generating and supplying a first video signal to the display unit, includes a video adaptor outputting the first video signal to the outside, and receiving a second video signal from an external input source, and a control unit for supplying the second video signal to the display unit when the external input source is connected to the video adaptor. Thus, the present invention provides a portable computer and a control method, which can receive a video signal from an external input source through one existing output port for outputting a video signal without adding a separate input port.
US08134560B2
A method for avatar wandering in a computer based interactive environment including for each avatar within a range of a current avatar, obtaining profiles of a user represented by the avatar, for each profile of the user represented by the avatar that has a same profile type as a profile of a user represented by the current avatar, comparing the profiles for matching data, computing a match score for the avatar based on the matching data, and moving the current avatar toward the avatar that has a greatest match score.
US08134557B2
The present invention provides an image processing apparatus including: a production section configured to determine polygon groups each composed of a predetermined number of polygons juxtaposed in a first direction successively as an object block, which is an object of a production process, in an order in which the polygon groups are juxtaposed in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction and produce apex data of the polygons which compose the object block in a unit of a polygon; and a determination section configured to store image data corresponding to those polygons which are positioned in a boundary portion of an immediately preceding block, which is a preceding object block to the object block, with respect to the object block from among those polygons which compose the immediately preceding block into a storage section for storing the pixel data in a unit of a data block to determine the number of the polygons which compose the polygon groups and are juxtaposed in the first direction.
US08134555B2
An apparatus for generating a surface normal map of an object may include a plurality of light sources having intensities that are controllable so as to generate one or more gradient illumination patterns. The light sources are configured and arranged to illuminate the surface of the object with the gradient illumination patterns. A camera may receive light reflected from the illuminated surface of the object, and generate data representative of the reflected light. A processing system may process the data so as to estimate the surface normal map of the surface of the object. A specular normal map and a diffuse normal map of the surface of the object may be generated separately, by placing polarizers on the light sources and in front of the camera so as to illuminate the surface of the object with polarized spherical gradient illumination patterns.
US08134549B2
An image processing apparatus and a method to reduce power consumption of a self-luminous display. The image processing apparatus includes a parameter selection unit to select a parameter to adjust a degree to which power consumption is reduced; a scale factor setting unit to extract a high-frequency component of a current pixel in an input image and to set a scale factor according to the selected parameter and a size of the extracted high-frequency component; and a multiplier to multiply the current pixel by the set scale factor and to output a result of the multiplication.
US08134547B2
What is disclosed is a system and method for merit-based gamut mapping. In one embodiment, color points are clustered in regions of interest within a color space. Each cluster is associated with a gamut mapping function and a merit function. Mapping parameters of each gamut mapping function are iteratively varied to optimize the values based on the merit function value. An optimized gamut mapping function results. Optimized gamut mapping functions of adjacent clusters are blended together by blending the value of the gamut mapping function for a point of a cluster with a value produced by the gamut mapping function of an adjacent cluster for that color point. The composite gamut mapping function contains the optimized gamut mapping functions of all clusters is then output for use in mapping points within those clusters to points within the target gamut. The composite gamut mapping function exploits local advantages of each cluster.
US08134546B2
In order to keep the luminance of a light emitting element constant, the correction is performed by an external device such as a computer, in which case a display device is inevitably complicated and increased in size. Even when degradation characteristics of the light emitting element are previously stored in a computer, the degradation characteristics vary at random depending on hysteresis of the light emitting element; therefore, changes in luminance cannot be corrected. According to the invention, a display device includes a displaying light emitting element provided in a display portion and a plurality of monitoring light emitting elements having the similar characteristics as the displaying light emitting element. At least one of the monitoring light emitting elements is operated under a condition different from the displaying light emitting element, and the ratio of the total amount of charge flowing through the displaying light emitting element to that flowing through the monitoring light emitting element is controlled to satisfy a certain relation in view of luminance degradation. When the one monitoring light emitting element reaches a predetermined voltage or time, the connection is switched from the one monitoring light emitting element to another monitoring light emitting element that has been operated under the same condition as the displaying light emitting element.
US08134539B2
A digital picture frame includes a near-touch user interface component that senses when an object is within a predetermined spatial region of the digital picture frame; a true-touch user interface component that senses physical contact with the digital picture frame; and a processor that receives input signals from the near-touch user interface component and the true-touch user interface component and executes device controls based on inputs from both user interface components.
US08134537B2
A touch display panel including a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer is provided. The first substrate includes sensing areas and a non-sensing area outside the sensing areas. Each sensing area is provided with a first electrode thereon. The second substrate includes main spacers, sensing protrusions, first sub-spacers and second sub-spacers. The main spacers are connected to the non-sensing area. The sensing protrusions are corresponding to the sensing area and respectively have a second electrode. A sensing gap exists between each second electrode and the corresponding first electrode. The first sub-spacers are corresponding to the non-sensing area and respectively keep a first sub-spacer gap from the first substrate. The second sub-spacers are corresponding to the non-sensing area and respectively keep a second sub-spacer gap from the first substrate. The sensing gap is greater than the first sub-spacer gap and less than the second sub-spacer gap.
US08134530B2
To change a proportion of a black image display period based on an image brightness in one frame, improving a moving image performance while suppressing a reduction in luminance. A method of driving a liquid crystal display device which includes a liquid crystal display panel having plural pixels, and displays a black image after displaying a video in each pixel, includes: when taking a period for which the video is displayed as a video display period, and a period for which the black image is displayed as a black image display period, based on an image brightness in one frame, changing a ratio of the black image display period to the video display period.
US08134525B2
A drive circuit includes a drive unit coupling with data lines for receiving at least one clock signal and a first enable signal to generate a drive signal to drive data lines, and a delay unit electrically coupled with the drive unit for receiving the clock signal and the first enable signal and generating a second enable signal falling subsequent to the first enable signal in a predetermined time interval.
US08134523B2
An active matrix display device stores a transistor drive voltage on a storage capacitor (24; Cs). A light-dependent device (27) effects discharge of the storage capacitor in dependence on the light output of the light emitting display element (2). Power is provided to each pixel from a first power line (26), and one of the light dependent device and the storage capacitor is coupled to a second power supply line (50), to which a varying voltage is provided during a pixel illumination period. By varying the voltage on one of the power supply lines, the discharge characteristics of the capacitor by the optical feedback system are altered to provide compensation for the light-dependent device leakage currents.
US08134522B2
An LED driving circuit includes: a current generating circuit configured to generate a drive current corresponding to a voltage level of a drive voltage applied to anodes of the first to fourth LEDs so as to alternately drive the first and second LEDs and the third and fourth LEDs; a first drive control circuit connected to cathodes of the first and third LEDs, and configured to drive the first or third LED with the drive current in response to a first control signal for controlling driving of the first or third LED; and a second drive control circuit connected to cathodes of the second and fourth LEDs, and configured to drive the second or fourth LED with the drive current in response to a second control signal for controlling driving of the second or fourth LED.
US08134516B1
An electrically small supergain endfire transmitting and receiving array antenna comprising at least one first resonant element with a first input terminal. The first resonant element driven by a power supply voltage supplied at the first input terminal. The electrically small supergain endfire transmitting and receiving array antenna further includes at least one second resonant parasitic element with a second input terminal. The second input terminal shorted and the second resonant element spaced less than about 0.25λ from the first resonant element at any corresponding point. The antenna has a gain of at least 6 db and ka<1.0.
US08134515B2
An array of feedhorns feeds detected radiation through waveguides to diode-based mixers to produce modulated intermediate frequency (“IF”) signals. The mixers and waveguides are accommodated on a substrate surface and multiple substrates can be layered up to support a two-dimensional array of waveguide openings in a face of a waveguide/mixer block. A feedhorn block is brought into register with this face so that each waveguide opening connects with a feedhorn. An end portion of each feedhorn is drilled into the opening of a respective waveguide. The main feedhorn block and the waveguide/mixer block are then assembled into registration. This method of construction avoids transverse interfaces in the walls of the feedhorns or waveguides just at the point where the transition is made from one to another.
US08134512B1
Methods, apparatuses and systems for aligning an antenna reflector with satellites in a satellite configuration. A method in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention comprises aligning the reflector in tilt based on a geographic location of the reflector, passing the reflector through an azimuth arc wherein the azimuth arc intercepts at least a first point and a second point, the first point having a first signal strength received from the satellite configuration on the azimuth arc and the second point having a second signal strength less than the first signal strength, the second point located on the azimuth arc after the first point, passing the reflector through an elevation arc, the elevation arc intercepting at least the second point and a third point, the third point having a third signal strength received from the satellite configuration on the elevation arc, determining an alignment point having a maximum signal strength received from the satellite configuration based on a Gaussian antenna pattern of a reception of the satellite signal and the first signal strength, the second signal strength, and the third signal strength, and aligning the reflector with the alignment point.
US08134511B2
A phased array antenna device is described. The phased array antenna device includes at least one one-dimensional phased array of radiating elements arranged along an array direction, a lens, and a phase control element. The lens is arranged such that divergent beams from the radiating elements are collimated by the lens in a direction orthogonal to the array direction to produce a beam. The phase control element is configured to apply a linear phase gradient to the radiating elements thereby providing one-dimensional electronic beam steering for the antenna device. The antenna device may additionally include one or two mechanical positioners to mechanically move the at least one one-dimensional phased array in directions orthogonal to the array direction, where the phased array enables scanning along the array direction.
US08134499B2
An Ultra-Tightly Coupled GPS-inertial navigation system for use in a moving agile platform includes a range residual extractor that uses best curve fitting of a third order polynomial for estimating range residual. The curve-fitted residual is used to update an error Kalman filter. The error Kalman filter includes correction for navigation solution, and IMU and GPS parameters. The navigation solution together with GPS parameter corrections are used in a Tracking Predictor to generate high-sampling-rate carrier and code replicas. The curve-fitting error covariance indicates signal to noise ratio for the tracked GPS signal and may be used for early indication of interference or jamming.
US08134490B2
A continually adapted pulse-to-pulse shift, performed in the azimuth direction, of the phase center which is electrically active on the side of the transmitting antenna (Tx; Tx1, Tx2, Tx3), in connection with the SAR antenna control of a multi-aperture SAR system is designed such that, in the case of an existing pulse repetition frequency (PRF) due to the likewise shifted position of the effective phase center of the entire antenna (Tx; Tx1, Tx2, Tx3; Rx; Rx1, Rx2, Rx3), a compensation or complete correction of non-equidistant scanning in the azimuth direction is achieved. The principle of the pulse-to-pulse shift of the position of the effective phase center of the antenna for achieving the best possible equidistant scanning can be expanded to the side of the receiving antenna (Rx; Rx1, Rx2, Rx3) and to multi-aperture antennas. The technological solution proposed by the invention can be advantageously combined with a subsequent digital beam formation on the receiving antenna side.
US08134489B2
A method for monitoring an area that involves transmitting a first electromagnetic wave signal from a mobile platform moving over a ground surface, toward the ground surface. A receiver is used that is located remote from the mobile platform to receive the first electromagnetic wave signal after the signal is reflected from the ground surface. The first electromagnetic wave signal is processed to form a first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. Subsequently the receiver is used to receive a second electromagnetic wave signal transmitted from the mobile platform at a time subsequent to transmission of the first electromagnetic wave signal. The second electromagnetic wave signal is then processed to obtain a second SAR image. The first and second SAR images are then coherently analyzed to determine areas of non-correlation between the images.
US08134481B2
A system and method are provided for receiving navigational data via a wireless messaging service on a navigation system. The system and method provide a way to send requests for destination information via the wireless messaging service and capture navigational data from the responsive message received, such as addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses, and then utilize that data for navigational routing, generation of telephone calls, emailing and the like, from the vehicle's navigation system. The system and method further sends location-related reply messages and preset reply messages to an originator of a received message. A wireless device can be paired with the navigation system over a Bluetooth® communication link, wherein the navigation system periodically polls the wireless device for newly received messages. In one embodiment, the NAVI displays icons on a map that correspond to the extracted addresses from the messages received in relation to the vehicle's current location.
US08134477B2
A logging tool has three seismic sensors that generate seismic signals in response to microseismic events and can be a Triaxial Borehole Seismic system. The tool also has additional sensors, such as a wireline tension measuring circuit, a gamma ray sensor, an inclinometer, and a gyroscope. The tool deploys downhole with a multi-conductor (i.e., seven conductor) wireline. For the seismic signals, a telemetry unit on the tool derives frequency-modulated carrier signals from the seismic signals, and a transformer of the unit transmits these carrier signals to surface acquisition equipment using cross-wired pairs of conductors in the wireline connected to the transformer's terminals. For the signals from the other sensors, the telemetry unit derives analog carrier signals from their signals and transmits the analog carrier signals to the surface acquisition equipment using remaining conductors of the wireline.
US08134472B2
Methods and systems for monitoring a component of an electrical device and/or a brush of a brush holder assembly are provided. One method includes receiving data from a plurality of remote monitoring locations at a central control unit, where the data may be evaluated in order to monitor states of brushes or other components of an electrical device at a plurality of remote electrical facilities. For example, multiple images of a component of an electrical device may be acquired. A comparison of the images, for example, a comparative imaging technique, such as pixel-by-pixel comparison or visual observation, may then be performed in order to evaluate a condition of the brush or other component, such as a threshold and/or anomalous condition of the brush or other component.
US08134464B2
An EAS/expulsion detrimental substance tag (101) in which the tag is held to an article by an attaching assembly, a part of which may be releasably prevented from being withdrawn from the body of the tag. The tag body may be provided with one or more sensors, that are disposed in the body. The sensors are positioned adjacent the detrimental substance. The Benefit Denial (Ink portion) of this tag may feature an ink vial. When the tag and its ink vial are attacked, the tag will expel the detrimental substance out and onto the article being protected.
US08134460B2
A relative positioning system and method has an adjoining pair of spaced apart receivers positioned proximal to an object causing a signal interference with a radio frequency signal detectable by each receiver of the adjoining pair. The radio frequency signal is associated with an emitter. Control electronics operatively couple the spaced apart receivers. The control electronics are configured to determine a direction of the emitter based on the signal interference. In an embodiment of the system and method the emitter is associated with an object of interest, the signal encodes information relating to the identity and status of the object, and information and heading of the object are cutaneously communicated to an operator by an article worn by the operator.
US08134458B2
A communication apparatus (1) for communicating over an electrical power cable (3). The communication apparatus (1) comprises a transmitter circuit (5) adapted to transmit a communication signal; and a receiver circuit (6) adapted to receive a communication signal from another communication apparatus (1). The communication apparatus (1) is adapted to transmit and receive communication signals over the power cable (3) both when said power cable (3) is conducting electricity and when said power cable (3) is not conducting electricity.
US08134454B2
The present invention supports the remote control of a controlled device. A hybrid device receives a control signal over an infrared communications channel or a wireless networking channel. The hybrid device can replace an IR receiver module in the controlled device in order to provide backward compatibility as well as provide universal operation with a wireless networking controller. The hybrid device processes a signal received over one of the communications channels. When a signal is received over the infrared communications channel, the processor converts the signal to an output code that is sent to a device controller. When a signal is received over the wireless networking communications channel, the processor converts the signal to a wireless command, converts the wireless command to an output code, and sends the output code to the device controller. All output codes are transparent for the two communications channels.
US08134453B2
An RF communications system including a controlled apparatus configured to receive a RF signal transmitted from a remote control transmitter on a channel that the controlled apparatus can receive, without providing a response signal to the remote control transmitter. The RF transmitting circuit unit of the remote control transmitter transmits RF signals on all of a number of selected transmission channels in a wireless frequency band, while the RF receiving circuit unit of the controlled apparatus stands by to receive an RF signal on a channel of the selected channels that has a relatively low electric field intensity.
US08134452B2
Methods and systems of receiving data payload of RFID tags. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are methods comprising selecting (by each of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags) a time window within which to transmit (the selecting to create respective time windows), sending a start signal from a RFID reader to the plurality of RFID tags (the start signal indicative of the start of a first time window), and transmitting a signal by each of the plurality of RFID tags in the respective time windows.
US08134450B2
Methods and systems that provide content to subscribers via wireless transmission by initiating a page that does not automatically provide associated content. The content provider conserves air time by not automatically transmitting the content. The information content may be of different types, such as voice, text, audio, or even video, and may be dynamic. In addition to the aforementioned, the content provider may provide to subscribers via wireless transmission songs or video clips or updates on weather or stock rates.
US08134433B2
Main coils, counteracting coils and correction coils, each forming superconducting coil, are enclosed in two cooling medium chamber facing to each other and an imaging region is formed between the two cooling medium chamber positioned in each vacuum chamber, the main coils being divided into two pieces to reduce the current density and the maximum experience magnetic filed and compression stress.
US08134421B2
A voltage control oscillator includes: first and second field effect transistors, a drain of one of which is connected to a gate of the other and a drain of the other of which is connected to a gate of the one; third and fourth field effect transistors, a drain of one of which is connected to a gate of the other and a drain of the other of which is connected to a gate of the one; a first inductor connected between the drain of the first field effect transistor and the drain of the second field effect transistor; a second inductor connected between the drain of the third field effect transistor and the drain of the fourth field effect transistor; a third inductor magnetically coupled to the first inductor; a fourth inductor magnetically coupled to the second inductor; a first capacitor that capacitively couples one end of the third inductor and one end of the fourth inductor; and a second capacitor that capacitively couples the other end of the third inductor and the other end of the fourth inductor.
US08134419B2
A high-frequency generator circuit comprises a signal generating circuit, a delay unit, a selector, a synthesizer circuit, and a controller. The signal generating circuit generates a signal having the same frequency as an output signal. The delay unit includes a plurality of delay circuits, and delays the signal generated by the signal generating circuit. The selector selects an output signal of the delay circuits. The synthesizer circuit synthesizes the signal selected by the selector, and outputs the output signal. The controller controls the selector based on data for setting a waveform of the output signal and a control signal for setting at least amplitude, phase and frequency of the output signal.
US08134417B2
A circuit and method for calibrating a VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) is disclosed. In one embodiment, a circuit includes a VCO and a bias control circuit coupled to a tail node of the VCO. An amplitude control unit may also be coupled to the tail node, wherein the amplitude control unit is configured to determine the amplitude of a VCO output signal based on a voltage present on the tail node. The amplitude control unit may also be configured to generate a bias voltage based on the amplitude of the VCO output signal and a target voltage. The bias control circuit may be coupled to receive the bias voltage from the amplitude control unit and may be further configured to adjust the voltage on the tail node based on the received bias voltage.
US08134416B2
A driving circuit of a surface wave resonator (X1) is described; the resonator comprises a static capacitor (Co) and the driving circuit is adapted to supply a voltage (Vx) to the resonator. The driving circuit comprises reactive means (L3) adapted to resonate in combination with said static capacitor (Co) of the resonator at a predetermined frequency (Fo) in the initial driving period of the resonator at said voltage; the driving circuit comprises passive means (R3) adapted to determine oscillations at said predetermined frequency (Fo).
US08134410B1
Transceivers with multiple gain stages that include open loop and closed loop amplifiers are subject to differential non-linearity (DNL) errors in their total gain versus gain index curve due to the gain step variability of the open loop amplifiers. The initial and time varying DNL can be reduced by a control loop that uses the relative gain step precision of the closed loop amplifiers and of passive attenuators to establish a control loop to reduce the DNL of the total gain.
US08134405B2
A semiconductor device includes a power-supply control portion and a latch portion. The power-supply control portion supplies power to an internal circuit in response to an input signal synchronized with rising of clock. The latch portion latches the input signal in synchronization with falling of the clock and supplies the latched input signal to the internal circuit.
US08134404B2
A semiconductor device, has a main transistor that is a first-conductivity-type MOS transistor and has the drain connected to a first potential; a first switch circuit that is connected between the source of said main transistor and a second potential; a dummy transistor that is a first-conductivity-type MOS transistor whose source serves also as the source of said main transistor; and a second switch circuit that is connected between the drain of said dummy transistor and said first potential or said second potential.
US08134399B2
A fast current generating element in a current generating unit, used by the present invention, provides a large current for accelerating the switching of transistor switches when the transistor switches are switched. The fast current generating element includes a capacitor to provide a large differential current when a voltage level transiently changes during the switching of the transistor switches. Therefore, a transient response time of a signal transformer is shortened.
US08134395B2
A digital latch circuit substantially reduces leakage current in output stages of edge-triggered digital switching devices. The circuit comprises first and second NAND gates for receiving first and second input signals and providing first and second output signals. The first NAND gate includes a first A input for receiving the first input signal, a first B input connected to a second NAND gate output, a first leakage current control input connected to a second A input of the second NAND gate, and a first NAND gate output for providing the first output signal. The second NAND gate includes the second A input for receiving the second input signal, a second B input connected to the first NAND gate output, a second leakage current control input connected to the first A input of the first NAND gate, and the second NAND gate output for providing the second output signal. The leakage current through the first NAND gate is substantially reduced based on application of the second input signal to the first leakage current control input. Similarly, the leakage current through the second NAND gate is substantially reduced based on application of the first input signal to the second leakage current control input. This circuit may comprise a set-reset latch in an output stage of an edge-triggered sequential switching device, such as a D flip-flop or a JK master-slave flip-flop.
US08134393B1
A frequency synthesizer that utilizes locked loop circuitry, for example delay locked loop and/or phase locked loop circuits is provided with a means for minimizing static phase/delay errors. An auto-tuning circuit and technique provide a measurement of static phase error by integrating the static phase error in the DLL/PLL circuit. A correction value is determined and applied as a current at the charge pump or as a time/phase offset at the phase detector to minimize static phase error. During normal operation the DLL/PLL is operated with the correction value resulting in substantially reduced spur levels and/or improved settling time.
US08134390B2
An integrated circuit (IC) type voltage signal converter is provided for integrating with other ICs. The signal converter includes a first chopper circuit module, a second chopper circuit module, a full wave combining module, and a zero point detecting circuit module. Each of the circuit modules may be formed by an IC module. The first and second chopper circuit modules are composed of differential operational amplifiers for converting a high voltage signal into first and second low voltage half wave signals. The full wave combining module combines the first and second low voltage half wave signals to obtain a full wave signal. The zero point detecting circuit module converts the first and second low voltage half wave signals into a square wave having the same frequency of the high voltage signal.
US08134385B2
Current-mode transmission is implemented in a cascode amplifier by splitting a cascode circuit into a front end and a back end to ensure wideband current-mode transmission of an audio signal. A transmission cable is located between the high impedance output of the first end and the low impedance input of the back end. The front end includes a first amplifying device, and the back end includes a second amplifying device. The front end is phantom powered by the back end using the same electrical conductors that carry the current-mode signal over the transmission cable.
US08134379B2
A probe wafer electrically connected to a semiconductor wafer on which a plurality of semiconductor chips are formed includes: a wafer substrate for pitch conversion including a wafer connection surface and an apparatus connection surface opposing the wafer connection surface; a plurality of wafer connection terminals formed on the wafer connection surface of the wafer substrate for pitch conversion, at least one wafer connection terminal provided for each of the semiconductor chips and electrically connected to an input/output terminal of the corresponding semiconductor chip; a plurality of apparatus connection terminals formed on the apparatus connection surface of the wafer substrate in one-to-one relation with the plurality of wafer connection terminals at an interval different from an interval of the wafer connection terminals, to be electrically connected to an external apparatus; and a plurality of transfer paths, each electrically connecting a corresponding wafer connection terminal to an apparatus connection terminal.
US08134370B2
A semiconductor device controls an electrostatic actuator having first and second electrodes. A voltage generation unit generates different types of voltages applied to the first and second electrodes. A control unit controls voltages generated by the voltage generation unit to be applied to the first and second electrodes. A capacitance detection unit detects a voltage of the first or second electrode to detect a capacitance between the first and second electrodes. The control unit applies a first voltage between the first and second electrodes and then a second voltage smaller than the first voltage between the first and second electrodes. Thereafter, the control unit switches one of the first electrode or the second electrode to a high impedance state and then changes a voltage applied to the other. The capacitance detection unit detects the amount of change in voltage of the first or second electrode to detect a capacitance between the first and second electrodes.
US08134369B2
A method of testing the electric field recording of a marine electromagnetic sensor cable including electrodes is provided. The method includes causing current to flow between a pair of first electrodes disposed along the marine electromagnetic sensor cable. The flow of current generates a voltage that is impressed on a pair of second electrodes disposed along the marine electromagnetic sensor cable. A potential difference between the pair of second electrodes is measured. Accuracy of the electric field recording is inferred from the measured potential difference.
US08134356B2
In one embodiment, an integrated circuit comprises at least one measurement unit configured to generate an output indicative of a supply voltage at which the integrated circuit is operable for a given operating frequency and a control unit coupled to receive the output. The control unit is configured to generate a voltage control output indicative of a requested supply voltage for the integrated circuit responsive to the output. The voltage control output may be output from the integrated circuit for use by circuitry external to the integrated circuit in generating the supply voltage for the integrated circuit.
US08134352B2
A switched mode power supply assembly (1) is described, comprising at least two switched mode power supply units (10i) coupled to each other in parallel; each power supply unit (10i) having an output stage (50i, 60i) capable of selectively operating in a first mode wherein its output signal (IOUT,I) is increasing and operating in a second mode wherein its output signal (IOUT,i) is decreasing; a control device (100) receiving mode switch control signals from all power supply units (10i); wherein the control device (100), if it finds that the actual phase relationship between two power supply units deviates from an optimal phase relationship, is designed to generate synchronising control signals for at least one power supply unit (102), effectively changing the timing of at least one mode switch moment, such that the deviation between the actual phase relationship and said optimal phase relationship is reduced.
US08134350B2
A device for precharging a voltage converter is provided with a precharging unit, capable of assuming a closed state, as well as with a control unit for the precharging unit, the precharging unit being capable of operating according to a precharging state limiting the value of the precharging current passing through it, the control unit being capable of commanding the operation of the precharging unit according to the precharging state and, once the precharging has been completed, of commanding the precharging unit to change over from the precharging state to the closed state. The assembly has a chopping voltage converter and such a device disposed at the input of the converter. The aircraft is equipped with such a device or with such an assembly.
US08134337B2
An electric storage device is disclosed, this device can balance voltages across each one of energy storage devices with each other in a short time even if the voltages disperse in a wide range, and also it can reduce needless power consumption. This device includes the energy storage devices and an equalizing voltage circuit coupled in parallel with the energy storage devices. The equalizing voltage circuit includes a balancing resistor, a balancing switch coupled between respective energy storage devices and respective balancing resistors, a discharging resistor coupled in parallel with the respective energy storage devices and having a smaller resistance value than the balancing resistor, and a discharging switch coupled between the respective energy storage devices and the respective discharging resistors. All the balancing switches and all the discharging switches are turned on during the charge to the energy storage devices, and after the voltages across the respective energy storage devices can be balanced with each other, all the discharging switches alone are turned off.
US08134324B2
A parallel mechanism includes a base portion, a bracket to which an end effecter is attached, a plurality of actuators attached to the base portion, a plurality of arms through which the plurality of actuators and the bracket are coupled together in parallel, and a control device arranged to control the actuators. When the end effecter in a stopped state is moved to a target position, the control device is arranged to control the actuators so that a level of acceleration at which the end effecter is accelerated is higher than a level of deceleration at which the end effecter is decelerated.
US08134322B2
In an automatic transmission position control by a motor, it is determined whether the present instant belongs to a starting period, that is, the present instant is immediately after resetting of a control unit or application of power to it. If it is the starting period, an actual shift position that is detected from an output of an output shaft sensor for detecting a rotation position of a motor is set as an instructed shift position. With this measure, even if the control unit is reset for a certain reason while the vehicle is running, the instructed shift position is not changed in association with the resetting. This prevents trouble that the shift position is switched contrary to the intention of the driver, whereby the reliability of a position switching control can be increased.
US08134313B2
Disclosed is a device for moving and/or opening and closing at least one drawer, flap, door, or similar. The device comprises at least one-drive unit (9) that is effectively connected to the drawer, flap, door, or similar, at least one control and regulation unit (1) for the at least one drive unit (9), and at least one sensor unit (2) for detecting the direction of rotation and/or the number of rotations of the drive shaft of the drive unit (9), the number and/or the direction of rotation being fed to the control and regulation unit (1). A timer (5) is provided that starts a given interval when rotations of the drive shaft are detected which are not generated by the drive unit (9) while at least one comparing unit (3,4) is provided in which a lower threshold value can be stored for the rotations or partial rotations of the drive shaft detected by the sensor unit (2) within the given interval. The drive unit (9) can be activated so as to open or close the at least one drawer, flap, door, or similar when the lower threshold is exceeded.
US08134310B2
Disclosed is a lighting system supporting multiple independently controlled zones utilizing a plurality of semiconductor switches coupled to a plurality of transformers to produce a non-sinusoidal power output and controlled by a digital controller that receives feedback from each zone in order to auto-sense the proper voltage for a plurality of connected loads.
US08134307B2
Method for controlling the settings of each of a multitude of spotlights, such as light intensity, color and light beam direction, wherein a remote control is used for sending control signals to a control system comprising a multitude of control units for changing the settings of said multitude of spotlights to desired values, which control units are each associated with one of said multitude of spotlights, wherein said control units can change the settings of their associated spotlights to the desired values, wherein each of said multitude of spotlights is radiating a unique light signal which is superimposed on its light beam, wherein the remote control comprises a sensor for determining said unique light signal, wherein the remote control sends with said control signal a spotlight identifying signal associated with the determined unique light signal as determined at the time that the remote control is used, and wherein the control unit associated with said spotlight identifying signal reacts to the combined spotlight identifying signal and control signal by changing its associated spotlight's settings to the desired values.
US08134284B2
Piezoelectric vibrating pieces are disclosed. An exemplary piece includes a base and at least a pair of vibrating arms connected to the base. The vibrating arms extend from one end of the base in a first direction. A vibrating root portion is situated between the vibrating arms. A pair of supporting arms extend, outboard of the vibrating arms, in the first direction from the one end of the base. Respective supporting root portions are situated between each vibrating arm and its outboard supporting arm, at the same position (denoted, e.g., K1, K2) in the first direction of the vibrating root portion.
US08134267B2
The present invention relates to a motor. A motor including a stator and a rotor that is rotatably provided at an outer side in a radial direction of the stator, the rotor comprising: a base part; a side wall part that is integrally formed with the base part and vertically extended with respect to the base part; and a permanent magnet that is provided at an inner side of the side wall part, wherein a spacing distance from an inner side surface of the base part to a lower end of the permanent magnet is formed to be larger than a radial thickness of the permanent magnet.
US08134264B2
Disclosed is a large capacity hollow-type flywheel energy storage device. The energy storage device includes a hollow shaft, a vacuum chamber receiving the hollow shaft, a flywheel having a predetermined weight and disposed at an inner edge of the vacuum chamber, and a hub connecting the flywheel to the hollow shaft and disposed in the vacuum chamber to be rotatable together with the flywheel. A superconductive bearing and an electromagnet bearing are disposed inside and outside the hollow shaft, respectively, such that magnetic forces thereof can be shielded from each other. Thus, magnetic interference between the superconductive bearing and the electromagnet bearing is shielded by the magnet shield interposed therebetween, thereby preventing rotation loss by stabilizing a structural mechanism during rotation while improving design adaptability.
US08134260B2
A motor including a frame that defines a motor portion and an adjacent cooling portion, and a plurality of heat pipes disposed within and fully enclosed by the motor frame. Each heat pipe has an evaporator end disposed within the portion of the frame that defines the motor portion and a condenser end disposed within the portion of the frame that defines the cooling portion. A cooling chamber within the motor cooling portion is structured to have a fluid introduced therein by a working device such that at least a portion of the frame defining the cooling portion is cooled via the working fluid, thereby extracting heat from the heat pipe condenser ends and cooling the motor portion of the motor.
US08134257B2
An actuator is configured to produce a displacement force between a first and a second part to displace the first and second parts relative to each other. The Actuator includes a first magnet subassembly, attached to one of a first and a second part, and an electrically conductive element, attached to the other one of the first and second part and placed near the first magnet subassembly. The first magnet subassembly includes at least one set of at least two adjacently placed magnets oriented such that their magnetic polarizations are substantially mutually opposite, and a back mass made out of a magnetic flux guiding material and connecting the magnets to guide a magnetic flux there between. The first magnet subassembly includes a carrier made of a non-magnetic-flux-guiding material, the carrier including at least one recess in which the at least one set of back mass and magnets is embedded.
US08134254B2
An electrical power distribution system has fixed stations with AC power to DC power conversion circuitry at these stations. The converter(s) are switchable ON/OFF at outlet ports or sockets where the socket configuration permits. Standardized DC sockets accommodate a variety of voltage requirements typical of portable digital devices. In some embodiments feedback circuitry is provided to regulate the power to these devices in accordance with parameters programmed in the portable devices or in the sensing circuitry provided at each station.
US08134253B2
A load driving circuit (20) according to the present invention, for carrying out PWM control to cause currents of respective light emitting diode lines (3-1 . . . 3-N) connected in parallel, each of the light emitting diode lines (3-1 . . . 3-N) including a plurality of light emitting diodes (4) connected in series, causes timing at which a current of any one of the light emitting diode lines (3-1 . . . 3-N) is turned on or off to be different from timing at which current(s) of at least another one of the light emitting diode lines (3-1 . . . 3-N) is(are) turned on or off. This makes it possible to provide a load driving circuit which (i) does not have a reduction in a degree of freedom in selecting a frequency of a PWM control signal that is used to control loads, (ii) does not prevent a peripheral circuit from following the PWM control circuit, and (iii) prevents generation of sounds.
US08134246B1
A power generation system utilizes a wind driven turbine to energize a pair of generator disposed on opposing ends of drive shaft having helical propeller fin attached thereto. The units may be installed on the roof a structure in parapet fashion and stacked to increase power output. Furthermore, the wind driven turbine could be incorporated into a ram air drive to recharge the battery of an electric or hybrid vehicle.
US08134241B2
Electronic elements having an active device region and bonding pad (BP) region on a common substrate desirably include a dielectric region underlying the BP to reduce the parasitic impedance of the BP and its interconnection as the electronic elements are scaled to higher power and/or operating frequency. Mechanical stress created by plain (e.g., oxide only) dielectric regions can adversely affect performance, manufacturing yield, pad-to-device proximity and occupied area. This can be avoided by providing a composite dielectric region having electrically isolated inclusions of a thermal expansion coefficient (TEC) less than that of the dielectric material in which they are embedded and/or closer to the substrate TEC. For silicon substrates, poly or amorphous silicon is suitable for the inclusions and silicon oxide for the dielectric material. The inclusions preferably have a blade-like shape separated by and enclosed within the dielectric material.
US08134240B2
To provide a small, high-performance semiconductor device in which contact between adjacent wires is prevented for increased flexibility in designing a wiring layout, and an efficient method for manufacturing the semiconductor device. The semiconductor device includes a substrate 10 having an electrode 21A arranged on its surface; and a first semiconductor element 11A which includes an electrode 22 arranged on its surface and which is supported by the substrate 10, wherein a first wire 41 is connected through a first bump 31 to at least one of the electrodes over the substrate 10 and semiconductor element 11A (i.e., at least one of the electrodes 21 and 22), and a second wire 42 is connected through a second bump 32 to a bonding portion of the wire 41.
US08134237B2
An integrated type semiconductor device that is capable of reducing cost or improving the reliability of connecting semiconductor chips together or chips to a circuit board. One embodiment of such an integrated type semiconductor device comprises a first semiconductor device having a semiconductor chip with electrodes, a stress-relieving layer prepared on the semiconductor chip, a wire formed across the electrodes and the stress-relieving layer, and solder balls formed on the wire over the stress-relieving layer; and a bare chip as a second semiconductor device to be electrically connected to the first semiconductor device.
US08134232B2
A packaged integrated circuit having a thermal pathway to exhaust heat from the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit is disposed on a package substrate, with an encapsulant disposed around the integrated circuit. A heat sink is disposed at least partially within the encapsulant, with at least a portion of one surface of the heat sink exposed outside of the encapsulant. The integrated circuit has an uppermost passivation layer, where the passivation layer is not electrically conductive, with a port disposed in the passivation layer. The port extends completely through the passivation layer to expose an underlying layer. A thermal pathway is disposed at least partially within the port, and makes thermal contact to both the underlying layer and the heat sink. The thermal transfer rate of the thermal pathway is greater than the thermal transfer rate either the passivation layer or the encapsulant.
US08134224B2
A semiconductor device receiving as input a radio frequency signal having a frequency of 500 MHz or more and a power of 20 dBm or more is provided. The semiconductor device includes: a silicon substrate; a silicon oxide film formed on the silicon substrate; a radio frequency interconnect provided on the silicon oxide film and passing the radio frequency signal; a fixed potential interconnect provided on the silicon oxide film and placed at a fixed potential; and an acceptor-doped layer. The acceptor-doped layer is formed in a region of the silicon substrate. The region is in contact with the silicon oxide film. The acceptor-doped layer is doped with acceptors.
US08134220B2
Nanotube switching devices having nanotube bridges are disclosed. Two-terminal nanotube switches include conductive terminals extending up from a substrate and defining a void in the substrate. Nantoube articles are suspended over the void or form a bottom surface of a void. The nanotube articles are arranged to permanently contact at least a portion of the conductive terminals. An electrical stimulus circuit in communication with the conductive terminals is used to generate and apply selected waveforms to induce a change in resistance of the device between relatively high and low resistance values. Relatively high and relatively low resistance values correspond to states of the device. A single conductive terminal and a interconnect line may be used. The nanotube article may comprise a patterned region of nanotube fabric, having an active region with a relatively high or relatively low resistance value. Methods of making each device are disclosed.
US08134218B2
A solid-state image capturing device is provided, and in a pixel section in the center of a chip where a plurality of light receiving elements are arranged in two dimensions, an on-chip lens for focusing incident light is provided on each of the plurality of light receiving elements in a corresponding manner; and a dummy pattern made of a material for the on-chip lens is provided on a peripheral circuit section on an outer circumference side of the chip in order to improve the heat-resisting property at the time of reflow soldering.
US08134207B2
In a high breakdown voltage semiconductor element among elements integrated together on an SOI substrate in which its rated voltage is shared between an embedded oxide layer and a drain region formed by an element active layer, both high integration and high breakdown voltage are realized while also securing suitability for practical implementation and practical use. The high breakdown voltage is realized without hampering size reduction of the element by forming an electrically floating layer of a conductivity type opposite to that of the drain region at the surface of the drain region. Further, the thickness of the embedded oxide layer is reduced to a level suitable for the practical implementation and practical use by setting the thickness of the element active layer of the SOI substrate at 30 μm or more.
US08134190B2
To provide a solid-state image pickup apparatus with little or no difference in the dark currents between adjacent photoelectric conversion elements and providing a high sensitivity and a low dark current even in a high-speed readout operation.A well 302 is formed on a wafer 301, and semiconductor layers 101a, 101b are formed in the well to constitute photodiodes. A well contact 306 is formed between the semiconductor layers 101a, 101b. Element isolation regions 303b, 303a are provided between the well contact and the semiconductor layers, and channel stop layers 307b, 307a are provided under the element isolation regions 303b, 303a. A conductive layer 304 is provided on the element isolation region 303b, and a side wall 308 is provided on a side face of the conductive layer 304. A distance a between an end of the element isolation region 303b and the conductive layer 304, a width b of the side wall 308 and a device isolation width c satisfy a relation c>a≧b.
US08134189B2
Aimed at providing a highly reliable semiconductor device appropriately increased in stress at the channel region so as to improve carrier injection rate, thereby dramatically improved in transistor characteristics, and made adaptable also to recent narrower channel width, and a method of manufacturing the same, and a method of manufacturing the same, a first sidewall composed of a stress film having expandability is formed on the side faces of a gate electrode, a second sidewall composed of a film having smaller stress is formed on the first sidewall, and a semiconductor, which is a SiC layer for example, is formed as being positioned apart from the first sidewall while placing the second sidewall in between.
US08134187B2
Integrated mask-programmable device, having a plurality of metal levels including a top metal level, a bottom metal level and a first intermediate metal level formed between the top and bottom metal levels, and a plurality of via levels arranged between the bottom and the first intermediate metal levels and between the first intermediate and the top metal levels and connecting each metal level to adjacent metal levels. The plurality of metal levels forms a first, a second and at least a third terminal, the top and bottom metal levels having at least two metal regions, and the first intermediate metal level having at least three metal regions. The first terminal is connected to third terminal or the second terminal is connected to the third terminal by modifying a single metal or via level.
US08134184B2
A layout of a cell of a semiconductor device is disclosed to include a diffusion level layout including a plurality of diffusion region layout shapes, including a p-type and an n-type diffusion region separated by a central inactive region. The layout of the cell includes a gate electrode level layout corresponding to an entire gate level of the cell. The gate electrode layout includes a number of linear-shaped layout features placed to extend in only a first parallel direction. Each of the number of the linear-shaped layout features within the gate electrode level layout of the restricted layout region is rectangular-shaped. Linear-shaped layout features within the gate electrode level layout extend over one or more of the p-type and/or n-type diffusion regions to form PMOS and NMOS transistor devices. A number of the PMOS transistor devices is equal to a number of the NMOS transistor devices in the cell.
US08134182B2
A field-effect transistor includes a semi-insulating substrate, a source electrode, a drain electrode, a gate electrode, the electrodes being provided on the semi-insulating substrate, and a buried gate region which is provided under the gate electrode and in which an impurity is doped, wherein a concave slit is provided in the semi-insulating substrate, the slit being located between the gate electrode and the drain electrode and being adjacent to the buried gate region at the side of the drain electrode.
US08134180B2
A nitride semiconductor device includes: a semiconductor base layer made of a conductive group III nitride semiconductor having a principal plane defined by a nonpolar plane or a semipolar plane; an insulating layer formed on the principal plane of the semiconductor base layer with an aperture partially exposing the principal plane; a nitride semiconductor multilayer structure portion, formed on a region extending onto the insulating layer from the aperture, having a parallel surface parallel to the principal plane of the semiconductor base layer as well as a +c-axis side first inclined surface and a −c-axis side second inclined surface inclined with respect to the principal plane of the semiconductor base layer and including two types of group III nitride semiconductor layers at least having different lattice constants; a gate electrode formed to be opposed to the second inclined surface; a source electrode arranged to be electrically connected with the group III nitride semiconductor layers; and a drain electrode formed on a back surface of the semiconductor base layer opposite to the principal plane.
US08134178B2
According to an aspect of the invention, a light-emitting element includes a shift thyristor, a light emitting thyristor, and a vertical type gate load resistor. The shift thyristor includes a first anode layer, a first gate layer, and a first cathode layer. The light-emitting thyristor includes a second anode layer, a second gate layer, and a second cathode layer. The vertical type gate load resistor is arranged on the first gate layer under a power line and limits a current flowing from the first gate layer and the second gate layer to the power line.
US08134165B2
Disclosed is a light emitting device employing non-stoichiometric tetragonal Alkaline Earth Silicate phosphors. The light emitting device comprises a light emitting diode emitting light of ultraviolet or visible light, and non-stoichiometric luminescent material disposed around the light emitting diode. The luminescent material adsorbs at least a portion of the light emitted from the light emitting diode and emits light having a different wavelength from the absorbed light. The non-stoichiometric luminescent material has tetragonal crystal structure, and contains more silicon in the crystal lattice than that in the crystal lattice of silicate phosphors having stoichiometric crystal structure. The luminescent material is represented as the formula (BauSrvCawCux)3−y(Zn,Mg,Mn)zSi1+bO5+2b:Eua. Light emitting devices having improved temperature and humidity stability can be provided by employing the non-stoichiometric tetragonal Alkaline Earth Silicate phosphors.
US08134164B2
A semiconductor device and an optical print head, an image forming apparatus that has the semiconductor device are supplied capable of reduce occurrence probability of defect. The semiconductor device is formed by using semiconductor thin film bonded on the substrate, and includes a covering layer that covers at least one part region of the semiconductor thin film and covers at least one part of electroconductive member connecting with the semiconductor thin film.
US08134161B2
A semiconductor light emitting package includes a base having a top surface with a flat portion, the base shaped into a substantially circle; a plurality of semiconductor light emitting devices on the base; an electrical circuit layer electrically connected to the plurality of semiconductor light emitting device; a plurality of screen members on the base; and a plurality of optical members formed of a light transmissive material such that light emitted from at least one of the semiconductor light emitting devices passes therethrough, wherein each of the screen members has an opening surrounding at least one of the semiconductor light emitting device, each opening of the screen members is shaped into a substantially circle, a diameter of the base is larger than a diameter of the opening of the screen members, and an edge portion of the optical members is in contact with one of the screen members.
US08134158B2
A thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) pixel unit and a method for manufacturing the same. The pixel unit comprises a gate line and a gate electrode formed on a substrate and a first gate insulating layer, an active layer, and a doped layer sequentially that are formed on the gate line and the gate electrode. An intercepting trench is formed on the gate line to cut off the doped layer and the active layer on the gate line. A second insulating layer covers the intercepting trench and the substrate where the gate line and the gate electrode are not formed. A pixel electrode is formed on the second insulating layer and is integrated with the second source/drain electrode.
US08134156B2
To provide a semiconductor device in which a defect or fault is not generated and a manufacturing method thereof even if a ZnO semiconductor film is used and a ZnO film to which an n-type or p-type impurity is added is used for a source electrode and a drain electrode. The semiconductor device includes a gate insulating film formed by using a silicon oxide film or a silicon oxynitride film over a gate electrode, an Al film or an Al alloy film over the gate insulating film, a ZnO film to which an n-type or p-type impurity is added over the Al film or the Al alloy film, and a ZnO semiconductor film over the ZnO film to which an n-type or p-type impurity is added and the gate insulating film.
US08134153B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor device capable of preventing deterioration due to penetration of moisture or oxygen, for example, a light-emitting apparatus having an organic light-emitting device that is formed over a plastic substrate, and a liquid crystal display apparatus using a plastic substrate. According to the present invention, devices formed on a glass substrate or a quartz substrate (a TFT, a light-emitting device having an organic compound, a liquid crystal device, a memory device, a thin-film diode, a pin-junction silicon photoelectric converter, a silicon resistance element, or the like) are separated from the substrate, and transferred to a plastic substrate having high thermal conductivity.
US08134149B2
The present invention has an object of providing a light emitting device including an OLED formed on a plastic substrate, which can prevent the degradation due to penetration of moisture or oxygen. On a plastic substrate, a plurality of films for preventing oxygen or moisture from penetrating into an organic light emitting layer in the OLED (hereinafter, referred to as barrier films) and a film having a smaller stress than that of the barrier films (hereinafter, referred to as a stress relaxing film), the film being interposed between the barrier films, are provided. Owing to a laminate structure of a plurality of barrier films, even if a crack occurs in one of the barrier films, the other barrier film(s) can effectively prevent moisture or oxygen from penetrating into the organic light emitting layer. Moreover, the stress relaxing film, which has a smaller stress than that of the barrier films, is interposed between the barrier films, thereby making it possible to reduce a stress of the entire sealing film. As a result, a crack due to stress hardly occurs.
US08134142B2
The invention suggests a transistor (21) comprising a source (24) and a drain (29) as well as a barrier region (27) located between the source and the drain. The barrier region is separated from the source and the drain by intrinsic or lowly doped regions (26, 28) of a semiconductor material. Potential barriers are formed at the interfaces of the barrier region and the intrinsic or lowly doped regions. A gate electrode (32) is provided in the vicinity of the potential barriers such that the effective height and/or width of the potential barriers can be modulated by applying an appropriate voltage to the gate electrode.
US08134137B2
Memory device constructions include a first column line extending parallel to a second column line, the first column line being above the second column line; a row line above the second column line and extending perpendicular to the first column line and the second column line; memory material disposed to be selectively and reversibly configured in one of two or more different resistive states; a first diode configured to conduct a first current between the first column line and the row line via the memory material; and a second diode configured to conduct a second current between the second column line and the row line via the memory material. In some embodiments, the first diode is a Schottky diode having a semiconductor anode and a metal cathode and the second diode is a Schottky diode having a metal anode and a semiconductor cathode.
US08134134B2
In a particle attachment preventing method in a substrate processing apparatus, an electron density control power supplied from the second power supply is adjusted such that an electron density above the substrate gets lower than during a plasma processing, for a preset short period of time after the plasma processing is ended, and a bias power supplied from the first power is maintained for the preset short period of time. The second power supply is a high frequency power supply for supplying a high frequency power having a frequency that is higher than that of the bias power, and in said adjusting of the electron density control power, the high frequency power supplied from the second power supply is lowered as compared with that during the plasma processing.
US08134115B2
An apparatus includes an array of sub-diffraction limit-sized light receptors formed in a substrate having a light receiving surface. Each light receptor may be configured to output a scalar valued multi-bit element and to change state based on the absorption of at least one photon. The apparatus further includes an optical filter structure disposed over the light receiving surface, the optical filter structure having an array of filter pixels each having an associated passband spectral characteristic. A data element obtained from the array of sub-diffraction limit-sized light receptors is composed of a combination of a plurality of the multi-bit elements output from a plurality of light receptors that underlie filter pixels having at least two different passband spectral characteristics.
US08134112B2
An insulated glazing unit has controllable radiation transmittance. Peripheries of first and second glazing panes are attached and spaced apart facing each other and then attached to a supporting structure. A conductive layer is atop the first glazing pane inner surface as a fixed position electrode. A dielectric is atop the conductive layer. A coiled spiral roll, variable position electrode is between the first and second glazing panes, a width of its outer edge attached to the dielectric. A first electrical lead is connected to the variable position electrode's conductive layer. A second electrical lead is connected to the conductive layer atop the first glazing pane. Applied voltage between the first and second electrical leads creates a predetermined potential difference between the electrodes, and the variable position electrode unwinds and rolls out to at least partially cover the first glazing pane, at least reducing the intensity of passing radiation.
US08134108B2
An image intensifying device includes a lens that is positioned at a light input that forms an image of a scene. The image intensifying device also includes an image intensifier tube that includes a photocathode that is positioned to receive the image formed by the lens. The photocathode generates photoelectrons in response to the light image of the scene. The image intensifier tube also includes a microchannel plate having an input surface comprising the photocathode. The microchannel plate receives the photoelectrons generated by the photocathode and generating secondary electrons. An electron detector receives the secondary electrons generated by the microchannel plate and generates an intensified image of the scene.
US08134107B2
A projection display apparatus of the present invention includes: a lamp power controller 13 changing the value of power supplied to super-high pressure mercury lamp 21; atmospheric pressure sensor 61 detecting the atmospheric pressure around where projection display apparatus 1 is installed; and correlation table storage 53 in which information on power supplied to the light source, set up corresponding to atmospheric pressure is stored. Lamp power controller 13, based on the previously stored information on power supplied to super-high pressure mercury lamp 21, set up corresponding to the atmospheric pressure, controls the power supplied to super-high pressure mercury lamp 21 in accordance with the atmospheric pressure detected by atmospheric pressure sensor 61.
US08134105B2
A light quantity measuring device includes a first light reception element, a second light, reception element, an identification circuit, and a selection circuit. The first light reception element receives a predetermined incident light at a first light reception surface. The second light reception element receives the incident light at a second light reception surface, which is oriented in the same direction as the first light reception surface. The identification circuit identifies an incident angle of the incident light with respect to the first light reception surface. The selection circuit, when the incident angle differs from a desired incident angle, selectively electrically connects an output portion of the second light reception element to an output portion of the first light reception element.
US08134104B2
Concentrating solar collector systems that utilize a concentrating reflector to direct incident solar radiation to a solar receiver are described. In one aspect, the reflective surface is arranged to direct light to the receiver in a non-imaging manner in which the solar rays reflected from the opposing edges of the reflective surface are generally directed towards a central portion of the solar receiver. Rays reflected from selected central portions of the reflective surface are directed closer to the edges of the receiver than the solar rays reflected from the edges of the reflective surface. The described reflectors are generally intended for use in solar collector systems that track movements of the sun along at least one axis.
US08134094B2
A thin-type keycap structure comprising a key cap layer and a plastic film on the upper surface of the key cap layer. The thin-type keycap structure and the metal dome on a PCB are assembled to form a keypad structure. The thin-type keycap structure is made through compression molding of the plastic film and a resin together. The surface of the plastic film may be embossed before the compression molding.
US08134085B2
A CFRP core including a CFRP layer has a primary through hole. An adhesive member coats a wall surface of the primary through hole, and has a secondary through hole extending within the primary through hole. An electrically conductive layer is formed on a wall surface of the secondary through hole for electrically connecting upper and lower signal interconnections via the secondary through hole. A coating layer coats an outer peripheral edge of the CFRP core as seen in a plan view. Thereby, a printed interconnection board with low thermal expansivity and high thermal conductivity capable of preventing exfoliation of a CFRP layer on a side surface of a substrate using CFRP as a core, as well as preventing falling-off of carbon powders from the CFRP layer, and a method of manufacturing the same can be obtained.
US08134080B2
A wired circuit board that can provide an enhanced adhesion of a metal supporting board at a marginal portion of an opening formed in the metal supporting board with a simple structure to prevent stripping of the metal supporting board. In a suspension board with circuit, in order to reduce a transmission loss of a conductive pattern, a metal foil embedded in an insulating base layer is formed in a pattern comprising a first metal foil portion and a second metal foil portion surrounding the first metal foil portion spaced apart therefrom, and an opening is formed in the metal supporting board so that a marginal portion of the opening is located in a space between the first metal foil portion and the second metal foil portion.
US08134077B2
Disclosed is a heat dissipating circuit board, which includes a metal core including an insulating layer formed on the surface thereof, a circuit layer formed on the insulating layer and including a seed layer and a first circuit pattern, and a heat dissipating frame layer bonded onto the circuit layer using solder and having a second circuit pattern, and in which the heat dissipating frame layer is bonded onto the circuit layer not by a plating process but by using solder, thus reducing the cost and time of the plating process and relieving stress applied to the heat dissipating circuit board due to the plating process. A method of manufacturing the heat dissipating circuit board is also provided.
US08134074B2
A securing device for retaining a power cord in a connected relationship with the power supply includes a substantially planar body having a first end and a second end. The first end is configured to engage the power supply. The second end is configured to engage the power cord. The body is made from a substantially rigid material.
US08134065B2
A device for accurately detecting key operation speed with a simple configuration in which a plurality of alternating signals, which have mutually differing phases, is supplied to transmission electrodes. From this, capacitance between reception electrodes and the transmission electrodes is changed by a key pressing operation, and the phases of the alternating signals induced in the reception electrodes are compared and discriminated.
US08134061B2
Provided are, among other things, systems, methods and techniques for avatars to musically interact with each other. In one representative embodiment, a server is configured to host a virtual environment and various client devices communicate with the server over an electronic network, with each such client device configured to interact within the virtual environment through a corresponding avatar. A first client device accepts commands from a first user and, in response, communicates corresponding information to the server causing a modification of any of a first set of user-customizable visual characteristics of a first avatar that represents the first user. Similarly, a second client device accepts commands from a second user and, in response, communicates corresponding information to the server causing a modification of any of a second set of user-customizable visual characteristics of a second avatar that represents the second user. The first avatar performs a musical sequence that is based on current settings for: the first set of user-customizable visual characteristics and the second set of user-customizable visual characteristics.
US08134047B2
Maize plants with reduced gene silencing are disclosed.
US08134045B2
The object of the present invention is to isolate Rf gene, particularly Rf1 gene derived from radish, and identify its structure. The present invention provides a protein involved in restoration of a cytoplasmic male sterile individual to fertility which has 14 or more pentatricopeptide repeat (hereafter may be abbreviated to PPR) motifs, wherein a group of the motifs is divided into 3 or more blocks, each of the individual blocks has at least 2 or more PPR motifs, and the block in a carboxyl terminal (C terminal) side has 4 PPR motifs.
US08134035B2
Provided is a method of preparing asymmetric anthracene derivative, more particularly, a method for high-yield production of an anthracene derivative in which an alkyl group, a cycloalkyl group, a heterocycloalkyl group, an aryl group or a heteroaryl group is introduced at position 2 of anthracene, and an aryl group or a heteroaryl group is introduced at each of positions 9 and 10 of the anthracene.
US08134034B2
The present invention relates to a method of working up an aluminium-containing reaction product from the production of isopulegol by cyclization of citronellal in the presence of complex compounds, comprising at least one ligand of the formula (I), where Ar1, Ar2, Ar3, Ar4 are chosen from C6-C15-aryl or C2-C15-hetero; R1, R2, R3, R4 are chosen from H, C1-C6-alkyl, C1-C6-perfluoroalkyl, C1-C6-alkoxy, C7-C12-aralkyl, halogen, SiR5bR6bR7b, C6-C10-aryl, NR8bR9b, SR10b, NO2; and where R1 or R2 and/or R3 or R4, together with A, can form an aromatic or nonaromatic cycle; etc.; in which a) the aluminum-containing reaction product is subjected to distillative separation, b) the isopulegol-depleted bottom product is brought into close contact with an aqueous base and c) the ligand of the formula (I) is separated off from the organic phase, preferably by crystallization. Moreover, the invention relates to a method of producing isopulegol, and to a method of producing menthol.
US08134033B2
To provide a novel polymerizable fluorocompound having a highly fluorinated norbornane structure, and a polymer obtained from the compound. Further, their production processes and a novel intermediate useful for the processes.A novel compound (1) such as a compound (11) or a compound (12), and its polymer. A compound (2) such as a compound (21) or (22), and a compound (3) such as a compound (31) or (32M), which are useful as an intermediate for the production of the compound (1), and its production process. However, each of ZA to ZE represents such as —CH(—OC(O)C(CH3)═CH2)— or —CF2, Each of WA and WB represents such as F, each of YA to YE represents such as —CH(—OH)— or —CF(CH2OH), and each of XA to XE represents such as —C(O)— or —CF2—.
US08134030B2
A process for preparing a primary amine with a tertiary alpha-carbon atom by reacting a tertiary alcohol with ammonia in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst, by performing the reaction in the presence of a non-microporous, non-zeolitic aluminosilicate as a catalyst, where the aluminosilicate has a molar Al/Si ratio in the range from 0.1 to 30.
US08134023B2
Materials and methods for preparing (S)-(+)-3-aminomethyl-5-methyl-hexanoic acid and structurally related compounds via enzymatic kinetic resolution are disclosed.
US08134022B2
The present invention relates to a polyether carbonate polyol made by copolymerizing a starter molecule with carbon dioxide, at a pressure ranging from about 10 psia to about 2,000 psia, and an alkylene oxide, at a temperature ranging from about 50° C. to about 190° C. and in the presence of from about 0.001 wt. % to about 0.2 wt. % of a substantially non-crystalline double metal cyanide (DMC) catalyst, wherein the polyol has an incorporated carbon dioxide content of from about 1 wt. % to about 40 wt. %, wherein the ratio of cyclic carbonate by-product to total carbonate is less than about 0.3 and wherein the weight percentages are based on the weight of the polyol. The inventive polyether carbonate polyols may find use in producing polyurethane foams, elastomers, coatings, sealants and adhesives with improved properties.
US08134014B2
The invention relates to the use of specific pyridines as catalysts for the dimerization of isocyanates (uretdione formation) and a process for preparing polyisocyanates having a high content of uretdione groups.
US08134012B2
The novel active compound combinations comprising a carboxamide of the general formula (I) (group 1) in which A, R1 and R2 are as defined in the description, and the active compound groups (2) and (3) listed in the description have very good fungicidal properties.
US08134011B2
Oxazolidinium compounds are formed by the reaction of a halohydrin or an epoxide with a secondary amine and an aldehyde or a ketone. The oxazolidinium compounds are formed directly and do not require the reaction of a pre-formed oxazolidine with an alkylating agent. The compounds are useful as gas hydrate inhibitors in oil and gas production and transportation.
US08134010B2
Disclosed are novel NO-donating compounds, designed such that when NO is released from the compound a residue which is a naturally occurring metabolite is formed, and thus a development of tolerance to the compounds upon repetitive administration is prevented or decreased. Also disclosed are methods of preparing such NO-donating compounds, pharmaceutical compositions and medical devices containing such compounds and methods utilizing such compounds in the treatment of various medical conditions.
US08134001B2
There are provided compounds of the formula and pharmaceutically acceptable salts and esters thereof wherein W, V, X, Y, A, R and R′ are as described herein. The compounds are useful as anticancer agents.
US08134000B2
A compound of general Formula (I) having histone deacetylase (HDAC) and/or Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitory activity, a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound, and a method useful to treat diseases using the compound.
US08133981B2
The present invention is directed to antagonists of CS1 that bind to and neutralize at least one biological activity of CS1. The invention also includes a pharmaceutical composition comprising such antibodies or antigen-binding fragments thereof. The present invention also provides for a method of preventing or treating disease states, including autoimmune disorders and cancer, in a subject in need thereof, comprising administering into said subject an effective amount of such antagonists.
US08133980B2
The present invention relates to RF-amide peptides and their use for treating, preventing and curing neurological and metabolic medical disorders. The invention also relates to methods for modulating a G-protein coupled receptor and for identifying substances which modulate the receptor.
US08133972B2
Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) specific for antigenic peptides derived from IgE molecule can be generated in vitro by stimulating resting naive CD8 T cells with IgE peptides presented by artificial antigen presenting cells. The IgE specific CTLs lyse the target cells loaded with IgE peptides in vitro and inhibit antigen specific IgE response in vivo. In addition, adoptive transfer of the IgE specific CTL to an asthmatic mouse model can inhibit the development of lung inflammation and airway hypersensitivity. IgE specific CTL provides a treatment for allergic asthma and other IgE-mediated allergic diseases. Antigenic peptides identified from non-tumor self-antigens induce specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) in vitro. The CTL induced by peptides identified from CD40L can kill activated CD4 T cells. In vitro generated CTL specific for CD40L inhibit CD4-dependent antibody responses of all isotypes in vivo. In contrast, CTL induced by antigenic peptides derived from IgE specifically inhibit IgE responses, and adoptive transfer of CD40L-specific CTL to NOD mice at early age delay the development of diabetes in NOD mice. In vitro generated CTL specific for non-tumor self-antigens expressed on activated CD4 T cells regulate immune responses in vivo.
US08133970B2
Oxidized and maleated derivative compositions, such as chemically modified oxidized and maleated tall oil fatty acid compositions, can be prepared and used in a variety of industrial applications, including as emulsifiers, corrosion inhibitors, concrete admixtures, and in reverse flotation mining applications.
US08133961B2
This invention relates to waterborne coatings with enhanced early water blushing resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion to substrates. These waterborne coatings can be paints, varnishes, and water sealers that offer excellent early water blushing as well as excellent resistance to common household chemicals, such as gasoline, motor oil, brake fluid, transmission fluid, household cleaners, window cleaning fluids, antifreeze, and the like.
US08133960B2
Biomedical devices such as contact lenses formed from a polymerization product of a mixture comprising (a) a random copolymer comprising hydrophilic units and hydrophobic units, wherein the random copolymer has at least one thio carbonyl thio fragment of a reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (“RAFT”) agent are disclosed.
US08133957B2
A resin composition for encapsulating an optical semiconductor element that comprises components (A), (B) and (C) described below: (A) a branched silicone resin containing 2 to 6 epoxy groups, one or more (R1SiO3/2) units, two or more (R2R3SiO)n structures and 3 or more (R43-xR5xSiO1/2) units per molecule, in an amount of 100 parts by weight, wherein R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 each represents a hydrogen atom, a hydroxyl group or a monovalent organic group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms which monovalent organic group may or may not contain an oxygen atom, provided that at least two of the R5 groups within each molecule represent an epoxy group and/or an epoxy group-containing non-aromatic group, n represents an integer of 3 to 20, and x represents an integer of 1 to 3, (B) a curing agent, in such an amount that a content of epoxy reactive groups in the component (B) ranges from 0.4 to 1.5 moles per 1 mol of epoxy groups within component (A), and (C) a curing catalyst, in an amount within a range from 0.01 to 3 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of a combination of component (A) and component (B).
US08133933B2
Phenolic resin binder systems for sand molds, used in metal casting, which improve the quality of thermally reclaimed sand, are described. The substantial or complete elimination of calcium compounds (e.g., calcium stearate and calcium hydroxide, conventionally employed as a mold lubricant and a resin curing catalyst, respectively) allows the thermally reclaimed sand to be reused over multiple thermal reclamation cycles without the adverse effects previously encountered.
US08133931B2
The present invention discloses an acrylate nanocomposite material which can apply to optoelectronic device encapsulation, dental restorations and light waveguide. The acrylate nanocomposite material comprises an inorganic nano-particle, an acrylate monomer with at least one acrylate group, an imidized acrylate oligomer and a photo-initiator. The acrylate nanocomposite material photopolymerizes to form an organic/inorganic 3D network wherein the absorption (%) is 0.01 to 5.00 and the permeability (g mm/m2 day) is 0.01 to 10.00 thereof. In addition, the transmittance of the nanocomposite is over 90%.
US08133928B2
A process for the storage or transportation of pretreated, conditioned ion exchangers as catalysts for chemical reactions is disclosed. The preconditioned ion-exchange resin is kept as preconditioned ion-exchange resin suspension in a storage or transporting container. The container with the preconditioned ion-exchange resin suspension is transported to either a storage site for storage or to a reactor for transfer of the resin to the reactor.
US08133922B2
Disclosed is a polyglycerol alkyl ether nonionic surfactant which is a nonionic surfactant composed of polyglycerol alkyl ethers and has a polyglycerol monoalkyl ether content of 75 percent by weight or more and a polyglycerol dialkyl ether content of 5 percent by weight or less. This nonionic surfactant is an aliphatic nonionic surfactant, is thereby environmentally friendly, has a superior surface activity equivalent to those of aromatic nonionic surfactants, exhibits a superior emulsifying activity stably over time, and is satisfactorily usable in general purposes.
US08133913B2
Synthesis of novel substituted indeno[1,2-b]indole derivatives of the type of 5,6,7,8-tetrahydroindeno[1,2-b]indole-9,10-diones and 5H-indeno[1,2-b]indole-6,9,10-triones, which show pronounced inhibition of the human protein kinase CK2, and the use thereof as active ingredients in medicaments and/or drug products in particular for the treatment of neoplastic diseases.
US08133909B2
The present invention is concerned with novel sulfonamides of formula wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, Ar, Ar1, Ar2, n, o and p are as described in the description and claims. The compounds are orexin receptor antagonists that may be useful in the treatment of disorders, in which orexin pathways are involved.
US08133908B2
Disclosed are N-{[(1S,4S,6S)-3-(2-pyridinylcarbonyl)-3-azabicyclo[4.1.0]hept-4-yl]methyl}-2-heteroarylamine derivatives having the following formula: wherein m, n, Het, R1, R2 and R3 are as defined herein, and their use as orexin antagonists.
US08133907B2
The present invention is directed to compounds of formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof; wherein A is (1); X is selected from CH, CF and N; R5 is selected from H, C1-C6 alkyl, C1-C6 fluoroalkyl, and —OR12; R9 is selected from H —NR13C(O)R14 and —C(O)NR10R11; R12 is selected from H, C1-C6 alkyl and C3-C6 cycloalkyl, for use as inhibitors of the DPP-IV enzyme in the treatment or prevention of conditions including Type II diabetes.
US08133904B2
The present invention provides novel pyrazoles that are useful as cannabinoid receptor antagonists and pharmaceutical compositions thereof and methods of using the same for treating obesity, diabetes, and/or cardiometabolic disorders.
US08133903B2
The present methods and compositions are of use for treatment of conditions involving fibrosis, such as Peyronie's disease plaque, penile corporal fibrosis, penile veno-occlusive dysfunction, Dupuytren's disease nodules, vaginal fibrosis, clitoral fibrosis, female sexual arousal disorder, abnormal wound healing, keloid formation, general fibrosis of the kidney, bladder, prostate, skin, liver, lung, heart, intestines or any other localized or generalized fibrotic condition, vascular fibrosis, arterial intima hyperplasia, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, restenosis, cardiac hypertrophy, hypertension or any condition characterized by excessive fibroblast or smooth muscle cell proliferation or deposition of collagen and extracellular matrix in the blood vessels and/or heart. In certain embodiments, the compositions may comprise a PDE-4 inhibitor, a PDE-5 inhibitor, a compound that elevates cGMP and/or PKG, a stimulator of guanylyl cyclase and/or PKG, a combination of a compound that elevates cGMP, PKG or NO with an antioxidant that decreases ROS, or a compound that increases MMP activity.
US08133900B2
The invention provides methods of treating a disease selected from systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, mastocytosis, and chronic eosinophilic leukemia comprising administering biaryl meta-pyrimidine compounds having the general structure (A) to a subject in need thereof. The pyrimidine compounds of the invention are capable of inhibiting kinases, such as members of the JAK kinase family, and various other specific receptor and non-receptor kinases.
US08133891B2
The present invention is directed to compounds of Formula I: I (where A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, D1, D2, J, K, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, R4, R5a, R5b, R5c, m and n are defined herein) useful as antagonists of CGRP receptors and useful in the treatment or prevention of diseases in which the CGRP is involved, such as headache, migraine and cluster headache. The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the prevention or treatment of such diseases in which CGRP is involved.
US08133884B2
The invention encompasses compounds of formula I as well as compositions and methods of using the compounds. The compounds have activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV) and are useful in treating those infected with HCV.
US08133877B2
Therapeutic compositions used in the field of angiogenesis include nucleotide sequences of genes, the involvement of the genes in the angiogenesis mechanism having been demonstrated by the Applicant, and including the complementary sequences thereof, the antisense sequences of same, polypeptide sequences coded by the coding parts of the aforementioned genes and antibodies that are directed against the polypeptide sequences and also relate to genetically-modified cells that underexpress or overexpress the above-mentioned genes and to therapeutic compositions containing the cells, which are used to treat angiogenic disorders, and, moreover, relate to methods of diagnosing and/or prognosticating antigenic disorders and to novel methods of screening active compounds in the treatment of the disorders.
US08133875B2
Provided is a method for enhancing an immune response to a desired antigen in an individual. The method is performed by administering to the individual an agent capable of inhibiting class A macrophage scavenger receptor (SR-A) and optionally administering the desired antigen. Also provided is a method for enhancing an immune response to an antigen by administering to an individual a composition containing antigen presenting cells that are characterized by specifically inhibited SR-A. Substantially purified populations of mammalian dendritic cells characterized by specifically inhibited SR-A are also provided.
US08133874B2
The invention provides an oligonucleotide with a sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or its functional homolgue, a composition comprising the same and a method for treating B cell neoplasm by using the oligonucleotide or its functional homologue or the composition comprising the oligonucleotide. The oligonulceotide induces the apoptosis of B cell neoplastic cells, up-regulates CD40 on B cell neoplastic cells and stimulates the production of IL-10 from B cell neoplastic cells.
US08133870B2
The invention provides compounds of formula I, II, and III as described herein, as well as pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds, and synthetic methods and intermediates that are useful for preparing the compounds. The compounds of formula I, II, and III are useful as anti-viral agents and/or as anti-cancer agents.
US08133862B2
The present invention provides methods and compositions for increasing the growth rates, alleviating the symptoms, or improving the metabolism of human patients having insulin-like growth factor-1 deficiency (IGFD). The invention relates to methods comprising administering insulin-like growth factor-I to a patient having a height which, at the time of treatment or prior to initial treatment with IGF-1, is at least about 2 standard deviations below normal for a subject of the same age and gender, a blood level of insulin-like growth factor-I that, and at the time of treatment or prior to initial treatment with IGF-1, is below normal mean levels, usually at least about 1 standard deviations below normal mean levels, for age and gender.
US08133861B2
Methods for modulating the axonal outgrowth of central nervous system neurons are provided by means of internalized purine administration such as by intravenous, intraarterial, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, and intrapleural administration. The methods are noted for stimulating the axonal outgrowth of central nervous system neurons following an injury (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral aneurism, spinal cord injury and the like).
US08133855B2
A dilutable concentrated hard surface cleaning composition which comprises (preferably consists essentially of): a detersive nonionic surfactant based on an alcohol alkoxylate; a detersive surfactant based on glucoside surfactants; an alkanolamine; water in an amount of at least 75% wt., preferably at least about 80% wt., and optionally one or more further optional constituents, including a polyacrylate polymer, fragrances, colorants, etc. with the proviso that the compositions exclude one or more of: (a) organic acids, (b) inorganic acids, (c) organic solvents selected from glycols, glycol ethers, ether acetates, and alcohols, (d) thickeners, and (e) chelating agents based on nitrogen containing organic compounds which include a plurality of carboxylic acid groups, preferably the compositions of the invention expressly exclude two or more, preferably three or more and yet more preferably exclude four or five of (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e).
US08133854B2
The present invention relates to a liquid acidic hard surface cleaning composition comprising an acid system, wherein the acid system comprises formic acid and acetic acid.
US08133852B2
The invention provides compositions comprising at least one alkylphenol resin (constituent I) and, based on the alkylphenol resin, from 0.05 to 10% by weight of at least one salt of an aromatic base and of a sulfonic acid (constituent II).
US08133847B2
The present invention relates to a method of controlling plants or inhibiting plant growth which comprises applying to the plants or to the locus thereof a herbicidally effective amount of a compound of formula (I) wherein R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are as defined in claim 1; or salts or N-oxides thereof. Furthermore, the present invention relates to processes for preparing compounds of formula (I), to herbicidal compositions comprising compounds of formula (I) and to certain novel pyrido[2,3-b]pyrazines.
US08133846B2
The present invention is directed to novel suspension concentrate compositions comprising finely milled crystalline sulfentrazone suspended in an aqueous glyphosate salt phase containing a surfactant component that chemically and physically stabilizes the composition.
US08133839B2
An exhaust gas-purifying catalyst (1) contains a rare-earth element, an alkaline-earth element, zirconium and a precious metal, wherein an atomic ratio of the alkaline-earth element with respect to a sum of the rare-earth element and the zirconium is 10 atomic % or more, a part of the rare-earth element and a part of zirconium form a composite oxide with at least a part of the alkaline-earth element, and the composite oxide and a part of the precious metal form a solid solution.
US08133837B2
Decreasing HC emission is made possible. An exhaust gas-purifying catalyst includes a substrate, a hydrocarbon-adsorbing layer covering the substrate, and a catalytic layer covering the hydrocarbon-adsorbing layer. The catalytic layer includes a layered structure of a first catalytic layer including a precious metal and a carrier supporting it, and a second catalytic layer including the same precious metal as the precious metal of the first catalytic layer and a carrier supporting it and having a concentration of the precious metal higher than that in the first catalytic layer.
US08133835B2
Provided are a molecular weight controllable, high 1,4-trans polybutadiene catalyst system, and more particularly, a four-component catalyst for preparing 1,4-trans polybutadiene with high yield, the catalyst comprising a cobalt compound, an organoaluminum compound, a phenol-based compound, and a phosphorus-based compound used to prepare 1,4-trans polybutadiene by polymerizing butadiene or a butadiene derivative, and capable of controlling the molecular weight of 1,4-trans polybutadiene by regulating the amount of the phosphorus-based compound. In particular, 1,4-trans polybutadiene may be efficiently applied to tires, belts, or the like since it has excellent tensile strength, tear strength, and cut & chip properties with increasing processability.
US08133818B2
In a method of forming a hard mask pattern in a semiconductor device, only processes for forming patterns having a row directional line shape and a column directional line shape on a plane are performed so that the hard mask patterns can be formed to define densely disposed active regions. A pitch of the hard mask patterns is less than a resolution limit of an exposure apparatus.
US08133809B2
A scheme for forming a thin metal interconnect is disclosed that minimizes etch residues and provides a wet clean treatment for via openings. A single layer interlayer dielectric (ILD), BARC, and photoresist layer are successively formed on a substrate having a copper layer that is coplanar with a dielectric layer. In one embodiment, the ILD is silicon nitride with 100 to 600 Angstrom thickness. After a via opening is formed in a photoresist layer above the copper layer, a first RIE process including BARC main etch and BARC over etch steps is performed. Then a second RIE step transfers the opening through the ILD to uncover the copper layer. Photoresist and BARC are stripped with oxygen plasma and a low DC bias. Wet cleaning may involve a first ST250 treatment, ultrasonic water treatment, and then a third ST250 treatment. A bottom electrode layer may be deposited in the via opening.
US08133803B2
A method for fabricating a semiconductor layer comprising: a) growing a semiconductor layer on a foreign substrate; b) forming at least one opening on the semiconductor layer, wherein the opening exposes the interface between the semiconductor layer and the foreign substrate; and c) removing at least part of the semiconductor solid state material along the interface between the semiconductor layer and the foreign substrate. The removing step c) is preferably achieved by selective interfacial chemical etching. The semiconductor layer may be utilized as a substrate for fabrication of a wide variety of electronic and opto-electronic devices and integrated circuitry products.
US08133798B2
There is provided a method for producing an ink jet head. The method includes: first oxidizing in which, in an SOI substrate having a first SiO2 layer between a first Si layer and a second Si layer, among the first Si layer and the second Si layer, at least the first Si layer is thermally oxidized to form a second SiO2 layer; forming a nozzle hole by removing a part of the second SiO2 layer and a part of the first Si layer between the first SiO2 layer and the second SiO2 layer, by performing an etching treatment until at least the first SiO2 layer is exposed; second oxidizing in which a side wall of at least the first Si layer in the formed nozzle hole is thermally oxidized to form an SiO2 layer; opening the nozzle hole by subjecting the SiO2 layers in the nozzle hole other than at the side wall to an anisotropic dry etching treatment until at least the second Si layer is exposed; and forming a nozzle by removing the second Si layer.
US08133795B2
In the present invention, in the exposure to light of a memory cell array or the like of a semiconductor memory or the like, when a group of unit openings for etching the STI trench regions in which the unit openings for etching the STI trench regions each having a rectangular shape are arranged in rows and columns are transferred by the exposure onto a negative resist film, multiple exposure is appropriately used which includes a first exposure step using a first optical mask having a group of first linear openings extending in a column direction and a second exposure step using a second optical mask having a group of second linear openings extending in a row direction.
US08133793B2
Methods of forming a microelectronic structure are provided, the microelectronic structure including a first conductor, a discontinuous film of metal nanoparticles disposed on a surface above the first conductor, a carbon nano-film formed atop the surface and the discontinuous film of metal nanoparticles, and a second conductor disposed above the carbon nano-film. Numerous additional aspects are provided.
US08133789B1
A silicon carbide power MOSFET having a drain region of a first conductivity type, a base region of a second conductivity type above the drain region, and a source region of the first conductivity type adjacent an upper surface of the base region, the base region including a channel extending from the source region through the base region adjacent a gate interface surface thereof, the channel having a length less than approximately 0.6 μm, and the base region having a doping concentration of the second conductivity type sufficiently high that the potential barrier at the source end of the channel is not lowered by the voltage applied to the drain. The MOSFET includes self-aligned base and source regions as well as self-aligned ohmic contacts to the base and source regions.
US08133787B2
A SiC semiconductor device having a MOS structure includes: a SiC substrate; a channel region providing a current path; first and second impurity regions on upstream and downstream sides of the current path, respectively; and a gate on the channel region through the gate insulating film. The channel region for flowing current between the first and second impurity regions is controlled by a voltage applied to the gate. An interface between the channel region and the gate insulating film has a hydrogen concentration equal to or greater than 4.7×1020 cm−3. The interface provides a channel surface having a (000-1)-orientation surface.
US08133786B2
A transistor and method of fabricating the transistor are disclosed. The transistor is disposed in an active region of a substrate defined by an isolation region and includes a gate electrode and associated source/drain regions. The isolation region includes an upper isolation region and an lower isolation region, wherein the upper isolation region is formed with sidewalls having, at least in part, a positive profile.
US08133782B2
A memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, memory elements formed above the substrate in rows and columns, bit lines and word lines selectively connected with the memory elements in the respective columns and rows, each memory element including, a first gate insulator formed above the substrate, a charge accumulation layer formed on the first gate insulator, a second gate insulator formed on the charge accumulation layer, and a control electrode formed on the second gate insulator, wherein a ratio r/d is not smaller than 0.5, where r: a radius of curvature of an upper corner portion or surface roughness of the charge accumulation layer and d: an equivalent oxide thickness of the second gate insulator in a cross section along a direction vertical to the bit lines.
US08133781B2
A mask layer formed over a semiconductor substrate is lithographically patterned to form an opening therein. Ions are implanted at an angle that is normal to the surface of the semiconductor substrate through the opening and into an upper portion of the semiconductor substrate. Straggle of the implanted ions form a doped region that laterally extends beyond a horizontal cross-sectional area of the opening. A deep trench is formed by performing an anisotropic etch of a semiconductor material underneath the opening to a depth above a deep end of an implanted region. Ion implantation steps and anisotropic etch steps are alternately employed to extend the depth of the doped region and the depth of the deep trench, thereby forming a doped region around a deep trench that has narrow lateral dimensions. The doped region can be employed as a buried plate for a deep trench capacitor.
US08133779B2
A conductive film is formed to extend from a bottom and a sidewall of a recess formed in an interlayer insulating film onto a top surface of the interlayer insulating film. Dry etching of the conductive film is performed such that a portion of the conductive film remains on the bottom and sidewall of the recess. The dry etching is also performed such that a deposition film is formed on a top portion of the recess.
US08133775B2
A semiconductor device has: a semiconductor substrate having a pair of current input/output regions via which current flows; an insulating film formed on the semiconductor substrate and having a gate electrode opening; and a mushroom gate electrode structure formed on the semiconductor substrate via the gate electrode opening, the mushroom gate electrode structure having a stem and a head formed on the stem, the stem having a limited size on the semiconductor substrate along a current direction and having a forward taper shape upwardly and monotonically increasing the size along the current direction, the head having a size expanded stepwise along the current direction, and the stem contacting the semiconductor substrate in the gate electrode opening and riding the insulating film near at a position of at least one of opposite ends of the stem along the current direction.
US08133771B2
A display device including a thin film transistor with high electric characteristics and high reliability, and a method for manufacturing the display device with high mass-productivity. In a display device including an inverted-staggered channel-stop-type thin film transistor, the inverted-staggered channel-stop-type thin film transistor includes a microcrystalline semiconductor film including a channel formation region, and an impurity region containing an impurity element of one conductivity type is selectively provided in a region which is not overlapped with source and drain electrodes, in the channel formation region of the microcrystalline semiconductor film.
US08133766B2
A fuse of a semiconductor device includes first fuse metals formed over an underlying structure and a second fuse metal formed between the first fuse metals. Accordingly, upon blowing, the fuse metals are not migrated under conditions, such as specific temperature and specific humidity. Thus, reliability of a semiconductor device can be improved.
US08133761B2
A semiconductor system (200) of one or more semiconductor interposers (201) with a certain dimension (210), conductive vias (212) extending from the first to the second surface, with terminals and attached non-reflow metal studs (215) at the ends of the vias. A semiconducting interposer surface may include discrete electronic components or an integrated circuit. One or more semiconductor chips (202, 203) have a dimension (220, 230) narrower than the interposer dimension, and an active surface with terminals and non-reflow metal studs (224, 234). One chip is flip-attached to the first interposer surface, and another chip to the second interposer surface, so that the interposer dimension projects over the chip dimension. An insulating substrate (204) has terminals and reflow bodies (242) to connect to the studs of the projecting interposer.
US08133756B2
A chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) method of polishing a phase-change material and a method of fabricating a phase-change memory, the CMP method including forming the phase-change material on an activation surface of a semiconductor wafer, and performing a CMP process on the phase-change material using a polishing pad, wherein the performing the CMP process includes reducing a change in the composition of the phase-change material by adjusting, within a predetermined range, a temperature of a region where the semiconductor wafer and the polishing pad contact each other.
US08133751B2
A method of forming a CMOS image sensor device. The method includes providing a semiconductor substrate having a P-type impurity characteristic. The semiconductor substrate includes a surface region. The method includes forming a gate oxide layer overlying the surface region and forming a first gate structure overlying a first portion of the gate oxide layer, the first gate structure has a top surface region and at least a side region. The method forms an N-type impurity region in a portion of the semiconductor substrate to form a photodiode device region from the N-type impurity region and the P-type impurity. The method includes forming a blanket spacer layer including an oxide on nitride on oxide structure overlying at least the first gate structure; and forming one or more spacer structures using the blanket spacer layer for the first gate structure while maintaining a portion of the oxide layer from the oxide on nitride on oxide overlying at least the photo-diode device region.
US08133749B2
In a semiconductor integrated circuit sandwiched between a pair of a first impact resistance layer and a second impact resistance layer, an impact diffusion layer is provided between the semiconductor integrated circuit and the second impact resistance layer. By provision of the impact resistance layer against the external stress and the impact diffusion layer for diffusing the impact, force applied to the semiconductor integrated circuit per unit area is reduced, so that the semiconductor integrated circuit is protected. The impact diffusion layer preferably has a low modulus of elasticity and high breaking modulus.
US08133746B2
A method is provided for fabricating a semiconductor device having implanted source/drain regions and a gate region, the gate region having been masked by the gate hardmask during source/drain implantation, the gate region having a polysilicon gate layered on a metal layered on a high-K dielectric layer. The gate region and the source/drain regions may be covered with a self planarizing spin on film. The film may be blanket etched back to uncover the gate hardmask while maintaining an etched back self planarizing spin on film on the implanted source/drain regions. The gate hardmask may be etched back while the etched back film remains in place to protect the implanted source/drain regions. The gate region may be low energy implanted to lower sheet resistance of the polysilicon layer. The etched back film may be then removed.
US08133741B2
Total analysis systems and methods for simultaneously monitoring a suite of biological and/or chemical species in water and/or other process systems are disclosed. The system provides a sample-volume controlled sensor array comprising a fluid delivery device and a plurality of optical sensor elements for determining the presence and total concentrations of multiple analytes in the process system simultaneously. Delivery means are provided to deliver a metered quantity of sample fluid to the sensor array. Image identification algorithms are provided for identifying the analytes based on image intensity, color pattern, positional arrangement, and the like. The methods incorporate multivariate optimization algorithms to analyze multiple sensor responses. This produces analytical results that are typically difficult to obtain without full system or variable compensation. The improved array response may then be utilized to measure, monitor, and control the concentration of analytes in the chemical or biological sample or water system.
US08133737B2
The invention relates to a simple screening test for neoplasia, a precancerous condition, or cancer of the breast. A method is described whereby a breast cancer marker is detected in breast fluid. In a particular embodiment, the method involves treating samples of breast fluids with an aldehyde detecting reagent without any prewashing. The appearance in breast fluids of a marker that is detected by an aldehyde detecting reagent, such as a Schiff's reagent, correlates very well with the disease status of the breast cancer subjects from which the fluids were obtained. Screening test kits are also provided.
US08133735B2
A system for warning of corrosion, chemical, or radiological substances. The system comprises painting a surface with a paint or coating that includes an indicator material and monitoring the surface for indications of the corrosion, chemical, or radiological substances.
US08133721B2
A new design for a static diffusion cell for use in a diffusion sampling apparatus to be used in conjunction with automated or manual sampling is disclosed. The diffusion cell of present invention provides to an improved and efficient diffusion assay system.
US08133712B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide an inactivated chimeric virus and immunogenic compositions for the treatment or prevention of infection with West Nile virus. Further, other embodiments of the present invention relate to methods of preventing and treating West Nile virus infection with the inactivated chimera or immunogenic composition.
US08133692B2
Methods are provided for predicting responsiveness of cancer cells to chemotherapy by measuring the level of phosphorylated Stat or the level of expression of Survivin in a cancer and comparing the level in the cancer cell to the respective level in a control. Also provided are methods of selecting a chemotherapeutic treatment for a subject diagnosed with cancer by measuring the level of phosphorylated Stat or the level of expression of Survivin in a cancer and comparing the level in the cancer cell to the respective level in a control. Kits for performing the methods are also provided. Methods for modulating Survivin-dependent apoptosis in a cancer cell are also disclosed.
US08133684B2
The invention provides a method for diagnosing or predicting susceptibility to a prostate neoplastic condition in an individual. The method involves (a) determining a level of RDC1 in a sample from the individual, and (b) comparing the level of RDC1 in the sample to a reference level of RDC1, wherein a level of RDC1 in the sample 2-fold or more higher than the reference level indicates the presence of, or susceptibility to, a prostate neoplastic condition in the individual.
US08133680B2
The present invention provides methods, devices and kits for detecting a ligand. The methods involve capturing a ligand from a sample with an affinity substrate that includes a receptor for a ligand, transferring captured ligand to a detection surface and detecting the ligand on the detection surface with a liquid crystal. Accordingly, the capture step is decoupled from the detection step.
US08133659B2
This invention provides methods of creating via or trench structures on a developer-soluble hardmask layer using a multiple exposure-development process. The hardmask layer is patterned while the imaging layer is developed. After the imaging layer is stripped using organic solvents, the same hardmask can be further patterned using subsequent exposure-development processes. Eventually, the pattern can be transferred to the substrate using an etching process.
US08133655B2
In an optical information recording medium of the present invention, at least one information layer provided on a transparent substrate includes a protective layer and a write-once recording layer that are disposed in this order from the transparent substrate side. The recording layer contains at least one selected from Cr—O, Zn—O, Ga—O, In—O, Sn—O, Sb—O, Bi—O, and Te—O. The protective layer contains at least one selected from Cr—O, Zn—O, Ga—O, In—O, Sn—O, Sb—O, Bi—O, and Te—O. When the total amount of all the atoms other than oxygen atoms contained in the protective layer is taken as 100 atom %, the total amount of atoms of Cr, Zn, Ga, In, Sn, Sb, Bi, and Te in the protective layer is at least 70 atom %.
US08133638B2
An all-polymer grating microstructure device that exhibits a zero-order reflection under white light comprises a first polymer having a first refractive index and configured as a microstructure embedded within a second polymer having a second refractive index, each of the polymers of the first and second polymers at least translucent to white light with the proviso that the refractive index of the first polymer is at least 0.05 greater than the refractive index of the second polymer.
US08133636B2
A fuel cell stack includes a membrane electrode assembly including an anode electrode, a cathode electrode, and an electrolyte membrane positioned between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode; a separator including a channel for a flow of fuel and oxidant and closely adhered to the membrane electrode assembly; and a gasket with a two-layer structure stacked between the separator and the membrane electrode assembly.
US08133632B2
An Au plated film 12 is formed on the surface of a plate-formed metal base 13 composed of a metal less noble than Au, and the product is cut along a planned cutting line 18 reflecting a contour of a desired component, to thereby form a separator 10. Thus-formed separator 10 has the Au plated film 12 formed on the main surface 10a thereof, and has a cutting plane 16 formed as an end face 16 stretched up to the main surface 10a. The metal base 13 exposes in a part of the cutting plane 16, in a width of the exposed region of 1 mm or less. This is successful in providing a metal component for fuel cell which is satisfactory in the corrosion resistance and allows easy fabrication at low costs, a method of manufacturing the same, and also in providing a fuel cell having thus-fabricated metal component for fuel cell.
US08133628B2
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a heat exchanger for heating an oxygen-containing gas using a heat medium before the oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the fuel cell stack, a reformer for reforming a raw fuel chiefly containing hydrocarbon to produce a fuel gas to be supplied to the fuel cell stack, a combustor for burning a raw fuel and an exhaust gas discharged from the fuel cell stack after consumption in power generation reaction to produce a combustion gas, and a heat retention chamber provided to cover opposite ends of the fuel cell stack in the stacking direction. Before an exhaust gas is supplied to the combustor, the exhaust gas flows into the heat retention chamber as a heat source for maintaining the temperature of the fuel cell stack.
US08133627B2
A fuel cell system that includes a stack includes a plurality of generators for producing electrical energy by an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The generators are connected in series. In addition, the fuel cell system comprises a fuel supply assembly for supplying fuel comprising hydrogen to the generators, an oxygen supply assembly for supplying oxygen to the generators and at least one branch member that is coupled to at least one of the generators.
US08133624B2
A fuel cell system is disclosed including a fuel cell stack and pressure sensors, wherein bypass conduits having flow restriction devices disposed therein are provided for bypassing fluids around the fuel cell stack to militate against the accumulation of moisture in conduits in fluid communication with the pressure sensors.
US08133622B2
A fuel cell system is provided comprising: a reformer for generating hydrogen from hydrogen-containing fuel; and at least one electricity generator for generating electric energy through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. The reformer includes a main body in which a plurality of reaction sections for generating hydrogen from hydrogen-containing fuel is integrally formed. A heating section is disposed in contact with the main body in order to supply different amounts of thermal energy to the plurality of reaction sections.
US08133609B2
A pouch type secondary battery having enhanced reliability by protecting the battery from external impacts is described. A reinforcement structure may be installed on a pouch casing and an electrode assembly housed in the pouch casing. Short-circuits inside the pouch casing may be minimized. The pouch type secondary battery has an electrode assembly with positive and negative electrode plates with a separator interposed therebetween, and positive and negative terminal portions extending from the positive and negative electrode plates. A first reinforcement member is closely adhered to one or more planes of the electrode assembly. A second reinforcement member may be adhered to the pouch casing and used with or without the first reinforcement member.
US08133608B2
A battery pack, or battery pack module, is provided that achieves improved battery pack performance, system reliability and system safety while impacting only a small region of the battery pack/battery module, and thus having only a minor impact on battery pack cost, complexity, weight and size. The battery pack/battery module is designed such that the fusible interconnects associated with a single battery, or a specific fusible interconnect associated with a single battery, will be the last interconnect(s) to fuse during a short circuit event. The risk of sustained arcing for the predetermined interconnect(s) is minimized through the use of rapid clearing interconnects. As a result, the risk of damage and excessive heating is also minimized.
US08133607B1
A parallel connection assembly of batteries and a battery set having the same are provided. The parallel connection assembly connects battery units to form a battery set, and it includes electrical-conductive connecting pieces, two flexible metallic woven bands and electrical-conductive fixing elements. Each battery unit has a positive electrode hole and a negative electrode hole. Each electrical-conductive connecting piece has a through-hole and a fixing portion. Each electrical-conductive fixing element passes through the through-hole to be fixed in the positive electrode hole or the negative electrode hole. The two flexible metallic woven bands serially connect the fixing portions of the electrical-conductive connecting pieces located on the positive electrode holes and the negative electrode holes respectively, thereby electrically connecting the battery units in parallel. Since the flexible metallic woven band is low in impedance, flexible and easy to assemble, the battery set has an increased electrical-conducting efficiency and resistance to vibrations.
US08133603B2
Disclosed is a battery pack that includes a bare cell for producing electricity, a circuit board electrically coupled to the bare cell, and a case for accommodating the bare cell and circuit board. The case has a foot rubber installing part formed on an outer surface of the case, and the foot rubber installing part has a tub for accommodating a foot rubber. The tub has a receiving groove formed on an inner surface of the tub. The receiving groove is an extra space that does not accommodate the foot rubber. The receiving groove stores an excess of glue material that is used to couple the foot rubber to the foot rubber installing part.
US08133602B2
A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly, a case, a cap assembly, and an arc interrupter. The electrode assembly includes an anode, a cathode, and a separator interposed between the anode and the cathode. The case houses the electrode assembly and has an opening for the electrode assembly, and the cap assembly is coupled to the opening of the case and is electrically connected to the electrode assembly. The arc interrupter includes an interrupting member movably disposed in the cap assembly and a driving member connected to the interrupting member to transfer the interrupting member.
US08133600B2
Polymerization of siloxane is improved using a gypsum-based slurry that includes stucco, Class C fly ash, magnesium oxide and an emulsion of siloxane and water. This slurry is used in a method of making water-resistant gypsum articles that includes making an emulsion of siloxane and water, then combining the slurry with a dry mixture of stucco, magnesium oxide and Class C fly ash. The slurry is then shaped as desired and the stucco is allowed to set and the siloxane polymerizes.The resulting product is useful for making a water-resistant gypsum panel having a core that includes interwoven matrices of calcium sulfate dihydrate crystals and a silicone resin, where the interwoven matrices have dispersed throughout them a catalyst comprising magnesium oxide and components from a Class C fly ash.
US08133595B2
Disclosed is a multilayer alloy coating film capable of maintaining heat resistance, high-temperature oxidation resistance and creep resistance for a long time even in an ultra high temperature environment. The multilayer alloy coating film comprises a barrier layer formed on a base surface, and an aluminum reservoir layer formed on the barrier layer and composed of an alloy containing Al. The barrier layer comprises an inner sacrificial barrier layer composed of an alloy containing Re, an inner stabilization layer formed on the inner sacrificial barrier layer, a diffusion barrier layer formed on the inner stabilization layer and composed of an alloy containing Re, an outer stabilization layer formed on the diffusion barrier layer, and an outer sacrificial barrier layer formed on the outer stabilization layer and composed of an alloy containing Re.
US08133593B2
A preform for forming a hollow-core, slotted photonic band-gap (PBG) optical fiber for use in an environmental sensor, and methods of forming such a fiber using the preform are disclosed. The preform comprises a slotted cladding tube that surrounds a slotted, hollow-core PBG cane. The slots in the cladding tube and PBG cane are longitudinally formed and substantially aligned with each other. When the preform is drawn, the slots merge to form an elongated side opening or slot in the resulting hollow-core PBG fiber.
US08133588B2
A coated article and method of employing a water-based coating composition on a fiber cement composite substrate is provided. The coating composition contains: an epoxy resin, a crosslinker having epoxide-reactive functional groups, a latex polymer distinct from the epoxy resin, and water.
US08133584B2
A yarn, fabric, and garment suitable for use in arc and flame protection and having improved flash fire protection consisting essentially of from (a) 50 to 80 weight percent meta-aramid fiber having a degree of crystallinity of at least 20%, (b) 10 to 30 weight percent flame-retardant rayon fiber, (c) 10 to 20 weight percent modacrylic fiber, (d) 0 to 5 weight percent para-aramid fiber, and (e) 0 to 3 weight percent antistatic fiber based on the total weight of components (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e). In one embodiment, garments made from the yarn provide thermal protection such that a wearer would experience less than a 65 percent predicted body burn when exposed to a flash fire exposure of 4 seconds per ASTM F1930, while maintaining a Category 2 arc rating.
US08133583B2
The present invention provides a fire retardant antiflux fiber, the fiber is composed of the following components: cellulose 60˜80% by mass, silicon fire retardant (calculated as silicon dioxide) 15˜36% by mass, tourmaline 0.1˜5%. The present invention also provides a process of producing fire retardant antiflux fiber, in the adding step, the silicon fire retardant is added into the cellulose xanthate in the xanthation step or the viscose which was prepared after the xanthation step, the level of adding the silicon fire retardant is 19˜30%, calculated as silicon dioxide. The fire retardant antiflux fiber of the present invention has high fire retardant antiflux effect, high fiber strength and excellent negative ion generating efficacy. At the same time, the viscose also maintains excellent filtering performance in the procedure using above production process, reducing the production standstill caused by the viscose blocking up filter screen, improving production efficiency. The viscose fiber can be used to fabricate nonwoven fabric widely.
US08133571B2
An interior article for automobiles is provided having a light-weight and suitable rigidity without lowering moldability even if the amount of use of a thermoplastic resin is decreased. A panel having a hollow double-wall structure and constituting an interior part for automobiles is formed from a mixture of polyolefin resins comprised of a propylene homopolymer having a specific gravity of 0.93 or less (JIS K7112), exhibiting a melt flow rate of 0.3 to 3.0 g/10 minutes (JIS K7210) and exhibiting a bending modulus of 1400 MPa or more (JIS K6758), a crystalline propylene block copolymer having a specific gravity of 0.93 or less (JIS K7112), exhibiting a melt flow rate of 0.3 to 1.5 g/10 minutes (JIS K7210) and exhibiting a bending modulus of 1250 MPa or less (JIS K7171) and a high density polyethylene having a specific gravity of 0.925 to 0.965 (JIS K7112) and exhibiting a melt flow rate of 0.5 g/10 minutes or less (JIS K7210).
US08133559B2
The present invention provides multilayered materials, such as films usable in particular in medical devices in the form of vascular grafts, biocompatible coverings, and/or inflatable bladders, prosthesis for the endoluminal treatment of aneurysms, particularly aortic aneurysms including both abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA's) and thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAA's).
US08133557B2
The present invention provides novel packaging articles, e.g., food and beverage cans. Preferred cans typically comprise a body portion and an end portion, wherein at least one of the body and end portions are aluminum and are coated on at least one major surface with a coating composition of the present invention. Suitable coating compositions of the present invention comprise: one or more polyester resins, wherein at least one of the polyester resins has a glass transition temperature (“Tg”) less than about 50° C., and wherein the polyester resin is formed by the reaction of one or more polyacid molecules and one or more polyol molecules; and a crosslinker. Preferred compositions are substantially free of mobile BPA and aromatic glycidyl ether compounds, e.g., BADGE, BFDGE and epoxy novalacs (e.g., NOGE) and more preferred compositions are also substantially free of bound BPA and aromatic glycidyl ether compounds. In more preferred embodiments (e.g., alcoholic beverage cans), the polyol molecules used to make the polyester resin are substantially free of NPG. The present invention also provides a method of making such cans.
US08133556B2
Two-layer receiver coatings particularly well adapted for use in inkjet printing comprise: A. A base layer comprising: 1. First pigment particles having (a) a number average particle size of 3-25 microns (μm), and (b) at least one of (i) an oil absorption value of at least 150 g oil/100 particles, and (ii) a pore volume of at least about 1.2 cubic meters per gram (cm3/g); and 2. Water-insoluble binder resin having a surface energy greater than 40 dyne per centimeter (dyn/cm); the first pigment particles and water-insoluble binder resin present at a weight ratio of 0.75 to 2; and B. An imaging layer comprising: 1. Second pigment particles having (a) a number average particle size of 0.01-4 (μm) aggregated to form an inter-particle region of submicron pores, and (b) a pore volume of 0.4 to 2.2 (cm3/g); and 2. Water-insoluble binder resin having a surface energy greater than 40 (dyn/cm); the second pigment particles and water-insoluble binder resin present at a weight ratio of 0.75 to 2.
US08133550B2
A polybenzoxazole precursor is represented by the following formula (1): wherein R1a to R4a, R1b to R4b, X1, Y1 and m are defined in the specification.
US08133546B2
A method is provided for producing an organic thin film on a substrate surface comprising improved heat resistance or durability; said method comprising at least a step (B) of allowing the substrate to contact with an organic solvent solution comprising a metal surfactant having at least one or more hydrolysable group or hydroxyl group, and a catalyst that can interact with the metal surfactant, wherein the method further comprises after step (B), step (E1) of heating the substrate which has been in contact with the organic solvent solution at 100° C. to 150° C.; step (E2) of immersing the substrate which has been in contact with the organic solvent solution in a warm water of 40° C. or more and less than the boiling point; or step (E3) of allowing the substrate which has been in contact with the organic solvent solution to contact with a moisture vapor of 60° C. to 150° C.
US08133544B2
High-strength quenched formed body with good corrosion resistance and process for producing the same
A high-strength quenched formed body containing a layer on the surface of an after-quenching formed-body steel material in which layer Zn is a major component and which layer contains 30% by mass or less of Fe, and which layer is present in an amount of 30 g/m2 or more. A quenched formed body is produced by quenching a zinc-plated steel material which includes a zinc-plated layer containing each of Al and Si having alloying-retarding function and readily-oxidizing function independently or compositely, in an amount of 0.15% by mass or more, after heating it to 800° C. or more and 950° C. or less in an oxidizing atmosphere containing 0.1% by volume or more of oxygen.
US08133543B2
Method for improving printability on paper or paper products with the aid of ink-jet printing method
A process for improving the printability of paper and paper products by enhancing the water resistance of ink-jet printed images, wherein the process comprises treating the paper or paper products with aqueous solutions of cationic polymers comprising vinylamine units and having a charge density of at least 3 meq/g as the sole treatment composition in aqueous solution, wherein the sole treatment composition is applied in an amount from 0.05 to 5 g/m2 to the surface of the paper or the surface of the paper product.
US08133541B2
This invention relates to hydroxyalkylated chitosan solution characterized in that a hydroxyalkylated chitosan and an organic acid or its derivative are contained in an aprotic polar solvent. This invention also relates to a coating process of a substrate, which is characterized by a step of causing the hydroxyalkylated chitosan solution to adhere onto a surface of the substrate, and another step of heating the substrate, which has been obtained in the first-mentioned step, at 100° C. or higher for 1 second or longer. This invention can provide a one-pack solution of a chitosan derivative, which is free from crosslinking and stable at room temperature, can form a chitosan coating excellent in waterproofness after heated and dried, and is suited for the coating of a hydrophobic or lipophilic surface. This invention also provides a coating process of a substrate, which makes use of the one-pack solution.
US08133539B2
Ink jet printing on a non-absorbent substrate involves a wet primer having a primer viscosity. The wet primer is applied on the non-absorbent substrate. An ink jet ink having an ink jet viscosity lower than the primer viscosity is jetted over the wet primer while the primer is still wet. The wet primer and ink are simultaneously cured on the substrate.
US08133534B2
Methods of directing the self assembly of block copolymers on chemically patterned surfaces to pattern discrete or isolated features needed for applications including patterning integrated circuit layouts are described. According to various embodiments, these features include lines, t-junctions, bends, spots and jogs. In certain embodiments a uniform field surrounds the discrete feature or features. In certain embodiments, a layer contains two or more distinct regions, the regions differing in one or more of type of feature, size, and/or pitch. An example is an isolated spot at one area of the substrate, and a t-junction at another area of the substrate. These features or regions of features may be separated by unpatterned or uniform fields, or may be adjacent to one another. Applications include masks for nanoscale pattern transfer as well as the fabrication of integrated circuit device structures.
US08133525B2
Apparatuses, methods and systems for liquid flow control and beverage preparation are disclosed. The apparatuses, methods and systems of the present invention include liquid flow control and beverage preparation capsules, pods, cartridges, pouches, systems, and modules for controlling and directing flow streams of liquid through a beverage preparation process. The apparatuses, methods and systems of the present invention may be used in combination with or included as an integral assembly of any apparatus, method or system for liquid dispension.
US08133524B1
A composition suitable for feeding hemophagous insects includes peptides, salt, and a CO2 generator.
US08133520B2
A commercial device and method for cooking food product in cooking oil includes a fry vat containing an amount of cooking oil used to cook discrete batches of uncooked food in discrete batches of a weight relative to the amount of cooking oil in the range of from about 0.0375 to about 0.1, with the total amount of food being cooked at any one time relative to the amount of oil in the fry vat being about 0.1 or less. Cooking the food results in an uptake of oil by the food in an amount of from about 5.5% to about 13% by weight of the uncooked food, and an oil turnover ratio of from about 0.0026 to about 0.007 per discrete batch. Replacement oil is periodically added, and a sufficient number of batches are cooked over 60 hours of operation to achieve at least one vat oil turnover.
US08133517B2
A microwavable vacuum-packed frozen sushi product comprising: a flexible microwave-safe plastic packing bag which is vacuumed to a pressure of 50 to 600 mmHg and, in the pressure-reduced state, hermetically sealed; an open-topped plastic box placed in said packing bag; and a sushi product placed in said box; said vacuum-packed frozen sushi product being such that a space is formed in said packing bag in the pressure-reduced state around said sushi product and the space has, in total, a volume 0.1 to 0.7 times that of said sushi product; an inner surface of said packing bag is in contact with an upper surface of said sushi product; and said packing bag, said box and said sushi product are frozen together in a unified form. Water vapor generated during thawing is allowed to flow through a space formed between the sushi material and the box and the packing bag to heat a rice section and a material or materials, thereby providing the sushi product with diminished unevenness in temperature distribution.
US08133514B2
Compositions useful in the delivery of active agents are provided. These delivery compositions include (a) an active agent; and (b) a carrier of at least one mono-C-substituted or di-C-substituted diketopiperazine. Methods for preparing these compositions and administering these compositions are also provided.
US08133512B2
Matrix controlled diffusion drug delivery systems based on one or more silicon-containing monomers of the general formula: wherein L, X−, n, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 and V are as set forth herein.
US08133507B2
Dosage forms and drug delivery devices suitable for administration of pharmaceutical compounds and compositions, including the oral drug administration of compounds.
US08133494B2
The invention relates to polynucleotides encoding modified immunogenic HIV-1 South African subtype C Env polypeptides. The modifications to the Env polypeptides include deletions of V1, V2 and the stem region. The expression cassettes may be used, for example, to express the encoded polypeptide. A recombinant expression system for use in a selected host cell comprising an expression cassette encoding for the modified HIV-1 Env polypeptide is also described.
US08133492B1
This invention provides novel nitrocellulose-based or Hydrogel-based microarrays and methods of making and using them (1) to detect the presence of one or more agents in a sample, (2) to determine the amount of one or more agents in a sample, (3) to determine whether a subject is afflicted with a disorder, and (4) to determine whether an agent known to specifically bind to a first compound also specifically binds to a second compound. This invention also provides kits which comprise the instant microarrays. This invention further provides antibodies capable of specifically binding to a glycomer present both on the surface of a mammalian macrophage or intestinal epithelial cell, and on a bacterial cell. Finally, this invention provides diagnostic methods using the instant antibodies.
US08133485B2
Disclosed are bi-specific complexes aimed at inhibiting mast cells, eosinophils and/or basophils, and thus, at inhibiting allergy-type reactions. In particular, said complexes are best exemplified by bi-specific antibodies, which bind to two targets present in the same cell. One target is the inhibitory receptor IRp60. The second target is a cell-specific activator, e.g. IgE, cKIT, FcεRI, IL5R or CCR3. Binding of the bi-specific antibody to its targets results in the induction of an inhibitory pathway, through the inhibition of the signaling from the activator. Compositions and uses of the bi-specific complexes are also described.
US08133484B2
An adhesive material comprising gelatin and a non-toxic cross-linking material such as transglutaminase. The adhesive material is useful for medical purposes as hemostatic products. The hemostatic products are useful for the treatment of wounded tissue.
US08133482B2
The present invention relates to the field of conjugates comprising a substrate which is attached to at least one photoactivatable killing agent and at least one first quencher, and methods for their use. More particularly, the present invention relates to photodynamic therapy agents. The invention further relates to methods for decontaminating blood and methods for treating cancer or viral infection in a subject using the conjugates of the present invention.
US08133469B2
Processes are provided for conjointly producing Br2 and a concentrated aqueous solution containing at least about 5 wt % CaCI2, based on the weight of the concentrated aqueous solution, from an HBr-rich recycle stream and a feed brine dilute in CaCI2. wherein the aqueous HBr-rich stream is produced from an HBr-rich recycle stream and a portion of the feed brine. Such processes can comprise feeding the HBr-rich recycle stream and a liquid comprising a portion of the feed brine, either together or separately to an HBr absorption tower; producing an aqueous HBr-rich stream in the HBr absorption tower; feeding the aqueous HBr-rich stream and, optionally, a portion of the feed brine to a bromine tower, oxidizing bromide moieties within the bromine tower with CI2 to produce Br2; recovering Br2 from the bromine tower, removing a bromide-depleted bottoms from the bromine tower, such bottoms containing HCI; adding a Ca++ source to the bromide-depleted bottoms to convert substantially all of the HCI in the bottoms to CaCI2, and, as necessary, removing water from the treated bottoms to produce the concentrated aqueous solution.
US08133464B2
The present invention relates to a method of producing hydrogen gas and carbon dioxide in a catalytic reaction from formic acid, said reaction being conducted in an aqueous solution over a wide temperature range and already at room temperature (25° C.). The reaction is advantageous because it can be tuned to take place at very high rates, up to about 90 liter H2/minute/liter reactor volume. The gas produced is free of carbon monoxide. The method of the present invention is particularly suitable for providing hydrogen for a motor, fuel cell or chemical synthesis.
US08133457B2
The unit comprises a filter membrane filter module and a collection module for liquid coming from the filter module, with the filter module comprising an inlet compartment as well as an evacuation compartment for the liquids, the filter and collection modules being rotatably mounted relative to each other. The method comprises the step of obtaining such a unit, of disposing the filter and collection modules in a first position, of passing a liquid from the filter module to attain the collection module, of disposing the filter and collection modules relative to each other in a second position, and the step of passing another liquid from the filter module to attain the collection module.
US08133456B2
A microreactor capable of reaction between a sample and a mixed reagent containing a mixture of multiple reagents, which microreactor avoids the interposition of air between driving solution and reagents and realizes high-precision controlling of the timing of mixing of reagents and other liquids, the mixing ratio of liquids, the pressure for liquid feeding, etc. Further, there is provided a method of liquid feeding making use of the same. Accordingly, a flow path branched at the position of an inlet from a flow path through which an opening communicating with an external pump communicates with the inlet is provided with an air evacuation flow path with its terminal open outward. Further, the flow path resistance of the air evacuation flow path for a liquid is made greater than the flow path resistance, for the liquid, of a flow channel from the reagent storage chamber to a reagent feed-out flow path.
US08133448B2
A portable, lightweight, easy-to-carry, reusable, durable, and environmentally-friendly assembly for sterilizing contaminated equipment using conditions of a chemical sterilant, heat, and humidity generated in situ without requiring external electricity, fuels, or other exogenous energy sources for operation. The carry assembly includes a plastic carry-case or insulated aluminum pressure vessel having an inner chamber for accepting microbiologically contaminated objects, a vessel disposed in the chamber for serving as a reaction chamber and/or boiler, a chemical combination which upon mixing generates at least minimally sufficient conditions of the sterilant, heat, and humidity to effect sterilization of the objects, and outlet valves mounted on the carry-case for controllably venting pressures above ambient air pressure.
US08133445B2
This invention relates to a chamber in which a chemical reaction is carried out in the presence of catalyst and reagents, comprising at least one catalytic tube (10) into which is placed an internal tube (12) for evacuating the gas that is produced, means for introducing reagents (15) and means for introducing the catalyst (16) that are located in the upper portion of the chamber (1), means for heating the catalytic tube (10) that are arranged in the lower portion of the chamber (1), and in which the catalytic tube (10) comprises, in its upper portion above the catalyst (13), means that promote heat exchange between the reagents and the gas that is produced. The invention also relates to the process that uses this chamber.
US08133436B2
A method for manufacturing of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) for implants, where the implants have been machined out of UHMWPE blocks or extruded rods, has anthocyanin dispersely imbedded in the polyethylene. The implant is then exposed to γ ray or electron beam irradiation in an amount of at least 2.5 Mrad followed by a heat treatment to prevent the implant from becoming brittle in the long term as well as to improve strength and wear. The method includes mixing a powder or granulate resin of UHMWPE with an aqueous liquid that contains anthocyanin in a predetermined amount. The water is then evaporated in order to deposit the anthocyanin in a predetermined concentration on the polyethylene particles. The doped UHMWPE particles are compressed into blocks at temperatures in a range of approximately 135° C.-250° C. and pressures in a range of approximately 2-70 MPa. Medical implants are made from the blocks.
US08133430B2
The present invention relates to a novel electrical devices fabricated from polycrystalline silicon carbide (SiC) and methods for forming the same. The present invention provides a method for fabricating polycrystalline silicon carbide (SiC) products infiltrated with SiC-containing preceramic precursor resins to substantially mask the deleterious effects of trace contaminants, typically nitrogen and aluminum, while reducing operative porosity and enhancing manufacturing ease.
US08133426B1
An injection molding process and apparatus are described in which a workpiece is formed using an injection molding tool. The mold composed of a cavity formed by a core and a plurality of cavity sides, wherein the workpiece has a plurality of undercut features formed in notches within the core. The injection molding method includes flexing sections of the workpiece apart from each other to at least partially separate the workpiece from the core.
US08133425B2
A valve in a mold as to provide a potential airflow pathway either way, the valving having at least a substantially closed condition from which it can be opened by a pressure differential in one direction that is below that which will cause it to open or fail to allow an airflow in the other direction.
US08133423B2
A method of fabricating silicone composite with a layer of antimicrobial coating, the method includes forming an antimicrobial mixture by adding a calculated amount of antimicrobial agent to a solution of water and alcohol, depositing the antimicrobial mixture in a container with a thickness of 0.1 μm to 10 μm, evaporating the water and alcohol of the antimicrobial mixture to form the layer of antimicrobial coating, adding silicone resin on top of the layer of antimicrobial coating and allow the silicone resin to permeate and crosslink with the layer of antimicrobial coating and removing the silicone composite with the layer of antimicrobial coating from the container.
US08133422B2
A batch mixture including ceramic-forming ingredients, a pore former, a binder comprising an ammonium salt of an alkylated cellulose binder, and a liquid vehicle, as defined herein. Also disclosed is a method for producing a ceramic precursor article as defined herein having excellent extrusion properties.
US08133418B2
In order to allow for aligning a relative position between a transferred object and a stamper with high accuracy without providing an alignment pattern in the transferred object, there are provided: a pattern transfer method, including: when adjusting the relative position between the stamper and the transferred object, a step of detecting at least two or more edge positions of the transferred object and calculating an arbitrary point from the detected edge positions; a step of detecting a position of the stamper from an edge of the stamper or an alignment mark formed in the stamper; and a step of adjusting the relative position between the transferred object and the stamper from the arbitrary point and the position of the stamper; and an imprint device using the same.
US08133409B2
A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes preparing at least a first substrate, coating an alignment material on at least the first substrate, aligning a main chain of the alignment material in a predetermined direction, and irradiating polarized ultraviolet (UV) rays onto the alignment material whose main chain has been aligned in the predetermined direction to form an alignment layer.
US08133408B2
An emulsion of pitch in water characterized by having a lower level of tack on drying by virtue of the incorporation of a finely divided filler, where the emulsion is useful for reducing the development of fugitive dust in a dust-forming material.
US08133406B2
A process is disclosed for making CF3CF═CH2 or mixtures thereof with CHF2CF═CHF. This process involves (a) reacting CHCl2CF2CF3, and optionally CHClFCF2CClF2, with H2 in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of a hydrogenation catalyst to form CH3CF2CF3 and, when CHClFCF2CClF2 is present, CH2FCF2CHF2; (b) dehydrofluorinating CH3CF2CF3, and optionally any CH2FCF2CHF2, from (a) to form a product mixture including CF3CF═CH2 and, if CH2FCF2CHF2 is present, CHF2CF═CHF; and optionally (c) recovering CF3CF═CH2, or a mixture thereof with CHF2CF═CHF from the product mixture formed in (b) and/or (d) separating at least a portion of any CHF2CF═CHF in the product mixture formed in (b) from the CF3CF═CH2 in the product mixture formed in (b).
US08133403B2
An acidic etcher solution for etching a substrate's surface. The acidic etcher solution includes an acid and a pH indicator, the pH indicator having at least one color transition at a pH below 7. The acidic etcher solution having an initial color at an initial pH when applied to the surface to allow determination of the evenness of the coating and the etcher having a second color at a second pH higher than the first pH wherein visual inspection allows for a determination that the etcher is substantially finished reacting.
US08133402B2
A pattern forming method includes performing a first resist development during a first time period to a substrate obtained by coating a resist film having a predetermined thickness onto a predetermined film to be etched, measuring the film thickness of the resist film after the first resist development, writing a predetermined pattern corrected in dimension on the basis of an amount of reduction in thickness of the resist film on the resist film by using a charged particle beam, performing a second resist development during a second time period which is longer than the first time period to the substrate after writing the pattern, and etching the predetermined film to be etched by using the resist film after the second resist development as a mask.
US08133387B2
The present invention is a stationary pool skimming apparatus that uses the flow of water in a pool to collect free flowing debris from the water in the pool. In one embodiment, a pool skimming apparatus for collecting debris from water in a pool includes a frame having a net attached thereto. A first end of the frame includes a compression mechanism. The compression mechanism is adapted for being connected to a skimmer port of the pool such that the frame and net extend into the pool in a manner enabling the net of the pool skimming apparatus to collect debris from the water in the pool. The compression mechanism operates in either of an inverted position and a non-inverted position.
US08133384B2
A method for heating materials by application of radio frequency (“RF”) energy is disclosed. For example, the disclosure concerns a method and apparatus for RF heating of petroleum ore, such as bitumen, oil sands, oil shale, tar sands, or heavy oil. Petroleum ore is mixed with a substance comprising mini-dipole susceptors such as carbon strands. A source is provided which applies RF energy to the mixture of a power and frequency sufficient to heat the mini-dipole susceptors. The RF energy is applied for a sufficient time to allow the mini-dipole susceptors to heat the mixture to an average temperature greater than about 212° F. (100° C.). Optionally, the mini-dipole susceptors can be removed after the desired average temperature has been achieved. The susceptors may provide advantages for the RF heating of hydrocarbons, such as higher temperatures (sufficient for distillation or pyrolysis), anhydrous processing, and greater speed or efficiency.
US08133362B2
A physical vapor deposition apparatus includes a vacuum chamber having side walls, a cathode inside the vacuum chamber, wherein the cathode is configured to include a sputtering target, a radio frequency power supply configured to apply power to the cathode, an anode inside and electrically connected to the side walls of the vacuum chamber, a chuck inside and electrically isolated from the side walls of the vacuum chamber, the chuck configured to support a substrate, a clamp configured to hold the substrate to the chuck, wherein the clamp is electrically conductive, and a plurality of conductive electrodes attached to the clamp, each electrode configured to compress when contacted by the substrate.
US08133358B2
A method and an apparatus for producing a steel wire for reinforcing an elastomeric material. The steel wire has a metal core and a coating layer made of a metal alloy material having a composition including at least one first metal component and at least one second metal component. The method includes the steps of: a) conveying the steel core along a predetermined path in a substantially continuous manner; b) co-sputtering at least one first powered cathode made of said first metal component and at least one second powered cathode made of said second metal component onto the steel core being moved along the predetermined path to obtain a coating layer made of a metal alloy material of a first composition; and c) adjusting the power provided to at least one of the first and second cathodes to obtain a coating layer made of a metal alloy material of a second composition.
US08133347B2
Workpieces in a vacuum chamber are treated by receiving a mains voltage from a voltage supply network; generating at least one intermediate circuit voltage; generating a first RF signal of a basic frequency, and of a first phase position, from the at least one intermediate circuit voltage; generating a second RF signal of the basic frequency, and of a second phase position, from the at least one intermediate circuit voltage; and coupling the first and the second signal and generating an output signal for the vacuum chamber using a 3 dB coupler.
US08133341B2
Methods of creating and transferring chemical patterns and physical patterns of deposited materials or molecules using block copolymers are provided. The methods involve providing block copolymer materials blended with one or more transfer molecules or inks. The differences in chemistry of the blocks of the copolymer that result in micro-phase separation (e.g., self-assembly into nanoscale domains) also allow inks to be sequestered into specific blocks. By designing the ink molecules to react, adsorb, or otherwise interact with a second substrate, inks are transferred to the second substrate in a pattern dictated by the pattern of block copolymer domains present at the surface of the block copolymer film.
US08133336B2
A multi-lamellar tissue-adhesive sheet comprises a structural layer or laminate conjoined to a tissue-contacting layer. The structural layer or laminate comprises one or more synthetic polymers having film-forming properties, and the tissue-contacting layer of material contains tissue-reactive groups. The synthetic polymers having film-forming properties are preferably biodegradable polyesters, and the tissue-reactive groups are most preferably NHS-ester groups.
US08133323B2
A film forming apparatus is provided with a chamber which defines a processing space for performing a film forming process to a substrate a stage arranged in the chamber for mounting the substrate thereon; a substrate heating unit arranged on the stage for heating the substrate; a shower head which is arranged to face the stage and has many gas injecting holes; a gas supply unit for supplying cooling unit arranged above the shower head for cooling the shower head; and a shower head heating unit arranged above the cooling unit for heating the shower head through the cooling unit.
US08133318B2
An epitaxially coated silicon wafer comprises a plane surface misoriented relative to a {110} crystal plane, wherein the <110> direction of the single silicon crystal is tilted away by the angle θ from the normal to the wafer surface and the projection of the tilted <110> direction forms an angle φ with the direction <−110> in the wafer, and θ is given by 0≦θ≦3° and 45°≦φ≦90°, as well as for all symmetrically equivalent directions.
US08133312B2
A dispersion having particles of a water-insoluble colorant containing at least two kinds of pigments dispersed with a dispersing agent in a medium containing water, wherein the water-insoluble colorant has a crystalline structure, and a light-scattering intensity is 30,000 cps or less, when a peak value of absorbance in the visible light region is set to 1.
US08133308B2
The various embodiments of the present invention relate to compositions, apparatus, and methods comprising sorbent fibers. More particularly, various embodiments of the present invention are directed towards sorbent fiber compositions for temperature swing adsorption processes. Various embodiments of the present invention comprise sorbent fiber compositions, apparatus comprising a plurality of sorbent fibers, and methods of using the same for the capture of at least one component from a medium, for example CO2 from flue gas.
US08133305B2
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for removing a contaminant, such as carbon dioxide, from a gas stream, such as ambient air. The contaminant is removed from the gas stream by a sorbent which may be regenerated using a humidity swing, a thermal swing, or a combination thereof. The sorbent may be a substrate having embedded positive ions and individually mobile negative ions wherein the positive ions are sufficiently spaced to prevent interactions between the negative ions. Where a thermal swing is used, heat may be conserved by employing a heat exchanger to transfer heat from the regenerated sorbent to an amount of sorbent that is loaded with the contaminant prior to regeneration.
US08133298B2
An integrated system for blast furnace iron making and power production based upon higher levels of oxygen enrichment in the blast gas is disclosed. The integrated system leads to; 1) enhanced productivity in the blast furnace, 2) more efficient power production, and 3) the potential to more economically capture and sequester carbon dioxide. Oxygen enhances the ability of coal to function as a source of carbon and to be gasified within the blast furnace thereby generating an improved fuel-containing top gas.
US08133297B2
The invention relates to novel pre-alloyed metal powders a method for production and use thereof.
US08133296B2
In order to allow a significant reduction of the steel production cost when producing stainless steel with the alloying elements chromium and nickel, according to the invention, it is proposed to perform the intermediate production of ferrochrimium and ferronickel in two separate direct reduction processes based on low-cost chromium ore and nickel ore in two SAF (3, 4) arranged in parallel on the primary side of a processing converter (6).
US08133279B2
A system for treating an annular defect of an intervertebral disc is provided. The system comprises a cannula for accessing a nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disc, an expandable spacing device, and a material delivery instrument. The expandable spacing device has a first deflated position and a second inflated position. The spacing device is sized to pass through the cannula when in the first deflated position and the spacing device has a predetermined shape in the second inflated position. The material delivery instrument is adapted to inflate the spacing device from the first deflated position to the second inflated position by injecting a biocompatible material into the spacing device. In another aspect, a method of treating at least one annular defect of an intervertebral disc is provided.
US08133276B2
A method for non-surgically treating an internal nasal valve of a patient comprising, injecting a working device into the internal nasal valve of the patient, wherein the injected working device in the nasal tissue causes an alteration of an internal or external nasal valve. A device introduced by injection into the nose, allowing for structural support or filling of defects in the nose, and causing a change in external shape of the nose. The device and inserts and implants described also have use in cosmetic applications relating to the facial tissue.
US08133273B2
An injectable intraocular implant including an optics portion and a resilient, flexible haptics portion mounted coaxially with the optics portion and a method for inserting the implant into the eye.
US08133272B2
A medical device for treating a heart having a faulty heart valve is disclosed. The medical device comprises a ligature including a first anchoring member and a second anchoring member is used. The ligature is percutaneously deployable into a patient with a faulty heart valve wherein the first anchoring member to anchor to a first tissue area of the heart and the second anchoring member to anchor to a second tissue area of the heart.
US08133270B2
The present invention satisfies the long felt need for a more compact and durable valve which may be formed in situ. The present invention provides a self-deployable valve system, a method of delivery, and a method of manufacturing for the self-deployable valve system. The present invention delivers the necessary components for forming a complete valve system in situ. The collapsed subcomponents of the system lack any functional characteristics commonly associated with a valve before being expanded. However, once expanded, the system is transformed into a competent valve for use in a wide variety of applications.
US08133268B2
A plurality of endoluminal segments axially connected by fiber bridges is disclosed. The endoluminal segments may either be balloon-expandable or self-expanding, with the preferred embodiment being superelastic nitinol. The intraluminal segments may possess a textured surface or at least one geometric feature per segment, preferably located at the apex of a strut pair comprising the intraluminal segment, preferably capable of serving as an anchoring point for the fiber bridges. These geometric features may transmit axially compressive loads during deployment from a device such as a catheter, and may further be capable of interlocking the endoluminal segments when constrained within a device such as a catheter. The fibers comprising the bridges may be polymeric, silk, collagen, bioabsorbable, or a blend thereof. The fiber network comprising the bridges may be regularly oriented, randomly oriented, localized, or continuous. Moreover, the intraluminal segments and fiber bridges may be individually impregnated with therapeutic material, or may both be impregnated with therapeutic material.
US08133264B1
A therapeutic heating sleeve (10) consisting of a laminate pad (20) with an exterior cover (22), a batting (24), a polyester lining (26), a heating wire (28) and an interior lining (30) having a hook and loop fastener (32) that is attached on the exterior cover (22) and the interior lining (30). The laminate pad (20) has a lower portion that is in the shape of a human arm and an upper portion that is in the shape of a human shoulder. The heating sleeve (10) is completed by overlapping the pad's right side onto the pad's left side and attaching the two sides with the hook and loop fastener (32), thereby forming an open-ended sleeve. An electrical control is removably attached to the laminate pad (20) for applying electrical energy to the heating wire (28), thereby creating heat for baseball pitchers to warm up their arm and shoulder prior to pitching.
US08133263B2
A connector for a spinal alignment system includes a base, a hook, a guide aperture, and a locking portion. The base includes a channel extending therethrough to receive a fixation rod. The hook extends from the base. The guide aperture is adapted to receive a bone fastener and the locking portion is adapted to engage the bone fastener. The guide aperture extends through one of the base and the hook and the locking portion is located in the other of the base and the hook. The locking portion is coaxial with the guide aperture such that the guide aperture guides a shaft of the bone fastener into alignment with the locking portion when the bone fastener is received by the guide aperture. The bone fastener cooperates with the base and hook to form a tension band construct that resists opposing forces acting on the construct. A rod locking fastener engages the channel and the fixation rod to secure the fixation rod in the channel. The rod locking fastener and the base include mating surfaces that cooperate with each other to resist the force exerted by the fixation rod onto the rod locking fastener when the fixation rod is secured in the channel.
US08133257B2
A bioabsorbable suture anchor for anchoring soft tissue to a bone is provided. The suture anchor is configured to toggle and anchor itself inside a bone cavity of a small joint. The anchor comprises an elongate body defined by a longitudinal axis, a first, leading end and a second, trailing end. The elongate body also has two opposed surfaces between the first and second ends, and a plurality of sidewalls extending between the two opposed surfaces. Extending from one of the sidewalls is a flared portion that is formed on the second end of the elongate body. The flared portion is adapted to engage and anchor into bone tissue upon toggling. A suture channel extends between the two opposed surfaces. The suture channel is formed in the elongate body for passage of a suture strand therethrough, such that pulling on an attached suture strand effects toggling of the anchor inside a bone cavity.
US08133255B2
A minimally invasive surgical assembly includes an outer hollow needle which may be used in puncturing skin to insert and advance the surgical instrument into the body, and a coaxial surgical instrument having a shaft which extends through the outer hollow needle. The outer diameter of the needle may be dimensioned such that a wound formed from the hollow needle puncturing the skin is capable of being closed independent of stitching, and may be approximately 2 mm or smaller. The coaxial surgical instrument includes end effectors at the end of the shaft which are biased to an open position such that when the end effectors of the surgical instrument extend out of the needle they open, and they are closed by relative movement of the needle over them. The assembly preferably includes a first fixing element which is used to fix the relative location of the surgical instrument and the needle. The assembly also preferably includes a second fixing element which moves relative to the needle and is located on the outside thereof and which is used to fix the relative location of the needle to the patient.
US08133253B2
A covered vascular filter can be placed in a blood vessel, for the purpose of intercepting thrombus. The filter may be introduced to a desired site for medical treatment through a catheter which defines a lumen or passage and a distal port or opening. The filter tends to resiliently expand from a compressed shape when it is inside the catheter lumen, to an expanded shape when the filter is pushed from the catheter lumen. A cover or sleeve over those portions of the filter that would otherwise contact the vessel wall tends to reduce pressure on the vessel wall. The sleeve also tends to resist growth of the vessel wall among the elements of the filter, called endothelialization. In other words, the sleeve resists incorporation of the filter elements into the vessel wall, enabling the filter to be retrievable for a longer time. The various features of the present invention may be used singly or in any combination, as desired in a particular vascular filter.
US08133250B2
The present invention provides medical devices comprising nanocomposite materials. By utilizing nanocomposites in the production thereof, the inventive medical devices can be produced with various advantageous properties. Methods of producing the inventive medical devices are also provided. Inasmuch as the inventive devices are expected to provide certain advantages in their use, there is also provided a method of medical care including methods of treatment or diagnosis, wherein the inventive devices are brought into therapeutic contact with a body to be treated or diagnosed thereby.
US08133249B2
Various methods and devices for dilating strictures in a lumen are provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a stricture dilation device is provided having an elongate shaft with at least one electrically expandable actuator coupled thereto and adapted to radially expand to dilate a stricture in a lumen.
US08133243B2
A device for unblocking an occlusion (3) in an occluded vessel (2) comprises a catheter (5) having an inflatable balloon (19) located at a distal leading end (8) thereof so that by inflating the balloon (19) the leading end of the catheter (5) may be anchored in the occluded vessel (2) or in a vessel adjacent the occluded vessel (2) with the leading end adjacent the occlusion (3). A guide wire (12) terminating in a pointed distal tip (18) is urgeable through a bore (10) in the catheter (5) for engaging and penetrating through the occlusion (3). A leading portion (17) of the guide wire (12) is externally threaded at (26), and is engageable with an internally threaded portion (25) of the bore (10) adjacent a leading portion (9) of the catheter (5), so that when the catheter (5) is anchored by the balloon (19) with the leading portion (9) of the catheter (5) adjacent and abutting the occlusion (3) with the external threads (26) of the guide wire (12) engaging the internal threads (25) of the catheter (5), rotation of the guide wire (12) urges the distal tip (18) of the guide wire (12) into engagement with the occlusion (3) and to penetrate through the occlusion (3).
US08133241B2
The present invention relates to a one-step fastening device, a process for creating a fastener utilizing such a device, and the end fastener produced thereby. In this regard, the invention uses an outer, hollow fastener material that can be partially compressed under tension at designated areas (i.e., a compression member) and an inner activation or tensioning member. The compression of the outer fastener material occurs at one or more flexible areas or compression features specifically located on the longitudinal axis of the material. As a result, the outer compression member is capable of being distorted or bent under tension to produce a predetermined configuration. The device described herein has the ability to form specific and controllable fasteners of designated shapes and configurations. Methods for fastening, snaring, gripping, cutting, and manipulating material using the device in a confined space are also provided.
US08133240B2
Spring clips are arranged end to end in a cavity of an inner shaft. Such shaft slides within an outer shaft, and a pusher member slides in the cavity behind the clips. The clips have jaws biased together, but which are wedged apart by an opener as the pusher is moved distally. An opened clip is ejected by relative movement of the inner and outer shafts to clamp body tissue at a desired site.
US08133237B2
Tools and methods are provided for removing biological units from a body surface utilizing a removal tool. The tools may incorporate retention members and mechanisms configured to impede movement of the biological unit in the direction of a distal end of the tool and to improve retention of the biological unit in the tool. Some of the retention members are stationary and some are movable within the lumen of the biological unit removal tools. The distal tips of the tools are desirably configured to reduce the chance of transection of a biological unit, such as by including both cutting segments and blunt relief segments. A number of dual concentric tube embodiments permit a division of removal functions. Distal fluid or gas delivery may supplement a vacuum in a luminal space to help extract biological units from surrounding tissue.
US08133235B2
An orthopedic tool having a one-way lock bearing and a one-way actuator bearing for tensioning surgical cables around a bone and a method for using the same.
US08133230B2
A method for correcting an angular deformity in a bone includes inserting a guide wire within a physis of a bone having an angular deformity, the physis extending between a first side the bone on which the guide wire is inserted and an opposing second side of the bone. The guide wire is used to guide a link to the physis. The link is then secured to the first side of the bone so that the link spans across the physis and restricts the growth of the physeal tissue of the physis on the first side of the bone. The physis is then allowed to generate more physeal tissue on the second side of the bone than on the first side of the bone so that the angular deformity of the bone is reduced.
US08133229B1
An improved method of performing surgery on a joint in a patient's body, such as a knee, includes making an incision in a knee portion of one leg while a lower portion of the one leg is extending downward from an upper portion of the one leg and while a foot connected with the lower portion of the one leg is below a support surface on which the patient is disposed. The incision is relatively short, for example, between seven and thirteen centimeters. A patella may be offset from its normal position with an inner side of the patella facing inward during cutting of a bone with a cutting tool. During cutting of the bone, one or more guide members having opposite ends which are spaced apart by a distance less than the width of an implant may be utilized to guide movement of a cutting tool.
US08133221B2
Methods for treating anatomic tissue defects such as patent foramen ovale (PFO) generally involve positioning a distal end of an elongate catheter device at the site of the anatomic defect, exposing an expandable housing and energy transmission member out of the distal end of the catheter device, engaging the housing with tissues at the site of the anatomic defect, applying suction to the tissues via the housing to bring the tissues together; and applying energy to the tissues with the energy transmission member to substantially close the anatomic defect acutely. Apparatus generally include an elongate catheter body, a housing extending from a distal end of the catheter body for engaging tissues at the site of the anatomic defect, and an energy transmission member adjacent a distal end of the housing, the energy transmission member having at least one substantially planar surface.
US08133220B2
A catheter for measuring electrical activity and ablating tissue is provided. The catheter comprises an elongated generally-tubular catheter body. A non-retractable electrode assembly is mounted at the distal end of the catheter body. The electrode assembly comprises a generally tubular ablation electrode formed of a material having shape-memory having a generally straight exposed region and at least one irrigation port in the exposed region through which fluid can pass from the inside to the outside of the ablation electrode. The exposed region is generally transverse to the catheter body. The electrode assembly further comprises a tip at the distal end of the electrode assembly comprising a generally ball-shaped exposed region. First and second distal mapping electrodes are mounted distal to the exposed region of the ablation electrode. At least the first distal mapping electrode, and optionally the second distal mapping electrode, is incorporated into the generally ball-shaped exposed region of the tip. The catheter further comprises an infusion tube extending through the catheter body and having a distal end in fluid communication with the proximal end of the ablation electrode.
US08133218B2
A medical device system and method provide an RF electrosurgical generator coupled to an electrosurgical electrode via a patient box disposed in close proximity to the patient. An RF signal is delivered from the generator to the patient box where signal power is increased and the RF signal delivered to the electrosurgical electrode. The patient box is coupled to the electrosurgical electrode by a short cable capable of carrying an HV, high frequency 5 MHz signal without leakage. An electrical characteristic associated with the electrosurgical electrode is monitored and a desired RF power output and duty cycle maintained by adjusting DC input voltage applied to an RF amplifier, responsive to the monitoring. The system determines when the electrosurgical cutting electrode has started cutting and switches from a start mode to a run mode having a different RF duty cycle and a reduced RF power output controlled by a servo system.
US08133215B2
A drug delivery system for an implantable medical device and methods for making and using the same. Embodiments include a housing of an implantable component of the medical device and one or more at least quasi-solid drug-delivery modules that retain an at least quasi-solid state if not a solid state. The drug-delivery modules and component housing are physically distinct, and as such, may be manufactured independently of each other. The independently-manufacturable drug delivery modules each carry a drug, while the component housing has an exterior surface with one or more recesses formed therein. Associated module(s) and recess(es) are correspondingly dimensioned so that each module may be securely retained within an associated recess via, for example, an interference fit such as by physical interlocking or by friction fit. When so retained in a housing recess, the drug-delivery module and surrounding exterior surface of the housing form a contiguous component surface.
US08133208B2
An injection control device having a metered/controlled injection rate proportional to the rate of withdrawal/injection, suitable for cosmetic as well as other applications is described. For example, after the cannula is advanced into an object, the cannula is withdrawn to create a tract or tunnel within the targeted area. As the cannula is withdrawn, filler material in the injection control device is uniformly deposited into the tract or tunnel via the automatic metering system. The automatic metering system incorporates a syringe activating mechanism coupled to a system which is capable of proportioning the deposition rate to the retraction/injection rate of the cannula. Accordingly, more consistent and uniform distribution of the material injected can be achieved with less cannula passes as well as requiring less dependence on the skills of the practitioner of this device.
US08133206B2
A safety intravenous catheter assembly includes a needle, a catheter hub having an axial bore extending through the catheter hub and a notch extending outwardly in the axial bore, a needle cover, and a notch clip connected to the needle cover. The notch clip is selectively maintained adjacent the needle throughout a range of positions from being in forceful contact with the needle to being generally spaced from the needle and selectively maintained adjacent the catheter hub throughout a range of positions from being in forceful contact with the catheter hub to being generally spaced from the catheter hub to lock the catheter hub to the needle cover while being operable to move the needle relative to the notch clip in a near frictionless relationship.
US08133204B1
A dispensing device for dispensing medicaments to a patient comprising a plurality of threadably interconnectable sub-assemblies. One of these sub-assemblies houses a novel collapsible fluid reservoir defining component that is carried by a carriage while another comprises a fluid delivery and control assembly that includes a novel flow control means that functions to control the flow of medicinal fluid from the fluid reservoir of the collapsible reservoir defining component toward the patient via a plurality of fluid flow control passageways. In one form of the invention the collapsible fluid reservoir is filled at time of manufacture. In another form of the invention the collapsible fluid reservoir can be filled in the field using a syringe assembly.
US08133201B1
A template for identifying a specific location for insertion of a hypodermic injection device to inject insulin at specific areas of an abdomen. It comprises a flexible sheet having at least top and bottom edges and first and second lateral edges. The exterior face has a hole and at least one legend. The at least one legend comprises a calendar reference and first and second marking holes. The exterior face further comprises at least one offset hole at a predetermined distance from the hole. The calendar reference defines dates or days of a week. The calendar reference is positioned in between the first and second marking holes. The first and second marking holes serve as identifying means for identifying a specific location for insertion of a hypodermic injection device to inject insulin at specific areas of an abdomen in between the first and second marking holes.
US08133194B2
The present invention includes a comprehensive replacement fluid system and method for the delivery of regional citrate anticoagulation (RCA) to extracorporeal blood circuits, wherein the system may include an online clearance monitor (OCM) and a circuit effluent online sensor system (OSS) for the continuous determination of patient plasma content of ultrafilterable solutes.
US08133192B2
The present invention relates to a massage device, and more particularly, to a leg and foot massage device capable of achieving foot swing. The device includes an electrical machinery deceleration element, a wobbler machine element and an air inflatable bag massage element. The electrical machinery deceleration element drives the air inflatable bag massage element through the wobbler machine element, and the electrical machinery realizes the one-off deceleration. Therefore mechanical transmission steps are simplified and transmission noise obviously dropped, wobbler machine element cooperates with air inflatable bags' inflation and deflation, generating many kinds of different massage motions and obtaining a comprehensive massage effect on leg and feet muscles and joints.
US08133191B2
The invention provides methods and apparatuses for the treatment of adipose tissue. The methods comprise application of ultrasound energy to a region of adipose tissue, and the apparatuses comprise at least one source of ultrasound energy configured to direct ultrasound energy through a skin surface into the subcutaneous adipose tissue. In one embodiment, a pressure gradient is created in the region generating relative movement between fat cell constituents having different densities. In another embodiment, a protrusion of skin and underlying adipose tissue containing is formed and ultrasound energy is radiated into the adipose tissue in the protrusion. In another embodiment, an RF electric field is generated inside a region of adipose tissue together with the ultrasound energy.
US08133190B2
A coupling wire guide structured to be slidably coupled to a previously introduced wire guide. The coupling wire guide includes a main body and a coupling tip, the coupling tip having first and second sections. The first section is connected to the main body, while the second section defines an axial passageway having a distal opening and a proximal opening. The axial passageway is sized to receive the previously introduced wire guide therein. Both a distal portion of the main body and the first section are constructed of nitinol, the distal portion and the first section being welded together using the native nitinol material of the distal portion and first section.
US08133186B2
In an implantable sensor lead for sensing mechanical cardiac activity of a heart, as well as a sensing method and a cardiac stimulator embodying such a sensor lead, multiple cardiac activity sensing elements are distributed along a portion of a length of the lead body of the implantable lead. The sensing elements sense or detect mechanical cardiac activity and respectively emit electrical signals corresponding to the detected mechanical cardiac activity. The delivery of cardiac stimulation pulses can be controlled dependent on an analysis of the detected mechanical cardiac activity.
US08133184B2
A method for performing an in-vivo calibration of a blood pressure sensor that is associated with a balloon of an in-vivo balloon system, the sensor and balloon being associated such that the sensor is in-vivo when the balloon is in-vivo. The balloon is inflated so that a gas pressure in the balloon system is indicative of a patient's blood pressure. The patient's blood pressure is monitored through two channels, the gas pressure and the sensor. The blood pressure measurements obtained by monitoring the gas pressure are used as reference, or “true,” blood pressure measurements to determine a mathematical relationship between blood pressure measurements obtained through the sensor and the reference blood pressure measurements. In this manner, future blood pressure measurements obtained through the sensor can be modified according to the mathematical relationship to generate calibrated blood pressure measurements.
US08133183B2
This invention describes methods for processing pressure signals derivable from locations inside or outside a human or animal body or body cavity. The major aspect of the invention relates to methods for obtaining new and improved information from said pressure signals. The analysis output of said method may be presented in a variety of ways such as numerical values; trend plots of numerical values, histogram presentations or as a quantitative matrix, the presentation as a quantitative matrix is highlighted. Thereby completely new information about pressures is obtained. In particular, information about intracranial compliance is derived from the intracranial pressure (ICP) signal itself.
US08133163B2
A barrel formed from a sheet of blank material includes a plurality of side wall panels for forming sides of the barrel including a front panel, a rear panel, two opposing end panels, and at least one diagonal corner panel, at least one bottom flap for forming a bottom of the barrel, and a plurality of top flaps for forming a top of the barrel including a top front flap foldably connected to the front panel, a top rear flap foldably connected to the rear panel, and two opposing top end flaps each foldably connected to one of the end panels. The top front flap and the top rear flap include at least one closure slot. Each of the two opposing top end flaps includes at least one locking finger. The locking fingers are inserted within the closure slots for securing the top of the barrel in a closed position.
US08133162B2
A ring, preferably in the form of a lock nut, made for combi rolls, which ring includes at least one spring device in which a mechanical compression spring is included that acts between, on one hand, a front press body that is movable to and fro in order to constantly forward a spring force generated by the compression spring and, on the other hand, a support body, which may assume a fixed position, but which is adjustably movable by way of a screw in order to alter the tension in the compression spring.
US08133148B2
A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting devices. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting devices include clutches and brakes.
US08133143B2
A compact gear reducer electric motor assembly with an internal brake disclosed and claimed wherein a high speed electric motor is interconnected with a gear reducer having substantial gear reduction. The assembly includes a spindle, a brake mounted substantially within said high speed electric motor and operable against a spring biasing said brake into engagement with ground. The brake is electrically actuated to permit transmission of energy to the gear reducer. The gear reducer includes an input, intermediate and output planetary stages. The input and intermediate stages residing within the spindle, and, the output planetary stage drives an output ring gear. Releasing means for releasing the output ring gear from the brake allowing rotation thereof.
US08133134B2
A golf club head has a face portion and a body portion. The face portion has a support frame, a matrix structure attached to and contained within the support frame, and a face material surrounding the matrix structure. In some aspects, the matrix structure may be a racquet structure that is tensioned to influence performance characteristics. The face material may be a metal, polymer, ceramic, or a combination thereof, and may be encapsulated over the matrix structure by suitable techniques such as coating, dipping, or molding processes such as injection molding or metal injection molding (MIM). In some aspects, the face material is lighter than the body portion of the club head, to concentrate mass away from the striking face, e.g., as in cup face technology.
US08133131B1
Disclosed herein is a golf club including a shaft, a club head and several devices for releasably connecting the shaft to the club head.
US08133130B2
A golf club incorporating an interchangeable shaft system includes a shaft, a shaft sleeve, a club head and a fastener. The shaft sleeve is coupled to an end of the shaft and is received in a hosel included in the club head. The fastener retains the shaft sleeve in the hosel. Hosel and shaft sleeve alignment features are provided that provide discreet orientations between the shaft and club head.
US08133120B2
Method and system are disclosed for conducting a wagering game having increased excitement and enjoyment over existing wagering games. The method and system involve a bank of wagering game terminals connected to a bank controller. Each wagering game terminal allows players to play a basic wagering game that is independent of other wagering game terminals. The wagering game terminals also allow players to play a bonus game where players take turns playing to win a portion of a jackpot. The portion awarded to each player may be the actual amount won by that player, or it may be a percentage of the entire jackpot based on the actual amount won by the player relative to other players. In one implementation, only players at wagering game terminals that exceed a minimum level of wagering activity may play the bonus game.
US08133107B2
Aspects of the present inventions concern methods and devices for operating a Bingo game. Such aspects include: assigning to each of a first set of real or virtual balls a number selected from a group within a predetermined numerical sequence; assigning a non-numerical designation to only a second set of real or virtual balls within the predetermined numerical sequence, wherein the second set of real or virtual balls is a subset of the first set of real or virtual balls; providing each of one or more players with at least one real or virtual player card having a randomly assigned field of spaces each space of which includes a number within the predetermined numerical sequence given for the first set of real or virtual balls, wherein there are fewer spaces than numbers in the predetermined numerical sequence.
US08133103B2
An amusement center has at least one game cell. The game cell has a first video game console system including at least one controller; a first projection screen; a first video game; and a first decor themed to correspond to the subject matter of the first video game.
US08133091B2
A bra comprising two bra cups is defined. Each bra cup preferably comprises an outermost fabric layer and an innermost fabric layer and at least one intermediate layer intermediate of the outermost fabric layer and the innermost layer. The outermost fabric layer at at least part of at least one of the neckline edge region and underarm edge region of each cup is folded over the intermediate layer and secured at the inner side of the breast cup, preferably joined to the innermost layer through ultrasonic welding. The folded-over portion of the outermost layer is contiguous with and does not overlap the innermost layer. The intermediate layer extends beyond the innermost layer at the neckline edge region and the underarm edge region so that a reduction in thickness is defined at the neckline edge region and the underarm edge region. A method of making the same is also provided.
US08133090B2
A toy product including a doll and a display device that may be used with the doll is disclosed. The doll may have one or more movable features and may be releasably coupled to the display device. The display device may include an actuating assembly and a folding assembly with enclosure pieces that may alternately enclose and reveal the doll within the display device. The assemblies may communicate with each other and with movable features of the doll through selectively actuable components. A locking member may engage and releasably retain the folding assembly in a retracted position and may return the folding assembly to an extended position upon disengagement. In the embodiments in which the enclosure pieces resemble flower petals, the movement of the enclosure pieces may have the effects of a flower bloom closing and opening up to respectively surround and reveal the doll.
US08133078B2
An electrical connector includes a housing and a set of first terminals for eSATA and a set of second terminals for USB. The housing defines a mating cavity with a front opening and a mating tongue in the mating cavity, the mating tongue defines a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. Each of the first terminals includes a first contacting section disposed on the first mating face, a second contacting section bending from the first contacting section to be in the second mating face and a leg portion. Each of the second contacts includes a contacting section disposed on the second mating face and a leg portion.
US08133073B2
A headset is provided which comprises a cable (100) having a plug (110) coupled to the first end of a cable (100), a connector (140) coupled to the second end of a cable, a housing (130) arranged between the first and second end of the cable and a cable section (120) between the plug (110) and the housing (130). The plug (110) comprises at least one pin and six terminals (110a-100f). The cable section (120) comprises four wires (121, 123, 125, 126) and two screens (122, 124). The housing (130) comprises a connecting unit (134) having a switching unit (136) which is connected to the four wires (121, 123, 125, 126) and the two screens (122, 124) and the soldering areas (135) to which wires of the headset can be coupled. The switching unit (136) is adapted to switch between at least two wiring settings connecting the four wires as well as the two screens (122, 124) to the soldering areas (135).
US08133070B2
A SATA electrical connector extends a lateral rib and a longitudinal guiding portion from a base surface of an insulator. The insulator and the terminals have intimate engagements, for minimizing height and width of the entire structure. The electrical connector can be joined to another electrical connector for forming an electrical connector assembly.
US08133057B2
A method for providing training media to a mobile device involves obtaining a training media file selected from multiple training media files, based on user metadata, and communicating the training media file to the mobile device, where the user metadata is associated with a user of the mobile device, and where the training media file includes training information associated with a job function of the user.
US08133056B2
A pre-writing teaching aid and method assists beginning writers in creating letters. The teaching aid includes a tray having a recessed area surrounded by a tray frame. A plurality of cards respectively depict alphanumeric characters, where each of the cards includes a start indicator designating a starting point for forming the depicted character. The students use dough having a consistency that is moldable into strips for forming the alphanumeric characters depicted on the cards in the tray. The teaching aid utilizes multi-sensory teaching methods to make it easy and fun for students to form letters and numbers correctly.
US08133055B2
Disclosed is a refreshable Braille display device comprised of a rotary character display assembly which can display a refreshable Braille character in the plane of the rotary display assembly. Also disclosed is a method of displaying a refreshable Braille character.
US08133050B2
A dental appliance and a method for correcting the arch shape and/or size of a patient by utilizing existing tooth shapes and sizes are provided. A method for correcting the position of the arch and/or teeth of a person is also provided either by a computer program or manually. Also provided is a method for correcting the position of teeth in the mouth, erupting teeth and/or teeth expected to erupt by utilizing existing tooth shapes and sizes and/or group standards. The dental appliance may be formed manually from altered models of the patient or may be formed from models made by stereolithography from a computer image. Further, the dental appliance may be made directly from laser-scanned models by stereolithography. Further, the dental appliances may have teeth sockets which may accept either a single tooth or multiple teeth. The teeth sockets may be formed to match the corresponding tooth of the patient identically or may be formed to correct the position of the tooth into the proper location. The teeth sockets may be sized based on predictions of the size and/or shape of the teeth which have not erupted. In addition, a series of appliances may be used to correct and/or guide the teeth of a patient into the proper location over a prolonged period of time. The dental appliance may correct, for example, rotations, spacing, crowding, overjet and/or overbite.
US08133041B2
A high pressure pump for use in the injection of liquid chemicals into subsea oil or gas wells, and intended to be positioned in the subsea environment adjacent to the wellhead, comprises a piezoelectric actuator (19) for reciprocating a plunger (22) which acts to compress and expand the effective volume of a pumping chamber (29) having a valved inlet (15) connected to a source of the liquid and a valved outlet (16) to lead the liquid to the well. The device has a minimum of moving parts and in particular avoids the need for any rotating parts and attendant high performance bearings and seals.
US08133038B2
A hermetic compressor having a frame, a cylinder provided at one side of the frame and having a compression chamber, a cylinder head coupled to the cylinder so as configured to hermetically seal the compression chamber and having a refrigerant discharge chamber to receive a refrigerant discharged from the compression chamber, a damping discharge chamber provided at the other side of the frame, a discharge guide path formed in the frame connecting the refrigerant discharge chamber and the damping discharge chamber, a discharge pipe having an entrance end connected to the damping discharge chamber, and an extension tube provided in the damping discharge chamber. The extension tube has an entrance end connected to an exit end of the discharge guide path, an exit end being spaced apart from an entrance end of the discharge pipe.
US08133036B2
A low pressure fluid powered motor or pump comprises a non-rotatable cover (k); an undulating lobe cam track (e) attached to the cover (k) and defining multiple crests and troughs; a rotatable cylinder block (c); at least three reciprocating pistons (d) each housed within a bore of the cylinder block (c) and each providing at one end a crown (d1), and at the other end a spherical seating cup (d2); a ball (f), adapted to engage with the cam track (e); a non-rotatable manifold block (n) incorporating a plurality of ports (s), each being radially disposed at equal intervals in an end face of the manifold block adjacent the pistons (d), with the ports (s) linked to galleries connected to a higher pressure delivery circuit, and a lower pressure return circuit, with the angular arrangement of the ports (s) being such that the higher pressure is supplied to the crown (d1) of each piston (d) only while the piston (d) is moving from a crest to a trough of the cam track (e), with a switch to the lower fluid pressure circuit as continued rotation of the cylinder block (c) moves a piston (d) from a trough to a crest; an output/input shaft (a) connected to the cylinder block (c); and a rotary shaft-mounted, spring biased commutation, multi-ported face plate (i) interposed between the cylinder block and the manifold block.
US08133030B2
An article of manufacture having a nominal profile substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth in a table. The table selected from the TABLE. Wherein X and Y are distances in inches which, when connected by smooth continuing arcs, define airfoil profile sections at each distance Z in inches. The profile sections at the Z distances being joined smoothly with one another to form a complete airfoil shape.
US08133027B2
A propeller system includes a propeller hub which supports a multiple of propeller blades. A tailshaft extends from a propeller hub portion of the propeller hub along an axis of rotation with a propeller pitch change yoke mounted within the propeller hub for movement along an axis of rotation to change a pitch of the multiple of propeller blades, the propeller pitch change yoke in sliding engagement with the tailshaft.
US08133013B2
A stage of a turbine or compressor for a turbomachine including at least a vane disk surrounded with a sectorized ring supported by a casing and including a circumferential flange radially clamped on a rail of the casing by substantially C-shaped cross-section locks which are axially engaged on the casing rail and the flange of the ring is disclosed. The inner and outer walls of each lock includes radial bearing surfaces on the flange of the ring and the casing rail, respectively. The bearing surfaces only extend on a part of the width of the lock.
US08132995B2
A book binding machine includes a book block transport system and a plurality of clamps for clamping stacks of leaves. The clamps are disposed at a distance from each other and are guided in guide tracks of a machine frame. The book block transport system includes a clamp, which is also referred to as a lubrication clamp, having a device for lubricating the guide track. An applicator is assigned to each track roller of the clamp, and the lubricant is transferred to the track rollers through the use of a respective applicator such as a brush. The track rollers transfer the lubricant to contact surfaces of the guide track. A lubrication clamp for a book block transport system in a book binding machine, is also provided.
US08132994B2
A punching processing unit punches holes in a paper bundle delivered from a preprocessing device. A bookbinding unit includes a cartridge for stocking a plurality of rings, and performs a ring binding by binding the paper bundle with the rings. A detecting unit detects an abnormality of a ring in the cartridge. A control unit exchanges a signal with the preprocessing unit each time when detection information obtained by the detecting unit changes. When any one of the rings is determined as abnormal and an execution of ring binding is set, the control unit inhibits the ring binding.
US08132989B2
A drill achieves a long tool life while improving a property for discharging chips. The drill includes: a columnar body which is rotated about an axis; a plurality of cutting edges each being formed at a tip end portion of the body; and a plurality of thinning edges each being formed in conjunction with the cutting edge nearer the axis by providing thinnings at the tip end portion of the body. At least one of the plurality of thinning edges is provided with a concave portion that is formed by cutting the thinning edge to be recessed in a semicircular shape toward the rear side in the rotational direction, and a center of the semicircular-shaped concave portion is provided on a line extended from the tip end portion of the thinning edge when viewed from a tip end direction of the body.
US08132987B2
A method for remediating land contaminated by a combustible material, in particular, land contaminated with non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs), which includes the steps of locating a subterranean volume of combustible material such as a DNAPL in land to be remediated, and igniting the combustible material to combust the material and thereby remediate the land. By monitoring combustion of the material, combustion may be optimised by, for example, supplying an oxidant or a combustion suppressant.
US08132986B2
A water ballasted wave attenuator is provided. The water ballasted wave attenuator includes (a) a hollow shell formed of reinforced concrete; (b) a flotation medium in the upper region of the shell (a); (c) a water ballast chamber disposed in the lower region of the interior of the shell; (d) at least one water vent connecting the water ballast chamber with the exterior of the shell; and (e) at least one air vent connecting the water ballast chamber with the exterior of the shell, the at least one air vent including an outlet located higher than the at least one water vent.
US08132983B2
In a riding concrete finishing trowel, a stabilizer is operatively disposed between the frame and either the gearbox or a structure that is coupled to the gearbox so as reduce the effects of rotor assembly vibration on the trowel. In one embodiment, the stabilizer takes the form of a gas spring located between the frame and the pitch control post. The stabilizer may be located relatively close to the top of the pitch control post so as to take advantage of the mechanical advantage offered by the spacing between that location and the gearbox.
US08132979B2
The invention is an assembly for use in construction. In one embodiment, the invention is an assembly for connecting structural elements including an engaging member, a coupling member, and an elongate member. In another embodiment, the invention is a manifold assembly for use in construction including a manifold, an engaging member, and an elongate member. In yet another embodiment, the invention is structural assembly having dynamic constructive elements, manifolds, and a controller, wherein the controller regulates the environment within cavities of the dynamic constructive elements and conduits of the manifolds.
US08132974B2
An image generating apparatus includes a print portion printing a paper, a platen roller arranged so as to be opposed to the print portion, a heat radiating member mounted on the print portion, radiating heat generated in the print portion, integrally provided with a plate-like support shaft as an axis of rotation and rotatable in a direction for coming into pressure contact with or separating from the platen roller, a regulating member regulating movement of the print portion in a printing direction of the paper, a chassis having a hole-shaped bearing receiving the plate-like support shaft, and a side plate mounted on the chassis.
US08132958B2
A method and apparatus for substantially simultaneously mixing two fluids to form a mixture for application to a substrate.
US08132957B2
The kneading disc segment according to the present invention comprises plural disc sets each comprising two kneading discs and mounted on a kneading screw (3) which is for kneading a material while feeding the material to a downstream side. Disc sets each comprising a first kneading disc positioned on an upstream side and a second kneading disc, the second kneading disc being mounted continuously with and downstream of the first kneading disc so as to have a phase difference δ of an acute angle relative to the first kneading disc, are disposed continuously in the axial direction of the kneading screw. The first kneading discs in two continuous disc sets have a phase difference of 180°. With this construction, it is possible to attain a higher degree of kneading than in the conventional neutral kneading disc segment.
