US08360870B2
A distributed computer system is provided for collecting player information. Further, a scoring system is provided that rates a player based on one or more elements of the collected information. Players may be rated with respect to a number of characteristics. Responsive to a determined rating or score, action may be taken by the distributed system with regard to the player. For instance, the player may be provided a complimentary offer, provided an award, and invitation to come to a gambling location, presented an advertisement, or other action may be performed involving the player. Further, the distributed computer system may permit a player to manage their frequent player accounts and receive complimentary offers based on a set of criteria specified by the player.
US08360869B2
A progressive processing engine is disclosed for a multi-site casino or resort wide promotional winners selection. The system selects a winner based on playing with a card at a table game or slot machine, or just being at an active slot machine, opened table game, or other activity within a resort.
US08360868B2
A method for playing a game tournament having a progressive prize of an initial value, a minimal required number of players, at least one qualifying criteria, and a predetermined number of consecutive results complying with the at least one qualifying criteria required in order to win the progressive prize or part thereof, said method comprising: the required number of players providing payment including an ante to be added to the progressive prize; playing at least one tournament of the game until an at least one player achieves an at least one qualifying criteria; the at least one player winning the progressive prize or part thereof if he or she met the at least one qualifying criteria for at least the predetermined number of consecutive tournaments.
US08360866B2
According to an embodiment, a video game is capable of providing offer to player of the video game. For example, the video game can provide to the player an offer to receive a particular virtual item (a virtual object or a virtual service delivered in the video game) in exchange for a particular price. The time at which the offer is provided to the player can be governed by the status in the game of the player character of the player.
US08360865B2
Systems and methods are provided for providing a service to a player using a player device. A indication of a player identifier which corresponds to a player of a gaming device is received. A player device is provided to the player. A service to provide the player is determined based on a gaming activity of the player, and the service is then provided to the player using the player device.
US08360862B2
Described herein are processes and devices that integrate social contact identifiers into wagering games. One of the devices described is a social contact identifier integrator. The social contact identifier integrator can display one or more elements of a wagering game, such as graphics that are part of, or connected to, the wagering game. A player of the wagering game can have a social network account that has one or more related social network accounts, such as friends or acquaintances. The social contact identifier integrator selects a social contact identifier from one of the related social network accounts and integrates the social contact identifier into the wagering game. The social contact identifier integrator can also determine and assign rewards to the player or to the related social network account whose social contact identifier appeared in the wagering game.
US08360858B2
A system and method are provided for rewarding players of games of chance. The game of chance may include, for example, a lottery-type game or a casino game. Individuals are provided the opportunity to earn extra rewards by forming teams or special groups of individuals; the team or special group must perform a particular task to obtain the extra reward. Such methods may help to maintain or increase the interest of a frequent lottery or game player, may provide a new or different incentive to attract new players, and may offer a means for a game operator to differentiate its player's club or rewards program from those of other operators. These organizations may include bingo hall operators (such as churches, senior centers, and charitable organizations), lottery agencies (such as those of United States of America state governments, or multi-state agencies like those for PowerBall and the Big Game, and Native American nations), and on-line and/or land-based casinos.
US08360853B2
A game machines has a back side display unit composed of reels for displaying back patterns, and a front side display unit composed of transparent EL panels for displaying overlapping patterns overlapping with the back patterns. The back side display unit and the front side display unit are disposed not to produce blind spot regions of the back patterns. The game machine can provide various overlapping patterns with good visibility and a high game selection capability to a player.
US08360846B1
A console is described, having display means, and game control means arranged to control images displayed on the display means, the game control means being arranged to play a game in which one or more symbols are randomly selected as a combination of symbols and displayed on the display means. If a winning combination results, the machine awards a prize. In some circumstances, the console will display an animated character to communicate information to the player. The character is independent of and appears asynchronously with respect to the game being played and is arranged to appear super imposed over any game screen currently displayed at the time the character is displayed.
US08360837B2
Embodiments for a system and method for establishing a plurality of MMA fantasy leagues to a plurality of participants utilizing an automated web-based platform are disclosed. In each embodiment, participants register into the web-based platform in order to create or join a fantasy league organized to play an MMA fantasy fighter game in accordance with game rules, including scoring metrics based on the outcomes of real-world MMA fight events; holding period, transactional (add/drop), or fight quantity restrictions; a predefined course of time; and a predefined method of victory. Participants can draft fighters from real-world MMA fighters to create fantasy teams. Depending on embodiment, league winners may be determined by total points scored throughout the season or just during a final playoff period.
US08360835B2
The present invention provides a system that creates virtual events within a virtual world. A virtual event may be akin to a real event, but is completely computer generated within a computer-generated world and is based on statistical measures, either real world or created. Numerous characteristics about the competitors and the competition location parameters are available before a competition event. Based on the known parameters about the location of an event and the characteristics of the participants and their historical past performances in similar events enable bettors to make informed wagers on an event that greatly enhances the satisfaction and involvement in a competition event. As such, Histories of virtual events are maintained on actual virtual performance data of competitors in the virtual world. The histories can include all relevant virtual data about a competitor and the past events the competitor competed. Individuals throughout the real-world may place wagers (e.g., bets) on the outcome of either a pari-mutuel event or a fixed odds event, utilizing either pari-mutuel, exchange wagering or fixed odds wagering systems. The virtual event may be any type of sport, or skill based game that is usually between competitors.
US08360831B2
A sanding tool includes a hand-held tool body, and a sanding arrangement which has a plurality of elongated sanding grooves spacedly provided at an outer circumferential side of the tool body and longitudinally extended from the first side of the tool body to the second side thereof. Each of the sanding grooves has two open ends formed at the first and second sides of the tool body respectively, and a concave-sanding surface defining two arc-sanding faces therealong, such that when the tool body is held for contacting a rough portion of the workpiece with one of the arc-sanding faces, the tool body is adapted to impart reciprocating movement for sanding the rough portion of the workpiece along the respective sanding groove.
US08360822B2
Methods and devices for machining a die plate of an extruder for pelletization are provided. The device can include a grinding wheel with a grinding surface rotatably disposed on a drive mechanism of a cutter head associated with the extruder. The grinding surface can include a hard coating aligned with the die plate.
US08360805B2
The present disclosure relates to a multiple coaxial connector (30) having a female connector part and a cable-side male connector part (31,33). The male connector part (31) comprises at least one single-row or double-row connector bank (2) having a housing (6), which has a base body (8) having openings (9) accessible from one or two sides, which are used for receiving individual connectors (4,5).
US08360804B1
In one embodiment, a retaining mechanism for a high definition multimedia interface connection that can aid in preventing inadvertent separation of a high definition multimedia interface cable with a device to which it is connected.
US08360801B2
This is directed to systems and methods for detecting the insertion of a plug in a device port without physically contacting the plug. For example, systems and methods are provided for detecting the insertion of an audio plug into an audio jack without using physical contacts placed in the periphery of the audio jack. In some embodiments, an electrically conductive element (e.g., a circuit board trace) can be provided on a surface of the port or within the port wall. When a metallic or conductive plug is inserted into the port, the plug can interact with the conductive element and cause a change in capacitance or induction detected by appropriate circuitry coupled to the conductive element. In some embodiments, an optical sensor can be used to detect a plug placed in a port. In some embodiments, the electronic device can detect distinguishable attributes associated with the contact between the electrical contact of plug and port contacts using an appropriate sensor (e.g., a microphone or an accelerometer).
US08360796B2
A device for latching a first connector to a complementary second connector. The device including a female element that is fixed to the first connector and delimits a housing open axially rearward, at least one elastically deformable retaining finger that projects radially inside the housing of the female element, a male element that is carried by the second connector and includes a latching front section furnished with a retaining notch, the latching section being adapted to be inserted axially from the rear toward the front into the housing of the female element as far as a front latching position in which the retaining finger is received in the retaining notch to immobilize the first connector axially on the second connector.
US08360792B2
A coaxial switching jack with a pair of coaxial assemblies mounted within a housing having a pair of front openings. The coaxial assemblies each include a center conductor and a shell conductor. The center conductors are connected by a first spring and the shell conductors are connected by a second spring. Insertion of a coaxial cable connector within one of the front openings deflects the springs from the corresponding coaxial assembly and disconnects the center and shell conductors of the two assemblies. The jack may also be configured to provide an electrical connection between the center and shell conductors of the second coaxial assembly if a coaxial cable connector is inserted within the first coaxial assembly. The connection between the center and shell conductors of the second coaxial assembly may allow for selection of a desired electrical impedance.
US08360786B2
A patient simulator for training a person to perform a polysomnography including a mannequin representing a torso and head of a human body made of a rigid material with a skin layer on the surface of the mannequin. The skin layer is made of an artificial skin material that simulates the electrical conductivity and electrical impedance of human skin. The patient simulator further includes a signal generator for generating electrical signals that simulate biophysiological activity. A plurality of emitter electrodes is positioned underneath the skin layer and connected to the signal generator to receive the electrical signals, and transmit the electrical signals through the skin layer. A controller is connected to the signal generator to control the signal generator that generates the electrical signals.
US08360782B1
A firefighting training apparatus having a trailer capable of being towed by a vehicle; an elevated platform supported above the trailer and presenting a simulated rooftop; and a raising mechanism, the raising mechanism attached between the elevated platform and the trailer, the raising mechanism supporting the elevated platform at a desired pitch.
US08360766B2
An injection molding machine is provided with a mold forming a cavity into which a resin is injected, a liquid supplying device which supplies a liquid continuously to an internal flow channel of the mold during a preparation period prior to injection of the resin and an injection period in which the resin after the preparation period is injected, an electricity supplying device which supplies electricity to an electric heater arranged on the mold at least during a part of the preparation period, thereby heating the mold, and a controller which carries out a predetermined procedure for making different a temperature of a liquid in the internal flow channel between the preparation period and the injection period.
US08360762B2
An oil pump rotor includes an inner rotor formed with n (n: a natural number) external teeth, and an outer rotor formed with n+1 internal teeth which are in meshing engagement with each of the external teeth. And the oil pump rotor is used in an oil pump that includes a casing having a suction port for drawing in fluid and a discharge port for discharging fluid and conveys the fluid by drawing in and discharging the fluid due to changes in volumes of cells formed between surfaces of the internal teeth and surfaces of the external teeth during rotations of the rotors under meshing engagement therebetween. And the tooth profile of the external teeth of the inner rotor is formed by a deformation in the circumferential direction and a deformation in the radial direction applied to a profile defined by a mathematical curve with the deformation in the circumferential direction is applied while maintaining the distance between the radius (RA1) of an addendum circle (A1) and the radius (RA2) of the tooth groove circle (A2).
US08360760B2
A rotary apparatus is described having: a vane; a rotor comprising a center, the rotor configured to carry the vane; and a housing, the rotor operatively mounted within the housing. The vane includes: a central vane axis extending longitudinally through the vane along a y-axis, the y-axis comprising a line from the center of the rotor to the housing, and a vane end intersecting the y-axis, the vane end proximate an inner surface of said housing. The vane end of the vane further includes a vane extension protruded radially outward from about the vane end along an x-axis about perpendicular to the y-axis, the vane extension comprising at least one aperture therethrough. During operation of the rotary apparatus, fuel flows through the aperture reducing pressure between a portion of the vane extension and the housing, which facilitates vane sealing to the housing and improves efficiency by reducing engine chatter.
US08360759B2
A rotary engine is described including: (1) a rotor eccentrically located within a housing, the rotor configured with a plurality of rotor vane slots; (2) a first vane of a set of vanes separating an interior space between the rotor and the housing into at least a trailing chamber and a leading chamber, where the first vane slidingly engages a rotor vane slot; (3) a first conduit within the rotor configured to communicate a first flow between the trailing chamber and the rotor vane slot; and (4) a second conduit within the rotor configured to communicate a second flow between the trailing chamber and the first conduit. Optionally, a vane seal is affixed to the first vane or the rotor, where the vane seal is configured to valve the first conduit or a vane conduit, respectively.
US08360754B2
A support for a rolling bearing of the kind equipped with an outer rotating ring for a rotary vacuum pump, the support comprising an inner portion that can be associated with the rotating ring, a fastening outer portion and a connecting portion, interposed between the inner and outer portions, wherein the connecting portion is a frusto-conical resilient element.
US08360749B2
The arrangement and the process are applied in a compressor comprising: a cylinder block (2); a movable assembly including a piston (5); and a resonant spring (11) having a first end portion (11a), affixed to the cylinder block (2) by a first fixation assembly (20), and a second end portion (11b) affixed to the movable assembly by a second fixation assembly (30). The first or the second fixation assembly (20, 30) comprises a bearing portion (21, 31) attached around one of the end portions (11a, 11b) of the resonant spring (11) and having a fixation face (21b, 31b), and a bearing receiving portion (22, 32), previously attached to the cylinder block (2) or to the movable assembly and having a junction face (22b, 32b), the fixation and junction faces (21b, 31b, 22b, 32b) being welded together, securing the resonant spring (11) to the movable assembly and to the cylinder block (2), maintaining the movable assembly concentric to the cylinder (2a) and in a predetermined axial positioning.
US08360746B2
The present invention provides a valve assembly for relieving fluid pressure having a pump housing with a low pressure inlet chamber and a high pressure discharge chamber, a relief aperture positioned between the low pressure inlet chamber and the high pressure discharge chamber, a valve seat along the perimeter of the relief aperture, and a valve body located in the high pressure discharge chamber. The valve body has a first end capable of engaging the valve seat in a closed position and is also capable of axial travel opposite the fluid discharge at a predetermined pressure.
US08360716B2
A nozzle segment for a gas turbine engine includes a flange which extends from a vane platform, the flange includes a hollow cavity.
US08360709B2
A selective dispensing device (1) is disclosed for limestone in vats (5a, 5b) of a regenerating oven adapted to arrange limestone with greater sizes next to an external wall (7a, 7b) of the vats (5a, 5b) and limestone with smaller sizes next to an internal wall (8a, 8b) of the vats (5a, 5b), comprising at least one mobile bulkhead (11) connected to a drive shaft (13) rotating around a rotation axis (X), such rotation being driven by an actuator system and the mobile bulkhead (11) being able to rotate around the rotation axis X to be alternatively inclined by a first angle (α) and by a second angle (β) with respect to reference plane (Z).
US08360688B2
A flexible bag-type pipeline weight, configured to straddle a pipeline, has internal tie means to prevent excessive bulging of the weight after being filled with ballasting material, thus facilitating installation in narrow trenches. Built-in loading loops facilitate filling the weight with ballasting material without need for special loading equipment. The bag-type pipeline weight is formed with a pair of leg sections on either side of a central, pipeline-receiving recess. Once filled with ballast, the legs remain separated, thus facilitating installation on a pipeline. The filled pipeline weight is also freestanding and stable for purposes of transport and storage prior to installation. Hoisting slings facilitate lifting and manipulation of loaded pipeline weights without the need for spreader bars.
US08360655B2
A bearing device for a wheel is capable of suppressing a backlash in a circumferential direction, is excellent in coupling operability of a hub wheel and an outer joint member of a constant velocity universal joint, and is excellent for maintenance by allowing separation of the hub wheel and the outer joint member of the constant velocity universal joint. In the bearing device for a wheel, a hub wheel, and a shaft section of the outer joint member of a constant velocity universal joint are separably coupled with each other through a recess-projection fitting structure, the shaft section being inserted in a fitting manner into a hole portion of the hub wheel. Projecting portions extending in an axial direction are provided on one of an outer surface of the shaft section of the outer joint member and an inner surface of the hole portion of the hub wheel.
US08360652B2
There is provided a hub bearing unit with multiple rows of rolling elements. A hub has one or more inner race surfaces. An inner ring is seated on an outer peripheral surface of the hub and has one or more inner race surfaces thereon. An outer ring is formed with outer race surfaces as many as inner race surfaces formed at the hub and the inner ring. Rolling elements are disposed between the outer race surfaces and the inner race surfaces. Cages are disposed to maintain circumferential intervals of the rolling elements. The outer ring is formed with three or more outer race surfaces. The rolling elements are arranged in three or more rows. The arrangement of multiple-row rolling elements enhances the life of the bearing. Manufacturing costs are curtailed and rolling resistance is reduced compared to the tapered roller bearing.
US08360645B2
A foil bearing supports a cylindrical rotary shaft 2, the foil bearing including: a hollow cylindrical outer ring 4 which is supported by a stationary member, and surrounds the rotary shaft with a predetermined gap therebetween; a thin-film-shaped top foil 3a which surrounds the outer surface of the rotary shaft, and of which one circumferential end is fixed to the inner surface of the outer ring; and a back foil 3b which is formed by a thin film sandwiched between the top foil and the inner surface of the outer ring and elastically supporting the top foil. The back foil 3b includes a support portion which comes into contact with the inner surface of the outer ring and is immovable in the circumferential direction, and an elastic portion which is supported by the support portion and is elastically bent in the radial direction by surface pressure from the top foil.
US08360619B2
A brightness enhancement film including a light transmissive substrate, convex lens portions, concave lens portions, and a reflective layer is provided. The light transmissive substrate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The convex lens portions are disposed on the first surface. Each of the convex lens portions has a curved convex surface facing away from the light transmissive substrate. The concave lens portions are disposed on the first surface. The convex lens portions and the concave lens portions are alternately arranged. Each of the concave lens portions has a curved concave surface facing away from the light transmissive substrate. A wavy continuous curve surface is formed by the curved convex surfaces and the curved concave surfaces. The reflective layer is disposed on the second surface and has light passing openings respectively on the optical axes of the convex lens portions.
US08360613B2
A lighting apparatus includes a light source module and a heat dissipation module. The light source module emits light and generates heat. The heat dissipation module dissipates at least a portion of the heat, and includes a base portion to which the light source module is physically coupled. The heat dissipation module also includes a plurality of heat dissipation fins. At least two of the fins that are immediately adjacent to one another form an air channel having a first opening and a second opening between the at least two of the fins. The air channel has a generally decreasing cross-sectional area with respect to air rising up the air channel in a generally vertical direction with respect to a horizontal plane as the air enters the air channel through the first opening and exits the air channel through the second opening.
US08360611B2
A lighting device comprising: a shell, a plurality of luminophors, a first slideway and a second slideway. The plurality of luminophors is set in an external surface of the shell. The first slideway and the second slideway each of which comprise an up peristome and a down peristome respectively. A plurality of trigger switches is set in the first slideway. Each of which is configured for connecting/disconnecting a first circuit, so as to turn on/off the one or more luminophors. A ball is located movable along the slideways. A launching device is set in a bottom of the second slideway and is configured for driving the ball to move. A controlling unit is configured for connecting/disconnecting a second circuit, so as to connect/disconnect a power supply, which supplies power for the lighting device via the first circuit.
US08360605B2
A luminaire for lighting an area includes at least one LED and a first reflector disposed substantially within the housing. The first reflector includes an annular reflective surface having a central axis and an edge defining an aperture through which light exits. The annular surface is formed from a first conic cross section portion revolved about the central axis with one of the at least one LED facing the central axis and positioned proximate a focal point of the first conic cross section portion. The luminaire also includes a second reflector within the housing. The second reflector has a bottom reflective surface that is formed from a second conic cross section portion extending to and revolved about the central axis. The focal point of the second conic cross section portion is proximate the one of the at least one LED.
US08360601B2
An LED module includes a carrier and a number of light sources. Each light source is arranged on the carrier in such a way that the LED module comprises a radiation uniformity which is less than the statistical mean of a radiation uniformity distribution, wherein the radiation uniformity distribution is based on a plurality of LED modules with a random arrangement of the light sources.
US08360590B2
A plumbing fixture using an integrated light pipe wherein a multi-shot method of injection molding is used to apply transparent, light channeling plastic completely or partially over surface areas of parts used above and below the waterline in the spa, pool or recreational water industry. Light is provided to the transparent over-molded portion of parts via a lighting element that can be molded onto the specific parts to be lit or assembled as a separate component to a part. All parts to be lit are directly or serially wired to a power supply mounted within the major appliance housing and are operated by an appropriate control device. This unique multi-shot manufacturing method and approach to illuminating targeted components and/or features provides lighting effects in a way that is simple and rugged and well suited to the rigorous environment of recreational uses of plumbing fixtures and illumination.
US08360589B2
A sealed, chemiluminescent novelty device includes a housing having side walls and a bottom wall to define a housing and a lid sealable to the housing. The lid has a flexible membrane with a depending plunger. A sealed charge having side walls and a top wall with a flexible membrane, is positioned in the housing. The charge has an activation post aligned with the membrane. A sealed, frangible ampoule is disposed in the charge. A first chemical is disposed in the charge, outside of the ampoule and a second chemical is disposed in the ampoule. Pressure applied to the housing lid urges contact with the charge top wall to urge the top wall to move the activation post into contact with the ampoule to break the ampoule allowing the first and second chemicals to mix.
US08360585B2
A method of measuring a zoom ratio of a projection optical system adapted to project image light representing an original image on a projection screen, the method includes: (a) projecting and displaying a measuring image including a measurement point on the projection screen so that the measurement point is displayed at a position with an offset from an optical axis of the projection optical system; (b) detecting a projected measurement point, which is the measurement point projected and displayed on the projection screen, from a measurement point detection position having a fixed position relative to the projection optical system; and (c) determining the zoom ratio using position information of the detected projected measurement point and correspondence between the position information and the zoom ratio, the correspondence being prepared previously.
US08360564B2
The present invention relates to ink jet printing. More particularly, the invention relates to a condenser assembly for an ink jet printer. The condenser assembly comprises a first condenser adapted to separate first solvent vapor from a first fluid by condensation of said first solvent onto a first coolable surface and a second condenser adapted to separate second solvent vapor from a second fluid by condensation of said second solvent onto a second coolable surface.
US08360560B2
A print head assembly for a continuous ink jet printer has an ink heater module, including a valve assembly, which can be independently attached to or detached from the print head assembly. The print head assembly may also have an ink droplet generator module which is independently replaceable and may have other independently replaceable modules. Fluid pathways for in and solvent in the modules are preferably in the form of manifolds having fluid conduits defined between opposing faces of members of the modules. The modular print head assembly is easily repaired and maintained and the number of connectors prone to fluid leakage is minimized by the manifolds.
US08360543B2
A liquid ejecting apparatus including: (A) a nozzle that ejects a liquid; (B) a sensor that outputs a signal in accordance with a temperature change of the liquid; (C) a driving signal generation section that generates a driving signal for ejecting the liquid from the nozzle; (D) an inspection section that ejects the liquid of a first electrical potential; and (E) a controller that corrects the driving signal that is generated at the driving signal generation section in accordance with the liquid temperature.
US08360532B2
A brake control system for a vehicle includes a first controller having a first brake operation quantity sensor and a second controller executing a different control from that of the first controller and having a second operation quantity sensor. The second controller may include a master pressure acquisition unit for acquiring a master pressure and a failure detection unit for detecting a failure of the first controller on the basis of the brake operation quantity detected by the second brake operation quantity sensor and the master pressure acquired by the master pressure acquisition unit.
US08360531B2
Embodiments of a hydraulic brake system are disclosed. In one embodiment, a priority flow control valve for supplying operating pressure has a first orientation in which operating pressure is provided at a controlled flow port and a second orientation in which operating pressure is provided at the controlled flow port and an excess flow port. A steering control unit has an inlet port for receiving operating pressure and an outlet port for communicating a steering control load sense signal. A brake control unit has an inlet port for receiving operating pressure and an outlet port for communicating a braking control load sense signal. The inlet port of the brake control unit and the inlet port of the steering control unit are connected to the controlled flow port.
US08360530B2
A vehicle seat includes a pad that is made of resin foam, and that forms a seat cushion or a seatback. The pad has a layered structure formed of a surface layer pad that forms a seating surface-side portion of the pad and a back layer pad that is provided on the back side of the surface layer pad. The back layer pad is higher in hardness and lower in density than the surface layer pad.
US08360526B2
A seat reclining apparatus includes a base member; a pivot member having an internal tooth gear; a cylindrical holder covering the outer circumference surface of the pivot member; a lock tooth having an external tooth gear arranged to be engaged with the internal tooth gear; and a cam arranged to push the lock tooth to engage or disengage the external tooth gear with or from the internal tooth gear; the pivot member including a bearing inner circumference surface located on the circular recessed portion, on the base member's side of the internal tooth gear in the axial direction, the base member including a circular support outer circumference surface on which the bearing inner circumference surface is slid, and the bearing inner circumference surface and the support outer circumference surface being arranged to position the pivot member relative to the base member in the radial direction.
US08360521B2
This invention relates to restraining means for seats which can be conveniently adjusted. Accordingly, the invention consists in one aspect of a seat assembly comprising a seat having one or more straps, the straps having a primary bracing point located on the assembly, one or more apertures, and at least one bracing member, wherein the bracing member is co-operable with at least one of the straps and at least one of the apertures to form a secondary bracing point for the strap. In a second aspect, the invention consists of a five-point harness for a child's safety seat, comprising at least one strap and at least one bracing member, the bracing member having a bracing surface for engagement with at least one strap, the bracing member being moveable along said strap to be co-operable with apertures in a seat to be secured releasably to said seat.
US08360515B2
Extendable ottoman linkages supporting both a main and secondary ottoman, as well as high-leg, space-saving recliners for which such linkages are designed, are provided. The extendable ottoman linkages provide sufficient clearance for a secondary ottoman to extend by arranging the components of the linkage such that the extension of the secondary ottoman is delayed until the main ottoman has extended sufficiently to provide the necessary clearance. The extendable ottoman linkages further hold the secondary ottoman securely in a closed position when the furniture is in a closed position.
US08360514B2
A folding device is configured at the bottom of rear leg frame and at the pivot between the rear leg frame and front leg frame of a high chair. The folding device allows a user to complete folding process by pressing a button at the bottom of the rear leg frame. When the button is pressed, a rotator in the housing of the folding device rotates correspondingly and drags connected steel wires to move horizontally inward. The other ends of the steel wires further connect to engaging parts at the pivots and engaging between the front leg frame and the rear leg frame and retract the engaging parts so that the rear leg frame disengages from and pivots about the front leg frame. The high chair may be folded with one-foot operation.
US08360510B2
This invention provides an aerodynamic structure attached to the rear cargo body, having doors that swing open, or a single, full-width door, which rolls upwardly. The embodiments provide an aerodynamic structure attached to the rear in a manner that would obscure access to the door(s) in a deployed position, in which the structure reduces drag, yet enables access to the door(s) in a folded position. The folded position allows access to the rear for loading and unloading, and in the case of swinging, hinged doors, allows the doors to be folded through a 270-degree arc, with a minimal sideways projection. The various embodiments also enable relatively rapid and easy transition between the folded position and the deployed position using actuators and/or linkages that tie the folding and deployment of panels of the structure together. This allows selective folding and deployment of the structure without undue effort or strength.
US08360501B2
A tank flap module is provided for installation in a motor vehicle with a trough body having a bottom section which in final assembly position on the motor vehicle is located on the inside and provided with a through-opening for a fuel filler neck and a mounting section for the swivel-mounting of a swivel arm of a tank flap arranged laterally thereto. The swivel arm is swivel-mounted on the trough body between two end positions. On the inside of the mounting section at least one noise-dampening end stop element is arranged which interacts with the swivel arm or a counter stop element arranged thereon.
US08360500B2
A first covering part of the present invention covers a portion from the front part to the upper part of a door window and expands to the outside in the vehicle width direction, and the lower surface thereof is open. A second covering part covers a portion lower than the first covering part of the upper part of the door window, is provided so as to be on the outside of a window glass and be located on the inside in the vehicle width direction of the lower edge of the first covering part, and is formed so as to gradually approach the window glass from the rear end toward the front end, the lower edge thereof being provided close to the outer surface of the window glass. A third covering part covers a portion between the first and second covering parts in the upper part of the door window by integrally connecting a portion located in the upper part of the door window of the lower edge of the first covering part and the upper edge of the second covering part, and is provided in such a manner as to be curved so as to project to the upside, and extend to the slantwise upside from the front end toward the rear end and extend to the slantwise upside from the upper edge of the second covering part toward the lower edge of the first covering part in the vehicle width direction. In the front part of the third covering part, a plurality of through holes are provided.
US08360499B2
A decorative molding that is to be fixed to a frame of a framed window glass plate for a vehicle is provided. The decorative molding is configured such that when the frame is formed around a peripheral portion of a glass plate by injecting a molten resin, the decorative molding is simultaneously fixed to the frame. The body of the decorative molding is made of a metal. A cationically electrodeposited coating film is formed on a surface of the body of the decorative molding and a resinous coating film is formed on the cationically electrodeposited coating film.
US08360494B2
A cargo system includes first and second rails extending longitudinally along first and second side walls of a vehicle. A load floor has multiple panels hinged to one another. The rails are configured to support the load floor above a floor of the vehicle. The load floor is movable along the rails between an extended position and a retracted position. The multiple panels of the load floor divide the cargo area into a first portion below the load floor and above the vehicle floor and a second portion above the load floor. The multiple panels substantially uncover the vehicle floor when the load floor is in the retracted position. The cargo system may also include a cargo retainer. The rails support the cargo retainer such that the cargo retainer spans between the rails and is above the load floor when the load floor is in the extended position.
US08360488B2
An example pull assembly includes a knob that defines an axis and a cover moveable between an installed position adjacent the knob and an uninstalled position further from the knob than the installed position. A magnet holds the cover in the installed position. A cam extends from the cover, the knob, or both. The cam urges the cover from the installed position to the uninstalled position when the cover is rotated relative the knob about the axis.
US08360483B2
The invention relates to a door lock comprising a door catch system for double door-type helicopter doors that can, when being closed, additionally be displaced perpendicularly to the plane of the door opening into the closed position (flush fitting). Said door lock comprises a catch element (30) associated with the latch element (31) and actively linked therewith, said catch element maintaining the door ‘caught’ directly in front of its locked position when the door is manually closed until the door is translated to its final closed position via the latch element (31).
US08360472B2
A vehicle supporting structure (1) is provided for a motor vehicle having either a fixed roof or a movable roof. The vehicle supporting structure (1) has lateral side parts (16, 17) adjacent to the respective body pillar (2, 3), and a transverse support (6, 6′) arranged between the side parts (16, 17). A connecting component (9, 10) is inserted between each body pillar (2, 3) and the associated side part (16, 17), and the end (20) of each side part (16, 17) that faces away from the body pillar has a receiving part (21, 22, 21′, 22′) to which the transverse support (6, 6′) is fastened.
US08360469B2
An occupant restraint apparatus for a motor vehicle that includes a cushion configured to inflate to provide restraint to an occupant of the vehicle, wherein the cushion includes an inflatable portion and at least one non-inflatable portion; an inflator configured to provide gas for inflating the inflatable portion of the cushion; and a tether having a first end connected to the cushion and a second anchored end. The cushion includes at least one opening in at least one of the non-inflatable portions and the tether passes through the opening.
US08360465B1
A side impact airbag arrangement mounted in a vehicle door (20) has an air cavity (46) inside the body (22) of the vehicle door (20) an initial volume in an intact state and a reduced volume smaller than the initial volume after a side impact has deformed the door body (22). An airbag cushion (10) is arranged in an airbag compartment (44) adjacent to the air cavity (46). The airbag cushion (10) has an interior configured to be filled with a gaseous medium to inflate the airbag cushion (10). Flapper valves (14) inserted between the air cavity (46) and the interior of the airbag cushion (10) allow a flow of air from the air cavity (46) into the interior of the airbag cushion (10) to inflate the airbag cushion (10) when a side impact deforms the air cavity (46) from the initial volume to the reduced volume.
US08360464B2
An inflatable knee airbag is typically stored in a packaged state within an airbag housing. The housing typically has a cover, which can be either a cosmetic cover or an unfinished cover, if the cover will not be readily visible to an occupant. The cover can be extruded rather than molded and may have features for coupling the cover to the housing. The cover may also have other features such as a tear seam.
US08360462B2
A foldable trailer is disclosed having the folding means provided by a winch that operates in conjunction with a lifting member enabling the trailer to be winched into an upright position for storage. The load bearing surface can be made of one section or two sections that fold together to allow for more compact storage. Through the lifting member the winch provides upward motion of the front of the load bearing surface while simultaneously causing the hingeably attached tongue to fold downward; continued winching will result in a vertically folded and storable position. The invention may be applied to a tilting trailer.
US08360455B2
A retractable vehicle step is attachable to a rear portion of a vehicle or truck. The vehicle step facilitates access to a cargo hold of the vehicle. Advantageously, the vehicle step provides clearance space relative to a tailgate of the vehicle by displacing a stepping member of the vehicle step in a generally lateral direction. The vehicle step desirably has a covered and protected biasing mechanism for transitioning between retracted and extended positions of the stepping member. Another advantage is that the vehicle step is readily attachable to the vehicle using already existing connection members, thereby generally eliminating or mitigating the need for customized retrofitting and avoiding undesirable installation cost and time.
US08360454B2
A bearing mechanism for a transverse leaf spring that can be mounted in the region of an axle of a vehicle. The bearing mechanism comprises an outer bearing shell and insertion devices which have at least some regions encompassed by the outer bearing shell, and which each comprise layered elements having different stiffness. When assembled, the insertion devices are disposed between the outer bearing shell and the leaf spring. The leaf spring has a recess into which sections of the insertion devices engage. The recesses are located on opposed top and bottom surfaces of the leaf spring, with respect to a vertical axis of the vehicle. In the mounted state of the leaf spring, the recesses are delimited by top and bottom edge regions that are formed between top, bottom and lateral surfaces, in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.
US08360452B2
A link of a vehicle suspension is elastic and includes three suspension points. A first point is adapted to be pivotally connected to a wheel carrier of the corresponding vehicle. A second point is adapted to be pivotally connected to a rigid chassis of the corresponding vehicle. The third point is adapted to be pivotally connected to a shackle, the shackle pivotally connecting the third point to the rigid chassis of the vehicle.
US08360450B2
A stabilizer device includes a bar having a portion to be mounted to a vehicle body. A resin ring is integrally formed to the bar by a direct injection method, and a bush made of rubber is provided around the periphery of the resin ring. The bush is fixed to a member of the vehicle body side by a bracket. Since the contact area of the resin ring to the bar is secured by using the axial direction length of the bush, the movement strength of the bush in the axial direction can be improved even when there is size restriction. In the fixing construction of the stabilizer device, the movement of the bush to the bar can be sufficiently prevented even when the size restriction is severe.
US08360434B2
A wagering game of at least one player hand against a dealer hand with playing card symbols is played using blackjack rule of play. At least one player makes a first wager on an underlying playing card symbol game from a set of playing card symbols. The set of playing card symbols has one of more sets of card symbols with each set having exactly thirty-six cards of count values between 1 and 9 and only twelve cards of count values of ten, suits among all cards are evenly distributed. The player is dealt exactly an initial 2-card hand. The dealer being dealt exactly an initial 2-card hand, only one dealer card dealt face-up. The player is always paid on the first wager for at least one of a number of specific payout events.
US08360421B2
With representative configurations of the sheet processing apparatus and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the sheet processing apparatus which includes an intermediate stacking portion in which a sheet is temporarily placed, an aligning portion which supports a part of a lower surface of the sheet stacked in the intermediate stacking portion and which presses a lateral surface end portion of a sheet width direction to align the sheet, and a stapler which processes the sheet aligned by the aligning portion, includes a sheet supporting member which can support the lower surface of the sheet conveyed while sheet stacked in the intermediate stacking portion is processed and a sheet discharging member which presses the rear end of the sheet processed by the stapler and discharges the sheet to the stack tray.
US08360419B2
A sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus, including a size detecting portion, which has: a size detecting lever, which is disposed opposite to a side regulation member, and pivots in association with a movement of the side regulation member to a regulation position according to a size of a sheet; and a switch turned ON and OFF according to a pivotal position of the size detecting lever. The side regulation member is provided with a protrusion, which abuts the size detecting lever to amplify a pivotal amount of the size detecting lever pivoting in association with the movement of the side regulation member to the regulation position.
US08360417B2
This invention relates to an input tray media de-slouch apparatus, comprising; an input media tray, at least one pivotable media de-slouch arm operatively connected to the tray, and a releasable locking means operatively connected to the arm and the tray to lock the arm prior to media being placed against the arm to substantially keep the media from slouching and to release the arm when the media is being fed from the input tray.
US08360413B2
A device and process for processing flat articles such as pieces of paper by utilizing a stream of under-shingled flat articles and generating a gap at predetermined intervals. The under-shingling process incorporates an accelerating and decelerating portion wherein each flat article is accelerated and then decelerated while a tail portion of the article is lifted such that the next flat article can slide underneath to establish an under-shingled stream.
US08360408B2
A tooling fixture positioning system for securing automotive body part components to create an automotive body. The tooling fixture positioning system comprises a plurality of pivot joint assemblies and link arms coupled together to facilitate supporting tooling fixtures in desired positions and orientations. Each pivot joint assembly includes a brake that selectively engages and disengages the pivot joint assembly for rotation about a respective axis.
US08360404B2
A shock absorbing interposer is positionable between a manually manipulatable handle and a faucet of a beverage dispenser for dispensing a beverage. The interposer includes a faucet adapter mechanism for interconnecting to a lever of the faucet and a handle adapter mechanism for interconnecting to the handle. A shock absorbing member is operatively connected to the faucet adapter mechanism and the handle adapter mechanism to dissipate excessive forces applied to the handle as the handle is moved between a first operative position and a second operative position in order to reduce the likelihood that such excessive forces will be exerted on the faucet and handle. A faucet assembly including a faucet, handle and shock absorbing interposer is also provided.
US08360401B2
A storage container is provided, which includes carbon dioxide containing a functional material and a container body in which carbon dioxide has been hermetically contained. Accordingly, a method for molding a resin, a method for forming a plating film, and the storage container for carbon dioxide, which are excellent in the mass productively at low cost, are provided without using any special high pressure apparatus for producing a supercritical fluid.
US08360397B2
In a ball screw device, a ball screw linear-movement member is screwed with a ball screw rotary member and configured to linearly move in accordance with a relative rotation with the ball screw rotary member. A housing is holding the ball screw rotary member. A motor is disposed in a motor chamber of the housing, and configured to rotate the ball screw rotary member with a rotor coupled to the ball screw rotary member. A stopper is configured to collide with a brake when an amount of a relative linear movement between the ball screw rotary member and the ball screw linear-movement member becomes no less than a prescribed amount. The brake is configured to decelerate rotation of the rotor by the collision of the stopper with respect to the brake.
US08360396B2
An apparatus may comprise a lever operable to rotate a crank arm. The apparatus may further comprise a slotted member affixed to an end of the lever. The slotted member may be operable to clip around a first handle of the crank arm. The apparatus may further comprise an alignment member affixed to the lever. The alignment member may comprise a hole that receives a second handle of the crank arm. The apparatus may further comprise a third handle affixed to the lever such that a force applied to the third handle causes the lever to rotate. The rotation of the lever may cause the crank arm to rotate in a particular plane. The third handle may be offset from the particular plane.
US08360390B2
Method and apparatus for potting an electronic device. The apparatus comprises an enclosure having a first inner volume with the electronic device disposed therein; a fill control element disposed within the first inner volume, wherein a second inner volume of the fill control element is fluidly coupled to the first inner volume; and a sealant disposed within a remaining portion of the first inner volume, the remaining portion not occupied by the electronic device or the fill control element, wherein air is trapped within at least a first portion of the second inner volume.
US08360389B2
The invention concerns a panel formwork corner system, comprising a) a panel formwork inner corner element (1), with two inner limbs (5, 6) that are connected to each other and arranged at an angle with respect to each other, b) a panel formwork outer corner element (2) with two outer limbs (25, 26) that are rigidly connected to each other and disposed at an angle with respect to each other, c) two rectangular panel formwork elements (3, 4), each being formed with at least one tie hole (13, 14, 15, 16), wherein all tie holes (13, 14, 15, 16) of a panel formwork element (3, 4) are disposed in a common tie hole plane (A), wherein this tie hole plane (A) extends centrally between two parallel lateral outer edges (17, 18, 19, 20) of the rectangular panel formwork element (3, 4) and perpendicularly with respect to the formlining plane (SE), wherein the position of each tie hole (8, 9, 10, 11) of each inner limb (5, 6) with respect to three lateral outer edges (21, 12, 22) of the inner limb (5, 6) corresponds to the position of a tie hole (13, 14, 15, 16) of a panel formwork element (3, 4) with respect to three lateral outer edges (23, 17, 24, 20) of the panel formwork element (3, 4) and vice versa. With the inventive corner system, a panel formwork can be erected with less effort.
US08360379B2
A beverage container holder for holding round or rectangular containers is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the holder is a unitary plastic structure which includes a lower rectangular container holding portion and an upper hook portion for hanging the holder onto another structure. The holding portion includes a plurality of resilient inwardly extending fingers, each of which assumes a generally V-shaped configuration when viewed in a vertical plane. According to a second embodiment, the holder includes an upper tray portion having a pair of side-by-side square openings, each having a plurality of inward extending resilient fingers, and a generally U-shaped supporting member which is pivotally attached to the tray portion. The supporting member is rotatable from a first position wherein it is retained within the tray portion to a second position wherein it is substantially perpendicular to the tray portion. When the supporting member is in the first position, the holder may re retracted into a rectangular pocket. When the holder is withdrawn from the pocket, the supporting member may be rotated to the second position so that beverage containers placed into the square openings of the tray portion are supported from beneath. The supporting member is preferably spring loaded so that it automatically rotates to the second position when the holder is withdrawn from the pocket.
US08360377B2
The tool mounting device according to the invention comprises a first and second coupling device, wherein the first coupling device comprises at least one receptacle, the second coupling device comprises at least one receptacle pin, and the first or second coupling device comprises a tool suspension. The receptacle comprises a recess and an opening, wherein the opening extends from the first end in the direction of the second end over a length and the length of the opening is smaller than a length of the recess and a width of the opening is greater than or equal to a width of the receptacle pin.
US08360375B2
An adjustable leg support for providing support to and stabilizing a leg of a table, chair or similar article that is shorter than the other legs to prevent the article from wobbling. The adjustable leg support includes a screw-threaded rotatable base that is detachably coupled in surrounding engagement to a correspondingly threaded platform. The platform has a flat shelf that is laid upon the floor below the short leg to be supported. A rotational force is applied to the rotatable base which causes an axial displacement of the platform upwardly through the base towards the short leg. Rotation of the base continues until the flat shelf of the platform is raised and the short leg is seated on the shelf by which to eliminate the gap between the short leg and the floor. The rotatable base and the platform are mated to one another along opposing sets of screw threads that lie outside and surround the short leg to be stabilized.
US08360370B2
A panel dock has a body, a retainer, and a bracket. The retainer is rotably secured to the body and includes a shaft having at least one arm extending from the shaft and at least one finger extending from the shaft. The bracket is attachable to an electronic device. The bracket includes a bar sized to be secured between the arm and the finger.
US08360364B2
An aircraft with at least two levels situated one above the other, including: a platform that can be moved between a first position and a second position, the first of these positions, as a lower position, being situated at a first level of the aircraft and the second position, as a higher position, being situated at a second level higher than that of the first level; an assembly of traction cables connected on the platform and a mechanism operating the cables for raising and lowering the platform; and an assembly of walls surrounding at least partially the platform and along which the platform moves.
US08360361B2
Methods and apparatuses for passive jet blast deflection or the like. Use of the passive jet blast deflector permits the efficient dispersal of a fast moving local heat source into the environment through passive means while providing a high strength structure. The jet blast deflector system may include a first plate, a second plate, and a cellular core disposed between them adapted to allow cooling ambient air to flow through the cellular core, wherein the first plate, second plate, and core are all seamlessly coupled heat pipes that form a single vapor core to facilitate the spreading and even storing of thermal energy. An ejector plate may be attached to the top of the second plate to create a low pressure zone as the heat source passes over it, thereby pulling the ambient air through the cellular core, facilitating the removal the thermal energy from the system.
US08360357B2
An aircraft has a fuselage a wing integral with the fuselage at a point on a rigid central wing box. Sections of the wing are located on sides of the central wing box and integral and fixed relative to the wing box to form a rigid wing. The wing is mounted movably in translation relative to the fuselage along a longitudinal direction of the aircraft parallel to an axis of the fuselage between an extreme forward position and an extreme rear position of a point of reference of the wing. The central wing box is determined in the front by a wing box front spar, in the rear by a wing box rear spar, and laterally by root ribs. Sections of the wing include external front and external rear spars integral with and fixed relative to the wing box front spars and wing box rear spars to form the rigid wing.
US08360356B2
A flying apparatus having a thrust directing wing is disclosed. The flying apparatus can include a wing that receives a thrust flow from a thrust flow generator, and selectively redirect the flow in at least one of a plurality of directions. The wing can redirect the thrust flow so as to generate vertical thrust, forward thrust, and combinations thereof. The thrust flow generator can include a gas turbine engine, which can include two rotating shafts and a common burner, with each shaft coupling a compressor with a turbine.
US08360350B2
A discharge end liner attachable to a discharge end wall in a grinding mill. The discharge end liner includes a number of pulp lifter elements mountable on the discharge end wall for at least partially defining a number of chambers rotatable in the predetermined direction respectively between a submerged condition and a raised condition. The discharge end liner also includes one or more grate subassemblies positionable on the pulp lifter elements, for at least partially screening the slurry. At least a part of each grate subassembly is located by an outer portion of the pulp lifter element in a predetermined position relative to the discharge end wall. An inner portion of each pulp lifter element defines an obtuse angle between the inner portion and the outer portion, for permitting the retained portion of the slurry to evacuate from each chamber respectively while each chamber is in the raised condition.
US08360342B2
According to various embodiments, a system includes a gasification fuel injector. The gasification fuel injector includes a tip portion, an annular coolant chamber disposed in the tip portion, and a first structural support extending through the annular coolant chamber. The first structural support divides the annular coolant chamber into a first passage and a second passage.
US08360319B2
An encoded information reading (EIR) terminal can comprise a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, an EIR device, and a wireless communication interface. The EIR device can be provided by a bar code reading device, an RFID reading device, and/or a card reading device. The wireless communication interface can comprise a first logical communication interface operating on a first frequency channel and a second logical communication interface operating on a second frequency channel. The wireless communication interface can be configured to transmit infrastructure mode beacons. The infrastructure mode beacons can include a service set identifier. The wireless communication interface can be further configured to transmit ad-hoc mode beacons on the second frequency channel. The ad-hoc mode beacons can include an identifier of a mesh path selection protocol. The EIR terminal can be further configured to route MAC frames between the first logical communication interface and the second logical communication interface.
US08360316B2
An apparatus (10), in particular a code reader, for the taking of undistorted images of a surface of objects (14) moved on a conveying device (12) is set forth, wherein the apparatus (10) has a geometry detection sensor (18) which is made for the detection of the geometry of the objects (14) with reference to spacing data and/or to the remission behavior of the objects (14) as well as a line sensor (20), in particular a line camera, which can scan the objects (14) linewise for the generation of image data of the surface in a linear reading window (22) which forms an angle with the conveying direction. In this connection, a control (24) is provided which is made to generate, on the basis of geometrical data of the geometry detection sensor (18), a respective spacing profile of the surface over the reading window (22) from the perspective of the line sensor (20) and to generate an associated zoom factor and/or a taking frequency for the line sensor (20) from each spacing profile; to set the line sensor (20) to the associated zoom factor and/or to the taking frequency for the respective line of the objects (14) to be scanned; and to compose the image data thus taken linewise in an undistorted manner to form a uniformly resolved total image of the surface.
US08360314B2
Systems and methods of distributing, dispensing and validating game tickets provide for the use of radio frequency identifiers (RFIDS). Game ticket consumables may also be tracked with RFIDS. Ticket data such as game numbers, void if removed numbers, theme descriptions, place styles, price points and player account information can be stored to a memory of a game ticket, where the ticket is capable of transmitting the ticket data as an RF signal. Approaches also provide for the use of RFIDS in game sponsor/ticket printer facilities, ticket warehouse facilities and ticket destruction facilities.
US08360298B2
A surgical instrument is disclosed. The surgical instrument includes a handle assembly having a movable handle; an endoscopic portion extending distally from the handle and defining a longitudinal axis; a pair of jaw members; and a drive assembly. The jaw members are disposed adjacent a distal end of the endoscopic portion and extend generally distally therefrom. Each jaw member is longitudinally curved with respect to the longitudinal axis. At least one jaw member is movable with respect to the other between open and approximated positions. A first jaw member includes a channel having a longitudinally-extending slot therein. The drive assembly is advanced distally through at least a portion of the length of the jaw members in response to at least a partial actuation of the movable handle. A lower portion of the drive assembly is configured and dimensioned to travel at least partially within the longitudinally-extending slot of the channel.
US08360296B2
In various embodiments, a surgical stapling head is provided that may comprise a staple cartridge for supporting one or more staples, a core movable relative to the staple cartridge, at least one staple driver extending from the core, and a casing configured to at least partially hold the staple cartridge and movably receive the core and the staple driver(s). The casing may further comprise at least one retention member that is configured to move from a first position to a second position when sufficient external force is applied to the retention member, such as that provided by a shaft of a surgical stapler during insertion of the stapling head assembly into the shaft. When the retention member(s) are at the second position, the staple driver(s) may be prevented from driving staples from the staple cartridge, thereby providing a firing lockout feature to the stapling head assembly during insertion into at least a portion of a surgical stapler.
US08360291B2
A staple cartridge is provided with: a refill which houses in a wound manner a staple sheet formed by coupling a plurality of straight staples and includes a guide passage for carrying out the staple sheet; and a cartridge body which includes a feeding passage for guiding the staple sheet carried out from the refill via the guide passage to a position of driving out by the driver. The guide passage is communicated with the feeding passage when the refill is attached to the cartridge body, and the refill is attached to and detached from the cartridge body from a direction different from a direction along which the guide passage and the feeding passage are communicated.
US08360289B2
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a user-based carrying system, including an enclosure member and a user attachment system. The user attachment system includes a hip attachment system comprising a dorsal pad and a first and second strap member coupled to the enclosure member. The strap members are configured to laterally extend around the waist region of the user. An adjustable coupling between the first and second strap members and the enclosure member includes a first and second male sleeve coupler rigidly coupled to the enclosure member and a plurality of sleeves disposed on each of the first and second padded regions. The first and second male sleeve couplers are disposed within one sleeve on the respective first and second padded region. The distal length of the first and second strap members is dependent on a plurality of sleeves within which the first and second male sleeve couplers are disposed.
US08360288B2
The present invention provides a detachable carrier support member for bicycle cargo racks includes a base plate, a frame rack set, and a plurality of clamping block sets. The base plate is fixedly joined to the bottom of a carrier, wherein the bottom of the base plate is attached to the frame rack set. Further, the base plate is secured on a fixed position by the plurality of clamping block sets that clamps and holds on to the support bar of the bicycle cargo rack. To attach the carrier support member to the bicycle cargo rack, the plurality of clamping block sets is inserted into a wedging groove disposed at two lateral frame racks of the frame rack set; whereby two control shafts brake and allow the user to quickly secure the carrier to and remove the carrier from the cargo rack.
US08360287B2
A foam pump for pumping a foamable liquid from a foamable liquid source includes a premix chamber having an interior volume receiving the foamable liquid from the foamable liquid source. The foam pump also include a premix chamber air inlet valve, and a collapsible air chamber surrounds the premix chamber and fluidly communicates with the interior volume of the premix chamber through said premix chamber air inlet valve. The collapsible air chamber has an expanded volume and a compressed volume, and, when the collapsible air chamber is moved from its expanded volume to its compressed volume, air within the collapsible air chamber is forced into the premix chamber through the premix chamber air inlet valve and mixes with the foamable liquid received in the premix chamber. An outlet communicates with the premix chamber and, upon compression of the collapsible air chamber from its expanded volume to its compressed volume, foamable liquid and air are advanced from the premix chamber into the outlet. This foamable liquid and air mixture is homogenized into a foam product by advancement through a mesh screen.
US08360285B2
A dosing apparatus for fluid, in particular pasty, substances such as toothpaste, liquid soap, mustard, etc., comprises a pump which has a filling nozzle which forms a suction opening of the pump in order to pump the pasty substance out of a container. An adapter has an inlet opening and an outlet opening for connecting a neck or an opening of the container to the filling nozzle of the pump. The outlet opening can be connected to the suction opening. The apparatus includes a two-part adapter housing where the upper part can be substituted for using different sized and shaped containers. The connection between the suction opening of the pump and the outlet opening of the adapter is designed to be releasable. The filling nozzle is formed coaxially to the adapter.
US08360271B2
A sliding surface having a gentle slope for carrying pharmaceutical products such as infusion bottles (20) is formed by a row of rollers (15) extending in the direction of slope. An ejecting member (14) for sequentially ejecting the products (20) is formed as a series of a flat plate (14a) and a curved plate (14c). The flat plate (14a) is pivotably supported such that the pivot center is on an extension of the sliding surface. The curved plate (14c) is provided below the flat plate (14a), maintaining a constant distance from the pivot center. An actuator such as an electric motor (12) for pivotally moving the ejecting member (14) is provided beneath the sliding surface. Since the pharmaceutical product at the head of a queue assists the pivotal movement, it is ensured that a small actuator serves the purpose.
US08360268B2
A case or bag for holding items has a basic body that is defined by wall elements and a floor element. The basic body has opening that can be closed by a lid element that is disposed on the basic body and can be moved out of an open position into a closed position. The lid element is configured in one piece and with inherent rigidity and can be moved out of its closed position into the open position by interacting guide elements disposed on the basic body and on the lid element through a combined pivoting and displacing movement.
US08360266B2
The present invention relates a shaped metal vessel comprising a shaped vessel body thin walled made of metal comprising a tapered body portion comprising an open end with integral rolled edge, a mid body portion, and a low body portion. A base seals one end of the low body, the low body blends with the mid body, and the mid body blends with the tapered body. Exemplary embodiments include an outsert fitted around the outside circumference of the tapered body proximate the open end, the outsert comprising a carry ring or carry ring edge formed around the circumference of the outsert, and a plurality of threads spirally affixed to the outer surface of the outsert to engage and secure a separate vessel closure to the shaped vessel body. Other exemplary embodiments integrally form a neck ring in the shaped vessel body.
US08360265B1
A container having a dual use as a receptacle for debris that can accommodate a sawhorse application. Square or U-shaped recesses are located in the rim of the container for securing a sawhorse support, such as a board. Sawhorse supports are friction fit, or securely mounted to the container by pin, screw, nail, or bolt attachment. A lid having a slotted structure for receiving a sawhorse support may be used to transform a common household container into a sawhorse.
US08360262B2
A food container formed of a single sheet of plastic, which includes a cup (12), a cover (16) that is movable between open and closed positions on the cup top, and a container (20,22) that is movable between a stowed position in the cup and an unstowed position out of the cup. The cup has a cup flange (34) and the container has a container flange (60) that is pivotally connected to the cup flange along a pivot line (64) that can be torn to separate the container from the cup. The cover is pivotally connected to the cup top at the cover flange, and the container has a lift tab (220) that lies on the cover flange. The container has a side wall that forms a vertical channel (190) on its outside for passing a straw into liquid in the cup.
US08360255B2
An integrally formed shelf used for being fastened to another shelf includes a main body, a back plate, and two side plates. The main body includes a first bottom plate and a second bottom plate stacked to each other. The main body has a bottom edge and two side edges, and the two side edges are connected with the bottom edge, respectively. The back plate is connected with the bottom edge, and the back plate includes a first fastening sheet extending from the bottom edge. The two side plates are connected with two sides of the back plate. Part of the respective side plate is sandwiched between the first bottom plate and the second bottom plate, and each of the side plates includes a second fastening sheet extending from the side edge.
US08360253B2
A product management display system for merchandising product on a shelf includes using a trackless pusher mechanism that travels along a surface on which product is placed. The pusher mechanism of the invention also includes a pusher paddle and a floor that extends forward of the pusher paddle. A flat coiled spring or other biasing element may be operatively connected behind the pusher paddle and extend across the floor of the pusher mechanism and to the front of the shelf. In use, the product to be merchandised may be placed on the coiled spring and on the floor of the pusher mechanism. With this configuration, the pusher paddle is prevented from tipping or bending backwards during operation. The invention may be used with the merchandising of product on horizontal or non-inclined shelves or surfaces, gravity-fed systems, or systems that use gravity to urge product toward the front of the shelf.
US08360251B2
Disclosed are coalescing media for coalescing a mixture of two phases, namely a continuous phase and a dispersed phase. The disclosed coalescing media has multiple layers with distinct porosities, where an interior layer of the coalescing media has a higher porosity than the layers immediately adjacent to the interior layer. The disclosed media may be utilized in coalescers, coalescing systems, or coalescing methods for removing the dispersed phase from the mixture.
US08360250B2
An elongated filter disposed over a metering passage of a valve. A rotor is rotatably mounted over the filter and includes a scraping surface positioned along the length of the filter. As water enters the valve, the rotor rotates, causing the scraping surface to scrape off any debris along the length of the filter.
US08360243B2
A liquid transporting apparatus includes: a microchannel; a transporting liquid supply port through which transporting liquid is supplied to the microchannel; a partition wall as defined herein, and that has an opening; a first split channel that is provided on an upper side of the partition wall; a second split channel that is provided on a lower side of the partition wall; a particle dispersion supply port through which a particle dispersion is supplied to a middle portion of a width direction of the first split channel; and at least one drain port through which the fluid is discharged from downstreams of the first and second split channels, and a pattern that generates an upward-directed flow with respect to a vertical direction in a middle portion of a section of the microchannel is formed in an inner wall of the microchannel or in the partition wall.
US08360242B2
An automated system for sorting dissimilar materials, and in particular for sorting plastics from other materials and for sorting different types of plastics from one another comprises, depending upon the embodiment, combinations of a sizing mechanism, a friction separation, an air separator, a magnetic separator, a dielectric sensor sortation bed, shaker screening, a ballistic separator, an inductive sensor sortation system and a float/sink tank. The dielectric sensor sortation system may be either analog or digital, depending upon the particular implementation. One or more float/sink tanks can be used, depending upon the embodiment, each with a media of a different specific gravity. The media may be water, or water plus a compound such as calcium chloride. In addition, multiples of the same general type of module can be used for particular configurations. A heavy media system or a sand float process can be used either alternatively or additionally.
US08360241B2
A method for managing drip infusion stands aims to set different colors for drip infusion stands according to requirements of varying departments in a hospital. The drip infusion stand is made of aluminum alloy and includes a telescopic upright post with the surface treated by an anodizing process to form a selected color to match the department. Thus the mixed drip infusion stands can be easily distinguished and sorted out by management staffs according to the colors to return to the departments they belong. Time for returning the drip infusion stands to the varying departments is shortened and management of the drip infusion stands is more efficient. The problem of shortage of drip infusion stands in certain departments or floors in the hospital also can be averted.
US08360237B2
A container is provided for packaging, shipping, storing and presenting a rotary drill bit. The container may be used with fixed cutter drill bits or roller cone drill bits. A wide variety of tools and accessory components may be disposed within the container. A bit breaker may also be attached to one end of the container using a bit breaker adapter. Bit breakers for two different sizes of rotary drill bits may be releasably engaged with a container using the same bit breaker adapter.
US08360234B2
An exemplary assembly includes at least one elongated tension member (32). A jacket covers at least some of the tension member (32). The jacket comprises a polymer material (68,64) including an adhesion enhancer (62) that facilitates adhesion between the tension member and the jacket.
US08360233B2
This invention relates to a adjustment device intended for the adjustment of belts of belt conveyors and of the type that comprises a roller that is rotatable around a first axis (CR) and mounted in a cradle, which in turn is turnably mounted in a supporting stand, and, by a force generator, tiltable in relation to the stand around a second axis (CT) extending perpendicularly to the first one. According to the invention, the adjustment device comprises a transmission actuator in the form of a carriage having two guide elements, which slope in different directions. When the force generator generates a force having a first principal force component, the transmission actuator transforms the same into a force having a second principal force component, the direction of which is different from the first force component, which guarantees tilting of the cradle and thereby also the roller in relation to the stand. The transmission actuator is built-in into a space between the roller and a base part of the stand.
US08360228B2
A rotating device includes a wind machine, a transmission mechanism, and a vane rotatably mounted to the transmission mechanism. The wind machine is adjacent to the transmission mechanism, used to rotate the vane.
US08360227B2
Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for orienting thin glass plates (11) in a contamination-free manner. Said method and apparatus have the following features: a) in order to orient the glass plate (11), a lifting frame (1) is raised from below through the free space between the rolls (13) along with an orienting frame (2) which rests on the lifting frame (1) and is fitted with struts (7) that are connected in a rotatably hinged fashion to the orienting frame (2) and are provided with supporting elements (8) which penetrate the free space between the rolls (13), project beyond the supporting level of the rolls (13), and support the glass plate (11); b) the glass plate (11) is placed in a shock-free manner by means of sliding elements (3) that are actuated by individually controllable drive units (4), the movement of the sliding elements (3) being transmitted to the two longitudinal cross beams of the orienting frame (2) by means of pivot joints (6) which are fastened to the sliding elements (3).
US08360224B2
Provided is an automatic teller machine (ATM), including: a body to process depositing or withdrawing of a paper medium; a cassette being slidably attached to and detached from the body, and comprising a cassette coupler formed on one side of the cassette to receive a power from the body, and to internally receive the paper medium; a receiving unit being formed within the body to install the cassette, and comprising a body coupler being combined with the cassette coupler when installing the cassette to thereby transfer the power from the body to the cassette; and a combining unit being formed on each of the body coupler and the cassette coupler so that a rotation center line of the body coupler and a rotation center line of the cassette coupler are matched on the same axial line to thereby combine the body coupler and the cassette coupler. Since it is possible to use, for an operation of the cassette, the power transferred from the body of the ATM, a separate driving unit for driving the cassette may be omitted.
US08360223B2
A medium storing and advancing apparatus is provided which prevents, when a medium sandwiched between two tapes is wound on a drum to be stored, that the medium could not be wound due to the thickness of the tapes wound previously on the drum. The medium storing and advancing apparatus includes reels which supply and wind up the tapes, and a drum which winds up the tapes, wherein the drum is provided with a drum groove portion over the circumferentially entire periphery substantially in a middle way of the outer peripheral surface of the drum so that the tapes are wound in the drum groove portion.
US08360216B2
The invention relates to a system for transferring electric energy to a vehicle, in particular to a track bound vehicle such as a light rail vehicle, wherein the system comprises an electric conductor arrangement for producing an alternating electromagnetic field and for thereby transferring the energy to the vehicle, the electric conductor arrangement comprises at least two lines, wherein each line is adapted to carry a different one of phases of an alternating electric current, the conductor arrangement comprises a plurality of segments, wherein each segment extends along a different section of the path of travel of the vehicle, each segment comprises sections of the at least two lines and each segment can be switched on and off separately of the other segments.
US08360215B2
A two-stage slave cylinder including a housing and a bore extending within the housing. An outer piston is slidably positioned within the bore in the housing, and an outer piston chamber is defined by the bore and the outer piston. The outer piston chamber is connected to a hydraulic fluid source by a fluid passageway. A biasing mechanism acts to bias the outer piston in an unactuated position unless a force is exerted on the outer piston that is greater than the biasing force. A bore is provided in the outer piston, and an inner piston is slidably positioned therein. An inner piston chamber is defined by the bore and the inner piston, and an opening is provided in the outer piston to connect the outer piston chamber to the inner piston chamber. A valve assembly is provided within the opening in the outer piston to control the flow of fluid between the outer piston chamber and the inner piston chamber.
US08360213B2
The invention relates to a brake disc comprising a support bell, intended for being connected to a wheel hub of a vehicle, and a braking band intended for cooperating with a caliper arranged astride of the brake disc. The braking band comprises two flanges connected by a plurality of connecting elements that define ventilation channels. The brake disc is characterized in that it comprises driving elements between the braking band and the bell, which elements improve the efficiency of the ventilation inside the braking band, as well as the mechanical deformation of the brake disc during the braking step.
US08360209B2
An exemplary method of controlling elevator car position includes determining that an elevator car required re-leveling. Elevator car dynamics information associated with a current position of the elevator car is determined. A gain for controlling operation of a motor responsible for moving the elevator car for the re-leveling is adjusted based on the determined elevator car dynamics information.
US08360208B2
A synthetic fiber rope can be used to the limit of failure by setting a sensitivity of detection of the state of wear of the rope. Strands of the rope have indicator fibers or indicator yarn that have a high probability of losing electrical conductivity and thereby indicate a worn cable. The indicator yarn consists of indicator fibers and of synthetic fibers, the indicator yarn fibers being inferior in relation to stress than the synthetic fibers of the strands.
US08360204B2
A self-adjusting ladder leveling device includes a first locking member attached to the ladder, and a second locking member movably associated with the first locking member. First and second legs extend outwardly from the second locking member toward a supporting surface. The second locking member slidably moves in relation to the first locking member as either the first or second leg is engaged with the surface. When both the first and second legs are engaged with the surface, the second locking member is moved into locked engagement with the first locking member, so as to maintain the ladder in a level state. When the first and/or second leg is removed from engagement with the supporting surface, the second locking member is released and is free to move with respect to the first locking member again.
US08360200B2
A muffler includes a muffler body in which a muffler chamber is formed by a base, a cover, and a baffle accommodated in the muffler chamber and disposed in the vicinity of the exhaust gas entry port of the muffler body. A guide portion which changes flow of an exhaust gas that enters from the exhaust gas entry port is integrally provided to the baffle by cut-and-raise of a portion of the baffle.
US08360199B2
An integrated mass air flow sensor/broadband silencer assembly comprises a molded body having a plurality of walls formed therein. The molded body is over-wrapped with a layer of acoustic foam that, together with the plurality of walls, define a plurality of chambers within an interior volume of the assembly. A mass air flow sensor can be inserted into one of the chambers. The chambers are sized and spaced to provide a uniform velocity, low turbulence air flow to the sensor, and a minimally-restricted air flow to an internal combustion engine located downstream of the assembly.
US08360196B2
A worm wheel including an annular worm wheel main body formed from a resin material; teeth on an outer periphery of the worm wheel main body in a circumferential direction of the worm wheel main body a; a first region on respective tooth flanks of the teeth and offset from a mid-position of a whole depth of the respective teeth in a radially outward direction of the worm wheel main body; a first region; and a second region.
US08360190B2
A two-wheeled motor vehicle prevents a belt from slipping in a continuously variable transmission even when support by a center stand is released and a rear wheel thus lands while spinning. The two-wheeled motor vehicle includes a hydraulic continuously variable transmission that transmits torque via a belt, and a control device includes a stand position obtaining unit that obtains position information about the center stand, and an add-at-support-position unit that increases oil pressure generated in a primary oil chamber and a secondary oil chamber by a predetermined amount when the center stand is at the support position.
US08360188B2
An electric motorcycle is provided such that even if a power drive unit is mounted to a swing arm, it is difficult for a load to be applied to wiring connected to the power drive unit. In an electric motorcycle in which a PDU and a running-purpose power-generating motor are attached to a swing arm turning around a pivot shaft, and electricity from batteries is supplied via a contactor box to the PDU, from which the electricity is supplied to a power-generating motor, torsional portions extending generally parallel to the pivot shaft are provided at a portion of output lines connecting the contactor box with the PDU so as to allow torsion to absorb swinging movement of the swing arm.
US08360186B2
An in-wheel motor drive device (21) includes a motor part A, a reducer part B, a wheel hub C, and a reducer part lubricating mechanism to supply a lubricant oil to the reducer part. The reducer part lubricating mechanism includes a lubricant oil path (25c), a lubricant oil supply port (25d), a lubricant oil discharge port (22b), a circulation oil path (45) passing through a casing (22) to connect the lubricant oil discharge port (22b) to the lubricant oil path (25c), and to return the lubricant oil discharged from the lubricant oil discharge port (22b) to the lubricant oil path (25c), a cooling water path (22e) provided in the casing (22) so as to be in contact with the circulation oil path (45) to cool down the lubricant oil passing through the circulation oil path (45), and a partition member (49) arranged in a contact position between the circulation oil path (45) and the cooling water path (22e), to separate them.
US08360183B2
A vehicle has an internal combustion engine, an electric drive device and a transmission with two component transmissions that can be selected simultaneously. Torque can be transmitted from the electric drive device and/or the internal combustion engine to at least one axle of the vehicle, and a torque can be transmitted from the axle to the electric drive device and/or the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine is adjusted from a deactivated state to an energized state. Torque is transmitted to the internal combustion engine by the axle and/or the electric drive device via one of two shifting elements to increase rotational speed of the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine is adjusted to a target rotational speed via one of the shifting elements. The connection between the internal combustion engine and the axle is produced via one of the shifting elements upon reaching the target rotational speed.
US08360173B1
An underreamer that can be assembled easily is formed from a tubular body having a flow tube running to a distal end delivering fluid which moves an actuator against the underreamer arms which are hinged to a moveable stop block and stopped to positively seat the arm at the end of a key slot to rigidly hold the underreamer arm in full extension during operations. Once hydraulic pressure is released, a spring moves the arm down the slot to a position where the arm can be removed from the slot in the underreamer body. A lower sub assembly is affixed to the underreamer body to prevent premature back off of the lower sub. Jets are disposed on either side of the underreamer to remove cuttings from the well bore. The tool is adaptable in the field for several hole sizes by adjustment in the length of the stop block and the angle of the flat on the top side of the key.
US08360165B2
Embodiments of the inventive technology present novel methods of controlling the movement, in several degrees of freedom, of an implement mounted to and supported by a motor vehicle (e.g., a tractor). Particular embodiments may focus on the use of actuators attached (at an end) to a movable frame (which may have a shaft running at least partially therethrough) to control the motion of an implement assembly. A related novel method of operation is also disclosed.
US08360152B2
A process and process line is provided for preparing a friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid at a central location which can be readily transported to an oil or gas well in a formation at a well site, comprising: preparing a mixture of polymer and water at the central location by shearing the polymer in the water in a high shear environment to create the friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid; pumping the friction-reduced hydraulic fracturing fluid through a series of pumps and pipelines to the well site; and injecting the hydraulic fracturing fluid into the oil or gas well at a pressure sufficient to cause fracturing of the formation.
US08360142B2
A system comprising a first expandable tubular section and a first expansion bridge coupled to an inner surface of the first expandable tubular section. A base pipe is coupled to the first expandable tubular section and to a second expandable tubular section. A second expansion bridge is coupled to an inner surface of the second expandable tubular section. The system also comprises an expansion cone disposed within and translatable relative to the first expandable section. The expansion cone has an expansion diameter greater than an inner diameter of the first and second expansion bridges and less than an inner diameter of the base pipe.
US08360131B2
Composite bi-fold doors and other composite closures having improved assemblies are described, wherein the assemblies provide enhanced strength and durability of the doors and their construction while simultaneously maintaining their aesthetics. Additional improved bi-fold door and semi-solid door assemblies are also provided, which allow for the dimensional adjustment of the height of the doors by the installer as necessary, while simultaneously maintaining the structural integrity of the doors following the height adjustment.
US08360130B2
A tension device that prevents a window covering from operating properly until the tension device is installed. The tension device incorporates a drive wheel, casing, anchoring arm and drive stud. The drive stud has two sections, one keyed and one cylindrical. Before the tension device is installed, the keyed section of the drive stud engages the drive wheel and the casing, thereby preventing them from rotating relative to each other. When the tension device is installed, the drive stud must be inserted into the anchoring arm causing the keyed section of the drive stud to disengage the drive wheel and thereby allow the drive wheel to rotate relative to the casing.
US08360129B2
The present invention relates to a peeling device which peels off a reinforcing sheet stuck on a substrate, including: a supporting unit which supports one main surface of a laminate having the substrate and the reinforcing sheet; a plate-shaped flexible member to be attached to the other main surface of the laminate; a plurality of pads fixed to a surface of the flexible member lying opposite to the laminate side; a plurality of rods each of which is coupled to any one of the plurality of pads; a plurality of driving devices by which the plurality of rods are made to move, respectively, in their individual axial directions; and a control device by which a position of each of the plurality of rods is controlled on an individual basis, in which each of the plurality of pads is coupled to any one of the plurality of the rods via any one of a plurality of joints so that each pad is allowed to be pivotable centering on a vicinity of an intersection point of a centerline of the rod coupled thereto with a surface of the reinforcing sheet facing the substrate side or a surface of the substrate facing the reinforcing sheet side, and in which the one main surface of the laminate is supported by the supporting unit, and at the same time, the position of each of the plurality of rods is controlled by the control device so that the other main surface of the laminate is subjected to bending deformation in sequence from one-end side thereof.
US08360127B2
A system for installing communications in a hallway of a building comprises a duct having a conduit portion with a bore formed throughout and containing one or more communications lines and a mounting portion to mount the duct to a generally flat surface, the mounting portion including an adhesive disposed thereon, and a duct applicator tool to continuously receive the duct from a storage structure. The applicator tool includes a generally planar frame that supports at least one duct channel that receives the duct and provides a support surface that places a pressing force onto the duct as the duct is applied to the generally flat surface. The applicator tool includes one or more duct guides disposable on at least an end of the frame, where the one or more duct guides guide the duct from its storage structure to the at least one duct channel.
US08360126B2
A motorized head for applying fiber composite material to an application surface includes a drive roll assembly for applying fiber composite material to an application surface. The drive roll assembly includes a drive roll and a backup roll and a drive roll nip formed between the drive roll and the backup roll. At least one cutter is mounted on the drive roll for cutting fiber composite material, and an ejector mechanism is mounted on the drive roll behind the cutter mechanism. The ejector mechanism positively displaces the leading end of the cut tow material away from the surface of the drive roll to ensure that the cut tow material does not misfeed as it approaches the fiber path chute downstream from the cutter.
US08360125B2
A sealing device for inductive sealing of containers is provided. The sealing device includes at least one induction coil made from an at least partially flexible conductor. The induction coil has two coil halves arranged at a distance (d) apart between which the containers can be moved, in which the conductor in each case extends essentially parallel to a direction of motion (B) of the containers. The coil halves are connected to the induction coil via at least one flexible conductor loop, which extends perpendicular to the direction of motion (B) of the containers.
US08360123B2
This disclosure discloses a tag label producing apparatus comprising: at least one feeding roller; a printing device; and an apparatus antenna; and a coordination control portion that controls in coordination the feeding roller, the printing device, and the apparatus antenna, such that information transmission/reception is performed between an RFID circuit element and the apparatus antenna when an IC circuit part of the RFID circuit element provided to a tag medium is fed downstream in a transport direction from a segment from a nearest roller to the apparatus antenna along a feeding path.
US08360115B2
A fuel transfer system for use with a motor vehicle of the type having a fuel tank and a fuel sending unit in the fuel tank for pumping fuel thorough a fuel line to the vehicles engine when the engine is idling where the fuel transfer system allows fuel in the fuel tank to also be delivered to an auxiliary fuel vessel such as another fuel tank, a fuel container, or an engine powered machine is provided. A fuel fitting for connecting the fuel line between a vehicle's fuel tank and engine to a fuel transfer system that can deliver fuel to an auxiliary fuel vessel is also described.
US08360112B2
The inventive method for filling a pressure gas container from a gas source pressure with a high pressure for a predetermined filling time selected or calculated prior to filling and at a determined temperature consists in forming a connection in the form of a fluid passage between the source and container, in carrying out a plurality of the passage opening-closing sequences during predetermined sub-intervals of the predetermined filling time, wherein the curve of a current pressure in the container follows, according to a time, a theoretical straight line linking the pressure measured prior to filling and after thereof during the filling time, the predetermined filling time is subdivided into a number of the time sub-intervals ranging from two to several hundreds and having respective determined duration, preferably ranging from 5 and 20 seconds.
US08360108B2
An existing-pipe rehabilitation method for constructing a rehabilitation pipe inside an existing pipe to rehabilitate the existing pipe. A rehabilitation pipe is constructed inside an existing pipe by coupling segments in the circumferential direction and the lengthwise direction of the existing pipe so that the rehabilitation pipe has a constant outer diameter. A lining material impregnated with a liquid curable resin is inserted into the rehabilitation pipe thus constructed. The liquid curable resin is cured to line the internal circumferential surface of the rehabilitation pipe with the lining material so that an inner diameter of the rehabilitation pipe lined with the lining material is smaller than an inner diameter of the existing pipe.
US08360102B2
A closed system for harvesting fat through liposuction, concentrating the aspirate so obtained, and then re-injecting the concentrated fat into a patient comprises as its main components a low pressure cannula having between about 7 to 12 side holes of about 1-2 mm by 2.0 to 4.0 mm, a spring loaded syringe holder with a constant force or coiled ribbon spring to apply a substantially constant pressure over the full excursion of the plunger, and a preferably flexible collection bag which is also preferably graduated, cylindrical over most of its body and funnel shaped at its bottom, all of which are connected through flexible tubings to a multi-port valve. The multi-port valve has two flutter/duck bill valves which restrict the fluid flow to a one way direction which effectively allows the syringe to be used to pump fat out of a patient and into a collection bag in a continuous manner. After the bags are centrifuged to concentrate the fat, the excess fluids are separated and the valve is re-connected to permit the syringe pump to reverse fluid flow to graft the concentrated fat back into the patient.
US08360094B2
A compression generator uses a plurality of jackbolts threadedly engaged at a spaced apart relation about a bolt circle in a main core element. The main core element is releasable interlocked by threads, bayonet connection or other form of fasting system with the mounting element forming a fixed part of the mechanical connection. The jackbolts torqued to generate a pushing force in an axial direction for compressing a moveable part of the mechanical connection against a compression seat for forming a mechanical connection between juxtaposition fixed and moveable parts.
US08360093B2
A pilot fill valve includes a float that is separated into upper and lower cavities by an angled partition through which a drain outlet and an overflow outlet are disposed. When the level of the float drops, a portion of the water supplied to the fill valve is diverted to a tank to raise the float, while the remainder is diverted to the upper cavity increasing the weight of the float. As the float begins to rise, the water in the upper cavity drains through the drain outlet and overflow outlet, making the float lighter, and causing the float and pivot arm to rotate with increased velocity, allowing the pilot cap carried by the pivot arm to fully shut off the valve.
US08360092B2
The invention relates to a ball valve having a housing made of plastic in which a carrier structure is disposed that is encased in plastic in which a valve ball having a through opening is pivotally supported between an opening and closing position, said carrier structure comprising two carrier rings positioned opposite each other, and a connecting element connecting said carrier rings. In order to create a ball valve made of plastic that is characterized by a simple construction and improved impermeability, the invention provides for the carrier structure to separate the valve ball completely from the plastic of the housing.
US08360089B2
Provided is a fuel cut-off valve capable of preventing liquid fuel from flowing into a valve inside from an evaporation line side, and inhibiting the liquid fuel from flowing into a canister side. The fuel cut-off valve includes: a housing main body including a lower space and an upper space partitioned through a partition wall; a float valve coming into contact with/moving away from a first opening; a lid sealing the upper space; an evaporation line connection pipe communicated to the upper space; a canister connection pipe similarly communicated to the upper space; and a second opening formed in a portion coupled to the evaporation line connection pipe and a third opening formed in a portion coupled to the canister connection pipe, which are surrounded by walls formed in the housing main body and/or the lid, and communicated to each other only through the upper space beyond the walls.
US08360086B2
An omnibus quasi-hydrosystem is disclosed. The omnibus quasi-hydrosystem includes a module base, at least two channel switching members mounted in the module base, at least two inlets formed in the module base and at least two outlets formed in the module base. The inlets allow fluid entering into the omnibus quasi-hydrosystem, the channel switching members alter the fluid path in the omnibus quasi-hydro system to a desired outlet to output the fluid. In addition, a modular omnibus quasi-hydrosystem is also disclosed herein.
US08360085B2
A top support structure of a tent frame includes a top pivot holder (1), to which a plurality of support poles (10) are pivotally coupled. An elastic member (9) is provided between each support pole and the pivot holder. The elastic member folds and stores elasticity energy when the tent frame is folded and automatically springs the support poles when the elasticity energy is released. A control holder (2) is pivotally coupled to the bottom of the pivot holder, and the control holder has lock pieces (211) which can prop the support poles up to limit their rotation and release grooves (212) adjacent to the lock pieces which can release the limitation. On the top of pivot grooves (12) of the pivot holder are provided with position-limited devices (D) to prevent the support poles from rotating upwards.
US08360062B2
A mask assembly includes a mask with an inflatable bladder. The internal pressure of the inflatable bladder can be set to be higher than the delivered therapeutic pressure. The pressure offset may be constant, or it may vary over the range of therapeutic pressures. Thus, the force necessary to maintain a contact seal between the mask and the patient can be reduced, thereby providing a system that is more comfortable to the patient, which increases patient compliance.
US08360050B1
A method for operating a thermal solar system, e.g., solar system, photovoltaic system, thermal system, includes providing a thermal array including a plenum. The thermal array may be subjected to a freezing condition, which can include, for example, one or more ice particles and/or crystals, e.g., ice crystal, frost, snow, sleet. The method includes operating a fan device coupled to a drive device in a first direction to cause fluid flow from a second region to a first region that includes at least the plenum for the thermal array. The fan is coupled to the drive device disposed in a fluid flow region between the first region and second regions. The method also includes transferring thermal energy to the thermal array using at least the flow of fluid from the second region to the first region to cause the one or more ice particles and/or crystals to thaw for removal of the one or more ice particles and/or crystals.
US08360038B2
The pollution control system includes a PCV valve having an inlet and an outlet adapted to vent blow-by gas out from a combustion engine. A fluid regulator associated with the PCV valve selectively modulates engine vacuum pressure to adjustably increase or decrease a fluid flow rate of blow-by gas venting from the combustion engine. An integral oil trap fluidly coupled to the PCV valve condenses vaporized oil in the blow-by gas into a liquid for re-use in the combustion engine.
US08360034B2
A fuel vapor storage canister for adsorbing fuel vapor evaporated from a fuel tank of an automotive vehicle. The fuel vapor storage canister includes a casing provided with charge and purge ports at its first end and an atmospheric port at its second end. At least first and second fuel vapor adsorbent layers are respectively located near the first and second ends of the casing. In this arrangement, the first fuel vapor adsorbent layer is larger in cross-sectional area perpendicular to flow direction of fuel vapor than the second fuel vapor adsorbent layer. The first and second fuel vapor adsorbent layers respectively include first and second granular fuel vapor adsorbents. The first granular fuel vapor adsorbent has a microporous structure, while the second granular fuel vapor adsorbent has a macroporous structure.
US08360033B2
A lubricant vent structure of a fuel pump for a vehicle, may include a mounting unit mounted to a pumping unit, a plurality of link units having a support link and a stopper restricting a rotatable range of the support link, wherein the plurality of link units is pivotally connected each other in a series by an elastic member respectively and the elastic member elastically supports the support link in the direction of the maximum rotatable range thereof, and a vent tube having an open end fixed to the last support link of the link units and communicating with a lubrication space of the pumping unit of the fuel pump, wherein the support link of the first link of the link units is pivotally fixed to the mounting unit of the fuel pump.
US08360032B2
A circuit for controlling an inductive load, e.g. of a fuel injection valve, includes supply terminals for supplying a voltage, output terminals for connecting the load, and a detection device which is connected to at least one of the output terminals and is used for detecting the point in time at which the operation of the load is discontinued and/or detecting at least one fault case during a non-operational phase of the load. In order to render the detection process more reliable while using less circuitry, the detection device encompasses a current mirror with a first current source and a second current source. The current first is connected to one of the two output terminals during a detection phase. The current supplied by the second current source is evaluated as a signal of the detected result.
US08360031B2
A variable compression ratio device having a piston, a crankshaft, a connecting rod including a small end portion connected to the piston, may include a piston pin fixed to the connecting rod and fixed thereto, a receiving hole formed inside the piston and rotatably receiving the piston pin, wherein the receiving hole includes a convex portion and a concave portion, at least a variable pin slidably coupled to the piston pin and slidably coupled to the interior circumference of the receiving hole, wherein the at least a variable pin has a protrusion, and an oil supply passage selectively supplying oil to apply hydraulic pressure to the at least a variable pin, wherein the protrusion of the at least a variable pin is selectively coupled to the convex portion or the concave portion of the receiving hole.
US08360030B2
An idle control system for a vehicle comprises an actuator control module, a torque determination module, a deviation analysis module, and an idle speed reduction module. The actuator control module regulates an engine speed based on a desired idle speed when an engine idle mode is enabled. The torque determination module determines actual torques for a cylinder of an engine while the engine idle mode is enabled. The deviation analysis module determines a standard deviation based on more than one of the actual torques while the engine idle mode is enabled. The idle speed reduction module determines an idle speed reduction based on the standard deviation and decreases the desired idle speed based on the idle speed reduction.
US08360015B2
Systems and methods for monitoring a fuel reformer which reforms ethanol into a reformate gas comprising H2, CO, and CH4 for fueling an engine are provided. Degradation of the fuel reformer may be indicated based on an amount of ethanol injected into the fuel reformer and an amount of at least one of H2, CO, and CH4 produced by the fuel reformer.
US08360014B2
In the context of an enclosure-housed engine in which an engine 10 is housed within an enclosure 2, the present invention is such that arranged in an intake chamber 8A, separate from one or more chambers where a radiator 18 and the engine are disposed, there is engine intake equipment comprising an air cleaner 22 and an intake silencer 23; the constitution being such that at least one wall face of said intake chamber is subjected to a cooling airstream, intake and exhaust of which are driven by a radiator fan; and the constitution being such that the radiator fan 19 is driven, regardless of whether or not engine coolant within the radiator is circulating, when outside air temperature is greater than or equal to a prescribed temperature.
US08360007B2
An animal entertainment device comprises a guide unit and a wheel that travels on the guide unit.
US08360004B2
A bale feeder includes a support and a housing pivotally mounted to the support. The housing has a peripheral sidewall defining a bale receiving interior cavity with an access opening providing access to the interior cavity. The housing is pivotally movable between a loading position and a feeding position. In the loading position the access opening is substantially horizontal for improved loading access.
US08360000B2
The present invention provides a percutaneous terminal having a substrate thereof flocked with fibers having bio-affinity, and thereby being able to adhere tightly to a living body, a medical instrument to be placed in the body, and a production method and a production apparatus of the percutaneous terminal and the medical instrument to be placed in the body. The percutaneous terminal according to the present invention is one which the surface of the substrate is flocked with bio-affinitive short fibers (e.g. hydroxyapatite complex particles), therefore the bio-affinitive short fibers are risen perpendicular to or substantially perpendicular to the surface of the substrate. As a result, an area of the bio-affinitive short fibers coating a unit area of the substrate of the percutaneous terminal to the unit area of the percutaneous terminal substrate is considerably elevated and, in its turn, the adhesiveness of the percutaneous terminal to biological tissues is improved. Thus, it is possible to stably fix to the living body a medical device such as a catheter or the like which has the percutaneous terminal. The medical instrument according to the present invention is also flocked with the short fibers as described above, therefore it is possible to stably fix to the living body the medical instrument to be placed in the body.
US08359993B1
A method and device to permit a water vessel to releasably capture a line. The water vessel may include a step cutout portion to receive a line capturing device. The line capturing device includes a device housing having a capturing notch and a pivotal guide arm. The guide arm may be pivoted to a deployed position. When presented with a line, a water vessel with the line-capturing device may capture the line by deploying the guide arm to guide the line into the notch, where the line is releasably latched. Also included is a system for towing a smaller water vessel to a parent vessel, the smaller water vessel including a device for capturing a line. The line may be attached at one end to the parent vessel.
US08359983B2
Some embodiments of a table system can include a table that is readily adjustable between a deployed position and a storage position. In particular embodiments, when the table is in the unlocked condition, the tabletop surface can be readily pivoted from a generally horizontal position to a generally vertical position, for example, for purposes of storing or transporting the table.
US08359980B2
A cable railway system has a conveying cable, which in the two end stations of the system is guided over a respective deflection pulley. Transport vehicles, which can be coupled to the conveying cable and are configured with a clamping device and with a running gear. The vehicles are coupled to the conveying cable along the route and are guided in the stations by way of the running gear along guide rails. There, the passengers disembark and board. The movement of the vehicles in the stations is governed by control tires, which are drivingly coupled to one another by gear mechanisms. The drive power of the control tires is taken from at least one support roller for the conveying cable, which support roller is located in the station. The support roller for the conveying cable via which the drive of the control tires is derived from the conveying cable by way of at least one drive belt is elastically mounted on a rigidly fastened axle.
US08359979B2
A projectile formed from dissimilar materials. The projectile includes a metallurgical interlayer that joins the dissimilar materials together. The metallurgical interlayer also matches the shock impedance of the two materials to prevent delamination during launch and during impact.
US08359972B2
A cooker for use by troops on deployment comprises a container 10 for cooking fat sitting upon a heating chamber 12. The heating chamber 12 has a back wall 14 formed with an aperture 16 to receive a burner and a front wall 18 formed with an exhaust port 20 communicating with a chimney 22. The heating chamber has side walls extending between its front and back walls 18 and 14. The container has a hinged lid 28 which folds to present a rack 30 for food frying baskets (not shown). The cooker is configured and arranged so that flame from the burner does not contact the container 10 and heat is diffused over the container 10, whereby cooking fat therein is not locally overheated.
US08359969B2
Apparatuses, methods and systems for retrofitting an indoor water dispenser of an existing refrigerator having a water outlet with one or more components to provide secondary water conditioning to dispense an enhanced beverage using water from the water outlet of the indoor water dispenser are provided.
US08359967B2
A fluid end for a reciprocating pump is provided that includes a base material less subject to abrasion, corrosion, erosion and/or wet fatigue than conventional fluid end materials such as carbon steel, and a reinforcing composite material for adding stress resistance and reduced weight to the fluid end.
US08359964B2
A weapon system uses caseless munitions. In order to permit a further use of the weapon system essentially without delay on jamming, a configuration of the weapon system is disclosed that has a weapon barrel, a projectile magazine with individual chambers and a propellant charge magazine with individual chambers. In order to guarantee a firing position, the projectile magazine and the propellant charge magazine, may be moved relative to the weapon barrel. The projectile magazine has a chamber located in a discharge position in which an ejector device for the projectile in the chamber may be activated. A further chamber of the projectile magazine may be loaded in the movement position for the projectile magazine and the propellant charge magazine has a chamber, located in a discharge position in which an ejector device for the propellant charge in the chamber may be activated. The further chamber of the propellant charge magazine may be loaded in the movement position of the propellant charge magazine.
US08359963B2
An expandable linear explosive shape charge positioner for severing tubular members whereby a plurality of arc-shaped charge chambers are positioned along the same plane and adjacent to the interior walls of the tubular members and detonated to sever the tubular members. The invention is placed within a tubular member and includes a remotely extendible framework having remotely detonable linear explosive shape charges enclosed therein. When in the collapsed position, the apparatus passes through constrictions within the tubular members. When extended, the framework is positioned transversely to the axis of the tubular member with the shape charges positioned adjacent the interior walls thereof. Shape charge chambers with angled ends are presented to provide overlap when the device is fully extended to better ensure complete separation of the tubular member at the discontinuities of the shape charges about the plane of severance.
US08359955B2
A torque socket has an outer cylinder having markings on an outer surface thereof. A receptacle including a male ratchet member at one distal end, and a plurality of cavities and a central channel at an opposite end. A plurality of balls each adapted to fit within a respective cavity of the receptacle. A spring seat including a release pad, a central pin extending axially therefrom from one end and adapted to fit within the central channel of the receptacle, thereby holding the balls within the cavities, and a disk at an opposite end. A coiled spring received upon the spring seat. A cylinder head having a female ratchet portion, and is adapted to compress the coiled spring and releasably and adjustably attach to an inside surface of the outer cylinder, thereby holding the receptacle, the balls, and the spring seat together and between the outer cylinder and the cylinder head.
US08359947B2
A resistance mechanism and module for generating and applying a resistance force to a pedal. The resistance module includes a plunger adapted for movement in the interior of the module between rest and depressed positions in response to the application by the pedal of a compression force against the plunger. The plunger includes an exterior camming surface. An actuator is also located in the interior of the module and includes an exterior camming surface which abuts and is adapted to slide against the camming surface on the plunger in response to the movement of the plunger. A spring in the module abuts and is adapted to apply a biasing force against the actuator. The interaction between the camming surfaces on the plunger and the actuator generates a resistance force which is applied to the pedal.
US08359946B2
A Bowden cable adjusting device is provided for one or more Bowden cables (1′, 1″). The Bowden cable adjusting device (3) has a housing (4) with a detachable locking device (6) for adjustably connecting the housing (4) to a transmission element (5), which can be connected to one or more Bowden cables (1′, 1″). The Bowden cable adjusting device (3) has a mounting securing device (7) for the transmission element (5). The mounting securing device (7) can be deactivated. A process for mounting and adjusting a Bowden cable arrangement is also provided, wherein the mounting securing device (7) may be deactivated and the Bowden cable adjusting device (3) is shortened while adjusting the distance between the actuating member (2) and the Bowden cable (1′, 1″).
US08359940B2
In a twin-clutch transmission, when a third shift valve (for example) goes out of order and the shift change accordingly becomes incapable of being carried out, the hydraulic pressure outputted from the third shift valve is controlled by a fourth shift valve operated by a first shift solenoid for a first shift valve. Accordingly, the hydraulic pressure outputted by a second linear solenoid is supplied to one of second hydraulic actuators, thereby enabling one of second predetermined transmission gear stages to be pre-shifted by use of a second power transmission path. When the first shift valve is used as a fail-safe, it is possible for the vehicle to make a minimum necessary run by setting up one of the second predetermined transmission gear stages. Furthermore, the fourth shift valve is driven by use of the existing first shift solenoid, thus minimizing the number of parts and cost.
US08359930B2
Pin bearing arrangement (10) for measuring loads in an aircraft landing gear (1), comprising a trailing arm (2), connected to at least one of the aircraft wheels (3), and a shock absorber (4), connected to the aircraft, whereby load (11) is transferred from the trailing arm (2) to the shock absorber (4), the trailing arm (2) being rotatable with respect to the shock absorber (4), the pin bearing arrangement (10) comprising at least one strain measuring element (12) attached to the pin bearing arrangement (10) in predetermined positions, these positions being selected such that the strain measuring element (12) gives at least a minimum detectable signal when the load (11) transferred is over a first threshold value, for any value of the angle (5) adopted by the trailing arm (2) with respect to the shock absorber (4). The invention also refers to a method for providing an indication of the on-ground condition of an aircraft, using a pin bearing arrangement (10) as the one described, and to a method for determining the positioning of the at least one strain measuring element (12) in such a pin bearing arrangement (10).
US08359929B2
A surface mounted instrument (20) that is easily installed to seal (110, 120) against a mounting surface (150) in spite of imprecise installation of a standard rough-in box (145) or irregularities in the surface. A cover plate (60) overlays the installed instrument housing (10) without the use of outwardly visible mechanical connectors by use of a pawl (65) that engages the housing. An oversized display (50) is mounted for easy replacement on a moveable display module (45) for unobstructed access to the interior (35) of the housing. Subsurface channels (90) formed in the housing are used to deliver a working fluid from a measured location to a sensor (85) inside the housing.
US08359921B2
A method to balance a wheel assembly. In a first aspect, corrective balance weights and position thereof are determined by a balancer and a closest corrective balance weight thereto is chosen, as well as one of higher and one of lower weight increment for each plane; chosen weights are paired to provide minimized residual and then attached to the planes of the wheel assembly. In a second aspect, imbalance weights are determined by a balancer; a pair of corrective balance weights, one at least ½ the determined imbalance weight are chosen, each separated by determined position angles to minimize residual and then respectively attached to the corrective balance plane(s) of the wheel assembly.
US08359916B2
A method of wind tunnel measurement of airfoil, includes a step of providing a wind tunnel test apparatus. The wind tunnel test apparatus includes two walls, two supporting members, and two load measuring units. The method further includes steps of: coupling both ends of an airfoil model under test with the two supporting members, respectively; generating a flow of a fluid in the wind tunnel flow path; and measuring a load applied to the airfoil model by using the two load measuring units. A thin film member is stuck on each end of the airfoil model so that a part of the thin film member protrudes from the each end of the airfoil model along an outer circumference throughout an entire circumference. The thin film member has a strength at which the thin film member enables to endure a pressure of the fluid, and is formed of a material which is elastically deformable. The thin film member is provided so that a gap between the each end of the airfoil model and one of the two walls facing to the each end of the airfoil model is blocked.
US08359907B2
A device (60) and method for measuring the roughness of a playing surface are described. The device includes a carriage (12) which can travel over the playing surface, a rotatable member (80) which can roll over the playing surface, a restraint (84) which constrains the rotatable member (80) to travel with the carriage (12) and a transducer (70) coupled to the rotatable member (80) and which can generate a signal representative of the height and/or lateral translation of the rotatable member.
US08359901B2
A chemical impairment detection system and method of use comprising a video surveillance system adapted to record a facial image of a tester, the video surveillance system having a camera with a lens having a field of view from which the camera views images and distinguishes whether those images have appropriate construction or contrast of light intensity. The invention further comprises a control and relay module having a proper view and position determiner adapted to determine whether the facial image of the tester is properly positioned within the field of view during a chemical impairment detection test, and a test prompter to alert the tester when to begin the chemical impairment detection test. The present invention further comprises a chemical impairment detection sampling device in operable communication with and responsive to the video surveillance system, the sampling device adapted to receive a chemical impairment detection test sample from the tester.
US08359890B2
A light fence represented by aligned apertures in a plurality of wheels permits the passage of a light beam to a sensor to activate an electro-mechanical control for a lock. Such an arrangement avoids the sound-producing mechanical action of the typical tumbler lock and safeguards discovery of the opening combination. Rather than the typical case of a numerical sequencing combination, a novel approach is taken by using visual pattern recognition to align the apertures. The electro-mechanical control of the present invention additionally features optimized energy use, customizable settings, precision positioning, and an expansion of possible combination permutations by including direction of rotation.
US08359886B2
A process for increasing toughness of glass particulates is provided. The process includes providing an aluminosilicate glass particulate, the glass particulate generally having the form of a sphere, and heating the glass particulate to a temperature greater than 600° C. for a predetermined time. Thereafter, the glass particulate can be cooled to ambient temperature and the heating step can alter the failure mechanism of the glass particulate from a high energy failure that produces generally fine powder to a lower energy failure that produces generally large fragments. The glass particulate can be an amorphous glass particulate and may or may not have a nominal composition that corresponds to rhyolite, basalt, tholeiite, olivine and/or andesite.
US08359885B2
An object of the present invention is to provide a surface-treated glass having a concave portion on the order of nanometers, in which the depth of the concave portion is sufficiently large for the size thereof and which is free from an abnormal bump portion and excellent in the transparency to visible light. The present invention relates to a surface-treated glass having a plurality of the concave portions provided in a glass surface, in which a plane of the glass surface, excluding a region in which the concave portions are formed, is a flat plane, and the concave portions have an average open pore diameter of 10 nm to less than 1 μm in a cross-sectional view thereof.
US08359884B2
A glass sheet is formed using a roll-to-roll glass soot deposition and sintering process. The glass sheet formation involves forming a first glass soot layer on a deposition surface of a soot-receiving device, removing the first glass soot layer from the deposition surface, and forming a second glass soot layer on the unsupported first glass soot layer. The resulting composite glass soot sheet is heated to form a sintered glass sheet. The glass sheet can be a substantially homogeneous glass sheet or a composite glass sheet having layer-specific attributes.
US08359878B2
A method of assembling a refrigerator including providing a main body having a storage chamber, providing a door having a door liner on one side of the door, providing a seating member, providing an ice maker for making ice, attaching the ice maker to the seating member, attaching the seating member to the door liner, providing an ice bank for storing ice, attaching the ice bank to the seating member below the ice maker, and rotatably attaching the door to the main body.
US08359877B2
A water vending apparatus is disclosed. The water vending system includes a water vapor distillation apparatus and a dispensing device. The dispensing device is in fluid communication with the fluid vapor distillation apparatus and the product water from the fluid vapor distillation apparatus is dispensed by the dispensing device.
US08359875B2
An apparatus and method to cool compressors, condensing coils, and similar devices. The compressor or condensing coil is cooled by the delivery of water, which may be ambient temperature or chilled. In one embodiment, the water is delivered to a mesh filter or screen via one or more mist spray nozzles. Water conduits may be integrated with the filter frame. The method to control the delivery of the water is designed to conserve water. The control circuit comprises a microcontroller device which contains programming that receives inputs, including but not limited to, outside ambient air temperature, condenser liquid line temperature, relative humidity and electric current, and uses said inputs to provide a stepwise level of control (“solenoid open time”) of water delivery commensurate with outside air temperature and relative humidity.
US08359873B2
To address the problem of lubricant entrainment within the refrigerant system components such as an evaporator and suction line, a control is provided to periodically, substantially and intermittently increase the refrigerant flow through these components to thereby carry the trapped lubricant back to the compressor. The increased flow of refrigerant can be accomplished by periodically throttling and then unthrottling either an expansion device or a suction modulation valve to cause instantaneous pressure buildup within a respective section of the vapor compression system and subsequent increase of the refrigerant flow through the above-referenced components such as an evaporator and suction line. Suggested time intervals of both the throttling and unthrottling states are provided, as well as the frequency of occurrence for subsequent oil return cycles.
US08359872B2
A heat exchanger may be associated with a heat transfer system to promote flow of heat energy from a heat source to a multi-phase fluid. The heat exchanger may be associated with an expansion portion. The fluid may be a refrigerant to which nano-particles may be added. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in an air-conditioning system as well as a water heating system.
US08359866B2
A combustor liner segment seal member is provided that includes a center section, a forward flange, and an aft flange. The center section includes a base surface, a gas path surface, a forward side surface, and an aft side surface. The forward flange extends outwardly from the forward side surface, and includes a width, a height, a shell side surface, and a liner side surface. The aft flange extends outwardly from the aft side surface, and includes a width, a height, a shell side surface, and a liner side surface.
US08359865B2
A combustor for a gas turbine engine is provided that includes a support shell, a forward liner segment, an aft liner segment, and a seal member. The support shell has an interior surface, and exterior surface, and a plurality of impingement apertures disposed within the shell. The forward liner segment and aft liner segment are attached to the inner surface of the shell. The forward liner segment has an edge surface extending between a face surface and a back surface, and a seal shoulder. The aft liner segment has an edge surface extending between a face surface and a back surface, and a seal shoulder. The forward liner segment and the aft liner segment are separated from one another by a gap. The seal member is disposed within the gap. At least some of the plurality of impingement apertures disposed within the shell are aligned with the seal member and oriented to direct cooling air to impinge on the seal member.
US08359862B1
A steam turbine engine that converts highly compressed steam to mechanical rotatative torque. An upper sealing gate and lower sealing gate alternately open and block the intake port and exhaust port accordingly through the use of a lever arm and cam and pulley system.
US08359846B2
An exhaust manifold includes: a double collecting pipe formed of inner and outer pipes; and an inner pipe retainer formed of a pair of semi-circular portions and a connecting portion. The inner pipe includes a collecting pipe portion and bifurcated branch pipe portions. The outer pipe covers outer peripheral portions of the collecting and branch pipe portions. The semi-circular portions are respectively connected to outer peripheral portions of branched branch pipe portions and an inner peripheral portion of the outer pipe. The connecting portion connects the semi-circular portions. The inner pipe retainer is interposed between the inner pipe and the outer pipe and is connected to the inner pipe and the outer pipe to define a certain gap therebetween. Exhaust gas from exhaust ports of a set of cylinders among a plurality of cylinders of an engine is introduced into the collecting pipe portion through the branch pipe portions.
US08359845B2
An apparatus for a vehicle with an engine is provided that accomplishes exhaust heat recovery and exhaust gas recirculation with a common heat exchanger used for both purposes. The apparatus includes an exhaust system through which exhaust gas is discharged from the engine. A heat exchanger is positioned within the exhaust system. Coolant flow passages are provided in thermal communication with the engine and with the heat exchanger. A bypass valve is operable in a first position to direct the exhaust gas through the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the coolant flow passages in a coolant heating mode, and operable in a second position in which the exhaust gas bypasses the heat exchanger in a bypass mode during which no significant coolant heating occurs via the heat exchanger. A portion of the exhaust gas is recirculated to the engine after cooling via the heat exchanger.
US08359844B2
An exhaust treatment system comprises M three-way catalysts and N electrically heated catalysts (EHCs). The M three-way catalysts are arranged to receive exhaust gas output by an engine of a hybrid vehicle. M is an integer greater than one. The N EHCs are arranged to receive the exhaust gas and provide radiant heat to the M three-way catalysts when the N EHCs are powered. N is an integer greater than one.
US08359843B2
An exhaust manifold cooling jacket has internal passages for the circulation of liquid coolant and encloses an exhaust manifold such that a gap is created between the exhaust manifold and cooling jacket. Flowing coolant through the jacket regulates outer jacket temperature while enabling high intra-manifold exhaust gas temperatures for thorough intra-manifold combustion and improved emissions. A liquid-cooled exhaust system includes a turbocharger disposed between manifold and elbow, with liquid coolant flowing from manifold to elbow through the turbocharger. Another liquid-cooled exhaust manifold contains an internal exhaust combustion catalyst wrapped in an insulating blanket. In some marine applications, seawater or fresh water coolant is discharged into the exhaust gas stream at an attached exhaust elbow.
US08359840B2
A method for regenerating a particulate filter is disclosed. In one example, oxygen is pumped from the intake system of a direct injection turbocharged gasoline engine to the exhaust system by a compressor. The oxygen is introduced to a particulate filter at a location upstream from the particulate filter and downstream of a three-way catalyst. The oxygen may be regulated in part by adjusting compressor boost pressure in response to a state of particulate filter regeneration. Further, in one embodiment, engine NOx can be controlled by EGR.
US08359838B2
An exhaust purification apparatus for an engine has a first casing (17) that is interposed in an exhaust path (13); a second casing (23) that is set downstream of the first casing (17) and contains an exhaust purification device (24); a connecting pipe (22, 41, 51) that connects the first casing and the second casing (23) to each other and includes an insertion portion that is inserted in the first casing (17); and an injection nozzle (27, 52) that has a tip end inserted in the connecting pipe (22, 41, 51) and injects an auxiliary agent from the tip end. The insertion portion of the connecting pipe (22, 41, 51) is provided with a plurality of through-holes (22a, 41a, 41b, 51a) connecting the inside and the outside of the connecting pipe (22, 41, 51), so that the exhaust gas contained in the first casing (17) is introduced into the connecting pipe (22, 41, 51) through the through-holes and guided towards the second casing (23).
US08359837B2
One embodiment is a unique method including determining a temperature of a NOx adsorber. Further embodiments, forms, objects, features, advantages, aspects, and benefits shall become apparent from the following description and drawings.
US08359834B2
An apparatus is provided for injection of a fluid for an exhaust gases treatment device of an internal combustion engine arrangement. The apparatus includes a fluid injector fed from a source of fluid under pressure through a fluid conduit, a feed valve in the fluid conduit between the source of fluid the said injector, a purge system including a gas conduit connecting a source of pressurized gas to the fluid conduit, a pressure limiter within the gas conduit, and a check valve downstream of the pressure limiter. The pressure limited by the pressure limiter is lower than the pressure of fluid delivered by the source of fluid.
US08359819B1
The present invention relates to lake weed harvester, and in particular to a machine that removes lake weed and deposits it via a transport assembly onto a hopper, and then removes the lake weed via the same transport assembly from the hopper. In one embodiment, the harvester comprises a boat supporting a deck, a hopper, a control station and a transport assembly operable from the control station. The transport assembly can have a conveyor and a roller that combine to pull weeds at their roots. The transport assembly can pivot between a first position wherein weeds are harvested and deposited via an inclined plane into a hopper, and a second position wherein the weeds are removed from the hopper and transported to a disposal point also via an inclined plane. The transport assembly can selectively oriented under operation of actuators.
US08359815B2
In a machine for filling capsules with pharmaceutical products, the bottom of each capsule is moved forward along a path determined in phase with a dosing device, which transfers the pharmaceutical product from a tank to the bottom, and has a cylinder, a piston engaged in the cylinder, a spring interposed between the cylinder and the piston for normally maintaining the piston in contact with a stopping element, and a tappet carried by the cylinder, engaged in a cam, and adapted to move the cylinder and the piston with respective mutually identical laws of motion.
US08359812B2
A grid tee and method of making the same comprising an elongated sheet metal strip folded on itself to integrally form a lower double wall flange, a hollow upper reinforcing bulb, and a web extending upwardly between the flange and bulb, the flange generally lying in a horizontal plane, having opposed spaced parallel edges extending longitudinally, and being perpendicular to the web, the web lying in a generally vertical plane, the strip having two longitudinal extending marginal edge zones, said marginal edge zones being generally vertically disposed and fixed at least at longitudinally spaced locations to a central area of the strip that forms a portion of the web and forming a double web layer area, the marginal edge zones of the strip being vertically spaced from one another such that a portion of the central area of the strip that forms a part of the web is a single exclusive layer.
US08359808B2
The present invention uses insulating concrete forms (ICF) in the construction of residential buildings. An entire wall panel is formed from polystyrene panels that may be cut by a hot wire machine. If necessary, hat channel shaped metal may be inserted into hat channel slots. Columns of polystyrene are removed so that concrete posts may be poured therein after the wall panel has been secured into place with rebar being located therein. Rebar and concrete also are formed along the top of the wall panel. Electrical and plumbing connection pathways are provided in the wall panel at the time of cutting with hot wire. Each wall panel is separately designed and cut by hot wire while still at the factory, but are all connected together to form an ICF residence. Openings are provided for doors and windows and are buck framed. Hat channels are inserted as necessary for strength and/or connection thereto.
US08359802B1
A ceiling system for buildings that has, among other things, a first molding having a first molding slot, a second molding having a second molding slot, and a third molding having a third molding slot. The system further includes a molding clip having a support member portion for positioning on a support member and a first molding slot attachment for positioning in the first molding slot. A molding bracket has a first molding surface for positioning on the first molding and a second molding slot projection for positioning in the second molding slot. A rail clip has a rail end for positioning on a side rail and a slot end for positioning in the third molding slot. The system has a panel for positioning adjacent to the first, second and third moldings.
US08359791B1
A bird guard having a body supporting outwardly extending projections for deterring birds and a pair of opposing elastically biased clamping ears for gripping onto a railing or cable. The use of body material and/or line hinges cast from elastic material are taught for biasing the clamping ears. An encasing apparatus is also taught using encasing ears. An adhesive strip is also taught for securing the encasing ears.
US08359788B2
A system for removing sap from a plurality of trees includes a main tube supported at least in part by a plurality of drain tubes without the use of a spinal support. The main tube as supported can negotiate a path between a plurality of trees. The drain tubes are adapted to be supported at the trees. The drain tubes are in fluid communication with the main tube for removing sap through a drain tube into the main tube.
US08359783B1
A remotely activated door-opening mechanism is provided for a cage trap having an animal enclosure, preferably a cage trap as disclosed in U.S. Publ. No. US2008/0115405. The mechanism is mounted outside the enclosure of the trap and is preferably remotely activated by an IR or RF transmitter to open a door of the trap and release a trapped animal when the operator is at a safe distance away. The mechanism may also be manually set with a time delay and may be associated with either a main entry door to the trap or with a secondary escape door located at an opposite end of the trap.
US08359781B2
An electronic fishing lure that closes a circuit upon being submerged in water such that two distinct phases of operation are triggered. The first phase immediately begins once sensor pins protruding from the fishing lure casing detect that the fishing lure is submerged in water. This phase emits electronic impulse energy in a waveform that simulates an initial injury to a wounded living thing. The second phase then begins, which relates to a motor calibrated to cause vibrations that simulate the resulting distress and escape attempt of a living thing. The phases serve to attract predatory aquatic creatures toward the fishing lure.
US08359773B2
Series, combination of series and method to produce sports shoes of different size, in which each sports shoe of different size comprises a casing substantially rigid and defining an internal compartment for containing the user's foot, a sole associated below the casing and an inner boot disposed in the internal compartment, in order to make putting the foot into the casing more comfortable. The sole has always the same length for all the sports shoes, and the casing has a different size to each other so as to define, on each occasion, an internal compartment with a different volume for each of the sports shoes of different size, so as to cover a plurality of foot sizes, within a determinate range, keeping the length of the sole always the same.
US08359772B2
An item of footwear comprises an upper adapted to receive a foot of the wearer. A sole is secured to a bottom surface of the upper. A shell is positioned on a front-end portion of the upper so as to cover the toe region of the upper. The shell has an extension projecting below a junction between the upper and the sole to cover at least the junction in the toe region of the item of footwear.
US08359763B2
A template is provided for positioning at least one ribbon assembly on a garment at a predetermined position relative to the pocket. The template has a template body having a generally two-dimensional profile that is removably positionable on the front of the garment at least partially above the pocket. The template also has ribbon assembly positioning guides positioned on the template body to locate a predetermined position of a ribbon assembly on the garment in spaced relation with the pocket and with the template body. The ribbon assembly positioning guide includes a protrusion extending outwardly from the template and configured to support the ribbon assembly at a position at least partly coincidental with the predetermined position of the ribbon assembly. In other words, when the ribbon assembly is supported on the protrusion, the ribbon assembly is at least partly in the predetermined position.
US08359762B1
A wall siding board installation tool including a quill and shaft assembly having upper ends; a board top hooking member and a board bottom hooking member, the board top and bottom hooking members defining an “S” hook; the board top hooking member being fixedly attached to an upper end selected from the group consisting of the quill upper end and the shaft upper end, the board bottom hooking member being fixedly attached to the other upper end; and an “S” hook extending and retracting lever and actuator arm assembly connected operatively to the quill and shaft assembly, the lever and actuator arm assembly being adapted for moving the quill or the shaft between a board suspending position and a tool releasing position, the board top and bottom hooking members being displaced a calibrated lap joint distance away from each other upon movement to the suspending position.
US08359757B1
A carpenter's level with an integral bubble vial illumination system is herein disclosed. A plurality of level vials is illuminated by lamps located at either end to light the vials internally. The vials are arranged in close parallel pairs having a blackout panel between for enhanced accurate viewing of the bubbles from either side of the level. Power to the lamps is supplied by a battery which is charged by solar cells, thereby reducing battery changes. The level is equipped with a graduated slope indicator port located on the top surface of the level to easily measure sloped surfaces. An auto-off feature will also be integrated to save power.
US08359752B2
A wet shaving cartridge comprising with a housing having a guard, a cap, and a pair of spaced apart interior walls between the cap and the guard. A blade retention bump is positioned on at least one of the spaced apart interior walls. At least one resilient blade retention member extends laterally from one of the interior walls toward the other interior wall. At least one clip mounted to the housing. At least one blade is positioned between the resilient blade retention member and at least one of the interior walls. The blade is rigidly fixed in a first direction between the clip and the blade retention bumps and retained in a second direction between the resilient blade retention members and at least one of the interior walls.
US08359751B2
Shaving blade unit comprising a movable trimming blade protector and shaver having such a blade unit
A shaving blade unit having a housing that includes a primary cap, a primary guard, an upper face, and a rear face. The shaving blade unit also includes at least one primary blade located between the primary cap and the primary guard and extending at the upper face, at least one trimming blade extending at the rear face of the housing, and a trimming blade protector that is able to selectively cover and uncover at least the at least one trimming blade. The trimming blade protector is movably mounted on the housing between a closed position where it covers the at least one trimming blade and an open position where the at least one trimming blade is usable.
US08359748B2
A method of forming a fluid ejector includes forming a recess well into a silicon wafer on a first side of the silicon wafer, and filling the recess well with a sacrificial material. A thin layer structure is deposited onto the first side of a silicon wafer covering the filled recess well. Then a thin film piezoelectric is bonded or deposited to the thin layer structure, and a hole is formed in the thin layer structure exposing at least a portion of the sacrificial material. The sacrificial material is removed from the recess well, wherein the hole in the thin layer in the recess well with the sacrificial material removed, form a fluid inlet. An opening area in the silicon wafer is formed on a second side of the silicon wafer. Then a nozzle plate is formed having a recess portion and an aperture within the recess portion. The nozzle plate is attached to the second side of the silicon wafer, with the recess portion positioned within the open area. The thin layer structure and the recess portion of the nozzle plate define a depth of a fluid cavity defined by the thin layer structure, the recess portion of the nozzle plate and the sidewalls of the silicon wafer.
US08359744B2
A heat exchanger may be manufactured using a number of different methods, each having their own benefits and deficiencies. A method of making a monolithic heat exchanger having a plurality of conduits passing through it is provided and comprises the steps of: providing a plurality of successive layers of a material to be remelted and energy beam remelting predetermined regions of each layer in accordance with a predetermined design. The energy beam remelting of each layer is performed prior to the addition of a successive layer. The regions of each layer which are subjected to energy beam remelting form solid structures within the layer, and the energy beam remelting of each layer fuses the remelted regions of each layer to the remelted regions of the preceding layer. This results in the manufacture of a three-dimensional monolithic unit. The heat exchanger is manufactured to have a surface area density of at least 5000 m2/m3 and a mean average porosity of at least 0.6. The energy beam could, for example, be a laser beam or an electron beam.
US08359733B2
Methods and apparatus for preloading a bearing are provided. These methods and apparatus include preload monitoring procedures and devices whereby a mechanic can accurately monitor and regulate the preload on a bearing or bearing assembly. Aspects of the invention may also be used to adjust the endplay on a bearing or a bearing assembly. The methods and apparatus allow the mechanic to apply and/or verify a preload on the bearing, for example, to apply and/or verify a preferred “3 thousandths” preload, as is desired in the industry. In one aspect, the preload on the bearing is transmitted through a housing having a fluid pressure that can be detected and monitored.
US08359721B2
A system and method for loading an endoprosthesis, such as a stent or valve, into an introducer is provided that permits interventionalists to load the endoprosthesis easily at the bedside. The system can include a compressor for compressing the endoprosthesis to a cross-sectional area less than the cross-sectional area of the introducer lumen. The compressor has a funnel portion at one end where the un-compressed endoprosthesis can be introduced and another end where the introducer and sleeves of a split sleeve device are inserted. The sleeves conform to the compressor passage and surround the endoprosthesis to collapse the endoprosthesis. The split sleeve device also includes a mounting device coupled to the sleeves. The endoprosthesis is compressed and loaded into the introducer by the relative movement of the mounting device and the compressor, where the endoprosthesis remains generally stationary while being compressed and loaded in order to avoid potentially compromising the endoprosthesis.
US08359718B2
An enveloping roughness insulative layer of material is provided which need have no connection to a connection member, such as a female eyelet support before the female eyelet support and enveloping roughness insulative layer of material is attached to the main garment structure. The enveloping roughness insulative layer of material can be formed while attached to a connection member or it can be formed independent of the connection member. The enveloping roughness insulative layer of material is preferably formed into an envelope shape and may be made from a planar layer of material or result in closure of an annular tubular expanse of material.
US08359715B2
A trim clip for securing a panel to a structural part is disclosed herein. The trim clip includes: a captivating part having an anchor; a body part having a cavity for receiving the anchor; and means for locking the captivating part to the body part. Wherein the body part is engageable with the structural part and has a first flange for seating against the structural part. Wherein the captivating part has a second flange for seating against the panel. Wherein the captivating part and the body part in an unlocked state have a lateral float, an axial float, and an angular tilt float therebetween. Wherein the captivating part and the body part in a locked state have substantially no lateral float, no axial float, and no angular tilt float therebetween.
US08359714B2
Disclosed is an apparatus for enclosing the free distal end of a flexible tensile member supporting an object. The flexible tensile member has a first portion in tension for suspending the object therefrom and a free end substantially perpendicular thereto with the object therebetween. The apparatus comprises a body having a passage sized to slidably receive the first portion of the flexible tensile member therein a bottom edge adapted to engage the object and a void for enclosing the free distal end of the flexible tensile member wherein the bottom edge is engaged with the object.
US08359713B1
A bike auxiliary handle fixing structure includes a main handle, an auxiliary handle fixing device and locking members. The auxiliary handle fixing device includes an auxiliary handle fixing seat and an auxiliary handle fixing unit. The auxiliary handle fixing unit is hidden in the inner bottom of an auxiliary handle fixing passage in the auxiliary handle fixing seat. The locking members are inserted from the bottom of the main handle and locked to the auxiliary handle fixing seat to secure an auxiliary handle together.
US08359704B2
An engine blower includes: an engine integrated with a volute for driving a fan; a ventilation tube communicated with the volute; and a handle mounted to the ventilation tube. In the engine blower, the handle has a pair of cases that are assembled with each other, and a conductive resin layer is formed on a surface of a grip of the handle. The resin layer is integrated with gates exposed within the handle. A conductive spring having a coil compressed in a direction in which the cases are assembled with each other and a cable that is electrically coupled with the engine are disposed within the handle. The gate of the resin layer is brought into contact with the coil of the spring and is electrically coupled with the cable via the spring.
US08359695B2
The present invention generally pertains to a mechanical sweeper. The mechanical sweeper comprises a pickup broom for lifting debris toward a first belt conveyor. The sweeper further comprises a second deployable conveyor assembly mounted on a turntable and adapted for conveying the debris from the first conveyor to an auxiliary vehicle such as a dump truck.
US08359689B2
A mattress constructed with multiple foam layers joined together provides reclining support with pressure redistribution for heavy weight persons, particularly those weighing over 350 pounds. The mattress includes: a core layer having a substantially planar top surface and at least two spaced apart regions in a bottom surface from which foam material has been extracted to leave cavities separated by an interconnected network of foam walls, a top layer of viscoelastic foam with an air permeability above 60 ft3/ft2/min, and a bottom layer of stiffer supporting foam. The open cavities of the core layer are directed away from the body supporting top surface of the mattress and contain one or more gels.
US08359680B2
A bedpan for use by a patient may include a bottom section to define a cavity for waste of the patient and a top section to define a seat for the patient. The bottom section may be integral with the top section, and the top section may include a central soft texture section. The central soft texture section may be foam, and the bedpan may be formed by reaction injection molding process. The portion of the bedpan may include an anti-infection coating to prevent micro-bacterial formation and growth, and the bottom portion may include a rib for support.
US08359677B1
An assembly for pivotally lowering a raised toilet seat including a chamber having an interior foam compression wall; a compression plate received within the chamber, the compression plate being movable between a foam compressing position and an expanded foam position; a piece of viscoelastic polyurethane foam received within the chamber, the piece of viscoelastic polyurethane foam being positioned between the compression plate and the foam compression wall; and a linking hinge axle assembly interconnecting the toilet seat and the compression plate, the hinge axle assembly being adapted for positioning the compression plate at the foam compressing position while the toilet's seat is pivotally raised, and for delayed lowering of the seat upon foam expansion impelled movement of the compression plate to its expanded foam position.
US08359676B2
A device for providing cleansing composition to the inner surface of a wall of an enclosure with a fluid, the device having: (a) a first fluid spray bar having an interior space for receiving fluid from a source of the fluid and for spraying the inner surface of the wall of the enclosure. The first fluid spray bar has at least a first spray hole through which cleansing composition may be sprayed, the first spray hole being in fluid communication with the interior space of the spray bar. Additionally, the first spray hole provides a first tangential spray.
US08359665B2
An emergency anti-hypothermia system has a thermally insulating vest that is sufficiently portable to be carried for emergency use in a pocket, purse, backpack, compartment of a vehicle, ski pole or other location. The vest provides thermal insulation by being made with thermally insulating air impervious material that also provides for its inflation. The inflating air also provides insulation as, preferably, does thermal radiation reflective material on inwardly facing surfaces of the vest, preferably inwardly facing surfaces of outer layers of inflated chambers about the vest, the multiplicity of the chambers about the vest reducing convection heat transfer therewithin. The vest thus preferably provides thermal insulation by anti-conduction, anti-radiation and anti-convection in a highly portable system.
US08365308B2
A security processor integrated within a system may be securely shut down. The security processor may receive shut down requests, and may determine components and/or subsystems that need be shut down during shut down periods. The security processor may determine when each of the relevant components is ready for shut down. Once the relevant components are shut down, the security processor may itself be shut down, wherein the shut down of the security processor may be performed by stopping the clocking of the security processor. A security error monitor may monitor the system during shut down periods, and the security processor may be powered back on when security breaches and/or threats may be detected via the security error monitor. The security error monitor may be enabled to power on the security processor by reactivating the security processor clock, and the security processor may then power on the system.
US08365305B2
A method for preventing a recipient of an electronically transmitted message from taking at least one action in relation to the message is disclosed. The message has at least two parts with one of the parts having a higher level of security than the other part. The method includes the step of extracting information from the message. The information indicates that the higher level security part is not permitted to have the action taken on it while the other part is so permitted. The method also includes the step of preventing the higher level security part from having the action taken on it in reaction to said recipient making an offending request.
US08365300B2
An information processing device includes: a usage permission requesting unit configured to read out data from an IC chip in which the usage control information of a disc recorded content to confirm the validity of the usage control information; and a usage execution unit configured to perform usage of the disc recorded content in accordance with a usage permission mode recorded in the usage control information on condition that the validity of the usage control information has been confirmed by the usage permission requesting unit.
US08365299B2
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, a recording medium, and a program which make it possible for persons at remote places to enjoy simultaneous playback of various contents while promoting the protection of the copyright or the privacy. A copyright authentication section 112 decides, based on copyright restriction information added to a content and license information stored in a license storage section 62, whether or not utilization of the content is permitted. An accounting processing section 114 is controlled in response to a result of the decision so that it cooperates with an authentication server to perform an accounting process. A privacy authentication section 115 decides, based on privacy restriction information added to the content and privacy information, whether or not utilization of the content is permitted. A permission request processing section 117 is controlled in response to a result of the decision so that it performs a communication process with a communication apparatus, which has a privacy management right in the content. The present invention can be applied to a communication system which supports remote place communication between users.
US08365298B2
A comprehensive security architecture for a virtual organization (VO) is disclosed. The comprehensive security architecture uses the same security mechanism or substantially similar security mechanisms to control access to VO infrastructure services as it uses to control access to resource services. Infrastructure services are services used to change the state of the VO and to change membership in the VO. Resource services (e.g. processing a purchase order) are services used in furtherance of achieving the objectives of the VO (e.g. build an aircraft). A security mechanism prevents a service call from accessing the service called until the security mechanism has decided to authorize or deny the service call. A security mechanism may decide to authorize or deny the service call based on details of the service call, a set of role-based access policies, and attributes from the caller's credentials including the caller's role in the VO.
US08365296B2
An information processing apparatus and method configured to access multiple external storage medium. The apparatus and method detect theft or loss (or otherwise unauthorized use) of the information processing apparatus with respect to data stored in multiple storage areas, back up the data to the storage medium, and record, in association with each of the storage medium, an easiness degree indicating how easily a user accesses the storage medium. The apparatus and method calculate erasure priority rankings of the data stored in a manner that an erasure priority ranking is higher as an easiness degree is higher, record the calculated erasure priority rankings in association with each of the multiple storage areas, and erases the data stored in the multiple storage areas in accordance with the erasure priority rankings when detecting theft or loss of the information processing apparatus.
US08365291B1
A computer-implemented method, a system and a computer program product for determining whether a browser extension leaks information over a network, is provided. A control flow graph (CFG) is generated from a source code included in the browser extension. The CFG is particular to the programming language included in the source code. A sensitive path in the CFG is determined. The sensitive path begins at a sensitive source node and ends at a sensitive end node. A set of tainted variables in the CFG are identified, where each tainted variable stores sensitive information. A subset of tainted variables is generated, where each tainted variable in the subset is included in the sensitive path. When a tainted variable in the subset is included in the sensitive end node it is associated with a leak of sensitive information by the browser extension over the network.
US08365287B2
An anti-malware device and an operating method thereof are provided. The operating method includes: filtering by a first logic unit of the processor, input data based on a rule; and scanning by a second logic unit of the processor, for malware in the data, the filtering and the scanning being performed at the same time. Accordingly, the security of the packet data is tightened.
US08365286B2
In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for the steps of identifying a functional code block that performs a particular function within executable code; transforming the functional code block into a generic code representation of its functionality by tokenizing, refactoring, or the like, the functional code block; comparing the generic code representation with a previously characterized malicious code representation; and in response to a positive correlation from the comparison, identifying the executable code as containing malicious code.
US08365284B2
The invention relates to a security border node (2a) for protecting a packet-based network from attacks, comprising: an anomaly detection unit (10) for performing an anomaly detection, in particular a statistical analysis, on session control messages (11), in particular on SIP messages contained in a packet stream (5) received in the security border node (2a). The security border node further comprises a message context provisioning unit (13) for providing at least one session control message (11) to the anomaly detection unit (10) together with message context information (12, 17, 24) related to a client (22) and/or to a session (23) to which the session control message (11, 11a to 11f) is attributed. The invention also relates to a method for protecting a packet-based network from attacks, to a computer program product, and to a packet-based network.
US08365281B2
An illegal pattern and a computer program having a method are received. The method has one or more return statements, and a number of basic blocks. The method is normalized so that each return statement of the target method relating to the illegal pattern returns a constant Boolean value. A first path condition and a second path condition for one or more corresponding paths is determined such that one or more corresponding basic blocks return a constant Boolean value of true for the first path condition and a constant Boolean value of false for the second path condition. An unsatisfiability of each path condition is determined using a monadic second-order logic (M2L) technique. Where the unsatisfiability of either path condition is false, the method is reported as not being a validator. Where the unsatisfiability of either path condition is true, the method is reported as being a validator.
US08365274B2
A method of processing multiple workload using virtualized operating system environments. The creation of a new user in a global operating system may automatically cause the creation of a working partition (WPAR) instance. The user will be associated with the WPAR instance and a virtualized operating system environment will be created from the global operating system within the WPAR instance. Within the WPAR instance, the user may be assigned a root identification which enables the user to have root access privileges to perform operations or processes that may only be performed by a root user. The removal of a user from the system also results in the deletion of the associated WPAR.
US08365268B2
A wireless communication system includes a wireless host and a wireless device. The wireless device includes a user authentication unit that authenticates a requesting user that is using the wireless host based on a result of comparison between a requesting-user ID of the requesting user received from the host and a user ID of a user that is permitted to establish communication with the wireless device. When the requesting user is authenticated by the user authentication unit, information required prior to connection is stored in the wireless device and the wireless host. The wireless device permits to continue the association process with the wireless host, when the information required prior to connection received from the wireless host and the information required prior to connection stored in the wireless device match.
US08365260B2
Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for multi-variable challenge-response. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for multi-variable challenge-response can include receiving a request to access content from an end user computing device from over a computer communications network. The method also can include selecting different objects for inclusion in an object set and applying a different characteristic to each of the different objects in the object set. A question and answer can be generated based upon each of the different characteristics. Further, a challenge-response prompt can be transmitted to the end user computing device such that the prompt includes the different objects with different characteristics applied, and also the generated question. A response to the challenge-response prompt can be received and compared the response to the computed answer. Finally, access to the content can be granted if the response and computed answer match, but otherwise access to the content can be denied.
US08365259B2
Systems, methods and apparatus for handling security messages in a distributed security system. Requests, replies, and/or updates have varying time constraints. Processing node managers and authority node managers determine the best transmission times and/or the ignoring of such data to maximize information value.
US08365255B1
Methods and devices are provided for detecting or preventing unauthorized upgrades to a customer's quality of service in an access data network. Several aspects of the invention require customer nodes to properly perform an initialization procedure. For example, the initialization procedure may involve making a request to a server controlled by, or at least trusted by, the service provider. The initialization procedure may involve downloading a configuration file, such as a DOCSIS configuration file, from the trusted server. According to some such aspects of the invention, nodes that cannot properly perform the initialization procedure are prevented from coming online. According to other such aspects of the invention, nodes that cannot properly perform the initialization procedure are marked. A warning may be sent to marked nodes. A customer associated with a marked node may be charged a higher rate for service.
US08365249B1
Communication systems, media, and methods for authenticating and registering unauthenticated electronic devices are provided. The communication systems include authorized electronic devices that proxy authentication and registration for one or more unauthenticated electronic devices. The unauthenticated electronic devices connect to the authenticated electronic device over a personal area network and initiate a communication session—via the authenticated electronic devices—with an authentication server located on a secure broadband wireless network that connects the one or more authenticated electronic devices. When the authentication server authorizes the unauthenticated electronic devices to access the secure broadband wireless network, network configuration data is communicated to the unauthenticated electronic devices via the authenticated electronic devices.
US08365240B2
A method for providing an administration policy to a user device comprising a plurality of applications, the method comprising centrally generating the administration policy to be implemented in the user device, the administration policy comprising at least one of an application administration policy to be used by at least one of the plurality of applications and a client administration policy for the user device; and providing the generated policy to the user device.
US08365238B2
The vertical blanking period is an idle period in video transmission that was originally intended for allowing the trace back of an electron beam to its point of origin. When sending the video signal over a wireless channel, the wireless channel may remain free of transmission of data during this period. However, in wireless transmission of a video signal in general, and in the transmission of an essentially uncompressed video signal in particular, there is a need to use all the bandwidth available, especially when transmitting a high-definition video signal. Therefore, a method is taught for using the vertical blanking period of a video signal for modem maintenance.
US08365235B2
A data processing system, comprising a network interface configured to couple to a data network; one or more processors coupled to the network interface; memory coupled to the one or more processors; a video interface coupled to the one or more processors and configured to output video data to a video display device; logic encoded in one or more computer-readable media wherein execution by the one or more processors causes receiving and storing in the memory a plurality of still images from an audiovisual program, wherein each of the still images is associated with a sequentially later time point within the audiovisual program; receiving first user input specifying invocation of a trick play mode of playing the audiovisual program; generating video output to the video interface wherein the video output comprises a first image position comprising one or more of the still images, a linearly second image position comprising one of the still images, and a linearly third image position comprising one or more of the still images; wherein the still images in the video output are arranged in the image positions in sequential order according to time point within the audiovisual program; generating updated video output to the video interface in which the still image of the second image position is shifted into the first image position, one of the still images of the third image position is shifted into the second image position, and one or more new still images are in the third image position.
US08365232B2
A wireless transmission method includes: receiving a location specification message indicating a location of a source device (S702 and S703); and selecting a connection mode applied between first and second wireless transmission devices, on the basis of the location of the source device indicated by the location specification message, and establishing a connection according to the selected connection mode (S704 to S706). When the source device is located on a side of the second wireless transmission device (Yes in S704), a first wireless connection mode is selected in the selecting so that the video data is wirelessly transmitted in a direction from the second wireless transmission device to the first wireless transmission device (S706). When the source device is located on a side of the first wireless transmission device (No in S704), a second wireless connection mode is selected in the selecting so that the audio data is wirelessly transmitted in a direction from the first wireless transmission device to the second wireless transmission device (S705).
US08365224B2
The present research relates to description supporting a targeting scheme, more particularly, to an extended description structure supporting a targeting scheme and a TV-Anytime service providing method and system employing the same based on Moving Picture Experts Group 21 (MPEG-21) Usage Environment Description (UED) tools. The TV-Anytime service providing system employing the extended description structure includes a service providing apparatus for generating package metadata including user information and usage environment information; and a user device for acquiring the package metadata including user information and usage environment information from the service providing apparatus through diverse access networks.
US08365216B2
A method and system for detecting automatic ad detection is presented in which video streams are modified such that features cannot be automatically recognized or statistical parameters and fingerprints derived from the video stream cannot be matched against fingerprints of known video segments in a database.
US08365211B2
A disk cartridge that has high durability with respect to a drop impact is provided. The disk cartridge includes: a disk-like recording medium; a cartridge case that rotatably accommodates the disk-like recording medium and is formed with a first opening that exposes a part of the disk-like recording medium; an inner rotor that is rotatably supported inside the cartridge case and includes a main surface portion formed with a second opening corresponding to the first opening; shutter members that are movable between a closing position at which the first opening is closed and an opening position at which the first opening is opened in accordance with a rotation of the inner rotor; and a buffer mechanism that is formed on the main surface portion of the inner rotor and includes rotary shafts that rotatably support the shutter members and elastic support portions that respectively support the rotary shafts and can be elastically deformed with respect to the main surface portion.
US08365208B2
An optical disk player includes a main body, a cover engaging with the main body, a pivot module, and a deceleration module. The pivot module includes a torsion spring, two ends of the torsion spring being fixed on the main body and the cover respectively. The deceleration module includes a first deceleration portion arranged on the main body and a second deceleration portion arranged on the pivot module. The first deceleration portion contacts the second deceleration portion and frictional forces therebetween reduces the speed of opening the cover.
US08365205B2
A method and apparatus for inter-module communication is disclosed. The method includes defining a command definition, wherein the command definition comprises commands for interfacing with a multi-channel, multi-media, communication queuing system. The command definition can include, for example, driver object commands to request media type lists and command event lists, create drivers, request service, and release drivers. The command definition can also include, for example, service object commands to release service objects, notify when handling of an event is complete, invoke commands, release work items, suspend work items, resume work items, handle queued events, and cancel queued events. The command definition can also include, for example, client object commands to start a work item, release work items, save work item contexts, restore work item contexts, serialize work items, free work item storage, begin batch processing, and end batch processing.
US08365192B2
According to one aspect, a graphics management system receives a first message from a first process for granting one or more rights to a second process for accessing a GUI element owned by the first process. In response, the graphics management system transmits a second message to the second process, the second message offering the one or more rights to the second process. The graphics management system receives a third message from the second process indicating an acceptance of the offer. Thereafter, the graphics management system restricts access of the GUI element by the second process based on the one or more rights accepted by the second process.
US08365191B2
A computer readable medium embodying instructions executable by a processor to perform a method for hosting components implemented in different computer readable languages within one process. The method includes instantiating a container within a single process, creating a hosting environment for each of a plurality of components, and wherein loading the components by respective environments and wherein the hosting environments are objects instantiated within the container and within the one process, and wherein the plurality of components are implemented in respective a computer readable language, and instantiating a container communication framework object within the container and the one process for processing serialized messages of the components, wherein specific language adapters convert data types of the components to a common implementation, wherein the messages of the plurality of components are processed within the container.
US08365190B2
A message identifier of a first event is provided to a correlation engine. The correlation engine is to correlate the first event to one or more second events according to a predetermined correlation technique. The message identifiers of the second events are received from the correlation engine. A correlated message identified for the first event is generated based on the message identifier of the first event and on the message identifiers of the second events. The correlated message identifier for the first event is output.
US08365188B2
Tailored pages are received within a browser running on a client device. Pages from a page server are browsed and the browser sends from an active page to a monitoring server, at least one monitoring message including information concerning at least one of: interactions with and performance of at least one page browsed within the browser running on the client device. A control message is received in the active page, from the monitoring server including an instruction to generate a cookie within the browser including selected monitoring information. The cookie is generated within the browser and a message is sent to the page server, which message includes the cookie including the selected monitoring information. From the page server, at least one page content item is received that has been selected in dependence on the selected monitoring information included in the cookie.
US08365186B2
Identifying a collective operation within an application executing on a parallel computer; identifying a call site of the collective operation; determining whether the collective operation is root-based; if the collective operation is not root-based: establishing a tuning session and executing the collective operation in the tuning session; if the collective operation is root-based, determining whether all compute nodes executing the application identified the collective operation at the same call site; if all compute nodes identified the collective operation at the same call site, establishing a tuning session and executing the collective operation in the tuning session; and if all compute nodes executing the application did not identify the collective operation at the same call site, executing the collective operation without establishing a tuning session.
US08365184B2
Techniques for multi-core resource utilization planning are provided. An agent is deployed on each core of a multi-core machine. The agents cooperate to perform one or more tests. The tests result in measurements for performance and thermal characteristics of each core and each communication fabric between the cores. The measurements are organized in a resource utilization map and the map is used to make decisions regarding core assignments for resources.
US08365183B2
A method for dynamic resource provisioning for job placement includes receiving a request to perform a job on an unspecified computer device. One or more job criteria for performing the job are determined. Each job criteria defines a required operational characteristic needed for a computer device to perform the job. A list of available computer devices is provided. The list includes a plurality of computer devices currently provisioned to perform computer operations. A list of suitable computer devices for performing the job is determined from the list of available computer devices by comparing operational characteristics for each available computer device with the job criteria. The list of suitable computer devices includes one or more computer devices having operational characteristics that satisfy the job criteria. From the list of suitable computer devices, a least active computer device is determined, and the job is forwarded to the least active computer device.
US08365182B2
A method of autonomous provisioning of resources of a computer system, wherein: performance-critical workload of the computer system is monitored; workload suffering is detected based on comparing the performance-critical workload with defined values of performance-critical workload goals; types of missing resources are determined; additional resources available for activation are determined; the additional resources are activated, and a notification of the activation is generated for being sent to a system provider for automated billing of the added capacity, and a computer device, data processing program, computer program product, and computer data signal therefor.
US08365180B2
An in-vehicle terminal (101) is provided, which has a function ensuring that computer resource secured by a virtual machine (1a1) or a virtual machine (1b1) is controlled within a limit value of the computer resource that is allocated to the corresponding virtual machine, or a function which is capable of executing multiple virtual machines appropriately.When the virtual machine (1a1) or the virtual machine (1b1) requests securing the computer resource, the in-vehicle terminal (101) requests the OS (143) to secure computer resource in response to the request, if the requested resource is lower than the limit value of the computer resource that is allocated to the corresponding virtual machine. Furthermore, the in-vehicle terminal (101) checks at predetermined intervals the continuously selected count of the virtual machine previously selected, and if the continuously selected count is equal to the limit value, or the virtual machine is in standby state, a different virtual machine is selected and the OS (143) is instructed to execute the selected virtual machine.
US08365179B2
A multi-thread processor in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of hardware threads each of which generates an independent instruction flow, a first thread scheduler that outputs a first thread selection signal designating a hardware thread to be executed in the next execution cycle, a first selector that outputs an instruction generated by the selected hardware thread according to the first thread selection signal, and an execution pipeline that executes an instruction output from the first selector, wherein whenever a hardware thread is executed in the execution pipeline, the first thread scheduler updates the priority rank of the executed hardware thread and outputs the first thread selection signal in accordance with the updated priority rank.
US08365177B2
Measuring processes are started at a plurality of priority levels. A different one of the measuring processes is started for each of the priority levels. Subsequently, for each of the measuring processes, it is determined whether each measuring process is scheduled for executing at a respective target rate. In response to determining that a particular measuring process of the measuring processes is not scheduled for executing at a particular target rate, resource allocation to at least one monitored process running at a particular level of the priority levels is adjusted. The at least one monitored process is not any of the measuring processes.
US08365170B2
A method for realizing jumps in an executing process instance can be provided. The method can include suspending an executing process instance, determining a current wavefront for the process instance and computing both a positive wavefront difference for a jump target relative to the current wavefront and also a negative wavefront difference for the jump target relative to the current wavefront. The method also can include removing activities from consideration in the process instance and also adding activities for consideration in the process instance both according to the computed positive wavefront difference and the negative wavefront difference, creating missing links for the added activities, and resuming executing of the process instance at the jump target.
US08365166B2
A system and method for provisioning virtual machines for a demonstration are described. In one embodiment, the system comprises a scheduling server for enabling a user to schedule a demonstration by selecting a demonstration set and related details using a scheduling web page and a plurality of provisioning servers each connected to the scheduling server via an Internet connection, each of the provisioning servers having stored thereon a plurality of demonstration sets each comprising at least one VM. Responsive to selection of a demonstration set by the user, the scheduling server selects one of the provisioning servers to host the scheduled demonstration and notifies the selected provisioning server of details regarding the scheduled demonstration. The selected provisioning server executes a provisioning process for modifying a configuration file of each at least one VM such that a network number therein is set to a unique number associated with the user and the scheduled demonstration, and modifying a VM snapshot file associated with each at least one VM such that a network number therein is set to the unique number associated with the user and the scheduled demonstration.
US08365155B2
Presently described is a decompilation method of operation and system for parsing executable code, identifying and recursively modeling data flows, identifying and recursively modeling control flow, and iteratively refining these models to provide a complete model at the nanocode level. The nanocode decompiler may be used to determine if flaws, security vulnerabilities, or general quality issues exist in the code. The nanocode decompiler outputs in a standardized, human-readable intermediate representation (IR) designed for automated or scripted analysis and reporting. Reports may take the form of a computer annotated and/or partially human annotated nanocode listing in the above-described IR. Annotations may include plain English statements regarding flaws and pointers to badly constructed data structures, unchecked buffers, malicious embedded code or “trap doors,” and the like. Annotations may be generated through a scripted analysis process or by means of an expert-enhanced, quasi-autonomous system.
US08365153B2
A server is disclosed that includes an interface to a data communication network, a compiler library that stores a plurality of different compilers, and compiler selection logic responsive to data received at the interface and including logic. The compiler selection logic is configured to select one of the plurality of different compilers based on an evaluation of the received data. The selected compiler generates compiled output data and the compiled output data is communicated over the data communication network to a client.
US08365147B2
A test script transformation architecture helps generate accurate test scripts for evolving applications. Applications often have complex graphical user interfaces for which the permutations and combinations of GUI elements give rise to an enormous field of potential commands and command sequences to be tested. Furthermore, these applications change over time, rendering prior test scripts unworkable. The architecture facilitates the automatic generation of new test scripts to reliably test subsequent application versions, while greatly reducing the time, cost, and resource expenditures needed to arrive at new test scripts.
US08365144B1
An exemplary embodiment may provide tools for creating a graphical user interface (GUI) in a first or original environment and for embedding the GUI in a second or target environment. The GUI created in the first environment may be translated into a platform independent description. A proxy GUI may be generated from the platform independent description and incorporated in the second environment.
US08365132B2
A computer-implemented method for debugging the power aspect of an IC design by integrating the power specification expressed in certain power specification format and its corresponding circuit design within a power schematic diagram called power map. Power map is created by using a power data base generated by regrouping the original circuit design hierarchy to new hierarchies defined by the power specification. Power map contains power cell symbols (such as isolation cells, level shifters, power switches) and signal nets, and can show the relationship between power domains. Power map can also display mismatches or errors between the power specification and the circuit design for those signals connecting the power domains. Furthermore, power map can be used in conjunction with simulation result.
US08365131B2
Technologies are generally described for hardware synthesis using thermally aware scheduling and binding. Multiple versions of a hardware design may be generated, each having variations of schedule and binding results. The scheduling and binding may be performed such that thermal profiles of the multiple versions have thermal peaks that are distant between the versions. The increased physical distance between the thermal peaks of the versions can give the versions unique thermal characteristics. A schedule of rotation between the multiple versions of the design may be constructed such that the thermal profile of the integrated circuit balances out during operation. A linear programming framework may be used to analyze the multiple designs and construct a thermally aware rotation scheduling and binding. For example, the K most efficient versions may be selected and then durations for operating each version within a rotation may be determined.
US08365126B2
An integrated circuit design apparatus includes a macro signal terminal position determination unit that determines temporary arrangement positions of a scan-in terminal and a scan-out terminal of each of a number of macros. The unit updates layout information of an integrated circuit based on the temporary arrangement positions. The apparatus includes an initial scan path route determination unit that updates scan path connection information, such that one of the macros arranged in a closest distance is connected in turn starting with a scan-in external terminal, with reference to the updated layout information and the scan path connection information. The apparatus include a scan path re-routing unit that determines a scan path connection order, such that a scan path total wiring length becomes shortest, with reference to the updated layout information and the updated scan path connection information. This unit updates the scan path connection information based on this determined order.
US08365122B2
The present invention relates to a flexible analog/digital configuration, preferably on a chip, that can be used for receiving various inputs, processing those inputs, and displaying/communicating the results and/or providing a response thereto. More particularly, the present invention can measure multiple parameters and, when properly programmed, can easily organize the data from multiple sensors or other analog or digital sources. It can present or display different, or similar, pages for setting up each measurement (or each measured parameter) (e.g., by sensor, class of sensors, etc.) to enable an easy to use approach for individuals without needing to know the specifics as to many parameters. This user-friendly approach can be performed using a configurable chip module system. A configurable chip module system can include analog elements, digital elements, and connection elements between the analog and digital elements, where some of the analog elements and/or digital elements receive inputs from one or more sources and where some of the analog elements and/or digital elements generate output signals for generating control signals and/or outputs that present measurements to output receiving elements. The system includes a configuration mechanism that automatically configures the connection elements in response to receiving selections entered on a user interface, where the user interface allows a user to input commands to modify the structure of the chip module system.
US08365118B2
A failure probability for a system having multi-fail regions is computed by generating failure directions in a space whose dimensions are the system parameters under consideration. The failure directions are preferably uniform, forming radial slices. The failure directions may be weighted. The radial slices have fail boundaries defining fail regions comparable to broken shells. The distribution of the system parameters is integrated across the broken shell regions to derive a failure contribution for each failure direction. The failure probability is the sum of products of each failure contribution and its weight. Failure contributions are computed using equivalent expressions dependent on the number of dimensions, which can be used to build lookup tables for normalized fail boundary radii. The entire process can be iteratively repeated with successively increasing failure directions until the failure probability converges. The method is particularly useful in analyzing failure probability of electrical circuits such as memory cells.
US08365115B2
A system and method for performance modeling of integrated circuits is provided. A method for performing timing analysis on an integrated circuit is provided, the integrated circuit having a timing path. The method includes computing a number of non-common timing path elements in the timing path, assigning a timing de-rate factor to the timing path based on the number of non-common timing path elements, and computing a timing analysis on the integrated circuit using the assigned timing de-rate factor.
US08365107B2
A modeling technique is provided. The modeling technique includes inputting tool parameters into a model and inputting basic model parameters into the model. The technique further includes generating a simulated, corrected reticle design using the tool parameters and the basic model parameters. An image of test patterns for an integrated circuit is compared against the simulated, corrected reticle design. A determination is made as to whether a difference between the simulated, corrected reticle design and exposure results of the image of the test patterns (δ1) is less than a predetermined criteria (ε1). The technique further includes completing the model the difference between the simulated, corrected reticle design and the exposure results of the image of the test patterns is less than the predetermined criteria.
US08365106B2
The present invention provides a method including generating mask data to be used in an exposure apparatus including an illumination optical system and a projection optical system which projects a pattern of the mask onto a substrate, and fabricating a mask based on the generated mask data.
US08365105B2
A method of performing an optical proximity effect correction to a first photomask pattern for a wiring of a semiconductor device for use in combination with a second photomask pattern for a via, the wiring including an end portion coupled to the via, the method being performed by a computer including a memory storing layout data of the first photomask pattern and the second photomask pattern, including extracting a pattern of layout data of the first photomask pattern for the wiring corresponding to the end portion of the wiring and layout data of the second photomask pattern for the via.
US08365104B2
A two-dimensional transmission cross coefficient is obtained based on a function representing a light intensity distribution formed by an illumination apparatus on a pupil plane of the projection optical system and a pupil function of the projection optical system. Based on the two-dimensional transmission cross coefficient and data of a pattern on an object plane of the projection optical system, an approximate aerial image is calculated by using at least one of plural components of an aerial image on an image plane of the projection optical system. Data of a pattern of an original is produced based on the approximate aerial image.
US08365085B2
A method of indicating functions of buttons included in an image display apparatus on a screen and an image display apparatus implementing the method thereof. The method of indicating functions of buttons includes generating an image indicating functions assigned to the buttons and displaying the image on the image display apparatus.
US08365074B1
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for suggesting search queries relevant to a user's context. One of the methods includes providing a navigation control for navigating in a graphical space. A portion of a large-scale graphical space is displayed on a screen of an electronic device and a navigation control is generated and displayed on the screen. The navigation control includes a ring-shaped graphical entity and a knob graphical entity positioned at point on the ring-shaped graphical entity. A zooming user input can be received to the navigation control, and in response, zooming in the graphical space is provided. The zooming user input includes the user selecting the knob graphical entity and tracing a shape of the ring-shaped graphical entity with the knob graphical entity in either a first direction to zoom in or in a second direction to zoom out.
US08365069B1
A server receives a hypertext request from a client. The server looks up a hypertext document, wherein looking up comprises obtaining a first HTML element and a second HTML element and combining the first HTML element and second HTML element into a hypertext document, in response receiving the hypertext request from the client. The server parses the hypertext document for timeliness tags. The server generates at least one header tag based on the timeliness tags. The server determines whether at least one expired tag is among the timeliness tags. Responsive to a determination that at least one expired tag is among the timeliness tags, the server can look up a timeliness tag rule corresponding to the at least one timeliness tag.
US08365067B2
From a logical point of view, a document processing system allows to read and write single documents. However, physically all documents within a document processing system are usually stored in a sequential binary format and therefore are not accessible in the binary format. In order to move a single document in its physical representation i.e. the binary format, it is proposed to use the logical view to obtain all structural information describing the document as well as its content and all meta data. This information will then be used to create an exact copy of that document outside the document processing system.The invention particularly proposes a native file format to write content such as Lotus Domino notes, that is documents as well as design elements like folders, agents, buttons, etc. to a file. The native file format allows to read content of a document in binary format and write it in a serialized manner to the file. Besides the document content, the file format can store document properties as meta data and therefore those properties are preserved during serialization.
US08365062B2
An automated website analysis system includes mechanisms for automatically reviewing a website and identifying various features of the website. In one implementation, the analysis system can rely at least in part on the actual downloading and rendering of each page in the website to determine not only aspects of website content and layout, but also whether various content, such as third party objects or source code, execute as intended. Additional features include recording user input that may be required to progress past web pages where automated site mapping would ordinarily stall. The analysis system can identify various items of interest about each web page to the website owner, including web page parent/child relationships, as well as the extent to which the given page content is consistent with its metadata descriptions.
US08365058B2
A method of detecting communications errors by coding messages as pictures. A communications method useable to safely communicate a message or a signal from a first safety approved entity to a second safety approved entity via a third, non-safety approved entity including that each command is sent with the aid of a command message from the first to the second entity, an acknowledge message from the second to the first entity, and a go-ahead message from the first to the second entity.
US08365055B2
Defining a set of correctable error and uncorrectable error syndrome code points, generating an error correction code (ECC) syndrome decode, regarding the uncorrectable error syndrome code points as “don't cares” and logically minimizing the ECC syndrome decode for the determination of the correctable error syndrome code points based on the regarding of the uncorrectable error syndrome code points as the “don't cares” whereby output data can be ignored for the uncorrectable error syndrome code points.
US08365052B2
The present invention aims at providing an encoding device for error correction, encoding method for error correction and encoding program for error correction wherein countermeasures against eavesdropping are taken into account. To achieve this, in accordance with an aspect of the present invention there is provided an encoding device for error correction, the device comprises a generation means for generating randomly a vector u=(xk+1, . . . , xm) composed of m-k digit(s); a creation means for creating an x′=[xu]=(x1, . . . , xm) by concatenating the vector u=(xk+1, . . . , xm) composed of m-k digit(s) randomly created by the creation means to data x=(x1, . . . , k) to send; and an output means for outputting a vector of length n by carrying out [n, m] encoding of the x′ created by the creation means.
US08365047B2
Techniques for encoding and decoding data are described. In an aspect, multiple code rates for a forward error correction (FEC) code may be supported, and a suitable code rate may be selected based on packet size. A transmitter may obtain at least one threshold to use for code rate selection, determine a packet size to use for data transmission, and select a code rate from among the multiple code rates based on the packet size and the at least one threshold. In another aspect, multiple FEC codes of different types (e.g., Turbo, LDPC, and convolutional codes) may be supported, and a suitable FEC code may be selected based on packet size. The transmitter may obtain at least one threshold to use for FEC code selection and may select an FEC code from among the multiple FEC codes based on the packet size and the at least one threshold.
US08365045B2
Flow based data packet processing is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method for processing a data packet in a flow comprises identifying a flow Identification (ID) of the data packet, where the flow ID is based on one or more portions of control information for the data packet. The method also comprises accessing an address pointer stored in a shared memory designated for the flow ID. The method further comprises performing a set of instructions stored in an address in a cache memory which is assigned by the address pointer, wherein the set of instructions is loaded to the address in the cache memory upon identifying of the flow ID if the flow is currently active. Additionally, the method comprises generating report data associated with the flow by executing the set of instructions.
US08365043B2
A method of storing data is disclosed. A set of data blocks, including a plurality of proper subsets of data blocks, is stored. A plurality of first-level parity blocks is generated, wherein each first-level parity block is generated from a corresponding proper subset of data blocks within the plurality of proper subsets of data blocks without reference to other data blocks not in the corresponding proper subset. A second-level parity block is generated, wherein the second level parity block is generated from a plurality of data blocks included in at least two of the plurality of proper subsets of data blocks, and wherein recovery of a lost block in a given proper subset of data blocks is possible without reference to any data blocks not in the given proper subset.
US08365036B2
A memory system includes a memory array. The memory array includes a plurality of storage locations arranged in rows and columns. The memory system includes error correction circuitry that generates correct data bits from data bits of the memory array and error correction bits. The data bits received by the error correction circuitry are divided in subgroups where each subgroup of data bits is used to generate a subgroup of the correct data bits. The subgroups of data bits are stored in a row of the memory array at locations that are interleaved with each other.
US08365024B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for verifying the integrity of a signal transmitted across a multiple rail data bus. The method and apparatus provide for independently processing a signal by a first processor and a second processor, the first and second processors being connected in parallel thereby generating a first processed signal and a second processed signal. Each of the processed signals is split into a first component sequence and a second component sequence, the first component sequences being different from the second component sequences. It is then determined that the first component sequences are not identical and that the second component sequences are not identical. If either of the first component sequences is not identical, or if either of the second component sequences is not identical, then an error signal is transmitted to a receiving device via a first or second rail of the bus.
US08365020B2
A mechanism for saving crash dump files of a virtual machine (VM) on a designated disk is disclosed. A method of embodiments of the invention includes configuring an operating system (OS) of a VM managed by a hypervisor of a host machine to store any crash dump files created by the VM to a designated crash dump virtual disk associated with the VM but accessible outside of operations of the VM, determining that the VM experienced a crash event, stopping operations of the VM, and obtaining a crash dump file created by the VM that details the crash event from the designated crash dump virtual disk.
US08364998B2
Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) is an effective way to reduce energy and power consumption in microprocessor units. Current implementations of DVFS suffer from inaccurate modeling of power requirements and usage, and from inaccurate characterization of the relationships between the applicable variables. A system and method is proposed that adjusts CPU frequency and voltage based on run-time calculations of the workload processing time, as well as a calculation of performance sensitivity with respect to CPU frequency. The system and method are processor independent, and can be applied to either an entire system as a unit, or individually to each process running on a system.
US08364985B1
Encryption using copy-on-encrypt determines that plaintext data stored in a plaintext buffer is to be written out to an encrypted storage resource. In response to the determining, an encryption buffer is allocated. The plaintext data is copied from the plaintext buffer to the encryption buffer and the encryption buffer is encrypted. Encrypted data from the encryption buffer is written to the encrypted storage resource. The encryption buffer is de-allocated. Read or write requests from a client are satisfied by retrieving the plaintext data from the plaintext buffer.
US08364983B2
A virtual machine comprises a unique identifier that is associated with one or more encryption keys. A management server encrypts the virtual machine's virtual hard disk(s) using the one or more associated encryption keys. The management server further provides the one or more encryption keys to a limited number of one or more servers in a system. Only those one or more servers that have been provided the one or more encryption keys can be used to load, access, and/or operate the virtual machine. The management server can thus differentiate which virtual machines can be operated on which servers by differentiating which servers can receive which encryption keys. In one implementation, a management server encrypts all virtual machines in the system, but encrypts virtual machines with sensitive data with a limited set of encryption keys, and further provides those encryption keys to a limited set of trusted servers.
US08364980B2
A system for selective encryption within a document. A portion of the document selected and marked for encryption is detected, the selected portion of the document including plaintext. The detected portion of the document selected for encryption is encrypted as ciphertext. The document is displayed with the selected portion of the document encrypted. An attempt by an accessor to access the encrypted portion of document is detected. The encrypted portion of the document is decrypted with a proper decryption key, wherein the decrypting includes decrypting the encrypted portion of the document in response to presentation of required data by the accessor. The required data includes the proper decryption key, a name of the accessor, and an employee number of the accessor. The portion of the document is displayed as decrypted.
US08364976B2
A pass-through adapter includes an adapter body having at least two connector pin interfaces, with one configured for coupling to an external device such as a communications device. Each connector pin interface includes a plurality of connector pins, including a plurality of pass-through connector pins operative with each other for in-line, pass-through signaling when the pass-through adapter is coupled to the external device. A crypto ignition key (CIK) circuit is contained within the adapter body and connected to at least one of the connector pins to provide a secure mode of operation for the external device.
US08364975B2
An augmented boot code module includes instructions to be executed by a processing unit during a boot process. The augmented boot code module also includes an encrypted version of a cryptographic key that can be decrypted with a cryptographic key that remains in the processing unit despite a reset of the processing unit. In one embodiment, the processing unit may decrypt the encrypted version of the cryptographic key and then use the decrypted key to establish a protected communication channel with a security processor, such as a trusted platform module (TPM). Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US08364970B2
An approach is provided for authorizing one or more services from service providers in a communications network. The approach includes receiving a request from a first service provider, the request having an associated primary token and a secondary token identifier, the secondary token identifier relating to resources of a second service provider. Based, at least in part, on the secondary token identifier, a secondary token is identified; and then the secondary token is sent to the first service provider, wherein the first service provider and the second service provider belong to different trust domains and the first service provider can use the secondary token to access resources of the second service provider.
US08364956B2
A security management server includes an input unit for receiving image data from at least one network camera; a control unit for assigning an access authority level to each image data received via the input unit; and a storage unit for storing therein the image data along with the access authority levels assigned by the control unit. When receiving a request for a specific image data among the image data stored in the storage unit from a user having a user access authority level, the control unit compares the user access authority level and the access authority level assigned to the specific image data, and based on comparison result thereof, selectively provides the specific image data to the user.
US08364950B1
An auditable cryptographic protected communication system for connecting an enterprise server to a plurality of industrial devices using messaging protocols for each industrial device enabling the industrial devices to receive commands and transmit status and measurement data using the individual device messaging protocols over a network.
US08364944B2
Methods of operating memory devices and electronic systems having memory devices include initiating a boot mode of operation of the memory device in response to receiving a first command, wherein the first command comprises a pattern of two or more command signals, and terminating the boot mode of operation in response to receiving a second command, wherein the second command comprises a pattern of two or more command signals.
US08364941B2
Systems, methods, and computer software for operating a device can be used to operate the device in multiple modes. The device can be operated in a first operating mode adapted for processing data, in which a first processor executes a driver for a nonvolatile memory and a second processor performs processing of data stored in files on the nonvolatile memory. An instruction can be received to switch the device to a second operating mode adapted for reading and/or writing files from or to the nonvolatile memory. The driver for the nonvolatile memory can be switched from the first processor to the second processor in response to the instruction, and the driver for the nonvolatile memory can be executed on the second processor after performing the switch. A communications driver can be executed on the first processor in response to the instruction to switch the device to the second operating mode.
US08364938B2
In the described embodiments, a processor captures a value from an element at a key element position in a second input vector into a base value. The processor then generates a result vector by, if the predicate vector is received, for each element in the result vector to the right of the key element position for which a corresponding element in the predicate vector is active, otherwise, for each element in the result vector to the right of the key element position, setting the element in the result vector equal to a result from an associative Boolean operation or a multiplication operation for which the inputs are the base value and a value in each relevant element of a first input vector from an element at the key element position to and including a predetermined element in the first input vector.
US08364935B2
A data processing apparatus has an instruction memory system arranged to output an instruction word addressed by an instruction address. An instruction execution unit, processes a plurality of instructions from the instruction word in parallel. A detection unit, detects in which of a plurality of ranges the instruction address lies. The detection unit is coupled to the instruction execution unit and/or the instruction memory system, to control a way in which the instruction execution unit parallelizes processing of the instructions from the instruction word, dependent on a detected range. In an embodiment the instruction execution unit and/or the instruction memory system adjusts a width of the instruction word that determines a number of instructions from the instruction word that is processed in parallel, dependent on the detected range.
US08364928B2
A method for modeling memory compression is provided in the illustrative embodiments. A subset of candidate pages is received. The subset of candidate pages is a subset of a set of candidate pages used in executing a workload in a data processing system. A candidate page is compressible uncompressed data in a memory associated with the data processing system. The subset of candidate pages is compressed in a scratch space. A compressibility of the workload is computed based on the compression of the subset of candidate pages. Page reference information of the subset of candidate pages is received. A memory reference rate of the workload is determined. A recommendation is presented about a memory compression model for the workload in the data processing system.
US08364917B2
A method for replicating a deduplicated storage system is disclosed. A stream of data is stored on an originator deduplicating system by storing a plurality of deduplicated segments and information on how to reconstruct the stream of data. The originator deduplicating system is replicated on a replica system by sending a copy of the plurality of deduplicated segments and information on how to reconstruct the stream of data to the replica system. A first portion of the deduplicated segments stored on the originator deduplicating system that is corrupted is identified. A copy of the first portion of the deduplicated segments is requested to be sent by the replica system to the originator deduplicating system.
US08364905B2
A storage system is disclosed including storage devices configured to store data, and a logical storage volume coupled to the storage devices and configured to store a subset of the data as segments. The storage system also includes a controller including a cache and memory. The memory is configured to include records such that each record corresponds with a segment in the logical storage volume and each record includes information regarding data stored in the corresponding segment. The controller is configured to access the records in response to a cache miss of the cache to determine if requested data from the cache miss is stored and ready for access in the logical storage volume. The controller is also configured to update the subset of data stored in the segments as a function of cache misses.
US08364899B2
User-controlled targeted cache purging includes receiving a request to perform an operation to purge data from a cache, the request including an index identifier identifying an index associated with the cache. The index specifies a portion of the cache to be purged. The user-controlled targeted cache purging also includes purging the data from the cache, and providing notification of successful completion of the operation.
US08364890B2
A RAID control apparatus and control method. The RAID control apparatus includes disk devices and disk control devices including a cache memory that stores cache data of a logical unit, and control unit, upon the logical units present in different disk devices being concatenated to each other, switching in-charge disk control devices such that a disk control device is in charge of access to the concatenated logical units without writing back the cache data stored in a cache memory of a source disk control device to the disk device.
US08364885B2
A semiconductor storage system includes a memory controller that classifies a memory block of a memory area into a data block and a buffer block. The buffer block corresponds to the data block. The memory controller compares the number of free pages of both the data block and the buffer block with the number of valid pages of the data block and the buffer block during mergence in order to select the merged target block. Depending on the result of the comparison, either the data block or the buffer block is selected as the merged target block.
US08364877B2
A method includes receiving a first interrupt request from a first device instance of a plurality of device instances. The first interrupt request is requesting an interrupt of a processor. The method also includes updating a bit vector based on the first interrupt request. The bit vector comprises a plurality of bits representing an accumulation of interrupt requests. The method further includes generating a gang interrupt comprising the updated bit vector. The method also includes transmitting the gang interrupt to call a first device driver associated with the first interrupt request based on the bits in the bit vector.
US08364874B1
Methods and systems for prioritizing virtual network interface controllers (VNICs) are described. Each VNIC is assigned a priority level and a maximum current priority level associated with VNICs which are requesting service is determined. Fairness is enforced by using a round robin approach to selection among those currently requesting VNICs which have the same, maximum current priority level.
US08364870B2
At least one downstream interface may be configured to be simultaneously connected to both a USB 3.0 compliant device and a USB 2.0 compliant device. The interface may be used for communicating with a USB 3.0 compliant device via a downstream port and simultaneously communicating with a USB 2.0 compliant device via the downstream port.
US08364869B2
A storage system configured to associate a virtual port 810 to a plurality of physical ports 800. In response to commands from computers, the storage system 100 manages relation between physical ports and virtual ports and relation between virtual port and volumes by performing processes such as creating a virtual port, assigning LUs to a virtual port, moving a virtual port between physical ports and deleting a virtual port. The storage system also maintains/calculates statistics information for ports and displays the information for each virtual port.
US08364868B2
There is provided a device control apparatus, a device control method and a program capable of easily initiating control of an operation of an external device through an application according to a status of the external device and a usage status of the application. An application for controlling an operation of an AV amplifier is acquired from an application server, a status of the AV amplifier and a usage status of the application are determined upon startup of the application, a screen according to the result of the determination is displayed in order to arrange an operation environment of the application and then a manipulation screen for controlling the operation of the AV amplifier through the application is displayed, and the operation of the AV amplifier is controlled according to a user manipulation performed through the manipulation screen.
US08364864B2
A network device includes a main storage memory and a queue handling component. The main storage memory includes multiple memory banks which store a plurality of packets for multiple output queues. The queue handling component controls write operations to the multiple memory banks and controls read operations from the multiple memory banks, where the read operations for at least one of the multiple output queues alternates sequentially between the each of the multiple memory banks, and where the read operations and the write operations occur during a same clock period on different ones of the multiple memory banks.
US08364861B2
A technique for automatically establishing device IDs for devices in a daisy chain cascade arrangement. For each device, a write ID operation is initiated at the device to cause the device to enter a generate/write ID mode. While in this mode, a first value is input to the device. The device generates a second value from the first value. The device outputs the generated second value from the device to a next device in the daisy chain cascade which uses the second value as a first value for the next device. The device then establishes its ID from the first value. The process is repeated for all devices in the daisy chain cascade arrangement.
US08364857B2
A computing device includes a low power auxiliary processor, such as a processor on a wireless card or sub-system, which is able to takeover processing in place of the computing device's central processing unit (CPU). Operating the computing device on the auxiliary processor draws less power from the computing device battery, enabling extended operation in an auxiliary processor mode. When in this mode, the auxiliary processor controls peripherals and provides the system functionality while the CPU is deactivated, such as in “off,” “standby” or “sleep” modes. In the auxiliary processor mode, the computing device can accomplish useful tasks, such as sending/receiving electronic mail, displaying electronic documents and accessing a network while drawing minimal power from the battery. Transitions between the normal operating mode and auxiliary processor mode may be transparent to users. Such a computer may display instant on, always on and always connected operating features.
US08364853B2
A computer program product is provided for performing a method including: obtaining information relating to an I/O operation at a channel subsystem in a host computer system; generating at least one address control word (ACW) in the local channel memory specifying one or more host memory locations for transfer of data between the host and a control unit and including at least one ACW error checking field; generating an address control structure specifying a location in the local channel memory of a corresponding ACW and including at least one address control structure error checking field; receiving a data transfer request from the network interface that includes the addressing information; comparing the at least one ACW error checking field to the at least one address control structure error checking field; and, responsive to the fields matching, routing the data transfer request to the host memory location specified in the corresponding ACW.
US08364852B1
In one embodiment, a network management module converts zone policies for a network into access sets and access set lists. The network management module can define access sets for a collection of peripheral processing devices that share the same communication restrictions imposed by the zone policies. The network management module can allocate address blocks for each access set such that at least some of the peripheral processing devices in the same access can share a common address prefix. The network management module can define access sets lists such that each access set references an access set list that includes all the peripheral processing devices in the network that can communicate with the peripheral processing devices in the referencing access set. The network management module can apply access sets and access set lists in generating or updating firewall filter rules, and in some embodiments, the access sets can be expressed in terms of the one or more common address prefixes. The conversion of zone policies into access sets and access set lists can, for example, improve the efficiency of zone policy conversion and the optimal state of the firewall filter rules, which can result in reduced disruptions from logins or logouts of peripheral processing devices, and/or faster responses to post-login queries by newly-connected peripheral processing devices concerning the restrictions on its communications.
US08364848B2
Disclosed is a scalable, hierarchical, distributed network architecture and processes for the delivery of high-performance, end-to-end online multimedia services, including Internet services such as World Wide Web access. The network architecture connects a high-speed private backbone to multiple network access points of the Internet, to a network operation center, to a back office system, and to multiple regional servers in regional data centers. Each of the regional servers connects to several caching servers in modified head-ends, which in turn connect via fiber optics to many neighborhood nodes. Finally, each node connects via coaxial cable to multiple end-user systems. The processes include those for replicating and caching frequently-accessed content, and multicasting content customized per region or locality.
US08364842B2
System and method for providing cloud computing services is described. In one embodiment, the system includes a cloud computing environment, the cloud computing environment comprising resources for supporting cloud workloads, each cloud workload having associated therewith an internal cloud address; and a routing system disposed between external workloads of an external computing environment and the cloud workloads, the routing system for directing traffic from an external address to the internal addresses of the cloud workloads.
US08364837B2
An improved solution for Web services is provided. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for providing a virtual Web service includes: providing a Web service gatekeeper, where the gatekeeper acts as an access point to multiple private internal enterprise environments; and then the gatekeeper receives a request for access to one, or more, of these private internal enterprise environments.
US08364832B2
A wireless communication device comprises an input terminal configured to communicate data with a processor. A segregation circuit (150) is coupled to the input terminal and configured to identify predetermined data and to separate more important data from less important data. A memory (112) is configured to store at least one parameter relevant to the wireless communication protocol. A modem (110) is coupled to segregation circuit and the memory (112) and is configured to communicate using a wireless protocol over a wireless channel, and includes a framer (152) configured to fragment the segregated data based at least in part on the at least one parameter stored in the memory. In one aspect of the invention, the wireless protocol is 802.11. Advantages of the invention include the ability to achieve high quality video communication over a wireless communication link with less chance of dropping important data.
US08364831B2
A method for accessing a network in a telecommunication system which comprises at least one terminal and a plurality of networks in which information sets describing settings needed to access networks and their resources are stored in the terminal. The terminal scans for information about available networks. Available information sets are determined by comparing the information about available networks to the stored information sets. At least one network is accessed based on the settings defined in the available information sets.
US08364823B2
The embodiments described in this disclosure address the above issues and others. Accordingly, a self-configuring IP video router provides a plug-and-play transport interface between two LANs, one of which is the host to multiple IP video cameras or servers.In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, plug-and-play functionality provides that the device can be connected to both networks via standard hardware interfaces, discover the video sources on the “inside” network, and configure itself to do the appropriate IP address mapping and IP port transport across the interface between the networks.
US08364821B2
A method and system for deploying content to devices is provided. The method and system can be used to deploy markup content to web browser applications on wireless devices. The wireless devices may included, for example, WAP phones, HDML phones, Palm VII, Palm V, etc. The method and system can also be used in conjunction with wired systems. A translator receives data, in a variety of formats, from the wireless devices. The translator then translates the data into a standardized format. A content provider interface receives the data in the standardized format and provides content data, also in the standardized format. The content data in the standardized format is provided to a transformer. The transformer transforms the content data into the pre-selected format for the particular wireless device. The content data can then be utilized and manipulated by the wireless device.
US08364820B2
Techniques are provided to derive a virtual machine workload cost for a data center. At a network management appliance that is in communication with network resources and computing resources used by a plurality of virtual machines executed by the computing resources for providing one or more services, usage metrics are collected from network components of the network resources operating with respect to traffic that passes through the network resources as a result of the plurality of virtual machines executed by the computing resources. The virtual machine workload cost is computed from the usage metrics.
US08364816B2
A network address mapping system is described. The network address mapping system can identify a set of Web pages, collects information from the Web pages indicating geographical locations (“geolocations”), and correlate the geolocations with the network addresses from which the identified Web pages are served. The collected information can be weighted based on various factors, such as its relative position in a Web page. The collected information can then be used to identify a geolocation. The network mapping system can deduce geolocations for portions of ranges of network addresses based on the score, and can infer geolocations for other portions based on the deduced geolocations. This mapping can then be stored in a database and provided as a geomapping service. The network address mapping system is able to map network addresses to geographical locations. Thereafter, when a user's client computing device accesses a Web server, the Web server can easily and accurately determine a geographical location by querying the database storing the mapping or a geomapping service.
US08364802B1
Some embodiments provide a method. The method interfaces with several nodes of a hosting system. Each node includes resources for hosting several virtual machines. The method collects statistics for facilitating deployment of the virtual machines across the several resource nodes from the resource nodes. The method determines a particular node from the several nodes with sufficient available resources to host a configuration for a virtual machine based on the collected statistics. The method deploys the configuration for the virtual machine to the particular node for hosting on the particular node.
US08364799B2
A management server to manage a plurality of media servers each to store contents, the server comprising: a failure rate calculating section to calculate a failure rate of each of the plurality of media servers; a judgment section to judge whether or not there is a media server having the failure rate which has been calculated by the failure rate calculating section and which exceeds a predetermined threshold value, among the plurality of media servers; and a movement controlling section to move the contents being stored in the media server judged to have the failure rate exceeding the predetermined threshold value by the judgment section to a media server judged to have failure rate less than the predetermined threshold value by the judgment section.
US08364794B2
An admission control method and system. The method includes presenting, by a computer processor of an admission control framework computing system, a configuration user interface comprising lists. The computer processor generates and deploys a modified runtime configuration for the admission control framework computing system. The computer processor injects a runtime component of the admission control framework computing system into a command processing path between a container representing an application server and servants representing application components deployed to the application server. The computer processor intercepts commands transmitted from the container to a first servant of the servants. The computer processor reroutes the commands to a reservation pool configured to inspect the commands.
US08364790B2
A method and apparatus are provided for producing a decorated networking identifier at a client terminal for transmission to a server side element. The networking identifier is obtained at the client terminal. The networking identifier is appended with one or more extensible decorations at the client terminal creating the decorated networking identifier. The one or more extensible decorations are separated from the networking identifier by a first predetermined character. The one or more decorations each include a decoration sequence and an identifier corresponding to the decoration sequence. The identifier and the decoration sequence are separated by a second predetermined character. The decorated networking identifier is transmitted from the client terminal to the server side element.
US08364787B2
Adjusting one or more command parameters for a device of a computer network includes accessing command sets. A command set comprises one or more commands supported by a known device, and a command has one or more command parameters. One or more command sets associated with an unknown device are identified. The following are repeated for each command set of the one or more command sets until a termination event occurs: applying the command set to the unknown device to perform an operation; determining whether the command set has failed to perform the operation; and automatically adjusting the command parameters of the command set if the command set has failed to perform the operation.
US08364786B2
One embodiment of the present invention provides a method and a system for synthesizing a scalable and incrementally updatable system software infrastructure for sensor networks. During operation, the system receives a specification for an application and a specification for target devices. The system analyzes these specifications in order to identify a set of software components required to support the application, and then proceeds to synthesize a customizable software stack that accommodates the identified set of software components on a specified target device. This process generates a minimal, resource-efficient software stack for a specific application on the specified target device.
US08364773B2
A system and method for determining whether an e-mail originates from a sender authorized by an address provider to send the e-mail to an intended recipient's e-mail address. The e-mail identifies an address provider from which the intended recipient's e-mail address was obtained. The e-mail is delivered to the intended recipient only upon verification that the sender is authorized by the address provider to obtain the intended recipient's e-mail address. The system and method may also provide for determining whether an e-mail originates from a forged source. A server receives data relating to an e-mail, including a purported sender and a verification host. The server queries the verification host with information pertaining to the e-mail and requests confirmation that the e-mail originates from the purported sender. The e-mail is determined to originate from a forged source unless the verification host responds that the e-mail originates from the purported sender.
US08364771B2
The present invention provides systems and methods for allowing an Email User to create a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Email Account and thereafter to digitally sign, send, verify and receive PKI encrypted emails over a computer network, such as the Internet. The systems and methods preferably include a Web-based Email System and a Certificate Authority that coordinate their actions to make the process of creating, maintaining and using the PKI Account as easy as possible for the Email User. In a preferred embodiment, a Keystore System may also be used to enhance the management and use of digital keypairs.
US08364770B2
A method of network delivery of electronic messages includes creating an action list from templates corresponding to a group identifier. The templates characterize the structure of a group specified by the group identifier. The structure of the group is specified through roles, permissions and transaction rules for communicating with each individual associated with the group identifier. A message recipient specifies communication preferences for receiving information. Electronic message delivery instructions of the action list are executed for each individual associated with the group identifier. The electronic message delivery instructions specify instructions to be processed by disparate communication networks. The disparate communication networks include at least two of a text messaging network, an instant messaging network, an email network, a cellular network, a social network and the public switched telephone network.
US08364769B2
A communications system may include a plurality of source message servers for storing messages for delivery to a user, a target message server having a target message box associated therewith, and an aggregation server for periodically aggregating the messages from the source message servers to the target message box for retrieval by the user. The target message server may provide a delivery failure message to the aggregation server based upon a failure to deliver a message to the target message box. As such, the aggregation server may increase a period of sending messages to the target message box based upon a delivery failure message therefrom, and thereafter decrease the period of sending messages to the target message box based upon a successful delivery of a message thereto.
US08364765B2
A computer-implemented method of sorting electronic messages can include, for each of a plurality of electronic messages received in an electronic messaging client, determining availability of a sender of each electronic message and determining an order for the electronic messages within the electronic messaging client according to availability of the sender of each electronic message. The method further can include displaying the electronic messages within a view of the electronic messaging client in the order.
US08364756B1
A method, computer-readable medium, and system for re-using a connection between a client computing device and a server system. The method includes receiving at a server system a request from a client computing device to initiate a connection; receiving over the connection a request from the client computing device for first content from a first domain hosted by the server system; sending information to the client computing device over the connection that specifies one or more additional domains hosted by the server system and acceptable to the server system for connection sharing; receiving over the connection a request for second content from a second domain that is hosted by the server system and that was specified in the information sent from the server system to the client computing device; and sending the second content to the client computing device over the connection in response to receiving the request.
US08364753B2
A method is provided for evolving a defined online existing relationship between a first member and a second member, the online existing relationship defined by a plurality of existing relationship features for use in managing network interaction on a communications network between the first member and the second member. The method comprising: receiving a new online relationship having new relationship features such that the new features are different from the existing relationship features, the new relationship features being characteristic of the new relationship; aggregating the existing relationship features and the new relationship features as aggregate relationship features a combination of the existing relationship features and the new relationship features in order to define an aggregate relationship; storing the aggregate relationship features in a storage as relationship data; and accessing the relationship data in order to determine whether a selected network interaction from one of the members is permitted.
US08364747B2
The present invention provides a method, apparatus and computer program product which enables a target service to provide operations which behave, on a per operation basis, in a way appropriate to the type of client that requested the operation to be performed. As a result the target service can provide operations which behave differently for different clients. Further the client can obtain details of the behavior characteristics of the operations, according to its type, at runtime and act appropriately in the event of the request being timed out or resulting in a communication failure. For example, the client middleware can take action to re-issue a timed out request if the behavior characteristic for that operation indicates that multiple invocations of the operation will yield the same result.
US08364735B2
Random numbers output from a random-number generation circuit, for which an optimized control parameter is set, at a predetermined timing after power-on reset are obtained after each power-on reset, by repeating the power-on reset with respect to a system LSI for a preset number of times, and a test of the obtained predetermined number of random numbers is performed by using a test circuit incorporated in the system LSI to determine the quality of the random-number generation circuit incorporated in the system LSI.
US08364730B2
In response to a write command with regard to an FAT1 area received from a host device, the data storage apparatus collectively records management information with regard to the FAT1 area simultaneously with duplicate management information of identical content as management information with regard to an FAT2 area at consecutive addresses. In response to a write command with regard to the FAT2 area received from the host device subsequent to the write command with regard to the FAT1 area, the data storage apparatus notifies the host device of completion of data writing without recording the management information with regard to the FAT2 area. This arrangement effectively enhances the data writing efficiency in the data storage apparatus having multiple records of identical management information.
US08364721B2
A system and method for providing a guided user interface to process waymark records is provided. Categories of published waymark records are maintained in a database. Each category is associated with at least one variable and one or more attributes, which each specify a type of metadata for the variables. The variables and attributes are presented for one of the categories in response to a request from a user. A user interface is applied to process input metadata for a physical object that is received from the user via the user interface. A consistency of the input metadata with the variables and attributes associated with the category is determined. The consistent input metadata is complied as a waymark record for the physical object. The waymark record is published and displayed on a map.
US08364717B2
The non-negative single-source shortest path (NSSP) problem is solved on a graph by using a preprocessing phase and then, in a query phase, computing the distances from a given source in the graph with a linear sweep over all the vertices. Contraction hierarchies may be used in the preprocessing phase and in the query phase. Optimizations may include reordering the vertices in advance to exploit locality, performing multiple NSSP computations simultaneously, marking vertices during initialization, and using parallelism. Techniques may be performed on a graphics processing unit (GPU). This makes applications based on all-pairs shortest-paths practical for continental-sized road networks. The applications include, for example, computing graph diameter, exact arc flags, and centrality measures such as exact reaches or betweenness.
US08364711B2
In an embodiment of a method of providing contact information, the method includes creating a contact record in a contact management system, where a process associated with a subject of the contact record and/or a recipient of data associated with the contact record is included in creating the contact record. A unique serial number is generated corresponding to the contact record and the serial number is conveyed to the recipient. A request by an application is received for the contact record from the contact management system corresponding to the serial number and data associated with the contact record is transmitted to the application.
US08364699B2
Various embodiments are directed to methods and systems for presenting an interface to a user. For example, a computer may receive a request for content originating from a browser application executing on a client machine in electronic communication with the at least one server. The request may identify a first commodity and a first event associated with the commodity and may comprise a Universal Resource Locator (URL) identifying the first commodity. The computer may parse a commodity descriptor file to identify a first service associated with the first commodity and the first event. The commodity descriptor file may comprise definitions of a plurality of commodities and wherein the plurality of commodities comprises the first commodity. In addition, the computer may generate a service call requesting the first service, and execute the at least one service associated with the first commodity and the first event. The at least one service may query the data source to retrieve data describing the commodity and construct a model of the commodity according to the data.
US08364690B2
Automatic creation of pre-condition queries for conflict detection in distributed processing systems
Disclosed are a method, information processing system, and computer program storage product for managing Resource Description Framework (“RDF”) graphs in a distributed system. At least one modification request for modifying an RDF graph in a shared data store is received. The modification request includes a query set, an expected result set, and a change set associated. The query set is a set of preconditions for guaranteeing a state of the RDF graph before executing the change set. The expected result set is results expected by the query. The change set is at least one statement that changes data elements in the RDF graph. The query is applied to the RDF graph at the shared data store. A result of the query is analyzed. A transaction request, which includes the change set, associated with the modification request is sent to a server information processing system communicatively coupled to the shared data storage.
US08364673B2
Systems and methods for searching a database of media content wherein the user can dynamically and interactively perform searches and navigate search results. One or more search anchors are received, and at least one of the search anchors is associated with an anchor cell on a navigation map. One or more documents assigned to at least one cell on the navigation map can be determined, and the cells are populated with search results based at least in part on the search anchors. At least one of the documents is then displayed to a user.
US08364672B2
Concept disambiguation is provided for search queries by analyzing search results in conjunction with an ontology of concepts. An ontology of concepts is identified, and at least one document is associated with each concept. The document associated with a concept is representative of the concept and used to generate a concept signature. When a search query is received, it is processed to obtain search results. The search results are used to generate a search results signature, which is compared to the concept signatures to identify one or more concepts that are relevant to the search query.
US08364665B2
The present invention relates to methods, systems and apparatus for capturing, integrating, organizing, navigating and querying large-scale data from high-throughput biological and chemical assay platforms. It provides a highly efficient meta-analysis infrastructure for performing research queries across a large number of studies and experiments from different biological and chemical assays, data types and organisms, as well as systems to build and add to such an infrastructure. In particular, aspects of the invention relate to integrating, organizing, navigating and querying “directional” data, such as gene expression profiles.
US08364660B2
Apparatus and software system for and method of performing a visual-relevance-rank subsequent search
A method analyzes the visual content of media such as videos for collecting together visually-similar appearances in their constituent images (e.g. same scenes, same objects, faces of the same people.) As a result, the most relevant and salient (of clearest and largest presence) visual appearances depicted in the videos are presented to the user, both for the sake of summarizing the video content for the users to “see before they watch” (that is, judge by the depicted video content in a filmstrip-like summary whether they want to mouse-click on the video and actually spend time watching it), as well as for allowing to users to further refine their video search result set according to the most relevant and salient video content returned (e.g. largest screen-time faces).
US08364653B2
Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for triggering server state change using references. A method includes receiving a request to change a state of the server system, interpreting the request to determine which property is indicated by the reference, computing a value for the property, and using the value to change the state of the server system in accordance with the request. In that method, the request is received at a first program residing at a server system, the request is from a second program residing at a client system, and the request includes a reference to a property.
US08364649B2
An apparatus, and an associated method, facilitates synchronization of a wireless device, such as a portable mobile station. The wireless device is positioned at a support dock, such as a charging cradle of a charging assembly. Positioning of the wireless device at the support dock is detected, such a through detection of application of charging current to the wireless device. Detection of the positioning causes automatic initiation of synchronization operations. Synchronization operations are initiated and then carried out.
US08364641B2
Methods, computer systems, and computer program products for deduplicating data in a computing environment are provided. A sequence of data is received. The sequence of data is formatted for back-up such that an order of the sequence of data is different than the order of an input sequence of the data. The sequence of data is stored in the same order as the input sequence of the data.
US08364637B2
A file transmission system and a file management method thereof that is capable, when files are transmitted between devices, of allowing the user to determine whether to download a file having a delete history, among those files, so that an undesired file is not transmitted. The file transmission system includes a host device to provide content files, a user device connected to the host device, the user device receiving the content files provided from the host device, and a controller to search for a delete history of a file to be transmitted from the host device to the user device and determine whether to transmit the file to be transmitted, if the file to be transmitted has the delete history. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently manage files having delete histories.
US08364633B2
In one embodiment of the present invention, a replicated state machine comprises a proposal manager, an agreement manager, a collision/back-off timer and a storage reclaimer. The proposal manager facilitates management of proposals issued by a node of a distributed application for enabling coordinated execution of the proposals by all other nodes of the distributed application. The agreement manager facilitates agreement on the proposals. The collision/back-off timer precludes repeated pre-emptions of rounds in attempting to achieve agreement on the proposals. The storage reclaimer reclaims persistent storage utilized for storing at least one of proposal agreements and the proposals.
US08364631B1
A technique for converting a first version of a database to a second version is disclosed. The technique includes determining available translation steps, selecting a translation path from the first version of the database to the second version, and executing the selected translation steps in the translation path. The translation path includes selected translation steps from among the available translation steps.
US08364625B2
In various embodiments, a programmable apparatus for use in a computing environment is provided. The apparatus may include a business rules engine having at least one rule executable by a mainframe system and stored based on an extensible language; and, a business rules engine builder interface configured to access the business rules engine and which permits user selection from among different rules collections in the business rules engine.
US08364623B1
A method for computer systems management using mind map techniques comprises receiving a request to generate a graphical summarization of relationships of a particular entity associated with an information technology (IT) infrastructure with other entities associated with the infrastructure, and generating a graphical representation of the particular entity and its relationships as a mind map comprising a plurality of linked nodes. The network of nodes may include a primary node representing the particular entity, a first link from the primary node to a first sub-network of nodes representing a first relationship, and a second link from the primary node to a second sub-network of nodes representing a second relationship.
US08364622B1
Various aspects provide for receiving data associated with a plurality of samples. A sample generally includes data associated with one or more events. One or more traits may be determined, where a trait may be a set of or associated with one or more events. Generally, events included in a trait may be correlated (including anti-correlated) in some way. A trait may be associated with a sample, and the association may be recorded, an action may be triggered, and/or a user may be notified.
US08364609B2
An energy distribution may include a server and one or more databases. The system may communicate with an energy provider to receive energy provider data, at least one information collector to receive information collector data such as individualized energy usage data, customer preferences, and customer or location characteristics, and the one or more databases for receiving data for optimization. The system may calculate a cost of service or avoided cost using at least one of the individualized energy usage data and a system generation cost at a nearest bus. The system may also forecast individualized demand by end-use, individualized demand by location, energy prices, or energy costs. The system may optimize energy distribution, energy use, cost of service, or avoided cost using the forecasted individualized demand by end-use, the forecasted individualized demand by location, the forecasted energy prices, and the forecasted energy costs.
US08364607B2
According to various embodiments, a flow validation system models distribution flows of a consignor's packages from each of one or more hubs within a carrier's shipping network. The flow validation system allows the carrier and/or the consignor to identify at least one optimal hub within the carrier's shipping network to which packages destined for a particular geographical area (e.g., three-digit ZIP code) should be shipped from their origin and from which the packages should be distributed through the carrier's general shipping network to their respective destinations. According to various embodiments, the optimal hub (or hubs) for packages destined for a particular geographical area may be identified based on the number of days expected to transport the packages from the origin to the particular geographical area via the optimal hub (least “time-in-transit”) and/or the distance (or range of distances) between the optimal hub and the particular geographical area.
US08364603B2
A system, software and method for electronically adjudicating a dispute includes selecting an electronic dispute adjudication level from multiple levels providing various extents of procedural options involved in the adjudicating of the dispute, and electronically processing the adjudicating of the dispute in accordance with the selected level. The multiple levels preferably include successive levels providing enhanced procedural options to parties involved in the dispute. The successive levels may correspond to increasing amounts in dispute and/or may be selected by one or more parties involved in the dispute.
US08364598B2
A portable device may be roamed from one host to another. In one example, the portable device stores software that is to be executed by a host. The host may maintain a policy that governs which software may be executed on the host. When the portable device is connected to a host, the host checks the software version installed on the guest to determine whether that software version is compatible with the host's policy. If the guest's software does not comply with the host's policy, then the host installs a compatible version. If the guest's version complies with the policy and is newer than the host's version, then the host copies the guest's version to the host and propagates it to other guests. In this way, newer versions of software propagate between hosts and guests, while also respecting specific execution policies of the various hosts.
US08364592B2
A method for conducting a business transaction using a payment processing network is disclosed. The method includes sending an authorization request message including an authorization request to an issuer, where the authorization request message originates from a business consumer purchasing goods or services from an oligopolistic business entity. The issuer sends an authorization response message indicating that the authorization request is approved or not approved. Economic incentives associated with the business transaction is provided to the oligopolistic business entity or the business consumer for conducting the business transaction, wherein the incentive would not be available in a transaction between a non-oligopolistic business entity and the business consumer. A method for encouraging use of electronic payment methods is also disclosed, wherein an oligopolistic entity and a group of business consumers in an industry vertical are identified based on sales information, and an economic incentive is provided to the oligopolistic business entity after it agrees to accept electronic payment transactions for conducting business with the group of business consumers.
US08364591B2
Systems and associated apparatuses and methods for processing payment transactions. A merchant's data processing system may provide payment transaction data in a first format (e.g., Track 1) to a payment processing network. The payment processing network may determine the issuer to which the data will be provided as part of a process for authorizing the payment transaction. It is determined if the issuer is one that is expecting or requires that the data be provided in a second format (e.g., Track 2). If the issuer is one that is expecting or requires that the transaction data be supplied in the second format, then it is determined if the issuer is enrolled in the appropriate data mapping service. If the issuer is enrolled in the data mapping service, then the inventive system performs the data mapping processes needed to provide the data in the second format to the issuer. The issuer may then use the received data to determine whether to authorize the payment transaction.
US08364589B2
A method and system for performing a cash transaction with a self-service financial transaction terminal makes use of computer hardware and software that allows a financial institution cardholder to authorize a recipient to withdraw a specified amount of cash at an ATM of the particular financial institution. The cardholder can set up the transaction, for example, from any telephone using an interactive voice response (IVR) system, or by utilizing the application at a financial institution ATM, or by using an Internet website application. The originator can set up the recipient's ATM transaction to be either cardless or card-initiated.
US08364582B2
Share of Wallet (“SOW”) is a modeling approach that utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a consumers spending capability, tradeline history including balance transfers, and balance information. These outputs can be appended to data profiles of customers and prospects and can be utilized to support decisions involving prospecting, new applicant evaluation, and customer management across the lifecycle. The outputs can be used as attributes to consider in developing a credit bureau scorecard.
US08364581B2
A computer implemented method and system for providing financial services are described. The system and method include determining an account balance for a financial account. If the account balance is negative, notice of the negative balance is sent to the account holder in real time. After a predetermined period of time or grace period, and/or by a predetermined end time or cut-off date or time, it is determined whether the negative balance was cured. If the negative balance was not cured during the grace period, an overdraft fee is assessed to the financial account. If the negative balance was cured during the grace period, any assessed overdraft fee for the negative balance is rebated or reversed.
US08364580B2
Apparatus and methods are described for correlating business relationships and issuing earnings estimates. According to the present invention, an earnings estimate can be generated for a company as it compares to a consensus estimate, or other rating aggregate, along with an indication of an investment banking relationship or other business relationship that the entity providing the estimate has had with the company. In addition to a consensus estimate that may be based upon current and previous analyst earnings estimates, operating actuals, expected reporting dates, footnotes and company-issued guidelines, indications of investment banking relationships and a consensus estimate is provided that excludes input from banks conducting business with the company. The present invention can also include suggested actions that can be taken based upon data relating to an investment banking relationship, an earnings estimate and/or a consensus earnings estimate that excludes input from banks with substantial business relationships with the company.
US08364579B2
A loan submission and processing system, methods, apparatus and computer program products. One example method includes receiving user specified input relating to a loan application, storing the user specified input in a loan application file, determining a partner system that is to receive data related to the electronic loan application including dynamically determining a format and contents required to present a service request to the partner system for processing by the partner system, dynamically formatting the user specified input and any other required content into a service request, the service request compatible with the partner system and including the user specified data and the other required content and transmitting the service request to the partner system.
US08364577B2
Techniques for advancing a first bidder to a desired rank in an electronic auction are disclosed. In response to actuation of a bid rank advancement function by a first bidder, a new bid for the first bidder is calculated by applying a predetermined minimum differential value to a current bid of a second bidder that holds the desired rank in the electronic auction. The new bid is automatically submitted to the electronic auction on behalf of the first bidder.
US08364576B2
A tradable investment unit is an inseparable combination of a predetermined quantity of a tradable security together with a put option contract for the predetermined quantity of the tradable security. The combination will specify the minimum price and thereby the maximum potential loss of the tradable investment unit to purchasers. The profit potential will be unlimited as the price of the tradable security increases above the cost of the tradable investment unit.
US08364574B1
An electronic trading system and associated methods that provide for anonymous pricing data while ensuring the integrity of the system by preventing it from being used for price discovery information only. Methods are included to police the dealers requesting price information and clear rules are implemented to reward the dealer offering the best price. Dealers request price information by submitting an open (not anonymous) request to a broker for a price on an amount of a security or financial instrument, referred to herein as a “Price-For-Call,” which results in an anonymous RFQ being sent to a group of other dealers. If more than one dealer in the group responds with a price, only the best price (bid or offer or both) is returned to the requesting dealer and only the dealer offering the best price is rewarded with knowledge of the price information by virtue of the fact that his price traded.
US08364572B2
Methods are provided for detecting price manipulation in assets by receiving data indicating returns on an asset, generating a histogram of returns data, determining a first area under a curve of the histogram in a first interval, determining a second area under the curve of the histogram in a second interval; and calculating a bias ratio which comprises a ratio based on the first area and the second area.
US08364571B1
A method of and system for trading of synthetic assets is disclosed. A plurality of fractional interests in a synthetic asset are created, and the plurality of fractional interests are designated as IPO fractional interests. An initial price of the plurality of fractional interests is determined, and the plurality of fractional interests are made available in a primary market. A first user indicates a desire to acquire at least one of the plurality of fractional interests and provides funds. The fractional interests are transferred to an account associated with the first user and a portion of the funds are designated as reserved funds. A second user submits a request indicating a desire to acquire at least one of the plurality of fractional interests. The reserved funds of the first user are as free funds of the first user, and free funds of the second user are transferred to the first user. The fractional interests of the first user are transferred to the second user.
US08364566B2
The present invention provides a method of managing group finances via an electronic network. Transaction details are received from a member of group via an electronic network. The transaction details preferably include a shared expense containing an expense amount and at least one group member responsible for the expense. The transaction details are then assigned to the group and a payment specified-by the-transaction-details is allocated-among-group members-of-the-group. The method is repeated for a plurality of transactions. The finances of the group may also be balanced using accounting mathematics. Furthermore, an original expense value may be rounded up to a new expense value having a predefined number of decimal places, and a difference distributed between the new expense value and the original expense value to a third party.
US08364564B2
The invention presents a novel and efficient method of facilitating accurate usage billing. In a multi-user service provider environment, using weighted records of web-server usage to determine each user's bill for services is provided. The invention provides for billing with a minimal amount of overhead on the web host, which will benefit the web host's profit margin. The invention utilizes three pieces of information to compute the amount of usage. The weights that are associated with the functions are determined in order to score the system resource utilization of the respective functions. The weights need to be determined only once during the entire life cycle of the application, and may be based on empirical data or determined through lab tests. The weight can be stored in a static file.
US08364560B2
A method and a system segmenting a user viewing listings in online publications to render the listing according to a rule received from a seller. For example, the system receives one or more listings submitted by a seller. The listing comprises one or more modifiable parameters. The system also receives a rule from the seller, the rule associated with a first listing of the one or more listings. A profile is associated with a user based on data collected about the user. The first listing is rendered to the user based on the profile associated with the user and the rule by modifying the one or more parameters.
US08364546B2
A restroom monitoring system for monitoring attributes of fixtures within a restroom using sensors. Additional attributes are determined from the monitored attributes. Consumable usage levels are estimated based on predetermined consumption levels associated with usage states of the fixtures. The restroom monitoring system provides an indication of the need for replenishment of consumables based on the monitored attributes of the fixtures. In addition, restroom monitoring system may provide additional information regarding the restroom attributes to a service provider, a manager or a user.
US08364543B2
Weight detection mechanisms for cashier checkout terminal are provided. When a transaction by a customer concludes at a cashier checkout terminal, a check is made to determine if a product was left behind on a baggage unit associated with the cashier checkout terminal. When excess weight is detected on the baggage unit at the conclusion of the transaction, one or more alerts are generated to raise awareness with the customer that the product has not been retrieved by the customer from the baggage unit.
US08364530B2
Methods and apparatus are provided for presenting personalized information to consumers in a retail environment. A personalized price is determined for at least one product that is in physical proximity to the customer. The physical proximity may be determined, for example, by evaluating identifiers, such as RFID tags, associated with each customer and product. A personalized message can be also presented to a customer regarding at least one product that is in physical proximity to the customer. The personalized message can provide, for example, dietary or safety information relevant to the customer and at least one product in the proximity of the customer. The personalized information may be determined based on one or more personalized message rules.
US08364525B2
A computer-implemented method and system for selecting a subject advertisement in a sponsored search system based on a user's commercial intent (pertaining to the subject advertisement), using techniques for determining intent-driven clicks from a historical database. The method includes steps for aggregating a training model dataset wherein the training model dataset contains a selected history of clicks. Then, selecting from the training model dataset, a clicked slate (further selection of clicks), the clicked slate comprising a set of clicked ads, and calculating an intent-driven click feedback value for the subject advertisement. The method includes techniques for selecting a clicked slate using features corresponding to clicks received within a particular time period (the time period determined statically or dynamically). A system for implementing the method includes aggregating data from a historical database using selectors such as a position selector, a click feature selector, an impression-advertiser-campaign-creative selector, and a commercial intent selector.
US08364520B1
There is disclosed herein an improved method for measuring the effectiveness of a sampling event, particularly correlating a product sampling event with the consumer's purchase of a corresponding purchasable product. Preferably, a product sample terminal is employed to identify a consumer, dispense a product sample to the consumer, store data pertaining to the product sampling event, and correlate the consumer's purchase of a corresponding or complimentary product for determining whether the product sampling event converted the event into the consumer's purchasing decisions. Additionally disclosed is a method for soliciting, aggregating, and processing consumer preferences pertaining to product attributes for informing investment decisions with regard to product development.
US08364519B1
A method of determining a set of future actions includes providing an interface to a user, the interface including an adjustable element associated with a future value of an influencer. The influencer is associated with an action. The method further includes receiving via the interface an adjusted future value of the influencer, projecting a future value of a performance indicator based at least in part on the adjusted future value of the influencer, and providing a results interface to the user indicative of the future value of the performance indicator.
US08364499B2
A system uses clinical data to help identify incorrect demographic information (such as gender or age) of a patient that may cause an erroneous critical or abnormal indication in medical tests and uses results of a clinical test to indicate possible demographic errors and various methods to modify a workflow to incorporate alternative tasks or to request verification of specific demographic facts. A system for validating patient medical information includes an input processor for receiving a laboratory test result value of a particular patient. A data processor automatically compares the received laboratory test result value with a predetermined normal value range for a patient having demographic characteristics of the particular patient, and compares the received laboratory test result value with a predetermined normal value range for a patient having different demographic characteristics than the particular patient. A communication processor initiates generation of an indication to a user indicating stored demographic information of the particular patient may be inaccurate.
US08364498B2
A system for processing healthcare claims and remittances comprises a database and an electronic portal. The database contains previously received healthcare claims from a plurality of healthcare providers and previously received remittances from a plurality of payers. The electronic portal, connected to the database, receives a healthcare claim from a provider or a remittance from a payer, and splits the received claim or remittance into a plurality of data elements. The portal assigns a unique identifier and a shared identifier to each of the data elements of the received claim or remittance. The portal performs a duplicate claim edit and/or a third party liability edit on the received claim, or performs a duplicate remittance edit an/or a third party payment edit on the received remittance. Based on the result of the edits, the portal submits the received claim to a payer or submits the received remittance to a provider.
US08364496B2
A signal recording and reproducing apparatus includes an encoder encoding an input signal to produce a first group of encoded data, and a second group of encoded data used for reproducing a signal of higher quality than a signal resulting from decoding of the first group of encoded data, a recording unit recording record-data, including the first group and the second group of encoded data, into a recording medium, a reproducing unit reproducing the record-data from the recording medium, a decoder decoding at least the first group of encoded data out of the record-data from the reproducing unit, and a controller controlling an operation of each part of the recording and reproducing apparatus, and the controller performs control so as to cause the recording unit to erase the second group of encoded data according to a command to increase the amount of free storage capacity of the recording medium.
US08364495B2
An encoding device capable of realizing a scalable CODEC of a high performance. In this encoding device, an LPC analyzing unit (551) analyzes an input voice (301) efficiently with a synthesized LPC parameter obtained from a core decoder (305), to acquire an encoded LPC coefficient. An adaptive code note (552) is stored with its sound source codes, as acquired from the core decoder (305). The adaptive code note (552) and a stochastic code note (553) send sound source samples to a gain adjusting unit (554). This gain adjusting unit (554) multiplies the individual sound source samples by an amplification based on the gain parameters acquired from the core decoder (305), and then adds the products to acquire sound source vectors. These vectors are sent to an LPC synthesizing unit (555). This LPC synthesizing unit (555) filters the sound source vectors acquired at the gain adjusting unit (554), with the LPC parameter, to acquire a synthetic signal.
US08364489B2
A method and a system of history tracking corrections in a speech based document. The speech based document comprises one or more sections of text recognized or transcribed from sections of speech, wherein the sections of speech are dictated by a user and processed by a speech recognizer in a speech recognition system into corresponding sections of text of the speech based document. The method comprises associating at least one speech attribute to each section of text in the speech based document, said speech attribute comprising information related to said section of text, respectively; presenting said speech based document on a presenting unit; detecting an action being performed within any of said sections of text; and updating information of said speech attributes related to the kind of action detected on one of said sections of text for updating said speech based document.
US08364485B2
Sentence boundaries in noisy conversational transcription data are automatically identified. Noise and transcription symbols are removed, and a training set is formed with sentence boundaries marked based on long silences or on manual markings in the transcribed data. Frequencies of head and tail n-grams that occur at the beginning and ending of sentences are determined from the training set. N-grams that occur a significant number of times in the middle of sentences in relation to their occurrences at the beginning or ending of sentences are filtered out. A boundary is marked before every head n-gram and after every tail n-gram occurring in the conversational data and remaining after filtering. Turns are identified. A boundary is marked after each turn, unless the turn ends with an impermissible tail word or is an incomplete turn. The marked boundaries in the conversational data identify sentence boundaries.
US08364479B2
A system estimates the spectral noise power density of an audio signal includes a spectral noise power density estimation unit, a correction term processor, and a combination processor. The spectral noise power density estimation unit may provide a first estimate of the spectral noise power density of the audio signal. The correction term processor may provide a time dependent correction term based, at least in part, on a spectral noise power density estimation error of the actual spectral noise power density. The correction term may be determined so that the spectral noise power density estimation error is reduced. The combination processor may combine the first estimate with the correction term to obtain a second estimate of the spectral noise power density that may be used for subsequent signal processing to enhance a desired signal component of the audio signal.
US08364474B2
A signal encoding device for encoding an input time-series signal includes: partitioning means; low-frequency encoding means; high-frequency gain information generating means; low-frequency reference value information generating means; high-frequency gain difference information generating means; high-frequency gain difference information encoding means; and multiplexing means.
US08364473B2
A method and apparatus for processing speech in a wireless communication system uses CELP speech encoded signals. A decoder receives encoded speech including a code index, a code index gain, a pitch lag, a pitch gain, and a line spectral pair (LSP) index. An innovation codevector and an adaptive codevector are determined and scaled. An excitation sequence is generated. Reconstructed speech is then output based on the excitation sequence and LSP index.
US08364470B2
A list of reference terms can be provided. Text and the list of reference terms can be broken down into tokens. At least one candidate can be generated in the text for mapping to at least one of the reference terms. Characters of the candidate can be compared to characters of the reference term according to one or more mapping rules. A confidence value of the mapping can be generated based on the comparison of characters. Candidates can be ranked according to their confidence value.
US08364469B2
Some embodiments of a natural language enhanced user interface in a business rule management system have been presented. In one embodiment, one or more rule templates in a natural language are generated from one or more prefabricated sentences. Then a user interface is created using the one or more rule templates to allow a user to compose rules for a business rule management system.
US08364464B2
A user interface for displaying source data and a translated copy of a segment of the source data is provided. The user interface includes a first display portion for displaying at least a subset of the source data on the display. The user interface includes a second display portion for displaying a translated copy of a selected segment of source data on the display.
US08364462B2
A cross-lingual location search uses a combination of translation and transliteration of query tokens to develop a set of candidate matches for further searching. A query is broken up into individual tokens (e.g. address parts) and a list of transliterations and/or translations for each token is developed. The translated and transliterated results are keyed against a spatial database using both literal database keys and transliterated database keys. Matches from the resulting searches are selected when a spatial overlap, or constraint, occurs among subsequences of the query tokens.
US08364460B2
Intelligent monitoring systems and methods for virtual environments are disclosed that understand various components of a virtual infrastructure and how the components interact to provide improved performance analysis to users. In certain examples, a monitoring system assesses the performance of virtual machine(s) in the context of the overall performance of the physical server(s) and the environment in which the virtual machine(s) are running. For instance, the monitoring system can track performance metrics over a determined period of time to view changes to the allocation of resources to virtual machines and their location(s) on physical platforms. Moreover, monitoring systems can utilize past performance information from separate virtual environments to project a performance impact resulting from the migration of a virtual machine from one physical platform to another.
US08364451B2
The present invention is concerned with a process for forming a very well defined pattern of particulate material in a composite material comprising a web material and particulate absorbent material. The present invention relates also to a method for determining the equipment design and process parameter for such a process. In a particular application, the present invention provides a process for preparing liquid absorbent structures, such as may be useful for disposable absorbent articles.
US08364450B2
An embodiment relates to a multi-objective optimization design supporting technique to reduces the computational complexity of QE/CAD. When the input logical expression generated by a logical-expression-with-qualifier generation unit is satisfied in regard to the sample point included in a certain piece of cell information for each value of the same design parameter, a first cell processing unit does not evaluate the input logical expression on the cell information including other sample points having a value equal to or smaller than the value of a predetermined design variable (for example, a design variable indicating a yield) corresponding to the sample point above, but selects it as the cell information for an output of a logical expression without a qualifier.
US08364439B2
A system and computer-implemented method for detecting concealed cargo and/or concealed passengers in a vehicle includes obtaining weight distribution data for the vehicle; obtaining vehicle loading data; measuring a center of mass of the vehicle to obtain an actual center of mass position of the vehicle; and executing one or more computer program modules configured to determined a predicted center of mass position of the vehicle using the obtained vehicle loading data and the obtained weight distribution data of the vehicle; compare the actual center of mass position of the vehicle with the predicted center of mass position of the vehicle; and provide a signal if the actual center of mass position of the vehicle departs from the predicted center of mass position of the vehicle by at least a predetermined threshold, the signal being representative of concealed cargo and/or concealed passengers in the vehicle.
US08364438B2
A system and method provides data for a laser projection process used in manufacturing involving fasteners. For example, the laser projection process may include projecting a laser image associated with fasteners used to assemble objects. Fastener attribute data may be extracted from an engineer's design data and processed to generate a laser projection output file. This output file may include geometric data used to project a laser image associated with the fasteners. For example, this image may be an outline indicating the location, shape, and orientation of a fastener. The output file may also include non-geometric data associated with attributes of the objects to be assembled. Both the geometric and the non-geometric data can then be displayed in a user interface, such as a display screen of a laser projector control device, in addition to the display of the laser image in three-dimensional space.
US08364437B2
A method of inspecting a mark arrangement according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: generating mask data in which mark seed data that includes an inspection mark that includes vector information and is not drawn on a mask and mark data is arranged on a scribe line of the mask, calculating coordinates of the inspection mark from a reference position of the mark seed data, detecting an arrangement state of the inspection mark with respect to the reference position by using the coordinates and vector information, and judging whether the mark seed data is correctly arranged by comparing the arrangement state of the inspection mark with an arrangement check rule.
US08364418B2
The invention relates a method of quantifying CD64 and CD163 expression in leukocytes and, specifically to a kit for use with a flow cytometer including a suspension of quantitative fluorescent microbead standards, fluorescent labeled antibodies directed to CD64 and CD163, and analytical software. The software is used to take information on the microbead suspension and fluorescent labeled antibodies from a flow cytometer and analyse data, smooth curves, calculate new parameters, provide quality control measures and notify of expiration of the assay system.
US08364411B2
BioMEMS/NEMS appliance biologically monitors an individual, using biosensors to detect cellular components. Data is simulated or analyzed using systems-biology software, which provides diagnostic or therapeutic guidance.
US08364406B2
Systems and methods for downhole measurement and communications are disclosed. The system includes a communications medium, at least partially disposed in a drillpipe, a processor coupled to the communications medium, at least two sensor modules coupled to the communications medium, where at least one of the sensor modules is along a drillpipe, and at least one communications coupler to couple at least one sensor module to the communications medium.
US08364401B2
The navigation system described here utilizes GPS and Galileo satellite signals combined with Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), where a Coupled Antenna (CAN) provides both GNSS and Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) data to a Highly Integrated GNSS-Inertial (Hi-Gi) receiver. Such receiver makes use of a high fidelity relation between GNSS unprocessed Correlator Output (COUT) I and Q data and the user trajectory, and inertial sensor data, which in turn are combined within a Kalman Filter (KF). The KF determines the navigation solution that is also used to provide feedback to the receiver demodulation signal processing stage, thus eliminating the need of dedicated structures such as Delayed Locked Loops (DLL) and Phase Locked Loops (PLL), allowing a significant improvement in navigation performance. The improvement allows this system to provide high quality measurements and operate in circumstances where usual techniques are not usable; for example during satellite signal interruption due to obstruction, or in very high dynamics or even in attenuated signal environments, due to, for example, the canopy of trees. The KF also makes use of particular Galileo signal characteristics, lock detectors and Coupled Antenna that allow the system to operate in such environments.
US08364383B2
In a method for controlling an internal combustion engine comprising an intake pipe and a throttle valve that is arranged therein, the pressure in the intake pipe is regulated by modifying the opening angle of the throttle valve, and the desired pressure value is adjusted when the valve lift of the internal combustion engine changes. An apparatus for controlling an internal combustion engine has a mechanism for regulating the intake pipe pressure, the mechanism allowing the opening angle of the throttle valve to be influenced as a controlled variable. In addition, at least one device is provided for changing the valve lift of the internal combustion engine while a device is provided for adjusting the desired pressure value to the valve lift.
US08364382B2
In a hybrid type vehicle designed to use an engine (1) and motor generators (MG1, MG2) to drive the vehicle, the engine (1) is provided with a variable compression ratio mechanism (A) and a variable valve timing mechanism (B). When a required output of the engine (1) is a boundary output (PY) or less, minimum fuel consumption rate maintenance control satisfying the required output of the engine by changing the engine speed in a state maintaining the mechanical compression ratio at the maximum compression ratio is performed. When the required output of the engine is increased over the boundary output (PY), the mechanical compression ratio is lowered to the minimum mechanical compression ratio, then the engine output is increased.
US08364381B2
A control system for an engine includes a speed error determination module that periodically determines an engine speed error rate based on a difference between a measured speed and a desired speed of the engine, and a torque reserve module that monitors the engine speed error rate and that selectively adjusts a torque reserve of the engine based on the engine speed error rate. The torque reserve module maintains the torque reserve at a predetermined first torque reserve amount while the engine speed error rate is less than a predetermined first error rate and selectively increases the torque reserve above the first torque reserve amount when the engine speed error rate increases above a predetermined second error rate greater than the first error rate. The torque reserve module decreases the torque reserve when the engine speed error rate decreases below the first error rate. A related method is also provided.
US08364367B2
A method for providing a smooth exit from a panic braking assist algorithm, in a vehicle having a braking system with a brake pedal, comprises the steps of measuring a force applied to the brake pedal, measuring a movement of the brake pedal, applying a first level of braking when the force applied to the brake pedal is equal to a predetermined force calibration value, applying a second level of braking when the movement of the brake pedal is equal to a predetermined travel calibration value, and applying a variable level of braking when the force applied to the brake pedal is less than the predetermined force calibration value and the movement of the brake pedal is greater than the predetermined travel calibration value. The variable level of braking is a function of the movement of the brake pedal.
US08364343B2
Provided is an electronic manual display device which helps the user understand the positions of and how to operate various switches that the user uses when driving a vehicle. The electronic manual display device is a program-controlled display device for displaying an electronic manual for operating a vehicle. When a button for requiring the explanation of the switches is selected from the menu screen of the electronic manual, the display device reads out a screen for explaining how to operate the switches, which is linked to the selected button, from a storage device, and displays the screen on a display unit. On the screen for explaining how to operate the switches, an illustration for explaining the operation positions of the switches and an illustration for showing the operating state of the vehicle obtained at the said operation positions of the switches are displayed side by side. The illustration for showing the operating state of the vehicle changes instantaneously corresponding to a change in the illustration for explaining the operation positions of the switches.
US08364341B2
In a method for controlling a driver assistance system, the activation of LKS (lane keeping support) function may result in lateral pendulum motions of the vehicle. Zones having specified conditions are defined in a region of the traffic lane in front of the vehicle. Within the zones, a check is performed to determine whether the respective driving state of the vehicle matches the specified conditions. In the event of a match, the existence of a pendulum motion of the vehicle is assumed.
US08364338B2
A method for remotely administering a fault detected on an unmanned powered system that is controlled through a lead powered system, the method including detecting an operational fault on an unmanned powered system, communicating information about the fault to the lead powered system, through a wireless communication protocol operable with a wireless communication system, and communicating a reset message to the unmanned powered system to reset the fault detected. A system and computer software code, stored on a computer readable media and executable with a processor, are also disclosed for remotely handling a fault detected on an unmanned powered system that is controlled through a lead powered system.
US08364336B2
A method for guiding a driverless, multi-track vehicle along a predetermined path (12), which vehicle rolls on wheels (4, 6) separated from each other in the vehicle width direction, wherein the vehicle is steered by changing the torque applied to at least one of its wheels, such that it follows the predetermined path.
US08364330B2
A method of assisting the piloting of an aircraft (60) at low altitude over terrain (S), in which method, during a first stage, a framework (10) is constructed from at least one main segment (40) and during a second stage a setpoint flight path (50) is constructed. More precisely, during the first stage, said main segment (40) is subdivided automatically into a plurality of secondary segments (41, 42, 43), each of said secondary segments (41) being situated at the same setpoint height above the highest point of the underlying terrain, with two adjacent secondary segments (41) being in alignment or connected together by a bar (44) that extends vertically in a vertical section.
US08364324B2
Provided is an energy management system which can increase the awareness of energy saving. The energy management system according to the present invention includes a home appliance A located in a home, an external portable terminal PT, and a center device SV connected to the home appliance A and portable terminal PT via internet NT. The home appliance A includes an energy management unit 3 and a display control device CV. The center device SV stores for each home the electricity usage at a main breaker Bs and at branch breakers Bmn that is transmitted from the energy management unit 3 of each home. In the center device SV, the ranking in terms of the electricity usage or a degree of a decrease of the electricity usage is made relative to other homes on the basis of the stored electricity usage. The ranking is made for each home and transmitted to the display control device CV of the corresponding home.
US08364320B2
The invention relates to a method for the highly precise regulation of load-variable heat sources or heat sinks, and to a device for controlling the temperature of a dynamic heat source, especially of pump diodes for solid-state lasers. According to said method, the calculated mean value of the forward flow temperature and the return flow temperature is preset as an actual value for regulating the power, in order to ensure a stabilization of the heat source even without any information on the type of thermal load and the heat quantity to be dissipated, by the mean reference temperature for the heat flow to or from the temperature-controlling medium being maintained at a constant value irrespective of the heat quantity to be dissipated. As far as the device is concerned, a return flow temperature measuring device is provided in addition to a forward flow temperature measuring device arranged in the pump diode coolant circuit, both measuring devices being connected to an analog or digital computing unit which performs a mean value calculation in order to determine a refrigerating capacity set value transmitted to corresponding switching devices for the regulation of the load.
US08364318B2
A method and system for operating a demand control ventilation system with a multi-speed fan is disclosed. The control system may modulate the fan speed of a multi-speed fan and/or the position of a ventilation damper in order to achieve desired ventilation levels for a building.
US08364317B2
The present invention relates to an air conditioner, including a temperature detection unit configured to detect an indoor temperature, a human body detection unit configured to rotatably operate and detect a person within an indoor area, a position determination unit configured to determine a position of the person based on data detected by the human body detection unit, and a control unit configured to perform an automatic operation for controlling a current of air according to the position of the person, determined by the position determination unit, if the indoor temperature reaches a first reference temperature according to an entry of an automatic operation mode and to perform a preparation operation for executing the automatic operation if the indoor temperature does not reach the first reference temperature, in the case where the automatic operation mode has been set.
US08364310B2
A modular robot development kit includes an extensible mobile robot platform and a programmable development module that connects to the mobile robot platform. The mobile robot platform includes a controller that executes robot behaviors concurrently and performs robot actions in accordance with robot control signals received from the development module, as modified by the concurrently running robot behaviors, as a safeguard against performing potentially damaging robot actions. Also, the user can develop software that is executed on the development module and which transmits the robot control signals to the mobile robot platform over the data communication link using a robot interface protocol. The robot interface protocol encapsulates potentially harmful user-developed software routines from the controller instructions executed by the controller of the mobile robot platform, while nonetheless enabling the user to effectively control the mobile robot platform using the robot control signals of the robot interface protocol.
US08364301B2
A method is set forth for making a computer model of patient's jaws on the basis of digital information. Digital data about the jaws, teeth, soft tissues and artificial teeth is joined in computer space to create aesthetic and functional plans for the removal of teeth, shaping of supporting bone and placement of dental implants. Artificial teeth and pre-manufactured prosthetic devices are made and attached to the dental implants at the time of surgery. The aesthetic and functional position of artificial teeth is determined prior to surgical removal of natural teeth and the ideal position of implants and the proper form of the remaining bone are determined prior to surgery. Surgical guides used to shape bone, record occlusal orientation and position dental implants are manufactured using computer milling or layered manufacturing.
US08364299B2
An audio signal transmission apparatus avoiding noise generation is applied to a game platform functions by executing a recording process, and comprises: an analog-to-digital converter, an intermediary processing unit, a counter, and a controlling unit. The analog-to-digital converter is used for converting an analog audio signal to a first digital audio signal. The intermediary processing unit is connected with the analog-to-digital converter for transmitting the first digital audio signal. The counter controls the intermediary processing unit to output the first digital audio signal after counting a specific time. The controlling unit, connected with the counter and the intermediary processing unit, is used for transmitting the first digital audio signal to the game platform. Therefore, the present invention can achieve the purpose for avoiding noise generation when the audio signal transmission apparatus plugs into the game platform.
US08364289B2
In a method and apparatus for moving a free-swinging load that is suspended relative to a suspension point, a first path along which the load should be moved from a starting point to a destination, with a first location-dependent velocity, is provided to a processor. In the processor, a second path is automatically determined along which the suspension point should be moved with a second location-dependent velocity to cause the load to move along the first path from the starting point to the destination with the first location-dependent velocity. A movement-imparted mechanism, connected to the suspension point, is automatically controlled from the processor to move the freely-suspended load from the starting point to the destination by moving the suspension point along the second path with the second location-dependent velocity.
US08364286B2
A neurostimulation lead is configured to be implanted into a patient's body and has at least one distal electrode. The lead comprises at least one conductive filer electrically coupled to the distal electrode, a jacket for housing the conductive filer and a shield surrounding at least a portion of the filer for reducing electromagnetic coupling to the filer.
US08364283B2
A band stop filter is provided for a lead wire of an active medical device (AMD). The band stop filter includes a capacitor in parallel with an inductor. The parallel capacitor and inductor are placed in series with the lead wire of the AMD, wherein values of capacitance and inductance are selected such that the band stop filter is resonant at a selected frequency. The Q of the inductor may be relatively maximized and the Q of the capacitor may be relatively minimized to reduce the overall Q of the band stop filter to attenuate current flow through the lead wire along a range of selected frequencies. In a preferred form, the band stop filter is integrated into a TIP and/or RING electrode for an active implantable medical device.
US08364279B2
A neurostimulation lead or lead extension includes a lead body having a proximal end and a distal end. A plurality of first contacts are disposed on the distal end of the lead body. A plurality of second contacts are disposed on a proximal end of the lead body. A plurality of conductors extend along the lead body. Each of the plurality of conductors electrically couples at least one of the first contacts to at least one of the second contacts. At least one of the conductors includes at least one switch disposed along a length of the conductor. The at least one switch is configured and arranged to separate the conductor into a plurality of individual segments when the at least one switch is opened.
US08364275B2
An external component of a cochlear implant hearing system. The external component includes a speech processor module operable in a stand-alone mode of operation and a body-worn mode of operation, a protective case configured to have said speech processor module removably mounted therein; and an operational mode controller configured to determine when said speech processor module is mounted in said case and to place said speech processor module in said body-worn mode of operation when said module is mounted in said case.
US08364265B2
An apparatus and method for verifying capture by a pacing pulse in which a test depolarization waveform recorded during a pacing event is compared with a template waveform representing capture by the pacing pulse. Capture verification in this manner may be used in pacemakers having multiple pacing channels for the atrial and/or ventricles where the multiple paces can interfere with conventional sensing of evoked responses in order to verify capture.
US08364264B2
The waveform morphology of a propagated pacing response signal may be adjusted to achieve a waveform morphology that enhances cardiac pacing response determination. One or more pacing intervals may be adjusted to achieve at least one cardiac pacing response waveform morphology that enhances determination of the cardiac pacing response. The heart is paced using the one or more adjusted pacing intervals and the cardiac response to the pacing is determined. The one or more adjusted pacing intervals may include an atrioventricular pacing delay, an interatrial pacing delay, an interventricular pacing delay, or other inter-chamber or inter-site pacing delays. Adjusting the one or more pacing intervals may be used to increase a difference between a first waveform morphology associated with multi-chamber capture and a second waveform morphology associated with single chamber capture.
US08364262B2
This document discusses, among other things, detection of a sudden onset of a tachyarrhythmia. A sudden onset of tachyarrhythmia is determined by monitoring changes in intrinsic ventricular rate, such as by using one or more sensing channels in the ICD. A lowest tachyarrhythmia rate threshold is accompanied by a slightly lower “hysteresis tachyarrhythmia rate threshold.” If a sudden onset of tachyarrhythmia is declared, the sudden onset status is not reset by the ventricular rate falling below the lowest tachyarrhythmia rate threshold, but is instead reset by the ventricular rate falling below the slightly lower hysteresis tachyarrhythmia rate threshold.
US08364253B2
The instant invention relates to an electrophysiology apparatus and method used to measure electrical activity occurring in a portion of tissue of a patient and to visualize the electrical activity and/or information related to the electrical activity. In particular, the instant invention relates to three-dimensional mapping of the electrical activity and/or the information related to the electrical activity.
US08364249B2
Methods and systems for simulating a phonocardiogram (PCG) signal that includes an anomalous condition are provided. The method generates pressure and flow signals from a lumped-parameter heart model responsive to anomaly parameters. The anomaly parameters represent the anomalous condition. A timing profile or the timing profile and an amplitude profile are extracted from at least one of the generated pressure and flow signals. An anomalous signal is generated using the anomaly parameters and the extracted timing profile or timing profile and amplitude profile. The anomalous signal is time-aligned and combined with a predetermined non-anomalous signal to represent the PCG signal.
US08364246B2
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for imaging and display of features of a region of interest such as a portion of a body of a patient. A first imaging portion of the system is used to cause an interaction of an imaging beam with an underlying feature of a region of interest. A reflected or returned portion of said imaging beam is detected by a detector which then provides an output to control a display portion of the system for displaying an image corresponding to that which was detected. The system can be used for guiding or assisting clinical or industrial operations or for diagnosis of medical conditions and other uses within medicine, industry and others.
US08364242B2
A system and method to image an imaged subject is provided. The system comprises an ultrasound imaging system including an imaging probe operable to move internally and acquire ultrasound image data of the imaged subject, a fluoroscopic imaging system operable to acquire fluoroscopic image data of the imaged subject during image acquisition by the ultrasound imaging system, and a controller in communication with the ultrasound imaging system and the fluoroscopic imaging system. A display can be illustrative of the ultrasound image data acquired with the imaging probe in combination with a fluoroscopic imaging data acquired by the fluoroscopic imaging system.
US08364239B2
The invention relates to a method and a device for locally-resolved visualization of the reconstruction quality, especially of the coverage of a target volume to be recorded as an image and reproduced in a three-dimensional reconstruction volume presentation, especially in the human body, by two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional images covering subareas of the volume recorded by a recording device arranged inside the target volume, with which the three-dimensional reconstruction volume presentation is created, with the subareas of the target volume covered by the individual images being determined and a visual locally-resolved presentation of the reconstruction quality, especially of the coverage, being created and output as a function of the subarea coverage.
US08364230B2
Systems and methods of use for continuous analyte measurement of a host's vascular system are provided. In some embodiments, a continuous glucose measurement system includes a vascular access device, a sensor and sensor electronics, the system being configured for insertion into communication with a host's circulatory system.
US08364227B2
A probe which allows optical fiber fixing tools to be distributed substantially uniformly and symmetrically longitudinally or laterally and is easily fitted, even when a head part size of a subject changes is provided. A plurality of optical fiber fixing tools which fix incident optical fibers and detection optical fibers are arranged on a fixing part in a substantially straight line shape, a plurality of the fixing parts are included, the fixing parts are arranged so that its straight line direction is oriented in a substantially parietal direction, the optical fiber fixing tool on the fixing part and the optical fiber fixing tool on the adjacent different fixing part are connected by a connecting member, and the connecting member is made rotatable around the optical fiber fixing tool, whereby the probe can be fitted so that the optical fibers are arranged substantially symmetrically and uniformly longitudinally or laterally.
US08364221B2
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a patient monitoring alarm escalation system and method. Specifically, embodiments of the present invention include an alarm detection device configured to measure physiological data received via a patient monitor, the alarm detection device configured to initiate an alarm in response to predefined measurements of the physiological data, and an alarm device configured to emit a first signal with a first property and a second signal with a second property, the first signal being emitted when the alarm is initiated, the second signal being emitted if an alarm acknowledgement mechanism is not activated prior to a designated event.
US08364218B2
A method determines the concentration of a substance in a subject's blood. The method includes measuring an interaction of at least one light beam with a portion of the subject's body. The method further includes calculating a value of an optically-measured parameter indicative of the interaction of the at least one light beam with the substance in the portion of the subject's body. The method further includes measuring values of one or more temperature-indicative parameters corresponding to a temperature of the portion of the subject's body. The method further includes accessing an empirical correlation of the optically-measured parameter and the one or more temperature-indicative parameters to concentrations of the substance in blood. The method further includes obtaining a concentration of the substance in the subject's blood using the empirical correlation. The concentration corresponds to the value of the optically-measured parameter and the values of the one or more temperature-indicative parameters.
US08364214B2
A hand-held portable electronic device housing latch and release system including a permanent magnet, a magnet latch plate, a spring and an electromagnetic coil. The permanent magnet is adapted to be connected to a first housing member of a hand-held portable electronic device and the magnet latch plate is adapted to be connected to a second housing member. A magnetic field of the permanent magnet is adapted to exert a magnetic holding force on the magnet latch plate when the first and second housing members are in a first position relative to each other. The spring is adapted to bias the first and second housing members away from the first position. The electromagnetic coil is adapted to at least partially reduce the magnetic holding force by the permanent magnet on the magnet latch plate.
US08364213B2
Disclosed is a mobile terminal including, first and second bodies rotatably connected to each other, a rotation module connected to each of the first and second bodies, and configured to relatively rotate the first and second bodies based upon a rotational shaft, and a supporting unit disposed at the first body, and configured to come in contact with at least part of the second body at a spaced position from the rotation module so as to support the second body, the supporting unit being rotated by the contact upon the rotation of the second body.
US08364201B1
The communication device comprising a voice communicating implementer, a camera video displaying implementer, a calculating implementer, a bold formatting implementer, an italic formatting implementer, a start up software implementer, a stereo audio data output implementer, a device vibration implementer, a photo quality setting implementer, a multiple language implementer, a caller's information displaying implementer, and a task tray icon displaying implementer.
US08364198B2
A mobile unit includes a handset and a removable storage module having a unique storage module identity, for storing information specific to a user, including an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Additional information regarding a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) and International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) which uniquely identifies the subscriber is also stored in the removable storage module. Upon successfully camping on a cell of a mobile network, the IP address is forwarded to an IP-based network capable of communicating with the mobile unit. In an alternate embodiment, the mobile unit has multi-network capabilities which allow it to communicate with an IP-based network and a cellular network at the same time. In another embodiment, existing cellular network services for the mobile unit having multi-network capabilities are routed through the IP-based network.
US08364194B2
A basestation, for use in a cellular communications network, has a mechanism for reporting its transmit power. When the transmit power of the basestation is outside a reportable range, it reports an adjusted transmit power within the reportable range, and also transmits an adjustment factor, by which the adjusted transmit power differs from the transmit power. The basestation is also configured to adapt its power settings based on a reported transmit power of at least one other basestation, and is further configured to detect the reported transmit power of the at least one other basestation and to detect an adjustment factor transmitted separately by the at least one other basestation, and to adapt its power settings based on a sum of the reported transmit power and the adjustment factor.
US08364184B2
A satellite communication system comprised of a hub and plurality of remote terminals, wherein the system is configured for frequency reuse, a method and apparatus for signal cancellation are disclosed. The disclosed method and apparatus enable the hub to extract return link signals overlaying a transmitted forward link signal, wherein the forward link signal is transmitted at a power level higher than that of the overlaying return link signals.
US08364179B2
A method for communication includes transmitting data from a transmitter to a receiver using Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM). The data rate is set by selecting, based on feedback, an ACM profile defining a Forward Error Correction code and a modulation scheme. Upon detecting that the feedback is unusable, an operation of the transmitter is changed independently of the feedback.In another method, data is exchanged over two opposite directions of a bidirectional link that uses ACM by communicating using two ACM profiles. A joint constraint is defined on the two directions. The two ACM profiles are set based on first and second measured reception quality metrics of the two link directions, to meet the joint constraint. In yet another method, a subset of the ACM profiles is temporarily disabled, and the data is transmitted using only the ACM profiles that are not disabled.
US08364177B2
System and method for determining whether an incoming call originates from inside or outside of a mobile carriers network. An example system performs a GTT (global title translation) on an incoming number to determine the hosting carrier of any mobile phone number. After the result of the matching determination is made, a message is generated and sent to a caller associated with the call page. The generated message includes any of directory information associated with the subscriber, information associated with cost savings or comparisons associated with in-network calling, information regarding promotions for calling plans, mobile devices or device upgrades, requests to join a network, requests to join a social call plan, information regarding instant savings or call rebates, offers for online services or software, offers for reduced cost or free phone service in exchange for adoption of a predefined product or entering into a social network group.
US08364176B2
A method of transmitting and receiving paging messages in a wireless communication system is disclosed. The method of transmitting paging messages in a wireless communication system comprises transmitting paging messages to a plurality of user equipments from a network of the wireless communication system, wherein the network transmits the paging messages to different user equipments, which are in different connection states, through different channels.
US08364166B2
A position location system, apparatus and method are disclosed. A coordinating device identifies a group of wireless devices for position location processing. The number of wireless devices in the group may vary according to the number of coordinates used to define a position within the system. The coordinating device obtains range measurements from which a distance between each pair of wireless devices in the group can be determined. In addition, the coordinating device acquires the known position of one wireless device in the group. Using this information, a position is determined for one or more devices in the group for which position data is not available. Optionally, the position data is validated by the coordinating device or another wireless device in the system and a final position is returned to the one or more wireless devices.
US08364158B2
The present invention discloses a method and system for cell update. The method comprises: a target home NodeB receiving cell update signaling sent by a User Equipment (UE); the target home NodeB sending signaling carrying cell update information to a Source Radio Network Controller (SRNC) through a home NodeB gateway and a core network, or sending the signaling carrying the cell update information to a source home NodeB through the home NodeB gateway; the target home NodeB receiving signaling carrying UE Context and returned by the SRNC or the source home NodeB; and the target home NodeB allocating corresponding radio resources to the UE and sending a cell update confirmation message to the UE. The system is used to implement the method for cell update. The method and system enables the UE to perform cell update without restriction.
US08364157B2
An apparatus for coordinating radio activities of different radio access technologies (RATs) includes a first RAT module, a second RAT module and an arbiter. The first RAT module receives and transmits radio frequency (RF) signals from and to a first cellular network through an antenna, and synchronizes transceiving timings with the first cellular network using a first clock. The second RAT module receives and transmits RF signals from and to a second cellular network through the antenna, and synchronizes transceiving timings with the second cellular network using a second clock. The arbiter coordinates a first radio activity requested by the first RAT module and a second radio activity requested by the second RAT module to avoid radio activity collision by using a third clock.
US08364152B2
A Wireless Soft Switch (WSS) and method for handing off a Mobile Station (MS) from a Macrocell Base Station (MBS) to Femtocell Base Station (FBS), and a FBS and method for handing off from the FBS to another FBS, are provided. A method for handing off an MS from an MBS to a target FBS in a wireless network receiving, by a Wireless Soft Switch (WSS), a message indicating that handoff of an MS to an FBS should be performed, determining, by the WSS, one or more candidate FBSs for the handoff, determining, by the WSS, the target FBS, from the one or more candidate FBSs, to which the MS is to handoff, and exchanging messages with the MS, MBS, and the target FBS for the handoff of the MS from the MBS to the target FBS.
US08364151B2
A user apparatus which performs, when there is a change in a cell visited, a re-selection of a cell to camp on is disclosed. The user apparatus includes a tracking area ID determining unit which determines whether a new ID of a tracking area that is transmitted from one or more base station apparatuses matches a tracking area ID of a cell visited immediately before the cell re-selection; and a paging reception unit which conducts a paging reception using a paging parameter in the cell visited immediately before the cell re-selection when it is determined that the new ID of the tracking area matches the tracking area ID of the cell visited immediately before the cell re-selection.
US08364149B2
A mobile communications terminal divides a plurality of multipath signals associated with radio signals transmitted from a plurality of base stations using an S-CCPCH into groups by base station, i.e., by transmit source, maximum-ratio-combines a plurality of multipath signals associated with each same base station which is a transmit source into a composite signal, decodes the composite signal, and selects a composite signal having a good decoded result from among decoded composite signals.
US08364137B2
A communications system is to communicate with an application server storing a plurality of applications. The communications system includes a mobile wireless communications device configured to store at least one application from among the plurality of applications, the at least one application having stored version information associated therewith. An intermediate server is configured to update the mobile wireless communications device by at least obtaining respective current version information for associated current versions of the plurality of applications and obtaining the stored application version information from the mobile wireless communications device for the at least one stored application. The stored application version information is compared with the current version information for the at least one stored application. New application portions are downloaded from a current application associated with the current version information, and the new application portions are sent to the mobile wireless communications device.
US08364129B1
A method and system includes the ability for individuals to set up an ad hoc digital and voice network easily and rapidly to allow users to coordinate their activities by eliminating the need for pre-entry of data into a web or identifying others by name, phone numbers or email. This method is especially useful for police, fire fighters, military, first responders or other emergency situations for coordinating different organizations at the scene of a disaster to elevate conventional communication problems either up and down the chain of command or cross communication between different emergency units. The method and system provides that the users are only required to enter a specific Server IP address and an ad hoc event name, a password and perhaps the name of the particular unit. The system therefore defines the method of accomplishing the ad hoc network by providing all responding personnel that need to communicate with PC's or PDA's which are interconnected to the IP Server using cellular or other communications.
US08364128B2
There are provided methods, systems, devices and computer program products for distributing mobile content, on behalf of mobile content providers, to mobile devices. A central mobile content delivery system and a central mobile content delivery store system are provided. Interfaces permit a mobile content provider to author and publish mobile content in association with subscription data. Content offers may be defined from such data and offered to mobile device user subscribers such as in a catalog system. Content is delivered on behalf of the content providers in accordance with the subscriptions concluded by the store system. Subscriptions may relate to single packages of mobile content or a plurality of packages (e.g. in a series of publications) such as previously or subsequently published mobile content. Subscriptions are provided to the central delivery system to assign and deliver mobile content to devices.
US08364126B2
A method and system for providing transmission of a selected media program to a wireless handset includes a source provider, such as a wireless network or a wireless handset, for receiving a transmission from at least one media program provider. At least one wireless handset transmits a request selecting one of the media programs. In response thereto, the source provider simultaneously transmits the selected media program to each of the wireless handsets.
US08364125B2
A method is disclosed that enables the delivery of relevant content to a telecommunications user engaged in a call. In particular, in the illustrative embodiments a telecommunications terminal that is to receive content is selected based on (i) a telecommunications terminal involved in a call and (ii) the mode of communication (e.g., voice, video, text, etc.) of the call. In addition, in the illustrative embodiments the second terminal to which content is to be delivered might also be based on one or more of the following: the identity of the user; the identity of other users involved in the call; the telecommunications terminal employed by the user for the call; other telecommunications terminals involved in the call; the date and time; the location of the user; and the location of other users involved in the call.
US08364114B2
The present invention provides methods, apparatuses, and systems for supporting emergency calls on a WiMAX access network. According to an embodiment of the invention, a method of providing emergency calling in a WiMAX network is provided. The method includes determining whether a call from a subscriber station (SS) is an emergency call. To enable making an emergency call, the minimum bandwidth required to enable SIP signaling is reserved and required resources are allocated from the access service network gateway (ASN-GW) via a base station (BS).
US08364113B2
A system and method for communicating an emergency data message includes receiving a data message and determining whether an emergency abbreviated dialing code was received with the data message. If an emergency data message includes an abbreviated dialing code, an emergency data message short code associated with the abbreviated dialing code may be requested. A cell code identifier in which the wireless communications device is located may be determined, and the data message, emergency data message short code, and cell code identifier may be communicated via a communications network for the data message to be routed to a PSAP handling emergencies in an area in which the wireless communications device is located.
US08364112B2
A technique for improving the linearity of a mixer is disclosed. A converter may include a mixer comprising a first metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) having a gate, a first conducting terminal coupled to an input of the converter, and a second conducting terminal coupled to an output of the converter, and a mixer driver having a first output coupled to the gate of the first MOSFET, the mixer driver configured to receive a local-oscillator signal having a first phase and a second phase, drive the first MOSFET off during the first phase of the local-oscillator signal, drive the first MOSFET on for a first period of time in response to a transition from the first phase of the local-oscillator signal to the second phase of the local-oscillator signal, and force the gate of the first MOSFET into a high impedance state for a second period of time during the second phase of the local-oscillator signal and after the expiration of the first period of time.
US08364105B2
An embodiment of a light powered transmitter configured for broadcasting an electromagnetic control field to a region is provided. The transmitter includes a housing having a longitudinal axis. The housing includes a photovoltaic cell configured to generate electrical power in response to light and a rechargeable power source configured to store at least a portion of the power generated by the photovoltaic cell. The housing also includes an electromagnetic transmitter and a directional antenna. The directional antenna can be configured to broadcast an electromagnetic (e.g., radio-frequency) control field to a region. The directional antenna can be rotatably mounted in the housing such that the antenna can be rotated around the longitudinal axis. The housing can further include a transparent or translucent optical element configured to receive the light and converge at least a portion of the light onto the photovoltaic cell.
US08364096B2
For transmitting a common channel signal with characteristics with an approximated non-directivity, the common channel signal for all users is divided into sub-channel signals, corresponding to a number of antenna elements composing an array antenna, to be concurrently transmitted with non-directivity by using each antenna element. Individual channel signals, for each user, following the common channel signal with a desired directivity by using the antenna elements. Each sub-channel signal can be made a sub-channel signal obtained by dividing all sub-channel components composing the common channel signal for each sub-channel component by a predetermined number or dividing them depending on a receiving quality of each antenna element.
US08364095B2
Included is a radio transmission system comprising a plurality of power amplifiers (PAs); a plurality of Volterra Engine (VE) linearizers corresponding to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; at least one digital hybrid matrix (DHM) coupled to the VE linearizers; and an analog hybrid matrix (AHM) coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM and the VE linearizers but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops. Also included is a radio system comprising a plurality of PAs; a Volterra DHM (VDHM) coupled to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; and an AHM coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops.
US08364093B2
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wireless transmitting/receiving method for achieving both a high-speed data transfer and a power-saving operation by using wireless transmitting/receiving apparatus adaptable to a ubiquitous system, whereby a wireless transmitting/receiving method which performs wireless transmission/reception using no less than two carrier waves which belong to a different frequency band is used to transmit/receive a control signal for controlling the transmission/reception operation of the wireless transmitting/receiving apparatus by using a carrier wave which belongs to a lower frequency band (400 MHz band), and to transfer data by using a carrier wave which belongs to a higher frequency band (2.4 GHz band).
US08364084B2
The present invention provides an audio broadcasting system which comprises an audio player, an adaptor and a vehicle stereo device with a FM receiver. The audio player includes a storage unit for storing a plurality of audio files and a processing unit for generating a channel frequency converting signal corresponding to a FM channel frequency of the FM receiver of the vehicle stereo device. The adaptor generates a particular FM signal based on the audio files and the channel frequency converting signal from the audio player and transmits the particular FM signal to the FM receiver of the vehicle stereo device wirelessly for broadcasting.
US08364080B2
A method and system for achieving enhanced quality and higher throughput for collocated IEEE 802.11b/g and Bluetooth (BT) devices in coexistent operation are provided. A priority signal may be generated by a BT radio in a coexistence station to disable WLAN transmissions in a WLAN radio when a BT HV3 frame is available for transmission. When the priority signal is asserted, an exponentially growing retransmission backoff mechanism in the WLAN radio may be disabled. Moreover, when the BT radio and the WLAN radio are enabled for coexistence operation, a WLAN fragmentation threshold in the WLAN radio may be modified based on a WLAN modulation rate and the BT HV3 frame duration.
US08364071B2
A sheet conveying device includes a pair of upstream rollers and a pair of downstream rollers each including a drive roller and a driven roller, a calculating unit, and a control unit. The upstream rollers include a measuring unit that obtains speed information of the upstream rollers. The calculating unit calculates a target value based on the speed information. The control unit controls the speed of the drive roller of the downstream rollers based on the target value.
US08364052B2
A fixing device includes a hollow, stationary metal roller, a flexible fuser belt, a rotatable pressure member, a fuser pad, a reinforcing member, and a heating assembly. The metal roller has an outer circumference thereof subjected to heating. The flexible fuser belt is looped for rotation around the metal roller to transfer heat radially outward from the heated metal roller. The fuser pad is held stationary inside the loop of the fuser belt to press against the pressure member through the fuser belt to form a fixing nip. The reinforcing member is disposed stationary within the roller interior. The heating assembly is disposed stationary within the roller interior to heat the metal roller from inside, and includes a first heater and a second heater. The first and second heaters are arranged in juxtaposition with each other along the inner circumference of the metal roller.
US08364049B2
A fixing apparatus which heat-fixes a toner image transferred onto a sheet, including: a heating device configured to generate eddy currents in a conductive heating element using a magnetic core and an exciting coil to produce heat; a core moving unit configured to move the core; a current detecting unit configured to detect a current flowing through the exciting coil; and an abnormal signal output unit configured to output a signal indicating an abnormality when a difference between a first current value and a second current value is smaller than a predetermined threshold value, the first current value being detected by the current detecting unit before the core is moved by the core moving unit, the second current value being detected by the current detecting unit after the core is moved by the core moving unit.
US08364048B2
A fixing device including a fixing member; a heat source to heat the fixing member; a power supply to supply power to the heat source; a thermostat provided in the middle of a circuit connecting the heat source and the power supply to block power supply from the power supply to the heat source upon detection of a temperature of the fixing member equal to or greater than a predetermined temperature; a support member to contact terminals fixed to the thermostat to support the thermostat; and electrode plates provided opposite the support member with a gap therebetween to form a part of the circuit by connecting to surfaces of the terminals of the thermostat opposite surfaces thereof contacting the support member while the terminals are positioned within the gap. The electrode plates include a first guide part to guide the terminals into the gap.
US08364047B2
An information processing apparatus is configured to communicate with an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a toner supply unit having a stationary toner container and a replaceable toner container. The information processing apparatus includes a first receiving unit configured to receive from the image forming apparatus a toner-low notification with respect to the stationary toner container, a second receiving unit configured to receive from the image forming apparatus a replaceability notification with respect to the replaceable toner container, and a management unit configured to manage a stock quantity of the replaceable toner containers based on the toner-low notification received by the first receiving unit and the replaceability notification received by the second receiving unit.
US08364044B2
A transmission system for an image display device has a first circuit board and a second circuit board, a flexible member for connecting the first circuit board and the second circuit board, an image display driver IC mounted on the first circuit board or the flexible member, an image processing IC mounted on the second circuit board, and an optical transmission path. At least part of signals to be transmitted between the image display driver IC and the image processing IC is transmitted as an optical signal.
US08364028B1
A scent pod for scenting the air and methods of use. A scent pod comprises a container having a base and at least one sidewall, wherein a majority of the base and the at least one sidewall is formed of plastic having a thickness of at least 0.1 millimeters. A scented wax inside the container comprises a fragrance and a first temperature at which the scented wax liquefies and evaporates fragrance. The scent pod warmer generates heat at a second temperature hot enough to completely liquefy the scented wax in less than three hours, and the plastic for the container comprising a plastic having a heat deflection temperature high enough to withstand the heat generated by the scent pod warmer without deforming.
US08364027B2
A moving image reproduction apparatus making it possible to rapidly and reliably find a target frame by search with simple manipulations. It is determined whether or not a currently manipulated frame move button is the same as that manipulated at the immediately preceding manipulation. If the current and preceding manipulations are performed on the same frame move button, a moving image is moved over the same number of frames as the number of frames over which the moving image was moved at the preceding manipulation. If the current and preceding manipulation are performed on different frame move buttons, the moving image is moved over a smaller number of frames than the number of frames over which the movement occurred at the preceding manipulation.
US08364024B2
Video frames from a sequence of video frames and corresponding audio are received and processed by a media player. A first portion of the sequence depends on fewer reference frames then a second portion of the sequence. The number of reference frames per frame is limited. The first and second portions of the sequence are treated differently. The first portion is received at a lower data rate, with greater security and processed with a more robust protocol stack than the second portion. The first and second portions may be stored in a single queue and/or separate queues. The first portion of frame data is utilized to compensate for lost frames by repeating and/or interpolating video frames. The media player constructs a local video frame and synchronizes corresponding audio content with it. The received, repeated and/or interpolated video frames are assembled into display order and decoded.
US08364021B2
Systems and methods are operable to manage previously recorded programs. In at least one embodiment identifies a plurality of previously recorded programs, categorizes each one of the plurality of previously recorded programs into one of a plurality of recorded program categories, and generates a recorded program category-based graphical user interface (GUI). The recorded program category-based GUI graphically depicts the plurality of recorded program categories and graphically depicts an amount of memory capacity utilized by each of the plurality of recorded program categories based upon an amount of memory capacity utilized by the previously recorded programs.
US08364016B2
An apparatus and a method for performing a data recording process that permits seamless playing are provided. An information processing apparatus such as a video camera records data in a manner that permits contents having discontinued recording timings to be played in a seamless fashion. To this end, the information processing apparatus acquires seamless information of a preceding record content to be applied to a recording process of a subsequent record content, and records the seamless information in a record file defined by a record format. For example, the seamless information is recorded in a clip information file. The seamless information remains recorded on an information recording medium as long as the content recorded on the information recording medium remains undeleted. The information processing apparatus can thus read and use the seamless information at any time. With this arrangement, the seamless information is reliably acquired and contents are always recorded in a manner that permits seamless playing.
US08364012B2
A signal processing apparatus includes: a recording/reproducing unit performing recording/reproduction with respect to a recording medium; a communication unit performing communication with a terminal apparatus, which transmits time information as mark time information with a timing designated by an operation; and a control unit. The control unit executes a correspondence relationship specification processing to specify the correspondence relationship between the mark time information received by the communication unit and time-series data on the recording medium on the basis of information about a recording start time of time-series data on the recording medium, and a mark position recording control processing to control the recording/reproducing unit on the basis of the correspondence relationship between the mark time information and time-series data specified by the correspondence relationship specification processing such that information about a mark position specified by the received mark time information is recorded onto the recording medium in association with time-series data.
US08364011B2
There are presented systems and methods for enabling an association of media information relating to a playback of a media content file with a medium containing the media content file. In one embodiment, such a method for use by a playback device comprises obtaining a unique identifier present on the medium, transmitting the unique identifier, obtaining the media information relating to a usage of the media content file, and transmitting the media information. In another embodiment, such a method for use by a server comprises receiving a unique identifier present on the medium, storing the unique identifier in a memory, receiving the media information of the media content file according to the playing of the media content file, storing the media information in the memory, and associating the media information with the unique identifier.
US08364009B2
Scene-based program accessing systems and methods are operable to present a program at a scene corresponding to a selected thumbnail-sized image. An exemplary embodiment selects a plurality of image frames from a program based upon a scene separation duration; generates a thumbnail-sized image from each of the selected image frames, and presents the plurality of thumbnail-sized images on a scene index. The scene index is configured to present the plurality of thumbnail-sized images in a time ordered sequence corresponding to a subject matter presentation sequence of the program, and each of the selected image frames are temporally separated from each other by the scene separation duration.
US08364000B2
A fiber optic cable clamp is provided. The fiber optic cable clamp includes a sheath grip member and a strength member clamp maintained at a constant axial location with respect to the sheath grip member. The fiber optic cable clamp also includes a cable fiber separator connected to the sheath grip member, the cable fiber separator including a plurality of cable fiber openings and attached to the strength member clamp. The fiber optic cable clamp, when mounted to a fiber optic cable, maintains the relative axial locations of a cable sheath and cable strength member along a fiber optic cable.
US08363997B2
A datacommunications patching system includes: a mounting frame; a first module mounted in the mounting frame and including a plurality of connector ports on one side thereof and first and second connectors on another side thereof; and a backplane that is mounted in the mounting frame. The backplane electrically connects to the first module via the first connector when the first module is mounted in the mounting frame in a first orientation, and wherein the backplane electrically connects to the first module via the second connector when the first module is mounted in the mounting frame in a second orientation that is inverted from the first orientation.
