US09053425B2

A computerized device for enhancing the accuracy of a question-answer system. The computerized device comprises a question-answer system comprising software for performing a plurality of question answering processes. A receiver receives a question into the question-answer system. A processor that generates a plurality of candidate answers to the question is connected to the question-answer system. The processor determines a confidence score for each of the plurality of candidate answers. The processor evaluates sources of evidence used to generate the plurality of candidate answers. The processor identifies missing information from a corpus of data. The missing information comprises any information that improves a confidence score for a candidate answer. The processor generates at least one follow-on inquiry based on the missing information. A network interface outputs the at least one follow-on inquiry to external sources separate from the question-answer system.
US09053415B2

A dose counter having a base body (460), with a rotary counter element assembled in the base body (460) on a pin (461) forming the axis of rotation. The rotary counter element co-operating with an actuator member (1430) adapted to cause the rotary counter element to turn each time the actuator member (1430) is actuated. The actuator member (1430) including a fastener (14301) for fastening to the base body (460) and arranged on a first side of the pin (461), and a substantially rigid support portion (1436) arranged on a second side of the pin (461). The support portion (1436) supporting an actuator element (1435) so that the actuator element (1435) is moved in translation. The support portion (1436) extended towards the pin (461) by a substantially-rectilinear flexible branch (1431) that supports a lug (14310) adapted to co-operate with the counter element on each actuation.
US09053401B2

Thin film integrated circuits are peeled from a substrate and the peeled thin film integrated circuits are sealed, efficiently in order to improve manufacturing yields. The present invention provides laminating system comprising transporting means for transporting a substrate provided with a plurality of thin film integrated circuits; first peeling means for bonding first surfaces of the thin film integrated circuits to a first sheet member to peel the thin film integrated circuits from the substrate; second peeling means for bonding second surfaces of the thin film integrated circuits to a second sheet member to peel the thin film integrated circuits from the first sheet member; and sealing means for interposing the thin film integrated circuits between the second sheet member and a third sheet member to seal the thin film integrated circuit with the second sheet member and the third sheet member.
US09053395B2

An image processor is provided, the image processor including a general-purpose classifier that detects a predetermined large classification target; and a dedicated classifier that detects a small classification target which is a subdivision of the large classification target; an image acquisition part that acquires an image photographed by a camera; an image extracting part that extracts a registered image including a user-assigned domain from the photographed image; a dedicated classifier performing part that causes the dedicated classifier to perform detection processing to the registered image extracted; a dedicated classifier selector that selects the dedicated classifier having a highest index indicating superiority or inferiority of a detection result; and a classifier generator that generates a registered image classifier to detect a target included in the registered image by replacing some weak classifiers included in the selected dedicated classifier with weak classifiers included in the general-purpose classifier.
US09053386B2

A user may submit an image and request from a server one or more images that are similar to the submitted image. The server may generate an image signature based on the content of the submitted image. The server may conduct a Hash operation to the image signature to generate one or more Hash values. These Hash values may be used to identify one or more candidate images similar to the image in a Hash table. These candidate images may be sorted and outputted to the user based on similarity. The similarity between each of the candidate images and the image may be determined using at least one of Hamming distance or Euclidean distance.
US09053384B2

Provided is a feature extraction device whereby it is possible, while using local binary patterns, to extract image features with which object detection which is robust against disparities in a photographic environment is possible. A feature extraction unit (440) comprises: a binary pattern generation unit (443) which generates, for each of all pixels or partial pixels in an image, local binary patterns which denote, by bit values, whether the difference in pixel values between the pixel and the surrounding adjacent pixels is greater than or equal to a threshold value; a weighting generation unit (444) which determines, for each generated local binary pattern, a weighting according to the pixel value difference; and a histogram generation unit (445) which applies the determined weightings to the corresponding local binary patterns and generates a histogram which denotes the distribution of the local binary patterns which are generated from the image.
US09053380B2

A decodable indicia reading system can comprise a mobile communication terminal and a removable scanning module. The mobile communication terminal can comprise a microprocessor and a memory. The mobile communication terminal can further comprise at least one wired communication interface including a first electromechanical connector mechanically attached to the terminal housing. The removable scanning module can comprise an encoded information reading (EIR) device and/or an illumination module at least partially disposed within the scanning module housing. Both the mobile communication terminal and the scanning module can be at least partially received by a common housing.
US09053360B2

An image inspection method and apparatus for inspecting images output on sheets including a reference white plate disposed at a position of the transport route of sheet while facing a scan position for scanning a sheet; a contact glass disposed opposite the reference white plate; an image scanning device fixed facing the scan position to conduct a scanning operation through the contact glass, a noise detector to detect a first noise image in a blank area of the inspection sheet by scanning the blank area of the inspection sheet, and a second noise image in the reference white plate by scanning the reference white plate; and a stain source determination unit to determine a noise origin from the contact glass or the reference white plate.
US09053358B2

Disclosed is a learning device. A feature-quantity calculation unit extracts a feature quantity from each feature point of a learning image. An acquisition unit acquires a classifier already obtained by learning as a transfer classifier. A classifier generation unit substitutes feature quantities into weak classifiers constituting the transfer classifier, calculates error rates of the weak classifiers on the basis of classification results of the weak classifiers and a weight of the learning image, and iterates a process of selecting a weak classifier of which the error rate is minimized a plurality of times. In addition, the classifier generation unit generates a classifier for detecting a detection target by linearly coupling a plurality of selected weak classifiers.
US09053355B2

Improved face tracking is provided during determination of an image by an imaging device using a low power face tracking unit. In one embodiment, image data associated with a frame and one or more face detection windows from a face detection unit may be received by the face tracking unit. The face detection windows are associated with the image data of the frame. A face list may be determined based on the face detection windows and one or more faces may be selected from the face list to generate an output face list. The output face list may then be provided to a processor of an imaging device for the detection of an image based on at least one of coordinate and scale values of the one or more faces on the output face list.
US09053346B2

A method and system to provide a low-overhead cryptographic scheme that affords memory confidentiality, integrity and replay-protection by removing the critical read-after-write dependency between the various levels of the cryptographic tree. In one embodiment of the invention, the cryptographic processing of a child node can be pipelined with that of the parent nodes. This parallelization provided by the invention results in an efficient utilization of the cryptographic pipeline, enabling significantly lower performance overheads.
US09053344B2

A method and associated system for securing sensitive data in a cloud computing environment. A system has proprietary data as a record stored in a database. The system associates a hashing directive with the record prior to sending the data out to a cloud for computing services. The hashing directive classifies each data field of the record into sensitive and transactional. The hashing directive controls a mode of hashing, either one-way hashing or two-way hashing for each sensitive data field associated with the hashing directive. A cloud receives the record secured according to the hashing directive and process the record to generate a result value for a cloud process result field of the record. The system reconstitutes the record the record according to the mode of hashing indicated in the hashing directive.
US09053340B2

Aspects described herein allow multiple devices to function as a coherent whole, allowing each device to take on distinct functions that are complementary to one another. Aspects described herein also allow the devices function as a coherent whole when interconnected devices and their respective applications are configured to operate in various operation modes, when management policies are employed to control the operation of the interconnected devices and their respective applications, when transferring content between the interconnected devices and storing the content at those devices, when obtaining access credentials for the interconnected devices that enable the devices to access enterprise resources, when a policy agent applies management policies to control operation of and interaction between the interconnected devices, and when the interconnected devices are used to access an enterprise application store.
US09053338B2

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for exception handling. A method may include detecting attempted performance of a prohibited action involving protected data. The method may further include determining based at least in part on a role associated with a user associated with the prohibited action whether the user has elevated rights permitting performance of the prohibited action. The method may additionally include permitting an exception allowing performance of the prohibited action only in an instance in which it is determined that the user does have elevated rights permitting performance of the prohibited action. The method may also include prohibiting performance of the prohibited action in an instance in which it is determined that the user does not have elevated rights permitting performance of the prohibited action. Corresponding apparatuses and computer program products are also provided.
US09053336B2

A document display system includes: a plurality of display units that display an image of an electronic document including a plurality of pages for each page unit; a plurality of detecting units that detect a display operation performed by a user to each of the plurality of display units; and a control unit that controls the display unit related to the detecting unit that detects the display operation to display a page image in order of the pages corresponding to the order of detecting the display operations.
US09053326B2

Described herein are methods, network devices and machine-readable storage media for conducting simulated phishing attacks on an individual so as to educate the individual about the various ways in which phishing attacks may be disguised. Specifically described is a simulated phishing attack involving a sequence of messages. At least one of the messages has an associated target action that would ordinary, if the attack were an actual phishing attack, result in the individual's personal information and/or computing device becoming compromised. In the simulated phishing attack, no malicious action is actually performed. At least one of the other messages is designed to draw attention to the message with the target action.
US09053315B2

A method, system, and computer-readable storage media for granting a device access to a managed group are disclosed. Identification information may be exchanged between a management device in the managed group and a managed device through a secure first channel. If the identification information is verified by the management device, the managed device may be granted access to the managed group through the secure first channel. If access is granted, the managed device may access the managed group through a secure communication session on a network. If the identification information is not verified, the management device may send a cryptographic key to the managed device through the secure first channel. The cryptographic key may be used to create an encrypted communication session between the managed device and management device over the network.
US09053312B2

Methods and systems for providing access to a secure computing device are disclosed. A security device is used to generate a one-time password, a sequence of symbologies, and location information. The security device transmits the password, sequence and location information to the secure computing device for storage and displays the password and sequence to a user. A user device provides a password to the secure computing device in order to obtain access. The secure computing device compares the password with the stored one-time password to verify the user of the user device and sends the sequence to the user device in response. The user or user device verifies the sequence of symbologies to confirm the secure access. The location information may be used to detect fraudulent accesses to the user account.
US09053311B2

Methods and systems for secure network system request (sysrq) via Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) are described. A remote computing system sends a query over a network to a target computing system and determines whether the target computing system is non-responsive to the query. When the target computing system is non-responsive to the query, the remote computing system sends an ICMP request to the target computing system over the network. The ping request includes a command to be performed by the target computing system and a key to verify authorization to perform the command.
US09053307B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for a behavior-based identity system that recognizes and/or authenticates users based at least in part on stored behavioral events which have been observed previously or have been preconfigured. Multiple behavioral events expressed by a client relative to multiple resources of a network site are observed. The behavioral events correspond to data that a user has elected to share, and the user may opt-in or opt-out of the behavior-based identity system. A comparison is performed between the observed behavioral events and multiple stored behavioral events associated with a user identity. An identity confidence level as to whether the user identity belongs to a user at the client is generated based at least in part on the comparison.
US09053290B2

A method of estimating the cross-sectional area of a molecule for use in the prediction of ion mobility gives gas phase interaction radii determination and cross-sectional algorithm computation to provide separation and characterization of structurally related isomers. More specifically, the invention provides a method of correlating the differences in the molecular structures with differences in anti-cancer activity of pre-determined anti-cancer drugs by utilizing a new algorithm for estimating the cross-sectional area of the molecules of such drugs.
US09053285B2

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to methods for facilitating the design of an integrated circuit (IC) using thermally aware pin assignment and device placement. The method includes creating a layout for the IC, the layout including a plurality of macros each having devices and pin assignments and revising the layout for the IC by repositioning a macro or a device to meet a timing requirement of the IC. The method also includes creating a thermal map of the IC based on the layout for the IC and a workload model for the IC and identifying at least one thermally critical pin assignment based on the thermal map of the IC. The method includes revising the layout by repositioning a thermally critical pin assignment and a device.
US09053282B2

An improved multi-layered ceramic package includes a plurality of signal planes, each having one or more signal lines; a plurality of vias, each providing one of a voltage (Vdd) power connection or a ground (Gnd) connection; and at least one reference mesh plane adjacent to one or more signal planes. The reference mesh plane includes spaced mesh lines that are separated by spaces that alternate in a narrow-wide or wide-narrow pattern. A multi-layered ceramic package, using the mesh plane with alternating spaces, generates significantly lower far-end (FE) noise in the ceramic package than a conventional mesh plane with constant spaces. The noise is further reduced by placing shield lines on opposite sides of signal lines in the signal plane. A method, computer system, and program code that generate the design for the multi-layered ceramic package are also disclosed.
US09053280B2

Methods, computer program products and apparatuses for optimizing design rules for producing a mask are disclosed, while keeping the optical conditions (including but not limited to illumination shape, projection optics numerical aperture (NA) etc.) fixed. A cross-correlation function is created by multiplying the diffraction order functions of the mask patterns with the eigenfunctions from singular value decomposition (SVD) of a TCC matrix. The diffraction order functions are calculated for the original design rule set, i.e., using the unperturbed condition. ILS is calculated at an edge of a calculated image of a critical polygon using the cross-correlation results and using translation properties of a Fourier transform. Once an optimum separation is calculated, it is incorporated into the design rule to optimize the mask layout for improved ILS throughout the mask.
US09053279B2

A method for pattern modification for making an integrated circuit layout is disclosed. The method includes determining a feature within a pattern of the integrated circuit layout that can be rearranged; determining a range in which the feature can be repositioned; for the feature, determining a preferred position function that exhibits extreme values at preferable positions; and rearranging the position of the feature within the range to match an extreme value of the function.
US09053278B1

Described herein are systems and methods for a partitioned extraction-simulation technique that efficiently combines a partitioned extraction technique and a partitioned simulation technique by removing and not performing particular steps of the techniques to provide a more efficient netlist extraction and circuit simulation process. In some embodiments, a plurality of circuit simulators directly receive and process a plurality of sub-region netlists that are based on a spatial partitioning of the IC layout. In further embodiments, an EDA hybrid cloud system is implemented using pipelining and serializing of memory data. In these embodiments, an overall EDA process is divided into a plurality of pipelined stages to accelerate the computational speed of the overall EDA process. In further embodiments, EDA data is transferred, over a network, from a memory of one computer system directly to a memory of another computer system by serializing the EDA data.
US09053269B1

System and methods for OPC model accuracy and disposition using quad matrix are presented. A method includes obtaining wafer data from a calibration test pattern. The method also classifies the wafer data into four quadrants of a quad matrix. The method further utilizes at least one of the four quadrants to quantify OPC model accuracy.
US09053268B1

The present invention relates to an analytic antenna design for a dipole antenna by eliminating or reducing antenna pattern nulls and impedance anti-resonances.In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method for designing a wide bandwidth includes the steps of defining a charge distribution in terms of at least one form factor related parameter where the Legendre polynomial expansion of the electrostatic potential is uniquely linked to each eigenmode of the wideband antenna, and modifying one or more eigenmodes of the wideband antenna by modifying the charge distribution and unique linked Legendre polynomial coefficient.
US09053259B1

Some embodiments correlate various manufacturing or design information or data with patterns used to represent electronic designs and provide pertinent pattern-based information to metrology, fabrication, or testing tools to enhance their performances of their intended functions. Some embodiments further utilize cross-design or cross-process analytics to perform various pattern-based analysis on electronic designs. Some embodiments perform squish analysis with a squish pattern library on an electronic design to represent the electronic design with squish patterns by performing pattern matching, pattern decomposition, and pattern classification process.
US09053258B2

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products feature providing a rendering of a three-dimensional assembly of components. An explosion sequence for separating first components of the assembly is determined. The explosion sequence comprises stages in which each stage represents a different spatial relationship between two or more of the first components. A first input is received from an interactive control. A first stage in the explosion sequence is selected based on the first input. The rendering of the assembly is updated, responsive to the first input, to show the first stage of the explosion sequence. A second input is received from the interactive control. A different second stage in the explosion sequence is selected based on the second input. The rendering of the assembly is updated, responsive to the second input, to show the second stage of the explosion sequence.
US09053255B2

A method of generating masks for making an integrated circuit includes determining if a coupling capacitance value of a conductive path of a first and second groups of conductive paths of the integrated circuit is greater than a predetermined threshold value. The determination is performed based on at least a resistance-capacitance extraction result of the conductive path and a predetermined level of mask misalignment. The layout patterns are modified to increase an overall vertical distance between the first group of conductive paths and the second group of conductive paths if the coupling capacitance value is greater than the predetermined threshold value.
US09053253B2

A monitoring system including a first and a second portion. The first portion includes a controller for receiving a code sequence. The first portion is configured to connect the system to a common data bus. The first portion is configured to provide a synchronization signal to the second portion when the two portions are in a predetermined position. The second portion includes a controller for providing the code sequence to the first portion and the first portion being further configured to output the code sequence for verification by a verification entity.
US09053251B2

According to one embodiment, a system on a chip includes multiple agents each corresponding to an intellectual property (IP) logic and a fabric to couple the agents. The fabric can include a primary message interface and a sideband message interface. The fabric further includes one or more routers to provide out-of-band communications between the agents via this sideband message interface. To effect such communication, the router can perform a subset of ordering rules of a personal computer (PC)-based specification for sideband messages. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09053250B2

Examples of the present invention disclose a dual-mode tablet input system. According to one implementation, the system includes a portable electronic device configured to communicate with a primary computer. When a connection between the primary computer and portable electronic device is established, a mode change controller affiliated with portable electronic device is configured to switch the portable electronic device from a first operating mode to a second operating mode for facilitating user input on the primary computer and associated display.
US09053246B2

A computer system includes USB class protocol-aware modules for USB devices as part of a xHCI host controller. The protocol-aware modules serve as accelerators by implementing critical portions of the device class protocols, which includes fetching higher level protocol data directly from client buffers for transmission and delivering decoded data to client buffers on receipt; and emulating a register-based interface for the benefit of system software on the host computer.
US09053244B2

Methods and apparatus relating to low-overhead utilization-aware link-width modulation to reduce power consumption in interconnects are described. In one embodiment, a link width modulation logic adjusts the width of an interconnect link. More particularly, the link width modulation logic causes the interconnect link to transition from a first width to a second width based on comparison of a utilization value associated with the interconnect link against at least one of a plurality of utilization threshold values. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.
US09053240B2

To centrally manage execution of tests of software in an event oriented manner, a test execution engine reads a first test case from a test case component, where the test case represents tasks that have to be run to test a first procedure of a software program under evaluation. Further, the test execution engine identifies a participant node configured for sending events to an event queue and obtains events from the event queue. With those obtained events, the test execution engine evaluates whether the first procedure of the software program executed successfully and indicates whether the first procedure executed properly. The participant node has a node agent transmits events about the procedure and the first test case to the event queue.
US09053235B1

A device may receive an indication to evaluate a first portion of program code and a second portion of program code provided in a first section of a user interface. The device may evaluate the first portion of program code and the second portion of program code. The device may generate a first result corresponding to the first portion of program code and may generate a second result corresponding to the second portion of program code based on evaluating the first portion of program code and the second portion of program code. The device may provide the first result and the second result in a second section of the user interface. The second section may be separate from the first section. The device may provide a correspondence indicator that indicates a correspondence between the first result and the first portion of program code.
US09053234B2

A tool for analyzing software is enhanced to provide multiple views of a stack trace, with each view having a different level of detail. Different views may be lightly simplified, moderately simplified, or heavily simplified. The display of a complete stack trace includes entries for all stack frames in the stack trace. The display of a simplified stack trace includes entries for fewer than all stack frames in the stack trace, thereby “hiding” or “collapsing” entries for some of the stack frames, relative to the complete stack trace display. After a user specifies a level of complexity with which to show a stack trace, the enhanced analysis tool GUI updates the stack trace display according to the specified level. A complexity level is associated with a set of heuristics that is used to create a view of a stack trace at that complexity level.
US09053227B2

A concurrency assertions system disclosed herein provides for atomic evaluation of an assertion expression by locking an assertion lock upon initiating an assertion and thereby protecting the assertion evaluation from concurrent modifications to the variables in the assertion expressions. When a violation of an assertion is detected, the concurrency assertions system ensures that the exception statistics at the time of the assertion violation represents a program state where the assertion is violated, thus improving analysis of assertion violations. Furthermore, the concurrency assertions system continuously evaluates an expression for an assertion for a time period while other threads in the program are being executed.
US09053225B2

A data processing apparatus comprising: a determination unit to determine whether data input from input/output module is data to be processed by a plurality of processing modules in a setting order; and a switching unit to switch a first data and second data processing path, so that when the determination unit determines that the data input from the input/output module is not data to be processed by the processing modules in the setting order, the communication modules circulate data via the first data processing path used to transfer the data in an order in which the communication modules are connected, and otherwise, the communication modules circulate data via the second data processing path used to control the communication modules to transfer the data in the setting order.
US09053222B2

A processor-based system for analyzing physiologic data and medical care is provided wherein the patient data is analyzed to construct images that are representative of a patient's condition. The processor provides a self-modulating analysis, which is responsive to the occurrence of additional data items to increase the information contained in the images. Identifications of modes of physiologic failure by the analysis of the generated images provides for earlier recognition and intervention and improved protocolization of testing and treatment.
US09053221B2

A method of performance monitoring in a data processing environment is provided. The data processing environment includes multiple systems, each of which has resources. Each resource relates to a resource type, wherein at least one performance parameter is defined for each resource type. The method includes determining a value of the at least one performance parameter for at least one resource, aggregating performance parameter values and related resources of a resource type, creating for at least a part of the resources a next predefined aggregation level which includes all resources relating to the resource type and associating all performance parameter values to this aggregation level, and repeating the creating for at least a part of the resources a next predefined aggregation level until a predefined target aggregation level of the data processing environment has been reached.
US09053215B2

Website administrators can specify page groups and/or single pages as checkpoint nodes for site analysis reporting purposes, and can configure the system of the invention to provide information as to a particular visitation path through the checkpoints. Any group of pages can be designed as a single checkpoint node for website traffic analysis and reporting purposes. Page groups can be used in place of or in addition to individual web pages in any context where site traffic analysis is being presented or performed.
US09053213B2

Generating a patient image collective (34) includes receiving a plurality of candidate images (20) and associated data. At least one inclusion/exclusion rule (44) is applied to the plurality of candidate images and associated data which results in subsets of candidate images (32). The candidate images are tested which result in at least one quality measure (40). The at least one quality measure (40) and associated candidate images are reviewed. The at least one inclusion/exclusion rule (44) is refined based on the reviewed at least one quality measure (40) by at least one of: adding a rule, modifying a rule, deleting a rule, removing a candidate image; and adding a candidate image. The steps of applying the at least one inclusion/exclusion rule through refining the at least one inclusion/exclusion rule are repeated until an optimized collective of images is generated based on a collective size and the at least one quality measure (40). The generated collective is outputted to a data store (34).
US09053212B2

A system and method for facilitating data organization, for example in the organization of data in management of intellectual property records, is disclosed herein. Further, the present invention particularly provides a contextualization of information objects so that a full value of research and development (R&D) efforts can be accumulated by an organization. The system as disclosed herein collects information (raw) objects from a plurality of sources. Then, based on inferred context and user input, the system classifies each object in multiple dimensions according to needs of the application; and finally creates a high value, layer rich database embodying a context as well as a result to add value to a research process.
US09053206B2

A method of extracting web page information includes analyzing a document object model (DOM) structure of a sample page to obtain a position of information to be extracted. A node corresponding to the position of the information to be extracted is rendered in the DOM structure as a target node. Starting from the target node, relative position information is traversed recursively until the root node is found to create candidate paths. The candidate paths are rendered as a path set. A DOM structure of a page to be extracted is analyzed, information is located in the DOM structure of the page starting from the root node in the path set, and an extracted node candidate set is obtained. A node having highest robustness from the extracted node candidate set is selected to be a final extracted node and extracted information is obtained using the extracted node.
US09053202B2

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for enabling user communities around the world to engage in translation of web properties while using such web properties. In certain embodiments, a translation interface is provided with a served web property to allow users to submit translations for user interface (UI) strings from a particular property interface. While a user is engaging with the web property, the interface can also enable in-context editing and submission of translations. For example, translation submission can be presented as a replacement for the translated text within the page that is being rendered to the translator user. Certain interface embodiments also are configured to allow the user community to give feedback on the submitted translations.
US09053190B1

A method, system and computer program product for building a custom publication is provided. A user may access a library of electronic source publications having defined units of content within the source publications, the library storing source publication metadata for the defined units of content. The user may select units of content from source publications for inclusion in an unpublished custom publication. The unpublished custom publication may be published in an electronic or printed format, wherein publishing the unpublished custom publication comprises applying consistent styling to common structural elements in the set of custom publication units of content to create a published custom publication with consistent styling.
US09053186B2

A method and apparatus are provided for detecting and explaining bursty stream events in targeted groups. In one example, the method includes receiving validated bursty events, finding explanatory data sources having relevant bursty events that are relevant to the validated bursty events, wherein the explanatory sources explain the presence of the validated bursty events, correlating the validated bursty events to the relevant bursty events of the explanatory data sources to obtain burst results, and sending the burst results to a burst database that is accessible to an end user.
US09053182B2

Methods and arrangements for creating and building subcategories in a user-based voice application. User posts are appended to a category in a voice application and subdivision of the category is prompted upon satisfaction of a first condition. The category is designated as a parent category, and at least one subcategory nomination are solicited from users. User input is solicited on appending at least one nominated subcategory to the parent category, and a nominated subcategory is appended to the parent category upon satisfaction of a second condition. User input is solicited to reassign a user post from the parent category to at least one subcategory.
US09053179B2

A visualization-based interactive legal research tool that generates from a multi-dimensional citation network a semantics-constrained citation sub-network that focuses on one individual issue in which a user is interested, and puts the sub-network on an interactive user interface (“UT”), which allows the researcher to browse, navigate, and jump over to start new sub-networks on different issues that are relevant to original issues.
US09053170B2

A subset of (k−1)-dimensional tables are received, wherein k is greater than 1. A set of k-dimensional tables is created by combining each of the (k−1)-dimensional tables with a non-included dimension corresponding to a 1-dimensional table. Significance of interaction and interaction effect size is computed for the created set of k-dimensional tables to determine dimension and measure interactions.
US09053167B1

A system that implements a data storage service may store data in multiple replicated partitions on respective storage nodes. The selection of the storage nodes (or storage devices thereof) on which to store the partition replicas may be performed by administrative components that are responsible for partition management and resource allocation for respective groups of storage nodes (e.g., based on a global view of resource capacity or usage), or the selection of particular storage devices of a storage node may be determined by the storage node itself (e.g., based on a local view of resource capacity or usage). Placement policies applied at the administrative layer or storage layer may be based on the percentage or amount of provisioned, reserved, or available storage or IOPS capacity on each storage device, and particular placements (or subsequent operations to move partition replicas) may result in an overall resource utilization that is well balanced.
US09053160B2

Source data of an event stream is parsed and supplemented with additional data from reference data sources, producing an enriched event stream from the parsed event stream data. The data records of the enriched event stream are partitioned into data fields designated as a dimension partition and a metric partition, which are partitioned into sub-dimension projections mapped to a plurality of storage keys, such that each of the storage keys includes one or more placeholder wildcard values and each of the storage keys is stored into a database of the computer system by the computer processor. The stored storage keys are then aggregated onto a two-dimensional coordinate vector such that, if the computer processor identifies a permuted storage key having metric values for which a corresponding storage key already exists in the database, then the computer processor aggregates the metric values of the identified storage key with the metric values of the corresponding storage key, and if the computer processor does not identify the permuted storage key as having a corresponding storage key that already exists in the database, then the computer processor writes the metric values of the permuted storage key into the database, comprising initial values for the key combination of dimension values.
US09053146B1

The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A WEB ACCESS MANAGER implement efficient and scalable monitoring, regulation, and allocation of communications resources within an enterprise. In one embodiment, a web access management processor-implemented method is disclosed, comprising: obtaining a request for network resource access; extracting from the network resource access request a request attribute; querying a database using the extracted request attribute; obtaining a network access rule to apply to the network resource access request, based on querying the database; applying the network access rule to the network resource access request; and determining via a processor whether the network resource access is permitted based on applying the network access rule to the network resource access request; determining that the network resource access is permitted, based on applying the network access rule to the network resource access request; and forwarding the request for processing the network resource access request.
US09053141B2

A multi-mainframe operating system serialization method can include receiving, in a first computing system, a request to access a data set on behalf of a first peer application, sending, in the first computing system, a notification to a second peer application to obtain a normal enqueue, in response to the second peer application obtaining the normal enqueue, obtaining, in the first computing system, a first rider enqueue for the data set and sending, in the first computing system, a communication to peer instances to obtain additional rider enqueues for the data set, the additional rider enqueues corresponding to the first rider enqueue.
US09053139B2

A mechanism is provided for managing configuration information about components of a management target system. Identification is made of the existence of a first component from configuration information about one or more other components except the first component. Pattern data is stored for analogizing configuration information about a component for which acquisition of the configuration information is restricted, the pattern data being associated with a set of one or more conditions and attribute values. Pattern data is retrieved whose configuration information about a component related to the first component, among the one or more other components, satisfies the set of conditions. Analogized configuration information is formed about the first component using attribute values associated with the retrieved pattern data.
US09053138B2

Compressed data sets can be merged without unraveling the compressed data sets. Concatenations of vectors of a first compressed data set that extend beyond a second compressed data set with no data vectors are represented in a third compressed data set. The no data vectors represent lack of data to be contributed from the second compressed data set. The third compressed data set represents a merger of the first and the second compressed data sets. Counterpart vectors of the first and second compressed data sets are determined using compression information for the vectors. Concatenations of the counterpart vectors are represented in the third compressed data set, as well as compression information that accounts for the determined counterpart vectors.
US09053127B2

System and method for storing a dataset of image tiles. Method includes determining a number of zoom levels, accessing a cluster file that includes a subset of the zoom levels, and accessing the image tiles. For each of the image tiles, a cluster name is computed. For each of the image tiles, if the cluster file has a name that matches the computed cluster name, an image tile pointer is stored in a fixed length index, and the image tile associated with the computed cluster name is stored. For each of the image tiles, if the cluster file name does not match the computed cluster name, another subset of the zoom levels is computed, a new cluster file is created, an image tile pointer is created and stored, and the image tile is stored associated with the computed cluster name in the new cluster file according to the image tile pointer.
US09053123B2

High availability and disaster recovery can be achieved within a database management system by detecting which parts of a file have changed and sending the changed parts to secondary servers, without sending the entire file that has experienced the changes. A log cracker reads data from a transaction log that stores records from a database and a separately maintained file system. The log cracker sends mirror commands with some of the transaction log data to the file system to initiate mirroring of the data from the file system to secondary servers. The log data is then subsequently sent to the secondary servers as well, to enable identification of changed data without having to transfer the entire file that has been changed.
US09053118B1

Systems and methods are provided for processing images (or other such instances of content) to detect which of the images exhibit artifacts when modified, such as by applying standard transformation algorithms to modify the images. Such techniques enable transformation algorithms to be applied to the detected images to minimize or prevent artifacts. In some embodiments, the headers of the detected images can be tagged with transformative instructions that indicate which transformation algorithms to apply. Responsive to a request from a web client to modify and render one of the detected images, embodiments obtain the requested image, read the transformative instructions in the header, apply the transformation algorithm specified in the header to modify the image so as to minimize or prevent artifacts, and render the modified image.
US09053113B2

A content management system (CMS) autonomically generates structure for a document when a synchronization rule references structure that does not exist in the document. A dynamic structure policy specifies at least one criterion that determines if and how the structure is autonomically generated. By autonomically generating structure in a document, a CMS administrator or CMS user (such as the author) is relieved of the manual task of generating the structure before the synchronization rule can be successfully processed. Once dynamically generated, the added structure may be auto-populated with dummy data or with default data specified in the autonomic structure policy.
US09053110B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to interaction-based management of contact entries. In one embodiment, at least one contact in a set of contacts is determined to be associated with an archiving indicator. The archiving indicator indicates that one or more archiving operations are to be performed on the at least one contact. The set of contacts is associated with a user. At least one archiving threshold associated with the at least one contact is identified based on the determination. A determination is made as to whether the at least one archiving threshold has been satisfied. The at least one contact is archived based on the at least one archiving threshold having been satisfied.
US09053105B2

In an information search server 600, a database includes a table storing a progress status of content, and information related to the content at the progress status, and a table storing user information with respect to a content playback apparatus, an identifier of the content playback apparatus, and an identifier of a terminal apparatus that differs from the content playback apparatus. A connecting user management unit manages user information with respect to the content playback apparatus connected to the information search server. A related information acquisition unit acquires a current progress status of content being played back on the content playback apparatus, and acquires information related to the content at the current progress status. A connecting user management unit identifies a terminal apparatus that differs from the content playback apparatus, and the related information acquisition unit transmits the related information to the terminal apparatus.
US09053092B2

The invention relates in particular to a computer system including peripheral devices (600) and at least one switch (605) connected to each device. A first device includes a means for initiating a control of direct access to memory areas, each one of which is associated with a separate element of the system. The switch includes a means for transmitting at least a portion of the control to each element. At least one element comprises a second device including a means for receiving at least one control of direct access to a memory area of said second device, said control being received from said first device via said switch, and a means for transmitting said received control to a component of said second device. Said system allows said first device to perform a direct data transfer to or from a memory of said first peripheral device from or to each element.
US09053090B2

Methods and computer systems for translating sentences between languages from an intermediate language-independent semantic representation are provided. Based on a comprehensive understanding about languages and semantics, exhaustive linguistic descriptions are used to analyze sentences, build syntactic structures and language independent semantic structures and representations, and synthesize one or more sentences in a natural or artificial language. A computer system is also provided to analyze and synthesize various linguistic structures and perform translation of a wide spectrum of various sentence types. As result, a generalized data structure, such as a semantic structure, is generated from a sentence of an input language and can be transformed into a natural sentence expressing its meaning correctly in an output language. The methods and systems can be applied to automated abstracting, machine translation, natural language processing, control systems, Internet information retrieval, etc.
US09053082B2

A method carried out in a computer system having thereon a spreadsheet file with lines and columns, the columns representing fields and each line representing a record, the sheet also having a header portion with a designation line with a field designation for each column, wherein the method identifies a single reference field, allocates a field type to fields other than the reference field, defines a link for each field with a field type and thereby link with another linked field, builds a hierarchical model representing the links, and generates a graphical hierarchical multilevel representation of the sheet content, with graphical views showing one or more hierarchical levels and displaying this representation on a display.
US09053081B2

Systems, methods, and computer products that create, update, save, and propagate customized views of table and grid information, including spreadsheets. The embodiment of the invention comprises associating at least one column as a first view of the table, associating at least one column as a second view of the table; and combining the first view with the second view, thereby efficiently creating a third view. Further, the combining includes dragging the second view; and dropping the dragged second view into the first view. The combining also includes creating a thumbnail image representing the first view or the second view. It also comprises updating columns that are shared between views. Additionally, the views may be stored, and new views may be propagated from the stored views.
US09053080B2

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide access to architectural documents in a network based on-line web based system. Servers that are accessible from the Internet maintain persistent multiple architectural documents of different media types. An online user is provided, from the servers via the Internet, a set of basic virtual design tools that have persistent properties and may be copied. The virtual design tools may also be utilized to work with the architectural documents. A workspace is also provided for viewing, accessing, and modifying the architectural documents.
US09053062B2

According to one embodiment, a memory chip, which is connected to a controller that controls reading and writing of data in response to a request from an external device, includes: a memory including a special area that is a predetermined data storage area; a key storage unit that stores therein a second key that corresponds to a first key used by the external device to convert the data; a converting unit that receives, from the controller, data to be written into the special area and generates converted data by converting the data to be written using the second key; and a writing unit that writes the converted data into the special area.
US09053059B2

Embodiments of techniques and systems associated with roots-of-trust (RTMs) for measurement of virtual machines (VMs) are disclosed. In some embodiments, a computing platform may provide a virtual machine RTM (vRTM) in a first secure enclave of the computing platform. The computing platform may be configured to perform an integrity measurement of the first secure enclave. The computing platform may provide a virtual machine trusted platform module (vTPM), for a guest VM, outside the first secure enclave of the computing platform. The computing platform may initiate a chain of integrity measurements between the vRTM and a resource of the guest VM. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.
US09053050B2

A desirable number of segments for a multi-segment single error correcting (SEC) coding scheme is determined based on scrambling information for a memory. The desirable number of segments can be the minimum number of segments required to satisfy a masked write segmentation requirement and a multi-bit upset size requirement. In one aspect, the memory scrambling information can specify the different scrambling techniques employed by the memory (e.g., Input-Output (IO) cell scrambling, column scrambling, column twisting, strap distribution, etc.). Based on the scrambling information, a mapping between the logical structure and physical layout for the memory can be derived. The mapping can be used to determine the least number of segments needed to satisfy the masked write requirement and the multi-bit upset size requirement.
US09053049B2

Translation management instructions are used in a multi-node data processing system to facilitate remote management of address translation data structures distributed throughout such a system. Thus, in multi-node data processing systems where multiple processing nodes collectively handle a workload, the address translation data structures for such nodes may be collectively managed to minimize translation misses and the performance penalties typically associated therewith.
US09053046B2

A method for externally configuring a device, wherein the device is devised for configuring, comprising positioning in a sufficient proximity external to the device a portable object provided with a representation of a configuration data for the device, wherein the representation is according to a standard non-custom industrial practice, further obtaining by the device the representation from the portable object, deciphering the representation into the configuration data by the device, and responsively configuring the device according to the configuration data by the device, and an apparatus for performing the same.
US09053040B2

Modification messages may be filtered to reduce the load on a message channel between a render cache and a frame buffer compression. A group of cache lines may be checked to see whether both a subspan request hits an unlit bit and a modify message was already sent. If so, the modification message may be filtered.
US09053039B2

Data caching methods and systems are provided. The data cache method loads data into an installation cache and a cache (simultaneously or serially) and returns data from the installation cache when the data has not completely loaded into the cache. The data cache system includes a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, a cache coupled to the processor and the memory and an installation cache coupled to the processor and the memory. The system is configured to load data from the memory into the installation cache and the cache (simultaneously or serially) and return data from the installation cache to the processor when the data has not completely loaded into the cache.
US09053027B1

Described are techniques for performing caching. Write operations of a single transactions are received. Write data of the write operations is cached in one or more cache pages of a first cache of a first storage processor. State information is set for the one or more cache pages of the first cache from an invalid state to a prepared state. The write data of the write operations is also stored in a second cache of a second storage processor. A transaction commit state for the single transaction is set indicating that transaction commitment processing for the first cache has commenced and is pending. State information of the one or more cache pages of the first cache is set from the prepared state to a dirty state. The transaction commit state for the single transaction is updated to indicate that the transaction commitment processing for the first cache is completed.
US09053026B2

A method, system and computer program product for intelligently responding to hardware failures so as to optimize system performance. An administrative server monitors the utilization of the hardware as well as the software components running on the hardware to assess a context of the software components running on the hardware. Upon detecting a hardware failure, the administrative server analyzes the hardware failure to determine the type of hardware failure and analyzes the properties of the workload running on the failed hardware. The administrative server then responds to the detected hardware failure based on various factors, including the type of the hardware failure, the properties of the workload running on the failed hardware and the context of the software running on the failed hardware. In this manner, by taking into consideration such factors in responding to the detected hardware failure, a more intelligent response is provided that optimizes system performance.
US09053009B2

There is disclosed a memory system and method. The memory system may include a plurality of memory planes including two or more data memory areas, and a memory controller adapted to controlling reading, writing, and erasing of the plurality of memory planes. When any one of the data memory areas is occupied with one of a write operation and an erase operation, the controller may reconstruct data stored in the one occupied data memory area by reading parity information and data stored in the plurality of memory areas other than the one occupied data memory area.
US09053003B2

The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for performing memory compaction in a main memory database. The main memory database stores records within pages which are organized in doubly linked lists within partition heaps. The memory compaction process uses quasi-updates to move records from a page to the emptied to an active page in a partition heap. The quasi-updates create a new version of the record in the active page, the new version having the same data contents as the old version of the record. The creation of the new version can be performed using a transaction that employs wait for dependencies to allow the old version of the record to be read while the transaction is creating the new version thereby minimizing the effect of the memory compaction process on other transactions in the main memory database.
US09053001B2

A system and method for performing enhanced modeling of multi-tiered architectures is presented. The system and method enable selection of a preferred design for a multi-tiered architecture of components based on a set of established criteria, and may employ certain vectors and functions in component attributes, and such attributes may include scalability and scope of fault attributes.
US09052990B2

A technique for managing pinned memory in a data processing system includes determining whether a first loadable module is completely utilizing pinned memory assigned to the first loadable module. In response to determining the first loadable module is not completely utilizing the pinned memory assigned to the first loadable module, the pinned memory that is not being utilized by the first loadable module is converted to kernel lock memory. In response to a second loadable module requesting pinned memory and non-kernel lock memory not being available to meet the request, one or more pages of the kernel lock memory are assigned to the second loadable module. In response to the second loadable module requesting the pinned memory and the non-kernel lock memory being available to meet the request, one or more pages of the non-kernel lock memory are assigned to the second loadable module.
US09052966B1

Source code is automatically migrated from a source format to a target format. In particular, the execution of the source code is dynamically analyzed for incompatibilities using runtime information. Solutions for the incompatibilities are additionally determined. Based on the identified incompatibilities and solutions, the source code is converted from the source format to the target format.
US09052957B2

The system for conducting intensive multitask and multistream calculation in real time comprises a central processor core (SPP) for supporting the system software and comprising a control unit (ESCU) for assigning threads of an application, the non-critical threads being run by the central processor core (SPP), whereas the intensive or specialized threads are assigned to an auxiliary processing part (APP) comprising a set of N auxiliary calculation units (APU0, . . . , APUN-1) that are optimized for fast processing of certain operations, a memory space (SMS) shared by the auxiliary calculation units (APU0, . . . , APUN-1) via an internal network and a unit (ACU) for controlling and assigning the auxiliary resources. The various elements of the system are arranged in such a manner that communication between the various auxiliary calculation units (APU0, . . . , APUN-1) or between those auxiliary calculation units (APU0, . . . , APUN-1) and the central processor core (SPP) is effected via the shared memory space (SMS) and the internal network.
US09052954B2

A resource consumption model is created for a software application, making it possible to predict the resource requirements of the application in different states. The model has a structure corresponding to that of the application itself, and is interpreted to some degree in parallel with the application, but each part of the model is interpreted in less time than it takes to complete the corresponding part of the application, so that resource requirement predictions are available in advance. The model may be interpreted in a look-ahead mode, wherein different possible branches of the model are interpreted so as to obtain resource requirement predictions for the application after completion of the present step. The model may be derived automatically from the application at design or compilation, and populated by measuring the requirements of the application in response to test scenarios in a controlled environment.
US09052953B2

Systems and methods are disclosed for estimating and updating the capacity associated with resources in a virtualized computing environment. A capacity estimation value may be stored in computer memory. The capacity estimation value may estimate how many concurrent sessions a resource in the virtualized computing environment has workload capacity to desirably handle. The system may monitor one or more resource consumption metrics of the resource on an ongoing basis. The capacity estimation value may be updated based on, inter alia, the monitoring. The capacity estimation value may be used when a request is received to create a new session in the resource.
US09052947B2

A method and apparatus for unified concurrency control in a Software Transactional Memory (STM) is herein described. A transaction record associated with a memory address referenced by a transactional memory access operation includes optimistic and pessimistic concurrency control fields. Access barriers and other transactional operations/functions are utilized to maintain both fields of the transaction record, appropriately. Consequently, concurrent execution of optimistic and pessimistic transactions is enabled.
US09052934B2

A host instrument is disclosed that is capable of supporting non-native command sets. The host instrument uses interpretation rules to translate a non-native command into one or more actions. The host instrument also uses the interpretation rules to determine the appropriate responses to be transmitted, if any. The actions and responses of the host instrument emulate those of an alternate instrument that supports the command set.
US09052933B2

A multi-tenant virtual machine infrastructure (MTVMI) allows multiple tenants to independently access and use a plurality of virtual computing resources via the Internet. Within the MTVMI, different tenants may define unique configurations of virtual computing resources and unique rules to govern the use of the virtual computing resources. The MTVMI may be configured to provide valuable services for tenants and users associated with the tenants.
US09052929B2

The cellular telephone device includes a control unit that executes any one of a plurality of applications, and a storage unit that stores an execution count of an application executed by the execution unit. The control unit determines an application to be executed after terminating or suspending a predetermined application, based on the execution count stored in the storage unit.
US09052925B2

A method includes displaying a first application view. A first input is detected, and an application view selection mode is entered for selecting one of concurrently open applications for display in a corresponding application view. An initial group of open application icons in a first predefined area and at least a portion of the first application view adjacent to the first predefined area are concurrently displayed. The initial group of open application icons corresponds to at least some of the concurrently open applications. A gesture is detected on a respective open application icon in the first predefined area, and a respective application view for a corresponding application is displayed without concurrently displaying an application view for any other application in the concurrently open applications. The open application icons in the first predefined area cease to be displayed, and the application view selection mode is exited.
US09052919B2

A method and apparatus of a portable storage device that provides a specialized network fileserver is described. In an exemplary method, the portable storage device retrieves a list of applications on the portable storage device, where each of the applications has a private filesystem. For each of the applications, the portable storage device determines if that application will share the corresponding private filesystem and adds that private filesystem to a shared filesystem of the portable storage device is that is shareable. The portable storage device further advertises the shared filesystem to a host that is coupled to the portable storage device.
US09052917B2

A method can include receiving operating system environment settings via a network; storing the received operating system environment settings to a storage device; establishing an operating system environment according to the stored operating system environment settings; receiving information via the network; instructing the established operating system environment according to the received information; and, in response to the instructing, transmitting via the network information generated at least in part by the established operating system environment. Various other apparatuses, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.
US09052915B2

Booting a computing machine including increasing an operating speed of at least one component of the computing machine during a boot process in response to the computing machine including a sufficient amount of thermal credits and decreasing the operating speed of at least one of the components in response to the computing machine completing the boot process.
US09052910B2

A design structure provides instruction fetching within a processor instruction unit, utilizing a loop buffer, one or more virtual loop buffers, and/or an instruction buffer. During instruction fetch, modified instruction buffers coupled to an instruction cache (I-cache) temporarily store instructions from a single branch, backwards short loop. The modified instruction buffers may be a loop buffer, one or more virtual loop buffers, and/or an instruction buffer. Instructions are stored in the modified instruction buffers for the length of the loop cycle. The instruction fetch within the instruction unit of a processor retrieves the instructions for the short loop from the modified buffers during the loop cycle, rather than from the instruction cache.
US09052896B2

In one embodiment, when a computing system is in a first state, a first set of inputs from one or more first sensors is detected. A first sensor value array is generated, and the first value array is fed as input to a first function generated by a first neural network. One or more first output values are calculated based on the first function, and a determination is made based on these first output values if a first action has occurred. If a first action has occurred, a second sensor value array is generated from a second set of inputs from one or more second sensors. The second sensor value array is fed as input to a second function generated by a second neural network. One or more second output values are calculated based on the second function, and the first state is exited based on these second output values.
US09052890B2

An apparatus including an execution logic that includes circuitry to execute instructions, and an instruction execution scheduler logic coupled with the execution logic. The instruction execution scheduler logic is to receive an execute at commit state update instruction. The instruction execution scheduler logic includes at commit state update logic that is to wait to schedule the execute at commit state update instruction for execution until the execute at commit state update instruction is a next instruction to commit. Other apparatus, methods, and systems are also disclosed.
US09052889B2

A Load/Store Disjoint instruction, when executed by a CPU, accesses operands from two disjoint memory locations and sets condition code indicators to indicate whether or not the two operands appeared to be accessed atomically by means of block-concurrent interlocked fetch with no intervening stores to the operands from other CPUs. In a Load Pair Disjoint form of the instruction, the accesses are loads and the disjoint data is stored in general registers.
US09052888B2

An optimizing compiler includes a vectorization mechanism that optimizes a computer program by substituting code that includes one or more vector instructions (vectorized code) for one or more scalar instructions. The cost of the vectorized code is compared to the cost of the code with only scalar instructions. When the cost of the vectorized code is less than the cost of the code with only scalar instructions, the vectorization mechanism determines whether the vectorized code will likely result in processor stalls. If not, the vectorization mechanism substitutes the vectorized code for the code with only scalar instructions. When the vectorized code will likely result in processor stalls, the vectorization mechanism does not substitute the vectorized code, and the code with only scalar instructions remains in the computer program.
US09052886B2

Circuitry in an adapter, such as a power supply, can provide power at a desired voltage level to a portable device. The circuitry may assert one of several electrical configurations on the cabling that electrically connects the portable device to the external device to indicate to the external device a desired voltage level.
US09052882B2

A blower control device changes a PQ characteristic in a second table so that an operating point (QN, PN) on the PQ characteristic in the second table agrees with an operating point (Q0, P0) on a PQ characteristic in a first table. At this time, the blower control device changes the PQ characteristic in the second table at a rate based on QN and Q0. Furthermore, the blower control device changes a load noise characteristic in the second table at a rate based on QN and Q0. Then, the blower control device calculates load noise corresponding to the operating point (Q0, P0) with respect to each rotation frequency ratio from the changed load noise characteristic. And then, the blower control device determines a rotation frequency ratio corresponding to the lowest load noise as a rotation frequency ratio at which a plurality of fans is rotated.
US09052879B2

A method and apparatus is provided to assure transformations between applications in an integration project. This assurance of transformations between applications includes mapping one or more related fields from a set of fields between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications according to a set of integration objectives, checking a type compatibility for each of the one or more related fields mapped between the one or more source applications and the one or more target applications and indicating a mapping status according to the type compatibility between the source applications and the target applications.
US09052860B2

An image forming apparatus that prints and edits a document includes a user identification portion, a print management portion that records print management information indicating a user who performs abort operation of printing, an edit management portion that records edit management information, a determination portion that determines, based on the print management information, whether or not the user is a print suspended operator who has performed the abort operation previously, a page extraction portion that, when the print suspended operator performs reprinting operation for giving instructions to print the document that has been updated, extracts pages of the document which were printed successfully when printing of the document was suspended and have been updated thereafter, and a print controller that controls the image forming apparatus such that the image forming apparatus prints at least unprinted pages of the document and the pages extracted by the page extraction portion.
US09052857B2

A processing instruction device includes a memory, a display instruction data acquisition unit, a changing unit, a display controller, an operation data acquisition unit, and a processing instruction unit. The memory stores management data and first display instruction data. The display instruction data acquisition unit acquires second display instruction data from an external device. The changing unit specifies second processing identification data corresponding to display position identification data, specifies first processing identification data corresponding to the specified second processing identification data, and changes the first processing identification data corresponding to the display position identification data to the specified first processing identification data. The display controller causes a display device to display an image in accordance with the first or second display instruction data. The operation data acquisition unit acquires operation data. The processing instruction unit gives an instruction to perform processing in accordance with processing instruction data.
US09052852B2

Upon designating bookbinding print, preview images are displayed in a layout after bookbinding. When “store” of intermediate data is designated in a print process, a spooler (302) stores intermediate data and an output job setup file in a spool file (303). When the stored job is selected, a previewer (306) displays a list of jobs, and displays a print preview image. In this case, upon setting bookbinding print, pages are displayed in a spread state and order after bookbinding. Also, the open direction (right or left open), and the bookbinding unit are also expressed on preview images.
US09052851B1

In one embodiment, a method for the simulation of preprinted forms is disclosed. The method includes receiving a first image as a back drop of a form, the image including a plurality of printable features corresponding to positions of the image. A second image is received as data to be filled in to the form, the second image including a second plurality of printable features corresponding to positions of the image, wherein the second plurality of printable features each have an assigned ink transparency. A feature of the first image is blended with a corresponding feature of the second image based on the assigned ink transparencies to form a blended feature. The blended features are combined to form a blended image that blends the first and the second images and is suitable for printing.
US09052850B2

A printer driver includes a plurality of modules, an interface unit that accepts the addition of plug-in including one or more additional modules for realizing a predetermined function, and a storage unit that stores setting information that defines information related to a partial process for realizing the predetermined function of the plug-in. The plurality of modules performs a process that is the partial process for realizing the predetermined function and cannot be realized in the additional modules included in the plug-in in accordance with the setting information.
US09052848B2

One embodiment is a method that analyzes a print request that is transmitted over an internet and received at a cloud print system. The method then executes with priorities a list of job tasks to print the print request at a web-enabled printer.
US09052837B2

Articles of manufacture, apparatuses, and methods for processing communications between a control unit and a channel subsystem in an input/output processing system are disclosed. Embodiments of the invention include an article of manufacture including at least one computer usable medium having computer readable program code logic to processing communications between a control unit and a channel subsystem in an input/output processing system. The computer readable program code logic performs a method including: sending a message in a first mode from the control unit to the channel subsystem; receiving a command in a second mode from the channel subsystem at the control unit; determining whether the command is responsive to the message; and responsive to the command being not responsive to the message, determining whether to perform one of i) executing the command and ii) terminating the command.
US09052836B2

According to one embodiment, a non-transitory medium, a controller, a memory, an extension function section, and an extension register. The controller controls the non-transitory medium. The memory which is serving as a work area is connected to the controller. The extension function section is controlled by the controller. The extension register which is provided on the memory is provided with a certain block length capable of defining an extension function of the extension function section. The controller processes a first command to write header data of a command to operate the extension function section to the extension function section through the extension register, and a second command to read header data of a response from the extension function section through the extension register.
US09052832B2

A system for storing files comprises a processor and a memory. The processor is configured to break a file into one or more segments; store the one or more segments in a first storage unit; and add metadata to the first storage unit so that the file can be accessed independent of a second storage unit, wherein a single namespace enables access for files stored in the first storage unit and the second storage unit. The memory is coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.
US09052825B2

Interfaces to storage devices that employ storage space optimization technologies, such as thin provisioning, are configured to enable the benefits gained from such technologies to be sustained. Such an interface may be provided in a hypervisor of a virtualized computer system to enable the hypervisor to discover features of a logical unit number (LUN), such as whether or not the LUN is thinly provisioned, and also in a virtual machine (VM) of the virtualized computer system to enable the VM to discover features of a virtual disk, such as whether or not the virtual disk is thinly provisioned. The discovery of these features enables the hypervisor or the VM to instruct the underlying storage device to carry out certain operations such as an operation to deallocate blocks previously allocated to a logical block device, so that the storage device can continue to benefit from storage space optimization technologies implemented therein.
US09052820B2

This document describes techniques and apparatuses enabling a multi-application environment. In some embodiments, these techniques and apparatuses enable multi-application environments having combinations of immersive interfaces, windows-based interfaces, and a desktop treated as an immersive interface.
US09052819B2

Methods and apparatus for determining an intended gesture-based input command from an incomplete gesture-based input command that is supplied to a gesture-based touch screen display that includes at least a touch sensitive region includes receiving an incomplete gesture-based input command on the touch sensitive region of the gesture-based touch screen device, the incomplete gesture-based input command including a gesture profile and a gesture direction. Gesture signals that include data representative of the gesture profile and the gesture direction are generated in response to the input command. The gesture signals are processed in a processor to predict the intended gesture-based input command. The intended gesture-based command is retrieved, with the processor, from an electronically stored standard gesture library.
US09052812B1

Various methods and systems for collaborating on the specification of an interactive graphical design are provided. An exemplary system comprises a graphical design environment. The system also comprises a note interface in the graphical design environment that displays a note field for accepting a text string from the user. The system also comprises a design player that renders the design. The system also comprises a discussion interface that: (i) is displayed in the design player consistently with the design; (ii) displays the text string from the user as a note; and (iii) accepts a comment from a second user regarding the note. The system also comprises a data store accessible to the graphical design environment and the design player. The comment is displayed in the graphical design environment after being accepted in the discussion interface.
US09052801B2

The disclosed method and device are directed to navigation, by a dual display communication device, through display objects.
US09052797B2

A navigation system for navigating a three-dimensional (3D) scene that includes a model or object with which a user can interact. The system accommodates and helps both novice and advanced users. To do this, the system provides a set of mini navigation wheels for experienced users that include all of the function of the larger wheels in pie shaped wedges and that acts as a cursor.
US09052792B2

A method, system, and computer program product for inserting a search box into a mobile terminal messaging dialog. Upon receiving a dialog message (e.g., an email message) from a first user device, the method determines the format (e.g., IMAP) of the dialog message in order to insert a similarly-formatted search box. Then, the method modifies the dialog message by inserting the selected search box into the dialog message. The method receives a request from a second user (at a mobile terminal) and the method transmits the outbound dialog message with the inserted search box to the second user's mobile terminal. The second user's mobile terminal supports a web browser, and some dialog messages include pre-populated text in the search box, the pre-populated text based on the dialog message from the first user device. The second user browses using the inserted search box without having to explicitly launch a browser.
US09052791B2

An electronic device includes a touch panel. The touch panel includes a first sensor panel including at least one receiving electrode; a second sensor panel including at least one transmission electrode, and overlaid on the first sensor panel; and a third sensor panel including a predetermined electrode at least a part of which overlaps the one transmission electrode, and overlaid on the second sensor panel. When a predetermined condition is detected in a state that a transmission signal identical to that for the one transmission electrode is applied on the predetermined electrode, application of the transmission signal identical to that for the one transmission electrode onto the predetermined electrode is stopped.
US09052788B2

A touch-screen device includes a transparent dielectric layer. A plurality of first electrodes is located over the transparent dielectric layer. A plurality of second electrodes is located under the transparent dielectric layer so that the first electrodes overlap the second electrodes to form an array of capacitors. A controller provides electrical signals to the first and second electrodes to energize and measure the baseline capacitance and repeatedly energize and measure the present capacitance of each capacitor. The controller calculates a ratio function between the present capacitance and the corresponding stored baseline capacitance for each capacitor and provides a touch signal when the ratio function exceeds a predetermined threshold value.
US09052787B2

A method for manufacturing a touch sensing apparatus includes repeatedly forming a plurality of electrode patterns on a first sub-substrate unwound from a first roller; repeatedly forming a plurality of interconnection patterns on a second sub-substrate unwound by a second roller; forming an array of touch sensing substrates by adhering the first sub-substrate to the second sub-substrate; forming a plurality of via holes through which the plurality of electrode patterns are electrically connected to the plurality of interconnection patterns; and cutting the array of touch sensing substrates into a plurality of touch sensing substrates, each touch sensing substrate including one of the electrode patterns and one of the interconnection patterns.
US09052775B1

Various technologies described herein pertain to a tactile sensor that senses normal load and/or shear load. The tactile sensor includes a first layer and an optically transparent layer bonded together. At least a portion of the first layer is made of optically reflective material. The optically transparent layer is made of resilient material (e.g., clear silicone rubber). The tactile sensor includes light emitter/light detector pair(s), which respectively detect either normal load or shear load. Light emitter(s) emit light that traverses through the optically transparent layer and reflects off optically reflective material of the first layer, and light detector(s) detect and measure intensity of reflected light. When a normal load is applied, the optically transparent layer compresses, causing a change in reflected light intensity. When shear load is applied, a boundary between optically reflective material and optically absorptive material is laterally displaced, causing a change in reflected light intensity.
US09052754B2

The preferred embodiment of the invention describes a pointing device comprising a cabinet divided in two housings screwed together. Below the upper housing, a flexible, hard-use film contains all button symbols printed thereon and aligned with the housing upper side holes and tact switch actuators.A high-relief surface defines the visible surface of depressed buttons surrounded by restraining circular walls which arise from said high-relief surface.All buttons are placed in a bas-relief surface to avoid undesired or unintended pressings. Moreover, the fact that they are in a depressed surface help people with limb movement disorders to avoid the involuntary movement of their fingers beyond the limits of the depressed buttons, which act as restraining areas, thus avoiding to click, press or hold an undesired button.
US09052753B2

A mobile terminal and a method perform screen unlock based on a motion. The mobile terminal includes a motion measure unit, a motion pattern storage, and a controller. The motion measure unit measures a first motion pattern of the mobile terminal. The motion pattern storage stores a second motion pattern set for the mobile terminal. When the first motion pattern of the mobile terminal measured by the motion measure unit coincides with the second motion pattern stored in the motion pattern storage, the controller executes a screen unlock of the mobile terminal.
US09052742B2

An image processing apparatus includes at least one processor. An input unit is configured to input image data. A correction unit performs a correction for the image data based on a result of analysis of the data. A storage unit stores the corrected image data. A processing unit performs a correction for the corrected image data using a correction parameter in accordance with a user instruction. The processing unit corrects the corrected image data stored by the storage unit using a changed correction parameter, when the correction parameter has been changed according to a user instruction. When a correction instruction based on an image analysis is input after correction of the image data by at least one of the correction unit and the processing unit, the correction unit makes a correction for the input image data input based on a result of analyzing the image data.
US09052733B2

A method is provided for determining a value for an electrical output of a converter of renewable energy. The method comprises obtaining a signal representing the electrical output of the converter wherein that electrical output has an initial value. The method further comprises applying a pulse signal to the signal representing the electrical output, wherein the pulse signal comprises a positive portion and a negative portion. The method further comprises obtaining a measurement of electrical power produced by the converter during application of the pulse signal, removing the pulse signal and then obtaining a measurement of electrical power produced by the converter in the absence of the pulse signal. An error value is determined from the obtained electrical power measurements and that error value is applied to the initial value to obtain a target value for the electrical output of the converter.
US09052710B1

A human gesture tracking system includes a sensor device with at least one sensor unit, where the sensor unit is configured to measure at least one of position in three dimensions of a portion of an operator's limb and orientation in three dimensions of the portion of the operator's limb, a processor configured to receive information from the sensor device so as to determine orientation and position displacement in six degrees of freedom of the operator's limb, and an activator that is coupled to communicate with the processor and is further actuated by the operator to designate a start time and an end time in which position and orientation displacements of the portion of the operator's limb are determined by the processor. During system operation, the processor determines position and orientation displacements of the portion of the operator's limb in tracking sessions, each tracking session is defined as a time period between the start time and the end time as designated by the activator. The processor further determines an initial position and orientation of the portion of the operator's limb at the start time of each tracking session and determines position and orientation displacements of the portion of the operator's limb during each tracking session in relation to the initial position and orientation for the tracking session.
US09052705B2

Controller scaling and parameterization are described. Techniques that can be improved by employing the scaling and parameterization include, but are not limited to, controller design, tuning and optimization. The scaling and parameterization methods described here apply to transfer function based controllers, including PID controllers. The parameterization methods also applies to state feedback and state observer based controllers, as well as linear active disturbance rejection controllers. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the application. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
US09052695B1

An alarm wristwatch including a watch, a strap having an extent, a mechanism for increasing and decreasing the extent of the strap, and a circuitry for controlling the mechanism to intermittently increase and decrease the extent of the strap, thereby increasing and decreasing a pressure of the strap on a user's wrist, resulting in attracting the user's attention, while not attracting other persons' attention.
US09052692B2

A mechanism for advancing, by periodic jumps, a pivoting cage for an escapement mechanism, including: a retaining mechanism authorizing or preventing the pivoting of the cage, depending on its movement; and a stopping mechanism authorizing or preventing the pivoting of the retaining mechanism, depending on its angular position. A constant force device causes periodic cooperation of the retaining mechanism, which includes a flirt arranged to perform complete revolutions and is connected to an input thereof, with the stopping mechanism, which includes a star wheel and is connected to an output thereof, whose trajectories interfere with each other, to pivot the cage when the stopping mechanism allows the pivoting of the retaining mechanism and to stop the cage when the stopping mechanism locks the retaining mechanism.
US09052682B2

When an opening and closing member is being closed, urging force which a first engaged portion of the opening and closing member receives in a direction opposite to a direction to close the opening and closing member is larger than urging force which a second engaged portion of the opening and closing member receives, and a distance in which the first engaged portion moves until the first engaged portion engages with a first engaging portion is shorter than a distance in which the second engaged portion moves until the second engaged portion engages with a second engaging portion while the first engaged portion and the second engaged portion are caused to engage with the first engaging portion and the second engaging portion, respectively, by closing the opening and closing member from an opened state of the opening and closing member.
US09052674B2

An image forming apparatus includes a main body including an image forming unit including an image carrying member, a drive force transmission mechanism configured to transmit a drive force to the image carrying member, and a main body configured to support the image forming unit. The main body includes a first frame disposed on a first side of the image carrying member in an axial direction of the image carrying member, a second frame disposed on a second side of the image carrying member opposite to the first side thereof, a first connecting member extending in the axial direction of the image carrying member and connecting the first frame and the second frame, and a second connecting member spaced apart from the first connecting member and connecting the first frame and the second frame. The first frame is made of metal and the second frame is made of resin.
US09052670B2

In a color image forming apparatus, the amount of light of an exposure unit for a weak exposure is changed according to a remaining service life of a photosensitive drum when the weak exposure is performed for the background area of a corresponding photosensitive drum by using the exposure unit.
US09052666B2

A color registration method includes determining whether color registration is needed or not, if color registration is needed, setting an optimal amount of light of the registration sensor in a feedback manner, forming a predetermined mark for color registration correction on an image forming medium, and performing color registration correction with respect to the formed mark using the set optimal amount of light.
US09052656B2

A cleaning device includes a cleaning unit which includes a web; a first roller, a second roller for winding the web up, a driving mechanism for second roller, a third roller urging the web to the rotatable member, an urging portion urging the third roller toward the rotatable member, and a supporter supporting the third roller while permitting movement relative to the first and second rollers; a moving mechanism for relative movement between the cleaning unit and the rotatable member, between a first position in which the web is spaced from the rotatable member and a second position in which they contact; and a controller. When the mechanism causes the relative movement from the first position to the second position, the controller operates the mechanism for a predetermined duration to substantially eliminate the slackness of the web resulting from the relative movement.
US09052655B2

A heating member includes: a resistive heating layer which generates heat when supplied with electrical energy; a release layer as an outermost layer of the heating member and including a polymer; an intermediate layer disposed between the resistive heating layer and the release layer. The resistive heating layer includes a base polymer, and an electroconductive filler dispersed in the base polymer. The intermediate layer includes a polymer material being a same type as the base polymer of the resistive heating layer or the polymer of the release layer.
US09052652B2

A fixing device includes a nip formation pad disposed opposite an inner circumferential surface of an endless belt and pressing the endless belt against a pressing rotary body to form a fixing nip between the endless belt and the pressing rotary body. A recording medium is conveyed through the fixing nip. The endless belt slides over a friction reducer sandwiched between the endless belt and the nip formation pad. The friction reducer includes a body and at least one tab projecting from the body in a direction opposite a recording medium conveyance direction. A friction reducer fastener is attached to the tab of the friction reducer and placed inside the nip formation pad to mount the friction reducer on the nip formation pad.
US09052632B2

A high-voltage power supply for an image forming apparatus compares a detected output voltage generated by dividing a high-voltage output by a voltage dividing circuit with a control value to feedback control the high-voltage output and outputs a voltage that is to be applied to a member involved in image formation. The high-voltage power supply includes a printed circuit board on which a resistor connected to a high-voltage output side of the voltage dividing circuit is mounted. A slit including a first portion and a second portion is formed in the printed circuit board. The first portion extends across a straight line connecting terminals of the resistor. The second portion continues from the first portion and extends in a direction receding from one of the terminals of the resistor.
US09052631B2

An image forming apparatus, including: an image bearing member; a charging unit; an exposure unit; a developing unit; a transfer unit; a fixing unit; and a cleaning unit including a cleaning blade, wherein the charging unit includes a charging roller that is brought into contact with the image bearing member for charging, the charging roller abutting the image bearing member at a pressing force of 10 mN/cm to 1,000 mN/cm, wherein the cleaning blade includes an elastic member that abuts the surface of the image bearing member to remove a residue attached to the surface of the image bearing member, and wherein an abutment part of the elastic member, which abuts the surface of the image bearing member, includes a cured product of an ultraviolet curable composition containing a (meth)acrylate compound having an alicyclic structure having 6 or more carbon atoms in a molecule.
US09052630B2

An electrostatic charger includes a discharge electrode which has a long shape and a housing. The housing has a U-shaped cross section in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the discharge electrode, receives the discharge electrode and supports the discharge electrode in a direction such that a tip portion thereof is disposed on an open face side. The housing includes a first member and a second member separated from each other at a border that includes an electrode-supporting section supporting the discharge electrode, and the first member and the second member are attachable to and detachable from each other.
US09052626B2

In a toner for electrostatic latent-image development that includes toner core particles including at least a binder resin, and shell layers with which the entire surfaces of the toner core particles are coated, an ethylene-unsaturated carboxylic acid copolymer is present at the interface between the toner core particle and the shell layer.
US09052622B2

An electrostatic image developing toner including: a toner particle containing a coloring agent and a binder resin; and an external additive on the toner particle, wherein the external additive contains a silica particle, a primary particle of the silica particle has an average particle diameter of from 70 nm to 400 nm, a particle size distribution index of the primary particle of from 1.0 to 1.9, and an average circularity of from 0.5 to 0.9.
US09052620B2

An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes toner particles containing a binder resin and pigment particles and an external additive containing fluorine resin particles, wherein the electrostatic charge image developing toner satisfies the following expression: 2≦A/B≦100, wherein A represents reflectance at an acceptance angle of +30° which is measured when a solid image is formed using the electrostatic charge image developing toner and the solid image is irradiated with incident light at an incidence angle of −45° by the use of a variable-angle photometer, and B represents reflectance at an acceptance angle of −30° which is measured when the solid image is irradiated with incident light at an incidence angle of −45° by the use of the variable-angle photometer.
US09052618B2

An overcoat composition for electrophotography includes at least one of compounds having the following formulae (1) to (3): wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; and n represents an integer of from 4 to 6; and wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group; and a and b independently represent an integer of from 1 to 5 on the condition that a+b is from 4 to 6.
US09052601B2

Process for producing a substrate with reflective layer for EUVL, which comprises forming a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light on a substrate, wherein the reflective layer is a multilayer reflective film having a low refractive index layer and a high refractive index layer alternately stacked plural times by a sputtering method, and depending upon the in-plane distribution of the peak reflectivity of light in the EUV wavelength region in a radial direction from the center of the substrate at the surface of the multilayer reflective film, at least one layer among the respective layers constituting the multilayer reflective film is made to be a reflectivity distribution correction layer having a thickness distribution provided in a radial direction from the center of the substrate, to suppress the in-plane distribution of the peak reflectivity of light in the EUV wavelength region in a radial direction from the center of the substrate.
US09052600B2

A method for forming a resist pattern includes providing a resist film. A protective film is provided on the resist film using a composition for forming the protective film. The composition includes a polymer and an organic solvent. The resist film on which the protective film is provided is exposed to irradiation with EUV light or an electron beam. The exposed resist film is developed.
US09052597B2

An embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of fabricating an optical device, the method comprising the steps of: depositing a photoresist layer on a carrier, said photoresist layer containing at least one optical component, determining the position of the at least one optical component inside the photoresist layer before exposing the photoresist layer to a first radiation, said first radiation being capable of transforming the photoresist layer from an unmodified state to a modified state, elaborating a device pattern based on the position of the at least one optical component, and fabricating the elaborated device pattern by locally exposing the photoresist layer to the first radiation and locally transforming the photoresist layer from the unmodified state to the modified state.
US09052589B2

A polymer comprises the polymerized product of unsaturated monomers comprising an acid-deprotectable monomer, a base-soluble monomer, a lactone-containing monomer, a photoacid-generating monomer, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing monomers, with a chain transfer agent of Formula (I); wherein in Formula (I), Z is a y valent C1-20 organic group, L is a heteroatom or a single bond, A1 and A2 are each independently ester containing or non-ester containing and are fluorinated or non-fluorinated, and are independently C1-40 alkylene, C3-40 cycloalkylene, C6-40 arylene, or C7-40 aralkylene, and A1 contains a nitrile, ester, or aryl substituent group alpha to the point of attachment with sulfur, X1 is a single bond, —O—, —S—, —C(═O)—O—, —O—C(═O)—, —O—C(═O)—O—, —C(═O)—NR—, —NR—C(═O)—, —NR—C(═O)—NR—, —S(═O)2—O—, —O—S(═O)2—O—, —NR—S(═O)2—, or —S(═O)2—NR, wherein R is H, C1-10 alkyl, C3-10 cycloalkyl or C6-10 aryl, Y− is an anionic group, G+ is a metallic or non-metallic cation, and y is an integer of 1 to 6. A photoresist composition comprising the polymer, a coated substrate, comprising a layer of the photoresist composition, and a method of forming an electronic device from the photoresist, are also disclosed.
US09052581B2

A light source device including an arc tube having a light emission portion containing electrodes, a cooling channel having a downstream part branched into first and second channels to guide air toward the light emission portion via one of the channels, a rotational member disposed within the cooling channel and rotatable around a rotation shaft by gravity, and configured to switch cooling to the first or second channel depending on a position of the light source device, and a duct that forms apart of the cooling channel. The width of the rotational member decreases from a remote end toward the rotation shaft. The rotation shaft is disposed on one end of the rotational member corresponding to a side opposite a light emission side of the duct. The duct is shaped such that the cooling channel width decreases toward the side opposite the light emission side.
US09052578B2

A laser projection device includes three laser chips, a spectroscope arranged on light paths of laser beams emitted from the three laser chips, and a lens mounted between the laser chips and the spectroscope. The lens includes a main body and a bending part bent from the main body. The main body is on the light paths of two of the laser chips. The bending part is on the light path of another laser chip. The laser beams emitted from the corresponding two laser chips are refracted by the main part of the lens. The laser beams emitted from the corresponding another laser chip are refracted by the bending part. The laser beams emitted from the laser chips are converged by the lens to reach the spectroscope and then reflected by the spectroscope to be mixed together.
US09052572B2

A conversion adapter apparatus is provided that connects a camera body and an interchangeable lens. The conversion adapter apparatus includes a camera body side installation portion to receive a camera body, a lens side installation portion to receive an interchangeable lens, and a first communication contact group provided on the camera body side installation portion and connected to a communication contact group. The conversion adapter apparatus additionally includes a second communication contact group provided on the lens side installation portion and connected to the communication contact group and a conductive member that electrically connects the first communication contact group and the second communication contact group. A position of the first communication contact group around a camera optical axis and a position of the second communication contact group around the camera optical axis are different from each other.
US09052564B2

The present invention is directed to an electrophoretic dispersion, in particular, an electrophoretic dispersion comprising uncharged or lightly charged additive particles for improving bistability of an electrophoretic display. The average diameter of the additive particles is about 1% to about 25% of the average hydrodynamic diameter of the charged pigment particles.
US09052560B2

A nanoprojector panel formed of an array of cells, each cell including a liquid crystal layer between upper and lower transparent electrodes, a MOS control transistor being arranged above the upper electrode, each transistor being covered with at least three metallization levels. The transistor of each cell extends in a corner of the cell so that the transistors of an assembly of four adjacent cells are arranged in a central region of the assembly. The upper metallization level extends above the transistors of each the assembly of four adjacent cells. The panel includes, for each assembly of four adjacent cells, a first conductive ring surrounding the transistors, the first ring extending from the lower metallization level to the upper electrode of each cell, with an interposed insulating material.
US09052559B2

The present invention is intended to control the color temperature of white exhibited by a liquid crystal display device. White is produced when light waves emitted through pixels associated with three colors of red, green, and blue have maximum intensities. The amounts of light emitted through the respective pixels are controlled by differentiating the shapes of the pixel electrodes disposed at the respective pixels from one another. Thus, the color temperature of white is controlled. Otherwise, the shapes of interceptive films disposed at the respective pixels are differentiated from one another in order to control light waves emitted through the respective pixels. Thus, the color temperature of white is controlled. The interceptive film may be shaped like the pixel electrode. Otherwise, the interceptive film may be realized with an interceptive pattern other than that of the pixel electrode or one of openings bored in a black matrix.
US09052557B2

A pixel array, a pixel structure, and a driving method of a pixel structure are provided. The pixel structure includes a first scan line, a second scan line, a first common electrode line, a data line, a first active device, a second device, a first pixel electrode, and a second pixel electrode. The data line is intersected with the first scan line and the second scan line. The first active device is driven by the first scan line and connected to the data line. The second active device is driven by the second scan line and connected to the first common electrode line. The first pixel electrode is electrically connected to the data line through the first active device. The second pixel electrode is electrically connected to the data line through the first active device and electrically connected to the first common electrode line through the second active device.
US09052550B2

A thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT LCD), including a TFT array substrate, a color filter substrate and a post spacer disposed between the TFT array substrate and the color filter substrate. The TFT array substrate includes a gate line, a data line, and a TFT disposed in a pixel area defined by the gate line and the data line crossing with each other, and the TFT comprises a source/drain electrode. The post spacer is located in a region at least partially surrounded by the source/drain electrode, the data line and the gate line.
US09052548B2

The present invention relates to a photo-curable composition that can provide a film, etc. showing excellent optical anisotropy even without need for separately forming a liquid crystal layer and an alignment layer, an optical anisotropic film using the same, and its preparation method. The photo-curable composition comprises a photo-alignable polymer, a noncrosslinkable liquid crystal compound and a photo-curable binder.
US09052542B2

A light source package includes a first light source configured to emit first light, an imaginary central axis of the first light extending in a first direction. The light source package may further include a second light source configured to emit second light, an imaginary central axis of the second light extending in a second direction that is different from the first direction. The light source package may further include a first optical part including a first surface that is configured to reflect at least a first portion of the first light. The light source package may further include a second optical part configured to spread the second light. The light source package may advantageously enable illuminating a desirably large display area with a minimum number of light sources and/or optical parts.
US09052534B2

An optical A/D converter according to the present invention includes an optical splitter that splits an analog input signal light into plurals, a plurality of Mach-Zehnder interferometers to which each of the signal lights split by the optical splitter is input, and plurality of optical/electrical conversion unit that convert each signal lights output from each Mach-Zehnder interferometer into a digital electrical signal, in which each Mach-Zehnder interferometer includes optical intensity-to-phase conversion unit that optically convert intensity of the input signal light into an amount of phase shift and the amount of phase shift differs for each Mach-Zehnder interferometer. Then, it is possible to provide a high speed and low power consuming optical demodulation circuit.
US09052532B2

An eyeglass frame includes an outer frame, an inner frame provided with a pair of eyeglass lenses, and temples connected to the outer frame. The inner frame is attached to the outer frame. The outer frame includes opening portions corresponding to the eyeglass lenses attached to the inner frame.
US09052522B2

A system and method for mounting a specimen on a slide, the system having an immersion chamber, a stage, a transducer, and a pump. The immersion chamber is configured to hold a liquid and includes at least one wall, a closed bottom, and an open top. The stage is configured to support the slide, and the stage is arranged within the immersion chamber such that the specimen may be supported substantially above the stage by the liquid. The transducer is configured to induce a wave in the liquid in the immersion chamber such that the wave alters the motion of the specimen. The pump is configured to draw the liquid from the immersion chamber such that the level of liquid in the immersion chamber decreases and the specimen is dispensed onto the slide.
US09052515B2

According to embodiments of the present invention, there are provided a lens panel, a method for manufacturing the same and a 3D display device. The lens panel comprises: a first transparent substrate; a second transparent substrate, disposed opposite to the first transparent substrate; positive electrodes and negative electrodes, which are in a strip shape, and disposed on a side of the first transparent substrate opposed to the second transparent substrate parallel to each other and alternately; a second transparent liquid and a first transparent liquid filled between the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate in this order from the second transparent substrate to the first transparent substrate, the first transparent liquid and the second transparent liquid being immiscible, and reflectance of the first transparent liquid being larger than reflectance of the second transparent liquid.
US09052513B2

A system and method for reducing scan line jitter caused by facet cut variation in scan systems employing a plurality of laser sources and a sensor for generating the timing for the laser sources. The system includes a controller for determining a unique time delay for each facet of the rotating mirror, and controlling the laser sources so that video provided by each laser source is delayed in a scan line by the unique time delay corresponding to the facet of the rotating mirror used in creating the scan line.
US09052509B2

A microscope system includes a stage on which a specimen is placed; an objective lens configured to condense at least observation light from the specimen on the stage; a transmitted illumination optical system configured to irradiate the specimen with transmitted illumination light ejected from a light source, which is illumination light transmitting the specimen; and a microscope body part including a base unit holding the transmitted illumination optical system, a supporting column standing upright from the base unit, and an incident-light illumination optical system provided on the end of a side different from the base unit side of the supporting column and irradiating the specimen with incident-light illumination light which is illumination light ejected from a light source to be reflected on the specimen, wherein the stage and the transmitted illumination optical system are attachable to/detachable from the microscope body part.
US09052508B2

A microscope system that performs structured illumination includes a light source configured to emit illumination light, an objective lens that irradiates a specimen with the illumination light, a phase-modulation spatial light modulator that has a two-dimensional pixel structure, that is arranged at the pupil conjugate position of the objective lens on an illumination light path between the light source and the objective lens, and that is configured to modulate a phase of the illumination light for each pixel so as to form a fringe illumination pattern on the specimen on the basis of an optical parameter of at least one of the light source and the objective lens.
US09052492B2

An imaging lens includes first to fifth lens elements arranged from an object side to an image side in the given order. The first lens element has a positive refractive power and a convex object-side surface. The second lens element has a negative refractive power and an image-side surface with a concave peripheral portion. The third lens element has an object-side surface with a concave peripheral portion. The fourth lens element has an image-side surface with a concave portion in a vicinity of an optical axis. The fifth lens element has an image-side surface with a concave portion in the vicinity of the optical axis and a convex peripheral portion.
US09052471B2

An inserting and extracting motion of an optical plug can be easily carried out via a knob, even in a narrow space. An optical connector plug is provided with a stopper guide in a rear portion of an upper surface of a knob to which an optical plug is installed, a spring guide, an outer cover which is provided in an outer surface of the knob, and a spring which is arranged in between the stopper guide and the outer cover. In the optical connector plug, the outer cover is pressed by an optical connector adapter so as to move backward while compressing the spring, whereby a shutter is opened and the optical plug is allowed to protrude forward from the outer cover. The optical connector plug is provided with a grip portion which protrudes up and down and right and left from a rear end portion of the knob.
US09052463B2

A computer system has an optical data distributing device for transmitting and distributing optical signals. A laser source generates light for forming the optical signals, and an optical fiber with a graded index of refraction couples the light from the laser source to the optical data distributing device. A lens is disposed to image light generated by the laser source into an input end of the optical fiber. The magnification of the lens is selected as a function of a ratio of a numerical aperture and diameter of the laser source divided by a ratio of a numerical aperture and diameter of the optical fiber.
US09052459B2

A fiber optic cable assembly includes a distribution cable and a tether cable physically coupled thereto. The distribution cable has a cavity through which a fiber optic ribbon extends, and the tether cable includes a jacket and an optical fiber. The distribution cable includes a network access point at a mid-span location, which includes an opening between the cavity to the exterior of the distribution cable. At least a portion of the ribbon extends through the opening. The ribbon of the distribution cable includes a plurality of optical fibers, and the optical fiber of the tether cable is spliced to an optical fiber of the ribbon. The corresponding spliced connection is surrounded by the jacket of the tether cable, whereby the jacket serves as a housing.
US09052454B2

According to one aspect, the invention relates a spectral band-pass filter, which is optimized for the transmission of an incident wave at at least a first given central wavelength λ0, and which includes: a metal grating having a thickness (t) greater than approximately λ0/50 and including at least a first set of substantially identical, parallel slots having a width (W) less than around λ0/10, and being spaced apart periodically or quasi-periodically according to a first period that is less than said first central wavelength, a layer of dielectric material having a thickness (h) and a given refractive index (ng), which is coupled to the metal grating to form a waveguide for the waves diffracted by the grating, said first period of the grating being designed such that only orders 0 and ±1 of a wave having normal incidence and a wavelength λ0 are diffracted in the layer of dielectric material, the assembly of the dielectric layer and grating being suspended, during use, in a fluid having a refractive index of close to 1.
US09052453B2

A display panel includes a base substrate having a plurality of pixel areas, in which each pixel area includes a plurality of sub-pixel areas, a light blocking layer pattern generally defining the sub-pixel areas, and a plurality of color filter patterns. Upper surfaces of the light blocking layer pattern and the plurality of color filter patterns collectively form a generally flat surface.
US09052451B2

A liquid lens package structure includes a first light-transmitting element, a second light-transmitting element, a first elastic surrounding body, a second elastic surrounding body and a package unit. The first elastic surrounding body is disposed between the first and the second light-transmitting elements to form an enclosed space among the first light-transmitting element, the second light-transmitting element and the first elastic surrounding body for receiving and enclosing two unmingled predetermined liquids. The second elastic surrounding body is disposed on the second light-transmitting element. The package unit includes a first retaining seat and a second retaining seat mated with each other. The first retaining seat has a first opening, and the second retaining seat has a second opening. The first light-transmitting element, the first elastic surrounding body, the second light-transmitting element and the second elastic surrounding body are stacked sequentially between the first and the second retaining seats.
US09052450B2

The present invention provides a plasmonic optical transformer to produce a highly focuses optical beam spot, where the transformer includes a first metal layer, a dielectric layer formed on the first metal layer, and a second metal layer formed on the dielectric layer, where the first metal layer, the dielectric layer, and the second layer are patterned to a shape including a first section having a first cross section, a second section following the first section having a cross-section tapering from the first section to a smaller cross-section, and a third section following the second section having a cross-section matching the tapered smaller cross-section of the second section.
US09052448B2

Two-dimensional coupled resonator optical waveguide arrangements and systems, devices, and methods thereof. Networks of coupled resonator optical waveguides are arranged so as to exploit topological properties of these optical networks. Such arrangement affords topological protection against disorders or perturbations in the network that may hinder or block photon flow. As a result of a disorder, photons traversing along edge states of the array are rerouted based on the disorder or perturbation. Photon routing in the network is accordingly protected against disorder or defects.
US09052443B2

A display apparatus has a display panel that includes a display area and a boundary area, a window that protects the display panel and that transmits an image that is realized in the display area, and an adhesion layer that adheres the display panel and the window. The window includes a window body with a first surface that faces the display panel and a second surface that is externally exposed, a light-shielding member that is on the first surface and that blocks the boundary area of the display panel from being externally visible, and a light-shielding member protection layer that is between the light-shielding member and the adhesion layer, and that protects the light-shielding member.
US09052441B2

Disclosed is a dual layer prism sheet including two patterned prism sheets adhered to each other with an adhesive layer interposed therebetween. The adhesive layer includes a polymeric adhesive and a lubricant. A liquid crystal display including the dual layer prism sheet is also disclosed. Each pattern on the prism sheet is arranged to make a predetermined angle with a liquid crystal panel.
US09052438B2

Various non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relate to ophthalmic devices comprising photochromic materials comprising a reactive substituent. For example, the present disclosure contemplates ophthalmic devices comprising photochromic materials, such as photochromic naphthopyrans and indeno-fused naphthopyrans having a reactive substituent comprising a reactive moiety linked to the photochromic naphthopyran by one or more linking groups. In certain non-limiting embodiments, the reactive moiety comprises a polymerizable moiety. In other non-limiting embodiments, the reactive moiety comprises a nucleophilic moiety. Other non-limiting embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods of making the photochromic ophthalmic device, wherein the photochromic ophthalmic devices comprise the photochromic naphthopyrans described herein.
US09052422B2

This invention relates to a method for producing a microlens with a carrier wafer, in which a lens in one opening of the carrier wafer is molded into the carrier wafer by stamping of the lens and to a corresponding device for executing the method and to a microlens which has been produced using the method. Furthermore the invention relates to a device for producing a microlens as well as a microlens.
US09052420B2

The present invention discloses a backlight LED structure, a backlight and a display device. In the backlight LED structure, a flange structure is arranged at the upper side of an LED bracket which is defined when the LED bracket is mounted close to a light guide plate such that the flange structure covers the upper side of the light guide plate when the LED structure and the light guide plate are assembled. In addition, each of the two ends of the flange structure has an angular area extending outwards, and the lower surfaces of the two angular areas are distributed with light guide points. The backlight LED structure can prevent the LED light from being emitted from the fitting gap between the backlight LED structure and the light guide plate, and control direction of light between the backlight LED structures and scatter travel direction of the light.
US09052416B2

A semiconductor light emitting apparatus includes an elongated hollow wavelength conversion tube that comprises an elongated wavelength conversion tube wall having wavelength conversion material such as phosphor dispersed therein uniformly or non-uniformly. The tube need not be cylindrical. A semiconductor light emitting device is oriented to emit light inside the elongated hollow wavelength conversion tube to impinge upon the elongated wavelength conversion tube wall and the wavelength conversion material dispersed therein.
US09052414B2

This document describes various apparatuses embodying, and techniques for implementing, a virtual image device. The virtual image device includes a projector and a lens configured to generate a virtual image as well as two diffraction gratings, substantially orthogonally-oriented to each other, that act to increase a field-of-view of the virtual image. The virtual image device can be implemented as a pair of eyeglasses and controlled to generate the virtual image in front of lenses of the eyeglasses so that a wearer of the eyeglasses, looking through the lenses of the eyeglasses, sees the virtual image.
US09052413B1

A method, apparatus and system for, in a computing system, perturbing an initial three-dimensional (3D) geological model using a 3D vector field. A coherent 3D vector field including 3D vectors may be generated where each 3D vector of the 3D vector field is associated with a node of the initial 3D geological model and has a magnitude within a range of uncertainty of the node of the initial 3D geological model associated therewith. The coherent 3D vector field may be applied to the initial 3D geological model associated therewith to generate an perturbed 3D model. The perturbed 3D model may differ from the initial 3D geological model by a displacement defined by the 3D vector field associated with nodes having uncertain values. The perturbed 3D model may be displayed.
US09052397B2

The invention is a method of depositing a solid layer (1) of boron on a metal support (2, 3) intended for a neutron detection apparatus (0) characterized in that it comprises at least one step of depositing at least one layer (1) comprising boron on the metal support (2, 3) and a step of cold-pressing of the metal support (2, 3) with the layer (1) comprising boron.
US09052396B2

An apparatus for ultrasound harmonic imaging and method therefor are provided. The apparatus includes a signal transmitting unit, a signal receiving unit and an image processing unit. The signal transmitting unit transmits a linearly or non-linearly frequency modulated up-sweep signal and a linearly or non-linearly frequency modulated down-sweep signal to a reflective body. The signal receiving unit receives an inter-modulation component generated through coupling between the up-sweep and the down-sweep signal and a second harmonic component of the up-sweep or the down-sweep signal reflected by the reflective body. The image processing unit is connected to the signal receiving unit, and performs ultrasound harmonic imaging to obtain an ultrasound harmonic image according to the inter-modulation component and the second harmonic component of the up-sweep or down-sweep signal, so as to improve image quality of harmonic imaging.
US09052395B2

An amplitude modulated continuous wave range imaging device has a signaling device configured to emit an intensity modulated illumination signal. An image sensor is configured to capture a plurality of images of a reflection of the modulated illumination signal. The captured images include intensity and/or phase components for a plurality of pixels of the image sensor. Each pixel includes a first modulation terminal having a first capacitive component. A first driver is configured to charge a first set of modulation terminals of the plurality of pixels. A second driver is configured to charge a second set of modulation terminals of the plurality of pixels. A charge transfer circuit is connected between the first set of modulation terminals and the second set of modulation terminals. The charge transfer circuit is configured to transfer charge between the first set of modulation terminals and the second set of modulation terminals.
US09052386B2

An apparatus and method for the analysis of a sequence of captured images covering a scene for detecting and tracking of moving and static objects (86) and for matching (88) the patterns of object behavior in the captured images to object behavior in predetermined scenarios.
US09052384B2

A method of calibrating a transformation of ultrasound data in an imaging system from a first coordinate system into a second coordinate system, the method including applying a transformation having parameters. The parameters are calibrated by imaging a planar object, extracting points corresponding to ultrasound rays intersecting the planar object, and fitting the parameters such that the points when transformed by the transformation describe a planar surface in the second coordinate system.
US09052379B2

A reception system including a receiver coupled to a processing means, the receiver comprising a number N of antennas, each being able to pick up signals representative of incident waves and to deliver a pulse dependent on said signal, N being an integer. Said receiver includes: N delay lines respectively coupled to each of said N antennas, each delay line being able to delay the signal delivered by the antenna with which it is associated by its own time delay, a coupling means able to sum the N signals delivered by the N delay lines, so as to deliver an output signal comprising a series of N time-shifted pulses. The processing means includes a measurement means able to measure the signal delivered by the coupling means and to deliver as output a signal formed by measurement samples, representative of the N pulses delivered by the N antennas.
US09052378B2

A method for estimating position using WLAN access point radio propagation characteristics in a WLAN location based service is provided. A location-based services system has a plurality of Wi-Fi access points in a target area. The Wi-Fi access points are positioned at geographic locations and have signal coverage areas. A method of characterizing at least one of the Wi-Fi access points comprises determining the geographic location of the Wi-Fi access point, dividing the signal coverage area of the Wi-Fi access point into at least one section, and determining radio propagation characteristics for each section. The radio propagation characteristics of each section characterize a radio channel of the Wi-Fi access point, and the characterization can be used in a location algorithm.
US09052376B2

A method, including: receiving, at an apparatus, first and second radio signals from a first location; discriminating the first and second radio signals, in order to estimate a bearing from the first location; and estimating, using the bearing and constraint information which is independent of the radio signals, a position of the apparatus.
US09052364B2

Disclosed are an apparatus for diagnosing a relay contact of an electric vehicle and a method thereof. The method includes measuring a first voltage input from a high-voltage battery to an inverter; comparing the first voltage with a second voltage output through the high-voltage battery; identifying a detection time point of the first voltage when the first voltage is greater than the second voltage; and determining whether a high-voltage relay, which intermits an output voltage of the high-voltage battery, is malfunctioned based on the identified detection time point.
US09052363B2

A blade closing detector for an electric power switch includes a blade closing detector and an electronic or visual indicator. A first type of detector uses a gravity switch and a magnetic pickup to detect proper engagement between the blade and the switch. A second type of detector uses a sliding latch with a visual indicator rod to provide a visual indication of proper engagement of the blade within the jaws. A third type of detector uses a magnetic switch with a pivot arm and a dome shaped visual indicator. These detectors may be deployed individually or in combination and may be augmented with communication equipment to transmit switch status to a remote location. It will be understood that specific embodiments may include a variety of features in different combinations, as desired by different users.
US09052356B2

A semiconductor device structure is embedded within a semiconductor chip that calibrates a photon-emission luminosity scale by running multiple known currents through the device. The method comprises embedding at least one photon emission device in an integrated circuit having at least one functional device. A control current is applied to the at least one photon emission device. The photon emission intensity produced by the at least one photon emission device is captured. The current density of the at least one photon emission device is calculated. A test current is applied to the at least one functional device. The photon emission intensity produced by the at least one functional device is captured. The current density of the at least one functional device is estimated based on a comparison with the calculated current density of the at least one photon emission device.
US09052348B2

A rack system and method are provided for processing manufactured products prior to shipment. To simulate reality, the design of such rack system and method contemplates replicating field conditions for use of the manufactured products. A rack system for processing units of manufactured products may comprise one or more plates coupled to a frame. A preferred approach includes designing the rack for use by an operator without specialized skills. This approach includes verifying that there is a match between the configuration of the unit mounted on the plate and the operating mode of the plate before processing can commence. The rack may include a detector for obtaining data from the plate and unit and a processor for comparing the obtained data to determine whether there is a match. A rack system designed using this approach can be useful in processing outdoor units of a split-mount system such as a microwave radio system.
US09052345B2

A system for detecting a laser attack on an integrated circuit chip formed in a semiconductor substrate, including a detection device capable of detecting voltage variations of the substrate. The system includes P-type first wells and N-type second wells extending in a P-type upper portion of the substrate; an N-type buried layer extending under at least a portion of the first and second wells; biasing contacts for the second wells and the buried layer; ground contacts for the first wells; and substrate contacts for detecting a substrate voltage, the detection contacts surrounding the first and second wells. The detection device comprises a resistor having a first terminal connected to said ground contacts of the first wells and a second terminal connected to said substrate contacts; and a comparator connected in with the resistor configured to detect a potential difference across the resistor.
US09052343B2

An apparatus and method make use of a single shunt and two or more instrumentation amplifiers, switchably measuring voltages at the shunt. This permits current measurement. At times each instrumentation amplifier has its input shorted, which permits zeroing out many sources of offset in the signal path of that amplifier. Dynamic range is several orders of magnitude better than known current measurement approaches, permitting coulometry.
US09052337B2

Height control systems and/or methods are implemented for dynamic force tunneling microscopy and single electron tunneling force spectroscopy to improve their accuracy.
US09052336B2

An apparatus and method of performing physical property measurements on a sample with a probe-based metrology instrument employing a nano-confined light source is provided. In one embodiment, an SPM probe tip is configured to support an appropriate receiving element so as to provide a nano-localized light source that is able to efficiently and locally excite the sample on the nanoscale. Preferably, the separation between the tip apex and the sample during spectroscopic measurements is maintained at less than 10 nm, for example, using an AFM TR Mode control scheme.
US09052335B2

Disclosed are a MEMS sensor and methods to compensate a quadrature error on the sensor. The sensor detects movements of a substrate, especially accelerations and rotation rates. At least one mass arranged on the substrate and mounted to move relative to it is driven by drive electrodes. The mass executes a movement deviating from the prescribed movement due to a quadrature error. A deflection of the mass occurring due to Coriolis force and quadrature error is detected with detection electrodes. A capacitance change is detected as a function of drive movement of the mass by using compensation electrodes. A compensation charge dependent on the quadrature error of the MEMS sensor is generated on the compensation electrodes. For compensation, the distorted or incorrect charge generated by the quadrature error in the detection electrodes is compensated with the compensation charge.
US09052332B2

A pizeoresistive type Z-axis accelerometer is provided, including a substrate; a plurality of anchors formed over the substrate; a plurality of cantilever beams, wherein the cantilever beams include a piezoresistive material; and a proof mass, wherein the proof mass is suspended over the substrate by respectively connecting the proof mass with the anchors, and the accelerometer senses a movement of the proof mass by the piezoresistive material.
US09052327B2

The present invention inter alia provides a method, and use thereof, of predicting severe CVD complications such as AMI or CVD death by detecting the lipid concentrations or lipid ratios of a biological sample and comparing it to a control and has identified specific lipid markers that are more specific and sensitive in predicting these CVD complications than currently utilized clinical markers. Also provided are antibodies towards said lipids, and the use thereof for predicting, diagnosing, preventing and/or treating CVD complications. The invention additionally relates to kits comprising lipids and/or an antibody thereto, for use in the prediction and/or diagnosis of CVD complications.
US09052324B2

The present invention relates to the field of therapeutic methods to screen for compounds on the basis of their ability to influence Wnt activity. The screening process is applied to both a physical library of a series of compounds and a virtual library of compounds that affect Wnt activity. In one aspect, the virtual screening process could be carried out where a permutational library of small peptides is substituted for the small organic molecules. The inventive methods may be used to empirically test for effects on Wnt activity and may also be applied to any pair of proteins involved in protein-protein interactions.
US09052322B2

In certain embodiments, the method may comprise: a) obtaining the antibody sequences from a population of B cells; b) grouping the antibody sequences to provide a plurality of groups of lineage-related antibodies; c) testing a single antibody from each of the groups in a bioassay and, after the first antibody has been identified, d) testing further antibodies that are in the same group as the first antibody in a second bioassay. In another embodiment, the method may comprise: a) testing a plurality of antibodies obtained from a first portion of an antibody producing organ of an animal; b) obtaining the sequence of a first identified antibody; c) obtaining from a second portion of said antibody producing organ the sequences of further antibodies that are related by lineage to said first antibody; and, c) testing the further antibodies in a second bioassay.
US09052308B2

Described herein are assays directed to determining the level of bioavailable or free vitamin D in a blood sample in a subject. The values determined for bioavailable or free vitamin D indicate whether the subject suffers from insufficient levels of vitamin D. Also described herein are methods of treatment for vitamin D insufficiency.
US09052297B2

A plurality of individual single column test elements are provided for use in a clinical testing apparatus. Each test element is defined by a single test column that includes a quantity of a test material, such as gel material or a bead matrix, including a cover strip used to access the contents of the test column. Individual test elements can be stored, retained and dispensed for testing patient samples.
US09052296B2

Systems and methods are provided for analysis and/or profiling of petroleum samples. The systems and methods allow for compositional analysis of samples using techniques that can be implemented outside of a laboratory setting, such as in a refinery or even at a petroleum or hydrocarbon source. The techniques are enabled by using desorption electrospray ionization as a method for generating ions for detection by mass spectroscopy. Desorption electrospray ionization can be used to generate ions for detection from a liquid or solid petroleum (or other hydrocarbon) sample with minimal sample preparation. For solid samples, the technique can also be used to identify changes in composition of a petroleum sample relative to a dimension of the solid sample.
US09052293B2

There is provided a test method for analysing a body fluid in which a test tape is used in a test device in order to successively provide analytical test fields stored on the test tape, wherein body fluid is applied by a user to the test field provided at a time and the said test field is photometrically scanned using a measuring unit of the device to record measurement signals. In order to increase the measurement reliability, it is proposed that a control value is determined from a time-dependent and/or wavelength-dependent change in the measurement signals and that the measurement signals are processed as valid or discarded as erroneous depending on the control value.
US09052292B2

A method of determining a concentration of nitrate includes mixing an acid with a first mixture comprising an aldehyde, a chloride and at least one of a nitrate sample and distilled water so as to obtain a second mixture. The second mixture is reacted with a phenol so as to develop a color in a third mixture after a reaction time. The concentration of nitrate is determined colorimetrically with the third mixture.
US09052288B2

Disclosed herein is a fluorescence measuring apparatus capable of determining whether accuracy of measuring fluorescence lifetime is deteriorated or not due to adjustment of the apparatus. The fluorescence measuring apparatus for measuring fluorescence emitted when an objects to be measured are irradiated with laser light includes: a laser light source that irradiates each of the objects to be measured with intensity-modulated laser light; a light-receiving unit that receives fluorescence emitted when each of the objects to be measured is irradiated with the laser light; a signal processing unit that determines a fluorescence lifetime using a signal of the fluorescence received by the light-receiving unit; and a determining unit that determines whether or not a fluorescence lifetime dispersion of the objects caused by amplification of the signal of the fluorescence performed by the light-receiving unit or by the signal processing unit is larger than a predetermined value.
US09052286B2

A fluorescence endoscope apparatus includes an illuminating portion radiating excitation light and illumination light onto an imaging subject; a fluorescence imaging portion acquiring a fluorescence image by capturing fluorescence emitted at the imaging subject due to the irradiation with the excitation light; a storage portion storing the fluorescence image; a return-light imaging portion acquiring a return-light image by capturing return light returning from the imaging subject due to the irradiation with the illumination light; an image-information extracting portion extracting, from the return-light image, image information that expresses the intensity of the illumination light; a number-of-integrated-images setting portion setting a number of integrated images so that the number is decreased with an increase in the intensity of the illumination light, based on the image information; and an average-image generating portion generating an average image by averaging the stored fluorescence images in a number corresponding to the set number of integrated images.
US09052283B2

A nanoconverter or nanosensor is disclosed capable of directly generating electricity through physisorption interactions with molecules that are dipole containing organic species in a molecule interaction zone. High surface-to-volume ratio semiconductor nanowires or nanotubes (such as ZnO, silicon, carbon, etc.) are grown either aligned or randomly-aligned on a substrate. Epoxy or other nonconductive polymers are used to seal portions of the nanowires or nanotubes to create molecule noninteraction zones. By correlating certain molecule species to voltages generated, a nanosensor may quickly identify which species is detected. Nanoconverters in a series parallel arrangement may be constructed in planar, stacked, or rolled arrays to supply power to nano- and micro-devices without use of external batteries. In some cases breath, from human or other life forms, contain sufficient molecules to power a nanoconverter. A membrane permeable to certain molecules around the molecule interaction zone increases specific molecule nanosensor selectivity response.
US09052280B2

A deterioration diagnosis device, which performs a deterioration diagnosis of a catalyst, includes an exhaust-gas sensor provided downstream of the catalyst in a flow direction of exhaust gas such that an output value of the exhaust-gas sensor is used at least in the deterioration diagnosis. The deterioration diagnosis device further includes the constant current supply portion which applies a voltage to a sensor element of the exhaust-gas sensor to change an output characteristic of the exhaust-gas sensor, a response-time detection portion which detects a response time required for the output value of the exhaust-gas sensor to change from a rich threshold to a lean threshold, a response-time correction portion which controls the constant current supply portion to change the output characteristic of the exhaust-gas sensor so as to shorten the response time when the response time is longer than a predetermined reference time.
US09052275B2

Devices, systems, and methods for detecting molecules of interest within a collected sample are described herein. In certain embodiments, self-contained sample analysis systems are disclosed, which include a reusable reader component, a disposable cartridge component, and a disposable sample collection component. In some embodiments, the reader component communicates with a remote computing device for the digital transmission of test protocols and test results. In various disclosed embodiments, the systems, components, and methods are configured to identify the presence, absence, and/or quantity of particular nucleic acids, proteins, or other analytes of interest, for example, in order to test for the presence of one or more pathogens or contaminants in a sample.
US09052274B2

A method for operating a laser spectrometer includes passing light of a semiconductor laser through a gas mixture containing a gas component and through an etalon structure onto a detector. The method also includes varying an injection current of the laser based on a predefined current-time function in order to tune the wavelength of the laser in a tuning range using a specific absorption line of the gas component. The method further includes modulating the function with a modulation signal having a frequency and alternately a first modulation amplitude and a second modulation amplitude. The method also includes evaluating a detector signal generated by the detector for determining (1) the concentration of the gas component upon the modulation with the first modulation amplitude and (2) the wavelength stabilization of the laser upon the modulation with the second modulation amplitude at the second harmonic of the frequency.
US09052272B2

The invention relates to an analysis device comprising a main enclosure fitted with a secondary enclosure, a microprobe placed inside the main enclosure and fitted with an airlock and with a motion object, and a movable sample support that is movable from the secondary enclosure to the airlock and from the airlock to the motion object. Each of the airlock and the motion object includes a respective guide member for guiding the movable sample support and a respective sensor for detecting the presence of the movable sample support.
US09052270B2

The invention relates to a heatable gas sensor for gases containing reducing substances, comprising a gas-sensitive porous metal oxide and electrical elements spaced apart from one another both for heating the metal oxide and for measuring a conductivity of the metal oxide, wherein each electrical element is spatially embedded in the metal oxide. The invention further relates to a method for producing the gas sensor.
US09052266B2

An X-ray CT apparatus includes: a detector that detects X-rays that have passed through a subject; a data acquiring unit that, for each of predetermined energy bands, counts photons having an energy level included in the predetermined energy band, from among photons derived from the X-rays detected by the detector; an acquisition controlling unit that controls the data acquiring unit in such a manner that energy bands including energy levels which the photons representing substances that are not of interest have are each larger than an energy band including an energy level which the photons representing a substance of interest have, in accordance with an image taking condition under which an image taking process is performed on the subject; and an image reconstructing unit that reconstructs an X-ray CT image by using a counting result obtained by the data acquiring unit controlled by the acquisition controlling unit.
US09052263B2

A method is provided for selectively detecting the presence and concentration of at least four analytes in a mixture. In certain embodiments, the method comprises contacting a single sensor with the mixture of analytes, wherein the sensor comprises at least one resonant sensor circuit comprising a sensing material that comprises at least two material properties that change in the presence of four or more analytes in their mixtures, and generating a multivariate sensor response pattern. The methods disclosed herein further optionally comprise performing analyte classification and analyte quantitation. Methods for selectively detecting the concentration of at least one analyte in a mixture further comprising at least one interference are also described in the instant application.
US09052254B2

Apparatus and methods are provided for evidence specimen collection having integral reagent holders to hold reagent vials and having drying agent or desiccant holding areas that permit the renewal of the desiccant and permit the introduction of variously size desiccant qualities to allow modulation of the specimen drying time to achieve early stabilization of specimens while holding the specimen in an isolated drying area during storage and shipment and for simultaneous collection of multiple evidence samples with simultaneous storage, drying, marking, evidence security and shipping provided and with the provision for simultaneous storage, drying, marking, evidence security and shipping provided for a control specimen.
US09052253B2

Method of determining at least one refractive characteristic of an ophthalmic lens, includes: a) placing the lens on a support having at least one prop element contacting one of the main faces of the lens in a contact zone area smaller than that of the main faces; b) lighting the lens placed on its support with lighting elements; c) capturing an image of the prop element of the support lighted by light rays that have passed through the lens, the image being captured in an image capture plane substantially perpendicular to an optical axis of the lens; d) in the image, identifying the image of the prop element of the support and determining at least one characteristic representative of the geometry of the image of the prop element; and e) from the characteristic representative of the geometry of the image of the prop element, deducing the looked-for refractive characteristic.
US09052252B2

Leak detectors can have a sensor configured to detect a presence of a working fluid externally of a liquid-based heat-transfer system. The leak detector can also have an electrical circuit configured to emit a signal responsive to a detected presence of the working fluid externally of the liquid-based heat transfer system. Methods of detecting a leak of a working fluid from a liquid-based heat-transfer system can include sensing a presence or an absence of a working fluid externally of a liquid-based heat-transfer system. The methods can include generating a tachometer signal in correspondence with a sensed absence and a sensed presence of the working fluid. The methods can include monitoring the generated tachometer signal.
US09052251B2

A system for determining longitudinal moments in a one-way joist floor comprising a supporting girder includes at least one computer configured to determine boundaries of at least one equivalent frame, determine a longitudinal moment within a column-beam portion of the at least one equivalent frame based at least in part on a vertical rigidity of the supporting girder, the column-beam portion having at least one column, and determine a longitudinal moment within a lateral section of the at least one equivalent frame based on the longitudinal moment within the column-beam portion, and based at least in part on the vertical rigidity of the supporting girder, the lateral section being lateral to the column-beam portion.
US09052247B2

A device and a method for evaluating signals from load cells with strain gauges (SG), which require electronic signal evaluation with very low offset voltages due to the small output signal. In order to be able to use inexpensive components as well, two different operating points of the SG are set in two consecutive measurements, each being determined by a single voltage reference. The voltage in the zero branch of the bridge circuit of the SG is amplified in a differential amplifier and digitized with an ADC. In this context, the reference for the ADC is derived from the operating point of the SG that is determined by the respective voltage reference. The digitized offset and the initial value of the load cell are calculated from the two measurement values in an arithmetic logic unit.
US09052244B2

Methods and apparatus enable monitoring conditions in a well-bore using multiple cane-based sensors. The apparatus includes an array of cane-based Bragg grating sensors located in a single conduit for use in the well-bore. For some embodiments, each sensor is located at a different linear location along the conduit allowing for increased monitoring locations along the conduit.
US09052243B2

A system, for use in protecting an active-material actuator from overheating without using a temperature sensor. The system includes an active material being transformable between a first state and a second state in response to a pre-determined stimulus, and being pre-tensioned to at least a pre-determined threshold, yielding the pre-tensioned active material. The system also includes a processing unit configured to perform operations comprising obtaining a value for electrical resistance of the pre-tensioned active material, estimating, based on the electrical resistance obtained, an strain value for the active material, yielding an estimated strain value, and obtaining an actual strain value for the active material. The operations also include determining a difference between the estimated strain value estimated and the actual strain value and determining, based on the difference determined, whether an overheating condition exists for the active material.
US09052241B2

A method for determining the temperature of an ignition coil (1), including a primary winding with a winding resistance (Rp), the primary winding being controlled by a control stage (2) with a foot resistance (Rsh), the method including the following steps: a) controlling the control stage in order to establish a primary control current; b) waiting for a predetermined time; c) determining the current Ip by measuring the voltage Vshunt and by dividing this voltage by the foot resistance Rsh; d) acquiring the value of the supply VB and the voltage Vice; e) determining the winding resistance Rp using the formula: Rp = VB - Vce Ip - Rsh f) determining the primary winding temperature using a temperature-resistance correspondence curve.
US09052239B2

A multidimensional spectrometer encodes frequency information into laser pulses so that a frequency insensitive detector may be used to collect data for a multi-dimensional spectrograph only from intensity information and knowledge of a modulation providing the encoding. In one embodiment the frequency encoding may be done by a conventional interferometer greatly simplifying construction of the spectrometer.
US09052232B2

A sample cell for a spectrometer, and a spectrometer using such a sample cell. The sample cell may include a housing having a reflective inner surface which is at least a section of a spheroid bounding a cavity. A lens system receives electromagnetic radiation from a source and directs a converging beam through a port in the cavity to a focal point inside the cavity, such that the beam undergoes multiple reflections on the inner surface before exiting the cavity. Arrangements for adjusting beam cross-sectional area and angle are optionally provided. Methods which can be performed on such an apparatus and computer program products for performing such methods are further provided.
US09052231B2

A bolometric detector of a terahertz electromagnetic radiation includes at least one bolometric microbridge suspended above a substrate by support and thermal insulation arms, so as to form a cavity between the microbridge and the substrate. The microbridge includes a radiation collection means for collecting the electromagnetic radiation. A resistive means is resistively coupled with the collection means. A thermometric means is thermally coupled with the resistive means. The collection means includes at least one pair of antennas each of the antennas being substantially parallel to the microbridge. A first antenna is capable of collecting the radiation according to a first polarization axis. A second antenna is capable of collecting the radiation according to a second polarization axis, different from the first polarization axis.
US09052228B2

A precision measurement dispenser provides for storage of a granular bulk material in a storage container that is preferably airtight. The granular material is held in a storage container which feeds a dispensing section that is preferably positioned within the storage container. The dispensing section selectively dispenses the ingredient by gravity to a weighting tray of a scale. The ingredient is dispensed by weight. The storage dispensing unit may also include a display and keypad for entry of a desired quantity of ingredient to be dispensed, and optionally which of plural ingredients to be dispensed. A controller can convert a requested volumetric measure to an equivalent weight measure, and dispense by weight in place of volume. The storage dispensing unit further optionally includes pressure control, temperature control, and/or humidity control on the storage container. The dispensing section uses screw, roll, vibration, or shuttle mechanisms for precise dispensing of material.
US09052216B2

A system to aggregate, filter, and share data for analysis receives first data from a first sensor, system, or server where the first data has a first protocol. The system samples the first data at a first sampling rate to generate first digital data, where the first sampling rate is substantially continuous. Further, the system transmits at a reporting rate that is decoupled from the first second sampling rate at least the first digital data over a network having a third protocol that is different from the first protocol. The network can be accessed by wired or wireless access and includes one or more servers in cloud configuration.
US09052214B2

In a navigation system for a motor vehicle, the navigation system includes an off-board navigation system that is spatially separate from the motor vehicle, a wireless communication connection between the off-board navigation system and the motor vehicle to transmit a suggested route for the motor vehicle and/or a map display of the environment of the motor vehicle from the off-board navigation system to the motor vehicle, and a man-machine interface arranged in the motor vehicle, to output the suggested route or the map display to an operator of the motor vehicle, in connection or together with an item of additional information, the provision of the additional information being accessible to a third party.
US09052207B2

A navigation system for use in a vehicle (402). The system includes an absolute position sensor, such as GPS, in addition to one or more additional sensors, such as a camera, laser scanner, or radar. The system further comprises a digital map or database that includes records for at least some of the vehicle's surrounding objects (400). These records can include relative positional attributes with respect to a reference axis (404). As the vehicle (402) moves, sensors sense the presence of at least some of these objects (400), and measure the vehicle's relative position to those objects. This information is used to determine the vehicle's instantaneous lateral offset (428) relative to the reference axis (404), and support features such as enhanced driving directions, collision avoidance, or automatic assisted driving. The system also allows new objects (408, 414) to be attributed using relative positioning, and thereby factored into the enhanced navigation features.
US09052206B2

A method and system for providing an indoor map representation are provided herein. Aspects of this disclosure provide a representation of an indoor map environment whereby navigable areas are represented by a series of convex polygons in adjacency relationships with one another. Image analysis may be performed on a floor plan image to identify navigable areas and to determine the boundaries of the polygons, such as by assigning one or more colors to navigable space and one or more colors to non-navigable space. Route-finding operations may be performed using the adjacency relationships to find a path from a source area to a destination area.
US09052202B2

An implementation of a system and method for using inertial sensor data to improve mobile station positioning is provided. Many mobile devices include an inertial sensor. These inertia measurements typically produce low resolution inertial measurements, which may be used to generate an uncertainty value and/or to select a positioning filter model. In some examples, this uncertainty value is used as a process noise input signal into a Kalman filter or similar filter. In some examples, one position estimate is selected from multiple navigation position filter models operating concurrently, each computing a separate position estimate. In these examples, a position estimate is selected based on either the uncertainty value or based on another characteristic of the inertia measurements.
US09052197B2

A method of providing navigation instructions in a locked mode of a device is disclosed. The method, while the display screen of the device is turned off, determines that the device is near a navigation point. The method turns on the display screen and provides navigation instructions. In some embodiments, the method identifies the ambient light level around the device and turns on the display at brightness level determined by the identified ambient light level. The method turns off the display after the navigation point is passed.
US09052195B2

Disclosed herein is an inertial sensor including: a membrane; first and second driving units provided in a first axis direction (an X axis direction) so as to be symmetrical to each other based on a predetermined point of the membrane to thereby vibrate while being expanded and contracted in the first axis direction; and third and fourth driving units provided in a second axis direction (a Y axis direction) perpendicular to the first axis direction so as to be symmetrical to each other based on a predetermined point of the membrane to thereby vibrate while being expanded and contracted in the second axis direction, wherein the first and second driving units have different vibration frequencies so that they vibrate while being expanded and contracted in the opposite manner and then vibrate while being expanded and contracted in the same manner.
US09052191B1

The present invention features a multifunctional bubble level with integrated laser distance measurer and tape measurer. The bubble level has one horizontal bubble tube, one vertical tube and one inclination bubble tube. A tape measure is removably attached to one end of the level and a programmable laser distance measurer is attached on the opposite end of the level. At least one grip handle slot is optionally disposed on the bubble level.
US09052186B2

An image processing system generates a correspondence mapping between an imaging system and a directional rendering system using first and second images captured to include and first and second coded patterns displayed simultaneously in at least partially non-overlapping views.
US09052182B2

A stylus abrasion detection method includes obtaining a measurement curve of a standard specimen in which an unevenness that changes periodically is formed on a surface, by causing a stylus to trace along the surface of the standard specimen, detecting a displacement of the stylus in a direction perpendicular to the tracing direction, and using the displacement for obtaining the measurement curve; performing a frequency analysis on the measurement curve; calculating an abrasion amount of the stylus from a result of the frequency analysis; and displaying the abrasion amount calculated by the abrasion amount calculation.
US09052168B1

A battery pack protection system is provided for use with an electric vehicle in which the battery pack is mounted under the car. The system utilizes a plurality of deformable cooling conduits located between the lower surface of the batteries within the battery pack and the lower battery pack enclosure panel. The cooling conduits are configured to deform and absorb impact energy when an object, such as road debris, strikes the lower surface of the lower battery pack enclosure panel. Further protection may be achieved by positioning a ballistic shield, alone or with a layer of compressible material, under the bottom surface of the battery pack.
US09052167B2

A rocket propelled grenade shield including a flexible net and a frame secured to the flexible net supporting the flexible net. Spaced hard points are attached to the net, the hard points including a base portion with a cavity therein and a plug received in said cavity locking each hard point to the flexible net.
US09052159B2

A system for determining the spatial orientation of a movable apparatus includes at least one optical angle-of-arrival (OAOA) sensor array, each of which comprises multiple OAOA sensors arranged to provide a 360° field-of-view (FOV). At least one sensor array is mounted on and has a known spatial relationship to a movable apparatus, the spatial orientation of which is to be determined. Point sources are located at one or more stationary positions within the FOV of at least one of the mounted arrays. An initial-north-finding/initial-vertical-finding (INF/INV) system determines the spatial orientation of at least one of the point sources. Processing circuitry coupled to the INF/INV system and the sensor arrays derives the spatial orientation of the mounted arrays—and thereby the spatial orientation of the apparatus—based on the angular positions of the stationary point sources detected by the mounted arrays.
US09052138B2

A freeze dryer processes bulk powder products. The freeze dryer freezes the product by mixing an atomized spray of product with sterile liquid nitrogen. The resultant powder is freeze dried in a vessel, and the vessel contents is agitated to maintain product contact with heated vessel wall and to prevent agglomeration.
US09052137B2

A process and an apparatus are disclosed for a compact processing assembly to recover C2 (or C3) components and heavier hydrocarbon components from a hydrocarbon gas stream. The gas stream is cooled and divided into first and second streams. The first stream is further cooled, expanded to lower pressure, and supplied as a feed between first and second absorbing means. The second stream is expanded to lower pressure and supplied as bottom feed to the second absorbing means. A distillation vapor stream from the first absorbing means is heated, compressed to higher pressure, and divided into a volatile residue gas fraction and a compressed recycle stream. The compressed recycle stream is cooled, expanded to lower pressure, and supplied as top feed to the first absorbing means. A distillation liquid stream from the second absorbing means is heated in a heat and mass transfer means to strip out its volatile components.
US09052134B1

A refrigerator turntable assembly facilitates access to items stored in a refrigerator. The assembly includes a shelf having opposed side edges. A pair of supports is coupled to opposed sides of a refrigerator. The side edges of the shelf are supported by the supports within the refrigerator. A base is positioned on the shelf. A bearing plate has a bottom surface coupled to the base. A top surface of the bearing plate is rotatable relative to the bottom surface of the bearing plate. A table is coupled to the upper surface of the bearing plate wherein the table is rotatable relative to the shelf.
US09052133B2

A moisture control system includes a cabinet having a mullion defining first and second compartments and openings within the mullion to provide selective communication between the compartments. An evaporator is disposed in the first compartment. A cooling bank is disposed in the second compartment in selective thermal communication with the evaporator, and includes cooling and condensing portions separated by a dividing member, and a fluid collector disposed proximate the condensing portion. A first cooling fan is disposed proximate the evaporator and configured to direct air across the evaporator and through the first compartment. A second cooling fan is disposed proximate the cooling bank and operable between an evaporator position in fluid communication with the evaporator and the cooling bank, and a bank position in fluid communication with the cooling bank. A panel assembly is disposed proximate the plurality of openings and operable between a plurality of positions.
US09052130B2

An ice making machine using hydrocarbon (HC), and particularly propane, as the refrigerant is disclosed. The ice making machine has components which have been modified in size, type and operation to accommodate the use of HCs, and particularly propane, in the ice making machine refrigerant system. Also disclosed is a low volume condenser especially designed for HCs, and in particular propane, to minimize the volume of flammable/explosive HC in the ice making machine refrigerant system.
US09052128B2

A cooling system of a vehicle with a fuel cell includes an absorbent circuit with an absorber tank, a regenerator tank, an absorbent pump and a first pressure reduction means and a coolant circuit with a condenser connected to a steam outlet of the regenerator tank, a second pressure reduction means and an evaporator arranged between a steam inlet of the absorber tank and the second pressure reduction means. The regenerator tank is designed to desorb the coolant in solution in the absorbent by absorbing a first quantity of heat and to introduce it in a vaporous state into the condenser. The evaporator is designed to evaporate the coolant while absorbing a second quantity of heat and to introduce it in the vaporous state into the absorber tank. At least one of the first and of the second quantity of heat could be provided by the fuel cell.
US09052126B2

A heat exchange circulation system includes a first and a second heat exchangers, an expansion device, and a compressor. There is a first flow path in the first heat exchanger and a second flow path in the second heat exchanger. The expansion pipe of the expansion device is connected to the second gas outlet of the second flow path and the first gas inlet of the first flow path. The compression pipe of the compressor is connected the first gas outlet of the first flow path and the second gas inlet of the second flow path. The first flow path, the compression pipe, the second flow path and the expansion pipe together form a heat exchange circuit. The liquid exists in the first flow path and the second flow path and the gas mixture circulates in the heat exchange circuit.
US09052117B2

A conveyor oven is provided. The oven housing has a substantially rectangular box frame, clad with a top wall and side walls downwardly depending from the top wall, and a bottom wall connecting the side walls, all defining an interior baking chamber. The baking chamber is heated by a heat source in excess of 7OO0F. An endless conveyor transports food items to be baked through the baking chamber. The oven has an intermediate panel ceiling assembly disposed within the baking chamber. The assembly has a plurality of ceiling panel holders mounted above the conveyor and spaced below the top wall, each ceiling panel holder substantially spanning the width of the baking chamber. At least one ceiling panel is held within each ceiling panel holder, which is exposed on both sides to the baking chamber for absorbing and distributing heat in the baking chamber.
US09052110B2

A converter exhaust gas recovery apparatus includes a furnace top oxygen analyzer that analyzes an oxygen concentration in exhaust gas on an exhaust gas path and on an upstream side of a dust collection position where dust collection is performed and a furnace top CO analyzer that analyzes a CO concentration in the exhaust gas; and a furnace bottom oxygen analyzer that irradiates the exhaust gas that flows on a downstream side of the dust collection position with a laser light and analyzes the oxygen concentration based on quantity-of-light changes caused by a light absorption of the laser light.
US09052103B2

A flashlight holder assembly includes a supporting base device having a follower which includes a recess, and a flashlight has one end portion for engaging with the recess of the follower and for being supported in an erected position with the follower, the supporting base device includes a carrier, and the follower is pivotally attached onto the carrier and rotatable relative to the carrier between a folded position and an opened working position. The carrier and the follower each include one or more outwardly extended legs which are contactable with each other for limiting the follower to rotate relative to the carrier and for allowing the legs of the carrier and the follower to be rotated relative to each other.
US09052102B2

An electrical interconnect system is comprised of at least one and suitably a plurality of thin body light sources, such as OLED panels, to be electrified. The thin body light source or sources have a thin profile and include a back side provided with surface contact electrodes for energizing the thin body light sources, which can be relatively large area electrodes for providing a relatively large contact surface area. A connector circuit supported by a thin body support structure is provided for making desired electrical connections between thin body light sources or to a voltage or current source when the thin body support structure is brought into engagement with the thin body light sources.
US09052101B1

The present disclosure provides a mounting device for mounting light fixtures into new or existing ceiling mounting openings. The mounting device allows new light fixtures to be retrofitted into existing ceiling openings by providing the appropriate interface between the light fixture and the ceiling opening. In certain example embodiments, the mounting device includes a ceiling coupling mechanism configured to secure the mounting device within an opening in a ceiling. The mounting device further includes a light fixture coupling element configured to couple to and retain a light fixture, thereby mounting the light fixture to the ceiling.
US09052100B2

A system for replacing an LED driver of an LED fixture without having to wire the LED driver to the LED fixture, wherein the LED fixture has a hood, a set of power supply wires, and a set of LED socket wires. The system includes a socket, an LED driver, and an apparatus for electrically, thermally, mechanically, and interchangeably connecting the LED driver to the socket without having to wire the LED driver to the LED fixture. The socket mounts to the hood of the LED fixture, is electrically connected to the set of power supply wires of the LED fixture, and is electrically connected to the set of LED socket wires of the LED fixture. The LED driver is electrically, mechanically, and interchangeably connected to the socket so as to allow the LED driver to be replaced without having to wire the LED driver to the LED fixture.
US09052092B2

Discrete flexible pixel assemblies can be hermetically sealed from the environment and can comprise unitary, self-contained replaceable modules which enable efficient, economical production of large scale, free-form electronic displays, signs and lighting effects for outdoor use. The method and means for producing hermetically sealed discrete flexible pixel assemblies can include encapsulation means, exterior encasement means, and cable connector means.
US09052089B2

A display panel includes a pixel group having first through fourth pixels disposed in a two-by-two matrix form. Each of the first through fourth pixels includes at least three subpixels. The first and second pixels have the same subpixel layout. The third pixel has a different subpixel layout from the first pixel. The fourth pixel has a different subpixel layout from the first and third pixels.
US09052084B2

A beam generating device emitting a first beam and a second beam and including a luminescence unit and a first reflecting unit is disclosed. The luminescence unit emits a main beam. The first reflecting unit reflects the main beam to generate a first reflected beam. The main beam forms the first beam and the first reflected beam forms the second beam.
US09052072B2

A flashlight includes a body sized to be held in the hand of a user. The flashlight includes a light source coupled to the body for emitting light when the light source is activated by a user. The light source is movable to emit light as directed by the user.
US09052056B1

A self-retracting hook device for positioning on or near a door provides support for grocery bags or the like while remaining in a retracted position against a surface when not in use. The device includes a mounting plate having a front face and a back face. A bracket is coupled to the front face of the mounting plate. An arm has a lower end pivotally coupled to the bracket such that the arm is pivotable between an extended position and a retracted position. A biasing member is coupled to the arm and the bracket, the biasing member urging the arm into the retracted position.
US09052054B2

Foldable pipe-in-pipe composite tubular structure having between pipes after rounding and hardening a filling material associating the layers to enhance the structure mechanical performance mostly in collapse resistance. Improvements are related to increase foldability by having at least one of the pipe made of two layers and in case of transportation on a reel in continuous length the capability of circulating most of the hardenable filling material when the pipe is still on the reel and in case of wellbore casing application the capability of connecting sealingly successive strings of casing
US09052051B2

An apparatus and method for internal repair of pipes and conduits, such as sewer pipes, pressurized water mains, water wells, and natural gas lines. The conduit repair apparatus includes a sleeve with locking mechanism to lock the sleeve in a tubular configuration. The sleeve is made of metallic or rigid plastic sheet having perforations. Some of the perforations are shaped like elongated slots and strips. A number of resilient O-rings are applied over the outer surface of the sleeve. A resilient membrane is applied over the O-rings. In one embodiment, a reinforcement band is used, and an additional layer of O-rings are included between the membrane and the reinforcement band.
US09052047B2

A quick connect coupler for use with a glass container molding machine is provided, for coupling a mold member to a mold moving member. The coupler includes a first coupler member that is configured to be coupled to one of the mold member and the mold moving member, and a second coupling member. The second coupling member is configured for being coupled to the other of the mold member and the mold moving member. The first coupler member includes a first coupler body and at least one grip member movable relative to the first coupler body between a second coupler engaging position and a second coupler release position. A non-threaded grip engaging member is movable between a grip engaging position wherein the grip engaging member holds the grip member in a second coupler engaging position and a grip releasing position in which the grip engaging member permits the grip member to move to the second coupler release position. The second coupler is selectively engageable with the first coupler member. The second coupler member includes a grip receiving portion for receiving the grip member when the grip member is in the second coupler engaging position.
US09052039B2

An extruded multiwall tubular structure formed from extrusion dies, the structure includes a core having a longitudinal axis and a first wall surrounding the core. At least one form extends helically relative to the longitudinal axis and between the core and the outer wall in supporting relationship therewith. At least the first wall and the at least one form lack residual strains, as a result of stress created by the manufacturing process, subsequent the structure exiting the extrusion dies. The core is concentric with the first wall.
US09052037B2

A method of and apparatus for the rapid deployment of a fracturing water transferring system, along with the rapid picking up and storage of such system after use. In different embodiments the method in includes the use of a tensioning system to retrieve one or more segments of lay flat hose.
US09052024B2

A pressure relief system and a non-intrusive, low chatter pressure relief valve for use with such as system are disclosed. The pressure relief valve allows excess pressure in a pressurized fluid line to flow through a flow return line to a fluid reservoir when the fluid pressure exceeds the valve's pressure limit setting. The establishment of a uniform channel between the valve stem and the inner surface of a housing in which the valve stem is slidably located, as well as the use of a vent and sight tube to remove air from the top portion of the housing upon a spring being compressed during the opening of the valve, reduces the occurrence of pulsation and vibration when the valve is cycled between its open and closed positions. When the valve is in its closed position, the bottom end of the valve stem is in close proximity to the inner surface of the main fluid passageway in the pressurized fluid line, but does not intrusively interfere with the flow of fluid through the main fluid passageway.
US09052021B2

A valve includes a valve body, a diaphragm dividing the inside of the valve body into first and second valve chambers and being displaced under a pressure of fluid, first and second openings in communication with the first valve chamber, and a third opening in communication with the second valve chamber. When a pump is not driven, the force applied to a side of the diaphragm facing the second valve chamber is greater than the force applied to a side of the diaphragm facing the first valve chamber, and the second opening is sealed by the diaphragm. When the pump is driven and the force applied to the side of the diaphragm facing the first valve chamber becomes greater than the force applied to the side of the diaphragm facing the second valve chamber, the diaphragm allows the first and second openings and to communicate with each other.
US09052017B2

A flexible flow control bushing is comprised of flexible, high temperature resistant, self-lubricating composite material and has a unique configuration, which, viewed cross-sectionally, before installation has a squared off sine wave configuration with a uniform amplitude and gap. A fluid seal arrangement is also disclosed.
US09052010B2

A half of a tooth right-angled cross-sectional shape in a tooth bottom side area of a tooth divided at a tooth bottom center is defined by a first involute portion extending from the tooth bottom center P0 toward a tooth surface, an arcuate portion connected smoothly to the first involute portion, a second involute portion connected smoothly to the arcuate portion, a third involute portion connected smoothly to the second involute portion, and a tooth surface connecting curved portion connecting the third involute portion and the tooth surface smoothly. Radii of curvature of the arcuate portion and the first, second and third involute portions are determined so that a stress variation width in a stress state of a so-called partly reverse state caused by tensile stress and compression stress generated in the tooth bottom side area of the tooth before and after the meshing of the tooth can be uniformized.
US09052007B2

A gear-shifting mechanism for vehicles has a crankcase, a gearbox and a reserved room. Because the reserved room is formed between a first case of the crankcase and a body of the gearbox, a shift lever can protrude out of the first case and is mounted into the reserved room to connect to a transmission between the crankcase and the gearbox. Besides, the shift lever also can protrude out of a second case to connect to a transmission opposite to the gearbox. As a result, the shift lever can output in two directions, applicable for the gearbox in left or right of the crankcase. An engine connected to the gear-shifting mechanism can be adapted for various vehicles.
US09051993B2

A chain link 2 for connecting two additional chain links 3, 3.1 hooked therein, for the formation of a round steel link chain, for example, a conveyor chain of a scraper conveyor, comprises two bends 4, 5 and two legs 7, 7.1 connecting the bends. On its external side facing away from its inner space 6, one or more functional surfaces 8, 11, 15, 15.1, 16 are present. The chain link 2 is designed asymmetrically with respect to at least one of its central planes in at least one of its two bends 4, 5 so as to form or enlarge one or more functional surfaces 8, 11, 15, 15.1, 16.
US09051989B2

A magnetorheological fluid-based hydraulic mount apparatus (20, 220) for supporting a vibration source on a base is disclosed. A main fluid passage (104, 304) extends between pumping chamber (64, 264) and receiving chamber (66, 266) for passing the fluid therebetween. Electromagnet coil (98, 298) variably generates a magnetic flux across the main fluid passage to variably change the damping stiffness of the mount. A rate dip track passage (120, 320) extends between the pumping chamber (64, 264) and receiving chamber (66, 266) for oscillating the magnetorheological fluid (68, 268) therethrough to decrease the dynamic stiffness of the mount apparatus (20, 220) at predetermined frequencies. A controller (108) applies a current through the electromagnet coils (98, 298) at the predetermined frequencies and frequencies relatively close to and above the redetermined frequencies for substantially preventing the magnetorheological fluid (68, 268) from flowing through the main fluid passage (104, 304) to force the magnetorheological fluid (68, 268) to flow substantially only through the rate dip track passage (120, 320) for preventing a sharp increase in the dynamic stiffness of the hydraulic mount apparatus (20, 220) from occurring at these frequencies.
US09051979B2

In a method for leak testing in an automated electrohydraulic clutch system in a motor vehicle, in which an electromechanical actuator controls the clutch travel of a clutch via a hydraulic piping system, in order that a defective system is detected reliably and rapidly, the leak in the clutch system is detected using a pressure measurement in the electromechanical actuator and compared to a characteristic clutch curve.
US09051967B2

Slide member is provided with an Al-based bearing alloy layer including Al and Si particles, and DLC layer laminated over Al-based bearing alloy layer. At least some of the Si particles included in Al-based bearing alloy layer are exposed on DLC layer side surface.
US09051963B2

A method relates to manufacturing a tubular link rod comprising a hollow body and, at each of the ends of this body, a connecting end. This method includes the following steps: a) manufacturing a one-piece component having the hollow body and a first end part that forms one of the connecting ends of a tubular link rod, b) assembling a second end part at the other end of the hollow body, and c) inspecting and/or machining an assembly zone on the inside of the hollow body, via a bore of the second end part establishing communication between the outside and the inside of the hollow body. This second end part forms the other connecting end of the link rod.
US09051962B2

A fastener for securing a wheel rim to a wheel hub having a screw connecting element, includes a fastener body and a rotatable upper stage lock element. The fastener body is configured to be screwed to the screw connecting element of the wheel hub and includes a coupling section and a flange section located at one end of the coupling section. The flange section includes an outer circumferential surface and a first positioning portion formed at the outer circumferential surface. The rotatable upper stage lock element includes a peripheral wall configured to rotatably mount on the flange section of the fastener body. A plurality of annularly spaced first and second grooves are formed in the coupling section and in an outer peripheral surface of the peripheral wall, respectively, so that a plurality of the first and second grooves can be aligned to define a key receiving surface by rotating the rotatable upper stage lock element. The design has good anti-theft effects.
US09051959B2

The present hanging caddy is comprised of a receptacle and a hook assembly. The receptacle includes a base, sidewalls and a back wall. The hook assembly includes a back member, top member and front member, with a first wedge proximate the front member and a second wedge proximate the back member. The first wedge, top member and second wedge form a vertical slot for accepting a beam. The front member, first wedge, second wedge and back member form a horizontal slot for accepting a beam. The hook assembly and receptacle may be separate components which fit together for use or, in the alternative, can be fully integrated together as one component piece.
US09051958B2

A bolt (1) includes a screw (3) and an insert (2) which can be inserted in the opening (19) of a wall (5). The insert (2) includes an insert head (6) and a shaft (7) including a recess (8), the insert head (6) and the recess (8) being configured such as to, after deforming the recess (8), crimp the insert (7) on the wall (5). The screw (3) includes a break ring (14) designed for engaging with the insert head (6), directly or indirectly, with a view to deforming the recess (8) by rotating the screw and thus to obtain the crimping, and designed such that, once crimping is complete, the ring breaks and releases the screw (3) from the insert head (6), thus making it possible to clamp an accessory (4) to the wall (5). The invention also includes an assembly method using a bolt (1) according to the invention.
US09051956B2

A retractable panel fastener includes a hold down mechanism that holds the screw in an extended position. A deformable ring around the outside of the retainer engages an inward facing lip at the bottom of a cap which is rigidly attached to the head of the screw. The ring is held in a groove on the retainer adjacent the bottommost travel of the cap. The ring may be composed of silicone.
US09051954B2

A tacking fastener for securing workpieces together to form a temporary assembly includes a stem and an elongated sleeve. The stem includes a head disposed at a proximal end portion, a tapered portion extending between the proximal end portion and a central portion, a break notch extending around a circumference of the proximal end portion between the head and the tapered portion, and a plurality of ridges and grooves disposed along a distal end portion. The elongated sleeve is disposed around the stem between the head and the plurality of ridges and grooves and configured to form a tacking rivet upon installation of the tacking fastener. The elongated sleeve is plastically deformed during installation to form a plurality of bulbs, thereby being capable of securing workpieces of varying grip length. The stem and the tacking rivet remain within the workpieces after the workpieces are secured.
US09051952B2

A support structure component is provided for a motor vehicle body and to a correspondingly configured motor vehicle body. The support structure component includes, but is not limited to a support element and a plastic fastening structure arranged thereon, which includes, but is not limited to a fastening element for fastening a motor vehicle component.
US09051950B2

A clamp includes a top portion having a mounting hole configured to receive a mounting bolt. The top portion also includes a clamping surface configured to contact a first structure to be clamped to a framing member. The clamping surface includes a number of teeth, wherein at least some of the teeth have different angular profiles.
US09051947B2

Devices, systems, and methods for reinforcing a traffic control assembly are provided. In some embodiments, a retrofitted traffic control assembly configured to reinforce a traffic signal assembly in high wind conditions is provided. The reinforcement devices include connection assemblies for reinforcing the portion of a traffic control assembly positioned between a traffic signal disconnect hanger or a traffic signal and an upper span wire, for example. In certain embodiments, one or more stiffening members may be placed in, on, or adjacent to a traffic signal and/or a traffic signal disconnect hanger to further reinforce the traffic signal assembly.
US09051942B2

A fan with a fluid diversion mechanism includes a fan frame structure and a vane wheel, and the fan frame structure has a containing space, an air inlet and an air outlet, and the fan frame structure includes a coaming plate having a plurality of diversion components, and an opening formed at any one of the diversion components and arranged in a direction towards the air inlet, and the vane wheel is installed in the containing space of the fan frame structure, so that when the vane wheel is operated, air current produced by vanes of the fan guides the air current entered from the diversion component to an external side of a retaining platform which is a leeward side, and the air current has an effective coverage for blowing a desired heat source and improves the overall airflow and air pressure of the fan.
US09051941B2

An axial-flow fan has a blade with a recessed part that is recessed toward a front edge formed in a rear edge of the blade. A rounded stress-relieving part is formed in a positive pressure surface side and a negative pressure surface side of a front-edge-side edge part of the recessed part as seen in a cross-sectional view of the blade.
US09051933B2

A vane pump is disclosed. The vane pump includes at least an inner rotor and at least one vane. The inner rotor is rotatably mounted in a cage and the at least one vane is configured in at least one substantially radial slot, the slot is configured in the inner rotor, wherein the slots and the vanes are arranged asymmetrically on the inner rotor.
US09051931B2

A disc pump system includes a pump body having a substantially cylindrical shape defining a cavity for containing a fluid, and an actuator operatively associated with the central portion of a driven end wall to cause an oscillatory motion of the driven end wall thereby generating displacement oscillations with an annular node between the center of the driven end wall and the side wall when in use. A heating element is thermally coupled to the actuator to maintain the actuator at a target temperature.
US09051920B2

A cable suspension arrangement includes a first suspension means for suspending the first plurality of cables at a nacelle; a second suspension means which is attachable to the nacelle; a second plurality of spacer plates each including a suspension hole and each including a third plurality of cable through-holes; wherein the second suspension means is led through the suspension holes; a fixing means for fixing the spacer plates at different positions on the second suspension means such that they can at least not lower their respective position; wherein the cables can be slidably led through the through-holes.
US09051916B2

A system for converting wind power to electrical energy has a peripheral frame, sails interconnected to the peripheral frame, radial struts extending from the hub to the peripheral frame, wheels mounted on the peripheral frame, electric generators interconnected with respective wheels, and a hub about which the peripheral frame is rotatable. The hub is in electrical communication with the electric generators. Sails may be interconnected with the peripheral frame on respective masts, each mast having a base and the mast being pivotable about the base. The electric generators may be mounted on a variety of locations, such as the peripheral frame. Each electric generator may be interconnected with a respective wheel via a belt, a chain or other mechanism. The system may include arrangements to generate electricity from sunlight.
US09051911B2

An engine assembly includes an engine structure, a crankshaft rotationally supported on the engine structure, a crankshaft isolator assembly and a belt. The crankshaft isolator assembly includes a hub fixed for rotation with the crankshaft, a crankshaft isolator pulley coupled to the hub, and a mechanical clutch. The mechanical clutch is engaged with the hub and the crankshaft isolator pulley. The mechanical clutch fixes the hub for rotation with the crankshaft isolator pulley during a first operating condition and allows relative rotation between the hub and the crankshaft isolator pulley during a second operating condition. The belt is engaged with the crankshaft isolator pulley and an accessory drive system.
US09051910B2

A valve assembly in an internal combustion engine fuel system includes a valve member movable within a valve body to contact a valve seat and block fluid communication between first and second passages. The valve seat and valve member each include a multi-layered coating having a harder metal nitride base layer and a softer metal nitride outer layer. The base layer is relatively incompliant to impacts between the valve member and the valve seat, and the outer layer is relatively compliant to the impacts and thereby deformable. Related methodology is disclosed.
US09051909B2

A system for safe storage and efficient utilization of a variety of fuel selections that range in composition and phase from cryogenic mixtures of solids and liquids to elevated temperature gases is provided for unique applications with various types of heat engines and fuel cells including hybridized combinations.
US09051889B2

An internal combustion engine includes an intake air compressor system and is fluidly coupled to an exhaust aftertreatment system having a particulate filter. A method for operating the internal combustion engine includes determining a total engine-out soot generation based upon a summation of a steady-state engine-out soot generation rate and an engine-out soot generation rate correction. The engine-out soot generation rate correction is either zero when the intake air compressor system is closed-loop controlled or a rate based upon a deviation between an actual boost pressure and an expected boost pressure from the intake air compressor system. The particulate filter is regenerated when the total engine-out soot generation exceeds a predetermined threshold.
US09051881B2

One embodiment of the present invention is a unique gas turbine engine. Another embodiment is a unique aircraft. Other embodiments include apparatuses, systems, devices, hardware, methods, and combinations for gas turbine engines and gas turbine engine powered aircraft. Further embodiments, forms, features, aspects, benefits, and advantages of the present application will become apparent from the description and figures provided herewith.
US09051878B2

An engine bearing compartment is provided and includes an engine casing defining a discharge pathway for a fluid to drain from the engine bearing compartment, a shaft rotatably disposed within the engine casing to define an annulus, a housing disposed within the annulus below an elevation of the discharge pathway, an impeller rotatable with the shaft and including a centrifugal element, the impeller being disposed within the annulus at least partially below the discharge pathway elevation whereby, due to impeller rotation, the centrifugal element expels the fluid through the discharge pathway from the annulus above the discharge pathway elevation and a circuit by which fluid expelled through the discharge pathway is communicated to an interior of the housing.
US09051865B2

The invention relates to a method for controlling a system for the treatment of exhaust gases in an exhaust line of an internal combustion engine. The method comprises estimating the molar ratio of nitrogen dioxide to nitrogen monoxide at the inlet of an NOx selective reduction catalyst based on cartography that is dependent on the residence time of the exhaust gases in an oxidation catalyst disposed upstream of the gas treatment means leading to a reduction of nitrogen oxides.
US09051864B2

A system and a process for storing an additive solution and injecting it into the exhaust gases of an internal combustion engine. The system comprises at least one tank for storing the additive, one pump equipped with an inlet and an outlet and that is capable of generating a direct flow (in injection mode) or a reverse flow (in drawing off mode), at least two additive solution suction points, and an injector, wherein a first suction point is connected to the pump inlet and is only active when the pump operates in injection mode, and wherein the second suction point is connected to the pump outlet and is only active when the pump operates in drawing off mode.
US09051863B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a flue gas purifying device that can efficiently decrease nitrogen oxides in flue gas. This object is solved by including: an exhaust pipe that guides flue gas discharged from a burning appliance; a urea-water injecting unit that injects urea water into the exhaust pipe; a catalytic unit arranged on a downstream side to a position where urea water is injected in a flow direction of flue gas and having a urea SCR catalyst; a first ammonia-concentration measuring unit that measures a concentration of ammonia in flue gas at a measurement position in a region where the catalytic unit is arranged; a second ammonia-concentration measuring unit arranged on a downstream side to the catalytic unit in a flow direction of the flue gas, to measure a concentration of ammonia in the flue gas having passed through the urea SCR catalyst; and a control unit that controls injection of urea water by the urea-water injecting unit based on measurement results acquired by the first and second ammonia-concentration measuring units.
US09051862B2

Described herein is a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst treatment system that includes a vanadium-based SCR catalyst contaminated with a water-soluble contaminant. The SCR catalyst treatment system also includes a water delivery system that is configured to apply water to the vanadium-based SCR catalyst to remove the water-soluble contaminant from the vanadium-based SCR catalyst.
US09051860B2

In an internal combustion engine, inside of an engine exhaust passage, a hydrocarbon feed valve (16), an exhaust purification catalyst (13), an aqueous urea solution feed valve (17), and an NOx selective reduction catalyst (15) are arranged in that order. A first NOx purification method which makes the concentration of hydrocarbons flowing into the exhaust purification catalyst (13) vibrate by within predetermined ranges of amplitude and period to reduce the NOx contained in exhaust gas in the exhaust purification catalyst (13) is normally used. A second NOx purification method which uses the fed aqueous urea solution to reduce the NOx in the NOx selective reduction catalyst (15) is used when the fed hydrocarbons exceed the allowable value.
US09051855B2

To achieve an intermediate lock state in a short period when an engine is stopped and improve the accuracy of confirmation of the intermediate lock state, an engine valve timing control apparatus includes a variable valve timing mechanism configured to vary engine valve timing, and an intermediate lock mechanism configured to restrict relative rotation positions of a first and a second rotor of the valve timing mechanism at an intermediate lock position for starting the engine. Upon detection of an engine stop request, the valve timing mechanism and the intermediate lock mechanism are driven and controlled for establishing an intermediate lock state. When a predetermined period from detection of the engine stop request has expired without detecting the intermediate lock state within the predetermined period, an engine stopping process is executed. Even after the engine stopping process has been executed, monitoring of the intermediate lock state is continued.
US09051851B2

A method and an apparatus recover heat and convert the heat into mechanical power in a drive system for motor vehicles. A working medium carried in a working medium circuit is evaporated by an evaporator integrated into the working medium circuit by waste heat from an internal combustion engine. The vapor generated is fed to an expansion machine coupled to the internal combustion engine, and the exhaust vapor from the expansion machine is then converted back into the liquid phase in at least one condenser. Accordingly at least one valve, which can be subjected to control by a control device, and a vapor accumulator are integrated into the working medium circuit downstream of the evaporator such that the vapor generated is fed into the vapor accumulator. The vapor stored in the vapor accumulator is fed back at least in part into the working medium circuit to drive the expansion machine.
US09051846B2

A positioning member for presenting a ring segment for a turbine wheel mounted to rotate about an axis inside a casing. The member presents: a fastener portion for fastening to the casing; a resilient portion forming a spring; and a bearing portion connected to the resilient portion and serving to bear axially against the ring segment such that when the member is mounted the ring segment is pressed axially against a portion of the casing by the positioning member.
US09051841B2

The present invention relates to a cooled turbine blade for a gas-turbine engine having at least one cooling duct (14) extending radially, relative to a rotary axis of the gas-turbine engine, inside the airfoil and air-supply ducts (12) issuing into said cooling duct, characterized in that the cooling duct (14) extends into the blade root (6) in order to generate close to the wall a cooling airflow moved at high circumferential velocity and radially in helical form and that in the area of the blade root (6) at least one nozzle-shaped air-supply duct (12) issues into the cooling duct (14) tangentially or with a tangential velocity component.
US09051838B2

A turbine blade of an axial turbine includes internal cooling fluid passages with radially outwardly extending passages connected to holes in the blade root. The holes are generally core printouts providing stability to the core during the casting process, but are not needed and need to be closed to guarantee the functioning of the cooling system. This is achieved by at least one covering plate. The plate is held by at least two slots located at the root of the turbine blade. Thus, the supply holes for cooling fluid located at the root section are closed by a simple mechanical device, e.g., a plate that does not require any subsequent brazing/welding operations. In addition, the plate is removable to facilitate inspection/cleaning, or further processing of the blade at service intervals.
US09051834B2

Systems, methods and devices for optimizing heat transfer within a device or system used to compress and/or expand a gas, such as air, are described herein. For example, systems, methods and devices for optimizing the heat transfer within an air compression and expansion energy storage system are described herein. A compressor and/or expander device can include one or more of various embodiments of a heat transfer element that can be disposed within an interior of a cylinder or pressure vessel used in the compression and/or expansion of a gas, such as air. Such devices can include hydraulic and/or pneumatic actuators to move a fluid (e.g., liquid or gas) within the cylinder or pressure vessel. The heat transfer element can be used to remove heat energy generated during a compression and/or expansion process.
US09051832B2

A sensor device and a method for the geoelectrical prospecting of the location, the (stratographic) arrangement, and the course of raw mineral deposits and of the adjoining rock delimiting these deposits, particularly in the continuous working of the mineral deposits, having a sensor head whose front surface forms the sensor measuring surface, and at least one electrode. The sensor head can make contact with a ground surface, and a central electrode and a plurality of outer electrodes distributed geometrically uniformly around the central electrode are arranged on the sensor measuring surface, the central electrode and the outer electrodes being electrically conductive and electrically separated from one another.
US09051821B2

Example microfluidic methods and apparatus to perform in situ chemical detection are disclosed. A disclosed example downhole apparatus comprises a microfluidic chamber to introduce a microfluidic-scale drop of a reagent into a formation fluid to form a mixed fluid, a flowline to fluidly couple the formation fluid from a geologic formation to the microfluidic chamber, and a detector to measure a property of the mixed fluid, the property representative of a presence of a chemical in the formation fluid.
US09051819B2

A flow control device and a method of controlling a flow, the flow control device including a flow path for a fluid therethrough and a material at least partially defining the flow path, the material operatively arranged with a surface energy less than that of the fluid for passively impeding an undesirable component of the fluid more than a desirable component of the fluid.
US09051818B2

Configurations and methods for subsea hydrocarbon production at high pressure wells are contemplated in which production control is achieved by implementing two choke valves in series between the wellhead and the riser. The first production choke reduces pressure from well pressure to a reduced pressure, while the second production choke further reduces the pressure from the reduced pressure to riser pressure. The first production choke is preferably coupled to the production tree, and the second production choke is coupled to production tree, a subsea pipeline-end device (e.g., PLET or PLEM), a well jumper, or a flowline jumper.
US09051807B2

A subsea completion for a well is presented that includes a tubing spool, a tubing hanger, a fluid coupling, an electrical coupling, a control system, a valve, and a production tree. The tubing spool includes a central bore, a side wall, and a fluid supply passage extending through the tubing spool. An electrical supply passage can also extend through the side wall of the tubing spool. The tubing hanger includes a fluid control passage. The tubing hanger can also include an electrical control passage. The control system includes a fluid control conduit to provide fluid to the tubing spool fluid supply passage from outside the tubing spool. The valve is connectable to the outside of the tubing spool to control fluid flow between the control system fluid conduit and the tubing spool fluid supply passage.
US09051805B2

Actuation and control of the deployment of a polymeric memory-shape material on a wellbore device on a downhole tool may be accomplished by treating a compacted or compressed polymeric memory-shape material with an optional deployment fluid to lower its Tg and/or decrease its rigidity, thereby softening the polymeric shape-memory material at a given temperature and triggering its expansion or recovery at a lower temperature. Recovering the polymeric shape-memory material may occur by its being exposed to a particular temperature range. Alternatively, the deployment of the compacted or compressed polymeric memory-shape material may be prevented or inhibited by shielding the material with an environment of a fluid that does not substantially lower its Tg, decrease its rigidity or both, and then subsequently contacting the material with a deployment fluid. The deployment fluid may be removed during the method.
US09051798B2

The invention relates generally to oil and gas exploration and production and, more particularly, to a system and associated method for producing hydrocarbons from multiple layers of subterranean formations, and the mixing or comingling of such hydrocarbons as necessary or desired during the production process. A subterranean tool is disclosed, having a plurality of tubular sections connected by a novel non-threaded linear connection system. An electrical passage can then be provided within the cylinder wall of contiguous sections permitting connection of electronics in different sections of the tool. Bushings and seals located in the electrical passage maintain an atmospheric pressure environment for electrical components inside the tool.
US09051795B2

A downhole cutting tool may include a tool body; a plurality of blades extending from the tool body; a first blade comprising at least one pointed cutting element thereon, the at least one pointed cutting element comprising a first polycrystalline diamond material on a first carbide substrate, the first polycrystalline diamond material extending away from the first carbide substrate to terminate in a substantially pointed geometry opposite the first carbide substrate; a second blade comprising at least one shear cutting element, the at least one shear cutting element comprising a second polycrystalline diamond material on a second carbide substrate, the second polycrystalline diamond material forming a planar cutting surface opposite the substrate; wherein, when the first blade and the second blade are superimposed on each other, a central axis of the at least one pointed cutting element is offset from a central axis of the at least one shear cutting element.
US09051785B2

Apparatus and methods for tracking a plurality of marine riser assets are provided. Part of a riser lifecycle monitoring system, the apparatus can include an oil and gas riser spider to connect a plurality of riser pipe sections during assembly of a riser pipe string. The riser spider forms an annulus around a first section of the plurality of riser pipe sections and supports the first section of the plurality of riser pipe sections during connection to a second section. The apparatus can also include a reader including an antenna arrangement to read a plurality of radio frequency identification tags, e.g., directional 125 kHz RFD tags, attached to or embedded within an outer surface portion of each of the plurality of riser pipe sections.
US09051783B2

A vessel for operating on underwater wells has a deck; a moon pool extending through the deck; a further deck elevated above the moon pool and having a hole; and a compensation unit, which is mounted on the deck above the moon pool, is arranged between the deck and the further deck, and is provided with a frame sliding along the deck, a support carrier moveable with respect to the frame in a direction substantially vertical and suitable to support items, and a driving assembly connecting the support carrier to the frame and suitable to be selectively set so as to displace in the direction the support carrier either in a heave compensation mode or in a elevator mode.
US09051781B2

A longer-lasting, lower cost, more powerful, all metal, mud motor than the presently available progressing cavity type mud motors for drilling boreholes into the earth. A mud motor apparatus possessing one single drive shaft that turns a rotary drill bit, which apparatus is attached to a drill pipe which provides high pressure mud to the mud motor, wherein the drive shaft receives at least a first portion of its rotational torque from any high pressure mud flowing through a first hydraulic chamber within the apparatus, and receives at least a second portion of its rotational torque from any high pressure mud flowing through a second hydraulic chamber within the apparatus. The mud motor apparatus possesses two hydraulic chambers, each having its own power stroke, and return stroke, and acting together in a controlled fashion, provide continuous power to a rotary drill bit.
US09051780B2

This invention relates to machine-building, more specifically, to the design and manufacturing of positive displacement motors various embodiments of which are used for hydrocarbon production.
US09051772B2

A finely adjustable wire holder includes a holder body fixed to a vehicle body; two nut parts disposed at both sides of the holder body, respectively, and having a wire penetrating therethrough; a wire end connecting end portions of the wires penetrating through the two nut parts to each other; and a fixer adjusting and fixing a position of the wire end positioned between the two nut parts.
US09051756B1

A collapsible sunshade (1) that uses a simple support structure and anchoring system to simplify the carrying, assembly and disassembly of the sunshade. The collapsible sunshade of has a substantially-rectangular shaped canopy (3) with one or more pockets (9) located near a rear edge (6) of the canopy. The pockets may be filled with sand to anchor the rear edge of the collapsible sunshade to the ground. One or more air vents (10) may also be located proximal to the rear edge to allow wind to pass through, thereby lessening the pressure of the wind on a bottom surface (8) of the canopy. A front support structure (18) and optional rear support structure (2) in combination with wind supports the body of the canopy, which acts like a sail in the wind.
US09051755B2

A system for creating decorative arches and columns of balloons or fabric without the need of helium balloons. The system comprises a baseplate to provide a foundation, a mounting pin upon which a starter pole can be mounted, and a plurality of extension poles to attach to the starter pole to create a column or arch of a desired length. Regular balloons without the need for helium can be tied to the poles as decorations creating an arch or column of balloons.
US09051746B2

A scaffold plank and toeboard system provides a fully integrated system where toeboards are easily securable to provide perimeter protection about different working platform configurations. The scaffold advantageously includes a series of securing ports that allow male connectors of the system toeboards, or male connectors of generic toeboard securing brackets to be appropriately placed for maintaining wooden, metal or other toeboard material that is basically fabricated onsite according to the material available. The scaffold securing plank also cooperates with other equipment, guard rails, plank support intermediary ledgers etc. to use the securing ports to simplify installation and securement thereof.
US09051744B1

The present invention is directed generally to tools that are made, at least in part, more durable, particularly one or more working surface(s) of the tools. For example, various tools such as trowels, knives, and scrapers may be made having at least a portion of their blades heat treated to make at least their working edges more durable and extend their useful lives. For example, in various embodiments, a putty knife, taping knife, or scraper blade may have at least one working surface or edge that has been at heat treated while an area of the blade where a handle is permanently attached is not heat treated.
US09051739B2

A modular flooring system is disclosed which is designed to support heavy loads while providing stability and ground protection. The invention contemplates a modular tile with fully integrated connector loops, receiver pins and optional metal cam locks located in the corners of the floor tile or along the tile edges. The tiles contain an overlap edge, which engages with an underlay edge on an adjacent tile. This arrangement allows the tiles to overlap at an angle other than 90 degrees, providing greater strength at the point where adjacent tiles meet. The underlay edge contains a liquid capture channel which traps liquids which may seep between the adjacent tiles. The tiles are also provided with longitudinal recesses which extend through the top and bottom surfaces to the surface below, allowing for ventilation that is critical for grass and turf surfaces. The modular flooring system provides increased strength and stability and protection of the subsurface.
US09051734B2

An acoustical reflector is provided. The reflector includes a top end, a bottom end, a first side, a second side, a front surface, and a rear surface. The reflector may further include a plurality of reflector rows, such as vertical reflector rows. Each reflector row may be formed from the top end to the bottom end and is substantially parallel relative to one another. The plurality of reflector rows may from a concave shape on the front surface of the reflector from the first side to the second side.
US09051732B2

An intermediate divider system for an exterior wall unit. The intermediate divider system allows for flexibility in aesthetic design of the exterior wall grid line pattern, while maintaining both wind load resistance and water-tightness performance.
US09051729B2

A reversible door assembly for use in a panel wall system includes a door frame assembly having first and second door jamb assemblies which are adapted to receive vertical slider members in a channel disposed along a length of the door jamb assemblies. The slider members are vertically adjustable within the channels and may include hinge mechanism such that either door jamb assembly can hingedly support a door member therefrom. As one door jamb assembly supports the door member between open and closed positions, the opposite door jamb assembly includes a vertically adjustable latch striker plate for engaging a door latch mechanism.
US09051728B2

A moveable and demountable wall panel system for defining an office space with a plurality of wall panels disposable in a substantially upright manner between a floor and a ceiling each having respectively a series of uppermost and lowermost deviations. The system includes at least one prefabricated frameless panel, the top edge of each panel being provided with a ceiling track configured for being removably insertable into a corresponding ceiling rail. The system also includes a bottom floor channel associated with each corresponding panel and being configured for operatively resting against the floor opposite to the ceiling rail. The system also includes first and second height adjustment assemblies associated with each panel and insertable into a corresponding bottom floor channel.
US09051725B2

A portable building including a set of walls, namely a rear wall, a front wall and a pair of side walls, and a set of trusses, engaged with the side walls which assist the portable building being able to transition between a collapsed transport condition and an assembled condition. The portable building further includes a roof portion that mounts over the set of trusses.
US09051723B2

An apparatus for bolting down a flange. The flange is operatively associated with a structural interface having an opening. The structural interface may be a toilet. The apparatus comprises a fastener assembly disposed through the flange slot, and the fastener assembly includes: a base configured to engage the flange; a bolt shaft with an inner bore, wherein said bolt shaft is connected to the base, and a fastener selectively attachable to the bolt shaft. The apparatus also includes a cap operatively configured to selectively engage the bolt shaft. A method of attaching a flange to a foundation is also disclosed.
US09051722B2

A bidet includes one or more water sources, a generally elongate wand, and a spray head. The wand is configured to communicate water from the one or more water sources to the spray head. The spray head is configured to spray the water received from water sources, and the spray head is also configured to releasably couple to the wand by being received through an upper surface of the wand into a receptacle thereof.
US09051718B2

An auto-powered mobile machine with controls for a riding operator and a system for carrying and making efficient use of a variety of attachable tools. Wireless radio communication from the controls to a lower tool may allow the swivel to spin any number of times without limitation. Hydraulic tool position controls are wirelessly coupled to a remote sensor that responds to a string datum line, a curb, direction of gravity, or GPS data.
US09051717B2

A material handling machine includes a linkage assembly connected to a machine frame of the material handling machine. The linkage assembly configured to transport material from a front side of the machine frame to a rear side of the machine frame. The linkage assembly includes a first and a second guide rails associated with the machine frame. The linkage assembly further includes a first boom and a second boom having one end pivotally connected to the first guide rail and the second guide rails. A first and a second lift mechanism are pivotally connected to the first boom and second boom, respectively.
US09051702B2

A flow control system of the present invention includes a movable riser slideably engaged with a stationary riser and having a flange. The stationary riser is interfaced to a downstream drainage system. The movable riser is made buoyant by one or more floats such that, as the water level around the flow control system changes, the movable riser follows the changes based upon the buoyancy of the float(s), thereby maintaining the flange at a constant depth. The gap between an upper edge of the flange and the inner perimeter of the stationary riser coupled with an area of the gap defines a flow rate that is constant. Vents couple an inner cavity of the movable riser to air above the fluid, the inner cavity being in communication with the drainage system as well.
US09051692B2

Wood pulp is treated with an esterase formulation in combination with a metal ion or cationic polymer to increase the stability or activity or both of esterase enzymes at high temperature, or at extreme pH ranges of acidic and alkaline conditions. The treatment by esterase together with metals ion or cationic polymer can be used to treat pitch containing pulp at high temperatures prior to, during or after refining of wood chip/pulp, in order to enhance the reduction of pitch problems and facilitate in the manufacture of paper.
US09051691B2

A method of making a wiper/towel product includes compactively dewatering a nascent web having cellulosic microfibers and an apparently random fiber distribution. The dewatered web is applied to a transfer surface. The web is belt-creped from the transfer surface utilizing a polymeric creping belt having perforations. The belt-creping step occurs under pressure in a belt creping nip. The web is dried to form a dried web having a plurality of fiber-enriched hollow domed regions protruding from an upper side of the web. The hollow domed regions have a sidewall of a relatively high local basis weight formed along at least a leading edge. The web also has connecting regions of a relatively lower local basis weight forming a network interconnecting the hollow domed regions, and transition areas provided with upwardly and inwardly inflected consolidated fibrous regions that transition from the connecting regions into the sidewalls of the domed regions.
US09051687B2

The present invention relates to a process for production of paper, card and board comprising draining a filler-containing paper stock comprising at least one water-soluble polymer with sheet formation in the wire section and then pressing the paper in the press section, wherein a paper stock having a fibrous concentration in the range from 20 to 40 g/l has the at least one water-soluble polymer added to it, then the paper stock is diluted to a fibrous concentration in the range from 5 to 15 g/l, the diluted paper stock is drained to form a sheet and the sheet is pressed in the press section to a solids content G(x) wt % or greater and G(x) computes according to G(x)=48+(x−15)·0.4 where x is the numerical value of the filler content of the dry paper, card or board (in wt %) and G(x) is the numerical value of the minimum solids content (in wt %) to which the sheet is pressed, wherein the water-soluble polymer is obtainable by Hofmann degradation of an acrylamide- and/or methacrylamide-containing polymer with or without subsequent postcrosslinking.
US09051686B2

A method for modifying the physical and/or chemical characteristics of a web of paper material includes the steps of causing a web of paper material, having a dry content between 1% and 90%, to adhere to an endless conveyor belt of elastic material, subjecting the conveyor belt and the web to at least one localized dimensional variation, and introducing at least one additive between the fibers of the web while adhering to the belt before or during the localized dimensional variation.
US09051684B2

A method to produce on a commercial scale, high aspect ratio cellulose nanofilaments (CNF) from natural lignocellulosic fibers comprises a multi-pass high consistency refining (HCR) of chemical or mechanical fibers using combinations of refining intensity and specific energy. The CNF produced represents a mixture of fine filaments with widths in the submicron and lengths from tens of micrometers to few millimeters. The product has a population of free filaments and filaments bound to the fiber core from which they were produced. The proportion of free and bound filaments is governed in large part by total specific energy applied to the pulp in the refiner, and differs from other cellulose fibrillar materials by their higher aspect ratio and the preserved degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose, and are excellent additives for the reinforcement of paper, tissue, paperboard and the like. They display exceptional strengthening power for never-dried paper webs.
US09051681B1

Embodiments of the disclosed technology are directed to a pocket square and/or methods of folding and displaying a pocket square in a customized manner. The piece of fabric employed may be of any size or design. In embodiments, the fabric has a design, which, when folded and displayed according to the disclosed method, gives a customized appearance. The customized appearance may be, for example, a replication of an insignia, ribbon, icon, medal, rank or badge worn by a service man or woman. The appearance may also be of a flag, club, fraternity, team, or other insignia that one may desire to display. In embodiments, the same piece of fabric may be used to form different design configurations and/or layouts.
US09051676B2

An apparatus for delivering additive into a clothes basket and cleaning remaining additive from an additive container are provided. The apparatus includes a clothes basket rotatable about an axis, a motor coupled to the clothes basket, a Venturi component, an additive container connected to a vacuum area of the Venturi component through a U-tube, a water inlet connected to the Venturi component through an inlet hose, an outlet hose connecting the Venturi component to the clothes basket, a valve controlling flow of water into the inlet hose, a valve controlling flow of water into the additive container, and a processor coupled to the motor and the valves, the processor being operative to manipulate the valve controlling flow of water into the inlet hose and the valve controlling flow of water into the additive container to deliver additive into the clothes basket and to clean remaining additive from the additive container.
US09051673B2

A method of conveying and treating a web, wherein the web is first conveyed over a transport surface and then over a rotating transfer roller at the end of the transport surface. The web is transferred from the transfer roller to a treatment roller at a spacing from the transfer roller. The conveying of the web is performed with the proviso and particularly a spacing a between the transfer roller and the treatment roller is set such that the web wraps around the treatment roller over a wrap angle α from 15° to 90°.
US09051670B2

An apparatus includes a processor and a memory. The memory is configured to store computer-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to perform processes including acquiring a plurality of first needle drop points, acquiring a plurality of blade directions of a plurality of cutting needles, specifying a plurality of second needle drop points, calculating a first angular difference between a cutting line segment and a specific blade direction among the plurality of blade directions, specifying a specific rotation angle of the pattern, wherein the specific rotation angle is either a rotation angle of the pattern corresponding to the first angular difference which is smallest of the calculated first angular difference or a rotation angle of the pattern corresponding to the first angular difference which is equal to or smaller than a predetermined first threshold value, and generating cutting data.
US09051668B2

A circular hosiery knitting machine of the seamless type, comprising a supporting structure and a needle cylinder provided with a plurality of axial slots, each of which accommodates a needle which can be actuated with a reciprocating motion along the corresponding axial slot; a sinker ring being arranged around the upper end of the needle cylinder being provided with a plurality of radial slots, each of which accommodates a sinker, which can move with a reciprocating motion along the corresponding radial slot, each sinker being provided with a heel which protrudes upward from the corresponding radial slot and can engage at least one path defined in a sinker cover which faces in an upper region the sinker ring, the needle cylinder being actuatable with a rotary motion about its own axis with respect to the supporting structure and to the sinker cover.
US09051665B2

A method for screening biomolecules molecules is disclosed. One embodiment of the method includes inoculating an expression library or a portion of the expression library into an animal, monitoring the relative abundance of individual members of the expression library; and analyzing molecules expressed by members that show significantly reduced relative abundance after inoculation into the animal. Also disclosed is an expression vector and an expression library employing the vector.
US09051659B2

A doped silicon single crystal having a resistivity variation along a longitudinal and/or radial axis of less than 10% and a method of preparing one or a sequential series of doped silicon crystals is disclosed. The method includes providing a melt material comprising silicon into a continuous Czochralski crystal growth apparatus, delivering a dopant, such as gallium, indium, or aluminum, to the melt material, providing a seed crystal into the melt material when the melt material is in molten form, and growing a doped silicon single crystal by withdrawing the seed crystal from the melt material. Additional melt material is provided to the apparatus during the growing step. A doping model for calculating the amount of dopant to be delivered into the melt material during one or more doping events, methods for delivering the dopant, and vessels and containers used to deliver the dopant are also disclosed.
US09051653B2

The present invention provides a rolling bearing in which the peeling resistances of a DLC film formed on raceway of inner and outer rings and a sliding surface of a cage are improved to allow the intrinsic properties of the DLC film to be displayed so that the rolling bearing is excellent in its resistance to seizing, wear, and corrosion. A rolling bearing (1) has an inner ring (2), an outer ring (3), a plurality of rolling elements (4), and a cage (5). A hard film (8) is formed on a curved surface such as a raceway (2a) of the inner ring (2), a raceway (3a) of the outer ring (3), and the like. The hard film (8) is composed of a foundation layer, composed mainly of Cr, which is formed directly on the curved surface.
US09051649B2

Provided is a physical vapor deposition apparatus with one or multiple deposition chambers for depositing films on substrates. The deposition chambers includes a heater and various cooling features to cool the chamber, the heater and the substrate. The sidewalls and top of the chamber are cooled by a cooling feature. The heater includes a cooling plate. A fitted heated cover is disposed between the heater and the substrate. A cooling pipe delivers a coolant throughout the cooling plate and extends in a high spatial density throughout the surface of the cooling plate. The cooling pipe occupies an area of about 14-20% of the area of the cooling plate and no location on the cooling plate surface is greater than about 15-20 mm from the cooling pipe. The cooling pipe cools the heater rapidly and enables deposition operations of long duration and using high power to be carried out.
US09051645B2

Provided are a barrier film for a semiconductor wiring containing Ni with its remainder being W and unavoidable impurities and having a composition of WxNiy (70≦x≦90, 10≦y≦30 unit: atomic percent), and a sintered compact sputtering target for forming a barrier film for a semiconductor wiring containing Ni with its remainder being W and unavoidable impurities and having a composition of WxNiy (70≦x≦90, 10≦y≦30, unit: atomic percent), and comprising a target structure configured from a W matrix and Ni particles existing therein and in which W is diffused in the Ni particles. The present invention aims to provide a sputtering target that is particularly effective for use in forming a barrier film in which the target itself has the same composition as the barrier film without depending on the nitriding reaction in the sputtering process, which is capable of effectively preventing the reaction of a semiconductor device, which is free from the generation of particles in the sputtering process, and which yields superior characteristics upon forming the barrier film, as well as a method of producing such a target.
US09051643B2

The present invention relates to a process for metallizing nonconductive plastics using etching solutions free of hexavalent chromium. The etching solutions are based on permanganate solutions. After the treatment of the plastics with the etching solutions, the plastics are metallized by means of known processes.
US09051640B2

An embodiment of the disclosed technology discloses a transparent conductive thin film and a method of manufacturing the same. The embodiment of the disclosed technology employs tin (II) oxalate (Sn2C2O4) as a raw material, acetic acid and ammonia as complex agents to form a neutral complex system with a pH=6.5˜7.5, and trifluoroacetic acid as dopant to form a stable doping of F ions, and has a high doping efficiency.
US09051621B2

A modified material for use with a capacitive touch screen is described. The modified material comprises a material impregnated with a composition comprising either a non-metallic and/or a metallic conductive agent with a binder. A variety of materials are contemplated, including, but not limited to leather. Also described is an apparatus and method of providing a conductive glove is disclosed.
US09051619B2

Provided are methods and compositions for determining an increased likelihood of prostate cancer cells in a subject to metastasize.
US09051618B2

The present invention provides novel methods and compositions for the diagnosis and treatment of solid cancers. The invention also provides methods of identifying inhibitors of tumorigenesis.
US09051612B2

The invention provides nucleoside and nucleotide molecules containing cleavable linkers linking a label such as a dye. The invention also provides nucleosides and nucleotide molecules containing a blocking group, either removable or non-removable. The invention additionally provides methods of using the nucleoside and nucleotide molecules containing a cleavable linker and/or a blocking group.
US09051609B2

Methods for sequencing a biopolymer by forming local ternary complexes along the length of the double-stranded biopolymer target molecule using one or more probes and obtaining information about the location of the probe(s) using a detector. These methods offer particular advantage when implemented with nanopore (including micropore) detection systems.
US09051608B2

The present invention is directed in part to a method for detecting a target nucleic acid using detector oligonucleotides detectable by mass spectrometry. This method takes advantage of the 5′ to 3′ nuclease activity of a nucleic acid polymerase to cleave annealed oligonucleotide probes from hybridized duplexes and releases labels for detection by mass spectrometry. This process is easily incorporated into a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification assay. The method also includes embodiments directed to quantitative analysis of target nucleic acids.
US09051606B2

The present application relates to Multicomponent Nucleic Acid Enzymes (MNAzymes), which may be used for detecting, identifying and/or quantifying targets. More particularly, this application provides methods of designing and making more reliable MNAzymes, as well as compositions comprising MNAzyme components and methods of using MNAzymes.
US09051585B2

Process for producing C2+ alcohols from a methane-containing feedstock, by passing the methane-containing feedstock and CO2 to a non-oxidative reforming process to produce a product stream containing CO, H2 and CO2, optionally in the presence of steam, provided that where steam is present in the feed to the reforming process, the steam and CO2 are present in a molar ratio of less than 5:1. The CO, H2 and CO2 stream is passed to a bacterial fermentation step where it is converted to a liquid product stream containing one or more C2+ alcohols and a gaseous product stream containing CO, H2 and CO2. The fermentation step is operated to provide a conversion of CO of at least 60%. CO, H2 and CO2 are recycled from the gaseous product stream to the reforming process such that the H2 reacts with carbon dioxide in the reforming process.
US09051580B2

The present invention relates to the regulation of the natural defense system of plants through the introduction of foreign/native genes into plant cells, preferably into their genomes. More specifically, the methods relate to increasing citrus plant disease resistance by over-expressing genes involved in the innate plant defense system.
US09051579B2

The invention concerns a novel method for making herbicide-tolerant plants, in particular to HPPD inhibiting herbicides, the nucleic acid sequences coding for enzymes capable of being used in said method, expression cassettes containing them and transgenic plants comprising at least one of said expression cassettes.
US09051578B2

The invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or a variant thereof, wherein the variant encodes a polypeptide capable of modulating in a plant tolerance to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity. The invention also provides construct, vectors, host cells, plant cells and plants genetically modified to comprise the polynucleotide. The invention also provides methods for producing and selecting plants that are tolerant to at least one environmental stress selected from drought, cold, freezing, heat and salinity, making use of the polynucleotides of the invention.
US09051570B2

This invention is directed to oligomers composed of 2′-3′-seco-nucleomonomers and nucleotides or modified nucleotides, wherein the oligomer can be a microRNA and include from one to five 2′-3′-seco-nucleomonomers. The oligomers can have a sequence that is complementary to a target nucleotide sequence and be used for affecting the regulation of gene expression. Among other things, the oligomers can provide reduced off target effects.
US09051558B2

A method of culturing fastidious bacteria where a conditioned cell culture medium is prepared in which eukaryotic cells have been cultured, but where the medium is substantially free of the cultured cells. Fastidious bacteria are cultured in the medium. The conditioned cell culture medium can contain secreted factors from the cells. These factors promote the growth of the fastidious bacteria. The fastidious bacterial culture is maintained for a time period sufficient for the fastidious bacteria to multiply. The fastidious bacteria are analyzed using PCR, DNA sequencing or microbiology characterization.
US09051549B2

Methods are provided for the three dimensional manipulation of cells, and for the formation of an organized engineered cell tissue. Also provided are the organized engineered cell tissues produced by the methods. In one method, a plurality of magnetically labeled cells are mixed with a cross-linkable hydrogel to form a cell-hydrogel mixture, the at least a portion of the plurality of magnetically labeled cells are manipulated with a magnetic field to arrange the magnetically labeled cells into a specific cellular arrangement, and the hydrogel is crosslinked to form the organized engineered cell tissue. The approach presented herein offers a means to circumvent the deficiencies in the field of regenerative medicine, and allows for the production of organized tissues in situ with specific cellular organizations that mimic the native tissue.
US09051544B2

The present invention relates to a method to enhance cell growth in culture comprising adding an alkyl-amine-n-oxide (AANOx), such as dodecyldimethylamine oxide (DDAO), into the culture medium in an amount sufficient to improve cell growth.
US09051543B2

The present invention relates to cellobiose dehydrogenases (CDH) having glucose oxidation activity at a pH of 7.4 or above, modifications to modify the pH dependency of the enzymes activity, uses for these CDHs, in particular electrode sensors and electrochemical cells.
US09051535B2

Disclosed herein are compositions containing enzymes, particularly acting at the interface between two immiscible phases where the rate of enzymatic activity is increased by addition of a blend of surfactant(s) and a mixture derived from yeast fermentation, that contain non-enzymatic exo-proteins released by yeast in response to a non-lethal stress. The enzymes include those that work at the interface between an aqueous solution and a water immiscible phase, liquid or solid, such as oil, fat, cellulose, lignin, etc. including, but not limited to the following or combinations thereof: lipases, polysaccharase, lignase, cellulase and the like, in which the substrate of an enzymatic reaction forms a phase, segregated from the aqueous solution in which the enzymes are typically operating. Disclosed herein are methods for improving a washing solution with the use of these compositions, where the enzyme-protein-surfactant solution can be used in such applications as: laundry, spot remover, pre-laundry, dishes, hard surface cleaning, wastewater treatment, cellulose breakdown as in ethanol production, lignin utilization, environmental remediation, industrial cleaning, and agricultural applications.
US09051527B2

A fuel oil composition comprises a fuel oil in a major amount, which fuel oil has a mass % against n-alkane carbon number distribution curve characterised by: (i) a maximum negative gradient from carbon number 18 to carbon number 26 that is less than −0.30; and (ii) a ratio of the mass of n-alkanes of carbon number greater than 22 to the mass of n-alkanes from carbon number 18 to carbon number 21 that does not exceed 0.25; and an additive in a minor amount, which additive comprises at least one ethylene polymer which, in addition to units derived from ethylene, comprises units of the formula (I): and, optionally, units of the formula (II): wherein each R1 group and each R2 group independently represents hydrogen or methyl; each R3 group independently represents an alkyl group having 5 or more carbon atoms; and each R4 group independently represents an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and wherein the proportion of units of formula (I) in the or each ethylene polymer is greater than 13 and not greater than 20 mole percent, and the total proportion of units of formula (I) and of formula (II) in the or each ethylene polymer is greater than 13 and not greater than 25 mole percent.
US09051522B2

The invention comprises a gasification reactor which comprises a vessel having at its upper end a downwardly directed burner and a combustion chamber located in the upper half of the vessel. The wall of the combustion chamber comprises an arrangement of interconnected parallel arranged tubes running from a common lower arranged distributor to a higher arranged common header. The distributor is connected to a cooling water supply conduit and the header is connected to a steam discharge conduit. Both the steam discharge conduit and the water supply conduit are fluidly connected to a steam drum. The steam drum is provided with a supply conduit for fresh water and the steam drum is positioned at a higher elevation than the common header.
US09051518B2

A process for enhancing the froth quality, improving vessel operability and increasing the froth temperature from an oil sand slurry in a primary separation vessel is provided, comprising introducing the oil sand slurry into a separation vessel; retaining the oil sand slurry within the separation vessel so that separate layers of bitumen froth, middlings and sand tailings are formed; introducing sufficient heated water having a temperature greater than about 80° C. as an evenly distributed underwash layer beneath the bitumen froth layer; and separately removing the bitumen froth, middlings and sand tailings from the separation vessel.
US09051506B2

A hydration acceleration surfactant may be utilized in conjunction with high molecular weight polymers in forming high viscosity, aqueous based treatment fluids. Forming such fluids may involve mixing an aqueous base fluid, a hydration acceleration surfactant, a crosslinker polymer, and a base polymer, thereby yielding a treatment fluid, wherein the base polymer is provided in the form of a first polymeric emulsion before mixing and/or the crosslinker polymer is provided in the form of a second polymeric emulsion before mixing. Further, such fluids may be useful in subterranean operations to perform for at least one function within the wellbore and/or the subterranean formation including bridge a fracture, provide fluid loss control, seal a rock surface, enable fluid diversion, plug a void, reduce formation permeability, control water production, and any combination thereof.
US09051505B2

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for introduction of fluids comprising kiln dust into a wellbore through a bottom hole assembly. An embodiment discloses a method comprising: drilling a wellbore in a subterranean formation using a bottom hole assembly; and pumping a treatment fluid into the wellbore through the bottom hole assembly, wherein the treatment fluid comprises a kiln dust and water.
US09051504B2

A water-based polymer drilling fluid, containing effective quantities of surfactants having HLB numbers equal to or greater than approximately 7, emulsifies oil and bitumen contained in oil sand cuttings, resulting in the oil and bitumen being dispersed into the mud as an emulsion. This eliminates or significantly reduces the ability of the oil, bitumen, and cuttings to clog the well or stick to drill string components when drilling a well through oil-bearing sands, particularly sands containing highly viscous oil or bitumen. The emulsification process separates the sand particles from the oil and bitumen, such that the sand particles can be removed when the mud is run through a conventional shale shaker or other suitable apparatus.
US09051498B2

Epoxy resin compositions contain (i) a polyepoxide resin; (ii) a benzofuran diol component, a benzofuran di-epoxide component, or mixture thereof; and (iii) a curing agent, which upon curing, provides a cured resin exhibiting improved chemical and physical characteristics. The epoxy resin composition may also contain a toughening agent to further enhance the cured resin's physical characteristics.
US09051489B2

A polymer made by reacting a polyisocyanate with a compound having the formula below. R1 is an organic group. R2 is an aliphatic group. R3 is an aliphatic group. The polyisocyanate reactants are at least 50 mol % aromatic polyisocyanates. The reaction forms urea groups from the isocyanate groups of the polyisocyanate and the NH groups of the compound.
US09051488B2

Multifunctional primer formulations are disclosed for composite building materials, such as materials that are generally cementitious, gypsum, or of another inorganic building material, including those containing cellulose, glass, steel or polymeric fibers. The multifunctional primer formulations provide multifunctional action to the primer including an ability to function as a primer and sealer in only a single coating. Such formulations when applied to a suitable substrate provide excellent adhesion to the substrate and improve paint adhesion and performance when applied thereto. Superior properties over commercial products is particularly notable when the formulations herein are applied to substrates, such as fiber cement, that have been manipulated or sized by cutting (e.g., by saw or water jet), sanding, punching, and/or shearing.
US09051487B2

The invention relates to a hot melt inkjet ink composition, the hot melt inkjet ink composition being solid at room temperature and liquid at an elevated temperature, the hot melt inkjet ink composition comprising an acidic resin and a crystalline material. The invention relates further to the use of the hot melt inkjet ink composition as an etch resist and to a process for preparing an electrically conductive circuit on a support layer using the hot melt inkjet ink composition.
US09051481B2

An active energy ray-curable ink which contains: polymerizable compounds containing a monofunctional polymerizable monomer a homopolymer of which has Tg of 90° C. or higher, wherein a cured product obtained by forming a coating film having an average thickness of 10 μm on a polycarbonate substrate using the ink, and 15 seconds later, and applying active energy rays having a light quantity of 1,500 mJ/cm2 to the coating film to cure satisfies the following (1) and (2): (1) a stretchability of the cured product represented by the following equation is 2 or greater, when the cured product is stretched by a tensile tester at a tensile speed of 20 mm/min, and temperature of 180° C., and Stretchability=(length after tensile test)/(length before tensile test) (2) adhesion between the substrate and the cured product as measured by a cross-cut test in accordance with JIS K5400 is 70 or greater.
US09051477B2

A composite comprising a silicate material, such as, a sodium aluminosilicate, and titanium dioxide disposed on the surface thereof is disclosed, together with formulations comprising the composite and methods for preparing the same.
US09051453B2

A polypeptide solution of the present invention is a polypeptide solution in which a polypeptide derived from natural spider silk proteins is dissolved in a solvent. The solvent contains at least one selected from the following (i)-(iii): (i) DMSO; (ii) DMSO with an inorganic salt; and (iii) DMF with an inorganic salt. Further, in the present invention, an artificial polypeptide fiber is obtained by: using the polypeptide solution as a dope solution; and extruding the dope solution from a spinneret into a desolvation bath so as to eliminate the solvent from the dope solution and form a fiber to produce an undrawn yarn. Moreover, in the present invention, a polypeptide is purified by subjecting the polypeptide solution to heat treatment and thereafter removing an undissolved substance therefrom. Thus, the present invention provides the polypeptide solution whose solute has high solubility and solvent itself is low cost, and that allows dissolution at high temperatures and has high safety: a method for producing an artificial polypeptide fiber: and a method for purifying a polypeptide.
US09051445B2

A multipackage sponge-forming liquid silicone rubber composition that characteristically comprises at least (A) an alkenyl-containing polydiorganosiloxane comprising (A1) a polydiorganosiloxane that has alkenyl groups on both molecular chain terminals and that does not contain alkenyl groups in the side chains on the molecular chain, and (A2) a polydiorganosiloxane that has at least two alkenyl groups in the side chains on the molecular chain; (B) an organopolysiloxane that has at least two silicon-bonded hydrogen atoms in each molecule; (C) a mixture comprising water and an inorganic thickener; (D) an emulsifying agent; (E) a hydrosilylation reaction catalyst; and (F) a cure retarder; and is stored as a plurality of separate compositions wherein none of this plurality of separately stored compositions contain both component (A) and component (C), none of this plurality of separately stored compositions contain both component (B) and component (C), and none of this plurality of separately stored compositions contain both component (B) and component (E).
US09051432B2

The present invention relates to a process for the production of low-chlorine-content polybiphenyl sulfone polymers, to the polybiphenyl sulfone polymers obtainable in this way, to polybiphenyl sulfone polymers with less than 800 ppm content of organically bonded chlorine, to thermoplastic molding compositions and moldings, fibers, films, membranes, or foams comprising the polybiphenyl sulfone polymers mentioned, and also to their use for the production of moldings, of fibers, of films, of membranes, or of foams.
US09051430B2

A novel resin-transfer-moldable terminal-modified imide oligomer having a residue of a tetravalent aromatic tetracarboxylic acid and represented by general formula (1), and the imide oligomer contains an oligomer where n is 0 in an amount of 10% by mole or more. In the formula, R1 and R2 are a hydrogen atom or an aromatic hydrocarbon group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms, and one of R1 and R2 is the aromatic hydrocarbon group having 6 to 10 carbon atoms; R3 is an aromatic organic group surrounded by four carbonyl groups in the aromatic tetracarboxylic acid, and for a formula where n is 2 or more, Ras are optionally the same as or different from each other; and n is an integer of 0 or more and 6 or less.
US09051423B2

A coating is disclosed, comprising the reaction product of: an epoxy silane; and an oligomer comprising MFMEMS wherein MF comprises a fluorinated (meth)acrylate, ME comprises an epoxy(meth)acrylate, and MS comprises a silane(meth)acrylate. Phototools comprising a layer of the coating on a substrate can be made. A method of making a printed assembly such as a printed circuit board is also disclosed.
US09051421B2

A composition comprising a block copolymer that includes at least one polyester block and at least one linear polyolefin block, wherein the composition is in the form of a nano-structured, bicontinuous composite that includes a continuous matrix phase and a second continuous phase. The continuous matrix phase comprises the linear polyolefin block of the block copolymer, and the second continuous phase comprises the polyester block of the block copolymer. The composite may be treated to remove the polyester block, thereby forming a plurality of nano-pores.
US09051420B2

The invention is to provide polycarbonate resins having excellent light resistance, transparency, hue, heat resistance, thermal stability, and mechanical strength and to provide processes for efficiently and stably producing a polycarbonate resin which stably shows those performances. The invention includes: polycarbonate resins which at least contain structural units derived from a dihydroxy compound having the portion represented by the following general formula (1) as part of the structure thereof and which have specific properties; and processes for producing the polycarbonate resins. [Chem. 1] CH2—O  (1) (The case where the portion represented by general formula (1) is part of —CH2—O—H is excluded.)
US09051419B2

An alpha-halocarbo aromatic monomer or comonomer and/or an allyl halide monomer or comonomer can be reacted with aluminum or an aluminum-containing catalyst to form a polymer.
US09051414B1

A method to generate renewable high performance composites and thermoplastics. These materials can be generated from a renewable phenol (syringaldehyde) that can be derived from lignocellulosic biomass. The use of syringaldehyde as a precursor to composites has the potential to reduce the cost and environmental impact of structural materials, while meeting or exceeding the performance of current petroleum derived resins.
US09051408B2

A curable composition, and a material obtained by curing the composition, in which the curable composition includes a vinylester polymerisable compound, jointly with a sulphonated polyaromatic thermoplastic polymer, and an N-vinyl lactam, and which is characterised in that it further includes, a first non-vinylester polymerisable compound which includes at least one isocyanurate group bearing at least two (meth)acrylate groups; and a second non-vinylester polymerisable compound which includes at least one carbopolycyclic or heteropolycyclic group bearing at least two (meth)acrylate groups.
US09051407B2

Disclosed herein are polybutadiene grafted isoprene rubber, processes for preparing polybutadiene grafted isoprene rubber, mixed compositions and vulcanized forms thereof.
US09051403B2

A photosensitive composition includes: (A) a resin containing a repeating unit corresponding to a compound represented by the following formula (I); the resin being capable of producing an acid group upon irradiation with an actinic ray or radiation: Z-A-X-B-R  (I) wherein Z represents a group capable of becoming an acid group resulting from leaving of a cation upon irradiation with an actinic ray or radiation; A represents an alkylene group; X represents a single bond or a heteroatom-containing divalent linking group; B represents a single bond, an oxygen atom or —N(Rx)-; Rx represents a hydrogen atom or a monovalent organic group; R represents a monovalent organic group substituted by Y; when B represents —N(Rx)-, R and Rx may combine with each other to form a ring; and Y represents a polymerizable group.
US09051389B2

A cell culture media for growing transformant pGDF-5-Trc-transformed cells is provided for increased production of transformant pGDF-5-Trc-transformed cells. Also provided herein are methods of growing the transformant pGDF-5-Trc-transformed cells. The methods of growing the transformant pGDF-5-Trc-transformed cells as disclosed are cost-effective, time-saving and are of manufacturing quality.
US09051379B2

SP1 and modified SP1 variant polypeptides capable of forming reversible molecular associations with substances, compositions-of-matter comprising same, and uses thereof are provided.
US09051378B1

The invention relates to human targets of interest (TOI), anti-TOI ligands, kits compositions and method.
US09051372B2

Disclosed are CD70 binding agents, such as anti-CD70 antibodies and derivatives, that induce a cytotoxic, cytostatic or immunosuppressive without conjugation to a therapeutic agents, as well as pharmaceutical compositions and kits comprising the antibody or derivative. Also disclosed are methods for the treatment and prevention of CD70-expressing cancers and immunological disorders comprising administering to a subject the CD70-binding agent.
US09051365B2

The present invention relates to antibodies or antigen binding fragments thereof that bind to complement Factor P and used thereof as well as combinations of anti-Factor P antibodies with antibodies or antigen binding fragments thereof that bind to complement component 5 (C5).
US09051364B2

A composition includes D-peptides or antibodies to at least one of to prevent a disease and to treat the disease, wherein the D-peptides interact with an amyloid peptide and the antibodies bind to both the D-peptide and the amyloid peptide.
US09051358B2

This present invention relates to compositions comprising biological active proteins fused with extended recombinant gelatin-like protein (GLK), nucleic acids encoding the compositions and vectors containing the same, approaches involved in the preparation of the compositions and their pharmaceutical application in the treatment or prevention of diseases.
US09051356B2

The invention relates to a method for producing a protein molecule composition having a defined glycosylation pattern, comprising (a) introducing in a host cell which is an immortalized human blood cell at least one nucleic acid encoding at least a part of said protein; and (b) culturing said host cell under conditions which permit the production of said protein molecule composition; and (c) isolating said protein molecule composition.
US09051355B2

Provided are a filler for affinity chromatography which has excellent alkali resistance, and a method for isolating immunoglobulin. The filler for affinity chromatography is a filler in which a protein represented by the following formula (1) is immobilized on a carrier. R—R2  (1) wherein R represents an amino acid sequence consisting of 4 to 300 amino acid residues containing a region consisting of 4 to 20 contiguous histidine residues; and R2 represents an amino acid sequence capable of binding to immunoglobulin, the amino acid sequence consisting of 50 to 500 amino acid residues containing Z domain of Protein A or a fragment thereof, or a variant thereof, provided that the R binds to C-terminus or N-terminus of the R2.
US09051351B2

Small molecule, peptidic hepatocyte growth factors mimics, which act as both mimetics and antagonists, have been generated. These molecules have been shown or predicted to have therapeutic potential for numerous pathologies including dementia (e.g. Alzheimer's) and Parkinson's disease.
US09051347B2

A composition of matter comprising sophorolipids as antimicrobial agents, antifungal agents, biopesticides, for uses as drugs to treat HIV, septic shock, cancer, asthma, dermatological conditions, as spermicidal agents, as anti-inflammatory drugs, as ingredients in cosmetics and building blocks for monomers and polymers and self-assembled templates for further chemical elaboration.
US09051342B2

The present invention relates to methods, compounds, and compositions for treating or preventing diseases associated with nonsense mutations in an mRNA by administering the compounds or compositions of the present invention. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods, compounds, and compositions for suppressing premature translation termination associated with a nonsense mutation in an mRNA.
US09051330B2

The present invention provides novel dithiolopyrrolone compounds and their salts, which are useful as treatments for cancer and other proliferative diseases. The present invention also provides therapeutic compositions comprising particularly useful types of dithiolopyrrolones, the salts thereof, and methods of using the compounds within such types, particularly in treating proliferative diseases such as cancer.
US09051326B2

The invention relates to a compound of formula (I) in free form or in pharmaceutically acceptable salt form (I), in which the substituents are as defined in the specification; to compounds of formula (I) for use as androgen receptor modulators. The present invention further provides a combination of pharmacologically active agents and a pharmaceutical composition.
US09051310B2

The object of the present invention is to provide a compound and a pharmaceutical composition having excellent Syk inhibitory activity. According to the present invention, a nicotinamide derivative represented by the following formula (I) or a salt thereof is provided, wherein R1 is a substituent represented by the following formula (II-1), (III-1), or (IV-1) (wherein R3, R4, R5, n, and X1 have the same definitions as those described in the specification), and R2 is a pyridyl, indazolyl, phenyl, pyrazolopyridyl, benzisoxazolyl, pyrimidinyl, or quinolyl group, each of which optionally has at least one substituent.
US09051308B2

The present invention relates to novel heterocyclic alkanol derivatives, to processes for preparing these compounds, to compositions comprising these compounds and to their use as biologically active compounds, in particular for controlling harmful microorganisms in crop protection and in the protection of materials and as plant growth regulators.
US09051302B2

Disclosed are macrocyclic compounds of formulae I, I′, II, II′, III, III′, IV, and V, which are analogs of the pochonin resorcylic acid lactones, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds, and methods and uses comprising the compounds for the treatment of diseases mediated by kinases and Heat Shock Protein 90 HSP90.
US09051296B2

The present invention relates to aryl carboxamide derivatives of formula (I), wherein Ar1 is phenyl; Ar2 is aryl; n is 1-4; X is —O—, —S—, —SO— or —SO2—, a prodrug thereof or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, which have blocking activities of voltage gated sodium channels as the TTX-S channels, and which are useful in the treatment or prevention of such disorders and diseases as pain in which voltage gated sodium channels are involved. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the prevention or treatment of such diseases as pain in which voltage gated sodium channels are involved.
US09051292B2

The invention relates to polysultone derivatives used as precursors to radiolabelled macromolecules usable for medicine and in nuclear imaging. The aim of the invention is to provide novel prosthetic compounds or groupings, the synthesis of which is straightforward, easy and automatable, enabling access to economical and effective radiolabelled macromolecules. The aim is achieved by the invention, which involves compounds of formula 10 or 11. Said double-sultone derivatives are produced by opening the sultone rings using a nucleophile radical Ri which may be a radionucleide R* for one of the sultone rings and an active radical peptide Ra for the other sultone ring. The invention also relates to the method for producing the abovementioned compounds, as well as to the drugs or diagnosis products that the latter are capable of forming.
US09051290B2

Novel biaryl compounds with phosphodiesterase inhibitory activity of general formula (I) below, wherein R1, R2, R3, X, Y, Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4 have the meanings defined herein, as well as their use as therapeutic agents in the treatment of inflammatory diseases and conditions are described herein.
US09051289B2

The present invention relates to compounds of formula I wherein RS denotes F or CF3, Ra denotes H or C1-4-alkyl and Z denotes a leaving group or an optionally substituted or protected hydroxyl group, suitable as intermediates in the synthesis of indanyloxydihydrobenzofuranylacetic acids, which are GPR40 agonists, to a process for preparing these intermediates and to the process for preparing the GPR40 agonists making use of an asymmetric catalytic hydrogenation reaction in the presence of a transition metal catalyst and a chiral auxiliary.
US09051285B2

The present invention relates to specific acylhydrazone compounds, their use as oxidation catalysts and to a process for removing stains and soil on textiles and hard surfaces. The compounds are substituted with a specific cyclic ammonium group adjacent to the acyl group. Further aspects of the invention are compositions or formulations comprising such compounds.
US09051281B2

The present invention relates to substituted triazole compounds of the formula (I): and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, to pharmaceutical compositions containing them and their use in medicine. In particular, the invention relates to compounds for modulating SCD activity.
US09051279B2

The invention relates to substituted nitrogen containing bicyclic heterocycles of the formula (I) wherein Z is CH2 or N—R4 and X, R1, R2, R4, R6, R7 and n are as defined in the description. Such compounds are suitable for the treatment of a disorder or disease which is mediated by the activity of MDM2 and/or MDM4, or variants thereof.
US09051278B2

The invention provides compounds of the formula (0) or salts or tautomers or N-oxides or solvates thereof for use in the prophylaxis or treatment of disease states and conditions such as cancers mediated by cyclin-dependent kinase and glycogen synthase kinase-3. In formula (0): X is a group R1-A-NR4— or a 5- or 6-membered carbocyclic or heterocyclic ring; A is a bond, SO2, C═O, NRg(C═O) or O(C═O) wherein Rg is hydrogen or C1-4 hydrocarbyl optionally substituted by hydroxy or C1-4 alkoxy; Y is a bond or an alkylene chain of 1, 2 or 3 carbon atoms in length; R1 is hydrogen; a carbocyclic or heterocyclic group having from 3 to 12 ring members; or a C1-8 hydrocarbyl group optionally substituted by one or more substituents selected from halogen (e.g. fluorine), hydroxy, C1-4 hydrocarbyloxy, amino, mono- or di-C1-4 hydrocarbylamino, and carbocyclic or heterocyclic groups having from 3 to 12 ring members, and wherein 1 or 2 of the carbon atoms of the hydrocarbyl group may optionally be replaced by an atom or group selected from O, S, NH, SO, SO2; R2 is hydrogen; halogen; C1-4 alkoxy (e.g. methoxy); or a C1-4 hydrocarbyl group optionally substituted by halogen (e.g. fluorine), hydroxyl or C1-4 alkoxy (e.g. methoxy); R3 is selected from hydrogen and carbocyclic and heterocyclic groups having from 3 to 12 ring members; and R4 is hydrogen or a C1-4 hydrocarbyl group optionally substituted by halogen (e.g. fluorine), hydroxyl or C1-4 alkoxy (e.g. methoxy).
US09051275B2

The present invention relates to polymorphs and solvates of the hydrochloride salt of 4-[2-[[5-methyl-1-(2-naphthalenyl)-1H-pyrazol-3-yl]oxy]ethyl]morpholine (P027), processes for their preparation, and to pharmaceutical compositions comprising them.
US09051263B2

The invention provides a novel class of cyanine dyes that are functionalized with a linker moiety that facilitates their conjugation to other species and substituent groups which increase the water-solubility, and optimize the optical properties of the dyes. Also provided are conjugates of the dyes, methods of using the dyes and their conjugates and kits including the dyes and their conjugates.
US09051260B2

The present technology provides a process of reducing, removing or eliminating organohalo, glycidol, and oxirane species from carboxylic acid esters streams and crude and refined triglyceride oils to provide a carboxylic acid ester stream or triglyceride oil with reduced levels or essentially free of organohalo, glycidyl or other oxirane species. The process includes adding to the carboxylic acid ester stream or triglyceride oil an amount of a carboxylate anion and a cation counterion sufficient to react with the organohalo, glycidyl and oxirane species present.
US09051259B2

A process for producing a perfluorinated functional compound comprises the steps of: A) converting an at least partially hydrogenated alcohol into an at least partially hydrogenated ester compound; and B) reacting said at least partially hydrogenated ester compound with fluorine in the presence of at least one (per)haloolefin comprising at least one carbon-carbon double bond and having at least one fluorine or chlorine atom on either one of the carbon atoms of said double bond, to obtain a perfluorinated ester compound.
US09051249B2

The present invention provides compounds of formula (I): compositions comprising such compounds; the use of such compounds in therapy (for example in the treatment or prevention of a disease or condition in which plasma kallikrein activity is implicated); and methods of treating patients with such compounds; wherein R1 to R9 are as defined herein.
US09051234B2

Provided by the present invention is a method for producing an alkanediol, such as 1,5-pentanediol, with a high reaction selectivity thereto by reacting a cyclic ether group-containing methanol such as tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol by using a non-chromium catalyst not containing chromium atom. More specifically, the method is to produce an alkanediol having hydroxy groups at both molecular terminals shown by the formula (2), includes reacting a cyclic ether group-containing methanol shown by the formula (1) with hydrogen in the presence of a metal catalyst which contains copper atom, at least one co-existing atom selected from the group consisting of elements of the third to the sixth periods of the II to XIV groups (excluding chromium) in the periodical table and lanthanide elements.
US09051229B2

Phosphoranimide-metal catalysts and their role in C—O bond hydrogenolysis and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) are disclosed. The catalysts comprise of first row transition metals such as nickel, cobalt and iron. The catalysts have a metal to anionic phosphoranimide ratio of 1:1 and catalyze C—O bond hydrogenolyses of a range of oxygen-containing organic compounds under lower temperature and pressure conditions than those commonly used in industrial hydrodeoxygenation.
US09051226B2

A gas generating system includes a housing, a quantity of gas generant material positioned within the housing, and a quantity of booster material positioned in the housing spaced apart from the gas generant. A movable first screen is positioned in the housing such that the booster material is on a first side of the screen and the gas generant material is on a second side of the screen opposite the first side of the screen. The screen is structured to enable fluid communication between the first and second sides of the screen.
US09051216B1

Lithium compound functionalized carbonaceous materials are dispersed in a homogenous aqueous mixture. The mixture is dispersed in water used to mix cement and aggregate and remain dispersed in the cement. Spraying the aqueous mixture over cracked or damaged concrete surfaces fill the cracks or damages with the functionalized nanotubes. The solution solves problems of concrete permeability, eliminates alkali-silica reactions, avoids shrinkage and thermal stress and improves durability of concrete.
US09051215B2

A method and a device remove mercury from exhaust gases during a production of cement clinker. The device contains a pre-heating stage, a feed point for raw materials required for the production of the cement clinker, a rotary kiln for burning the raw materials, a filter stage for removing dust from the exhaust gases conducted in the main flow, and a raw mix mill for partially mill drying the raw materials. A circuit for the mercury in the exhaust gases is formed between the pre-heating stage and the raw mix mill or the filter stage. To achieve good mercury removal at low cost, a sub-flow of 1 to 30 volume percent of the exhaust gases is branched off from the main flow of the exhaust gases having a temperature of at least 300° C. A separator and thereafter at least one stage for removing mercury are arranged in the sub-flow.
US09051211B2

Titanium and aluminum cathode targets are disclosed for sputtering absorbing coatings of titanium and aluminum-containing materials in atmospheres comprising inert gas, reactive gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, and mixtures thereof, which can further comprise inert gas, such as argon, to form nitrides, oxides, and oxynitrides, as well as metallic films. The titanium and aluminum-containing coatings can be utilized as an outer coat or as one or more coating layers of a coating stack.
US09051199B2

A process for making soda-lime glass includes calcining calcium carbonate in solid phase and at elevated temperature to form calcium oxide in solid phase and carbon dioxide gas. Sodium silicate glass is formed and refined separately in liquid phase. The solid phase calcium oxide is dissolved in the refined liquid phase sodium silicate glass to form a soda-lime glass melt. Formation of sodium silicate glass as an intermediate product before mixing with calcium oxide has the advantage of promoting release of gaseous reaction products from the sodium silicate glass during the refining step due at least in part to the relatively low viscosity of the sodium silicate glass. One or more steps in the process can be carried out under reduced pressure to promote release of gases and to reduce bubble formation.
US09051196B2

A fluid treatment device includes a tank containing a fluid treatment medium and a fluid. A distributor plate is received in the tank and separates the bed from a lower end portion of the tank. A baffle is positioned beneath the distributor plate and is configured to direct fluid exiting a riser tube of the fluid treatment device toward the peripheral of the tank to thereby provide a more evenly-distributed flow through the radius of the distributor plate and through the fluid treatment medium. The baffle may have a downwardly facing concave surface that traps air bubbles generated during a brine draw operation.
US09051191B2

Provided is a lead-free dielectric ceramics having a low leakage current value, and a bismuth iron oxide powder as a raw material thereof. The bismuth iron oxide powder includes at least: (A) grains including a bismuth iron oxide having a perovskite-type crystal structure; (B) grains including a bismuth iron oxide having a crystal structure classified to a space group Pbam; and (C) grains including a bismuth iron oxide or a bismuth oxide having a crystal structure that is classified to a space group I23. The dielectric ceramics are made of bismuth iron oxide in which the bismuth iron oxide crystals having the crystal structure classified to the space group Pbam are distributed at a grain boundary of crystal grains of the bismuth iron oxide crystals having the perovskite-type crystal structure.
US09051179B2

A continuous method for functionalizing a carbon nanotube includes preparing a carbon nanotube solution containing a nitro compound represented by chemical formula 1 as R—(NOx)y wherein R is an alkyl group of C1 to C7 or an aryl group of C6 to C20 and x and y are integers of 1 to 3 independently, a carbon nanotube and a solvent. An oxidizer for forming a nitric acid selected from the group consisting of the carbon nanotube, oxygen, air, ozone, hydrogen peroxide and a mixture thereof is mixed with the carbon nanotube solution at a front end of a functionalizing reactor and the carbon nanotube mixture is fed into the functionalizing reactor. A functionalized carbon nanotube is prepared by treating the carbon nanotube mixture fed into the functionalizing reactor under a subcritical water or supercritical water condition of 50 to 400 atm.
US09051178B2

A transmissive light modulator including a first reflection layer; a first active layer, arranged on the first reflection layer and including a plurality of quantum well layers and a plurality of barrier layers; a second reflection layer arranged on the first active layer; a second active layer, arranged on the second reflection layer and including a plurality of quantum well layers and a plurality of barrier layers; and a third reflection layer arranged on the second active layer, wherein the first reflection layer and the third reflection layer are each doped with a first type dopant, and the second reflection layer is doped with a second type dopant, which is electrically opposite to the first type dopant.
US09051170B2

A microelectromechanical system device including anchors and mass is provided. Electrical interconnections are formed on the mass by using a insulation layer of mass, an electrical insulation trench and conductive through hole. The electrical interconnections replace the cross-line structure without adding additional processing steps, thereby reducing the use of the conductive layer and the electrical insulation layer. A method for fabricating the microelectromechanical system device is also provided.
US09051167B2

The present invention relates to a refillable keg assembly for use in dispensing beverages, in particular beer. The keg assembly comprises an outer shell, and a collapsible container for holding the beverage, positionable within the outer shell. A sealed cavity is defined between the outer shell and the collapsible container. A beverage outlet from the collapsible container enables beer to be dispensed from the keg assembly, and a gas valve allows gas to enter the cavity. The pressure in the container is maintained above atmospheric pressure, and when dispensing the beverage, pressure in the cavity collapses the collapsible container and forces the beverage out through the beverage outlet. A gas compressor is connected to the gas valve, and is activated by a pressure switch to maintain the pressure within the cavity. To refill the keg assembly, the collapsible container can be replaced, and a new collapsible container filled while within the outer shell.
US09051162B2

Embodiments of the invention can include systems and methods for consumer-dispenser interactions. In one embodiment, a product dispenser is provided. The product dispenser can include a user interface operable to interact with a consumer and receive at least one input from the consumer. The product dispenser can also include a controller comprising a set of instructions operable to receive a request from a consumer to dispense a custom product. In addition, the controller can further comprise a set of instructions operable to present via the user interface a at least one of a list of selectable product ingredients or adjustable product formulation parameters. Moreover, the controller can further comprise a set of instructions operable to dispense a product based at least in part on one or more of the selectable ingredients or selected formulation parameters.
US09051160B2

An electric capstan that is able to save power and make use more convenient. The electric capstan includes an air pump, a motor, a reduction gear and a winching roller, and further includes an engagement-disengagement gear, wherein the input shaft of the air pump is connected to or separated from the output shaft of the motor by the engagement-disengagement gear.
US09051152B2

A device for winding up a thread is described. The device has at least one spool spindle that can be driven and includes a spool housing with a thread catching device associated with the spool housing. The spool spindle is associated with a changing device for guiding the thread back and forth and an auxiliary device for guiding the thread when catching and laying down the thread. The auxiliary device includes at least one moveable metal guide having a guide edge or a guide groove for guiding the thread, such that the moveable guide can be guided between a transfer position in the area of the changing device and a parking position to the side next to the changing device. A stationary pin thread guide may be associated with the moveable guide in the parking position.
US09051150B2

Systems and methods for allowing existing rotary printing press units to produce smaller pages at a faster rate of speed without having to replace the press unit. Specifically, the systems and methods relate to retrofitting an existing press unit to produce three pages of material in each full rotation instead of the traditional two pages.
US09051126B2

An auger assembly for transporting bulk material includes an auger rotatably mounted in a tube. A toothed belt drive pulley is secured to a drive shaft and is rotatably driven about a drive pulley rotational axis. The drive shaft is generally parallel to the auger. A toothed belt driven pulley is secured to the auger for rotation therewith about a driven pulley rotational axis. A toothed belt extends around the driven pulley and the drive pulley and the auger is thereby rotatably driven for transporting bulk material through the tube. The drive shaft is selectively adjustable for tensioning the belt and for placing the drive pulley rotational axis generally parallel with the driven pulley rotational axis.
US09051124B2

There is provided devices for supplying molded parts in, for example, a beverage filling plant. An exemplary device may include a circulating conveyor chain for conveying the molded parts, wherein the circular conveyor chain forms a helical conveying track between an intake area and a discharge area, and a buffer for buffering the molded parts, wherein the buffer is disposed at the intake area or at the discharge area. The buffer may include a buffer base area within the helical conveying track for buffering the molded part. Another exemplary device may include a circulating conveyor chain for conveying the molded parts, wherein the circular conveyor chain forms a helical conveying track between an intake area and a discharge area, and wherein the helical conveying track extends around a space which is free of machine parts. The space may be formed to allow for an assembly space or manhole through the device.
US09051116B2

A container comprising a polyester composition with enhanced carbon dioxide and oxygen barrier properties is provided. The polyester composition comprises a polyester and a gas barrier enhancing additive. In a particular embodiment, the gas barrier enhancing additive comprises a compound having the chemical formula: X—(X1)s—COO—(X2)t—X3—(X4)u—OOC—(X5)v—X6 or X—(X1)s—OOC—(X2)t—X3—(X4)u—COO—(X5)v—X6.
US09051112B2

A container for holding product therein during shipment and being returned for reuse has a base and opposed sides, L-shaped tracks, and a plurality of padded dunnage supports extending between the tracks. One type of padded dunnage support comprises end members and a tubular middle member, the end members being movable along the tracks. The padded dunnage supports support dunnage, such as pouches.
US09051108B2

A dispensing system includes a shroud having a gripping portion. An actuation area of the shroud is between about 15% to about 95% of a surface area of the gripping portion.
US09051106B2

A package (1) for touch-sensitive foodstuff products (P), such as chocolates or pralines, comprises:—a tray-like container (2) made of elastically deformable material that is able to receive a first part of the product (P) and has a mouth edge (3) that surrounds the product (P), allowing a substantial part thereof to emerge therefrom; and—a film (4) made of a material that is tearable and deformable in a plastic way, shaped according to a general dome-like conformation so as to contain, in the absence of stresses, the aforesaid substantial part of the product (P) emerging from the mouth edge (3) of the tray-like container (3); the tray-like container (2) and the film (4) are connected to one another in conditions of hermetic seal at the mouth edge (3) of the tray-like container (2).
US09051101B2

A packaging material comprising a plurality of magnetisable portions thereon comprising at least one spot per package to be formed from the packaging material is disclosed. At least one of the magnetisable portions, per package, provides a first magnetic mark carrying a magnetic field pattern, and another of the magnetisable portions, per package, provides a second magnetic mark carrying a magnetic field pattern.
US09051092B1

A reusable bottle cap, comprising a lower bottle attaching component, a threaded connector, an upper cap component having a lower collar portion and an upper lid portion, and a living hinge connecting the upper cap component lower collar portion and the upper cap component upper lid portion.
US09051091B2

A metering and dispensing closure for a container. A rotor and a movable member rotate in conjunction with a cap member to afford accurate measuring of a powder material and dispensing of it. The rotor, the movable member, and the container cap afford a consistent measuring of the powder material, as well as provide a variety of drive members which can be utilized with the dispensing closure.
US09051084B2

An internal liner for a cooler is provided having a base attached to a set of side walls with handles along the uppermost edge thereof. The base includes a plurality of apertures disposed along its surface to allow liquid to pass therethrough. The liner is placed into a cooler or similar container prior to normal use. When ice is used in conjunction with a cooler, it melts and forms standing water. The liner holds stored items within the cooler and can be lifted from the cooler to separate the contents from the water, thus allowing a user to pour out excessive water from the cooler without displacing its contents. The liner provides a method to efficiently separate standing water from stored items within a cooler when utilized in conjunction with water, where the user desires to remove water from within the cooler.
US09051071B2

A device and method for the manufacturing of a pack including at least one article. The device includes a strapper for strapping a strip around the at least one article. The strapping is strapped around the outside of the article horizontally and/or vertically and/or cross-wise. A device generates a definable tensioning force of the strapping. A detector for the detection of properties of the article(s) is coupled and/or effectively connected to the device for generating a definable tensioning force of the strapping. A regulation and/or control method for a strapping device is also provided. Recorded properties of the articles to be wrapped and/or of the strapping material to be used are used as control values for the tensioning force and/or back tensioning force.
US09051069B2

An apparatus for strapping a set of documents includes a document platform to receive a set of documents and a document strap while the document platform is in a receiving position. The document strap is positionable between the document platform and the set of documents. A frame having a first frame arm and a second frame arm forming a platform-receiving space between the first and second frame arms, and a belt disposed between the document platform and the document strap when the document platform receives the set of documents. The document platform is movable from the receiving position into the platform-receiving space to cause the belt and the document strap to at least partially surround the set of documents, thereby strapping the set of documents together.
US09051058B2

An aircraft ground or sea approach anomaly detection method. The method includes the steps of characterizing a flight phase of the aircraft, determining a prohibited flight envelope, defining a set of prohibited vertical speeds of the aircraft for given altitudes in relation to the ground or the sea, as a function of the flight phase of the aircraft characterized, and detecting a ground approach anomaly of the aircraft as a function of a current vertical speed and altitude in relation to the ground or the sea of the aircraft, in relation to the prohibited flight envelope determined.
US09051043B1

Embodiments described herein may help to provide medical support via a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). An illustrative medical-support system may include multiple UAVs, which are configured to provide medical support for a number of different medical situations. Further, the medical-support system may be configured to: (a) identify a remote medical situation, (b) determine a target location corresponding to the medical situation, (c) select a UAV from the fleet of UAVs, where the selection of the UAV is based on a determination that the selected UAV is configured for the identified medical situation, and (d) cause the selected UAV to travel to the target location to provide medical support.
US09051038B1

An aquatic device, such as a paddle board or surfboard, that includes a propulsion device that utilizes paddle wheels positioned on either side of the board, wherein the paddle wheels are driven by foot operated drive mechanism that utilizes elliptical type of pedaling by the user, and further includes hand controlled rudders to control the direction of travel of the device.
US09051030B2

An undersea anchor that includes a frame that is fixed to the seafloor by one or more pile anchors, for example grouted pile anchors. The frame is configured to permit it to function with one or more seabed drills to allow the pile anchor(s) to be installed at an angle relative to horizontal so the pile anchors can take horizontal and vertical loads.
US09051029B2

A paddle force transfer assembly is provided that is adapted to be installed about an existing canoe bench seat. The assembly secures the thighs of a canoe occupant while providing a foot brace under the seat, whereby the occupant can bear against the thigh braces and the foot brace when exerting force on the canoe paddle in rough water conditions. The thigh braces may be biased to rotate into a downward, open configuration when the user retracts his or her thighs therefrom, whereby the user is not restrained by the supports in a capsizing event. The assembly anchors to the interior surface of the canoe about the canoe seat and is secured thereto and around the seat using a plurality of anchors and strap connectors that transfer load from the paddle, through the user and the present assembly, and into the canoe for increased control without sacrificing emergency exit safety.
US09051026B2

In at least some embodiments, a riding walker assembly includes a support assembly and a drive assembly. The support assembly may include a frame work supporting a seat assembly, and a plurality of wheels operatively coupled to the frame work and configured to rollably engage a floor surface. The drive assembly may include a drive wheel configured to engage the floor surface, and a pedal assembly operatively coupled to the drive wheel such that rotation of the pedal assembly rotates the drive wheel. The riding walker assembly may further include a coupling assembly operatively coupling the drive assembly to the support assembly, the coupling assembly being configured to selectively engage and disengage the drive wheel from the floor surface.
US09051023B2

A bicycle comprising a frame, a front fork pivotably mounted to the frame, and handle bars coupled to the fork for pivoting with the fork, the handle bars including a pair of laterally spaced arm rests and a pair of laterally spaced extension hand grips, the extension hand grips provided forwardly of the arm rests such that a rider resting his forearms of his arms on the arm rests with his arms extending forwardly from the arm rests may grasp the extension hand grips with his hands, characterized by an aerodynamic element is provided mounted to the handle bars between the arm rests.
US09051022B2

A suspension assembly including a core member; and a skin member bonded on said core member. The skin member having a higher strength than the core member.
US09051021B2

The invention relates to a compact, foldable bike with small wheels and a bicycle drive for driving the rear wheel, comprising a traction mechanism or a spur-gear transmission, driven by a crank, the distance of the bottom-bracket axle to the rear-wheel axle being larger than half the outer diameter of the rear wheel. The bicycle exhibits a front frame part and a rear frame part that are rotatably connected to each other by a folding hinge that is aligned at right angles to the ground plane, whereby the front frame part, the rear frame part, and a front-wheel fork, in the folded state, seen laterally, form the sides of a triangle having the following characteristic combination of features: The bicycle is ridden while standing up, the driving wheel and the output wheel of the bicycle drive are arranged on the same side of the bicycle frame and the steering tube exhibits a lower and an upper steering tube, that in the folded state of the bicycle are folded-in laterally beside the front wheel. With this combination of features, a particularly compact folding size is achieved for the folding bicycle.
US09051020B2

A bicycle frame includes a seat tube, two chain stays and a down tube connected to the seat tube. A seat post is inserted into the seat tube and has a seat connected thereto. The chain stays is connected to a rear wheel and a head tube is connected to the down tube. A front fork is connected to the head tube. A tubular body is connected to the bicycle frame and the wall of the tubular body has a first slot. The seat tube is connected to a slide which is connected to the wall of the tubular body. A pin extends through the slide and the first slot. A first securing member and a second securing member are connected to two ends of the pin. The first and second securing members connect the wall of the tubular body to the slide.
US09051014B2

A thermal insulated composite wall panel for use in insulated trailers, containers and insulated compartments, including a first liner panel, a second liner panel having a layer of fibers and at least one structural polymer resin layer disposed coplanar to and bonded with the layer of fibers, thereby forming a laminate liner panel, and an insulated core layer disposed intermediate to and bonded with the first and the second liner panels. The layer of fibers is adjacent the insulated core layer and is lofted prior to being bonded to the insulated core layer.
US09051007B2

The present invention relates to a mechanically steered articulating dolly transport system for transporting large structures such as a drilling mast over the federal highway system. Generally, the invention relates to an articulating dolly system that utilizes a unique mechanical system for steering a first dolly with a path generated by the movement of the load held by the second dolly. More particularly, the invention provides a front dolly steered by a non-rotatable front steering frame, a rear dolly having a pivotally mounted turntable and a pair of steering links connected between the respective sides of the front steering frame and the turntable. The left steering link and the right steering link are located in a first plane. One or both of the turntable and the steering frame being located on a second plane that is not the first plane. Moment forces generated between plane one and plane two elastically deform one or both of the steering frame and the turntable to permit the transport system to make a left-hand or right-hand turn.
US09051004B2

A controller of an electric power steering system includes: a basic assist component computing unit (60) that computes a first assist component (Ta1*) based on a steering torque (Th); a steered angle command value computing unit (61) that computes a steered angle command value (θt*) based on the sum of the steering torque (Th) and the first assist component (Ta1*); and a steered angle feedback controller (62) that computes a second assist component (Ta2*) through feedback control on an actual steered angle (θt). The controller further includes: a correction component computing unit (65) that computes a correction component (Tc*) based on a steering angle (θs); and an assist command value computing unit (50) that computes an assist command value (Ta*) by subtracting the correction component (Tc*) from the sum of the first assist component (Ta1*) and the second assist component (Ta2*).
US09050996B2

A control apparatus for an electric power steering apparatus, including a section that calculates a dead time characteristic value; a section that determines a steering status; a gain section that varies a gain of the dead time characteristic value in accordance with a determination of the steering status; a section that switches polarity determining methods in accordance with the determination of the steering status and determines a polarity on the basis of a detected current of a motor, a current command value or a model current; a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of an inverter; a calculating section that calculates a dead time temperature correction value corresponding to the temperature; and a processing section that calculates and processes the dead time temperature correction value with respect to a dead time compensation value with polarity based on an output of the gain section and outputs a dead time compensation value.
US09050995B1

A device for transporting a plurality of refuse containers across either a support surface or a winter support surface, includes a housing which is partitioned into a plurality of compartments, each compartment is shaped and dimensioned to receive a refuse container. A plurality of skis are removably connectable to the housing, the skis being used to move the housing across the winter support surface. Alternatively, a plurality of wheels are removably connectable to the housing, the wheels being used to move the housing across the support surface.
US09050992B2

Disclosed is a combination portable tool chest and work station, comprising a hand truck having a pair of upper and lower folding legs, a planar work surface, and a removably attached tool chest. The hand truck can be used to transport tools and equipment to a desired location. Once the device has be placed at a desired location, the upper and lower legs can be extended, which provides a horizontal work station for performing a variety of tasks thereon. In this position, a user has access to the tool chest, and can organize various tools or work pieces on the work station. The user can then unlock the tool chest, and exchange it for a different one. When work is complete, the tool chest can be locked, the upper and lower legs can be folded, and the device can be transported via the wheels.
US09050987B2

A buggy for transporting children has a frame and wheels that are rotably mounted relative to the frame to support the frame above a ground surface. A primary seat is operatively supported by the frame for supporting a first child. A secondary seat is operatively supported by the frame for supporting a second child. The buggy is convertible between an in use configuration for transporting children and a folded storage configuration, whether or not the secondary seat is attached. The secondary seat may be detachable. The secondary seat may be positioned at least partly behind and at least partly below the primary seat.
US09050986B2

A roll container is suitable for transporting post, namely letters. The novel roll container includes two opposing parallel side wall frames, wherein the front ends of the side wall frames define the width of the front opening of the roll container. The roll container also includes a door, and a hinge which connects the door to one of the side wall frames. The door includes a lower portion and an upper portion which is arranged slidably to tracks provided to the lower portion. The roll container further includes a device configured to lock the upper portion of the door to the front end of the side wall frames at different heights.
US09050980B2

A driver assistance system is described that takes as input a number of different types of vehicle environment inputs to provide driver assistance to a driver. To provide the assistance, the driver assistance system synthesizes the inputs. For objects in the vehicle environment detected in the inputs, object risk values are determined by applying a set of rules to the objects. The object risk values are aggregated by quadrant to generate a set of quadrant risk values. A driver assistance system of the vehicle is controlled based on the quadrant risks.
US09050968B2

A hybrid engine assembly may include an engine having a crankshaft, a supplemental shaft mechanically coupled to the crankshaft, a flywheel energy storage assembly, and an auxiliary device. A flywheel clutch may selectively couple the flywheel assembly to the crankshaft. The assembly may be selectively operated in an engine restart mode by directly coupling the flywheel energy storage assembly to the crankshaft prior to starting the engine, and in an auxiliary power mode by directly coupling the flywheel energy storage assembly to the auxiliary device.
US09050966B2

If an electric oil pump fails when an engine automatically stops under predetermined conditions, a gear that has been in engagement when the engine is automatically stopped is automatically disengaged and a clutch is automatically disengaged to thereby bring a transmission into a neutral state, and thereafter the engine is compulsorily re-started. After a sufficient hydraulic pressure of working fluid supplied to the transmission by activation of a mechanical oil pump accompanied by compulsory re-starting of the engine is secured, the disengaged gear and clutch are re-engaged. This eliminates a clutch engagement shock or clutch slipping due to an insufficient hydraulic pressure caused by a fault of the electric oil pump if it is necessary to compulsorily re-start the engine immediately after an automatic engine stop accompanying failure of the electric oil pump. Thus, a reduction in durability of the transmission is prevented.
US09050965B2

When an ECU determines that an accelerator is “ON” and a brake is “ON”, the ECU determines whether or not the brake previously depressed is “OFF”. When the ECU determines that the brake previously depressed is “OFF” and that the vehicle is in the reduced speed state, the vehicle control apparatus is configured to execute an engine output reduction control process under the condition that the simultaneous depressions of the accelerator and brake pedals continues for less than 10 seconds and the vehicle speed is not less than 7 km/hr. When the simultaneous depressions of the accelerator and brake pedals continues for no less than 10 seconds, the ECU is configured to make an output reduction prohibition flag “ON” and not to execute the engine output reduction control process until a predetermined time elapses.
US09050962B2

Disclosed herein are a mounting structure for boosters and a booster assembly for vehicles having the same. The mounting structure for boosters to mount a booster provided with a casing formed by hermetically connecting a front cell and a rear cell includes a front bolt passing through the front cell, the inside of the front bolt being hollow, a tube having a cylindrical shape, the inside of which is hollow in the lengthwise direction, and provided with a front part being opposite the front bolt to communicate with the hollow of the front bolt and a rear part crossing the casing to pass through the rear cell, a support washer installed on the tube and connected to the rear portion of the front bolt to surround the outer circumferential surface of the rear portion of the front bolt, and a sealing member provided between the tube and the support washer.
US09050960B2

A pedal prop for imposing a load on a brake pedal, in particular in motor vehicles, in order to apply the pressure necessary during sealing tests on components of the brake system, comprising a movable part, which changes the length of the pedal prop by moving in and out, and a fixed part, wherein the movable part is supported on a point of support on the motor vehicle. According to the invention, an evaluation and control unit is provided as an integrated element, which controls an actuator in order to provide an actuating force, wherein a displacement sensor and a force sensor are provided, by which a travel and an actuating force of the actuator can be sensed.
US09050958B2

A rotationally adjustable brake actuator includes a pressure housing with a circumferential rim, a non-pressure housing having a second circumferential rim, and a diaphragm disposed therebetween, where a retaining ring holds the respective housings against each other such that the first rim abuts the second rim, but where the respective housings are able to be rotated with respect to the other. Further, the retaining ring includes a radially-oriented hole and a stop pin that is inserted into the hole and engages the pressure housing to prevent further rotation.
US09050944B1

A housing for an initiator module is provided. The housing includes at least one wall defining a hollow interior having a first region, a second region and a third region, the first region having a first width, the second region having a second width less than the first width, and the third region having a third width greater than the second width.
US09050941B2

A tensioning device (10) for a seat belt, in particular in a motor vehicle, having a gas generator (17) and a piston (21) guided in a tube (16) that closes a pressure space (20) in the tube (16), whereas the pressure space (20) can be pressurized by the gas generator (17), as a result of which the piston (21) can be driven to perform a tensioning operation which can be transmitted to the seat belt by means of the force transmission means. The piston (21) having a closed or constricted opening (1, 1a), and the opening (1, 1a) can be enlarged and/or opened by the material erosion caused by the pressure and/or pressure conditions in the pressure space (20).
US09050937B2

A logo device for a vehicle is disclosed. The logo device comprises a first shell including a transparent region forming a logo pattern and a nontransparent region and a second shell connected with the first shell. The first shell and the second shell form a sealed cavity therebetween. A bottom plate is disposed in the sealed cavity, and a light guide plate disposed between the bottom plate and the first shell. The light guide plate includes one or more grooves disposed thereon. A circuit board is disposed between the bottom plate and the second shell, including a plurality of illuminating elements thereon. The one or more grooves on the light guide plate receives the plurality of illuminating elements. The light guide plate is configured to direct at least a part of the light generated by the illuminating element toward the transparent region of the first shell.
US09050928B2

To provide a headlamp device for a vehicle that has LEDs as light sources, the headlamp device including a situation detection part that detects a lighting status of headlamps; and a dimming control part that reduces the luminance of the headlamps to a prescribed value that is greater than zero based on the lighting status of the headlamps.
US09050927B2

There is provided a control device for controlling a vehicle lamp. The device includes: a receiver configured to receive an output value from an inclination sensor; and a controller configured to control an optical axis of the vehicle lamp based on a vehicle attitude angle that is an inclination angle of the vehicle with respect to a road surface. The controller is configured to control the optical axis in a first optical axis control mode or a second optical axis mode, wherein an optical axis angle of the optical axis is adjusted in accordance with the vehicle attitude angle in the first optical axis mode, and the second optical axis control mode is different from the first optical axis control mode. The controller controls the optical axis in the second optical axis control mode, when the vehicle attitude angle is not included in a predetermined range.
US09050926B2

The present invention includes a lamp unit for low beam and a lamp unit for high beam. A respective one of the lamp units is made of: a semiconductor-type light source; and a reflector that has reflection surfaces configured to emit forward of a vehicle a light from the semiconductor-type light source, as a predetermined light distribution pattern. As a result, the present invention is capable of fully utilizing the light from the semiconductor-type light source and facilitating a light distribution design for forming the light in a predetermined light distribution pattern.
US09050917B2

An inclinable headrest includes a base bracket including first and second side walls, a ratchet gear, and a lock gear movable for engagement with the ratchet gear. Both ratchet and lock gears are disposed inwardly of the first and second side walls. The lock gear has a connecting hole. The first side wall of the base bracket has an opening defined at a location where the connecting hole of the lock gear exists, and a connecting region defined near to that opening. Provision of those opening and connecting regions allows direct and quick connection by a worker's hand of a tension spring between the lock gear and base bracket from the outside, such that the worker can directly engage one end of the tension spring with the lock gear's connecting hole through the opening, while directly engaging the other end thereof with the base bracket's connecting region.
US09050915B2

A seat for a vehicle is disclosed with a support for attachment to an aspect of a vehicle and a platform block which may be securely attached to the support. A seat element for accommodating an occupant is provided together with a suspension system connecting the seat element to the platform block. The suspension system includes a resilient member having an equilibrium condition to which the resilient member is biased to return if it extends beyond, retracts below or otherwise varies away from the equilibrium condition.
US09050912B2

With a fitting for a vehicle seat, in particular for a motor vehicle seat, having a first fitting part and a second fitting part which are rotatable relative to each other and which are axially held together by an enclosing ring, wherein at least one fitting part has a shoulder on the end face facing away from the other fitting part, said shoulder having an axially protruding contour, for the form-fitting cooperation with the structure of a seat part or a backrest of the vehicle seat, a star shoulder is provided as shoulder, said star shoulder having a multi-arm, substantially symmetric star shape.
US09050911B2

A latching system that may be associated with a seat. The latching system may include a latch arm configured to engage a striker and a biasing member having a first portion. The latch arm moves from an unlatched position to a latched position when the first portion disengages the latch arm.
US09050899B2

An electric vehicle includes a rechargeable battery, a wheel, a motor coupled to the wheel, a motor driver coupled to the motor and coupled to the battery, the motor driver being configured to drive the motor by discharging the battery in response to a motor driving signal during each of a plurality of supply periods and perform charging of the battery using recovery charging current generated by the motor during a plurality of idle periods, each of the idle periods being between two adjacent ones of the supply periods, and a controller coupled to the motor driver, the controller being configured to supply the motor driving signal to the motor driver during each of the supply periods, and control the motor driver to charge the battery during each of the idle periods.
US09050898B2

A battery module includes two or more battery cells and a continuous wave fin disposed between the battery cells. The construction of the wave fin is generally one-piece such that fewer parts are needed to form the battery module. In a preferred form, the wave fin is made from a high thermal conductivity material to promote removal of heat generated by the batteries during their operation. Portions of the wave fin not in direct contact with the battery cells may be placed in direct contact with a heat sink to help remove excess heat from the module. Expansion units or related additional structure may be placed, along with the various battery cells, between the generally serpentine-shaped wave fin to provide uniformity in cell spacing. A method of making one or more battery modules is also described.
US09050896B2

Present example embodiments relate generally to a ground transportation system for interacting with one or more vehicles, the vehicle comprising at least one magnetic element fixedly attached to the vehicle, each magnetic element operable to generate a magnetic field having a first magnitude and a first direction, the system comprising a magnetic coil assembly fixedly positioned near an area traversable by the vehicle and comprising a core and a magnetic wire coil wrapped around the core, the magnetic coil assembly operable to generate a magnetic field having a second magnitude and a second direction; and an energy storage unit operable to release energy to and store energy from the magnetic coil assembly.
US09050894B2

A method for a vehicle having plural electric motors includes generating motor electrical signatures for the motors. The motor electrical signatures represent one or more characteristics of electrical energy that is supplied to the motors. The method also includes identifying one or more fault measures of each of the motor electrical signatures. The fault measures are indicative of mechanical characteristics of the motors. The method further includes comparing the one or more fault measures of each motor with the one or more fault measures of the other motors in the same vehicle and predicting an impending mechanical failure of one or more of the motors based on comparing the fault measures of the motors.
US09050890B2

A vehicle includes an operator station, a propulsion system, a steering system a hitch, and a vehicle positioning system. The positioning system includes positioning controls outside the operator station of the vehicle and adjacent to the hitch, such as on a rear fender. The positioning controls include a forward switch, a reverse switch, a left switch and a right switch. A controller is connected to the positioning controls, to the propulsion and steering systems. The controller moves the vehicle forward or rearward in response to actuation of the forward or reverse switches. The controller operates the steering system in response to actuation of the left or right switches. The steering system may include a brake control valve which brakes one of a pair of driven wheels while the other driven wheel is rotating. The steering system may include a steering control valve which is operable to turn steerable wheels.
US09050884B2

A fluid tank assembly is provided for use with a mobile machine. The fluid tank assembly may have a tank with a lower surface, an upper surface located opposite the lower surface, and at least one side surface joining the lower and upper surfaces. The tank may also have a first opening disposed within the upper surface at a first elevation, and a second opening disposed within the upper surface at a second elevation. The fluid tank assembly may further have a float valve interchangeably mountable within the first and second openings, and a plug interchangeably mountable within the first and second openings. The fluid tank assembly may also have a fill port mounted within one of the upper surface and the at least one side surface and fluidly connected to the float valve. Movement of the float valve may function to open and close the fill port.
US09050876B2

The invention concerns a cam mechanism (10), in particular for the actuation of ventilation valves of a vehicle ventilation system with a revolving cam disc (12) which has on one of the disc faces two curvilinear guides (16, 18) intersecting in intersection areas (14) as well as two swivelling adjustment levers (20, 22) each with a coupling (24, 26) associated with a curvilinear guide (16, 18). For guiding at least one adjustment lever (20, 22) during its on passage through the intersection areas (14) separate guide elements (32a, 32b, 32c) different from the curvilinear guides (16, 18) and the couplings (24, 26) are provided.
US09050875B2

An underslung trailing arm suspension assembly is disclosed for use on heavy duty low clearance trailers having a unique beam configuration to provide clearance for a transversely mounted air brake actuator connected directly to a disc brake housing. The suspension beam includes a unique plate mounted near an axle seat below an air spring mounting plate providing clearance for a disk brake actuator.
US09050874B2

A spring damper unit configured for arrangement between a first vehicle part and a second vehicle part of a motor vehicle. The spring damper unit includes a first fastening device for fastening the spring damper unit to the first vehicle part and a second fastening device for fastening the spring damper unit to the second vehicle part. In addition, the spring damper unit includes an elastic element and a vibration damper having two damper parts that move relatively with respect to each other and are arranged between the fastening devices in order to damp relative movements between the vehicle parts and to control a spaced disposition between the vehicle parts. The pre-stressing of the elastic elements are variably adjusted via a first adjusting device and one of the damper parts is adjustable relative to one of the fastening devices via a second adjusting device.
US09050865B2

A method and an apparatus for determining the mileage of a tire, include measuring a first current mileage over a limited period a first time, measuring a second current mileage over a limited period a second time, providing a measurement-free rest period between the first measurement and the second measurement, and estimating the mileage during the rest period on the basis of the first current mileage and/or the second current mileage. In addition, the method is repeated, with the already performed second measurement replacing the first measurement. Since a supply of power is not needed or at least can be significantly reduced during the rest period, the power requirement for mileage determination during the life of the tire can be significantly reduced, which allows simplified supply of power for mileage determination.
US09050859B2

A pneumatic tire having a tire tread is disclosed, wherein the tread comprises one or more tread elements and one or more grooves, the tread having a radially outer surface and a non-skid tread depth as measured from the radially outer surface of the tread and a radially innermost surface of the grooves. The tread has a radially innermost layer comprised of a base tread compound, a radially outer tread cap layer and a middle tread cap layer located between the base layer and the outer tread cap layer. Wherein the radially outer tread cap layer has a defined depth D, except that there is at least one notched areas wherein the tread cap layer extends radially inward of the defined depth D.
US09050857B2

A cord fabric is structured by weaving a weft yarn into a large number of warp yarn (2) disposed in parallel so that the weft yarn crosses the warp yarn at a coarse density. In the cord fabric, the warp yarn is a composite cord constituted of at least one aramid first twist yarn and one aliphatic polyamide first twist yarn, and the weft yarn is a spun yarn of meta system aramid fiber. The cord fabric is used as a strip material of a belt cover layer which is wound in a spiral pattern around an outer circumference of a belt layer of a pneumatic tire in a radial direction.
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