US09057837B2

The present invention relates to an end cap for terminating a transmission cable containing at least one transmission line, the end cap comprising at least one lead-through opening for guiding the at least one line from a rear side to a front side of the end cap. Further, the invention relates to a terminating arrangement terminating a transmission cable containing at least one transmission line. Moreover, the invention relates to a kit for a terminating arrangement for terminating a transmission cable. In order to facilitate the termination of a transmission cable, the present invention provides that a passage extending from the rear side to the front side is formed at the end cap, the passage being adapted for accommodating a central strength member of the cable.
US09057836B2

A glass wafer is provided that is made of a copper ions containing phosphate or fluorophosphate glass. The glass wafer has a diameter greater than 15 centimeters and a thickness of less than 0.4 millimeters. The glass wafer has two plane-parallel surfaces at least one of which is polished.
US09057835B2

A coating composition suitable for producing coatings that are transparent to infrared radiation and can exhibit color stability, such as a jet black color. The coating compositions include a first tint having a low haze and a second tint having a high haze. The tints include visibly absorbing infrared transparent pigments.
US09057831B2

In an optical waveguide 10 with a light-emitting element to be used in the present invention, a core includes: a main path; and a plurality of branched paths branched at a plurality of branched points from the main path. The main path has two sides faced to each other, in which one side has a plurality of branched points and the other side does not have any branched points. The plurality of branched points are provided on a straight line substantially parallel to a light guiding direction of the main path. The width of the main path becomes narrower as the main path moves away from a light-emitting element. An angle θ formed by the other side without a branched point and the light guiding direction of the main path is 0.3 to 1.7°.
US09057829B2

A broadly tunable optomechanical apparatus includes a resonator component consisting of two coupled optical microring resonators disposed in a stacked relationship, an input waveguide disposed adjacent a periphery of the resonator component, and a control signal waveguide coupled to the resonator component or the input signal waveguide. A broadband optical switch includes a plurality of resonator components each of which corresponds to a selected signal wavelength, predetermined by the geometry and design of the resonator component, and a respective plurality of output signal waveguides, and a respective plurality of a control signal waveguides each coupled to a respective resonator component. Associated tuning and switching methods and applications are disclosed.
US09057824B2

Display devices and antiglare layers that minimize glare and the appearance of sparkle are described. One type of display device includes a pixel substrate, having a pixel array, and an antiglare layer. The antiglare layer has a surface roughness with a spatial frequency such that a typical focal length of the antiglare layer is either at least four times larger than an optical distance between a surface of the array of pixels and the antiglare layer, or at least three times smaller than the optical distance between the surface of the array of pixels and the antiglare layer. In some embodiments, a pixel pitch of the array of pixels is less than 120 μm. In some embodiments, the antiglare layer may have a power spectral density that is elliptical, with a minor axis of the power spectral density aligned with a color direction of the array of pixels.
US09057821B2

A method of making a contact lens comprising the steps of reacting in a mold a polymerizable formulation comprising at least one fluorine-containing silicone monomer at least one non-fluorine-containing silicone monomer and at least one hydrophilic monomer to form a contact lens, subjecting the contact lens to one or more solvent extraction steps to remove impurities, oligomers and unreacted monomers and hydrate the contact lens, wherein all of the solvent extraction steps are undertaken using an aqueous solvent.
US09057809B2

A light irradiation device includes: a light source to output diffused light; and a light guide member to guide the diffused light to an irradiation point. The light guide member includes an incidence surface which the diffused light enters, a first emission surface to emit the entered diffused light, while further diffusing the entered diffused light with a first diffusion characteristic to emit the diffused light at a first diffusion angle, and a second emission surface to emit the entered diffused light, while further diffusing the entered diffused light with a second diffusion characteristics to emit the diffused light at a second diffusion angle. The second diffusion angle provided by the second diffusion characteristic is smaller than the first diffusion angle provided by the first diffusion characteristic.
US09057796B2

A sensor system responsive to acoustic or seismic signals. One system includes a frame and a piezo-electric sensor element. The sensor element, responsive to a wavefield of seismic or acoustic energy, is positioned about the frame. Coupling between the sensor element and the frame is so limited as to render direct coupling of the sensor element with the wavefield the predominant means for stimulating the sensor element with seismic energy. Another system includes a frame and a cable element, responsive to a seismic or acoustic wavefield, extending about the frame. Coupling between the cable element and frame is so limited as to render direct coupling of the sensor element with the wavefield the predominant means for stimulating the sensor element with acoustic or seismic energy. The element may be coaxial cable or have piezo-electric properties to generate a charge differential measurable as a voltage between conductors.
US09057795B2

Well logging method and logging tool for measuring cement density and thickness at different azimuth angles for a cemented, cased well. The method uses a gamma source, a short-spaced detector, a long-spaced detector, and preferably a backscatter detector, where the detector-to-source spacings are designed for calculating (93) thickness and density of the cement annulus (94) from the detector count rates (91).
US09057790B2

A scintillator device includes an optically clear substrate, a scintillator plastic layer overlying the optically clear substrate, and an optically clear polymer layer between the optically clear substrate and the scintillator plastic layer. The optically clear polymer layer can mechanically and optically couple the scintillator plastic layer to the optically clear substrate. Further, the clear polymer layer can be configured to substantially reduce the formation of cracks in the scintillator plastic layer due to thermal expansion, thermal contraction, or a combination thereof, of the scintillator device.
US09057780B2

Novel methods and systems for the accurate and efficient processing of real-time and latent global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) data are described. Such methods and systems can perform orbit determination of GNSS satellites, orbit determination of satellites carrying GNSS receivers, positioning of GNSS receivers, and environmental monitoring with GNSS data.
US09057775B2

A signal generating circuit includes an oscillator to produce an oscillation signal controlled in oscillating frequency by an analog control signal. The circuit includes: a digital phase detector detecting phase information of the oscillation signal and outputting digital phase information; a first differentiator differentiating the digital phase information and outputting digital frequency information; a comparator comparing a frequency setting code setting the oscillating frequency with the digital frequency information and outputting digital frequency error information; and a low-pass filter removing a high-frequency component of the digital frequency error information. The circuit further includes: a D/A converter converting the digital frequency error information of which high-frequency component is removed into analog frequency error information; and an integrator integrating the analog frequency error information, to convert into analog phase error information, and outputting the analog phase error information as the analog control signal.
US09057769B1

A magnetic resonance imaging configuration to straighten and otherwise homogenize the field lines in the imaging portion, creating improved image quality. Through use of calibrated corrective coils, magnetic field lines can be manipulated to improve uniformity and image quality. Additionally, when the apparatus is composed of non-ferromagnetic materials, field strengths can be increased to overcome limitations of Iron-based systems such as by use of superconductivity. A patient positioning apparatus allows multi-positioning of a patient within the calibrated and more uniform magnetic field lines.
US09057767B2

Systems, devices and methods provide an RF coil which produces a field having linear phase variation across an imaging volume. In one embodiment, a coil comprises multiple microstrip elements configured to have an increased effective electrical length. This increase in electrical length allows for a larger linear phase shifts over the length of the microstrip element which in turn increases linear phase variation capabilities. This may be accomplished by increasing the effective dielectric properties of the microstrip element. Increasing the effective dielectric may be accomplished by utilizing distributed capacitors along the length of a microstrip element (e.g. lumped element capacitors), by altering the materials used to fabricate the microstrip element, etc. Additionally, increasing the effective dielectric may be accomplished using a combination of these means. Embodiments may further enable linear phase variation along the imaging volume at high frequencies, such as frequencies utilized for 3 T and above MRI devices.
US09057762B1

Aspects of the invention relate to techniques for cycle-based scan chain diagnosis for integrated circuits with embedded compactors. With various implementations of the invention, no-failing-bits output channels of a compactor are first identified based on output data of a test. Next, good scan chains are identified based on scan chains associated with the no-failing-bits output channels. From scan chains other than the good scan chains, analysis of bits outputted from failing-bits output channels per clock cycle is performed to identify suspected faulty scan chains.
US09057749B2

A sensing element suitable for sensing an interference signal radiated by an object under test is provided, including a substrate, a ground plane and a sensing antenna. The ground plane is disposed on a first surface of the substrate. The sensing antenna is disposed on the first surface of the substrate and is located on a first side of the ground plane. The sensing antenna and the ground plane are separated by a preset distance. Besides, the sensing antenna is electrically connected to the ground plane through a coaxial wire and receives the interference signal through the ground plane.
US09057745B2

Provided is a measurement apparatus that measures an input signal, comprising a plurality of first comparators that each receive the input signal, have a common first reference level set therein, and compare a signal level of the input signal to the first reference level; and a level-crossing timing detecting section that detects a level-crossing timing at which the signal level crosses the first reference level, based on comparison results of the first comparators.
US09057742B2

The design of a functional measuring group for a medium-voltage substation has been optimized to make the product compact and robust in terms of internal arc, and also to favour complete accessibility to the measurement sensors. In particular, the voltage sensors are located in a vertical plane directly accessible via the front panel of the group, and the current sensors are located in the rear housing of the group, being directly accessible via the top of the group. In addition to being placed in an insulated compartment, the voltage sensors are insulated and shielded, and their connection terminals are designed for connection by cable with a flat interface.
US09057719B2

A method of fabricating a material having nanoscale pores is provided. In one embodiment, the method of fabricating a material having nanoscale pores may include providing a single crystal semiconductor. The single crystal semiconductor layer is then patterned to provide an array of exposed portions of the single crystal semiconductor layer having a width that is equal to the minimum lithographic dimension. The array of exposed portion of the single crystal semiconductor layer is then etched using an etch chemistry having a selectivity for a first crystal plane to a second crystal plane of 100% or greater. The etch process forms single or an array of trapezoid shaped pores, each of the trapezoid shaped pores having a base that with a second width that is less than the minimum lithographic dimension.
US09057718B2

A chemical composition analyzer may be used to optically determine and report chemical compositions associated with natural gases within a gas collection and transmission infrastructure. This analyzer includes a number of optical sensors which may be used to perform spectroscopic spectrographic analysis in order to determine the chemical composition of the natural gas. Additionally other sensors may be used to measure other physical properties associated with the natural gas. These sensors are tied to a data collection system wherein the output of the optical sensors and sensors used to measure the physical properties of the natural gas may be combined and processed in order to determine in a nearly continuous fashion the chemical composition associated with the natural gas at various locations within the gas collection and transmission infrastructure. This real time compositional analysis may be used to determine valuations of the gas or to optimize other processes or equipment configurations.
US09057710B2

Internal components of power generation machinery, such as gas and steam turbines are inspected with an optical camera inspection system that is capable of automatically positioning the camera field of view (FOV) to an area of interest within the machinery along a pre-designated navigation path and capturing images without human intervention. Automatic camera positioning and image capture can be initiated automatically or after receipt of operator permission. The pre-designated navigation path can be defined by operator manual positioning of an inspection scope within the power machine or a similar one of the same type and recording of positioning steps for future replication. The navigation path can also be defined by virtual simulation.
US09057709B2

An airflow-organization testing method for a clean room and a system using the same method are disclosed. The airflow-organization testing method for a clean room uses a thermal imaging device to detect a sample gas-flow formed by a sample gas in the clean room, and the sample gas has a temperature difference from ambient air. The airflow-organization testing system for a clean room includes a sample gas supplier and a thermal imaging device, and the thermal imaging device can continuously detect a spatial position of the sample gas and display it on a display, thereby improving detection precision and expanding detection range.
US09057697B2

An optical device includes a first protrusion group in which protrusions protruding from a conductor surface of a substrate are arranged in a first direction with a first period, a dielectric layer that covers the conductor surface and the first protrusion group, and a second protrusion group in which metal nanoparticles are arranged on the dielectric layer in the first direction with a second period different from the first period. When one of the first period and the second period is defined as Px1, the other of the first period and the second period is defined as Px2, and the wavelength of irradiation light is defined as λ, λ>Px1>Px2 and 0
US09057693B2

A nanopore device includes a multi-layer structure comprising a surface defining an aperture extending through the multi-layer structure, wherein at least the surface comprising a minimal diameter comprises a monosilane functionalized silicon dioxide having a silicon-oxygen-silicon bond, the monosilane functionalized silicon dioxide having the following structure: wherein n is an integer from 1 to 12; R2 and R3 are each independently a methyl group, an ethyl group, a propyl group, an isopropyl group, a butyl group, or a tert-butyl group; and R4 is a chloride, a carboxylic acid group, an amine group, an amide group, a thiol group, an alcohol group, an acyl chloride group, an acyl bromide group, an acyl iodide group, an alkene group, an alkyne group, or a polyether group. Also disclosed are methods for making, wetting, and operating the nanopore device.
US09057682B2

According to the embodiment, there is provided a blade vibration measuring apparatus, having, a contactless displacement sensor which outputs a displacement measurement signal as measuring a displacement of a turbine moving blade in a rotation axis direction, a blade top position identifying device which outputs a blade top position identification signal to identify a top position based on a distance between the contactless displacement sensor and the top position of the turbine moving blade as receiving the displacement measurement signal output from the contactless displacement sensor, and a blade vibration calculating device which calculates vibration amplitude and a vibration frequency of the turbine moving blade based on temporal variation of the distance between the contactless displacement sensor and the top position of the turbine moving blade as receiving the blade top position identification signal output from the blade top position identifying device.
US09057680B2

Provided is a diagnostic method and system capable of applying tomography to industrial long cylindrical process systems, such as a pipe line, which are difficult to diagnose using existing medical or industrial computed tomography (CT) scanners. Existing industrial X-ray CT scanners cannot be used for such a pipe that is attached to the process system and thus cannot be placed on the turntable, and existing image diagnostic apparatuses of a fan beam type, a collimated beam type, etc. having a stereotyped structure are next to impossible to move and use for undetachable process systems and their peripheral devices. To solve these problems, there is provided a gamma-ray tomography scanning system that is capable of being directly attached to a pipe in operation and measuring a cross section of the pipe.
US09057679B2

The present specification discloses a multi-view X-ray inspection system having, in one of several embodiments, a three-view configuration with three X-ray sources. Each X-ray source rotates and is configured to emit a rotating X-ray pencil beam and at least two detector arrays, where each detector array has multiple non-pixellated detectors such that at least a portion of the non-pixellated detectors are oriented toward both the two X-ray sources.
US09057677B2

Technologies are generally disclosed for systems and methods for monitoring a liquid. An illustrative method may include disposing one or more sensors in the liquid, sensing one or more properties exhibited by the liquid using the one or more sensors, producing sensed data from the properties by the one or more sensors, encoding the sensed data into an acoustic signal by the one or more sensors, transmitting the acoustic signal through the liquid by the one or more sensors and receiving the acoustic signal by one or more sound receiving devices.
US09057673B2

Methods for preparing RNA from ribonuclease-rich sources while avoiding RNA degradation are described. The lysis protocol for ribonuclease-containing samples is performed at high pH to accelerate cell lysis and with a reducing agent that inactivates ribonucleases (RNases) by reducing disulfide bonds essential for RNase activity. Samples are briefly incubated for up to five minutes at high pH followed by addition of a reagent to lower the pH to a level at which the RNA is stable. This method of RNA extraction has many advantages over existing methods of RNA preparation, including that cell lysis is efficient, RNases are rapidly inactivated, and sample incubation times are short (less than 5 minutes), which protects RNA from degradation. The lysing procedure is performed entirely in aqueous solution with no heating, precipitations, or buffer exchanges required. Thus, a quick, simple procedure for extracting RNA is provided, which can easily be automated.
US09057670B2

A method of preparing a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample from a semiconductor structure may include milling a region of the semiconductor structure with a focused ion beam and generating the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample. The focused ion beam providing the milling may include a rotation angle relative to the crystallographic axis of the semiconductor structure. A transmission electron microscopy image of a cross-sectional plane of the generated transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample may be generated using a transmission electron microscope, whereby the transmission electron microscopy image of the cross-sectional plane includes an image projection-free region based on the rotation angle.
US09057662B2

A method for operating a tire pressure monitoring unit for monitoring pneumatic tires of a vehicle includes where a pressure measurement is taken at regular intervals using a pressure sensor and the pressure information is transmitted wirelessly at larger intervals by a transmitter. A control unit checks whether a pressure change exceeding a threshold value has occurred, and, if so, pressure measurements are taken at shortened intervals and the transmission activity is increased. The control unit uses a first threshold value for the pressure change in the case of a stationary vehicle and uses a second threshold value, which differs from the first threshold value, for the pressure change in the case of a moving vehicle. The control unit, by evaluating a signal of an acceleration sensor of the tire pressure monitoring unit, establishes whether the first threshold value or the second threshold value is used.
US09057653B2

Devices and methods are provided that utilize a first electrode disposed on a first substrate and a second electrode disposed on a second substrate, where the first electrode and the second electrode define at least part of a variable capacitance. A third substrate is arranged between the first substrate and the second substrate, the third substrate having an opening arranged such that at least a portion of the first electrode and the second electrode overlap the opening. A transmission element is provided that partially overlaps the opening. The transmission element is physically coupled to the second electrode such that a force biasing the transmission element causes the second electrode to deflect relative to the first electrode, thus changing the variable capacitance. A measurement of the variable capacitance may then be used to determine force information.
US09057652B2

A torque detecting apparatus detects a torque applied to a first shaft, based on a relative rotational displacement between the first shaft and a second shaft caused by torsion in a coupling shaft which couples the first shaft and the second shaft. The torque detecting apparatus includes: first and second magnets which are coupled to the first shaft and the second shaft so as to rotate together with the first shaft and second shaft, respectively; and a plurality of magnetic sensors which are disposed between the first magnet and the second magnet and which detect a rotational angle of the first shaft and a rotational angle of the second shaft.
US09057650B2

Using a force-measuring balancing machine (1), the empirically determined permanent calibration is corrected in that the resonant frequencies (ω1) of the rotor (2) to be balanced are calculated, in a translatory direction and (ω2) in a rotational direction, from the mass (mR) of a rotor (2) to be balanced, which is mounted in the balancing machine (1), the co-oscillating mass (Ms) of the bearing supports (3), the rigidity (c) of the bearing supports (3) and the spacing (L) of the rotor bearings, and a frequency response calculated from the resonant frequencies (ω1, ω2) and the frequency (Ω) of the rotor (2) is introduced to the permanent calibration.
US09057647B2

A detached-type temperature indicator and method for using the same is disclosed. The indicator includes a temperature sensing module and a temperature display module. These two modules are separated apart with a distance, and the temperature change sensed by the temperature sensing module can be displayed on the separate temperature display module without using any power sources. This indicator is suitable for observing the magnetic sensing patterns which reflect the temperature variations within the package from the exterior of the package without opening the package. Also, this indicator may be used repeatedly.
US09057636B2

A valve fully closing part; a calibrating volume calculation part that calculates a calibrating volume on the basis value of an integration of a flow rate measured value outputted from a flow rate sensor in a fluid parameter changing interval; and a calibration part that calibrates a flow rate on the basis of the calculated calibrating volume and a preset reference volume are provided.
US09057621B2

A vehicle includes a powertrain controller, an energy storage system (ESS), a traction motor, an electrical device such as an HVAC system and/or auxiliary system, and a navigation system. The navigation system generates a recommended eco-route or other travel route. The navigation system receives vehicle state information including a current powertrain state from the controller and a power load value from the device(s), including a state of charge of the ESS. The vehicle state information is used to select between a charge-depleting and a charge-sustaining costing model. The route is generated using the selected model, and then displayed. The navigation system includes a host machine which selects the model and generates the route, and a display screen for displaying the route. A method for generating the route includes receiving the current powertrain state and power load values, and using the state information to select between the charge-depleting and charge-sustaining models.
US09057614B2

A computer-implemented tracking method includes receiving a tracking request at a vehicle associated computing system (VACS). The method also includes authenticating the tracking request and determining a vehicle location via a GPS in communication with the VACS. The method further includes transmitting the vehicle location from the VACS to a tracking request associated computing system (TRACS). The method also includes monitoring the vehicle for at least one delay-event. The method additionally includes transmitting data corresponding to the delay event to the TRACS, contingent on the occurrence of at least one delay-event.
US09057609B2

A ground-based videometrics guiding method for aircraft landing or unmanned aerial vehicles recovery is provided. The method comprised the following steps: setting videos(1,2,3,4,5,6) near the landing area of the aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles; real-time imaging the aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles during their final approaches; and real-time measuring the trajectory, velocity, acceleration, post and other motion parameters of the aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles by analyzing the video images and using videometrics technology, so as to provide guiding information for the aircraft landing or unmanned aerial vehicles recovery.
US09057603B2

An optical fiber curvature measuring method comprising rotatably holding an end of the optical fiber, irradiating two points at a prescribed distance from each other on a side surface of the fiber with a pair of parallel light beams orthogonal to an axial direction, measuring representative positions of scattered and reflected light beams scattered by the side surface as coordinate positions on an axis parallel to the optical fiber axis, calculating a difference between the two coordinate positions, rotating the fiber by a prescribed angle, repeating the calculation of the difference a plurality of times, calculating a positive representative value for amplitude SA from the difference obtained at each angle, calculating curvature from the amplitude SA as a first curvature of a first optical fiber longitudinal position, changing positions of the beams irradiating the fiber in the longitudinal direction, and calculating first to m-th curvatures by repeating this process.
US09057599B2

A touch probe comprising a fixed member; a feeler held by one or several elastic elements in a resting position relative to said fixed member, said feeler being capable of moving from said resting position in response to a deflection force; a detection system comprising a light source driven by the displacements of the feeler relative to said fixed member; an optical image sensor receiving the light emitted by said light source; an optical mask interposed on the light path between said light source and said optical image sensor.
US09057592B2

A method for detecting a number of events having an acceleration profile greater than a predetermined threshold. The method including: detecting a number of events having the acceleration profile greater than the predetermined threshold; counting the number of events detected having the acceleration profile greater than the predetermined threshold; and outputting a mechanical or electrical signal based on whether the counted number of events having the acceleration profile greater than the predetermined threshold is greater than a predetermined number.
US09057591B2

To produce lead-free projectiles, iron and copper are melted at a predetermined ratio and rapidly quenched to yield a fine-grained microstructure with uniformly distributed copper and iron phases. The iron-copper alloy may be made into a powder through atomization, with the iron-copper molten metal being dispersed using a rapidly moving gas, liquid stream, or via mechanical dispersion. The step of forming the bullet may include uniaxially pressing and solid-state sintering of the atomized powder, including heating at a temperature below 1083° C., the melting point of copper. Alternatively, the step of shaping the mixture into a bullet-shaped form may include casting the molten mixture into a mold. A ceramic powder may be added to the copper-iron mixture prior to forming to produce a frangible projectile. The method may further include the step of adding another elemental powder to enhance strength, toughness, density, or hardness.
US09057589B2

A target launching device comprising a surface supporting a target to be launched and a rotary launch arm capable of applying a launch force on the target, characterized in that the supporting surface has a concave longitudinal profile located in a plane parallel to the rotation plane of the launch arm. The invention is particularly suitable for launching archery targets.
US09057580B2

In accordance with the present disclosure, novel quick draw hand gun holsters are described, together with methods for using them, that are capable, at a user's option, of activating a light accessory, such a light and/or laser sighting device, when the gun is drawn from the holster, and of deactivating it when the gun is inserted in the holster. Additional embodiments are also described.
US09057572B2

An extraction system for extracting a cartridge from a firing chamber of a firearm includes an extractor mounted within the firearm bolt which has a bolt head with a plurality of lugs proximate a bolt face, a cartridge recess extending axially inward from the bolt face, and an extractor aperture extending radially outward through one of the lugs. A spring aperture extends axially through the one lug and intersects with the extractor aperture. The extractor is slidably mounted within the extractor aperture and has a hook portion for coupling with the cartridge and a transverse spring bore extending through a mid-section of the extractor. The extraction system further includes an extractor spring having an anchor portion mounted about the outer surface of the bolt and a cantilever spring portion inserted through the spring aperture and into the transverse hole in the extractor, for resiliently biasing the extractor toward the cartridge recess.
US09057561B2

The industrial oven according to the invention has a rotary pipe and a fixed material supply device which is connected in the region of a front-face opening of the rotary pipe, there being provided between the rotary pipe and the material supply device a sealing arrangement which comprises a gas seal which is delimited from the operating chamber of the rotary pipe acted upon with material by at least a first gap between the rotary pipe and the material supply device. The sealing arrangement further has an annular chamber which is provided between the first gap and the gas seal and which has a discharge opening which is connected to the operating chamber. A lifting device is further provided in the annular chamber in order to lift out of the operating chamber material which has become introduced into the annular chamber through the first gap and to convey it back to the operating chamber through the discharge opening.
US09057557B2

An apparatus and system to produce purified drinking water from humid air is provided. The apparatus includes a condenser and evaporator coil assembly with a source of germicidal activity. A method to provide purified drinking water from humid air using a stand along apparatus is provided. The apparatus can also dehumidify, improve air-quality and provide air-conditioning.
US09057551B2

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and/or freezer with an ice cube maker and with conveying means for conveying the ice cubes, wherein the conveying means are configured such that they are operable in different conveying directions.
US09057543B2

Improvements in the design and construction of solar collector modules. Aspects of the invention include improvements in the layout of a frame for a solar collector module, and in the joining of structural members of the frame at nodes. In one example, a module of a solar collector includes a reflector and a three-dimensional structural frame that supports the reflector. The frame is made up of substantially rigid elongate frame members interconnected at nodes. Improved node connection components include hubs or frame members having tabs for receiving frame member connections. A tab may have a width that is substantial in relation to its height. The frame may incorporate asymmetry in its layout, in the size or presence of frame members, or in the positioning of the nodes.
US09057537B2

A support element configured for supporting a heat collection element (HCE) of a solar concentrator in a solar thermal power plant is provided. The support element comprises a post engaging portion being configured for being pivotally articulated to the top of an HCE support post, and an HCE engaging portion being configured for retaining therein the HCE.
US09057536B2

A dish structure (10) has a virtual front surface, the front surface having a periphery, and a plurality of spaced apart non overlapping elongate front beams (16), each of which extends between two points on the periphery. Each front beam (16) has at least one mounting area (20) for receiving a reflective panel (150), the at least one mounting area (20) conforming substantially to the virtual front surface in the longitudinal direction of the front beam (16).
US09057533B2

A duct of a foamed blow-molded article that is constituted of a polyolefin-based resin with a bending elastic modulus of 800-1,300 MPa, that has an average apparent density (D) of 0.1 to 0.4 g/cm3 and an average thickness (T) [cm] providing D×T2 of 0.005 to 0.04 g/cm, and that has an outer surface side region and an inner surface side region having an average apparent density lower than that of the outer surface region.
US09057526B2

A control system for a cooking appliance can operate in first or second modes of operation. In the first mode, a consumer is required to input both a temperature parameter and a time parameter before initiating a cooking operation. Once the cooking operation has completed, the control system operates the cooking appliance in a low temperature mode for a predetermined period. In this manner, a cooked food item is maintained at a reduced temperature so that the food item does not burn. In the second mode, the consumer can choose to bypass the required time input parameter so as to operate the cooking appliance based solely on the temperature parameter.
US09057524B2

A burner assembly for a firing system for firing fluidic fuels is provided. The burner assembly has a burner hub, an air inlet channel and a fuel inlet channel, wherein the fuel inlet channel is at least partially designed in the burner hub. A screening wall is arranged in the fuel inlet channel. The screening wall is spaced apart from a wall of the fuel inlet channel so that an intermediate space is formed between the wall of the fuel inlet channel and the screening wall. A sleeve is equipped with at least one radial positioning means that ensures a clearance of the sleeve from the wall of the fuel inlet channel. The at least one radial positioning means of the sleeve is designed as a positioning projection arranged in a circular manner, protruding out radially.
US09057521B2

The invention relates to a candle extinguisher, characterized by an elongated base body having an integrated cylinder in which a burst of air pressure is produced with a piston, the piston being tensioned and triggered with an actuation lever.
US09057512B2

A vehicle lighting unit can form a structure or mechanism for positioning and installing a light emitting device in a vehicle lighting unit main body.
US09057505B2

The present invention relates to a lamp structure field, and discloses a lamp with a replaceable decorative cover, comprising a radiator having an opening in an end thereof; an LED source and a reflector disposed in a cavity of the radiator; and a decorative cover covering the opening of the radiator, wherein the radiator is provided with a plurality of elastic sheets, the decorative cover is clamped and fixed to the radiator through the elastic sheets in a detachable manner. The lamp with replaceable decorative cover of the present invention, whose decorative cover is disposed on a bottom of the lamp through the special design elastic sheet in a detachable manner and may be replaced at any time according to different requirements of the user, satisfies the various requirements of the user, in addition, the simple structure, stable connection, simple assembly and convenient disassemble further improve the practicality of the product.
US09057499B2

A solid-state light source with LEDs contained in a light recycling cavity emits both light and heat from heat extracting light emitting elements which form the light recycling cavity. Eliminating appended heat sinks makes these light sources ultra lightweight. The light sources can be attached and supported by suspended ceilings without affecting the seismic properties of the ceiling. The heat extracting light emitting elements are combined with a reflector to make directional light sources, which can be attached to ceilings with small magnets. Because the heat extracting light emitting elements transfer the heat from the light source to the illuminated area there is no requirement for disturbing or penetrating the ceiling barrier to a heat sink on the plenum side of the ceiling. This enables a contiguous acoustic ceiling. Further, the light sources are made from non flammable materials and therefore do not affect the fire rating of the ceiling.
US09057497B2

The invention relates to a LED module (7) which comprises: at least one LED chip (20, 21) mounted on a substrate, a first diffuser element (10) which scatters the light from the at least one LED chip (20, 21) diffusely, and a second diffuser element (8) which when viewed in the light beam direction is outside the first diffuser element (10) and is separated therefrom, preferably forming an air gap.
US09057491B2

A network controlled indoor lighting system is disclosed, which is constructed based on a device control unit with network connectivity, and a remote controller containing the software for users to control the interior lighting system. The system allows users to control a plurality of LED lamps in terms of brightness, color temperature, beam angle and illumination direction. The system has single/multi-point control, and online error diagnosis.
US09057489B2

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for providing a light emitting diode and driving circuitry integrated into a component module that will retrofit common incandescent lightbulb applications. The disclosed embodiments will perform with high efficiency at a wide operating voltage range with a very small size allowing for the incorporation within the envelope and form of existing lightbulb bases. Therefore, a single universal LED light bulb module can be used to replace the dozens of conventional LED and incandescent lights currently being used. The electronic circuitries used to drive the LEDs are extremely compact and consequently can be incorporated in nearly any standard bulb base.
US09057488B2

An electrical device, preferably a light bulb having an electrical base, comprises a container having a sealed interior, an electrical component contained within the sealed interior; a liquid filling the sealed interior; and a pressure relief member. The pressure relief member has an interior tubular passage. The tubular passage has an inlet which is in fluid communication with the liquid. The tubular passage is filled with liquid from the inlet partially toward an outer end of the passage. The remainder of the passage is filled with gas. The pressure relief member provides relief from increases of pressure caused by heating the liquid. Preferably, a heat sink is provided for the electrical component and contacts the liquid coolant. The pressure relief member may be located either in the sealed interior or outside of the container.
US09057460B2

A plumbing finish plate assembly, for connecting water supply lines and a drain line in a wall to fixture supply and drain lines, comprises a mounting panel having a drain line opening and two supply line openings formed therethrough. The drain line opening is larger than the supply line openings and a flexible, annular seal is secured around the drain line opening. A supply line connector assembly is securable to the mounting panel through each supply line opening. A securement means, in the form of a clip is used to selectively secure the supply line connector assembly to the mounting panel such that an outlet leg of the connector assembly is oriented in at least ninety degree increments relative to the mounting panel.
US09057458B2

A single operator extruder main body dispenses aggregate, pipe and geotextile during a trenching operation. Lifting elements allows the main body to be manipulated by a single operator.
US09057453B2

A low-cost safety valve for gas lines and similar supply lines that can be remotely activated via a secure wireless link employing a low leakage sealing mechanism that is compatible with low energy actuators to for extended battery life. A miniaturized controller and wireless electronics assembly provides the control mechanism for actuating the valve, as well as reporting data regarding the valve status to wireless interrogators or external networks via an ad hoc wireless network. A variety of simple magnetic valve operating mechanisms can be implemented with the miniaturized electronic control circuits and the valve body. Such control actuation mechanisms enable automatic resetting or manual resetting valves. The gas line shut off valve can provide important safety benefits at an affordable price. An RFID transceiver may be included to enable low-power operation and communications using RFID technologies as well as an automatic antenna tuning capability to maximize radio range.
US09057451B2

A valve (100), including a fluid inlet (102) and a fluid outlet (103) formed in a housing (101) is provided. The valve (100) includes a valve seal (209) and a resilient member (207). The resilient member (207) is coupled to the valve seal (209). The valve (100) can also include one or more shape memory alloy component (206) or another electrically actuated component that is coupled to at least a first end (214) of the resilient member (207).
US09057450B2

An apparatus for exercising an emergency shutoff valve of a steam turbine and methods for operating the same are disclosed herein. A cover of the valve exerciser mounts on top of an emergency shutoff valve body and through a stroker bolt threadingly engaged with the shutoff valve lever arm, the valve stem is moved within a passageway of the cover a small amount so that the aperture between the steam inlet and outlet is not blocked, thereby permitting normal operation of the steam valve while the valve stem is exercised.
US09057444B2

A leaf seal is provided for effecting a seal between two, coaxial, relatively rotating components. The leaf seal has an annular pack of stacked leaves. The pack is mountable to a first one of the components at root portions of the leaves and extends towards the other component such that end edges of the leaves are presented for wiping contact with the other component and, in use, a pressure drop is maintained axially across the pack. The leaf seal has a coverplate at the high or the low pressure side of the pack covering a portion of the radial extent of the pack. Some or all of the leaves have respective abutment formations. Each abutment formation is arranged to abut the coverplate at a stop portion upon radial deflection of the leaf by a predetermined amount to prevent further radial deflection beyond that amount.
US09057434B2

A method of identifying a synchronous position of a synchronizer actuator fork includes sensing a deceleration rate of a first shaft, when a synchronizer is positioned in a neutral position, to define a first rate of deceleration. The synchronizer is moved along the first shaft from the neutral position toward a gear with a synchronizer actuator fork. A deceleration rate of the first shaft is sensed, while the synchronizer actuator fork moves the synchronizer along the first shaft, to identify a change from the first rate of deceleration to a second rate of deceleration. The location, of the synchronizer actuator fork relative to the first shaft, at which the rate of acceleration of the first shaft changes from the first rate of deceleration to the second rate of deceleration, is identified as the synchronous position of the synchronizer actuator fork.
US09057433B2

Disclosed is a method for providing a smooth and stable synchronization operation of a transmission achieved in spite of the sudden change of a vehicle speed in the automated manual transmission (AMT) hybrid vehicle that suppresses a collapse of the synchronization by generating a torque by a motor connected to an input shaft in consideration of changes in inertia of the motor and a control target rotational speed during shifting.
US09057432B1

A drive pulley for a continuously variable transmission has a fixed sheave, a movable sheave, and a biasing member. At least one arm is pivotally connected about a first axis to one of the movable sheave and a portion of the drive pulley axially and rotationally fixed to the fixed sheave. The arm has a ramp surface. At least one slider is pivotally connected about a second axis to the other one of the movable sheave and the portion of the drive pulley. The at least one slider has at least three slider surfaces. At least one of the at least three slider surfaces is adapted to contact the ramp surface of the at least one arm.
US09057429B2

A concentric double axis actuator has a two-stage cross roller bearing, and a preceding-stage actuator and a subsequent-stage actuator which are linked in tandem. The front end of a subsequent stage rotary output shaft of the subsequent actuator, said subsequent stage rotary output shaft passing through a hollow section of the preceding-stage actuator and projecting forward, is linked and fixed to an inner ring of the two-stage cross roller bearing, and the inner ring functions as a subsequent-stage rotary output member. The output rotary side of the preceding-stage actuator is linked to an middle ring of the two-stage cross roller bearing, which functions as a preceding-stage rotary output member. The rotary output element of each stage is supported by the two-stage cross roller bearing, and surface oscillations of the rotary output member of each stage can be minimized, and the moment stiffness of the members can be increased.
US09057427B2

In a device for controlling an operation of an anti-collision switch, the anti-collision switch is provided in a support close to a guide frame that is provided at at least one of both lateral sides of a table frame, to prevent collision of the table frame that is supported on the table support to be capable of moving in a lengthwise direction. The device includes a first lever coupled to the table support so that at least a portion of the first lever moves in a vertical direction according to deformation of the guide frame, and a second lever pressing the anti-collision switch in a normal state and, when a vertical movement of the first lever deviates from a preset height, being moved up by the first lever to remove pressing of the anti-collision switch and operate the anti-collision switch.
US09057423B1

A planetary gear train may include an input shaft, an output shaft, first and second planetary gear sets each having three rotation elements, a first rotation shaft directly connected to one rotation element of the first planetary gear set and one rotation element of the second planetary gear set, and selectively connected to the input shaft, a second rotation shaft directly connected to another rotation element of the second planetary gear set and directly connected to the output shaft, a third rotation shaft directly connected to another rotation element of the first planetary gear set and the remaining rotation element of the second planetary gear set, and selectively connected to the input shaft and/or selectively connected to a transmission housing, and a fourth rotation shaft directly connected to the remaining rotation element of the first planetary gear set, and selectively connected to the input shaft through two paths and/or selectively connected to the transmission housing.
US09057419B2

A link chain is provided, in particular a drive chain of a combustion engine, with chain links connected one to another by a chain articulation. The inner and outer chain links, which preferably are arranged in alternation, each have at least two link plates arranged in parallel with each other, each with two link openings. One link pin in each case extends through one of the link openings of the link plates to form a chain articulation. In this design, the link plates are made of a boron-manganese steel.
US09057412B2

A drum for a constricting drum brake assembly with at least one drum insert with a plurality of fins forming a cooling ring for transferring heat from the drum generated during the braking action.
US09057410B2

A wet friction clutch comprising at least one clutch component which is rotatable around a shaft, wherein in the interior of the clutch component a rotary valve component that is rotatable around the shaft is formed which is deflectable by an angle of deflection in comparison to the rotatable clutch component by a relative rotation around the shaft, wherein the rotatable clutch component has at least one first opening and the rotary valve component has at least one second opening, wherein a total opening is released by an at least partial overlapping of the first opening and the second opening, the size of the total opening being dependent on the angle of deflection.
US09057400B2

A connecting device and a method for assembling a cable to a bracket are provided. The connecting device includes an outer body arranged circumferentially around the cable, the outer body being divided into a first portion with a substantially constant cross section and a second portion including a plurality of snap arms extending radially outwardly from a point of attachment with the first portion. The cable can be a transmission cable used in a vehicle, where the connecting device is configured to be received in an opening of the bracket, in order to anchor the cable to the vehicle body. The connecting device and cable can be received in any orientation relative to the bracket, where the snap arms are arranged in a continuous manner around the cable.
US09057396B2

A lug nut locking device, which provides a visual indication of loosening of one of a pair of adjacent nuts includes a locking strip for extending between the nuts, rings on the ends of the strip for mounting the strip on the nuts, teeth in the rings for resisting nut loosening; and a pair of flags with annular bodies for mounting on the nuts beneath the strip, the flag bodies having internal teeth for engaging the nuts, whereby rotation of one of the nuts causes corresponding rotation of its associated flag providing a visual indication that the nut is loosening.
US09057394B2

A clamping system includes a housing, a clamping lever pivotally coupled relative to the housing, a clamping arm pivotally coupled relative to the housing and the clamping lever, and an expandable link coupled to the clamping arm. The clamping lever and the clamping arm are rotatable from an open position to a closed position. A method of mounting a device on a substrate using the clamping system is also provided.
US09057391B2

A reflector for a fluid flow system includes an orifice plate comprising a flange and an opening; at least one disk; and at least one vane extending between the orifice plate and the at least one disk.
US09057389B2

A hydraulic system is disclosed. The hydraulic system may have a pump, a rotary actuator, a linear actuator, and a closed-loop circuit fluidly connecting the pump to the rotary and linear actuators. The hydraulic system may also have at least one valve configured to switch fluid flow direction from the pump through the linear actuator during fluid flow in a single direction through the rotary actuator.
US09057387B2

A series fan assembly structure includes a first fan frame and a second fan frame. The first fan frame has a first latch section, a second latch section, a first engagement recess, a second engagement recess, a first retainer section and a second retainer section. The second fan frame has a third latch section, a fourth latch section, a third engagement recess, a fourth engagement recess, a third retainer section and a fourth retainer section. The first and second engagement recesses are respectively connected with the third and fourth latch sections, the first and second latch sections are respectively connected with the third and fourth engagement recesses and the first and second retainer sections are respectively connected with the third and fourth retainer sections. Accordingly, the first and second fan frames can be quickly assembled and securely connected in both axial direction and radial direction.
US09057386B2

A ram air fan inner housing for a ram air fan assembly comprises a center body housing, an end cup attached to the center body housing, and a perforated cone. The perforated cone is attached to the center body housing and the end cup such that the perforated cone extends away from the center body housing and radially inward toward an axis of the inner housing.
US09057384B2

An integrated fan includes a centrifugal blade unit and a frame. The centrifugal blade unit has a hub. The frame is used for accommodating the centrifugal blade unit. The frame includes a first casing, a second casing and at least one airflow-guiding plate. The first casing includes a main plate and an airflow inlet, wherein the airflow inlet is disposed in the main plate and aligned with the hub. The second casing is opposed to the main plate of the first casing. The at least one airflow-guiding plate is aslant and externally extended from an edge of the main plate. The airflow-guiding plate, the first casing and the second casing collectively define an airflow output channel. An included angle between an airflow-leaving direction of the airflow output channel and an airflow-entering direction of the airflow inlet is ranged between 90 and 180 degrees.
US09057380B2

A cooling fan structure includes a hub, a rotary shaft, a fan seat, and a stator assembly. The fan seat is provided on around a front end corresponding to a rear end of the hub with a forward protruded annular rim portion and a sunken annular groove portion adjoining an inner lower side of the rim portion. The protruded annular rim portion reduces a gap between the hub and the fan seat to reduce the amount of air flowing into the hub via the gap and accordingly prevents external foreign matters from invading the hub via the same gap to adversely damage components inside the hub or cause a stuck hub; and the groove portion provides an additional space for receiving invaded and accumulated foreign matters to thereby reduce the possibility of a stuck hub. With these arrangements, the cooling fan can have prolonged service life.
US09057379B2

A blower fan includes an impeller centered on a central axis, a motor portion arranged to rotate the impeller about the central axis, and a housing arranged to accommodate the impeller. The housing includes a lower plate portion arranged to cover a lower side of the impeller and a side wall portion arranged to cover a side of the impeller. The lower plate portion is preferably made of, for example, a steel sheet. The side wall portion is preferably made of, for example, a resin. A lower end portion of the side wall portion and an edge portion of the lower plate portion are preferably joined to each other through insert molding. An outer circumferential cut surface of the lower plate portion is arranged in contact with the side wall portion at a joint between the lower end portion of the side wall portion and the edge portion of the lower plate portion.
US09057375B2

The invention relates to a compressor comprising a rotatable portion where the active volume is divided by transverse wings (4a-b) and a rotatable ring element (2) with its normal at an angle to the rotation axis of the transverse wings. In any of their embodiments the sealing wings are attached to sealing holder taps (16bd1-2, 16ac1-2) that pass through driving slits (11a1-2, 11b1-2). The driving slits extend essentially parallel to the rotation axis of the transverse wings. Steering and driving the sealing wings in this fashion using the driving slits, aligns the sealing wings against the transverse wings, restricting wear of the sealing wings and decreasing friction. In one embodiment the sealing holder taps are provided with sliders (17, 17a1-2, 17b1-2, 17c1-2, 17c1-2), guiding and further reducing wear of the sealing wings and decreasing friction, by means of guides (22a-d). The invention further relates to such a compressor with the means (7, 18, 19) for arranging the ring element with its normal at a changeable angle to the main rotation axis thereby changing the compression ratio.
US09057367B2

A cooling device is provided. The cooling device may include a pump chamber, an inlet flow passage that is used for allowing a fluid to flow into the pump chamber, an outlet flow passage that allows the fluid to flow out from the pump chamber, a pump that includes a fluid resistance element that opens or closes the inlet flow passage between the inlet flow passage and the pump chamber, a circulation flow passage that is used for circulating the fluid from the outlet flow passage to the inlet flow passage, and a first volume adjusting chamber that adjusts pressure of the fluid flowing into the pump chamber.
US09057363B2

The continuous fluid delivery systems includes a fluid pumping device comprising a pump housing comprising a base member with a plurality of inlet ports and at least one outlet port and at least two pairs of opposing pistons movably associated with the housing. Each pair of opposing pistons at least in part defines a respective pumping chamber of the fluid pumping device. The pistons in each pair of opposing pistons may be independently controlled such that any one of the plurality of inlet ports or the at least one outlet port is independently selectable to be in fluid communication with one of the respective pumping chambers. A drive system may be interfaced with the respective pistons to at least reciprocally operate the pistons relative to the base member. The pump housing and the at least two pairs of opposing pistons may comprise a disposable unit.
US09057357B2

A split collar mountable turbine is assembled in two separate halves and circumferentially attachable around existing structures. Top and bottom attachment rings each comprise first and second arcuate elements adapted to interconnect circumferentially about an axis to form two rings formed in spaced relation. A fan blade housing ring adapted to interface into complimentary slots within the top and bottom rings is received in complimentary slots and moves in tracks located in the top and bottom rings by magnetic levitation. The turbine further includes two pair of off-axis electrical generators each having rotating gears driven by rotation of said fan blade housing for producing electricity. A series of set screws and set guides affixed to the top and bottom rings can be adjusted to engage and be supported by a structure that is collared in the open center of the cylindrical wind turbine.
US09057355B2

Disclosed is a wind turbine with a generator, which minimizes design limitations on the diameters of generators and allows a rotor and the generator to be stably fixed to a tower. The wind turbine includes a rotor including a hub at a center thereof, a rotating shaft protruding rearward of the hub, and a plurality of rotor blades provided around the hub; a generator including a housing disposed at an outer upper portion of a tower behind the rotor and provided at an inner surface of a cylindrical body thereof with a stator and a rotator rotatably coupled in the housing to rotate together with the rotor; and a support bracket fixed to an upper end portion of the tower, wherein the housing is fixed to a front surface of the support bracket to integrally fix the rotor and the generator to the tower.
US09057353B2

A generator having a coupling adapted to couple at least two fluid conduits together; an axial flow channel defined by the hose coupling and having an axis; a conductive coil in the hose coupling enveloping the axial flow channel; a rotor rotatable relative to the conductive coil and encircled by the conductive coil; a plurality of vanes coupled to the rotor and projecting radially toward the axis, but not intersecting the axis.
US09057350B2

In a starter, an output shaft is coaxially disposed with a rotating shaft of a motor and has male helical splines formed on its outer surface. A pinion tube has female helical splines formed on its inner surface and is fitted on the output shaft with the female helical splines in mesh with the male helical splines. A pinion is provided on a non-motor-side end portion of the pinion tube so as to rotate with the pinion tube. A shift lever is configured to shift both the pinion tube and the pinion relative to the output shaft and thereby bring the pinion into mesh with a ring gear of an engine. Further, there is provided means for restricting relative rotation between the pinion tube and the output shaft when a one-way clutch is in an overrun state where the clutch inhibits torque transmission from the output shaft to the motor.
US09057346B2

An intake manifold is equipped with a sub-stream passage connected to branch passages through respective connection ports to introduce intake-air substream other than intake-air mainstream to the plural branch passages. Two of the branch passages which communicate with each other through the sub-stream passage and successively introduce intake air to the internal combustion engine are defined as a first combination. Of the first combinations, a second combination is defined to have a shortest communication length via the sub-stream passage. Of the second combination, the connection port of one of the branch passages where the intake air is introduced later is narrower than that of the other of the branch passages where the intake air is introduced earlier.
US09057341B2

According to one embodiment, an internal combustion engine includes a cylinder and liner. The cylinder includes a mid-stop formed in a side wall of the cylinder. The mid-stop includes a first contact surface and an undercut between the first contact surface and the side wall. The liner is positioned within the cylinder and includes a seat having a second contact surface. The second contact surface is supported on the first contact surface.
US09057335B2

The present invention relates to a method for operating an exhaust gas aftertreatment apparatus (13) of an internal combustion engine (11), which comprises an oxidation catalytic converter (29), an SCR catalytic converter (35) and a first temperature sensor (32) disposed in the direction of flow downstream of the oxidation catalytic converter (29) and upstream of the SCR catalytic converter (35), an exhaust gas atmosphere capable of exothermal reaction in said oxidation catalytic converter (29) being generated by the metering of hydrocarbons into the exhaust gas (3) upstream of said oxidation catalytic converter (29) during a heating operation. The method is thereby characterized in that a first numerical measurement value of a nominal value of a hydrocarbon conversion in said oxidation catalytic converter (29) is formed, in that a second numerical measurement value of an actual value of the hydrocarbon conversion in said oxidation catalytic converter (29) is determined as a function of the signals of the first temperature sensor (32), in that the second numerical measurement value is compared with the first numerical measurement value and in that the metering of the hydrocarbons is reduced if said second numerical measurement value is smaller than said first numerical measurement value. An independent claim relates to a control device set up for carrying out the method.
US09057317B2

A system and method for managing the electrical power associated with a vehicle detects whether an engine speed is below a speed set point for a minimum duration. A thermal sensor is arranged to detect whether a first temperature associated with a first cooling fan, a first coolant, or a first vehicle component is below a first target temperature. A fan controller or a power management controller is configured to disable or slow the first cooling fan to conserve a first level of electrical energy if the first temperature is below a target temperature and if the engine speed is below the speed set point for a minimum duration.
US09057316B2

An exhaust after-treatment system including a first exhaust treatment device having a first mounting surface and a second mounting surface, and a second exhaust treatment device and a third mounting surface and a fourth mounting surface. A first mounting structure is attached to the first mounting surface of the first exhaust treatment device, and a second mounting structure attached to the third mounting surface of the second exhaust treatment device, wherein the second and fourth mounting surfaces are secured to each other.
US09057314B1

An elongated exhaust conduit comprises a first end receiving hot exhaust gas from a marine engine and a second end discharging the exhaust gas. An elongated cooling water jacket extends adjacent to the exhaust conduit. The cooling water jacket conveys the raw cooling water adjacent to the exhaust conduit to thereby cool the exhaust conduit and warm the raw cooling water therein and discharges the warmed cooling water to cool the marine engine. The cooling water jacket comprises first and second channels that are separate from each other. The cooling water is oriented in a helical flow around the exhaust conduit.
US09057301B2

A catalyst system may include a three-way catalyst that receives exhaust gases from an engine and an ammonia slip catalyst that receives exhaust gases from the three-way catalyst. An air injection component can be configured between the three-way catalyst and the ammonia slip catalyst. A first sensor can determine first exhaust gases data and transmits that data to a controller, while a second sensor can determine second exhaust gases data and transmit that data to a controller. The controller can estimate unmeasured exhaust gases data based on the data received from the sensors and determine a setting of a component of the system and/or of the engine based on the unmeasured exhaust gases data.
US09057291B2

A variable valve lift device and a valve apparatus for a vehicle engine may include a valve configured to open/close a combustion chamber, a cam having a predetermined cam profile and rotatable by receiving a power generated in the combustion chamber, a cam side rocker arm rotatable by the cam, a rocker shaft penetratively mounted into the cam side rocker arm, a valve side rocker arm installed on the rocker shaft to apply a pressure for opening the valve while being turned by the cam side rocker arm, a hydraulic interval adjustment device installed in the cam side rocker arm to adjust an interval between the cam side rocker arm and the valve side rocker arm, and a hydraulic interval maintaining device configured to maintain the interval between the cam side rocker arm and the valve side rocker arm adjusted by the hydraulic interval adjustment device.
US09057280B2

An assembly can include vanes and a base configured to seat the vanes at a radial distance about an axis where each vane includes a leading edge and a trailing edge, a pair of lateral surfaces that meet at the leading edge and at the trailing edge, an extension that extends from one of the lateral surfaces and that has a contact surface, and a stop surface to form a contact with a contact surface of another vane to define a minimum flow distance between the vane and the other vane. Various other examples of devices, assemblies, systems, methods, etc., are also disclosed.
US09057260B2

Thin wall sleeves are inserted into a well and expanded into sealing position to a surrounding tubular. Each sleeve has a ball seat. A zone is perforated after a sleeve is secured in position below the perforations. The ball is dropped onto the seat and pressure is built up to complete the fracturing. After all zones are perforated and fractured, the balls are removed, preferably by dissolving them and the thin walled sleeves are left in the tubular against which they have been expanded. Production can then begin from a selected zone. The objects can be of the same size for each sleeve. The sleeves can be run through tubing and into casing. Acid can be pumped to dissolve the objects.
US09057259B2

An apparatus for heating a hydrocarbon resource in a subterranean formation having a wellbore extending therein is provided. The apparatus includes a radio frequency (RF) antenna configured to be positioned within the wellbore, a transmission line configured to be positioned in the wellbore and coupled to the RF antenna, and an RF source configured to be coupled with the transmission line. The transmission line includes at least one transmission line tuning section including an inner conductor, an outer conductor surrounding the inner conductor, and a liquid-blocking plug between the inner and outer conductors to define a tuning chamber configured to receive a dielectric liquid with a gas headspace thereabove.
US09057248B1

A system for evaluating a geological formation in a bottom hole assembly (BHA) includes a vibration mechanism configured to use mechanical energy provided by a mechanical energy source to produce a plurality of vibration beats at a predetermined frequency at the BHA. At least one vibration sensor detects the plurality of vibration beats generated by the vibration mechanism. A controller generates a waveform responsive to the detected plurality of vibration beats. The waveform is generated in a first configuration when the geological formation has a first geological characteristic and the waveform is generated in a second configuration when the geological formation has a second geological characteristic.
US09057247B2

An apparatus for measuring strain on a downhole component includes: at least one strain sensitive device disposed proximate to a surface of a component of a drilling assembly or disposed within a material forming the component; and a processor in operable communication with the at least one strain sensitive device, the processor configured to detect changes in the at least one strain sensitive device and detect at least one of erosion, crack formation and crack propagation in the component surface. An apparatus for measuring strain on a downhole component includes: at least one strain gauge deposited on a surface of a drive shaft or disposed within a material forming the drive shaft; and a processor in operable communication with the at least one strain gauge, the processor configured to detect changes in the at least one strain gauge and detect conditions affecting operation of the drive shaft.
US09057241B2

A hydrocarbon resource recovery system for a wellbore in a subterranean formation. The hydrocarbon resource recovery system may include a radio frequency (RF) source, and an antenna configured to be positioned within the wellbore and coupled to the RF source. The antenna may be coupled to the RF source and configured to generate a higher electric field strength region in the subterranean formation having a higher electric field strength and a lower magnetic field strength, and generate a higher magnetic field strength region in the subterranean formation having a higher magnetic field strength and a lower electric field strength. The antenna may have a tubular shape with a plurality of openings therein defining a hydrocarbon resource recovery capacity adjacent the higher electric field strength region that is different than a hydrocarbon resource recovery capacity adjacent the higher magnetic field strength region.
US09057240B2

A debris barrier assembly for use downhole includes a single body annular barrier having a bore; an extension tubular inserted through the bore; an upper tubular coupled to an upper end of the extension tubular; and a lower tubular coupled to a lower end of the extension tubular, wherein the lower tubular includes a release valve. In one embodiment, the release valve is mechanically opened. In another embodiment, a torque connection is used to couple the upper tubular to the extension tubular.
US09057236B2

A method for operating a dual drill string disposed in a wellbore, the string having a shutoff valve for at least a fluid return drill string therein proximate a bottom end thereof includes pumping fluid into the fluid return string such that a pressure therein is substantially equal to a fluid pressure in the wellbore. Circulation of fluid in the wellbore is initiated by pumping fluid into a fluid supply string of the dual drill string such that the shutoff valve on the fluid return string opens to enable the fluid leaving the wellbore to enter the fluid return string.
US09057232B2

Several methods and devices are provided herein to generate shock waves that are used in the oil industry for well drilling, hydrocarbon or gas exploitation, fracking process or improved oil recovery (IOR), enhanced oil recovery (EOR), cleaning of process waters, oil spills byproducts and oil pipes, which can be used as independent systems or as auxiliary systems concomitantly with other existing technologies. The different devices consist of generating shock waves utilizing either one or more laser sources, or a self-generated combustible gas supply, or a micro-explosive pellet, or piezocrystals, or a piezofiber composite structure.
US09057229B2

A casing centralizer comprising a cylindrical base and a plurality of blades extending from the cylindrical base, wherein the plurality of blades and the cylindrical base are compression molded as a single piece from a mineral filled, glass and specialty fiber reinforced polyester molding compound.
US09057222B1

This application is directed to a pressure balanced mud motor and a method of using the mud motor. The mud motor includes a power section to rotate a passageway housing and propel fluid through a passageway disposed in the passageway housing. The mud motor also includes a hydraulic apparatus for balancing a pressure drop experienced across a bearing assembly due to frictional flow of fluid through the passageway.
US09057218B2

A blast door (12; 14) comprises a panel (12a; 14a) and a frame provided around the perimeter of the panel. The frame comprises a plurality of frame members (12b, 12c, 12d; 14b, 14c, 14d). Each frame member has a cross section that includes a cavity (36, 40) in which the panel perimeter is received. This ensures that the frame encloses a perimeter portion of the panel on either side thereof. Securing means (47) are provided within the cavity of the frame, to secure the panel therein. A method of fabricating the blast door comprises providing the panel and the frame comprising the plurality of frame members, and securing the panel within the frame using securing means located within the cavity of the frame.
US09057217B2

A method for operating a building closure having the shape of an overhead sectional door or of a garage door including at least one spring-loaded counterweight device and an electrical drive device is disclosed. A control unit simultaneously monitors the position of the building closure and a motor current for the drive device. When the building closure is in an open or a closed position, the motor current is reduced and maintained at a level to residually energize the drive device to reliably maintain the building closure in a desired position.
US09057215B1

A dual-shaft hinge includes an axle housing, a pivot shaft set including a first pivot shaft and a second pivot shaft respectively pivotally coupled to the axle housing, a transmission mechanism including a first transmission member connected to the first pivot shaft and a second transmission member connected to the second pivot shaft, and a link connected between the first transmission member and the second transmission member in such a manner that the first pivot shaft and the second pivot shaft are rotatable relative to each other and the axle housing is turnable about the second pivot shaft to prevent the problem of a broken component due to overstress, or the problem of a jammed component.
US09057205B2

A modular platform assembly for a wind turbine tower includes a core platform sub-assembly having an underlying structural support grid. A plurality of platform extension panels are disposed circumferentially around at least a portion of a perimeter of the core platform sub-assembly. Support extensions are configured on the support grid at a plurality of circumferential positions around the core platform sub-assembly, with the platform extension panels supported by the support extension. The support extensions are mountable to a wall within a wind turbine tower and are variably positional on the support grid so at to vary the effective diameter of the support grid.
US09057198B2

Embodiments of an awning assembly are taught which utilize an awning rail assembly including a connector having integrated luminaires. The integrated luminaire does not interfere with the extension or retraction of the awning.
US09057194B2

A roofing shingle includes strata that are stacked and laminated together by adhesive. Each of the strata may have a strata width that differs from the other strata. Each of the strata may include a substrate, a top asphalt layer on top of the substrate, granular matter on the top asphalt layer, a bottom asphalt layer on a bottom of the substrate, and mineral matter on the bottom asphalt layer.
US09057188B2

Modules for controlling a flow of water and methods of assembly of modules to establish indirect flow of water through a modular system. Modular systems for controlling a flow of water having beams extending across the modules to direct the flow of water in an indirect manner or a serpentine or semi-serpentine manner. Modular storage and controlled outflow systems for treatment and filtration of water.
US09057182B1

A touchless water control system having at least one sensor capable of determining hand movement from point A to point B in a first direction, from point C to point D in a second direction and from point E to point F in a third direction thereby establishing a spatial field spaced away from a faucet through which a user's hand can be moved to initiate or terminate water flow, water temperature and water pressure.
US09057180B1

An apparatus for sealing a vacuum tank door. The apparatus comprises a circular flange attached to a door panel of a vacuum tank, a horizontal crossbar connected to the center of the door panel and a lifting assembly. The lifting assembly comprises an upper linkage arm, a lower linkage arm, and a hydraulic cylinder. Activation of the hydraulic cylinder causes the linkage assembly to move downwards pulling on the horizontal crossbar and pulling the vacuum tank door towards the tank. Activation of the hydraulic cylinder also causes a connection point of the lower linkage arm and the upper linkage arm to move over-center of the connection between the lower linkage arm to the to the tank creating a tight seal between the vacuum tank door and the tank.
US09057178B2

A machine including an implement system pivotably mounted on the machine, a thumb member mounted on an arm of the implement system for free dampened back and forth pivotable movement, the thumb member being controllably pivotable into selectable pivot positions via controlled pivoting of one or the other or both of the arm and a bucket member, a dampener being interconnected between the thumb member and the arm in an arrangement where the dampener dampens free pivoting movement of the thumb member.
US09057177B2

A ground engaging tip of a tooth assembly for a base edge of a ground engaging implement, is provided, wherein the tooth assembly includes an adapter configured for attachment to a base edge of the ground engaging implement and having a forwardly extending adapter nose. In various embodiments, the ground engaging tip is configured for digging into work material in diverse earth moving environments.
US09057176B2

A retention system for a ground-engaging tool includes a pin. The pin may include a shaft extending along a longitudinal axis of the pin; a radial projection extending from a first end of the shaft; and a head disposed at a second end of the shaft, the head having a non-circular axial cross-section. The system may also include a retainer collar. The collar may include an annular wall surrounding a recess configured to receive the first end of the shaft; an axial slot in an inner surface of the annular wall, the axial slot extending from a first end of the annular wall inward and being configured to receive the radial projection; and a circumferential slot connected to the axial slot in the inner surface of the annular wall, the circumferential slot being configured to receive the radial projection of the pin.
US09057174B2

A construction machine diagnosis system is provided. A diagnosis device 10 acquires diagnostic data from a diagnostic data storage device 30, extracts data characteristics from the information contained in the diagnostic data, acquires from a diagnostic knowledge storage device 20 any diagnosing techniques considered to be effective for the data characteristics, and presents to a user the diagnosing techniques along with respective degrees of effectiveness. The user uses the presented degrees of effectiveness to select a desired diagnosing technique and conduct a diagnosis. In addition, in order to make effective use of the diagnostic knowledge stored within the diagnostic knowledge storage device 20, a diagnostic knowledge generating section 107 classifies common data characteristics by elements of diagnosing techniques and stores the classified data characteristics and the elements of the diagnosing techniques, as new diagnostic knowledge.
US09057173B2

Provided is a hybrid construction machine capable of letting the operator immediately stop the swing structure by performing a stopping operation for ordinary construction machines even when the swing structure moves differently from the operator's will for some reason. The hybrid construction machine comprises: an inverter controller which outputs a PWM signal to an inverter and thereby controls the revolution speed of an electric motor; a first electric circuit including blocking means which blocks the PWM signal outputted from the inverter controller to the inverter in response to either an immobilization selection inputted through a gate lock lever switch or an OFF selection inputted through an ignition switch; and a second electric circuit including a swing brake solenoid valve which activates a swing brake in response to either the immobilization selection inputted through the gate lock lever switch or the OFF selection inputted through the ignition switch.
US09057166B2

A blower apparatus has a drive motor and a blower device operatively connected to the drive motor. A blower tube is connected to the blower device and has an outlet opening remote from the blower device. A blower air stream conveyed by the blower device passes through the blower tube in the direction of a longitudinal center axis of the blower tube and exits through the outlet opening in an outflow direction. A pivoting device that pivots the blower tube is provided. In a non-actuated state of the pivoting device the outflow direction is parallel to the longitudinal center axis of the blower tube. The pivoting device has a tilting device that tilts the outflow direction relative to the longitudinal center axis of the blower tube and utilizes a transverse force that is generated by the blower air stream at the outlet opening for pivoting the blower tube.
US09057165B2

Disclosed in a safety crash barrier comprising an elongated base portion and a plurality of barrier elements movably coupled in a resting state thereof to and along the base portion, the plurality of barrier elements are configured to flexibly or elastically change into a displaced state in which at least some of said barrier elements contacted by a colliding vehicle are caused to move and absorb impact energy imparted by the vehicle so as to stop movement of the vehicle or deflect it back to its lane, to thereby reduce or prevent damages to the vehicle and/or passengers injuries. In some embodiments of the present invention a structure of a plurality of barrier modules is slidably placed on top of the base portion, the plurality of barrier modules are placed one on top the other and configured to horizontally slide one relative the other in response to impact of a colliding vehicle contacting the barrier.
US09057159B2

The present invention relates to a security paper that cannot be forged with respect to forgery attempts with non-aqueous solvents, characterized in that it comprises on its surface and/or in its bulk, clusters formed of elementary particles that are both insoluble in water and in solvents, amalgamated with an agglomerating agent that is also insoluble in water but almost instantaneously soluble in at least one non-aqueous solvent so as to release said elementary particles in the paper, which elementary particles are preferably less than 20 μm, and more preferably still less than 10 μm, they are colored and are advantageously intense pigment dyestuffs such as those used for producing inks or paints.
US09057154B2

A textile printing apparatus includes a liquid remaining amount grasping unit which grasps remaining amounts of respective two or more kinds of liquids, and a control unit which performs control of execution of printings onto a plurality of printed textile materials, the control unit has a control mode for, in advance of starting the execution of printings, specifying any print-executable printing specification from among the printing specifications on the basis of the remaining amounts of the respective liquids and the contents of the respective printing specifications, and then, starting execution of any printing based on the any print-executable printing specification having been specified.
US09057152B2

The present invention relates to a laundry treating apparatus which can make clothes drying, deodoring, crumple removal and sterilization easily. The present invention has advantages of providing a laundry treating apparatus which can make easy maintain and repair of the steam generator which is to supply steam to the clothes and the air supply unit which is to supply air to the clothes.
US09057151B2

A drum type washing machine including a body having a front surface thereof with an entrance opening for entrance/exit of laundry, and a front door rotatably coupled at one end thereof to the front surface of the body and serving to open or close the entrance opening. The drum type washing machine further including a door elastic member providing the front door with an elastic force required to open the entrance opening when the entrance opening is closed by the front door. A supporting unit is installed to the front door and is adapted to come into contact with the body upon opening or closing of the entrance opening, thereby serving to keep the front door at a predetermined distance from the body.
US09057148B2

A method for producing a polypropylene fiber, which can produce a high strength polypropylene fiber without using a special raw material and/or means is provided.The method for producing a polypropylene fiber includes the step of spinning a melt extruded fiber, the step of keeping cold, and the step of drawing, in which a ratio of a take-off speed with respect to an extrusion speed in the step of spinning the melt-extruded fiber is 50 to 750.
US09057135B2

A method for protecting silver and silver alloy surfaces against tarnishing, characterized by initially subjecting the surface to be treated to cleaning pre-treatment in organic solvents; immersing the cleaned surface in an acid solution able to ensure formation of a thin layer of silver oxide; immersing the oxidized surface in a solution of at least one thiol of formula CH3(CH2)nSH where n is between 10 and 16; and chemically reacting the molecules of said thiol with the previously oxidized silver surface, in an environment containing water vapor at a temperature of at least 50° C.
US09057134B2

A material mixture for dissolving a coating system from a work piece comprises an aqueous, alkaline solution containing between 3 and 8 weight percent KMnO4 and at the same time having an alkaline fraction of between 6 and 15 weight percent. The alkaline fraction is formed in one embodiment by KOH or NaOH, wherein the pH of the solution is above 13. A method according to the present invention uses the above-described material mixture for wet-chemical delaminating of hard material coatings of the group: metallic AlCr, TiAlCr and other AlCr alloys; nitrides, carbides, borides, oxides thereof and combinations thereof.
US09057133B2

It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing solution used for forming a hexavalent chromium free, black conversion film, which is applied onto the surface of zinc or zinc alloy plating layers, and which has corrosion resistance identical to or higher than that achieved by the conventional hexavalent chromium-containing conversion film.
US09057129B2

A variable aperture within an aperture device is used to shape the ion beam before the substrate is implanted by shaped ion beam, especially to finally shape the ion beam in a position right in front of the substrate. Hence, different portions of a substrate, or different substrates, can be implanted respectively by different shaped ion beams without going through using multiple fixed apertures or retuning the ion beam each time. In other words, different implantations may be achieved respectively by customized ion beams without high cost (use multiple fixed aperture devices) and complex operation (retuning the ion beam each time). Moreover, the beam tune process for acquiring a specific ion beam to be implanted may be accelerated, to be faster than using multiple fixed aperture(s) and/or retuning the ion beam each time, because the adjustment of the variable aperture may be achieved simply by mechanical operation.
US09057127B2

The present invention provides a plated resin molded article having a high adhering strength of a plating layer. Specifically, it provides a plated resin molded article that has a metal plating layer on the surface of a thermoplastic resin molded article comprising a composition that contains(A) 10 to 90 mass % of a matrix resin that has a water absorption after 24 hours in 23° C. water (ISO62) of at least 0.6% and(B) 90 to 10 mass % of a non-styrenic resin that has a water absorption after 24 hours in 23° C. water (ISO62) of less than 0.6%, wherein the thermoplastic resin molded article is not subjected to etching with a heavy metal-containing acid.
US09057125B2

A canister includes an accommodation portion for accommodating a liquid material; an outlet pipe that is connected to the accommodation portion so as to discharge a gas material obtained by vaporizing the liquid material; a blocking cover that is connected to an upper surface of the accommodation portion; and a plurality of baffle plates that are disposed in the accommodation portion and are spaced apart from each other. The canister further includes a restrictor including a main body member that is disposed between the plurality of baffle plates and the blocking cover and is connected to an internal surface of the accommodation portion, an extension member extending from the main body member, and a through portion that is formed through the main body member and the extension member. A deposition procedure using the canister is efficiently performed and characteristics of a deposition layer are easily improved.
US09057123B2

Provided is a hot-rolled steel sheet that has a chemical composition including, by mass %: C: 0.060% to 0.150%; Si: 0.15% to 0.70%; Mn: 1.00% to 1.90%; P: 0.10% or less; S: 0.010% or less; Al: 0.01% to 0.10%; N: 0.010% or less; Nb: 0.010% to 0.100%; and the balance including Fe and incidental impurities. The hot-rolled steel sheet has a microstructure containing ferrite of 18 μm or less in average grain size by a volume fraction of at least 75% and pearlite of at least 2 μm in average grain size by a volume fraction of at least 5%, the balance being low-temperature-induced phases, the pearlite having a mean free path of at least 5.0 μm.
US09057102B2

Methods, devices, and systems for performing intermittent detection during analytical reactions are provided. Such methods facilitate collection of reaction data from disparate reaction times. Further, such methods are useful for reducing photo-induced damage of one or more reactants in an illuminated analytical reaction at a given reaction time. In preferred embodiments, the reaction mixture is subjected to at least one illuminated and non-illuminated period and allowed to proceed such that the time in which the reaction mixture is illuminated is less than a photo-induced damage threshold period.
US09057100B2

This invention provides novel compositions and processes for analyte detection, quantification and amplification. Nucleic acid arrays and libraries of analytes are usefully incorporated into such compositions and processes. Universal detection elements, signaling entities and the like are employed to detect and if necessary or desirable, to quantify analytes. Amplification of target analytes are also provided by the compositions and processes of this invention.
US09057098B2

Provided herein is technology relating to isolating nucleic acids. In particular, the technology relates to methods and kits for extracting nucleic acids from problematic samples such as stool.
US09057096B2

A composition and method for detecting the ability of a compound to modulate the activity of LGR4, LGR5, or LGR6 receptors in a cell. LGR4, LGR5, and LGR6 are capable of activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling system which plays essential roles in embryonic development and in the self-renewal and maintenance of adult stem cells.
US09057093B2

A method for detecting and enumerating viable microorganisms in a sample suspected of containing said microorganisms: (1) contacting said microorganisms of said sample with repair compounds and a growth medium, and (2) incubating the product of step (1),and (3) detecting and enumerating said microorganisms, in which the microorganisms are of the species Legionella pneumophila, and in which the repair compounds comprise: (a)serine;(b)threonine;(c)a compound containing calcium ions at a dose of 10−6 to 10−2 mM;(d)a compound containing magnesium ions at a dose of 10−6 to 10−2 mM;(e)a compound containing potassium ions;(f) glutamic acid or a salt thereof; and (g)pyruvic acid or a salt thereof. The invention also discloses a kit for detecting and enumerating viable microorganisms of the species Legionella pneumophila in a sample suspected of containing said microorganisms.
US09057088B2

Silver-coated proteins, being dissolvable or suspendable in aqueous media and/or retaining a biological activity of the protein and a process for preparing same are disclosed. Further disclosed are modified proteins which have a reducing moiety attached to the surface thereof and a process for preparing same. The modified proteins can be utilized for obtaining the silver-coated proteins. Further disclosed are a pharmaceutical composition containing and a method of treating bacterial and fungal infections utilizing biologically active silver-coated hydrogen peroxide producing enzymes such as glucose oxidase. Further disclosed are conductive elements that comprise the silver-coated proteins disclosed herein and electronic circuits containing same. Further disclosed are electrodes having the silver-coated proteins deposited thereon and biosensor systems utilizing same for determining a level of an analyte in a liquid sample.
US09057082B2

Disclosed are strategies for the economical microbial generation of hydrogen, useful as an alternative energy source, from hydrocarbon-rich deposits such as coal, oil and/or gas formations, oil shale, bitumen, tar sands, carbonaceous shale, peat deposits and sediments rich in organic matter through the management of the metabolism of microbial consortia.
US09057077B2

The present invention relates to the increased expression of RPW8 proteins causing an increased level of the RPW8 proteins at extrahaustorial membrane with subsequent induction of pathogen inhibition reactions against haustorium forming pathogens.
US09057067B2

A method for transfecting nucleic acid to cell comprising a step for forming a nucleic acid complex by bringing a double-stranded nucleic acid molecule into contact with a nucleic acid carrier having an amino acid sequence of alternating a basic amino acid and a hydrophobic amino acid, which has a peptide chain that forms a β-sheet structure in which a side chain of a positively charged basic amino acid is disposed on one surface side and a side chain of a hydrophobic amino acid is disposed on the opposite surface side in the presence of the double-stranded nucleic acid molecule having a double helix structure, and by binding the double-stranded nucleic acid molecule and the peptide chain through either one or both of the electrostatic interaction between the side chains of the basic amino acid and phosphate groups and hydrogen bonds between the double stranded-nucleic acid molecule and the peptide chain and a nucleic acid complex used for the same are disclosed.
US09057065B2

An object of the present invention is to construct an mRNA which specifically responds to a short RNA sequence and can activate, repress, and regulate the translation of the desired gene, and to construct an artificial cell model system using a liposome comprising the mRNA and a cell-free translational system encapsulated therein. The present invention provides: an mRNA comprising a target RNA-binding site located immediately 5′ to the ribosome-binding site, and a nucleotide sequence located 5′ to the target RNA-binding site, the nucleotide sequence being complementary to the ribosome-binding site; an mRNA comprising a small RNA-binding site located 3′ to the start codon, and a nucleotide sequence located 3′ to the small RNA-binding site, the nucleotide sequence encoding a protein; and a liposome comprising any of these mRNAs encapsulated therein.
US09057062B2

There are provided a highly safe epimerase usable in food industry, and a method for producing a ketose. Resolution: The epimerase is a ketose 3-epimerase obtainable from a microorganism of the genus Arthrobacter, and having (1) substrate specificity whereby a D- or L-ketose is epimerized at position 3 to produce a corresponding D- or L-ketose, and (2) the highest substrate specificity for D-fructose and D-psicose among D- and L-ketoses.
US09057060B2

The present invention relates to methods for the manufacture, purification, formulation, and use of biologically active recombinant elastase proteins. Described are recombinant methods for producing therapeutically useful elastase proteins, as are pharmaceutical compositions comprising said elastase proteins. Novel recombinant elastase proteins and protein preparations are also disclosed. Methods are described for treating and preventing diseases of biological conduits using pharmaceutical compositions containing the elastase proteins of the invention.
US09057058B2

This invention is a process for the preparation of talc based formulation for LDPE-degrading bacterial consortia. The process comprises preparing an active consortium. The active consortium is divided into four parts in centrifuge tubes. The tubes are spun at 5000 rpm. A supernatant is decanted from the tubes. The tubes are vortexed. Talc is added to each tube. The tubes with talc are again vortexed for some time to produce a homogeneous mixture. The mixture is poured into glass dishes. The dishes are kept at room temperature as aseptically for drying.
US09057052B2

The present invention has its object to provide a material for separating stem cell and a filter for separating stem cell, each is capable of selectively separating and recovering, in a simple and easy manner, stem cells from body fluids or biological tissue-derived treated fluids, a method for separating and recovering stem cells, and stem cells obtained by such method. The present invention is a material for separating stem cell which has a density K of 1.0×104≦K≦1.0×106 and a fiber diameter of 3 to 40 μm; a filter for separating stem cell which comprises the material for separating stem cell as packed in a container having a fluid inlet port and a fluid outlet port; a method of separating and recovering stem cells which comprises using the material for separating stem cell or the filter for separating stem cell; and a method of producing a multipotent cell fraction.
US09057051B2

The invention is directed to methods for culturing cells so that the cells are induced to differentiate into cells that express hepatocyte phenotypes and hepatocyte progenitor phenotypes. More particularly, the invention relates to methods for culturing cells so that the cells are induced to differentiate into cells that express a definitive endodermal phenotype, a liver-committed endodermal phenotype, a hepatoblast phenotype, and hepatocyte phenotype. The invention is also directed to cells produced by the methods of the invention. The cells are useful, among other things, for treatment of liver deficiency, liver metabolism studies, and liver toxicity studies.
US09057042B2

A method of laundering fabrics that is intuitive for the customer, ensures good penetration of the liquid laundry detergent composition into a stain, particularly greasy stain, and is suitable for washing delicate fabrics, particularly at low temperatures.
US09057038B2

Lubricant compositions including a random or block copolymer first high-EO content polyalkylene glycol, a random copolymer second polyalkylene glycol based on propylene oxide and butylene oxide or a second polyalkylene homopolymer having propylene oxide or butylenes oxide units and at least one corrosion inhibitor selected from the group of sarcosines, amine phosphates, and calcium dinonylnaphthalenesulfonate/carboxylates are provided. Lubricant compositions for extreme conditions are also provided.
US09057036B2

A process for reducing the thiophene content in a synthesis gas mixture, comprises the steps of (i) passing a synthesis gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon oxides and containing thiophene over a copper-containing sorbent disposed in a sorbent vessel at an inlet temperature in the range 200-280° C., (ii) withdrawing a thiophene depleted synthesis gas containing methanol from the sorbent vessel, and (iii) adjusting the temperature of the methanol-containing thiophene-depleted synthesis gas mixture. The resulting gas mixture may be used for production of chemicals, e.g. methanol production or for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of liquid hydrocarbons, for hydrogen production by using water gas shift, or for the production of synthetic natural gas.
US09057029B1

A method of producing oil, gas, and ash fertilizer from a feedstock includes inputting the feedstock into a reaction chamber having a wall, and combusting the feedstock in the reaction chamber. An electrical current flow is induced between the reaction chamber wall and the feedstock so as to cause arcing in the feedstock within the reaction chamber. Ash reaction byproducts migrate downward through the reaction chamber onto ash support structure, which is substantially electrically isolated from the reaction chamber wall. Gas and liquid reaction byproducts migrate upward through the reaction chamber to an upper chamber by a partial vacuum in the upper chamber, and are evacuated therefrom. The oil and gas are then separated from the evacuated gas/liquid products, providing the oil and the gas products. The oil is refinable, the gas is high in energy content, and the ash fertilizer is high in nitrogen.
US09057026B2

A method for producing a lubricant base oil includes contacting feedstock containing normal paraffins having not less than 20 carbon atoms with a first catalyst in the presence of molecular hydrogen to obtain a first produced oil, and contacting the first produced oil with a second catalyst in the presence of molecular hydrogen to obtain a second produced oil. The first catalyst includes a first carrier in which a fraction of an amount of NH3 to be desorbed at 300 to 800° C. based on a total amount of NH3 to be desorbed is 80 to 90% in temperature-programmed desorption of NH3, a first metal selected from metals of Group VI in the periodic table carried on the first carrier, and a second metal selected from metals of Group VIII to Group X in the periodic table carried on the first carrier.
US09057023B2

A process for keeping coke oven chambers hot during the stoppage of a waste heat boiler. The coke oven chambers are kept hot after emptying using externally heated burners, in which a flue gas low in pollutants is obtained from the burners. The waste heat boilers which, during normal operation, cool the flue gases can be shut off and overhauled, and a flue gas low in pollutants which can be dissipated directly into the atmosphere is obtained by the burner operation. Also disclosed is an apparatus for keeping coke oven chambers hot, the apparatus has a coke oven chamber bench, a flue gas collection line, a flue gas chimney, a waste heat boiler, a waste gas collection line and a waste gas purification system, wherein the flue gas chimney and the waste heat boiler can be shut off on the flue gas side and on the waste gas side.
US09057022B2

A luminescent nanosheet has perovskite octahedral crystal units combined together in a planar configuration. The octahedral crystal units each have a multistacked crystal sheet structure. The octahedral crystal units are multistacked over at least 3 high in a direction vertical to a sheet plane, and an element providing a luminescence center is solid-solubilized between the multistacked octahedral crystal units.
US09057009B2

Methods and fluids are provided that include, but are not limited to, a drilling fluid comprising an aqueous base fluid and a fluid loss control additive that comprises at least one polymeric micro gel and a method comprising: providing an aqueous based treatment fluid comprising a fluid loss control additive that comprises at least one polymeric micro gel; placing the aqueous based treatment fluid in a subterranean formation via a well bore penetrating the subterranean formation; allowing the fluid loss control additive to become incorporated into a filter cake located on a surface within the subterranean formation; allowing the filter cake to be degraded; and producing hydrocarbons from the formation. Additional methods are also provided.
US09057007B2

Disclosed are starch-based cross-linked phenolic heteropolymer compositions and methods of synthesizing starch-based cross-linked phenolic heteropolymer compositions as well as their use as adhesives or adhesive additives.
US09057002B2

A curable epoxy resin composition including (a) at least one epoxy resin; and (b) at least one hardener; wherein the curable epoxy resin composition has at least two exotherm peaks representing at least two distinct chemical reactions and wherein the exothermic peak difference of the two exotherm peaks is sufficient to allow the curable epoxy resin composition of being B-staged.
US09057000B2

The present disclosure relates to protein-starch compositions. The disclosure also relates to processes for preparing the protein-starch compositions. Further, the disclosure relates to uses of the protein-starch compositions in the preparation of adhesives or binders. Further, the disclosure relates to adhesive formulations that include protein-starch containing compositions and to paper products resulting from the processes herein.
US09056999B2

There is provided an ultraviolet-curable aqueous ink containing: an ultraviolet polymerizable compound; a water-insoluble thioxanthone compound having an absorption at a wavelength range of 375 nm or more and 450 nm or less, a water-insoluble tertiary amine compound, water, and a water-soluble organic solvent at least including a solvent (A) that dissolves the thioxanthone compound and the tertiary amine compound.
US09056990B2

A phosphorus-atom-containing oligomer is used as a curing agent for epoxy resin, the phosphorus-atom-containing oligomer being a mixture of a phosphorus-atom-containing compound represented by structural formula (1) below with n representing 0 and a phosphorus-atom-containing oligomer represented by structural formula (1) below with n representing 1 or more: (where R1 to R5 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or the like; X represents a hydrogen atom or a structural unit represented by structural formula (x1) below: where, in structural formula (x1), R2 to R5 each independently represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, or the like), wherein a content of the phosphorus-atom-containing oligomer represented by general structural formula (1) with n representing 1 or more is in the range of 5 to 90% on a peak area bases in GPC measurement.
US09056987B2

A super hydrophobic coating composition that is a highly durable super hydrophobic transparent coating for glass, metal, and plastic, and automobile painted surfaces that is manually dispensable and may be easily applied to many substrates is provided. Moreover, the inventive super hydrophobic coating is user friendly as coating takes place at room temperature, and can be applied by a normal hand spray method. Embodiments of the coating dry within 30 minutes, and generate a super hydrophobic effect for ready use. The coating is useful to repel water droplets, dew drops, and dust particles in various applications such as solar panels, wind turbines surfaces, house hold components, metal coated furniture, marine equipment parts, marine sports equipment like speed boat screens, automobile wind shields, automobile plastic components, auto bodies and aerospace applications.
US09056985B2

Provided are a curable composition and its use. The curable composition may provide a cured product having excellent processability, workability, and adhesive property, and having no whitening and surface stickiness. The curable composition has excellent thermal resistance and crack resistance, and low gas permeability, and thus provides a device having excellent initial performance when being applied to a semiconductor device and maintaining stable performance when being used at a high temperature for a long time.
US09056983B2

A compound for protection of an object from a blast or shock wave. The compound include a matrix material and at least a first and second sets of inclusions in the matrix material that differ in size, quantity, shape and/or composition in a direction through the impact-absorbing material, the combination of which contributes to the ability of the material to exhibit at least one property that changes as the inclusions are deformed in response to a blast or shock wave.
US09056979B2

Disclosed is a biodegradable polyester mixture comprising 45 to 95 wt %, based on the total weight of polyester I and II, of a polyester I constructed from an aliphatic C9-C18 dicarboxylic acid or a C9-C18 dicarboxylic acid derivative; terephthalic acid or a terephthalic acid derivative; a C3-C6 diol; an at least trihydric alcohol; and a chain extender. The biodegradable polyester mixture further comprises 5 to 55 wt %, based on the total weight of polyester I and II, of a polyester II constructed from an aliphatic C4-C6 dicarboxylic acid or a C4-C6 dicarboxylic acid derivative; terephthalic acid or a terephthalic acid derivative; a C3-C6 diol; an at least trihydric alcohol; and a chain extender. The biodegradable polyester mixture further comprises 10 to 25 wt %, based on the total weight, of calcium carbonate; and 3 to 15 wt %, based on the total weight, of talc.
US09056974B2

The invention relates to the use of an impact-modified acrylic blend with a low level of fluoropolymer to achieve impact resistance and solvent resistance in a capstock formulation. Preferably the acrylic blend contains a methyl methacrylate-based acrylic polymer and polyvinylidene fluoride.
US09056970B2

The instant invention is a high-density polyethylene composition, method of producing the same, closure devices made therefrom, and method of making such closure devices. The high-density polyethylene composition according to the present invention comprises (a) a first component comprising a high molecular weight ethylene alpha-olefin copolymer having a density in the range of 0.927 to 0.938 g/cm3, and a melt flow rate (I21) in the range of 4 to 10 g/10 minutes, and (b) a second component comprising a low molecular weight ethylene polymer having a density in the range of 0.960 to 0.975 g/cm3, and a melt index (I2) in the range of 100 to 1200 g/10 minutes; and wherein the high-density polyethylene composition has a melt index (I2) in the range of from 2 to 10 g/10 minutes, a density in the range of from 0.950 to 0.960 g/cm3, and a flow direction shrinkage to cross flow direction shrinkage ratio in the range of from 2 to 3.2, and an environmental stress crack resistance (ESCR) (F50) according to ASTM D-1693, condition B at 50° C., and using 10 percent Branched Octylphenoxy Poly(Ethyleneoxy) Ethanol, in the range of equal to or greater than 50 hours.
US09056969B2

This invention provides a polyolefin-based molded article containing microfibrillated plant fibers having high strength and high elastic modulus. Specifically, the present invention provides a composition comprising (1) a polymeric compound having a primary amino group, (2) a polymeric compound modified with maleic anhydride, (3) microfibrillated plant fibers, and (4) a polyolefin; and a molded article obtained by subjecting the composition to heat treatment.
US09056968B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for increasing the biodegradation rate of the biodegradable resin molded body in nature by promoting degradation of a biodegradable resin molded body containing an oxidative degradation agent.The degradation rate of the biodegradable resin molded body containing an oxidative degradation agent can be significantly increased by allowing both the biodegradable resin molded body and a chloride salt to be present at the time of disposal of the resin molded body.
US09056959B2

A method for producing a chlorinated vinyl chloride resin of the present invention includes chlorinating a vinyl chloride resin by irradiating the inside of a reactor, into which the vinyl chloride resin and chlorine have been introduced, with ultraviolet light, thereby producing a chlorinated vinyl chloride resin. The irradiation of ultraviolet light is carried out through use of at least one kind of light source selected from the group consisting of an ultraviolet LED, an organic EL, an inorganic EL, and an ultraviolet laser. A chlorinated vinyl chloride resin that shows suppressed initial coloring during hot forming and/or improved thermal stability can be provided by the method for producing a chlorinated vinyl chloride resin of the present invention.
US09056956B2

A polyethylene terephthalate composition includes a copolymer component having at least 3 functional groups in an amount of 0.01 mol % to 1.00 mol % with respect to ethylene terephthalate units, in which a ratio (Mw/Mn) between the weight average molecular weight and number average molecular weight of the polyethylene terephthalate composition is 5.0 to 8.0; an alkali metal compound in an amount of 1.0 mol/ton to 3.0 mol/ton in terms of alkali metal element; a phosphorus compound in an amount of 1.5 mol/ton to 5.0 mol/ton in terms of elemental phosphorus; and an o-chlorophenol insoluble matter in an amount of less than 0.5 wt %.
US09056955B2

A resin particle having a sufficiently narrow particle size distribution obtainable by using a supercritical fluid, and a production method for obtaining a resin particle having a sufficiently narrow particle size distribution by using a supercritical fluid are provided. The present invention provides a resin particle (C) having a microparticle (A) fixed to or formed as a film on a surface of a resin particle (B) containing a resin (b), wherein the degree of swelling of the microparticle (A) by liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide (X) at a temperature lower than the glass transition temperature or the melting point of the microparticle (A) is 16% or less, and the microparticle (A) is at least one kind selected from the group consisting of a crystalline resin (a1), a noncrystalline resin (a2), and an inorganic compound (a3).
US09056948B2

The invention relates to microcapsules, the capsule walls of which comprise a resin that can be obtained by reacting a) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of a1) amines and a2) aromatic or heteroaromatic compounds which are unsubstituted or substituted with one or more substituents from the group consisting of C1-C20-alkyl, OH, OR, COOH, SH, SR, NHCOR, OCOR, halogen, or an aromatic compound, where R is a C1-C10-alkyl group, with b) at least one aldehydic component that contains at least two carbons atoms per molecule, in the presence of c) at least one copolymer which contains units of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid or salts (AMPS) thereof and/or 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane phosphonic acid or salts (AMPP) thereof and units of one or more (meth)acrylates.
US09056946B2

To provide a method capable of producing stereocomplex polylactic acid, the method being capable of using carbon neutral materials that are not competitive from foods, such as saccharides, without the use of a method for designing optical resolution, which requires complicated operations and high cost and is difficult to perform mass production. The production method of the present invention comprises: a step of reacting glycerin with sodium hydroxide in high-temperature and high-pressure water to produce a racemic sodium lactate aqueous solution; a step of separating sodium from the racemic sodium lactate aqueous solution to recover racemic lactic acid; a step of dimerizing the racemic lactic acid to produce a lactide mixture containing meso lactide and racemic lactide; a step of separating meso lactide from the mixture to recover racemic lactide; and a step of polymerizing the racemic lactide with a salen-metal complex as a catalyst to produce stereocomplex polylactic acid.
US09056941B2

The present invention relates to a photocurable resin composition including the following ingredients (A), (B) and (C): (A) a linear chain epoxy resin represented by the following general formula (1), in which m indicates an integer of from 2 to 10, and R1 and R2 each represent a hydrogen atom or a fluorine atom; (B) an alicyclic epoxy resin having at least two epoxy groups in one molecule thereof; and (C) a phosphorus fluoride-based photopolymerization initiator.
US09056934B2

The present invention relates to novel materials particularly useful for ophthalmic applications and methods for making and using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to relatively soft, optically transparent, foldable, high refractive index materials particularly suited for use in the production of intraocular lenses, contact lenses, and other ocular implants and to methods for manufacturing and using the same.
US09056930B2

The present invention discloses catalyst compositions employing transition metal complexes with a thiolate ligand. Methods for making these transition metal complexes and for using such compounds in catalyst compositions for the polymerization of olefins also are provided.
US09056929B2

The present invention relates to catalysts systems for the polymerization of olefins CH2═CHR, wherein R is an alkyl, cycloalkyl or aryl radical having 1-12 carbon atoms, comprising (A) a solid catalyst component comprising Ti, Mg, and halogen (B) an aluminum alkyl compound and (C) a brominated cyclic hydrocarbon. Said catalyst systems have improved polymerization activity.
US09056927B2

Reactive system comprising at least one component (I) composed of particles in very finely divided form present in a liquid phase of at least one further component (II) with which component (I) is capable of reacting following activation through energy supply, wherein component (I) is not soluble in component (II), process for preparation and use.
US09056926B2

A process for preparing aqueous solutions of homo- or copolymers of acrylic acid by means of free-radical polymerization of acrylic acid and optionally water-soluble, monoethylenically unsaturated comonomers in an aqueous medium in the presence of at least one water-soluble initiator and of at least one water-soluble regulator, wherein the polymerization is conducted by means of a continuous process, and wherein, after the polymerization, low molecular weight components are at least partly removed from the resulting aqueous polymer solution. For the polymerization, preference is given to using microstructured mixers and reactors. Preference is given to using at least one reactor and/or mixer with microstructures for the process.
US09056922B2

Provided herein are modified relaxin polypeptides wherein the B chain comprises the core amino acid sequence CGR-XXX-R-XX-I/V-XX-CG (SEQ ID NO:1), where X is any amino acid. Also provided are modified relaxin polypeptides comprising at least an A and a B chain, wherein the A and B chains are derived from different naturally occurring relaxins and wherein the B chain comprises the core amino acid sequence CGR-XXX-R-XX-I/V-XX-CG (SEQ ID NO:1), where X is any amino acid.
US09056921B2

The invention is related to a method for making human insulin analogs by culturing an fungi cell comprising a DNA vector encoding a precursor for human insulin analog, wherein the said precursor comprises a connecting peptide flanked with cleavage sites at both junctions with the A- and the B-chain of the insulin peptide, respectively said cleavage sites being cleaved within the fungi cell allowing the cell to secrete high amount of correctly processed, mature two chain human insulin analog to the culture media.
US09056920B2

The present invention relates to disulphide bond stabilized recombinant MHC class II molecules. In particular, the present invention provides a recombinant MHC class II molecule, which comprises: (i) all or part of the extracellular portion of an MHC class II α chain; (ii) all or part of the extracellular portion of an MHC class II β chain; wherein (i) and (ii) provide a functional peptide binding domain and wherein (i) and (ii) are linked by a disulphide bond between cysteine residues located in the α2 domain of said α chain and the β2 domain of said β chain, wherein said cysteine residues are not present in native MHC class II α2 and β2 domains. Methods of producing these molecules in prokaryotic systems and various uses of these molecules form further aspects.
US09056917B2

The present invention provides humanized, chimeric and human anti-CD19 antibodies, anti-CD19 antibody fusion proteins, and fragments thereof that bind to a human B cell marker. Such antibodies, fusion proteins and fragments thereof are useful for the treatment and diagnosis of various B-cell disorders, including B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases. In more particular embodiments, the humanized anti-CD19 antibodies may comprise one or more framework region amino acid substitutions designed to improve protein stability, antibody binding and/or expression levels. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the substitutions comprise a Ser91Phe substitution in the hA19 VH sequence.
US09056915B2

Antigen binding proteins that interact with Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin Kexin Type 9 (PCSK9) are described. Methods of treating hypercholesterolemia and other disorders by administering a pharmaceutically effective amount of an antigen binding protein to PCSK9 are described. Methods of detecting the amount of PCSK9 in a sample using an antigen binding protein to PCSK9 are described.
US09056901B2

Methods of making a protein that stimulates a protective immune response in a subject include separating a portion of a protein from a naturally occurring influenza viral hemagglutinin to form a protein portion. The protein portion includes at least a portion of a globular head, and at least a portion of at least one secondary structure having at least one β-sheet at a bottom of the globular head that causes the globular head to essentially retain its tertiary structure. The protein portion made by the methods of the invention lacks a transmembrane domain, a cytoplasmic domain and an HA2 subunit. A nucleic acid sequence encoding the protein portion is transformed into a prokaryotic host cell.
US09056899B2

The present invention relates to the treatment and prevention of bacteria and bacterial infections. In particular, the present invention relates to engineered bacteriophages used in combination with antimicrobial agents to potentiate the antimicrobial effect and bacterial killing by the antimicrobial agent. The present invention generally relates to methods and compositions comprising engineered bacteriophages and antimicrobial agents for the treatment of bacteria, and more particularly to bacteriophages comprising agents that inhibit antibiotic resistance genes and/or cell survival genes, and/or bacteriophages comprising repressors of SOS response genes or inhibitors of antimicrobial defense genes and/or expressing an agent which increases the sensitivity of bacteria to an antimicrobial agent in combination with at least one antimicrobial agent, and their use thereof.
US09056895B1

The present invention, referred to as Surface-Free Affinity Purification (SFAP), relates to a system and method for purifying low abundance peptides, including digested plasma proteins. SFAP combines the components and processes of Surface-Free Isolation, Specific Competitive Elution, Dual Epitope Isolation and Protective Solvents in the purification of low abundance proteins, all of which may be performed in a single column. This column is a constant volume Diafiltration Column equipped with stirring that can be driven by an HPLC. Digested plasma may be injected into the Diafiltration Column by the HPLC. Immunoglobulins, Specific Competitive Elutants, Protective Solvents are injected in a series of injections that result in the purified peptides bound to the surfaces of a very-low volume hydrophobic reversed phase trap from which they can be easily injected into mass spectrometry detection instruments.
US09056894B2

The present invention relates to a method for capturing virus-like particles of interest from a mixture comprising the use of an expanded bed of adsorbent; suitably wherein said method comprises the steps of: (a) providing an expanded bed of adsorbent; (b) contacting the mixture with the adsorbent such that the constituents of the mixture contact the expanded bed of adsorbent; (c) optionally washing the adsorbent; and (d) optionally eluting the particle of interest from the adsorbent.
US09056875B2

In one aspect, the invention relates to substituted pyrazolo[3′,4′:4,5]thieno[2,3-c]pyridazine-3-amine analogs, derivatives thereof, and related compounds, which are useful as positive allosteric modulators of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M4 (mAChR M4); synthesis methods for making the compounds; pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds; and methods of treating neurological and psychiatric disorders associated with muscarinic acetylcholine receptor dysfunction using the compounds and compositions. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.
US09056866B2

The invention relates to a compound of formula (I) wherein A, R1 and R2 are defined as in the description and in the claims. The compound of formula (I) can be used as a medicament.
US09056846B2

The present invention relates to stable and bioavailable immediate release formulations comprising dopamine receptor ligands. Methods of treating various disorders by administering the formulations are also described.
US09056843B2

The invention relates to novel trifluoromethyl-oxadiazole derivatives of formula (I), and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, (I) in which all of the variables are as defined in the specification, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, pharmaceutical combinations thereof, and their use as medicaments, particularly for the treatment of neurodegeneration, muscle atrophy or metabolic syndrome via inhibition of HDAC4.
US09056840B2

Coelenterazine analogs with different luminescence properties from conventional ones and coelenteramide analogs with different fluorescence properties from conventional ones have been desired. The invention provides coelenterazine analogs modified at the 8-position of coelenterazine and coelenteramide analogs modified at the 2- or 3-position of coelenteramide.
US09056833B2

The present invention relates to polymorphic forms and solvates of 2′-{[2-(4-methoxy-phenyl)-acetylamino]-methyl]}-biphenyl-2-carboxylic acid (2-pyhdin-3-yl-ethyl)-amide, processes for their preparation and their use, in particular for the preparation of medicaments.
US09056830B2

In various embodiments, the present invention provides cycloalkyl pyrrolidine compounds and methods for their use in the treatment and/or prevention of various diseases, conditions and syndromes, including central nervous system (CNS) disorders, such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and sleep disorder as well as methods for their synthesis. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing the compounds of the invention, as well as methods of inhibiting reuptake of endogenous monoamines, such as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine from the synaptic cleft and methods of modulating one or more monoamine transporter.
US09056821B2

Methods for performing a condensation reaction are disclosed. Specifically, various methods for the production of highly-pure bisphenol-A are disclosed in which an attached promoter ion exchange resin catalyst system is combined with a solvent crystallization step.
US09056818B2

Compounds according to formula (IA): may be efficiently prepared by the disclosed process.
US09056806B2

The present invention relates to a process for the conversion of an alcohols mixture (A) comprising about 20 w % to 100% isobutanol to make essentially propylene, comprising: a) introducing in a reactor (A) a stream comprising the mixture (A), mixed with a stream (D1) comprising olefins having 4 carbon atoms or more (C4+ olefins), optionally water, optionally an inert component, b) contacting said stream with a catalyst (A1) at a temperature above 500° C. in said reactor (A) at conditions effective to dehydrate at least a part of the isobutanol and other alcohols, if any, and make a cracking, c) recovering from said reactor (A) an effluent comprising: ethylene, propylene, water, optionally unconverted alcohols of the mixture (A), various hydrocarbons, and the optional inert component of step a), d) fractionating said effluent of step c) to produce at least an ethylene stream, a propylene stream, a fraction consisting essentially of hydrocarbons having 4 carbon atoms or more, water and the optional inert component of step a), optionally recycling ethylene in whole or in part at the inlet of the reactor (A), optionally recycling the fraction consisting essentially of hydrocarbons having 4 carbon atoms or more at the inlet of the reactor (A).
US09056805B2

Highly pure butanol can be produced by a method for producing butanol, the method comprising: Step A, wherein a butanol-containing solution is filtered through a nanofiltration membrane and a butanol-containing solution is recovered from the permeate side; Step B, wherein the butanol-containing solution obtained in Step A is passed through a reverse osmosis membrane and thereby concentrated to cause two-phase separation into a butanol phase and an aqueous phase; and Step C, wherein butanol is recovered from the butanol phase obtained in Step B.
US09056804B2

There is provided a liquid urease inhibitor formulation comprising an urease inhibitor and a primary solvent selected from the group consisting of dialkyl sulfones, polymethylene cyclic sulfones, and mixtures thereof. A method for inhibiting urease hydrolysis of urea containing fertilizer or waste using said liquid urease inhibitor formulation is also described.
US09056802B2

Methods or making an environmental barrier coating using a sintering aid including combining at least water, a primary transition material selected from mullite, BSAS, or a mullite/BSAS mixture, and a slurry sintering aid to produce a transition layer slurry; applying the transition layer slurry to a ceramic component; combining at least water, and a primary outer material of BSAS to produce an outer layer slurry; applying the outer layer slurry to the component having the applied transition layer slurry; and sintering the component to produce the environmental barrier coating having at least a transition layer and an outer layer where the transition layer comprises a porosity of from 0% to about 30% by volume of the transition layer, and the outer layer comprises a porosity of from 0% to about 15% by volume of the outer layer.
US09056798B2

A method of treating ceramic fibers based on metal carbide, the method including a first reagent gas heat treatment performed with at least one first reagent gas of the halogen type that chemically transforms the surface of the fiber to obtain a surface layer constituted mainly of carbon, and a second reagent gas heat treatment performed with at least one second reagent gas that eliminates the surface layer formed during the chemical transformation.
US09056795B2

An article produced using, among other techniques, free-form fabrication having a binder matrix and particles can be supported during a temperature processing, such as burn-out of the binder matrix, with a support composition to maintain geometry and/or alleviate changes in geometry of the article. The support composition can take a variety of forms such as foams, two phase materials, plastic powders, carbon powders, etc. The support material is sacrificed during the thermal processing, such as through decomposition. Such a decomposition can occur when the support composition evolves into a carbonaceous structure. The support composition can also oxidize to a gas, melt, or vaporize, among other types of sacrificial action.
US09056780B2

A boundary layer carbonation process for producing sodium bicarbonate crystals having specific surface area in the range 0.4 m2/g to 2.5 m2/g from Trona, wherein in one embodiment the process comprises the steps of: providingTrona particles having a particle size range of −4+120 mesh; pre-wetting the Trona particles with water to provide a plurality of pre-wetted Trona particles each having a liquid water solution boundary layer deposited thereon; and carbonating the pre-wetted Trona particles across the water boundary layer to provide a product comprising sodium bicarbonate crystals.
US09056779B2

The present invention is directed to a process for preparing MWW-type molecular sieves using 1,3-diisobutylimidazolium as a structure directing agent.
US09056777B2

A method of producing carbon nanotubes includes directing a flow of a gas over a substrate to provide growth of at least one carbon nanotube in a carbon-nanotube-growth region of the substrate; applying an electric field to the carbon-nanotube-growth region of the substrate after the at least one carbon nanotube has begun to grow in the carbon-nanotube-growth region, the electric field being substantially in a first direction in the carbon-nanotube-growth region; and changing the electric field at a preselected time to be substantially in a second direction in the carbon-nanotube-growth region during growth of the at least one carbon nanotube. The second direction is different from the first direction resulting in a bend substantially at a selected position of the at least one carbon nanotube, the method of producing carbon nanotubes providing the production of the at least one carbon nanotube having at least one bend substantially at a selected position along the at least one carbon nanotube.
US09056773B2

A continuous process for producing hydrogen peroxide by an anthraquinone process, comprising the steps of: (i) hydrogenating an organic working solution containing one or more anthraquinone derivatives in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst to form a hydrogenated working solution; (ii) oxidizing the hydrogenated working solution by introducing an oxygen-containing oxidizing gas at an overpressure into an oxidation reactor, and contacting the oxidizing gas with the hydrogenated working solution to form an oxidized working solution, whereby hydrogen peroxide is formed; (iii) withdrawing an oxidation off gas from the oxidation reactor; (iv) recovering the formed hydrogen peroxide from the oxidized working solution; (v) subjecting the oxidation off gas withdrawn from said oxidation reactor, which has an excess pressure over atmospheric pressure, to a demisting treatment to obtain a demisted oxidation off gas; and (vi) feeding the demisted oxidation off gas as propellant gas into a gas ejector to produce a vacuum.
US09056767B2

A wireless device that includes an access point (AP) scanner, a transceiver, and a controller coupled to the AP scanner and transceiver. The AP scanner is configured to scan wireless network channels utilized by one or more APs to transmit data packets, probe responses, and beacons. The transceiver is configured to transmit one or more probe requests to the one or more APs and receive one or more probe responses and beacons from the one or more APs. The controller is configured to determine a proximate geographic position of the wireless device based on signal strength of the one or more probe responses and beacons received from the one or more APs. The controller also dynamically adapts a parameter utilized in determining the proximate geographic position of the wireless device.
US09056764B2

A microelectromechanical device package with integral a heater and a method for packaging the microelectromechanical device are disclosed in this invention. The microelectromechanical device package comprises a first package substrate and second substrate, between which a microelectromechanical device, such as a micromirror array device is located. In order to bonding the first and second package substrates so as to package the microelectromechanical device inside, a sealing medium layer is deposited, and heated by the heater so as to bond the first and second package substrates together.
US09056761B2

Disclosed is a semiconductor sensor device, including a substrate, a sensor element mounted on the substrate, a hollow member configured to surround a periphery of the sensor element, a sealing material configured to fill in the hollow member and cover the sensor element, and a recess formed on the substrate, the recess being configured to position the hollow member.
US09056752B2

A crane comprising a diesel-electric drive, the three-phase generator of which supplies an AC voltage circuit, further comprising a DC voltage circuit connected to the AC voltage circuit, electric motors which drive at least one rotating mechanism, a lifting mechanism and a luffing mechanism of the crane, at least one brake resistor, and a short-term energy store, which is connected to the AC voltage circuit or to the DC voltage circuit for the intermediate storage of excess energy. At least one of the electric motors is connected to the AC voltage circuit and at least one is connected to the DC voltage circuit, and the AC voltage circuit is connected to the DC voltage circuit via a rectifier such that an energy exchange is possible between the AC voltage circuit and the DC voltage circuit.
US09056735B2

An image forming apparatus including: first to third rotators, rotated in accordance with an image forming operation of an image forming section; a first motor driving the first and third rotators; a second motor driving the second rotator; a first switch switching between a connected state in which a driving force from the first motor is transmitted to the third rotator, and a disconnected state in which the driving force from the first motor is not transmitted to the third rotator; and a control device performing a first rotating process of rotating the first rotator by rotating the first motor in the disconnected state, performing a second rotating process of rotating the second rotator by rotating the second motor, and performing a start timing process of providing a difference between start timings of the first and second rotating processes.
US09056731B1

A container packer system includes a transfer base, which receives a container packer adapted for movement longitudinally between retracted and extended positions with respect to the transfer base. The transfer base includes a power subsystem with a motor or engine driving an hydraulic pump for powering hydraulic piston-and-cylinder units of the system, including a container packer piston-and-cylinder unit for hydraulically extending and retracting the container packer. The container packer generally encloses an interior adapted for receiving bulk material for transfer to a transport container, which can comprise a standard shipping container, a trailer or some other bulk material receptacle. The container packer includes a push blade assembly longitudinally movably mounted in its interior and actuated by a push blade piston-and-cylinder unit.
US09056730B2

A loading and unloading station, comprising: a frame, on top of which a cassette intended for the carrying and storage of loads can be placed; at least two supporting arms connected to the frame in a pivotable manner so that the supporting arms can pivot around substantially horizontal pivot axes to a substantially horizontal position, in which the supporting arms are placed under the cassette, and to a substantially vertical position, in which the supporting arms extend through the cassette; at least one supporting beam, on top of which the load can be placed and to which the at least two supporting arms are connected in a movable manner; and the supporting arms are fitted both to lift the supporting beam from below the cassette through the cassette above the cassette, and to lower the supporting beam back under the cassette; and the supporting arms are further fitted to keep the supporting beam substantially horizontal.
US09056726B2

The invention relates to a device for grouping (flat) articles (10), in particular hygiene products such as diapers, wherein the articles (10) to be grouped are conveyable individually and one after another on a feed conveyor (19) and are suppliable to a grouping conveyor (12). The invention is characterized in that the grouping conveyor (12) has compartments (13) for in each case one group (11) of articles (10), in which compartments the articles (10) are arranged preferably standing upright, in particular tightly packed together, wherein the articles (10) are suppliable by means of the feed conveyor (19) at an angle, in particular substantially transversely, with respect to the conveying direction of the grouping conveyor (12) and are conveyable in the conveying direction of the grouping conveyor (12) by way of a substantially cone-shaped conveyor (24) thus forming a group (11) of articles (10) in one compartment (13).
US09056716B1

Waste container including a base defining a waste-receiving compartment, a lid movably attached to the base and movable between a first position covering a waste insertion opening and a second position in which it does not obstruct the waste insertion opening. An obstruction mechanism includes an obstruction member having at least one part that selectively engages with the bag, The obstruction member is rotatable upon movement of the lid to cause movement of the obstruction member between a first position in which the obstruction member is in a first plane not obstructing insertion of waste into the bag when the lid is open and a second position in which the obstruction member is in a second plane obstructing insertion of waste into the bag when the lid is closed.
US09056713B2

The present invention discloses a cartridge for glass substrate and which includes a top wall, a bottom wall, at least a pair of sidewalls, a plurality of supporting rods, and an adjusting device. The plurality of supporting rods are arranged on the pair of sidewalls along a first horizontal direction across the pair of sidewalls such that a plurality of supporting surfaces configured by at least a pair of supporting rods facing each other from the paid of sidewalls are defined. The adjusting device is used to move one of the sidewall toward the other sidewall with respect to the top and bottom walls so as to change a span between the pair of sidewalls. As a result, the cartridge can be used to accommodate glass substrates with different dimensions.
US09056708B2

Disclosed is a product cushioning device for supporting a shock sensitive product during shipping, said product cushioning structure being made of a moldable resilient plastics material. The device comprises a plurality of device surfaces suitably shaped and sized to accommodate the shock sensitive product, one of the plurality of device surfaces including a product supporting region at least partially surrounded by product contacting walls, and having a product supporting platform in the lower region thereof; and a three-dimensional structural feature formed into a least one of the plurality of device surfaces; wherein the three-dimensional structural feature serves to control the amount and rate of deflection in the event of impact. In one embodiment, the three-dimensional structural feature comprises a plurality of lines of weakness in a projecting part protruding from at least one device surface being formed of a male mold, wherein in use a top portion of the projecting part rests against the product. In another embodiment, the three-dimensional structural feature comprises at least one donut shaped cavity in the product receiving cavity. Also disclosed is a method of making a product cushioning device in accordance with the teachings of this invention.
US09056698B2

The container (1) has a detachable lid (8) adapted to engage a peripheral rim (5) of a top opening. The peripheral rim has radially protruding flanges (7), and the lid has radially protruding flanges (8) adapted to, in a first angular position of the lid, pass in between the radially protruding flanges of the peripheral rim (5) and, in a second angular position, be engaged with the radially protruding flanges (7) of the peripheral rim. The flanges (7, 8) are adapted to, by pressing the lid (6) onto the peripheral rim, in the second angular position, snap over each other. A skirt portion (12) of the radially outwards protruding flanges (7) of the peripheral rim (5) is provided with a rounded indentation (14) into which a rounded protrusion (15) of a radially inwards protruding flange (8) may snap. Secondary snap faces (19) of the lid (8) forming an acute angle with the central axis (9) of the peripheral rim (5) of the top opening (4) include the rounded protrusions (15) of the radially inwards protruding flanges (8).
US09056697B2

A bag can include walls formed of a material having multiple layers, one of which can be a layer of nonwoven material. A polyolefin layer can be joined to an outer face of the nonwoven layer. One or more films can be joined to an inner face of the nonwoven layer.
US09056694B2

The present application provides a stacking tray for use with a number of products. The stacking tray may include a floor, a wall extending from the floor, and a subpanel. The subpanel may extend from the wall at an angle towards the floor.
US09056693B2

A machine to be incorporated in a packaging line for beverage packages such as wines and sparkling wines, in a stage after the entering of bottles into a box, and before the closing of same. The machine is formed into a fixed frame (B) interposed in the packaging line, the fixed frame defining a lower sector where the boxes carrying the bottles pass, and a higher sector having a carrier horizontal frame for at least one placing head (C). The dividers (S) each comprise at least a pair of flexible laminar plates with square format joined to each other through a central and vertical adhesive line disposed between their opposite faces. Each placing head (C) has a feeding lane of folded dividers (S) that faces a sliding pneumatic extractor, a carrier of suction pads (17) and (18), which suction and hold the dividers in a unitary form, to dispose them in vertical alignment with a forming set, pneumatic and vertically displaceable pneumatic acting set, formed by folding guides (9) and (9′), which acts in combination with a vertical pushing arrangement operated by a pneumatic cylinder (31), by which the formed divider (S) is placed between the bottles in the packaging box, disposed one after the other, inside the same frame, having any of which its own divider feeding lane.
US09056692B2

In a medicine packaging apparatus, a distance from a printing section to a heat sealing section is reduced without generating wrinkles on a package sheet. An unfolding guide 65 for unfolding and opening a package sheet 61 provided in a packaging unit 4 includes a main ridge 94 extending along with a crease of the package sheet 61 and a pair of unfolding guide surfaces 95a, 95b which are convex curved surfaces stretching from the main ridge 94. A contact start position 100a with the package sheet 61 of the unfolding guide surface 95a on the outer side of a curve in the conveying direction A relative to the main ridge 94 is located on an upstream side in the conveying direction A of the package sheet 61 of a contact start position 100b with the package sheet 61 of the unfolding guide surface 95b located on the inner side of the curve relative to the main ridge 94.
US09056690B2

There is provided a resin dispensing apparatus for a light emitting device package and a method of manufacturing a light emitting device package using the same. The resin dispensing apparatus includes a resin dispensing part including a resin storage portion filled with a resin therein and a resin discharge portion combined with the resin storage portion and discharging the resin therefrom; a supporting part having a light emitting device package disposed on an upper surface thereof and electrically connected to the light emitting device package; a voltage applying part having both terminals respectively connected to the resin dispensing part and the supporting part to apply a voltage thereto; and a sensing part electrically connected to the resin dispensing part and the supporting part individually and sensing a contact between the resin dispensing part and the light emitting device package with an electrical signal.
US09056687B2

An aerial unit, a method and a system are provide, the system includes a ground unit; an aerial unit and a connecting element arranged to connect the ground unit to the aerial unit. The ground unit may include a connecting element manipulator, a ground unit controller for controlling the connecting element manipulator; and a ground unit location sensor arranged to generate ground unit location information indicative of a location of the ground unit. The wherein the aerial unit may include a first propeller, a frame, a first propeller motor, at least one steering element; and an aerial unit location sensor arranged to generate aerial unit location information indicative of a location of the aerial unit. At least one of the ground unit and the aerial unit includes a controller that is arranged to control, at least in response to a relationship between the aerial unit location information and the ground unit location information, at least one of the first propeller motor and the at least one steering element to affect at least one of the location of the aerial unit and an orientation of the aerial unit.
US09056686B2

An improved aircraft towing vehicle includes a base plate, a controller and two drive motors supported by two track assemblies. A pivoting wheel constraint mechanism rests on the base plate and includes a front roller mount, a rear roller mount and a linkage connecting the front roller mount and the rear roller mount. When the rear roller mount is pushed or otherwise urged backward, the linkage causes the front roller mount to pivot upward to confine an aircraft wheel on the base plate. A latch keep is also connected to the base plate for holding the rear roller mount in the backward position and locking the wheel constraining mechanism for moving an aircraft.
US09056680B2

The present invention is a cargo lighting system with a plurality of light heads mounted to a support bar. The support bar is divided into a plurality of interlocking segments and supported by stringer engaging components and supplemental support members. The cargo lighting system includes a master control box which allows light heads to be controlled by a master switch or with individual zone controls. The cargo lighting system is easily disassembled and packed in protective cases for transport and storage.
US09056678B2

In the field of devices for airdropping a load from a flying vehicle, there is provided a device for securing/releasing a first member (65) able to support a load of more than 20 kg, and a second member able to support this first member and the load, this second member including, on the one hand, a support (1) onto which are secured first elements including a sensor (26), for example of an altimeter or chronobarometric type, able to trigger, during the flight, the release of the first and second members upon exceeding a threshold or receiving an exterior signal, where the second member includes a hook (3) in two parts, one of which is movable (14) between an operative position and an inoperative position, and elements (7, 8, 25, 71, 76) for locking and unlocking the movable part of the hook in its operative position.
US09056671B2

A fixed wing of an aircraft, having a main wing extending over a half-span with a wing box including spars extending along the spanwise direction of the main wing, ribs arranged one in back of the other viewed in the spanwise direction, and an outer skin. The wing box includes a wing box base section (K10) and a wing box adapter section, that forms the outer end area of the wing box, as viewed from the wing root, and is designed to secure a wing tip device. In its nominal state of construction, the dihedral angle of the wing box adapter section referring to the respective local spanwise direction continuously increases by at most 60 degrees from the outer rib of the wing box base section (K10) up to the outermost rib of the wing box adapter section.
US09056664B2

A water jet propulsion watercraft includes an exhaust passage, a catalyst member, a water lock, a first oxygen sensor, and a second oxygen sensor. The exhaust passage guides exhaust gas from an engine to an exterior of a hull of the watercraft. The catalyst member is arranged inside the exhaust passage. The water lock is arranged in the exhaust passage downstream of the catalyst member. The first oxygen sensor is arranged in the exhaust passage upstream of the catalyst member. The second oxygen sensor is arranged in the exhaust passage at a position downstream of the catalyst member and upstream of the water lock.
US09056656B2

A mooring loop is provided for use with connecting a mooring line to a bollard. The mooring loop may stretch and function as a time delay fuse when excessive loads are applied to the mooring line. The mooring loop is comprised of a reactive fiber component in the shape of a continuous loop that includes a plurality of at least one of: an undrawn hydrophobic polymer fiber or a substantially undrawn hydrophobic polymer fiber. At least two jackets are in surrounding relation to portions of the reactive fiber component. The at least two jackets include respective end portions which overlap. As the mooring loop stretches, a visual indicator on an end portion of one of the jackets pulls out of and away from the end portion of the other one of the jackets. The visual indicator serves as a warning that excessive loads are being applied to the mooring line.
US09056655B1

The present invention discloses an escort vessel towline force responsive apparatus comprising a rotative winch system mounted to the deck of an escort vessel so that when the tow line between a distressed vessel and the winch system of an escort vessel angularly changes, the escort vessel winch system will automatically rotate until the line of force is substantially in linear alignment with the center line of the escort vessel winch system.
US09056642B2

A retractable nose saddle comprising a sliding assembly (3) underneath the saddle parts (5, 2), which enables the separate nose portion (2) to be moved underneath or into the noseless saddle portion (5) to form a noseless saddle or to be moved back out from underneath or from within the noseless portion (5) to form a nosed saddle again.
US09056637B2

A cargo bed includes a main body portion made of a material including a metal, and a pair of rear fenders made of a material including a resin and fixed to the main body portion. The main body portion includes a front wall portion extending in an up-down direction and a left-right direction, a bottom portion extending rearward from a lower edge region of the front wall portion, and a pair of side wall portions extending upward from two edge regions in the left-right direction of the bottom portion, and connected to two edge regions in the left-right direction of the front wall portion. The pair of rear fenders are fixed to the pair of side wall portions, respectively. Each of the pair of side wall portions includes a main side wall extending upward from the bottom portion, a first flange portion extending in the left-right direction, from an upper edge of the main side wall to an outside of the main body portion, and a second flange portion extending downward from an outside edge of the first flange portion. Each rear fender covers at least an entire lower edge of the second flange portion.
US09056636B2

In certain embodiments of the present invention, a vehicle trailer is described that includes a shelf component that extends from the rear wall of the trailer and that defines a sloped surface.
US09056632B2

A motor vehicle has a windshield and a radiator tank assembly that acts on the lower edge of the windshield and exhibits a guide pad extending on an interior side of the windshield. The guide pad is divided into a central and two lateral sections. The lateral sections are more flexible than the central section during exposure to a pressure acting on the windshield from outside.
US09056630B2

A method and an apparatus for sensing a lane departure using images that surround a vehicle. The lane departure sensing method includes receiving images that are taken during driving by a plurality of cameras installed in a car, through respective channels connected to the cameras; modifying the obtained images into top-view images to generate a plurality of modified images; compositing the plurality of modified images to generate images that surround a vehicle; extracting a lane from the images that surround the vehicle, and yielding the information on a distance between the vehicle and the extracted lane or the information on an angle between the travel direction of the vehicle and the lane, so as to determine a lane departure; and giving a warning if the lane departure is determined.
US09056626B2

An electric power steering apparatus that is capable of efficiently suppressing vibrations and simultaneously minimizing steering performance degradation such as an increase in a steering wheel's viscous feeling by extracting a vibration component having an arbitrary amplitude and an arbitrary frequency range depending on an electric power steering state parameter and feeding back a vibration suppression compensation value determined depending on the extracted vibration component to a current command value. The apparatus includes a current command value determining section that determines a current command value based on a steering torque and a velocity; a vibration extraction filter that extracts a vibration component having a predetermined amplitude and a predetermined frequency range depending on an electric power steering state parameter; and a compensation value determining section that determines a vibration suppression compensation value based on the vibration component extracted by the vibration extraction filter.
US09056620B2

A multipurpose loading and unloading and/or material handling and moving apparatus including a closed chain continuous roller grid disposed on and around a continuous elongate table, the roller grid comprising a plurality of parallel axles pivotally coupled at their ends by parallel first and second sets of independent mechanical links.
US09056617B2

A system for detecting accelerator pedal failure in an accelerator pedal system including a vehicle control system, the pedal failure detecting system having an accelerator pedal; a pedal arm; a sensor configured to interpret a force applied to the accelerator pedal and further configured to transmit a signal as a sensor output to the vehicle control system, wherein the vehicle control system is configured to correlate the sensor output to an accelerator pedal position, and to indicate a failure condition when it is not feasible the to read the sensor output given the accelerator pedal position. A method for detecting accelerator pedal failure conditions in an accelerator pedal system.
US09056609B2

The present application relates to a powertrain control system (1) for a motor vehicle. The vehicle has an internal combustion engine (5) coupled to a transmission (9). The transmission (9) is operable in a high range and a low range. The powertrain control system (1) has a stop/start controller (11) for issuing an engine stop request signal when one or more conditions have been met. An inhibitor (15) is also provided for inhibiting operation of the stop/start controller (11) when the low range is selected. The application also relates to a method of operating a motor vehicle power-train.
US09056605B2

The present invention provides a method of selecting an economy mode shift schedule for a transmission coupled to a motor vehicle. The method includes calculating vehicle acceleration and determining a change in accelerator pedal position. Also, a net tractive effort force of the vehicle is determined for a current gear range of the transmission. Also, the method includes comparing the net tractive effort force for the current gear range to a maximum tractive effort force for a desired gear range and selecting the economy mode shift schedule for the transmission based on the comparison. The method further includes controlling shifting between one or more gear ranges of the transmission according to the economy mode shift schedule.
US09056595B2

A windshield wiper drive for a motor vehicle, with a reverse-operating driving motor for driving a wiper shaft which is connected in a rotationally fixed manner to a wiper arm, and with a fastening plate for fastening the windshield wiper drive to a vehicle body or to a component mounted on the body, wherein a first end stop surface for limiting the rotational movement of the wiper shaft in a first direction of rotation is provided on the fastening plate and/or on a component fixed to the fastening plate.
US09056593B2

A tethering clip assembly is configured to tether first and second panels of a vehicle together. The assembly includes first and second plates, a mechanical fuse connecting the first plate to the second plate in a compressed state, and at least one spring member connected between the first and second plates. The at least one spring member is compressed in the compressed state. The mechanical fuse is configured to break upon exertion of a predetermined force. The at least one spring member extends when the mechanical fuse breaks, thereby forcing the first and second plates to extend away from one another in an extended state.
US09056587B2

An adjustable mounting assembly capable of mounting an operator display interface to the ROPS of a work vehicle that has front and rear implements, such as the front loader and rear excavator of a backhoe. The adjustable mounting assembly can have a telescoping compound slide assembly with at least one movable rail and slider. The moveable rail and slider can translate to move a display mount linearly between the front or rear of the vehicle. A display bracket can rotate about a generally vertical axis. Detents or other positioning elements can be provided on the rails and slider as well as at preset angular orientations of the display mount. The adjustable mounting assembly thus allows the vehicle operator to readily adjust the display interface to be viewable when in the front and rear facing seating orientations of the vehicle.
US09056571B2

A headrest and a method for manufacturing a headrest are proposed, wherein the headrest is provided, in particular, as a motor vehicle headrest, wherein the headrest has a cover and a foamed material, wherein the foamed material fills the cover at least in certain areas, wherein the headrest is manufactured in such a way that the foamed material is at least partially liquid at the time when the foamed material is introduced into the cover, wherein the cover has at least one closure element, wherein an opening in the cover which is present before the foamed material is introduced can be closed off by means of the closure element.
US09056570B2

A seating assembly comprising: a frame having an opening; a support surface spanning the opening in the frame; a variable thermal resistance device that opposes the support surface when the variable thermal resistance device is in a closed state in which airflow is obstructed, the variable thermal resistance device being movable from the closed state to an open state in which airflow is not obstructed and from the open state to the closed state; and an actuator coupled to the variable thermal resistance device. The actuator is operable to actuate movement of the variable thermal resistance device between the open and closed states.
US09056565B2

A device locks and unlocks a first hardware component and a second hardware component relative to each other, particularly for a motor vehicle seat. The first hardware component and the second hardware component form a housing having an interior and are disposed on a common axis. At least one latching device is disposed in a first plane perpendicular to the axis and at least one second latching device is disposed in a second plane also perpendicular to the axis and displaced along the axis relative to the first plane. The first latching device comprises a first latch and first retaining cam and the second latching device comprises a second latch and a second retaining cam.
US09056559B2

The track assembly for a vehicle seat, comprising two parallel tracks, an electric motor, flexible connections connecting the electric motor to the track drive mechanisms and motor support members provided with guides in which the flexible connections are held.
US09056558B2

A vehicle is provided that connects to an overhead power structure for powering and guiding the vehicle. The overhead power structure includes a trolley, a track along which the trolley runs, a power source connected to the track, and a cable connected to the trolley and configured to attach to the vehicle moving on a surface. The vehicle includes a chassis and a cable connected to the chassis and configured to mechanically and electrically connect the vehicle to the overhead power structure. The chassis includes a connector rotatable 360 degrees, and the cable connects to the chassis through the connector.
US09056557B2

A conversion kit for converting a gasoline powered mid engine car to an electric powered car that includes a front battery assembly, a mid-front battery assembly, a passenger side battery assembly, a driver side battery assembly, a rear battery assembly, a mounting assembly for mounting a power controller above the driver and passenger battery assemblies, an electric motor mounting structure, and an electric motor transmission adapter connecting the electric motor to a vehicle transmission.
US09056552B2

A system and method for charging a battery in a plug-in electric vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment, the method determines if a delayed battery charging feature is active and if the battery is severely depleted. If both conditions are satisfied, the method enables a priority charging feature that temporarily overrides the delayed charging feature and begins charging the battery according to a priority charging process until it reaches a level where it is no longer severely depleted. At this point, the method may terminate the priority charging process and initiate the delayed charging process, which is designed to take advantage of off-peak electricity rates, anticipated times of vehicle use, etc.
US09056544B2

In present invention, a protrusion portion 21 of a clip member 20 is abutted against an end face 2e of a front glass lower end 2c, and the clip member 20 is fixed to a back face 2b of the front glass 2 via an adhesive agent 17. An engagement portion 13 that is formed in a tongue piece 12 of a cowl-top cover 10 is engaged with a target engagement portion 22 of the clip member 20, and the cowl-top cover 10 is mounted in a state in which a surface 11a of the cowl-top cover 10 and a surface 2a of the front glass 2 are arranged so as to be flush with each other. In addition, an engagement direction is defined as an engagement direction taken along a lengthwise direction oriented from a lower end to an upper end of the front glass.
US09056543B2

The door weather strip for a motor vehicle includes a base portion attached to a door panel, a sealing portion, and a lever. The sealing portion is disposed to integrally extend from the base portion to tightly contact a vehicle body panel and seal a gap between the door panel and the vehicle body panel when the door panel is closed. The lever is connected to the base portion and the sealing portion and configured to be hung at the vehicle body panel while the door panel is closing such that the sealing portion rotates on the vehicle body panel.
US09056541B2

A bow system is provided for an open-topped container body having a cover sized and configured to extend laterally across the body from one side rail to the other side rail. The bow system includes a plurality of curved bows pivotably mounted at one end to one side rail and sized to extend in a curved path over the open-top of the container body to engage the other side rail at an opposite end of the bows. A ridge pole assembly is provided that includes first and second ridge pole segments, each of the segments pivotably engaged to a corresponding number of the plurality of curved bows. A tether element is coupled between the facing ends of the ridge pole segments that permits movement of the segments relative to each other as the bow system is moved between a deployed configuration in which the plurality of curved bows extend across the open-top of the container body and a retracted position in which the curved bows are substantially outside the open-top of the container body.
US09056540B2

A drive device for a roof module of a motor vehicle. A drive device of this type, the roof module comprising two movable roof parts, with longitudinally extended tension/compression means for transmitting drive to the roof parts which are driveable by a common drive motor via two output pinions, is known. The output pinions are oriented coaxially with respect to each other, and the output pinions are assigned a change-over device which sets the drive motor into operative connection alternatively with the one or the other output pinion.
US09056536B2

An electrical connector plug configured for use with tractor-trailers has an elongated housing having a hollow interior. A female electrical connector is coupled to a first end of the housing. An electrical cable is coupled to a second end of the housing. A ridge member is formed on a top surface of the housing. A collar is movable along a length of the housing. A locking mechanism is used to secure the collar at different lengths on the housing. A handle is hingly coupled to the collar to disengage the electrical connector plug from an electrical connector.
US09056532B1

A pressure detection device and a controller in communication with the device are used to implement a tire pressure optimization system for a vehicle. The pressure detection device detects a vehicle tire's inflation pressure. The controller is programmed to identify the vehicle as being in a warning state when the inflation pressure is below a warning low pressure threshold, identify the vehicle as being in an optimum state when the inflation pressure is within an optimum pressure range where the vehicle will exhibit optimum performance, and identify the vehicle as being in an advisory state when the inflation pressure is within an advisory pressure range where the vehicle will exhibit an undesirable performance characteristic. The advisory pressure range is outside of the optimum pressure range and above the warning low pressure threshold.
US09056531B2

Stud (30) for a tire (10), the tire comprising a tread (20) made of rubber mix, the stud having an axis (A-A) and two axial ends and comprising: a first part (60) configured to come into contact with the ground when the stud is fitted to the tire and the tire is rolling along the ground, this first part being positioned at one of the axial ends of the stud; a head (70) configured to anchor the stud into the tread of the tire, the head being positioned at the other axial end of the stud; and a body (80) connecting the said first part and the head of the stud, the mean diameter of the body being smaller than the mean diameter of the head of the stud, these diameters being measured at right angles to the axis of the stud; in which the head comprises at least one recess (100) opening onto the surface of the head, the recess being configured to be filled with rubber mix of the tread so as to provide additional anchorage for the stud in the tread.
US09056524B2

A caster wheel assembly includes at least one hub that has an annularly dished concave region disposed between a pair of cylindrical lips about its outer periphery. An elastomeric tread has a convex inner periphery that seats in the concave region of the hub. The interface between the hub and tread is parabolic in cross-section to manage load-inducted stresses in the tread. The parabolic cross-section is defined by the equation y=A*x2, where A is between 1.5 and 4. A cylindrical lip/pad interface is established between hub and tread on opposite sides of the parabolic interface to accommodate high load situations. A bearing is supported in the hub, and a bushing inside the bearing. An axle shaft passing through the bushing attaches the hub and tread to a support bracket for use in a wide variety of industrial applications.
US09056523B2

A wheel bearing apparatus has a cup-shaped cap that is coated by a preserving film and mounted on an outer member. The cap is press-formed from non-magnetic steel sheet. The cap has a cylindrical fitting portion, a disk portion and a bottom portion. The cylindrical fitting portion is press-fit into the inner circumference of the inner-side end of the outer member. The disk portion extends radially inward from the fitting portion and opposes a pulser ring, via a small axial gap. The bottom portion extends from the disk portion, via a bent portion, to cover the inner-side end of the inner member. The rotational speed sensor is arranged opposite the pulser ring, via the disk portion of the cap, where the rotational speed sensor is closely arranged to the pulser ring.
US09056520B2

An embossing apparatus comprises an embossing die comprising a printed relief pattern, and a resilient surface for pressing media against the embossing die to emboss features corresponding to the printed relief pattern on the media, in which the printed relief pattern comprises a number of layers of a deposited material, and in which a number of layers of the deposited material closest to the top of the printed relief pattern comprises a deposited material with a relatively lower coefficient of adhesion than layers of the deposited material disposed under the deposited material closest to the top of the printed relief pattern. A printed relief pattern for embossing media comprises a number of preliminary layers, the preliminary layers comprising a first material, and a number of terminal layers, the terminal layers comprising a second material, in which the second material has a lower adhesive coefficient than the first material.
US09056516B2

A page-turning device turning a page of a book includes a sticking part, an arm part and a drive unit. The sticking part sticks to the page of the book being opened. The arm part is provided with the sticking part on a top end and swings such that the sticking part sticks to the page at a departure position of the page and separates from the page at a destination position of the page while the sticking part goes to and fro between the departure position and the destination position over the page of the book. The drive unit swings the arm part around a drive shaft of the drive unit. The drive shaft is inclined with respect to a seam of the opened book and/or a plane on which the book is disposed.
US09056509B2

There is provided a transporting section configured to transport a recording medium, a recording head configured to record an image on the recording medium, a carriage movable and holding the recording head, a first guide member guiding movement of the carriage, a second guide member guiding the movement of the carriage, a first movable member movable along with the carriage, a second movable member disposed away from the first movable member and movable along with the carriage, and a driving section configured to drive the carriage between a position where the recording head records the image onto the recording medium and a position where the recording head is separate from a path over which the transporting section transports the recording medium by moving the first movable member and the second movable member. The driving section moves the first movable member and the second movable member in synchronization.
US09056507B2

A printing device includes a driver rotating and driving a feeder roller feeding a printing target member, a printing section performing printing on the printing target member, a cutter cutting the printing target member, a transfer mechanism which is provided at an upstream side of the feeding direction of the printing target member over the printing section and which selectively causes a transfer member with an adhesive to be in contact with the printing target member while feeding the transfer member to transfer the adhesive, and a transfer controller controlling transfer/non-transfer. The transfer/non-transfer of the adhesive to the printing target member is controlled based on positive/reverse rotation of a motor, and a print tape with an adhesive on the whole surface, a partial adhesive or no adhesive at all and without a paper liner is freely creatable.
US09056503B2

A recording apparatus includes: a first driving unit that rotates a roll member; a second driving unit that drives a transport unit that transports a medium of the roll member; and a control unit that executes a first process for measuring a load occurring when transporting the medium while rotating the roll member 1/N rotations in a transport direction of the medium by driving the first driving unit while the second driving unit is stopped, and after executing the first process, executes a second process for rotating the roll member 1/N rotations in a opposite direction as the transport direction by driving the first driving unit while the second driving unit is stopped and then rotating the roll member 1/N rotations in the transport direction by driving the first driving unit and the second driving unit.
US09056498B2

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head, a carnage, a sheet cutting device, a cutter position detecting device, and a controller. The cutting device includes a cutter and a cutter unit holding the cutter. A movement area of the carriage overlaps a movement area of the cutter unit in a thickness direction of a sheet. The detecting device detects a position of the cutter unit. The controller performs initial operation upon power on of the apparatus to move the cutter unit to a cutter home position located at one end of the movement area of the cutter unit. The cutter unit, after cutting the sheet, is movable in a width direction of the sheet with the cutter unit retracted from a sheet feed path in the thickness direction. The controller determines whether or not to perform the initial operation based on detection results of the detecting device.
US09056497B2

To execute printing on a continuous sheet by using a printing unit, a printing control apparatus includes a reversal unit, an input unit, and a printing control unit. The reversal unit reverses the continuous sheet to execute printing on a second surface of the continuous sheet after executing printing on a first surface of the continuous sheet. The input unit inputs an instruction for executing an interruption print job while executing printing by the printing unit. If instruction for executing the interruption print job is input while the printing of a two-sided print job on the continuous sheet has been currently executed, the printing control unit suspends the two-sided print job, causes the printing unit to execute the interruption print job, and resumes processing of the two-sided print job on the continuous sheet that has been held by the reversal unit after the interruption print job is completed.
US09056492B2

A printing apparatus is an apparatus capable of performing double-sided printing on a sheet, and is provided with a receiving portion and a control portion. The receiving portion receives an instruction for changing a sheet having one side printed that is set to a paper feed tray into a sheet having both sides printed with same printing content. The control portion performs control, when the instruction is received, to feed the sheet having one side printed from the paper feed tray, and when the fed sheet is an odd-numbered page and is a final page, to discharge the sheet without newly performing printing, and when the fed sheet is an odd-numbered page and is not a final page, to print information printed on a next even-numbered page on a back side of the sheet.
US09056488B2

Methods of, and apparatus for, two-sided thermal printing comprising direct and/or thermal transfer print means are provided. In one embodiment, a combined direct thermal and thermal transfer printer and related media are disclosed wherein direct thermal printing is provided for on a first media side, and thermal transfer printing is provided on a second media side. In other embodiments, various two-sided thermal transfer printers and media are disclosed wherein thermal transfer printing is provided for on first and second media sides through use of, inter alia, a one- and/or a two-sided thermal transfer ribbon.
US09056477B2

A backpressure control unit that introduces a liquid from an external liquid holding unit and supplies the liquid to a main head unit for ejecting the liquid via a nozzle opening includes a flow channel member having an introduction channel, a valve member, and a supply channel, and a cover that that combines a base portion and a cover portion and houses the flow channel member therewithin. This provides a backpressure control unit that improves yields by absorbing discrepancies in properties of backpressure control valves to the greatest extent possible while at the same time making it possible to change designs in a flexible manner.
US09056463B2

According to the present invention, recording density information indicating a recording density of a plurality of recording elements is acquired on the basis of a test chart for density measurement output to a recording medium after carrying out recording defect correction in respect of existing recording elements having a recording defect, recording elements which record in the periphery of a new recording element having a recording defect are extracted as correction hold recording elements on the basis of a test chart for recording defect detection output to the recording medium, predetermined density correction values are set in respect of the correction hold recording elements, density correction values calculated on the basis of the acquired recording density information are set in respect of recording elements other than the correction hold recording elements, and output image data is output to the recording medium on the basis of the set density correction values.
US09056462B2

A method includes deriving from print data a first intended position of a first dot to be printed, determining a first printing element from a plurality of printing elements suitable for printing the first dot at the first intended position, printing the first dot with the first printing element at a first location on the substrate, deriving from the print data a second intended position of a second dot to be printed, retrieving a tolerated deviation of a distance between the first intended position and the second intended position, determining a second printing element from the plurality of printing elements suitable for printing the second dot based on the tolerated deviation, and printing the second dot with the second printing element at a second location on the substrate.
US09056458B2

A long liquid discharge head of the present invention includes a passage member 4 in one direction having a plurality of discharge holes 8 and a plurality of pressurizing chambers 10; a plurality of pressurizing sections 30 for pressurizing liquid in a plurality of the respective pressurizing chambers 10; and a long reservoir 540 in the one direction bonded along the passage member 4 and having a reservoir passage 42 for supplying the liquid to a plurality of the pressurizing chambers 10, and when viewed in the direction in which the reservoir 540 and the passage member 4 are bonded, the reservoir 540 includes a plurality of heat insulating sections (the reservoir passage 42 and a space 541a-4) extending in the one direction and a heat transfer section 541a-3 provided between a plurality of the heat insulating sections.
US09056457B2

Nozzles for ejecting color ink are aligned in the conveying direction of a recording sheet at a pitch corresponding to three times the pitch of nozzles ejecting black ink. A region in which an image is printed is divided into sixteen regions segmented into four parts in the scanning and conveying directions. Each region includes eight dots in the scanning direction and four dots in the conveying direction. With respect to regions which include one character, in one side attachment regions, black ink is ejected only when an ink jet head is moved to the right side. With respect to regions which include one character, in the other side attachment regions, black ink is ejected only when the ink jet head is moved to the left side.
US09056456B2

A recording apparatus that continuously vary a first boundary formed by different discharge port arrays in an area on a recording medium corresponding to a first overlap portion, and a second boundary formed by different discharge port arrays on an area of the recording medium corresponding to a second overlap portion close to the first overlap portion, wherein a shape of the variation of the first boundary and a shape of the variation of the second boundary are different from each other.
US09056455B2

There is provided a technique with which an abnormal discharge state in a discharge component can be determined on the basis of residual vibration. A printer includes a discharge component that discharges ink, a detector that detects residual vibration in the discharge component, and a tester that tests the discharge component on the basis of the change in the period of the residual vibration.
US09056453B2

The invention relates to a droplet break up device (1) comprising: a chamber (2) for containing a pressurized printing liquid (3) comprising a bottom plate; at least one outlet channel (4, 4′) having a central axis, provided in said chamber for ejecting the printing liquid; and an actuator for breaking up, a fluid jetted out of the outlet channel. The actuator comprises a revolving, member (5) comprising a surface deformation (7, 7′) shaped to provide a pressure pulse near the outlet channel. Accordingly, a simple mechanism is provided for providing multiple printing nozzles.
US09056452B2

A system for ink-base digital printing includes an imaging member; an inkjet system for applying a base marking material to the imaging member to for a pattern according to digital image data; a dampening fluid metering system configured for applying dampening fluid to the imaging member after the applying base marking material; and an inking system configured for applying ink to the imaging member, the ink adhering to the base marking material pattern. Methods include jetting base marking material onto the imaging member according to image data, applying dampening fluid, inking the imaging member, and optionally pre-curing the resulting ink image, which enables 99% or greater transfer of the applied ink from the imaging member to a substrate.
US09056446B2

An absorbent food pad having an active agent positioned selectively in a pad architecture to provide superior performance.
US09056432B2

A method for fabricating high-density masks for non-planar or three-dimensional substrates utilizes a mandrel having one or more precision forms machined therein. Once the mandrel with one or more forms is fabricated, one or more mask blanks may be constructed thereon. The final masks may be cut from one or more mask blanks.
US09056430B2

A casing wall for an apparatus, the casing wall comprising including a chassis and casing wall elements integrated into the chassis, the casing wall elements each including a surface exposed to a user, the chassis defining a continuum between the integrated casing wall elements to provide structural rigidity to the casing wall.
US09056429B2

Fibers in a fiber reinforced resin laminate are exposed by placing a gel in contact with the resin laminate, forcing the fibers of the resin laminate into the gel, and using the gel to displace the resin surrounding the fibers being forced into the gel. The gel is removed to expose the fibers.
US09056428B2

A method having the following steps: feeding a plastic material in the area of an inner surface of the mold, conforming the material to the inner surface of the mold, feeding a tubular film into the mold so that the material is positioned between an outer surface of the tubular film and the mold, expanding the tubular film using pressure and/or a vacuum, applying a pressure above atmospheric pressure and/or heating the mold so that the material is partly or completely melted and is adapted to conform to an inner contour of the mold and an outer contour of the expanded tubular film. The tubular film is shaped before it is fed into the mold. The invention further relates to a tubular film (1) and a method for manufacturing the same.
US09056425B2

A method for inverting a tubular liner in a hollow conduit involves: forming a cuff from the tubular liner, the cuff having an opening through which the liner is fed; and while feeding the liner through the cuff opening, feeding a gas under pressure through a gas inlet port formed in the liner to a space between the cuff and the remainder of the liner, thereby causing inversion and inflation of the liner into and through the conduit. After a portion of the liner has been inverted in the conduit, a region of the cuff and liner upstream of the gas inlet port is sealed off, thereby causing inversion of the remainder of the liner in the conduit. Optionally, before a trailing end of the liner is fed through the opening of the cuff, the trailing end is sealed to prevent flow of gas therefrom. When the liner is intended to line the conduit, the liner resin-impregnated either outside or in the conduit and, after complete inversion of the liner in the conduit, the resin is cured and the ends of the liner are sealed to the inside surfaces of the conduit. An apparatus and system for conducting the method are also provided.
US09056416B2

An injection molding apparatus has at least two mold clamping mechanisms for clamping respective molds. A hydraulic pressure supply source supplies hydraulic pressure to the at least two mold clamping mechanisms to clamp the respective molds. A a hydraulic-pressure-supply-destination selection section is configured to allow hydraulic pressure from the hydraulic pressure supply source to be selectively supplied to any one of the two mold clamping mechanisms. At least two injecting machines are configured to inject resin material to the respective molds clamped by the respective two mold clamping mechanisms. A non-hydraulic power supply source drives the at least two injecting machines to inject the resin material.
US09056407B2

While a first coating gun 405 is being moved along a peripheral edge portion 100a of one surface of a multilayer glass panel 100 horizontally placed on a first worktable 20, the first coating gun 405 discharges a molding material to coat the peripheral edge portion 100a with the molding material over its entire length, molding a glazing gasket 110 thereon. An inverting mechanism 60 inverts the multilayer glass panel 100 with the molded glazing gasket 110 such that the other surface of the multilayer glass panel 100 faces upwardly. Then, a second coating gun 505 is moved along a peripheral edge portion 100b of the other surface of the multilayer glass panel 100, which is horizontally placed on a second worktable 30, and simultaneously discharges a molding material to coat the peripheral edge portion 100b with the molding material over its entire length, molding a glazing gasket 110 thereon.
US09056406B2

A method for the creation of a plurality of continuously folded layers. This approach for creating multilayered products begins with a typical flow channel for a product in which the cross-section of this flow channel is an annular ring. The flow channel is then morphed to create folds in the flow channel. Fold patterns are manufactured into the channel walls so as to gradually modify the contour of the stream. These folds are oriented and propagated in such a way so that the flow can be converged back to a flow passage with a typical cross section but now with a multiplied number of layers. This process may be repeated to multiply the number of layers. The number of folded layers can include 3-10 layers, ten to hundreds of layers and ten to thousands of layers. The layers remain continuous around the product.
US09056394B2

Various disclosed embodiments include systems and methods for determining an efficient robot-base position. The method includes receiving available robot-base positions and determining valid robot-base positions from the available robot-base positions. The method includes generating for the valid robot-base positions respective directed graphs providing a plurality of robotic-paths. The method includes determining the shortest robotic-path between start and end nodes. The method includes determining and storing the efficient robot-base position from the valid robot-base positions, wherein the efficient robot-base position has the shortest, collision-free robotic-path between start and end nodes.
US09056392B2

The invention relates to a hand tool system having an electrical circuit testing indicator for use in a hand held tool used by technicians to determine electric circuit conditions. In a preferred embodiment, the indicator makes use of an electric circuit condition indicating means within a hand tool device having a plurality of bits and tool ends that, in use, will indicate information to determine the circuit condition (live circuit or not). Optionally, light, vibration, and audible indications may be provided to indicate the same information to a user.
US09056384B1

Described herein is an apparatus for sanding an edge of a panel. The apparatus includes a base having a horizontal support surface for supporting the panel, and a fence mounted to the base. The fence has a vertical guide surface for engaging the edge of the panel. The fence also has at least one vertical slot along the vertical guide surface. The apparatus also includes at least one orbital sander positioned within the vertical slot for sanding the edge of the panel, and a linear actuator for reciprocating the orbital sander within the vertical slot along a vertical path. In use, the panel is moved along the base and the panel edge engages the fence while the sander oscillates and reciprocates to sand the panel edge.
US09056373B2

A manufacturing process for a chain tool attached to a bicycle folding tool included the following steps: Material preparing step: a rod with a length is prepared. Manufacturing step: the rod is milled via a milling cutting step to form a chain fixing groove, a detaching portion, an axial groove and a screwing portion, the chain fixing groove having a retaining wall, the retaining wall being milled to form an arc notch, the screwing portion being threaded to form a threaded hole via a drilling and tapping step. Heat treatment step: after the manufacturing process, the rod is heat treated. Sheet metal part assembling step: a sheet metal part is assembled to the chain tool by at least one connecting part; therefore, the chain tool is attachable to the sheet metal part.
US09056371B2

A method for recontouring a blade of a gas turbine includes systematically melting a portion of a leading edge of the blade using an energy beam so as to form a new contour of hardened material substantially without incorporating additional material.
US09056366B2

A method and system for detecting a welding gas leak is provided. One welding power supply includes a gas valve configured to control the flow of shielding gas to a welding device through a gas line. The welding power supply also includes a sensor coupled to the gas line and configured to detect a parameter of the shielding gas. The welding power supply includes control circuitry coupled to the gas valve and to the sensor, and configured to control the operation of the gas valve, and to receive device value representative of the detected parameter. The control circuitry is further configured to determine a leak test result based upon the parameter value, and to provide an operator indicator of the leak test result.
US09056363B2

Aluminum parts, such as heat exchangers, with improved resistance towards corrosion caused by contact with stationary water or aqueous compositions can be obtained by addition of Li compounds to the flux used for brazing such parts. LiF and especially Li fluoroaluminates are very suitable. Another aspect of the invention concerns fluxes containing Li salts and their use for brazing of aluminum parts.
US09056350B2

A device for manufacturing wire coils includes: at least two rotationally supported drums which are mounted at a predefined distance from one another, the at least two drums each having at least one bending peg mounted on a lateral surface of the corresponding drums and protruding essentially perpendicularly, a movable wire guiding device winding the wire around the bending pegs protruding from the at least two drums to produce at least one wire winding. The wire guiding device aligns the wire between two bending pegs under a predefinable elastic tension and winds the wire under tension around the corresponding bending peg due to a rotational movement.
US09056345B2

A flexible retaining device (1) for a profiling installation for clamping a sheet metal (5) to be profiled is provided. Furthermore, a method for profiling a sheet metal (5) by using the flexible retaining device (1) is provided as well as sheet metal profiled with the method.
US09056340B2

Systems, compositions, and methods for the bioremediation of a contaminant contained within a contaminated region. The systems, compositions, and methods may include supplying a first bioremediation formulation that includes an ion exchange resin to a first treatment zone that is associated with the contaminated region. The systems, compositions, and methods further may include supplying a second bioremediation formulation that includes a high-mobility oxidant, a low-mobility oxidant, and a nutrient material to a second treatment zone that is associated with the contaminated region. The systems, compositions, and methods also may include a kit of bioremediation formulations that includes the first bioremediation formulation and the second bioremediation formulation and is to be utilized during the bioremediation of the contaminated region.
US09056335B2

A screening machine includes wall members, screen assembly guide members, a screen assembly and a compression assembly. The screen assembly includes a frame with a plurality of side members and a screen supported by the frame. The compression assembly is attached to at least one wall member and forms the screen assembly into a concave shape.
US09056326B2

A device for the thermal coating of a surface, having a wire supply unit for the supply of a wire, wherein the wire acts as a first electrode, a source for plasma gas for generating a plasma gas stream, a nozzle body with a nozzle opening through which the plasma gas stream is conducted as a plasma gas jet to one wire end, and a second electrode which is arranged in the plasma gas stream before the latter enters into the nozzle opening The device is characterized in that the wire supply unit is adjustable, whereby the wire end situated in front of the nozzle opening can be moved by a certain adjustment travel. In this way, it is possible for installation tolerances in the device to be easily compensated, and high and consistent quality of the coating is attained.
US09056321B2

The spray gun is provided with a nozzle section which mixes gas into raw material liquid and also ejects the raw material liquid. The internal space of the nozzle section has an introduction path into which the raw material liquid is introduced, an open portion in which a flow path is enlarged more than the introduction path, thereby ejecting the raw material liquid in a fine particle form, a reduced diameter portion in which a flow path is made narrower than the open portion, thereby re-aggregating the raw material liquid in a fine particle form, and an ejection orifice portion which ejects the raw material liquid to the outside. In the nozzle section, a gas introduction hole which introduces gas into a base-end-side portion of the open portion is formed.
US09056313B2

Catalyst compositions of palladium supported on alumina or zirconium oxide supports having low or no silicon dioxide contents and having a specific surface area or modified with alkali, alkaline earth, or phosphine oxide compounds are selective in a vapor phase hydrogenolysis reaction to convert cyclic acetal compounds and/or cyclic ketal compounds in the presence of hydrogen to their corresponding hydroxy ether hydrocarbon reaction products.
US09056305B2

The present invention discloses a catalyst used in preparing vinyl chloride, its method of preparation, and its applications. Said catalyst used in making vinyl chloride comprises activated carbon as a support, a barium compound and a phosphorus compound supported thereon. The barium compound accounts for 0.2% to 20% of the total mass of the catalyst and the phosphorus compound accounts for 0% to 10% of the total mass of the catalyst based on the mass percentage. A water-soluble barium compound, a water-soluble phosphorus compound, an aqueous polymer monomer, and water are mixed to form a solution or emulsion A. The activated carbon is added into the solution or emulsion A. The activated carbon is removed from water after impregnation, spin-dried, and then the monomers are polymerized. The activated carbon, after polymerization step, is heated to remove water and to decompose and carbonize the polymer. The catalyst after carbonization was activated to obtain a catalyst used in making vinyl chloride.
US09056303B2

The present invention relates to a process for the continuous preparation of a catalytic system that can be used for the polymerization of at least one conjugated diene monomer, said catalytic system being based on at least: a preforming conjugated diene; an organic phosphoric acid salt of one or more rare-earth metal(s), said salt being in suspension in at least one saturated aliphatic or alicyclic and inert hydrocarbon-based solvent; an alkylating agent comprising an alkylaluminium having the formula AlR3 or HAlR2; and a halogen donor comprising an alkylaluminium halide; characterized in that it comprises successively in one line (L): (i) a reaction between the preforming conjugated diene, with the solution of the salt of rare-earth element(s) and the alkylating agent, with the alkylation reaction being carried out for a characteristic minimum period of at least 5 minutes in an alkylation reactor (30) composed of at least one well-mixed dynamic mixer; (ii) the addition of said halogen donor to the mixture obtained in (i), in order to produce a reaction for the halogenation-ageing of the preformed catalytic system and to continuously produce said preformed catalytic system at the outlet of said line (L).
US09056299B2

Parallel uses of microfluidic methods and devices for focusing and/or forming discontinuous sections of similar or dissimilar size in a fluid are described. In some aspects, the present invention relates generally to flow-focusing-type technology, and also to microfluidics, and more particularly parallel use of microfluidic systems arranged to control a dispersed phase within a dispersant, and the size, and size distribution, of a dispersed phase in a multi-phase fluid system, and systems for delivery of fluid components to multiple such devices.
US09056293B2

The invention relates to a system for hygienically reconstituting and delivering food preparations, such as drinks, comprising a metering and mixing device connected to a container containing a base liquid, in the form of a package configured to be connected to a base station. The metering and mixing device comprises a pump for metering the liquid, a diluent intake and a mixing chamber. Coupling means are provided for providing the diluent supply and the means for driving the liquid pump.
US09056290B2

The system includes: a closed-type rubber kneader that kneads kneading materials that include raw rubber and carbon black; a rotation meter of a rotor; a power meter that measures the instantaneous power required to drive the rotation of the rotor; and a calculation device to which the measurement data is input. The calculation device calculates an evaluation index that evaluates the kneading efficiency of the kneader based on the total amount of shear calculated by integrating the shear velocity applied to the kneading materials by the rotor over the kneading time, and a unit work calculated by dividing the integrated power obtained by integrating the instantaneous power over the kneading time by the mass of the kneading materials.
US09056285B2

A gas separation membrane having a polyimide structure. The polyimide structure is provided to contain a repeating unit represented by general formula (1): wherein R1 is a divalent organic group represented by general formula (2):  or a divalent organic group represented by general formula (3):
US09056279B1

A method and system for controlling emissions in an engine, includes establishing a desired first temperature at an inlet (116) of an ammonia slip catalyst assembly (115); and determining a second temperature associated with a temperature at the inlet of the ammonia slip catalyst assembly (115). If the second temperature is higher than the desired first temperature, then directing an air injector (135) to add air to the inlet (116) of the ammonia slip catalyst assembly (115).
US09056276B2

An ozone converter that includes an outer housing having an inlet and an outlet is disclosed. In this embodiment the ozone converter includes a core disposed within the outer housing and a bypass cylinder disposed between the inlet and the outlet and that passes through the core such that air within the bypass cylinder does not contact the core. The ozone converter of this embodiment also includes a blocking sleeve that surrounds a portion of the bypass cylinder and that is moveable from a first position to a second position. When the bypass sleeve is in the first position air that enters in the inlet is directed by the blocking sleeve into the bypass cylinder and when it is in the second position air that enters the inlet is allowed to enter an outer passage between the bypass cylinder and the outer housing.
US09056264B2

A biocompatible tube that can be used in a liquid chromatography system is described. The tube can have flanged or straight ends, and can be used in conjunction with one or more fitting, assembly.
US09056259B2

A control system for a remote-controlled device comprising at least one receiver configured to receive a plurality of control channel signals and an operational control unit. The operational control unit comprises at least one receiver input connected to the receiver via a high speed digital link. The input is configured to receive a sequence of digital packets of information from the receiver. This input may contain information relating to the plurality of control channels including at least one user input signal. The operational control unit also includes a sensor input for receiving signals from a sensor located on the device. The operational control unit includes a processor capable of processing the data. The operational control unit will include at least one output for transmitting an output signal to a mechanism for controlling operation of the device. This device may be specifically designed to work with remote-controlled helicopters.
US09056258B2

Toy figures may include a torso, an elongate member extending from the torso, an articulation element, and a limb having a socket. The elongate member may include an end region. The articulation element may be molded substantially around the end region and may be received within the socket. The socket may be configured for pivotable movement about the articulation element. Some examples of toy figures may include a hip joint assembly.
US09056248B2

A system for detecting inappropriate content in a virtual world environment has and a corresponding method utilizes a rating unit for rating each of one or more virtual objects based upon its content. The system has and the method utilizes a tagging unit for tagging each of the one or more virtual objects with its respective rating, an object tagging database for storing ratings of the one or more virtual objects, and a policy database for storing policies associated with the ratings and the regions. Further the system has and the method utilizes an object monitor for monitoring the movement of each of the one or more virtual objects, a security scanner for scanning each of the one or more virtual objects to determine the rating of each of the one or more virtual objects, and an enforcement module to enforce the policies of the policy database based upon the rating and the respective region.
US09056244B2

A gaming apparatus includes a processor, a display device with a video display and a touchscreen, and a bezel adjacent to the display device which has regions capable of providing haptic feedback. The haptic feedback can be provided to a specific region of the bezel as well as a transparent overlay which is positioned over a button on the touchscreen. The apparatus may have sensors allowing for haptic feedback to be targeted based on data detected by the sensors. Additionally, virtual input buttons can be displayed and repositioned on the touchscreen in response to sensor data.
US09056243B2

Puzzles that are packaged in assembled form and in a generally flat configuration are described herein. The puzzle package includes one or more flattened box components that provide support backing to the assembled puzzle. The box components have removable portions that provide structural rigidity to the puzzle pieces and are removable to transform the box components into a container for the puzzle pieces.
US09056234B2

An electronic scoring system for use in a variety of martial arts (including traditional styles of martial arts, mixed martial arts, weapons based martial arts, mixed weapons based martial arts or the fighting arts generally). The scoring system allows an objective determination of the force, location and effectiveness of forces applied during competition, without the need for electric weaponry.
US09056230B2

A composite golf club head with improved sound characteristics is disclosed herein. More specifically, the present invention relates to a golf club head that utilizes a unique composite type material having a low damping coefficient; creating more discretionary weight to optimize performance without comprising the sound of the golf club head. Depending on the amount of discretionary weight desired, the present invention could replace parts of the crown, the sole, the striking face, or even all three of the above referenced components with a low-damping composite material to improve the performance. The low-damping composite material used in accordance with the current invention may generally have a damping loss factor (η) of less than about 0.02.
US09056227B2

A golf ball comprising: a core having an outer surface and a geometric center and being formed from a substantially homogenous rubber composition comprising a carbon-carbon initiator, wherein the outer surface has a hardness that differs from a hardness at the geometric center by up to about 10 Shore C; optionally an intermediate layer disposed about the core; and a cover layer disposed about the core (or intermediate layer where present).
US09056226B2

A golf ball with a controlled moment of inertia and controlled spin rate is disclosed. The golf ball comprises a subassembly and a cover, the subassembly comprising an inner core and an intermediate layer, wherein the subassembly has a diameter of from about 1.45 inches to about 1.66 inches, the inner core has a diameter of less than about 0.75 inches, and the intermediate layer comprises a foamed polyurethane composition. The inner core has a specific gravity of higher than about 1.15, the intermediate layer has its specific gravity reduced to less than about 1.05, and the subassembly has its specific gravity reduced up to about 8% such that the coefficient of restitution of the subassembly is controlled by or is substantially the same as the coefficient of restitution of the intermediate layer, and the golf ball has its coefficient of restitution reduced by less than about 6%.
US09056223B2

The present invention is directed to a golf ball comprising a core, a cover and optionally an intermediate layer disposed between the core and the cover which in any combination comprise at least two color contributing components, each of which comprises a colorant that contributes to an overall golf ball color, the color contributing components having different hues and different saturations, wherein the hue and saturation and a chroma of each contributing component contributes to an overall golf ball hue, saturation and chroma such that: the overall golf ball hue is different than the hue of each color contributing component; the overall golf ball saturation is different than the saturation of at least one of the color contributing components; and the overall golf ball chroma is different than the chroma of at least one of the color contributing components.
US09056218B2

An exercise training device which includes a harness that is worn on the exterior of the foot or shoe of a user, and an elastic resistance cord that releasably attaches to the harness, such that the connection between the elastic resistance cord and harness is positioned at the heel of the user. The exercise training device is used to improve the strength and balance of a user. For example, use of the device improves the throwing motion of a baseball pitcher.
US09056214B2

A watering device for irrigation of non-circular areas is disclosed. The watering device comprises a deflector having an uneven curved surface designed to cause liquid meeting the deflector to reach a distance that changes respective of the uneven surface to cover an irrigation area; a spiral sector object connected to the deflector and providing an adjustable spray orifice for adjusting an irrigation pattern of the watering device; and a two-diameter tubular body connected to the spiral sector object and allowing the liquid to flow from a pipe to the uneven curved surface of the deflector.
US09056206B2

A medical electrical stimulator provides selective control of stimulation via a combination of two or more electrodes coupled to respective regulated current paths and one or more electrodes coupled to unregulated current paths. Constant current sources may control the current that is sourced or sunk via respective regulated current paths. An unregulated current path may sink or source current to and from an unregulated voltage source that serves as a reference voltage. Unregulated electrodes may function as unregulated anodes to source current from a reference voltage or unregulated cathodes to sink current to a reference voltage.
US09056205B2

An exemplary system includes an implantable cochlear stimulator implanted within a patient, a short electrode array coupled to the implantable cochlear stimulator and having a plurality of electrodes disposed thereon, and a sound processor communicatively coupled to the implantable cochlear stimulator. The sound processor may direct the implantable cochlear stimulator to apply a main current to a first electrode included in the plurality of electrodes and associated with a first pitch, direct the implantable cochlear stimulator to concurrently apply, during the application of the main current, a compensation current to a second electrode included in the plurality of electrodes and associated with a second pitch, and optimize an amount of the compensation current to result in a target pitch being presented to the patient that is distanced from the first pitch in a pitch direction opposite a pitch direction of the second pitch in relation to the first pitch.
US09056204B2

A universal implant for an implantable medical device, the universal implant including a plurality of functional components, having a plurality of hardware components disposed in a housing, and an auxiliary component interface disposed in a surface of the housing and configured to electrically connect any one of a plurality of auxiliary components to the hardware components. The universal implant further includes a determinator configured to identify one or more of the auxiliary components, select one or more of the functional components based on the identified auxiliary components, and adapt the selected functional components for operation with the identified auxiliary components.
US09056201B1

Methods and devices for minimally-invasive delivery of radiation to the eye (such as the posterior portion of the eye) including cannulas with afterloading systems for introducing radionuclide brachytherapy sources to the cannulas, for example following insertion and positioning of the cannulas. The afterloaders may house the radionuclide brachytherapy source in a vault and connect to the cannula via a guide tube. The afterloaders can advance and retract the source and ensure accurate placement of the source within the cannula.
US09056198B2

A system includes a LLLT device, with a laser diode and a momentary switch, and a clip device configured to attach to the LLLT device and to press the momentary switch while attached, causing the LLLT device to activate the laser diode. A LLLT device includes a laser diode, a front end from which light radiates when the laser diode is activated, and an eye safety mechanism at the front end. The LLLT device is configured to activate the laser diode when the front end is pressed.
US09056195B2

A method includes determining sleep cycle information related to a sleep cycle of a patient based on body parameter data. The method also includes adjusting a cranial nerve stimulation parameter based on the sleep cycle information.
US09056181B2

An improved shunt valve for the control of hydrocephalus provides for physiological atmospherically-referenced siphon control that is not adversely affected by overlying tissue. The valve includes one or more porous outer anti-fouling membranes to protect the flow control membranes from external mechanical tissue pressure, while permitting free movement of the flow control moveable membranes and permitting positive inlet pressure to regulate flow through the improved fluid shunt valve of the invention. The porous membranes are configured to prevent tissue ingrowth into the membranes pores while allowing adequate fluid flow across so as not to inhibit movement of the movable membrane.
US09056178B2

A sealing interface includes an inner cushion and an outer sheath. The outer sheath substantially seals against the facial contours of the user. The inner cushion and the outer sheath each have a nasal bridge region, left and right cheek regions and either one of an upper lip region or a chin region. In use these regions are aligned with the corresponding nasal bridge region, left and right cheek regions and either the upper lip region or the chin region of a user. The inner cushion includes a hinged region. The hinged region is adapted to flex substantially independently of the inner cushion cheek regions.
US09056175B2

Device for dispensing a plurality of unitary doses (2) of dry powder, includes at least one support comprising conduits each defining a flow path for an airstream carrying one of the unitary dose (2), the support having first (26) and second (27) members secured to one another so that a first conduit portion (29) of the first member faces a second conduit portions (43) of the second member to define one of the conduits, and a first separation portion (30) of the first member faces a second separation portions (45) of the second member, the support comprising a plurality of barrier-forming elements (31, 46) each arranged between corresponding first (30) and second (45) separation portions to prevent dry powder from passing from one of the conduits to one of the adjacent conduits.
US09056172B2

A pressure support methodology and system that utilizes at least two, and possibly all three, of information relating to (i) airway patency, i.e., the degree to which the patient's airway is open, (ii) the primary cause of the current sleep disordered breathing event, and (iii) the patient's response to previous pressure changes to automatically titrate pressure when presented with a sleep disordered breathing event. In another embodiment, pressure may be automatically titrated based solely on the primary cause of the sleep disordered breathing event.
US09056170B2

An apparatus includes a housing, a needle, a first energy storage member and a second energy storage member. The needle is movably disposed within the housing and is configured to be to be placed in fluid communication with a medicament container. The needle is configured to move between a first position and a second position. In its first position, the needle is contained within the housing. In its second position, at least a portion of the needle extends from the housing. The first energy storage member is disposed within the housing, and is configured to produce a first force when actuated. The second energy storage member is disposed within the housing, and is configured to be actuated in response to the first force to produce a second force to move the needle from the first needle position to the second needle position.
US09056165B2

An algorithm and method of making intelligent therapy recommendations for insulin pump parameters is described. The pump parameters include basal rates, carbohydrate-to-insulin ratios (CIR), and insulin sensitivity factors (ISF). A determination of whether a therapy recommendation should be made is based on comparing an updated recommended change with a threshold. The updated recommended change to the pump parameter is made based on a previous recommended change to the pump parameter and the difference between a current blood glucose value and a targeted blood glucose level. The algorithm and method confirms the therapy recommendation is within safety parameters before displaying the therapy recommendation.
US09056163B2

Drug delivery systems are provided that include an actuator assembly permanently attached to a filter for connection of a container containing medications such as epidural anesthesia, to a delivery site. In one or more embodiments, the actuator assembly includes a projection with an opening extending from a distal end of the actuator assembly in a proximal direction and the filter includes an inlet and an outlet in fluid communication with the opening. The filter includes a housing including two plates joined together or a cylindrical body defining a cavity containing filter materials. A conduit may be attached to the outlet of the filter to allow connection of the drug delivery systems described to a delivery site, such as a catheter. Methods of administering a medication to a delivery site are also provided.
US09056158B2

A waste collection manifold assembly 10 has a housing 13 and a strainer 80. The housing 13 has at least one input port 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D for receiving waste collection products 1 through a vacuum line 4. The housing 13 includes an interior chamber 11 for receiving the waste collection products 1 and a fluid discharge port 14 for passing fluids 6 into a waste collection unit 2. The strainer 80 is located in the chamber 11 and above the fluid discharge port 14. The at least one inlet port 12A, 12B, 12C, 12D is positioned to open alongside an interior chamber wall 13A of the housing 13 above the strainer 80 to direct the flow of the waste collection products 1 in a downward swirl along the interior chamber wall 13 A toward the strainer 80.
US09056153B2

The present disclosure generally relates to biocompatible polymers for coating or fabricating implantable medical devices and to implantable medical devices having the present biocompatible polymers. The disclosed biocompatible polymers exhibit superior biocompatibility and therefore minimize unwanted immune reaction from a patient into whom a medical device is implanted.
US09056149B2

An improved bodyboard and bodyboard shape are presented. The bodyboard includes both a hull section and a planar section formed in the bottom surface of the bodyboard. The bodyboard presented herein provides a hydrodynamically-shaped object that allows a rider to ride waves, typically in a prone or kneeling position on top of at least a portion of the bodyboard. The bodyboard provides the rider more control, speed and maneuverability, without adding substantially to costs to manufacture and maintain the bodyboard.
US09056143B2

A method for preparing pellets from rice husk includes: grinding rice husk; adding ammonia water to a mixture of ethylene vinyl acetate and poly(vinylacetate) to prepare a mixed liquid binder; mixing the mixed binder with the ground rice husk to obtain a binder/rice husk mixture; extruding the binder/rice husk mixture through an extruder; and cooling the extruded mixture at room temperature.
US09056128B2

There is provided an adjuvant capable of enlarging an ablation area and reducing ablation unevenness in a dielectric heating-assisted cancer treatment such as radiofrequency ablation used for treatment of hepatic cancer. The adjuvant includes a conductive substance such as a metal element (e.g., iron) and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier of lipid dispersion, polymer solution or polymer dispersion.
US09056126B2

A polymeric prodrug composition including a hydrogel, a biologically active moiety and a reversible prodrug linker. The prodrug linker covalently links the hydrogel and the biologically active moiety at a position and the hydrogel has a plurality of pores with openings on its surface. The diameter of the pores is larger than that of the biologically active moiety at least at all points of the pore between at least one of the openings and the position of the biologically active moiety.
US09056125B2

An article for controlling the attachment and growth of cells on a surface of the article, and a method for the use of the article is provided. The article comprises a substratum having a surface and a film on the surface, the film comprising a network of a net positively charged composition and a net negatively charged composition, wherein the net positively charged composition comprises a net positively charged polyelectrolyte or the net negatively charged composition comprises a net negatively charged polyelectrolyte, and the net positively charged polyelectrolyte or the net negatively charged polyelectrolyte contain (i) a polymer repeat unit having at least two fluorine atoms, or (ii) a polymer repeat unit having a zwitterion group. The method comprises contacting the article with living tissue, living organisms, or with water in an aqueous system comprising living organisms.
US09056119B2

Provided are a VEGF production promoter, a hair quality improver, and an external preparation for skin, each of which has a VEGF production promoting activity and can be used as a pharmaceutical agent, a cosmetic, a food, or a material therefor.The VEGF production promoter, the hair quality improver, and the external preparation for skin each comprises, as an active ingredient, a cycloartane-type glycoside represented by the following general formula (1) (where R represents a xylose residue or an arabinose residue, and the ring D moiety represents any one of the following moieties a to f (where R1 represents a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, R2 represents a hydrogen atom or an acetyl group, R3 represents a hydrogen atom or a hydroxyl, group, R4 represents a hydrogen atom or a hydroxyl group, and Ac represents an acetyl group)).
US09056117B2

The present invention pertains to a herbal formulation with highly potent wound healing properties, in humans and animals. The composition consists of aqueous extracts of Azadirachta indica, in a mixture of natural oils along with herbs viz. Berberis aristata, Curcuma longa, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Jasminum officinale, Picrorhiza kurrooa, Pongamia pinnata, Rubia folia, Saussurea lappa, Terminalia chebula, Trichosanthes dioica, Capsicum and Stellata wild in well-defined ratios. The invention also includes a process for preparing the formulation by extracting the water-soluble components from bark of Azadirachta indica.
US09056113B2

This innovation is a unique, natural, CONSUMABLE and topical treatment for many of my body's ailments that has helped me in ways other products never did. The anti-bacterial herbs appear to fight the root cause of the many ailments listed, instead of just masking them.It cleansed my pores for acne. I sprayed it in and on my eyes. It gently allowed sebaceous debris, often called eye mucous, to painlessly ooze away from eyelash pores and other eye glands like NO other product I have heard of. It unclogged the micro eyelid circulation, greatly reducing the puffiness we all get with age. Cleaning pores allowed skin to heal itself better, reducing wrinkles and acne scars.It naturally kills bacteria that cause odors under your arms and orally. It is consumable, so it works safely all the way down the back of the tongue where scrappers and chemical washes can't reach.
US09056111B1

The present invention provides pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine compounds which inhibit cancer-associated transporter proteins, methods of treating or preventing the onset of a cancer-associated transporter protein-mediated disease by administering such compounds, and pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds. In one embodiment, the invention provides pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine efflux inhibitors that are selective toward ABCG2 over ABCB1. Compounds and compositions according to the present invention may be used to treat cancer, including drug resistant (DR) and multiple drug resistant (MDR) cancers.
US09056110B2

The present disclosure provides pyrimidinone-phenyl-pyrimidinyl compounds useful in the treatment of p38 kinase mediated diseases, such as lymphoma and inflammatory disease, having the structure of Formula (I): wherein R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are as defined in the detailed description; pharmaceutical compositions comprising at least one of the compounds; and methods for treating p38 kinase mediated diseases using the compound.
US09056102B2

The present invention provides fusion proteins comprising an extracellular domain of a VEGF receptor and a death ligand. The fusion proteins bind to VEGF and to death receptors on tumor cells thereby inhibiting VEGF activation of VEGF receptors and inducing apoptosis in the tumor cells. Fusion proteins of the present invention are useful for inducing apoptosis and cytotoxic effects in cells, treating cancer and diseases or disorders related to unregulated angiogenesis and/or vasculogenesis. Thus, this invention further provides methods for treating angiogenesis related diseases using the fusion proteins, polynucleotides encoding the fusion proteins, vectors containing the polynucleotides, pharmaceutical compositions and kits containing the fusion proteins or the polynucleotides encoding the fusion proteins.
US09056100B2

Provided is a powder inhalant comprising 3(R)-(2-hydroxy-2,2-dithien-2-ylacetoxy)-1-(3-phenoxypropyl)-1-azoniabicyclo[2.2.2]octane bromide and methods of using the same.
US09056091B1

The present invention provides a composition for the regulation of Liver X Receptor (LXR) in a cell, and the composition comprises fucoxanthin and its metabolite, fucoxanthinol. The composition of the present invention regulates the transactivation activity of LXR in cell, and antagonizes the transactivation activity of LXRα and/or LXRβ induced by LXR agonists. In other aspects, the present invention also provides a method of regulating a liver X receptor. The composition for the regulation of liver X receptor and the application thereof according to the present invention can regulate the transactivation activity of LXR in cell, and can further be used as alternatives for LXR agonist or antagonist, or supplements, for enhancing LXR-related symptoms.
US09056080B2

The presently disclosed subject matter provides methods for increasing perfusion in hypoxic regions of tissues in subjects. Also provided are methods for treating diseases and/or disorders associated with hypoxia in subjects, methods for increasing sensitivity of tumors to radiation and/or chemotherapy treatments, methods for delaying tumor growth in subjects, and methods for inhibiting tumor blood vessel growth in subjects. In some embodiments, the presently disclosed methods involve administering to subjects in need thereof a first composition selected from the group consisting of a nitrosylated hemoglobin and an agent that induces nitrosylation of endogenous hemoglobin in the subject and a second composition comprising a hyperoxic gas. In some embodiments, the presently disclosed methods also include treating a tumor with radiation therapy, chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy, immunotherapy, or combinations thereof. Also provided are inhalable gases that can be employed in the presently disclosed methods.
US09056078B2

Disclosed are tissue graft compositions made of particles having different densities, methods of making these compositions, and methods of using these compositions for promoting tissue restoration in a patient.
US09056073B2

The invention relates to vaccines for treating prostate inflammation and benign prostate hyperplasias (stages I and II) comprising Lactobacillus strains in an inactivated form and carriers and/or excipients commonly used in vaccine preparations.
US09056072B2

The present invention discloses a novel method of prevention of birth defects, miscarriages and infertility in women. The two therapies, disclosed herein, the hormone normalization therapy and the aromatase inhibitor-hormone normalization therapy, focus on restoring young hormonal levels in women in order to prevent female infertility and miscarriages, guide follicular and oocyte maturation, and promote correct chromosomal segregation in oocytes and early embryos.
US09056069B2

The present invention relates to cyclin D1-derived peptides for use in the improved treatment of cancer in a patient, particularly in the form of a combination therapy using a vaccine. Other aspects relate to the use of the peptides or a combination thereof as a diagnostic tool.
US09056063B2

A composition for sunscreen or sunscreen enhancer is disclosed. The composition includes UV-blocking component comprising natural extracts, natural oils or nutrients or a combination of these. The composition is capable of protecting skin from the harmful effects of UV-light and it is capable of acting as an enhancer of sunscreen actives, such as zinc oxide, titanium dioxide or other sunscreen actives, such as Avobenzone, Dioxybenzone, Ecamsule, Meradimate, Oxybenzone, Sulisobenzone, Cinoxate, Ensulizole, Homosalate, Octinoxate, Octisalate, Octocrylene PABA, Padimate O or Trolamine salicylate.
US09056056B2

A coated proteinaceous material can be produced by contacting the proteinaceous material with de-oiled phospholipids or mixtures thereof containing less than 20% triglycerides. The coating has between 0.1 and 1.5% by weight of the total proteinaceous material, of de-oiled lecithin. The proteinaceous material is hydrophobic, especially amino acids having a hydrophobicity of higher than 1.0 kJ/mol. In particular, the amino acids are leucine, isoleucine, valine, phenylalanine, tryptophan and/or methionine. The coated amino acids can be incorporated into food products and medicaments.
US09056051B2

Abuse-resistant, controlled release opioid tablets are a combination containing an opioid antagonist such as naloxone at a level above that needed to suppress the euphoric effect of the opioid, if the combination were crushed to break the controlled release properties causing the opioid and opioid antagonist to be released as a immediate release product as a single dose. The controlled release nature of the table prevents the accumulation of orally effective amounts of opioid antagonist when taken normally. The opioid antagonist is contained in a controlled-release matrix and released, over time, with the opioid.
US09056040B2

A cardboard cremation container has a cardboard base having a pair of opposed side walls, a pair of opposed end walls, and a bottom wall, and a cardboard lid on the base, the lid having a pair of opposed side walls, an end wall, a header wall, and a top wall. Each of the side walls of the base has a notch formed in an upper edge thereof. The side walls and the end wall of the lid extend outwardly beyond the side walls and one end wall of the base, and lower edges of the side walls and the end wall of the lid are positioned below upper edges of the side walls and the one end wall of the base. The header wall of the lid fits in the notches in the side walls of the base. The lid includes a riser at each corner of the lid formed by each lid side wall and a respective end of the lid end wall. The risers are supported on respective corners of the base formed by each base side wall and a respective end of the one base end wall.
US09056039B1

The invention relates to an incubator for babies. It is of special value for the treatment of premature infants as an intensive care unit at any time during life from creation to implantation. A cradle is sided with ports to enable fluidic ventilation. Advantageously the incubator includes an optical path for imaging the patient via a clear bottom and open top. The incubator is provided with easy access and various accessories required for an intensive care unit. The invention further relates to a method of thermoregulation within the incubator and to a temperature measurement test pattern to calibrate a radiometer for non-contact patient thermometry. Within the incubator, the temperature of a human embryo or hatchling patient is monitored distinctly from incubator temperature, and a rate of flow of a liquid incubation medium over the patient's egg (embryo stage) or body (hatchling stage) is controlled by a microfluidic means which is responsive to feedback from the patient's temperature in view of an effect of flow-related heat dissipation on the difference between patient temperature and the temperature of the liquid incubation medium bathing the patient in the incubator.
US09056030B2

A sanitary article wearable as pants comprises a body or chassis 12 with a topsheet 13, a backsheet 14 and an absorbent core 15 interposed between the topsheet 13 and the backsheet 14. The article 10 has opposite extremities provided with closing side panels 16 extending laterally starting from at least one of said opposite extremities. The side panels 16 have proximal margins 160 connected to the body 12 in positions interposed between the topsheet 13 and the backsheet 14. In particular, the above-said proximal margins 160 of the side panels 16 are connected by thermal welding or ultrasound welding 170 to the topsheet 13 and adhesively 190 to the backsheet 14.
US09056023B2

A prosthetic sock monitoring system is disclosed. The sock monitoring system includes a storage device and a data collection unit. The data collection unit is operable to receive data from at least one sensor coupled to a prosthetic sock that is wearable by a patient, and store the received data in the storage device. A prosthetic sock is also disclosed. The sock comprises material shaped to fit over at least a portion of the residual limb of the patient and a thickness adapted for inserting the residual limb into the socket of the prosthesis while the sock is fitted over the residual limb. The sock also comprises one or more of a sock identification unit and a force sensing device.
US09056011B2

An orthopedic prosthesis mold, including a first housing defining a first cavity therein shaped to form a portion of an orthopedic prosthesis; a second housing coupled to the first housing, the second housing defining a second cavity therein shaped to form a portion of an orthopedic prosthesis; and a reinforcement element attached to at least one of the first or second housings, the reinforcement element resisting deformation of the first and second housings. The reinforcement element may include a member exterior to the first and second cavities, the member spanning across a substantial width of the prosthesis mold.
US09056008B2

An instrument for deploying a cardiac valve prosthesis, including a plurality of radially expandable portions, at an implantation site, includes a plurality of deployment elements each independently operable to obtain the radial expansion of a radially expandable portion of the valve prosthesis. A method for deploying the cardiac valve prosthesis includes advancing the instrument to an implant site and independently actuating the radially expandable portions.
US09056007B2

A tissue modification apparatus includes a first and a second guide, a first and a second set of mounts, and a first and a second actuator. The first guide defines a first axis, and the second guide defines a second axis intersecting the first axis. The mounts of the first set of mounts are movable relative to one another along the first axis, and the mounts of the second set of mounts are movable relative to one another along the second axis. The first actuator and the second actuator are each settable to a stress load, with the first actuator and the second actuator movable, respectively, along the first axis and the second axis to transmit each respective stress load to a piece of tissue mechanically coupled to the first and second set of mounts.
US09055987B2

A device for implanting heat deformable fixation elements of different sizes in a bone, comprises a hand piece extending from a proximal end to a distal end and including an internal optical waveguide connected to a laser source and open to the distal end of the hand piece and a light guiding tip extending from a proximal end to a distal end, the proximal end of the light guiding tip being removably mechanically and optically connectable to the distal end of the hand piece and the distal end of the light guiding tip being configured to permit removable attachment of a bone fixation element, the light guiding tip including an optical waveguide, wherein the light guiding tip is configured to control a total radiant energy Q transmitted from the laser source to the bone fixation element.
US09055985B2

A dental implant assembly comprises an implant body adapted for securement within a bore in a jaw bone of a patient. The implant body has a portion with an external thread for engaging the bore. An abutment has a top portion and a bottom portion. The top portion of the abutment is adapted to secure a prosthetic component. The bottom portion of the abutment is attachable to the implant body and adapted to be positioned below a gumline of the patient, the abutment formed of a first material. A cover is sized and shaped to cover the bottom portion of the abutment and adapted to be positioned below the gum line, without covering the top portion of the abutment. The cover is formed from a second material having a different color from the first material.
US09055984B2

A sternal reconstruction system for securing parts of a sternum includes at least one flexible cable with a fused end fitting, at least one parallel fitting piece and at least one ferrule. Optionally, the system includes at least one cannulated screw. Circumferential or parasternal fixation may be brought about by use of the sternal reconstruction system. Also provided is a method for sternal reconstruction utilizing the sternal reconstruction system. Also provided is a kit for sternal reconstruction.
US09055979B2

A dynamic stabilization system for stabilizing a vertebral segment of a spine. The system includes a first vertebral anchor, a second vertebral anchor and a cord. The system may also include a spacer positioned between the first and second vertebral anchor through which the cord extends. The first vertebral anchor is configured to be secured to a first vertebra and the second vertebral anchor is configured to be secured to a second vertebra. The cord is extendable from the first vertebral anchor to the second vertebral anchor. The cord has a variable stiffness through a range of displacement, wherein the stiffness of the cord increases as an applied tensile force on the cord is increased.
US09055978B2

A tool set for implanting a rod in a human spine in conjunction with bone screws. The tool set includes a pair of end guide tools that receive opposite ends of the rod in channels and under manipulation by a surgeon facilitate transport of the rod toward the bone screws attached to the guide tools. Intermediate guide tools having guiding pass through slots are utilized to guide intermediate locations along the rod toward associated bone screws. An attachment structure operably connects the guide tools to the bone screws. The guide tools each include a lower guide and advancement structure to allow a closure top with mating structure to be rotated and driven downward against the rod and to cooperate with similar structure in the bone screw to seat and lock the rod therein. A method utilizing the tool set allows a surgeon to percutaneously implant the rod in the patient.
US09055977B2

The present disclosure relates, in some aspects, to orthopaedic implants for securing soft tissue to bone and methods for using the same. One particular implant comprises a first exposed porous surface region, having pores for promoting bone ingrowth, and a second exposed porous surface, having pores for promoting soft tissue ingrowth. At least some of the pores of the first exposed porous surface region may be seeded with osteocytic factors and at least some of the pores of the second exposed porous surface region may be seeded with fibrocytic factors. Such orthopaedic implants can advantageously facilitate regeneration of the soft tissue to bone interface.
US09055974B2

In one example, a device includes a telemetry module configured to retrieve graphics processing data from a device that is not configured to perform a rendering process using the graphics processing data and that is associated with delivering therapy to a therapy target of a patient, and a control unit configured to apply the graphics processing data while performing the rendering process to generate an image of an anatomical feature of the patient, wherein the anatomical feature comprises the therapy target for an implantable medical device, and to cause a display unit of a user interface to display the image, wherein the image of the anatomical feature is specific to the patient. The graphics processing data may include a list of vertices or a transform to be applied to a non-patient-specific anatomical atlas. The data may also include a location of a therapy element of the implantable medical device.
US09055972B2

Attenuating masks for selective attenuation of radiation, particularly from an x-ray source in brachytherapy, employ materials having atomic number in a specific range, so as to attenuate radiation dose intensity generally proportionally through a range of distance from the source. Some preferred attenuation materials are silver and molybdenum. A set of small masks can be provided for a particular design of catheter that holds a radiation source, each mask having a size and shape to define a different solid angle of masking, so that in a brachytherapy procedure, sensitive tissue such as bone or skin can be protected by proper selection of and positioning of the attenuating mask, to reduce the dose intensity to that tissue.
US09055959B2

An ablating device has a cover which holds an interface material such as a gel. The cover contains the interface material during initial placement of the device. The ablating device may also have a removable tip or a membrane filled with fluid. In still another aspect, the ablating device may be submerged in liquid during operation.
US09055957B2

A method of adjusting an ablation field radiating into tissue includes the initial steps of providing an energy applicator and providing one or more microwave field-detecting needle assemblies. Each microwave field-detecting needle assembly includes one or more rectifier elements capable of detecting microwave field intensity via rectification. The method includes the steps of positioning the energy applicator and the one or more microwave field-detecting needle assemblies in tissue, transmitting energy from an energy source through the energy applicator to generate an ablation field radiating about at least a portion of the energy applicator into tissue, and adjusting the ablation field radiating about at least the portion of the energy applicator into tissue based on at least one electrical signal transmitted by the one or more microwave field-detecting needle assemblies.
US09055953B2

Disclosed herein are methods and compositions for producing articular repair materials and for repairing an articular surface. In particular, methods for providing articular repair systems. Also provided are articular surface repair systems designed to replace a selected area cartilage, for example, and surgical tools for repairing articular surfaces.
US09055951B2

A monopolar electrosurgical apparatus is disclosed which includes a tissue removal device having electrical, mechanical and chemical tissue removal capabilities. The device can be operated to use any of its tissue removal capabilities alone or in combination with one or more of the other capabilities.
US09055946B2

An anastomotic connector comprises a generally tubular access port having a first end and a second end and a main body portion in fluid communication with the second end of the access port that is structured to be deployed within a fluid passageway. The main body portion includes an expandable mesh frame defining a pair of flanges extending outwardly from the second end of the access port and a retention strap extending across the second end of the access port. The pair of flanges and the retention strap are structured to exert a radial force on an internal surface of a fluid passageway when the mesh frame of the main body portion is expanded within the fluid passageway. Furthermore, the pair of flanges and the retention strap allow the passage of fluid to the distal tissues that the native fluid passageway is supplying.
US09055941B2

A staple cartridge for use with a surgical stapler can comprise a cartridge deck and a plurality of staples at least partially positioned within the cartridge deck. In use, the staples can be supported by a first jaw of the surgical stapler and deformed by a second jaw. As the staples are being deformed, the cartridge deck can be pushed, or slid, downwardly relative to the staples.
US09055938B2

Suturing systems may comprise a cartridge and a drive unit which are detachable from each other. The cartridge often has a cartridge body, a plurality of jaws, and a cartridge interface. The drive unit has a drive unit body, a linkage, and a drive unit interface which will typically include a latch. A latch input is coupled to the latch so that a movement of the input moves the latch to the released position. The cartridge interface or the drive unit interface includes a channel while the other includes a shaft which is fittingly receivable in the channel. Opposed motions of the input and cartridge during cartridge removal avoid inadvertent detachment during use.
US09055934B2

Systems, devices, and methods suitable for use with procedures performed at least partially percutaneously are provided. In some procedures, two or more access devices for providing access to adjacent surgical locations within a patient are used. Certain embodiments of the access device comprise an elongate body having a distal end with one or more cutouts. The cutouts on adjacent access devices are generally aligned with each other to permit passage of a portion of a fixation element from one access device to the other access device. A fastener with an elongated removable head may be delivered to the surgical site through the access device. After a distal end of the fastener is secured to the surgical site, a portion of the elongated housing is detached from the remainder of the fastener and removed from the patient.
US09055927B2

A method and system for a user interface for artifact removal in an EEG is disclosed herein. The invention allows an operator to select a plurality of artifacts to be automatically removed from an EEG recording using a user interface. The operator pushes a button on the user interface to apply a plurality of filters to remove the plurality of artifacts from the EEG and generate a clean EEG for viewing.
US09055923B2

An apparatus for obtaining an intraoral x-ray image from a patient, the apparatus has an x-ray source and a radio-frequency transceiver coupled to the x-ray source and energizable to transmit an interrogation signal, wherein the transceiver is in signal communication with four or more antennae. An intraoral image detector forms an image upon exposure to radiation received from the x-ray source. A radio-frequency transponder is coupled to the image detector and is configured to respond to the interrogation signal by transmitting a wireless response signal. A control logic processor is in communication with the transceiver and provides an output signal indicative of the spatial position of the image detector according to response signals received from the transponder at the four or more antennae. An indicator responds to the output signal by indicating the relative position of the image detector.
US09055918B2

A method of determining patient follow-up subsequent to an orthopaedic procedure includes determining the number of cycles of use of an orthopaedic joint of the patient. If a predetermined threshold is exceeded, communication with an orthopaedic care provider is initiated. A patient monitoring system is also disclosed.
US09055915B2

A novel device for marking location of organs on skin as per CAT scan comprising of a sheet having a plurality of vertical, horizontal and oblique lines wherein the sheet is provided in the form of a mesh. The device can be used for radiotherapy of head to localize point of radiotherapy, for other parts of body to localize/mark organs on skin after CAT scan and also for surgery of Brain to localize tumors.
US09055914B2

Devices, systems, and methods for controlling the field of view in imaging systems are provided. For example, in one embodiment an imaging system includes a flexible elongate member sized and shaped for use within an internal structure of a patient, an imaging transducer positioned within the distal portion of the flexible elongate member, an imaging marker positioned to be detectable within a field of view of the imaging transducer, and a controller in communication with the flexible elongate member and configured to adjust a control signal of the flexible elongate member based on the detection of the imaging marker in data received from the flexible elongate member in order to achieve a desired field of view for the imaging transducer.
US09055912B2

A supporting device is provided for a radiation source and a radiation detector, as well as an imaging device having a supporting device. The supporting device contains a base unit, a guidance device with a first segment and a second segment, and a first support arm. The first segment is rotatably arranged at a first rotation connection at the first support arm. The first support arm is pivotably arranged at the base unit of the supporting device such that, by a pivot movement of the first support arm, the first segment can be moved from a first position in which the segments make contact with one another, into a second position in which the segments are separated from one another.
US09055906B2

In vivo visualization systems are described which facilitate tissue treatment by a user in utilizing real time visualized tissue images with generated three-dimensional models of the tissue region of interest, such as the left atrial chamber of a subject's heart. Directional indicators on the visualized tissue as well as the imaging systems may be utilized while other variations may utilize image rotation or manipulation of visualized tissue regions to facilitate catheter control. Moreover, visualized tissue regions may be combined with imaged tissue regions as well as navigational information to further facilitate tissue treatments.
US09055904B2

The present invention provides systems and methods for receiving an input to a sensory test or training activity by way of a touch-screen device. The touch-screen device receives instructions by way of a wireless communication protocol from a sensory testing and training device. The instructions may be comprised of a command to display a graphical element on the touch-screen device. As a result, the touch-screen device displays the graphical element on a display surface of the touch-screen device. Further, an input may be received from a subject in the form of a physical contact between the subject and the display surface of the touch-screen device. The input may be in response to a sensory test or a sensory training activity. Additionally, the touch-screen device communicates the input to the sensory training device utilizing a wireless communication protocol. In an additional embodiment, the touch-screen device provides feedback to a user.
US09055903B2

A fundus photographing apparatus includes a measurement unit including an optical coherence tomography system for obtaining a tomographic image of the fundus of an examinee's eye by detecting an interference state between measurement light from the fundus of the examinee's eye and reference light, a detection unit for detecting an alignment state perceived as a relative positional relationship between the measurement unit and the examinee's eye, and a controller for adjusting the optical coherence tomography system with respect to the fundus of the examinee's eye based on a detection result from the detection unit. The adjustment of the optical coherence tomography system includes at least one of an optical path length adjustment, which adjusts an optical path length difference between the measurement light and the reference light, and a focus adjustment.
US09055899B2

A guidance mechanism for a lancing device. The guidance mechanism includes a piston having a shaft, a plurality of wings or fins extending from the shaft, a plurality of sliding engagement structures, and a lancet holder; and a chassis having a body, a plurality of longitudinal slits or cutouts, a plurality of elongated engagement structures, and an end aperture. The piston slides within the chassis, and the wings/fins engage within the slits/cutouts, allowing for linear longitudinal guidance of the piston within the chassis.
US09055890B2

In general, in some embodiments, the disclosure provides a method that includes making a subjective refraction of a person to determine information about the person's vision, making a wavefront measurement of one or both of the person's eyes to determine information about the optical properties of one or both of the person's eyes (e.g., aberrations), calculating a prescription for the person based on the information about the person's vision and the information about the optical properties of one or both of the person's eyes, and outputting the prescription.
US09055889B2

A breath sampling device includes a main housing having an input chamber, a first output chamber, and a second output chamber integrally formed therein where the input chamber and the first output chamber are coupled via a first port and the input chamber and the second output chamber are coupled via a second port, and a self-sealing apparatus within the second output chamber configured to seal at least an exhaust port of the second output chamber when a predetermined amount of initial waste air fills the second output chamber. The main housing can be configured to redirect a portion of air blown therethrough towards the output chamber via the first port when the self-sealing apparatus at least seals the exhaust port. Other embodiments are disclosed.
US09055868B2

A diagnostic system includes a plurality of semiconductor diodes, a multiplexer, and one or more waveguide structures to form an output beam. A lens system communicates some of the output beam onto a part of a user's body comprising blood to perform a measurement. A software application is capable of generating data based at least in part on the measurement, and it operates on a control system that may have a touch-screen, a proximity sensor, and a wireless transceiver to transmit wireless data over a wireless link. A host comprises a digital file, control logic at the host to process at least the portion of the wireless data to generate a status of the user, a memory storage device for recording the status, and an output for communicating at least a portion of the status or associated information over a communication link to one or more remote display output devices.
US09055867B2

A confocal microscope having a scanning head in the form of a hand piece which may be placed at selected locations on the body of a patient. A laser beam is scanned in orthogonal (horizontal and vertical) directions by scanners which drive scan mirrors, which are closely adjacent to each other. The optics include an objective lens and a telescope lenses that image the objective lens entrance pupil between the scan mirrors. Scanner is a pulse driven resonant scanner which is feed back controlled to maintain scanning rate and can change the scan angle and obtain dynamic, electronic image zooming without changing the positional relationship of the telescope.
US09055865B2

Measured locations of position sensors on a steerable medical device are used to determine the insertion depth of the steerable medical device with respect to a foundation point, which is initialized by an operator. The insertion depth, in turn, is used to determine the state of each segment that has passed the foundation point, i.e., is distal to the foundation point.
US09055862B2

Provided is an image processing device including an illuminating portion that irradiates a subject with illumination light and excitation light; a fluorescence image-acquisition portion that acquires a fluorescence image by capturing fluorescence generated at the subject; a return-light image-acquisition portion that acquires a return-light image by capturing return light returning from the subject; a color-image generating portion that generates a plurality of color images by adding different types of color information that constitute a color space to the acquired fluorescence image and return-light image; and an image combining portion that combines the plurality of color images that have been generated, wherein at least one of the fluorescence image and the return-light image is subjected to, by the color-image generating portion), correction processing in which exponents for distance characteristics, which are approximated to exponential functions, for the fluorescence image and the return-light image are matched with each other.
US09055861B2

A method and apparatus for diagnosing a user's health state are provided. The apparatus includes including a voice detecting unit which detects and monitors a user's voice; a voice analyzing unit which extracts a voice feature from a voice detected by the voice detecting unit, based on a health state to be diagnosed; a voice diagnosing unit which diagnoses a health state of the user by comparing the voice feature extracted by the voice analyzing unit with an abnormal state reference, and which monitors a change in the health state; and a diagnosis outputting unit which outputs information regarding the health state and a health state change diagnosed by the voice diagnosing unit.
US09055857B2

An appliance including a treatment container having a container door pivotable about a pivot axis, and a door-weight compensating device for at least partially compensating a weight of the container door. The door-weight compensating device may include a spring which is connected by a tension transmitter in a spring force transmitting manner to the container door. In an exemplary embodiment, the container door includes a deflector pivotally disposed about the pivot axis, the deflector having at least two sliding surfaces for deflecting the tension transmitter.
US09055856B2

A dishwasher includes a plastic frame that is fixed to a treatment container. The front of the treatment container has a filling opening which can be closed by a door. The treatment container has a container casing, which comprises side walls, a container roof, and the frame. The frame forms a front face of the treatment container and is connected to the container casing in an interlocking manner.
US09055848B2

A suction cleaner and an operation method thereof are provided. The suction cleaner includes a housing, a holding part, an impeller module, at least one sensing device, and a controller. An end of the housing has a dust-suction opening. The impeller module is located inside the housing, and a channel is located between the impeller module and the dust-suction opening. The controller is electrically connected to the sensing device to drive and adjust the rotation rate and the suction force of the impeller module, and thus the power consumption of the suction cleaner can be reduced.
US09055847B1

An infant bather having a flexible water bath supported by a frame. The frame has a scissors fold such that the flexible water bath folds one way to an open configuration for bathing an infant and folds the other way to a closed configuration for storage.
US09055839B1

An outdoor food frying apparatus provides a frame that includes a cabinet having an open top and a open bottom. The frame can be in the form of a plurality of cabinet walls supportive upon a plurality of legs. A burner element is supported upon the frame and within the cabinet interior. The burner element includes a pair of spaced apart burner sections. A pot removably fits the cabinet interior resting upon the pot support in a cooking position. The pot has a v-shaped bottom comprised of a pair of panels that intercept to form a obtuse angle. The pot also includes a plurality of generally flat pot side walls. One of the burner sections directs a flame against one of the bottom panels, the other of the burner sections directing a flame against the other of the bottom panels. In one embodiment, the pot has a drain opening fitted with a valve for controlling the flow of fluid from the pot after cooking has completed. In one embodiment, a slot on the cabinet extends to the open top, the valve traveling in the slot when the pot is placed upon the frame in a cooking position. In one embodiment, a plurality of baskets are provided that selectively fit the pot interior including one basket that substantially fills the cabinet interior and a second basket that is much smaller than the first basket.
US09055831B2

A bowl includes a flexible, continuous wall; an annular latch disposed on a lower portion of an inner surface of the flexible, continuous wall and inclined downward, inward; a hollow bottom member integrally formed with the flexible, continuous wall; a magnet disposed in the hollow bottom member; an annular groove formed between the annular latch and a joining portion of the inner surface of the flexible, continuous wall and an inner surface of the hollow bottom member; an internally threaded boss disposed on a bottom of the hollow bottom member; and a cover including an externally threaded projection threadedly fastened in the internally threaded boss. An edge of the cover is disposed in the annular groove. A portion of top of the cover adjacent to its edge is urged downward by the annular latch so as to hold the magnet secure.
US09055822B2

A structural framework for a convertible armchair or sofa comprising a box-shaped base supporting a plurality of frames hinged to one another, including a particular frame suitable, alone, for directly or indirectly supporting a seat cushion on one of its sides and, in combination with the other frames, for supporting a mattress on its other side, and mechanisms for the displacement of said frames and of a backrest and supporting foot, in relation to one another and with respect to the base, between: a stable configuration as a sofa or armchair, wherein the frames remain inside said base, where they identify a cavity for containing the folded mattress; and a stable configuration as a bed wherein the frames extend forwards, becoming aligned to define a horizontal resting surface that extends beyond the base and is supported by the foot, while the backrest moves underneath the resting surface, and a stable configuration as a recliner, wherein, by comparison with the configuration as an armchair or sofa, the backrest is tilted further backwards and the particular frame extends further forwards and/or is tilted upwards.
US09055820B2

An air manifold includes a sheet-like body including first and second spaced, opposing walls and a sealed perimeter. A plurality of divider walls connects the first and second walls together and defines a plurality of air channels within the body. An opening in the body defines an air port cooperable with an air mover. The air port is in fluid communication with the air channels. At least one zone inside the body is free of the divider walls. A group of the air channels are in fluid communication with each other through one the zone. A plurality of air vents located in the first wall are in fluid communication with at least one of the air channels. The air manifold is disposable between a seat cushion element and a structural support of a seat. The first wall of the air manifold faces a backside surface of the seat cushion element.
US09055819B2

Piano seat that has a structure for raising and lowering that is formed by two pairs of “L” section profiles arranged in a facing manner, two at the bottom and two at the top, which are connected together by individual pairs of scissor-type mechanisms, or assemblies in the form of an “X”, which are articulated and arranged in a facing manner, and also by a series of transverse bars, there being, at the end of the scissor-type mechanism, articulations connecting to the upper and lower profiles, which are stationary and movable, these latter running via oblong slots in the upper and lower “L” profiles; the entire assembly is moved by gas springs actuated by actuators, which results in a seat that is noiseless when adjusted and used, which requires no effort on the part of the user, is easy and convenient to use and also to assemble, and which has no rebound effect and is rigid and robust.
US09055812B2

Modular laboratory workbenches and work surface accessories are provided. Modular laboratory workbenches may include a spine structure including multiple modules with core passageways for routing utilities. At least one spine structure module may include circuit breakers behind a panel for local electrical power control. The spine structure may include a top with angled faces that provide power outlets, gas terminals, and other utilities. Between angled faces, an accessory support structure may be provided that supports a backsplash in a center channel and provides accessory slots on both sides of the center channel to receive and support interchangeable accessories including monitor arms, tablet arms, gas turrets, supplemental lights, etc. Cantilever brackets of various heights may attach to the spine structure and support work surfaces that are translatable to provide access to the utilities provided on the angled faces of the spine structure.
US09055809B1

An oral hygiene tool has a tongue scraper with an elongate scraper body having an elongate upper edge forming a scraping surface for the tongue, and an elongate connector body connected to the elongate scraper body. There oral hygiene tool also has a toothbrush with an elongate toothbrush body and a plurality of brushes. The elongate connector body of the tongue scraper is telescopingly engaged with the elongate toothbrush body of the toothbrush, so that the tongue scraper can move between a collapsed configuration and an extended configuration relative to the toothbrush.
US09055801B1

A nail coating removal wrap and retainer for securing a solvent pad to the digit of a user of a durable nail coating so that a solvent held by the pad is retained in contact with the nail coating to be removed. The nail coating removal wrap and retainer includes a wrap strip to which the solvent pad is bonded in a method impervious to the solvent held by the solvent pad. The wrap strip is selected or treated so that the wrap coheres to itself when wrapped around a digit of the user to releasably secure the wrap to the digit of the user while the solvent works to loosen the nail coating.
US09055800B2

A hair accessory for receiving and retaining a bundle of hair, a method of making such a hair accessory, and methods of styling hair and instructing others to style hair using such a hair accessory are provided. The hair accessory comprises a thin, resilient, continuously formed, ductile metallic member. The continuously formed ductile metallic member is covered by at least one thin sheet-like backing member. The ductile metallic member and the one or more backing members form an opening for receiving and retaining a bundle of hair.
US09055793B2

The present invention includes a method of manufacturing a shotgun cartridge for use with jewelry, wherein the method includes cutting off a portion of the brass head of a shotgun cartridge with a lathe. The portion of the brass head of the cartridge has a primer extending from a back side of that portion of the brass head of the cartridge. The primer is cut from the back side of that portion with a high speed drill having a cutting blade positioned thereon. The back side of that portion is then filed to create a smooth surface that may be secured to a mounting surface of a jewelry setting.
US09055791B2

A wearable device is provided with a wearable device structure. The wearable device has a first end and a second end, each with a plurality of magnets. The first and second ends are coupled by overlapping at least a portion of the first end magnets to at least a portion of the second end magnets. The magnets operate and the magnets operate at a selectable strength of from N30 to N52. ID circuitry is provided at a surface or an interior of the wearable device.
US09055790B2

A slide fastener having a waterproof structure, and having a pair of left and right fastener stringers including a pair of left and right waterproof fastener tapes and a pair of left and right fastener element rows having a plurality of fastener elements along the side ends of the fastener tapes opposite to each other; a slider for engaging and disengaging the left and right fastener elements with and from each other; and a bottom stopper which is formed over the left and right fastener tapes at lower ends of the fastener elements. The bottom stopper covers a first fastener element near the lowest end except an upper portion of its engaging head and a lower portion of the base of the second fastener element adjacent upward to the first fastener element.
US09055779B2

A bicycle shoe includes a sole, a shoe upper portion, and a fixing strap. The shoe upper portion is coupled to the sole to form a foot receiving space. The shoe upper portion includes first and second attachment sections. The fixing strap has a proximal end attached to a part of the shoe upper portion. The fixing strap includes third and fourth attachment sections. The shoe upper portion and the fixing strap selectively maintain one of a first state in which the third attachment section of the fixing strap is releasably attached to the first attachment section of the shoe upper portion and a second state in which the fourth attachment section of the fixing strap is releasably attached to the second attachment section of the shoe upper portion. The foot receiving space is larger in the second state than in the first state.
US09055772B2

A retrievable flash suit designed to protect the wearer from injury due to explosion and flame, and to allow retrieval of the wearer by others in case of unconsciousness of the wearer. The device consists of a suit and a hood. The suit consists of an outer layer of flame resistant material and an inner layer, also of flame resistant material. Sewn to the inside of the suit is a one piece harness. The detached hood consists of a three layer hood of flame resistant material with a neck drape of one layer of flame resistant material and a protected face opening of two layers of flame resistant material.
US09055770B2

The present invention relates to a mouthpiece device of an electronic cigarette, including an atomizing device for vaporizing tobacco liquid into aerosol and a liquid reservoir for storing tobacco liquid in an inhaling shell. The atomizing device includes an atomizing cup with an atomizing chamber, and an atomizer held in the atomizing chamber. The atomizing cup is molded by an integrated process. The mouthpiece device further includes a cap at an end of the liquid reservoir, and an aerosol passage therein: The cap defines a stepped slot for filtering tobacco particles in aerosol. The stepped slot is communicated with the aerosol passage. The present invention mainly solves such problems of the existing mouthpiece device as complicated manufacturing, high cost, bad heat insulation, and failing to filter tobacco particles; and obtains a mouthpiece device with simple manufacturing, lower cost, good heat insulation and better effectiveness of filtering tobacco particles.
US09055769B2

The present invention is a cigar cutter, which includes a housing having a hole through two corresponding sides and a first knife covering a part of the hole; a pressing portion movably embedded at one end of the housing and having a first magnetic element on one side thereof; and a knife holder movably embedded at one side of the housing and having a second magnetic element and a second knife. When the knife holder is displaced toward the housing, the first and second magnetic elements are connected together by magnetic attraction, and the first and second knives jointly cover the hole. When the pressing portion is displaced toward the housing, the first magnetic element is disconnected from the second magnetic element, and the knife holder is pushed and displaced by a spring to prevent the second knife from covering the hole that is not covered by the first knife.
US09055766B2

Broccoli heads are placed individually, with the stem down or laying horizontal, in a receiving cup in a loading position. A gripping mechanism engages the stem portion to secure the head in place. A positioning and cutting assembly adjusts the position of the receiving cup to a cutting position with the head down and stem up and rotates the receiving cup. The assembly includes a cutting mechanism having a blade that engages the rotating head to cut the florets. The blade cuts off the florets which fall to a first location where they are collected in a first collecting bin or by a first collection conveyor. The assembly next adjusts the receiving cup to a releasing position, whereupon the clamping mechanism disengages to release the stem, which falls to a second location where it is collected on a second collecting conveyor or in a second collecting bin. The assembly then returns the receiving cup to the loading position.
US09055765B2

The present invention provides dietary compositions for mammalian consumption. In particular, the present invention provides compositions comprising pectin, a component comprising electrolytes, thickening agents, a sweetening agent, and water, and methods for making such compositions. In some embodiments, the dietary compositions are used for preventing and/or treating malabsorption dysfunction and associated disorders (e.g., short bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease). In some embodiments, the dietary compositions are used for preventing and/or treating colonic disorders (e.g., ulcerative colitis). The dietary compositions further find use in subjects with diarrhea, regardless of cause, subject suffering from gastric dumping syndrome, and obese patients or patients seeking to lose weight, as the composition delays gastric emptying (e.g., creating feeling of early satiety). In some embodiments, the dietary composition is a prebiotic food supplement.
US09055762B2

A system for preparing a nutritional liquid for ingestion by a neonate is disclosed. The system includes a receptacle for sterilizing water for use in warming the nutritional liquid. A sterilizer having an ultraviolet (UV) light source is engaged with the receptacle, and a fluid pump is provided to pump sterilized water from the receptacle and into a sleeve compartment of a warming bag. The sleeve compartment surrounds an interior pocket that is dimensioned to receive a container that is filled with the nutritional liquid. The system also includes a heater/vibrator having a reservoir and a heating element. The reservoir is dimensioned to receive the warming bag and liquid-filled container. When the heating element is activated, heat is conducted from the heating element to the reservoir, from the reservoir to the water, and from the water to the nutritional liquid in the liquid-filled container.
US09055757B2

Methods of making a high gel strength, water-dispersible, stabilizing colloidal microcrystalline cellulose composition are disclosed. This stabilizer composition is useful in many food and non-food applications.
US09055746B2

Disclosed are methods of enhancing plant growth, comprising treating plant seed or the plant that germinates from the seed with an effective amount of at least one chitooligosaccharide, wherein upon harvesting the plant exhibits at least one of increased plant yield measured in terms of bushels/acre, increased root number, increased root length, increased root mass, increased root volume and increased leaf area, compared to untreated plants or plants harvested from untreated seed.
US09055745B2

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to pesticides, insecticides, insect repellant, insect anti-feeding, cleaning, glue dissolving and anti-irritation and wound healing compositions for humans and animals and, more particularly, to such compositions which are effective in killing, removing and/or repelling a wide range of endoparasites, ectoparasites and insects while also being non-toxic to humans, animals, and the environment. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed to an aqueous composition including a mixture of at least one ethanolamide and at least one esterified fatty acid. Another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed to an aqueous composition including at least one esterified fatty acid in water and at least one emulsifier. The aqueous compositions may be used as a cleaning composition, insecticide, insect repellant, glue solvent or to relieve irritation from and/or promote healing of insect bites, skin abrasions superficial burns and wounds.
US09055739B2

A composition for the cryopreservation of cells according to the present invention at least comprises sericin and one or more components selected from the group consisting of amino acids and saccharides. Further, a method for the cryopreservation of cells according to the present invention comprises the steps of placing target cells in the abovementioned composition for the cryopreservation of cells and cryopreserving them. According to the composition for the cryopreservation of cells of the present invention, cells can be cryopreserved over a long period of time without the use of serum and components derived from serum.
US09055736B1

A bait and hook arrangement is coupled with a mechanism that alerts a fisherman when his or her bait article is no longer attached to the hook. When the bait is off the hook, (empty hook), the mechanism is triggered.
US09055734B1

Device for conveyor belt livestock loading with pre-loader having conveyor belt, main conveyor, comprising a lift section, top section, and also having an auto-loader section.
US09055732B1

An assembly of a reservoir with a solid sole and an orthotic pad to provide a relatively simple, light weight portable system to allow equine hoof and leg cooling together with proper hoof support. The assembly and method is useful for preventive treatment for performance stress and lameness, including laminitis.
US09055718B2

A deep root watering unit is described herein that includes an elongated hollow sleeve member and a grate-retaining housing mounted at an upper end of the sleeve member. A cap configured as a grate can be attached to the top portion of the housing. The deep root watering unit is advantageously configured to facilitate insertion and removal of the cap, irrigation adjacent to the housing, and/or distribution of fluid to adjacent irrigation devices.
US09055713B2

A drive system includes a first transmission, a second transmission and at least one flexible driving member. The first transmission is operably coupled to a first set of wheels to provide drive power to the first set of wheels responsive to engagement of the first transmission. The second transmission is operably coupled to a second set of wheels to provide drive power to the second set of wheels responsive to engagement of the second transmission. The at least one flexible driving member is operably coupled to a remote actuator and a drive shaft of the walk-behind outdoor power equipment device. The at least one flexible member selectively engages one of the first transmission or the second transmission to switch a walk-behind outdoor power equipment device between all wheel drive operation and another drive mode via the remote actuator.
US09060459B2

A printed wiring board includes multiple conductive layers having conductive circuits, multiple resin insulation layers having openings and including the uppermost resin insulation layer positioned as the outermost layer of the resin insulation layers, multiple via conductors formed in the openings, respectively, and connecting the conductive circuits in the conductive layers, and multiple component-loading pads formed of a copper foil and positioned to load an electronic component. The resin insulation layers and the conductive layers are alternately laminated, and the component-loading pads are formed on the uppermost resin insulation layer.
US09060454B2

The invention relates to a printed circuit board arrangement (20) having at least two printed circuit boards (11; 12′), which are located alongside one another on a common, electrically conductive base plate (13′), have two mutually opposite edges, forming an intermediate space (14), and are connected to one another, bridging the intermediate space (14) by means of electrical connections (21), in order to transmit extremely high frequencies. In the case of a printed circuit board arrangement such as this, RF-compatible electrical connections are made between the printed circuit boards in a simple and space-saving manner when the printed circuit boards are fitted on the base plate and without any further necessary additional tasks or reworking, in that the electrical connections are each made via at least one contact-making element (21), via which the printed circuit boards make detachable electrical contact with one another when mounted on the base plate (13′).
US09060436B2

A land grid array socket assembly comprises a plurality of cells, with each cell comprising an insulative body having a top surface, and contact conductor that has a first portion that extends from a board contact point up to and beyond the top surface to a contact bend, and a second portion that extends from the contact bend to terminate below the top surface and within the insulative body.
US09060435B2

A process for producing a plate glass for a display device having a thickness of at most 1.5 mm by a float process, wherein the plate glass comprises, as represented by mole percentage based on the following oxides, from 67 to 75% of SiO2, from 0 to 4% of Al2O3, from 7 to 15% of Na2O, from 1 to 9% of K2O, from 6 to 14% of MgO and from 0 to 1.5% of ZrO2, has a total content of SiO2 and Al2O3 of from 71 to 75%, has a total content Na2O+K2O of Na2O and K2O of from 12 to 20%, and has a content of CaO of less than 1% if contained.
US09060432B2

Provided are a flexible circuit board with excellent bendability and durability against hard conditions particularly in a repeated bend portion having a small curvature radius, and a method of producing the same. The flexible circuit board includes a resin layer and a wiring formed of a metal foil and is used with a bend portion provided at least one position of the wiring. The metal foil is made of a metal having a cubic crystal structure, and a cross section of the wiring cut in a thickness direction from a ridge line in the bend portion forms a principal orientation on any one of planes within a range of (20 1 0) to (1 20 0) in a rotation direction from (100) to (110) with [001] set as a zone axis. The wiring is formed so that the metal foil is made of a metal having a cubic crystal structure, and that the ridge line in the bend portion has an angle in a range of 2.9° to 87.1° relative to one of fundamental crystal axes <100> in a surface of the metal foil.
US09060428B2

A multi layer interconnecting substrate has at least two spaced apart metal layers with a conductive pad on each one of the metal layers. Two different types of insulating layers are placed between the metal layers. The placement is such that one of the two different types of insulating layers is placed between the conductive pads and the other type of insulating layer is placed between the two spaced apart metal layers.
US09060426B2

A securing mechanism includes a rail unit and a locking unit. The rail unit has a first rail structure, a guiding surface that is formed with a pin extension slot, and a first engaging structure. The locking unit has a fixing pin protruding into the pin extension slot, a second rail structure cooperating with the first rail structure to move the locking unit between an unlocked position, where the fixing pin is away from a fixing hole of the electronic device and where the first engaging structure is separated from the second engaging structure, and a locked position, where the fixing pin engages the fixing hole of the electronic device and where the second engaging structure engages the first engaging structure for fixing the electronic device to a mounting frame.
US09060415B2

A method for producing a substrate having a surface nanostructure, including a forming, on a substrate, a layer containing a block copolymer having a plurality of blocks bonded together, and subsequently heating this layer to cause phase separation of the layer; a decomposing at least a portion of the phase including at least one block of the plurality of blocks that constitute the block copolymer of this layer; and immersing the layer in a developing solution and selectively removing the phase containing the decomposed block(s), the developing solution containing, as the main component, an organic solvent having an SP value of 7.5 to 11.5 (cal/cm3)1/2 and a vapor pressure at 25° C. that is less than 2.1 kPa, or benzene which may be substituted with an alkyl group, an alkoxy group or a halogen atom.
US09060414B2

According to embodiments of the invention, a tape cartridge adapted to house solid state storage may be provided. The cartridge may include a cartridge housing. The cartridge may also include a reel located within the cartridge housing, wherein the reel includes one or more radial grooves adapted to hold one or more solid state storage elements. According to other embodiments, the cartridge may also include one or more solid state storage elements held within the reel, wherein each solid state storage element includes a first electrical connector.
US09060413B2

The installation posture adjustable leg body includes a foot fixed on a bottom surface of a case body, and a lever rotatably supported by the foot so as to selectively move to one of a sheltered state and an advanced state. The lever includes a lever main body inserted between the foot and an installation surface in the advanced state, and a rotating mechanism rotatably supporting the lever main body with respect to the foot. The lever main body includes a main body supporting surface of advanced state contacting the foot and a lever installation surface of advanced state contacting the installation surface, in the advanced state. A part of the lever installation surface of advanced state is located in a virtual pillar body using the main body supporting surface of advanced state as a bottom surface and extending perpendicular to the main body supporting surface of advanced state.
US09060410B2

Compensating for disturbances in light output by a light source includes sensing light output by a light source and generating a light-sense signal based thereon, detecting a disturbance in the light-sense signal, and generating an output signal to compensate for the disturbance. An LED is driven in accordance with the periodic output signal to thereby compensate for the periodic disturbance.
US09060408B2

Embodiments disclosed herein describe the use of a power supply to provide power to an LED load. The power supply provides a present output current to the LED, and receives a temperature signal representing the operating temperature of the LED. A target output current is determined, for instance based on the temperature signal. An output current rate of change is determined, and the power supply adjusts the output current to the LED at the determined rate of change until the output current is substantially equal to the target current.
US09060396B2

A circuit comprises a first switch, a second switch, a third switch, and a fourth switch. Each has a first end and a second end. The circuit also comprises a capacitive device having a first capacitive end and a second capacitive end, and a voltage source. A first node having a first voltage is coupled to the first fourth-switch end, to the first second-switch end, and to the first capacitive end. A second node having a second voltage is coupled to the voltage source, to the second fourth-switch end, and to the second third-switch end. A third node is coupled to the second second-switch end, and to the first first-switch end. The first switch and the second switch are controlled such that the first node and the voltage source selectively provide the second voltage.
US09060388B2

This invention discloses an electronic cigarette circuit, including an IC, an airflow sensor connected to the IC, a heating wire and a power supply VDD connected to the IC and the heat wire, the electronic cigarette circuit further including a switch device, the switch device being connected with the heating wire and the power supply VDD to form a circuit loop. The electronic cigarette circuit of the present invention adopts a switch device placed outside the IC, and the IC, the heating wire and the power supply form the circuit loop, so as to achieve high power output to the heating wire, and a large amount of smoke, with a simple circuit structure for ease mass production.
US09060382B2

A wireless communication system, which includes at least one base station module configured to implement a media access controller and a physical layer, and includes at least one remote radio head module configured to prepare an analog signal or a digital data signal for transmission and receipt over a link in accordance with dedicated interface specifications, and also includes at least one outdoor signal conversion module configured to perform a high rate digital-to-analog conversion and a high rate analog-to-digital conversion in accordance with the dedicated interface specifications, and further includes at least two millimeter wave antenna assemblies, where each antenna assembly is configured to transmit and receive the analog signal over a wireless link in accordance with the dedicated interface specifications.
US09060375B2

It is presented methods and apparatuses for uplink resource utilization in a telecommunication system. More particularly, embodiments disclosed herein relate to a method performed in a user equipment (4), said user equipment (4) having data (Di) ready to transmit, the data pertaining to a traffic class (i). The method comprises establishing a connection with a radio network node (2) and receiving threshold parameter sets (Thi) from the radio network node (2). Each threshold parameter set (Thi) comprising at least a minimum size limit (Si) associated with respective traffic class (i). The threshold parameter sets (Thi) are used to determine if the amount of data that the user equipment (4) has ready to transmit is large enough to be transmitted or if it has been waiting long enough to be transmitted. If it is the UE (4) transmits the data to the radio network node (2). There are also presented a corresponding method performed in the network node (2) and a user equipment (4) and a network node (2) for performing the methods.
US09060368B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include devices, systems and/or methods of simultaneously communicating with a group of wireless communication devices. For example, a wireless communication unit may assign a plurality of wireless communication devices to at least one Space-Division Multiple Access (SDMA) group based on traffic-specification (TSPEC) information corresponding to the plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein the wireless communication unit is to simultaneously transmit a plurality of different wireless communication transmissions to the plurality of wireless communication devices of the group, respectively. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09060365B2

Techniques for efficiently decoding data at a receiver are disclosed. In one aspect, total available decoding time of the receiver is initially allocated to a plurality of code blocks of a plurality of transport blocks to obtain initial allocated decoding times for the plurality of code blocks. The initial allocated decoding time for each code block may be given by a particular number of decoding iterations to perform for that code block. One or more code blocks of one or more transport blocks are decoded. After decoding the one or more code blocks, a remaining available decoding time is determined and reallocated to undecoded code blocks of the plurality of transport blocks to obtain updated allocated decoding times for the undecoded code blocks. The remaining available decoding time may be reallocated across code blocks of a transport block, across transport blocks, across carriers, across radio access technologies, or a combination thereof.
US09060360B2

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and device for transmitting uplink control information when a plurality of cells are configured in a wireless communication system, the method comprising the steps of: generating a UCI; and determining a PUCCH resource for transmitting the UCI. If the reception response information and channel state information are triggered in the same subframe, only a first UCI generated from the reception response information is transmitted through a first PUCCH. If the reception response information and scheduling request information are triggered in the same subframe, a second UCI generated by jointly coding the reception response information and the scheduling request information is transmitted through a second PUCCH. The resource used for a reference signal for demodulating the first or second PUCCH is allocated in consideration of the UCI transmitted on PUCCH.
US09060357B2

A method and an apparatus for transmitting uplink/downlink data on Time Division Duplexing (TDD) carriers are provided. The method includes transmitting to a base station in a Primary Cell (PCell) and a Secondary Cell (SCell), a TDD Uplink-Downlink (UL-DL) configuration of the PCell having a DL subframe super-set or UL subset that are common in the SCell and the PCell and a TDD UL-DL configuration differing from each other, receiving data at a first subframe in the SCell, and transmitting, when a UL subframe set of the SCell is a subset of a UL subframe of the PCell, a feedback corresponding to the data at a subframe predefined in association with the first subframe in the PCell according to the TDD UL-DL configuration of the SCell. The method supports both the self-scheduling and cross-carrier scheduling of the UE using carriers of different TDD configurations.
US09060355B2

A method of handling messages at a user equipment received from a communications network during a procedure, the method implemented at the user equipment comprising: receiving a first message from the network while the user equipment is in a first operating state; processing the first message and entering a second operating state in response to receiving the first message; receiving a second message from the network while the user equipment is in the second operating state; detecting that the second message is a duplicate of the first message; and checking for an indication that the second message is a potential duplicate of the first message. If the indication is not present, the method further comprises transmitting a failure notification to the network. If the indication is present, the method further comprises discarding the second message and not transmitting a failure notification to the network to prevent failure of the procedure.
US09060345B2

An architecture is provided that can facilitate and/or transmit notifications based upon device presence techniques in connection with a wireless communications network. For example, when certain mobile devices register with a particular network entity (e.g., a femtocell) that services a particular target location (e.g., place of residence), then such registration can be leveraged to indicate presence at the target location. Accordingly, notifications can be delivered to custodian devices that indicate the presence information if certain predetermined conditions or criteria are satisfied.
US09060343B2

A method of network-based positioning using sounding reference signal (SRS) is proposed. An eNodeB configures a number of parameters of a periodic SRS transmission for a user equipment (UE). The eNodeB then transmits SRS configuration data for SRS measurements performed by a location measurement unit (LMU). The SRS configuration data includes cell-specific SRS bandwidth configuration and UE-specific SRS bandwidth configuration. The SRS configuration data may further include a number of antenna ports for SRS transmission, SRS frequency hopping bandwidth configuration, information on whether SRS sequence-group hopping is enabled, and ΔSS when SRS sequence hopping is enabled. Upon receiving the SRS configuration data, the LMU is able to perform timing measurements over the received SRS signals from the UE. In one embodiment, the LMU detects SRS dropping to avoid performance degradation of the network-based positioning.
US09060340B2

A communication apparatus including a physical information recognizing module, an MAC information recognizing module, a coordinating module, and a re-configurable transmitting/receiving module is provided. The physical information recognizing module recognizes a set of physical information relative to at least one communication network. The MAC information recognizing module recognizes a set of MAC information relative to the at least one communication network. The coordinating module generates a set of control signals selectively based on the set of physical information and the set of MAC information. The re-configurable transmitting/receiving module is configured according to the set of control signals and is used for transmitting/receiving data via the at least one communication network.
US09060338B2

A single receive chain of a MIMO receiver is activated during a low power listen mode. Upon detecting a legacy short training field (L-STF) in a received packet, the single receive chain performs a first frequency estimation, and activates one or more additional receive chains of the MIMO receiver. The MIMO receiver uses maximal ratio combining (MRC) to receive the signal using the first receive chain and the one or more additional activated receive chains, wherein the MRC is based, at least in part, on the first frequency estimation. The MIMO receiver may determine whether the received packet is a high throughput/very high throughput (HT/VHT) packet, and if not, deactivate the one or more additional receive chains. In one alternative, the additional receive chains are not activated until determining that a HT/VHT packet has been received.
US09060329B2

Techniques in a wireless device for facilitating communication for different types of wireless networks are described. The device displays a list of identifiers of wireless networks, and receives an input request for selecting one of the wireless networks for communication. When the selected wireless network is of a first type, the device attempts to establish a connection with the selected wireless network. When the selected wireless network is of a second type, the device launches or displays an input prompt to launch an application having a stored association with a device type of the selected wireless network.
US09060328B2

A method for acquiring and applying offload area information for offloading a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) to a small cell in a different frequency layer is disclosed. The WTRU may enter a region or a macro cell and receive offload area information of the region in which a small cell in the vicinity of the macro cell is located. The offload information may be received in a system information block (SIB), dedicated signaling, or any other radio signal. The WTRU may perform measurements to determine the location of the WTRU and to determine whether it has entered any offload areas. Upon a determination that the offload area information is no longer valid, the WTRU may delete the offload area information.
US09060324B1

A wireless communication device comprises a wireless communication transceiver and a processing system. The wireless communication transceiver is configured to detect first and second frequencies transmitted from a wireless access node and to receive first and second threshold values transmitted from the wireless access node. The processing system is configured to determine a distance between the wireless communication device and the wireless access node, compare the distance to the first threshold value, and if the distance falls below the first threshold value, select the first frequency. The processing system is further configured to compare the distance to the second threshold value, and if the distance exceeds the second threshold value, select the second frequency. The wireless communication transceiver is configured to exchange wireless communications with the wireless access node using the selected frequency.
US09060323B2

Extending wired networks by aggregating multiple wireless links. Multiple wireless links are used to bridge wired networks, such as wired Ethernet networks. Each wireless link applies a hash function to the destination MAC address of presented traffic and uses the result of the hash function to determine if the traffic is passed by that wireless link or is dropped. For broadcast and multicast frames, the hash function is calculated on the source MAC address. Dynamic source MAC rewriting may be performed to prevent port flapping or out-of-order arrival of frames. Establishing one link as a master and communicating among links allows for load balancing and link failure detection.
US09060320B1

A computer-implemented network node selection method includes identifying a plurality of operable wireless network access points within communication range of a wireless device connected to a mobile computer; identifying which of the operable wireless network access points is arranged to trap a requesting device in a proxy; and affecting a manner in which prospective wireless network access points are presented to a user of the mobile computer based on the identifying of which of the operable wireless network access points is arranged to trap a requesting party in a proxy.
US09060307B2

A method for reporting uplink control information (UCI) on a user equipment (UE) is described. Multiple channel state information (CSI) reports are generated for multiple component carriers (CCs) that are scheduled to be transmitted in a subframe. A method of prioritization for the CSI reports is selected. A highest priority CSI report of the multiple CSI reports is determined using the selected method of prioritization. The highest priority CSI report is transmitted.
US09060301B2

Disclosed is a method of dynamically parsing MLPL, MSPL, HPLMN, EHPLMN, PLMN, ePRL and the like lists. Each of the parsed entries is used to create simulated network conditions (for example, MCC/MNC for 3GPP network, SID/Sector ID for 3GPP2 networks) for verifying the device behavior through automation.
US09060298B2

A system and method for protecting a received data stream. Active receivers and standby receivers are provided, each adaptable to receive a data stream on a traffic channel. Plural data processing units are operatively in communication with the receivers. At least one of the plural DPUs provides a switching signal to the receivers to switch the state of the active receiver to standby and the state of the standby receiver to active as a function of a quality measurement of the received data stream via the traffic channel.
US09060292B2

An embodiment user equipment has a list of predictive data that a user may request, and programming to receive prefetched data based on the list of predictive data at a reduced cost, wherein the reduced cost is lower than a network cost of downloading the data, and to store the prefetched data within the UE for future consumption. An embodiment base station has a list of predictive data a UE may request, a high priority queue for data requested by the UE, and a low priority queue with predictive data corresponding to the list of predictive data. The base station further includes programing to send the requested data and to send the predictive data.
US09060287B2

A measuring device for performing measurements of a measurement signal emitted by a communication network using a plurality of resource blocks includes a digital processor with a power detector for determining a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) indicative of a received power of user data within a number of resource blocks in the measurement signal and a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) indicative of a received power of reference signals within a number of resource blocks in the measurement signal. The measuring device further includes a resource determiner for determining occupied and unoccupied resource blocks based on the determined RSRP and the RSSI. The resource blocks each correspond to a specific time and frequency range and each include a number of resource elements which each correspond to a specific time and frequency range.
US09060282B2

Concepts and technologies are described herein for the classification of indoor and outdoor telecommunications events that occur within mobile telecommunications networks. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a method for classifying telecommunications events can include receiving a data set that includes geo-location data and radio signal measurement data for a plurality of telecommunications events that have occurred within a mobile telecommunications network. The method can also include providing the data set as input to a classification model. The method can also include classifying the data set into an indoor results subset and an outdoor results subset using the classification model. The indoor results subset can include a first telecommunications event that is determined by the classification model to have occurred in an indoor location. The outdoor results subset can include a second telecommunications event that is determined by the classification model to have occurred in an outdoor location.
US09060277B2

A Wireless Access Point (WAP) including a Local Area Network (LAN) interface and a first wireless module is provided. The LAN interface is configured to provide access to the Internet. The first wireless module is configured to generate a plurality of security parameters associated with a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, use the WLAN technology to perform an authentication procedure with a mobile communication device according to the security parameters, and after completing the authentication procedure, provide a Hotspot service of the WLAN technology to the mobile communication device via the LAN interface, wherein the security parameters are transmitted, prior to the authentication procedure, to the mobile communication device via an encrypted connection which is established using a cellular network technology.
US09060276B1

Systems and methods for providing voice services and/or data services to a portable electronic device. The portable electronic device has an application in its memory that compares an available network code to a list of blocked network codes. If the available network code is on the list of blocked network codes, the application may send a notification that service is not available or may see if a different network code is on the list of blocked network codes. If the available network code is not on the list of blocked network codes, voice and/or data services may be provided to the portable electronic device by the telecommunications service provider associated with the available network code.
US09060271B2

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for secure Short Message Service (SMS) communications. According to an embodiment, a method of providing secure Short Message Service (SMS) communications comprises requesting that SMS data to be sent from a client device to a remote location be encrypted. The method also comprises encrypting the SMS data by processing the SMS data with a Message Authentication Code (MAC) and a timestamp and/or counter along with second factor authentication information. The method further comprises sending the encrypted SMS data to the remote location by a secure SMS application via a regular SMS channel of the client device.
US09060267B2

In one embodiment, a secure communication is initiated between two devices by generating a pairing message from a predetermined static identification on the first device, transmitting the pairing message to the second device, generating a pairing identification from the static identification, and initiating a secure communication between the first and second device if the pairing message corresponds with the pairing identification.
US09060266B2

An apparatus and method are provided for providing medical data based on a handover of a medical sensor. The apparatus includes a medical data client that requests and receives the medical data from the medical sensor; a security module that manages access to the medical data; a data management unit that stores the received medical data; and an event handler that receives an abnormal condition notification from the medical sensor and sends a command to release access to the medical data, based on the abnormal condition notification.
US09060261B2

The present invention relates to a communication apparatus that is capable of performing a setting process to share a communication parameter with a communication partner apparatus in multiple setting modes and that is capable of automatically determining the setting mode in which the setting process is performed. The communication apparatus confirms the type of a user interface of the communication partner apparatus and determines the setting mode of the setting process to share the communication parameter with the communication partner apparatus on the basis of the confirmed type of the user interface of the communication partner apparatus and the type of a user interface of the communication apparatus to share the communication parameter with the communication partner apparatus.
US09060254B2

A messaging platform includes a text messaging subsystem that includes a suite of enhancements that facilitate implementation of a multi-channel communications strategy with high level and fine-grained control over outbound message creation or inbound message handling.
US09060246B1

The communication device comprising a voice communication implementer, a first software program implementer, a second software program implementer, an area dependent shortcut icon modification implementer, and a weather dependent shortcut icon modification implementer.
US09060245B2

An embodiment of a communication system includes a client device adapted to receive a location object that includes tracer information, and to perform one or more location object-based actions using the location object. The client device stores the tracer information and location object usage information, which describes the one or more location object-based actions that have been performed using the location object. The client device also sends the stored information to a server. The system also includes the server, which is adapted to receive the location object usage information and the tracer information reported by the client device. In an embodiment, the system also includes a service provider adapted to initiate a billing event, which may include generation and transmission of a bill to a sponsor entity based on an evaluation of the location object usage information and the tracer information reported by the client device.
US09060243B2

A first radio receives, via a land mobile radio (LMR) radio frequency transceiver, a first transmission of an LMR call from a source transmitting radio transmitted on a first LMR frequency for re-transmission to one or more destination radios. The first radio measures a first measured signal level of the first transmission and receives, via a first short-range RF transceiver from a second radio, a second measured signal level of the first transmission as measured by the second radio. The first radio compares the first measured signal level and the second measured signal level and determines, based on the comparing, how the LMR call should be routed from the source transmitting radio to the one or more destination radios via the first and second radios. The first radio then transmits, via the first short-range RF transceiver, a corresponding instruction indicating a result of the determining to the second radio.
US09060242B2

Some demonstrative embodiments include a wireless connector and devices and/or systems utilizing one or more wireless connectors. For example, a device may include a wireless connector to be coupled to another device for communicating data with the other device, the wireless connector including a wireless communication unit to communicate the data over a wireless communication link, for example, a short-range wireless communication link, e.g. at a multi-gigabit-per second (MGbs) rate.
US09060241B2

A method for presenting digital items is provided. The method is executed by a first PCD and includes the following steps. Detect the existence of one or more second PCDs by the first PCD. Update the state of each said second PCD according to the detection. Rank the order of the one or more second PCDs according to the state, wherein the order of the second PCDs whose state is present is higher than the order of the second PCDs whose state is absent. Present one or more digital items according to the order of the one or more second PCDs.
US09060239B1

The present disclosure relates to cloud based mobile device management (MDM) systems and methods to use the “cloud” to pervasively manage mobile devices. The cloud based MDM systems and methods provide an ability to manage mobile devices with or without MDM clients while no requiring an MDM appliance or service at the enterprise. This provides a “no hardware, no software” deployment. In an exemplary embodiment, a client-less implementation leverages the ActiveSync protocol proxied through distributed cloud nodes to enforce mobile policies. In another exemplary embodiment, a client-based implementation uses a platform specific application and associated application programming interfaces (API) to connect managed mobile devices and provide MDM features through the cloud. Advantageously, the cloud based MDM systems and methods provide reliability and resiliency, elasticity, lower cost, mobility, integration of management and security, and agility over conventional MDM based solutions.
US09060235B2

A graphical interface is provided to select parameters for fitting a hearing device. The graphical interface provides a mechanism to visually represent and control values of these parameters.
US09060226B2

A speaker has an acoustic diaphragm, and an actuator that is driven based on a first acoustic signal. The actuator has a transmission portion that is directly or indirectly attached to the acoustic diaphragm and transmits a displacement output of the actuator to the acoustic diaphragm. The speaker also has a sounding body that is driven based on a second acoustic signal that is identical to or different from the first acoustic signal.
US09060224B1

A voice controlled assistant has a housing to hold one or more microphones, one or more speakers, and various computing components. The housing has an elongated cylindrical body extending along a center axis between a base end and a top end. The microphone(s) are mounted in the top end and the speaker(s) are mounted proximal to the base end. The microphone(s) and speaker(s) are coaxially aligned along the center axis. The speaker(s) are oriented to output sound directionally toward the base end and opposite to the microphone(s) in the top end. The sound may then be redirected in a radial outward direction from the center axis at the base end so that the sound is output symmetric to, and equidistance from, the microphone(s).
US09060221B1

A safety helmet having a protective shell head covering and a front edge, a rear edge, and first and second lateral edges. A speaker assembly has at least one speaker mounted onto the helmet and aimed outwardly therefrom. The speaker assembly has means to receive audio signals from a portable sound signal-producing device. The at least one speaker mounted onto the helmet and aimed outwardly therefrom emanates sound directed approximately perpendicularly from the protective shell head covering without blocking surrounding sound, and without affecting safety aspects of the helmet.
US09060206B2

Supplementary digital content is provided to be played with primary digital content on a media device, such as a television, handheld device, smart phone, computer, and so forth. The primary digital content is sampled, and the time of the sample is noted. The primary digital content is identified, and the supplementary digital content is selected and transmitted, with an indication of timing for play of the supplementary digital content based upon the sample time. Synchronization of the primary and supplementary digital content playback is based upon reference to the sample time.
US09060202B2

A controller is disclosed that controls an entertainment system which includes a video display unit that is separate from the controller. The controller includes a network interface, a display device, and a processing device. The network interface communicates with the video display unit via at least one data network. The processing device communicates a first command over the at least one data network to control a display of first content on the video display unit, and controls a display of second content on the display device of the controller. The second content is displayed concurrently with the first content. Related entertainment systems are disclosed.
US09060199B2

A broadcast receiving device and a method for receiving a broadcast thereof are provided. The broadcast receiving device includes a channel receiving unit which receives a channel broadcasting signal, generates a first parallel signal from the received channel broadcasting signal, converts the parallel signal into a serial signal, and outputs the serial signal; and a main body unit which receives the serial signal output from the channel receiving unit, reconverts the received serial signal into a second parallel signal, processes the second parallel signal, and outputs a video signal, an audio signal, and an additional data signal extracted from the processed second parallel signal. Since the channel receiving unit is provided as a separate unit from the main body unit, the thickness of the broadcast receiving device can be further reduced.
US09060193B2

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include an apparatus, method, and computer program product for providing a video source with a secondary audio source. For example, in one embodiment, a content provider receives a broadcast signal that includes a video component and an audio component from a content producer. The content provider receives a second audio component that provides audio corresponding to the video component of the broadcast signal. The second audio component is received from a second source, such as, but not limited to, a radio broadcast and/or an internet source. The content producer transmits the video component and the second audio component to a consumer device.
US09060191B2

Technologies are generally described for Quality of Experience (QoE) computation in a wireless content transmission environment. Portions of audio and/or video content transmitted to user devices may be selected by a service provider/content provider/user device and transmitted back from the user device for real-time QoE computation. Transmission quality may be adjusted based on the real-time QoE computations. Alternatively, selected portions of the content may be stored for subsequent computation and improvement. Selected portions of the data may be frames marked as such and reference frames may be selected based on the marked frames.
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