US09317366B2

A buffer integrated circuit device. The device comprising an output driver formed on the substrate member, the output driver having at least a command bus and an address bus. The device has a protocol and parity checking block (“Block”). The device has a table configured in the block. The table is programmable with a plurality of timing parameters. The device has a memory state block coupled to the table and a command history table coupled to the table to process protocol information for all commands that pass through the Block. The buffer integrated circuit device utilizes the protocol checking functionality to prevent failure propagation and enables data protection even in the case of host memory controller failure or system-level failure of any signal or signals on the command, control and address bus from the host memory controller to the buffer integrated device.
US09317363B2

Embodiments of the disclosure can include a method, system, and computer program product for using a secure delete operation within one or more storage devices using a parity-based storage scheme. The method can include receiving the location of an application block that includes one or more data blocks and one or more parity blocks stored within the one or more storage devices using the parity-based storage scheme. The method can also include determining a number of parity blocks to delete, wherein the number of parity blocks to delete is less than the total number of parity blocks. The method can also include performing a secure delete operation on the determined number of parity blocks. The method can also include performing a secure delete operation on the one or more data blocks.
US09317355B2

Systems, methods, and computer program products to perform an operation comprising, responsive to an occurrence of an error on a computing system, selecting, based on one or more policy attributes, a first systems management application from a plurality of systems management applications registered to manage the computing system, generating an event notification including an identifier for the first systems management application, and transmitting the event notification to the first systems management application for reporting to a remote service.
US09317344B2

A notification service receives messages including various data from application services, and provides notifications including that data to the appropriate computing devices. Each computing device includes a notification system that receives notifications from the notification service and provides those notifications to the appropriate applications on the computing device. If an application is not allowed to run on a computing device, the notification system on the computing device provides an indication to the notification service to block notifications for the application on the computing device. The notification service ceases providing notifications to a computing device targeting applications for which notifications are blocked on the computing device until an indication is received from the computing device to unblock notifications for the application.
US09317338B2

An application manager receives or defines a service specification for a first application that defines a set of required computing resources that are necessary to run each application component of the first application. A resource supply manager in communication with the application manager manages a plurality of computing resources in a shared computing environment. The application manager is operable to request the set of required computing resources from the computing resource supply manager, and wherein the resource supply manager determines the availability of the required computing resources within the shared computing environment according to resource allocation policies and allocates computing resources to the application manager, and wherein the application manager is operable manage allocation of the computing resources to the first application, the application manager operable to create and manage deployment of instances of each application component of the first application on the allocated computing resources.
US09317331B1

In an embodiment, a method for interactively varying scheduling of a multi-threaded application executing on a symmetric multi-core processor provides an interface in a co-simulation design environment. The interface is associated with a multi-threaded application executing on a target processor that includes symmetric processor cores. The method also sets a scheduling attribute of the multi-threaded application using the interface. The setting occurs when the multi-threaded application is executing. The method further receives data associated with the executing of the multi-threaded application in the co-simulation design environment when the multi-threaded application is executing subsequent to the setting of the scheduling attribute.
US09317320B2

Disclosed herein are a server duplication system and method and a storage medium storing a server duplication computer program. The server duplication system includes a primary server including a hypervisor including a hypervisor-based fault tolerance module and a first file system virtual machine (FS VM), and a first standby server including a hypervisor including a hypervisor-based fault tolerance module that exchanges data with a fault tolerance module provided on the hypervisor of the primary server and duplicates the primary server. The first FS VM provides a first file system that is shared by a user virtual machine (USER VM), and a buffer cache that is used in conjunction with the first file system is provided on virtual memory. The first FS VM is duplicated into the standby server using the hypervisor-based fault tolerance module of the primary server and the hypervisor-based fault tolerance module of the standby server.
US09317316B2

The disclosure provides a key transmission method and device of a virtual machine under full disk encryption during pre-boot. The method includes: pre-booting the virtual machine, where the virtual machine is in a full disk encryption state; during the pre-boot, establishing, by the virtual machine, a transmission channel with a cloud platform, where the cloud platform is configured to provide a key; requesting, by the virtual machine, the key from the cloud platform through the transmission channel, and receiving the key sent by the cloud platform; and decrypting, by the virtual machine, an operation system by using the key, and booting the operation system. In embodiments of the present disclosure, key transmission may be implemented during a pre-boot phase of the virtual machine, so as to boot the virtual machine.
US09317315B2

In a technique for creating a secure snapshot of a virtual machine, a guest operating system of the virtual machine is caused to enter a locked state prior to the snapshot of the virtual machine being created. When the snapshot is subsequently used to restore the virtual machine, the guest operating system of the virtual machine is restored in a locked state and credentials are required to access the guest operating system.
US09317305B2

Data Brick is a state of the art solution to access the data through high speed data access mechanism that is exceptionally fast and is associated with low CPU consumption cost. The Data Brick stores relatively static reference data in the form of a programming language Load Module. The Load module contains the data can be launched into the application program memory and this data can be accessed very efficiently in a programming language program. Static application data that is accessed by multiple applications in a mainframe Batch environment is a prime candidate for the Data Brick.
US09317290B2

Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide parallel execution relationships to be included in a function call or other appropriate portion of a command or instruction in a sequential programming language. One example provides a token-based method of expressing parallel execution relationships. Each process that can be executed in parallel is given a separate token. Later processes that depend on earlier processes wait to receive the appropriate token before being executed. In another example, counters are used in place to tokens to determine when a process is completed. Each function is a number of individual functions or threads, where each thread performs the same operation on a different piece of data. A counter is used to track the number of threads that have been executed. When each thread in the function has been executed, a later function that relies on data generated by the earlier function may be executed.
US09317288B2

A microprocessor includes a plurality of processing cores each including a hardware instruction translator that translates instructions of x86 instruction set architecture (ISA) machine language programs and Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) ISA machine language programs into microinstructions defined by a microinstruction set of the microprocessor. The microinstructions are encoded in a distinct manner from the manner in which the instructions of the x86 and ARM instruction sets are defined. Each core includes an execution pipeline that executes the microinstructions to generate results defined by the x86 ISA and ARM ISA instructions. Each core uses and associated indicator to determine whether it will boot as an x86 ISA core or an ARM ISA core when reset. The indicators are configurable to indicate that at least one of the cores will boot as an x86 ISA core and at least one other of the cores will boot as an ARM ISA core.
US09317281B2

An information processing apparatus that executes a first program and a second program that cooperates with the first program to perform data processing includes a storage unit configured to store information after executing initialization processing based on the first program, a specification unit, a determination unit, an acquisition unit, an update unit, and a control unit configured to cause, when the information is stored in the storage unit at a restart time after the update unit updates the program, the first program to shift to an executable state without executing initialization processing and to cause, when the information is not stored in the storage unit, the first program to shift to the executable state after information to be associated with the updated program to be generated by the initialization processing is stored in the storage unit.
US09317278B1

A computer system is provided comprising a client computer, a management server computer, and a communications network. The client computer includes hardware and software for executing an application utilizing data, files and code downloaded from the management server computer. The management server computer includes the data, files and code required by the client computer for executing the application. The management server computer includes hardware and software for registering the client computer to receive electronic change notifications for any updates made to the data, files and code at the management server computer. The client computer includes hardware and software for updating data, files and code from the management server computer prior to further execution of the application with any outdated data, files or code once an electronic change notification has been received.
US09317277B2

A tire pressure sensor is installed on a tire rim which includes an assembly through hole. The tire pressure sensor includes a sensor body, a gas intake nozzle fixed on the tire rim and connected to the sensor body, and a gas nozzle assembly member to couple with the sensor body and the gas intake nozzle. The sensor body includes a gas nozzle assembly hole to couple with the gas intake nozzle, a tire pressure sensing module disposed in the sensor body for detecting a tire pressure, and an update connection port electrically connected to the tire pressure sensing module. Through the update connection port, the tire pressure sensing module receives an update firmware data for updating firmware stored therein in response to different applications.
US09317276B2

This invention relates to updating an operating system in a hypervisor comprising: determining a new version of a component of the operating system; installing the new component version; measuring an identifying characteristic of the component and making it available to an attestation system; notifying the attestation system that a component has been updated to a new version whereby, when the attestation system finds that the identifying characteristic of the new component does not match a pre-stored attestation value it is aware that a legitimate mis-match could have occurred. The installing of the new version of the component comprises: identifying an updater associated with new version of the component; measuring an identifying characteristic of the identified updater; loading and installing the new version of the component; and making both the identifying measurement of the updater and the new version of the component available to the attestation system.
US09317273B2

A processor obtains a plurality of commands executed in an installation of software on an information processing apparatus, and obtains information affected by execution of the plurality of commands in an operating environment of the information processing apparatus. The processor extracts, according to the affected information, a plurality of commands related to generation of a plurality of files or a plurality of processes that are present when the installation ends normally, and outputs the extracted commands.
US09317272B2

Disclosed are systems and methods for improving interactions with and between computers supported by or configured with application servers or platforms. The systems interact to identify and retrieve data across platforms, which data can be used to improve the quality of tracking data used in processing interactions between or among processors in such systems. The disclosed systems and methods provide for conversion tracking. That is, the disclosed systems and methods enable the tracking of user information, associated with the user and/or the user's device, upon a user performing a conversion action including, but not limited to, downloading an application, visiting a website or downloading other types of online content.
US09317267B2

A system and method of deploying software provides for comparing a current software topology of a deployment site to a software deployment topology of an application, wherein the software deployment topology is required to deploy the application. One or more mismatches between the current software topology and the software deployment topology may be identified.
US09317266B1

An apparatus of one embodiment translates computer code from a first programming language to a second programming language. The apparatus includes an interface, a memory, and a processor. The interface is operable to receive a compiler output that is associated with source code written in a first programming language. The memory is operable to store the compiler output. The processor is communicatively coupled to the interface and the memory and is operable to analyze the data structures within the compiler output, build an internal representation of the source code based on the compiler output, and create a source code template associated with a second programming language.
US09317263B2

Hardware compilation and/or translation with fault detection and roll back functionality are disclosed. Compilation and/or translation logic receives programs encoded in one language, and encodes the programs into a second language including instructions to support processor features not encoded into the original language encoding of the programs. In one embodiment, an execution unit executes instructions of the second language including an operation-check instruction to perform a first operation and record the first operation result for a comparison, and an operation-test instruction to perform a second operation and a fault detection operation by comparing the second operation result to the recorded first operation result. In some embodiments, an execution unit executes instructions of the second language including commit instructions to record execution checkpoint states of registers mapped to architectural registers, and roll-back instructions to restore the registers mapped to architectural registers to previously recorded execution checkpoint states.
US09317258B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to model validation for modeling tools and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for dynamic validation of models using constraint targets. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for dynamic validation of models using constraint targets can be provided. The method can include defining constraint targets on object validation in a model within a MDD tool to object instances affected by a change in another object in the model, detecting a change in an object instance in the model in the MDD tool, and validating only other object instances in the model that are affected by the detected change.
US09317257B2

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to folded views for a development environment. In aspects, a software development environment may display a code segment that includes references to other code segments or other data. A developer may select a reference and indicate that a folded view is to be shown for the data corresponding to the reference. In response, the software development environment may obtain the data corresponding to the folded view and display the data inline with the code segment.
US09317252B2

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for selecting numbers from multiple ranges are disclosed. One method includes receiving, information associated with a plurality of ranges, selecting, by a module implemented using a non-transitory computer readable medium, iteratively selecting numbers from within the ranges such that, during a selection iteration, a given number within one of the ranges is not selected more than once and such that a sequence of numbers selected during the selection iteration appears to be random, and utilizing the numbers selected during the selection iteration to control at least one aspect of testing a network or storage device.
US09317250B2

The present application provides a method and apparatus for supporting denormal numbers in a floating point multiply-add unit (FMAC). One embodiment of the FMAC is configurable to add a product of first and second operands to a third operand. This embodiment of the FMAC is configurable to determine a minimum exponent shift for a sum of the product and the third operand by subtracting a minimum normal exponent from a product exponent of the product. This embodiment of the FMAC is also configurable to cause bits representing the sum to be left shifted by the minimum exponent shift if a third exponent of the third operand is less than or equal to the product exponent and the minimum exponent shift is less than or equal to a predicted left shift for the sum.
US09317242B2

A data operation method for a terminal including three-piece display units and a terminal supporting the same are provided. The terminal including three-piece display units including a first display unit and a second display unit disposed adjacent to each other, a third display unit disposed on an opposite side of the first display unit and the second display unit, a storage unit for storing at least one of a display unit power control mode set value controlling power supplied to at least one of the first display unit, the second display unit, and the third display unit or a data output direction control mode set value used for instructing data to be output, which is generated according to activation of an application program, to at least one of the first display unit, the second display unit, and the third display unit, and a control unit controlling output of data corresponding to at least one application program to at least one display unit activated according to at least one of the display unit power control mode set value or the data output direction control mode set value.
US09317240B2

Provided is a method of controlling an image display device. The method includes: confirming whether first and second terminals are connected to the image display device; when the first and second terminals are connected to the image display device, receiving application information of the first terminal and application information of the second terminal; and displaying the received application information of each terminal.
US09317238B2

An image forming apparatus supporting a Wi-Fi Direct receives a request for a Wi-Fi Direct connection from an external wireless device, and allows to establish the Wi-Fi Direct connection between the image forming apparatus and the external wireless device by using device information that is previously stored with respect to wireless devices that were previously Wi-Fi Direct connected to the image forming apparatus.
US09317232B2

An information processing apparatus which has a display device includes a display control unit and a launching unit. The display control unit may cause the display device to display a device management screen corresponding to an image processing apparatus. The launching unit may input identification information indicating launching in response to an instruction via the device management screen to an application associated with the image processing apparatus. In addition, the launching unit may launch the application associated with the device management screen according to the instruction input via the device management screen displayed on the display device by the display control unit.
US09317227B2

A printing management device includes: a customer property DB configured to accumulate history data for each customer; a printer property DB configured to record printer property data for each of multiple printers; target image quality index decision means configured to decide a target image quality index by the use of the history data of the customer property DB; and printout condition decision means configured to decide/output output conditions with reference to the printer property DB according to order information and the target image quality index.
US09317223B2

A method for controlling the storage of data among multiple regional storage centers coupled through a network in a global storage system is provided. The method includes steps of: defining at least one dataset comprising at least a subset of the data stored in the global storage system; defining at least one ruleset for determining where to store the dataset; obtaining information regarding a demand for the dataset through one or more data requesting entities operating in the global storage system; and determining, as a function of the ruleset, information regarding a location for storing the dataset among regional storage centers having available resources that reduces the total distance traversed by the dataset in serving at least a given one of the data requesting entities and/or reduces the latency of delivery of the dataset to the given one of the data requesting entities.
US09317222B1

A centralized content addressed storage (CAS) application and a method for providing data protection are implemented by running a CAS application on a virtualization layer of a computer platform. The virtualization layer presents to the CAS application a normalized representation of a hardware subsystem of the computer platform, shielding the CAS application from actual hardware devices of the computer platform. A storage device of the computer platform is used to store a raw data set and the CAS application generates a backup data set of the raw data set. The CAS application stores the backup data set to an archive mechanism of the computer platform and can also restore and recover the raw data set in the event it is lost, corrupted or otherwise destroyed. Multiple CAS applications can be operated separately or together and they may be the same or differ.
US09317217B1

Systems and methods for wiping and verifying the wiping of a data storage device where the dirtying of blocks of the storage device is tracked and only the dirtied blocks are scanned to verify if the storage device has been sufficiently wiped.
US09317205B2

Information processing system for rapidly performing analysis of semistructured data while preserving fault-tolerance of data for a store request acquiring the number which has been stored of the same and data structures set beforehand, refer to data structure management information to determine a data store unit, instructs replica creation of the data with regard to the data stored in the data store unit in which any of the replicas have been stored, transmits an instruction, for performing a data operation, to a data structure operation unit, whereupon a processing unit, in accordance with the content of an analysis request, performs analysis processing by way of either data stored in any of the data storage units after a data structure operation or data which have not been subject to a data structure operation.
US09317203B2

For a distributed high performance pool, the distributed high performance pool is provided with a fast rank. A management module promotes an extent from a storage pool to the distributed high performance pool in response to the extent satisfying promotion criteria. The distributed high performance pool and the storage pool are logically and physically distinct.
US09317191B2

The invention provides for a pocketed anchor for post-tensioned concrete reinforcement. The anchor includes a body having a flange portion with a front and rear surface, a button portion extending from the rear surface, and a nose portion extending from the front surface. The anchor also includes a tapered bore that extends through the nose, flange, and button portions. The bore can receive a wedge that cams against the bore to clamp down on a tendon. The front surface of the flange has at least two planar surfaces that are parallel to the bearing surface on the rear surface of the anchor. One of the planar surfaces is recessed relative to the other such that the recessed surface is closer to the load bearing surface on the rear surface of the anchor. The two planar surfaces define a pocket on the anchor, where mounting holes may be located.
US09317189B1

A user-defined, structured input is received via an element included in a user interface. In real time, an active input from the user-defined, structured input is selected based at least in part on context associated with the user interface. A context-sensitive rule that applies to the active input is determined. Guidance associated with the active input and the context-sensitive rule is provided in real time via the user interface.
US09317177B2

Apparatus, the apparatus having at least one processor and at least one memory having computer-readable code stored therein which when executed controls the at least one processor to perform a method comprising: causing a first element to be displayed, the first element associated with content; in response to an input in relation to the first element, causing a plurality of second elements to be displayed, each second element associated with one of a plurality of parts of the content, wherein the number of second elements is dependent upon a property of the input; and, in response to an input in relation to one or more of the plurality of second elements, carrying out an action.
US09317170B2

An interactive assembly including at least one interactive surface element, at least a first region of the at least one interactive surface element having first user sensible functionality and at least a second region of the at least one interactive surface element having second functionality, different from the first user sensible functionality, input sensor functionality, including at least one input sensor located in propinquity to at least one of the at least one interactive surface element, operative to sense impingement of an electromagnetic radiation spot on at least one of the at least one first region and the at least one second region of the at least one interactive surface element and utilization functionality for employing outputs of the input sensor functionality in respect of impingement on either or both of the at least one first region and the at least one second region.
US09317161B2

In one embodiment, a touch sensor includes an insulating substrate comprising a first face. The touch sensor further includes a plurality of electrodes comprising one or more conductive materials formed on the insulating substrate. The touch sensor may also include a plurality of spacers extending outwardly from the first face of the first insulating substrate. Each spacer of the plurality of spacers may extend substantially the same distance from the first face of the insulating substrate. The plurality of spacers are operable to maintain a substantially consistent air gap between the plurality of electrodes and a cover panel when the cover panel is attached to the insulating substrate.
US09317154B2

An apparatus for sensing includes a computer. The apparatus includes one or more individual sensing tiles in communication with the computer that form a sensor surface that detects force applied to the surface and provides a signal corresponding to the force to the computer which produces from the signal a time varying continuous image of force applied to the surface, where the surface is contiguous, and detected force can be sensed in a manner that is geometrically continuous and seamless on a surface. A method for determining locations of tiles of a sensor.
US09317138B1

A system includes circuitry to exchange multiple radio signals with a peripheral device. The system further includes a processing device configured to identify time periods for the multiple radio signals to travel between the circuitry and the peripheral device, wherein the processing device is configured to determine a distance and direction of movement of the peripheral device according to the identified time periods.
US09317134B2

Object tracking technology, in which controlling an illumination source is controlled to illuminate while a camera is capturing an image to define an intersection region within the image captured by the camera. The image captured by the camera is analyzed to detect an object within the intersection region. User input is determined based on the object detected within the intersection region and an application is controlled based on the determined user input.
US09317126B2

A head-mounted display device that enables a user to simultaneously visually recognize a virtual image and an outside scene includes a photographing unit configured to photograph at least a part of a visual field direction of the user in a state in which the user wears the head-mounted display device and acquire a motion of the user; a track acquiring unit configured to acquire a track of the motion of the user from the motion photographed by the photographing unit; and an authentication processing unit configured to authenticate, using the track acquired by the track acquiring unit, whether the user is a proper user.
US09317121B2

An apparatus and a method for providing a tactile sensation in cooperation with a display device are disclosed. The disclosed apparatus includes: a display-device communication unit configured to receive information on a virtual image from the display device; a determiner unit configured to determine whether or not a user attempts an interaction with the virtual image by using an image of a user body; and a tactile-sensation provider unit configured to provide a tactile sensation to a preset body part of the user based on a determination result of the determiner unit. The disclosed apparatus can enable the user to interact with a virtual image with verisimilitude.
US09317116B2

When units of serialized input are analyzed by an engine or algorithm that provides a plurality of entry suggestions for competing or replacing a unit of the serialized input, one or more haptic effects can be identified and provided in conjunction with display, selection, or use of one or more of the entry suggestions to aid in the use of the engine or algorithm. The haptic effects can represent a confidence level with respect to one or more of the entry suggestions or may otherwise indicate the relative success of the engine/algorithm. For example, the serialized input may comprise characters input to a mobile or other device. The engine or algorithm may suggest words or phrases with varying degrees of confidence, with the confidence with respect to some or all of the suggestions communicated by use of haptic effects. Additional embodiments include dynamic text input interfaces, haptically-enhanced serial presentation of content, and interfaces that provide haptic effects at a first device based on remote text entry, display, reading, or other activity at a different device.
US09317111B2

A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring one or more indicators that suggest that a computing device has been transferred to a first user from a second user, the first user having at least greater accessing rights than the second user to one or more items via the computing device; detecting, in response to said acquiring, input that verifies that the computing device has been transferred to the first user; and providing at least greater access via the computing device to the one or more items in response to detecting the input verifying that the computing device has been transferred to the first user. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure.
US09317098B2

To increase the reliability of power supply control of a server group and reduce the power consumption of the server group. A server includes a power supply stop control unit which stops a power supply of a predetermined processing unit upon receiving a power supply stop instruction signal instructing to stop the power supply, a power supply start-up control unit which intermittently starts up the power supply of the predetermined processing unit when the power supply stop control unit stops the power supply of the predetermined processing unit, a power supply start-up determination unit which determines whether a processing load of other servers which are executing their processes among a plurality of other servers is higher than an upper limit load determined in advance as a load required to be processed by servers the number of which is greater than or equal to the number of the other servers which are executing their processes when the power supply start-up control unit starts up the power supply of the predetermined processing unit, and a process control unit which controls process execution for the predetermined processing unit when the processing load of the other servers which are executing their processes is determined to be higher than the upper limit load.
US09317097B2

A power supply system for maintaining the efficiency of an AC/DC power conversion unit in relation to a load is disclosed. The load varies in response to power usage during operation of the power supply system. An AC power input and a DC power output of the power conversion unit direct DC power to attached components. A master controller disposed in the power supply system detects the load of an attached computer system through a DC meter and executes an algorithm to determine the values of circuit parameters of conversion circuits in the AC/DC power conversion unit. The master controller sends the values to a mode controller through a digital signal interface. The mode controller adjusts the operating mode of the conversion circuits and thus changes the efficiency of the AC/DC power conversion unit.
US09317095B1

A voltage scaling system can scale a supply voltage while preventing a processor from communicating with first system components that are rendered unstable from the scaling. On the other hand, the voltage scaling system allows second system components that are stable during the scaling to communicate with the processor. A processor scales a system supply voltage to a target supply voltage. The processor halts operations of the first system components and executes the instruction. When the first system components are halted, the processor cannot access the first system components. The second system components can continue operating during the scaling. A controller that saves power can configure a voltage regulator to scale the system supply voltage to the target supply voltage. Once the target supply voltage is reached, the voltage regulator sends an indication to a power management unit, after which the first system components continue to operate.
US09317090B2

Methods and apparatuses to manage working states of a data processing system. At least one embodiment of the present invention includes a data processing system with one or more sensors (e.g., physical sensors such as tachometer and thermistors, and logical sensors such as CPU load) for fine grain control of one or more components (e.g., processor, fan, hard drive, optical drive) of the system for working conditions that balance various goals (e.g., user preferences, performance, power consumption, thermal constraints, acoustic noise). In one example, the clock frequency and core voltage for a processor are actively managed to balance performance and power consumption (heat generation) without a significant latency. In one example, the speed of a cooling fan is actively managed to balance cooling effort and noise (and/or power consumption).
US09317089B2

Methods and apparatus relating to techniques for mesh performance improvement using dual voltage data transfer are described. In one embodiment, a first plurality of signal paths are operated at a higher voltage level than a second plurality of signal paths. The first plurality of signal paths comprises Resistor-Capacitor (RC) dominated signal paths that move signals between any two system tiles. Other embodiments are also disclosed.
US09317086B2

Embodiments relate to initiating a charging process of an electric vehicle according to predefined charging preferences. An association between the electric vehicle and a user profile including the predefined charging preferences is established. The user profile is stored in a memory within a distributed processing network. A charging request message related to the electric vehicle is provided to a remote charging request message processor of the distributed processing network, the charging request message indicating a charging need of the electric vehicle. The charging request message is processed using the user's predefined charging preferences stored in the user profile to obtain user specific result data, including information on one or more charging stations corresponding to the predefined charging preferences. From the remote charging request message processor, a result message related to the electric vehicle is provided including the obtained user specific result data for initiating the charging process.
US09317084B2

In a thermal displacement compensating device and a thermal displacement compensating method for a machine tool, a block temperature obtaining section obtains temperatures of respective blocks based on temperature information detected by temperature sensors wherein temperatures in each of the respective blocks into which a column is divided to be pluralized are defined as a uniform value. An FEM analysis section performs a structural analysis by a finite element method based on the temperatures of the respective blocks obtained by the block temperature obtaining section and infers thermal displacement amounts of the column. A compensation value calculation section calculates a compensation value for a machining command position based on the thermal displacement amounts of the column inferred by the FEM analysis section. A compensation section compensates the machining command position by the compensation value obtained by the compensation value calculation section.
US09317081B2

The side profile of a hard drive assembly may be configured with one or more open areas to allow cooling air to pass side-to-side through a lateral flow channel provided by a cavity defined in the base portion of the hard drive assembly. Corresponding and complementary open areas may be also be defined in mating drive carrier assembly side components to allow passage of lateral side-to-side cooling air through the base portion flow channel of a hard drive assembled to the drive carrier assembly to form a mountable hard drive system that is installed into a storage enclosure. The at least partially aligned open flow areas of the assembled hard dive assembly and drive carrier assembly may cooperate to reduce air flow impedance across multiple rows of hard drive systems through a storage enclosure.
US09317079B2

A media device, which may take the form of a set top box (STB), includes a housing or chassis that incorporates an interface panel having selectively configured regions that cooperate with components mounted on a printed circuit board. The selectively configured regions of the interface panel may advantageously provide desired clearance or contact between the interface panel and one or more of the components. In addition, the selectively configured regions of the interface panel may be arranged to provide structural support to a top panel of the chassis while providing specific heat transfer pathways between the components and the chassis. In this manner, the interface panel may be controllably designed with a desired thermal mass and/or a desired thermal conductivity in specific regions of the interface panel by varying properties of the interface panel which may include, but are not limited to, the panel thickness and material.
US09317078B2

A storage device backplane with penetrating convection and a computer framework with the storage device backplane are disclosed. The storage device backplane includes an integration board, an operation board and a heat dissipation unit. The integration board has a first surface for electrically connecting the storage device group. The operation board is superposed on and electrically connected to a second surface of the integration board and is provided that the operation board includes an electronic heating active element (EHAE) and an airflow hole set around the EHAE. The heat dissipation unit includes a heat absorb portion and multiple fins set on the heat absorb portion. The heat absorb portion makes a thermal contact with the EHAE. The fins laterally extend to cover the airflow hole. Airflow passages are formed between the fins corresponding to the airflow hole.
US09317077B2

An electronic device includes: a first housing 1; a cover 11 capable of covering a portion of the first housing 1 to be covered; and a waterproofing member 12 placed around the portion to be covered. The cover 11 is displaceable between a closed position at which the cover covers the portion to be covered and an open position at which the cover opens the portion to be covered. The cover 11 is in contact with the waterproofing member 12 when it is at the closed position. Even if the number of terminals increases, since the waterproofing member 12 is provided on the first housing 1, the single waterproofing member can render all of the terminals waterproof. Thus, it is possible to reduce the number of components and to reduce the number of assembling steps.
US09317068B2

The technology encompassed by the current disclosure generally relates to membrane composites that can be used in acoustic venting assemblies. In one embodiment of the technology disclosed herein, a venting media composite has a microporous membrane layer and a coating on the microporous membrane layer to form a composite. The basis weight of the composite is at least about 0.5% higher than a basis weight of the microporous membrane layer without the coating. In some embodiments the composite has a decreased insertion loss than its membrane-only counterpart.
US09317067B2

A display device may include a foldable display member. The foldable display member may include a first portion, a second portion, and a bendable portion. The first portion may be connected through the bendable portion to the second portion. The display device may further include a first controllable member that may overlap the bendable portion. The display device may further include a control unit connected to the first controllable member and configured to provide a first signal to control a size of the first controllable member according to a magnitude of an angle between the first portion and the second portion.
US09317062B2

A touch display device including a touch module, a display module, and a bonding member is provided. The touch module includes a touch panel and a film member bonded to each other. The bonding member is connected between the touch module and the display module. The bonding member forms a gap between the touch module and the display module. An outer light source is adapted to be disposed in the gap, wherein the outer light source irradiates the bonding member through the touch module and debonds the bonding member from the touch module.
US09317060B2

Provided herein is an electronic display assembly for use with a housing as well as a method for assembling an electronic display assembly within a housing. The assembly preferably contains an electronic display module having an electronic display secured within a mounting frame having a top and bottom surface. Top brackets and bottom brackets may be secured to the mounting frame and then secured to the interior of the housing. A front glass assembly can also be secured to the brackets. In some embodiments the housing may contain interior hangers which correspond to hangers that are fastened to the mounting frame of the electronic display module.
US09317058B2

For proving a pedal assembly module to improve productivity, a forward pedal, a backward pedal, a first shaft supporting the forward pedal and the backward pedal, a brake pedal, a second shaft supporting the brake pedal, and a frame box supporting the first shaft and the second shaft are assembled and integrated with their functions ensured.
US09317055B2

Provided are a sequential impedance measurement device and a method for sequentially measuring impedance. While applying a signal having a power output fluctuation similar to that of normal operation, it is possible to carry out a quick measurement with relatively high precision and in a broad frequency range. Also, the device and the method can simultaneously determine phenomena which occur in different frequency ranges. Disclosed is a sequential impedance measurement device in which impedance of a fuel cell is sequentially measured in a control system, the control system controlling the fuel cell by using a power indication value of a control processor, the device including: an M-sequence-signal-generating section; a superimposed-signal-generating section; a signal-processing section; a signal-adding unit; a current and voltage measuring unit; and an impedance calculator, wherein a method for controlling the fuel cell by the control processor is modified according to a calculation result of the impedance calculator.
US09317053B2

The invention provides a voltage regulator. The voltage regulator (100) of the invention includes a comparison circuit (20) and a voltage divider circuit (110). The voltage divider circuit (110) has a PMOS transistor (T6) connected to a voltage source (VDD) and resistors (R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 and R6) serially connected between the transistor (T6) and a reference voltage. A feedback voltage generated from a node (N3) between resistors R4 and R5 is provided to the comparison circuit (20). In addition, a middle voltage (Vm) generated from a node (Nc) of the resistors is provided to a well region, so the parasitic capacitance is reduced.
US09317044B2

A control method for a mechanical vibration system independently modifies the higher and lower frequency components of the drive signal satisfying a target profile in a manner that limits displacement in the driven vibration. In particular, phases of the lower frequency components in a preliminary drive spectrum are independently adjusted so that peaks of the respective components are non-simultaneous and distributed in time to avoid contributing constructively. For example, the lower frequency components may be applied as a filter to a narrow-band time waveform, such as one with a swept frequency, to obtain the lower-frequency time waveform. The higher frequency components are randomized in their phase, transformed into the time domain, and recombined with the lower frequency part to obtain the drive signal.
US09317037B2

A system and method for the operation and navigation of a moving vehicle in a warehouse environment includes a controller for controlling operation of the vehicle and an imaging device configured to capture an image representing a view from the vehicle. Location labels are configured for being positioned in the warehouse environment and include location indicia.A navigation processor is operatively coupled to the imaging device and configured to determine a location of the vehicle based at least in part on the image of the location label, the navigation processor further coupled with the controller to control the movement of the vehicle based on the determined location.
US09317030B2

A method of generating control code for a CNC machine is described. The method includes the steps of: (1) generating in a computer a first plurality of coordinate values, xi, yi, zi, said first plurality of coordinate values representing a plurality of first connected line segments which surround a vertical axis, said first connected line segments gradually descending to a first predetermined depth, (2) generating in a computer a second plurality of coordinate values xj, yj, zj, said second coordinate values representing a plurality of second connected line segments which surround the vertical axis, said plurality of second connected line segments having a starting point at approximately the first predetermined depth, and gradually descending to a second predetermined depth greater than the first depth, and (3) converting the first and the second coordinate values to a code for controlling the CNC machine.
US09317024B2

An automation system includes a first controller and a second controller connected to an input device via a field bus, wherein the input device includes a module having at least one first sub-module and one second sub-module, the first controller includes first interconnection information that defines an assignment between the first controller and the first sub-module, and the second controller includes second interconnection information that defines an assignment between the second controller and the second sub-module, wherein the module is additionally configured to be connected to a plurality of inputs for process signals, wherein a process signal image is stored in a first memory area assigned to the first sub-module, and wherein the module additionally includes a copying device which is configured to copy the process signal image from the first memory area to a second memory area assigned to the second sub-module.
US09317015B2

Anti-trip mechanism for limiting the travel of a timepiece balance including a pin projecting from a staff, including a flexible multistable or bistable element carrying an anti-trip stop member and which is fixed, via flexible and elastic connecting members, to a rigid structural element of a timepiece movement. One end of said anti-trip stop member is arranged, according to the angular position of the balance, to interfere with the trajectory of the pin, and to perform the function of a stop if the balance exceeds its normal angular travel.Each anti-trip stop member includes two arms whose respective ends each interfere with the trajectory of the pin.
US09317013B2

A method for fabricating a barrel arbor for a timepiece includes wire drawing a bar to form a continuous profile, projecting or re-entrant relative to a support sector having a touching-up axis parallel to the bar axis, and whose section matches that of complementary hooking to be made on the arbor and, in a touching-up operation, machining the complete external contour of the arbor. A drive element includes a determined spiral-coiled mainspring including at an inner end hooking having a defined profile and an arbor produced by this method including the support sector for supporting the first coil, and a complementary hooking having a complementary profile to the profile for pivoting together with the mainspring.
US09317003B2

An apparatus main body of an image forming apparatus includes a plurality of rotation portions provided each rotatably, in alignment with each other. A lever is provided to integrally swing with one of rotation portions or one of coupling portions that is disposed at one end in alignment direction of rotation portions and coupling portions. An opening/closing mechanism is provided to open and close a toner discharge outlet, which is formed on a housing of a toner container, as the coupling portion, which is disposed at one end in the alignment direction, rotates. An interlocking mechanism, which causes adjacent coupling portions to rotate in conjunction with each other, and an interlocking mechanism, which causes adjacent rotation portions to rotate in conjunction with each other, are disposed alternately on coupling portions side and on rotation portions side, from one end to the other end in the alignment direction.
US09316994B2

A system comprises an electrophotographic subsystem, a transfer subsystem, an imaging member, and an inking subsystem. The electrophotographic subsystem comprises a photoreceptor, a charging subsystem, an exposure subsystem, and a development subsystem. In operation, the photoreceptor is charged areawise. An exposure pattern is formed by the exposure subsystem on the surface of the charged photoreceptor to thereby write a latent charge image onto the photoreceptor surface. The image is developed with an image definition material, such as a dampening fluid. The image definition material forms a positive pattern of the image to be printed. The image pattern is then transferred to the reimageable surface. The transferred pattern is then developed by selectively applying an ink over regions of image definition material. The inked image may be transferred to a substrate.
US09316989B1

An image forming device includes at least two image cylinders that rotate with a time varying velocity; at least two image cylinder gears respectively attached to each image cylinder; and at least one pinion gear that drives the at least two image cylinder gears. The time varying velocity of the image cylinder gear is due to a runout of the pinion gear. The spacing between the centers of the image cylinders is determined by S 12 = k ⁢ ⁢ π ⁢ ⁢ D p + α 360 ⁢ π ⁢ ⁢ D p where S12 is the distance between the centers of the two image cylinders gears; k is an integer; α is the angle between the pitch point of the two gears; and Dp is the diameter of the pinion gear.
US09316983B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a formation unit configured to form a first detection pattern for density detection on an image carrier for each color used in image formation; and a first sensor and a second sensor configured to detect the first detection pattern formed on the image carrier, the first detection pattern moving in a movement direction of a surface of the image carrier as the image carrier rotates. The formation unit is further configured to form the first detection pattern on the image carrier such that a first detection pattern of an chromatic color is detected by the first sensor and a first detection pattern of an achromatic color is detected by the second sensor, and additionally form a second detection pattern for misregistration detection on the image carrier when forming the first detection pattern on the image carrier.
US09316978B2

A fixing device includes a fixing rotator and a pressure rotator pressed against the fixing rotator to form a fixing nip therebetween. An oil applicator is impregnated with oil to be applied to at least one of the fixing rotator and the pressure rotator. A first mover is connected to the oil applicator to separably bring the oil applicator into contact with the at least one of the fixing rotator and the pressure rotator. A surface polisher refreshes an outer circumferential surface of the fixing rotator. A second mover is connected to the surface polisher to separably bring the surface polisher into contact with the fixing rotator. The first mover brings the oil applicator into contact with the at least one of the fixing rotator and the pressure rotator according to a contact condition under which the surface polisher contacts the fixing rotator.
US09316977B2

A fixing device includes an exciting coil to generate a magnetic flux and a heat generation layer disposed opposite the exciting coil to generate heat by the magnetic flux from the exciting coil. A temperature sensitive magnetic body, disposed opposite the exciting coil via the heat generation layer, obtains and loses magnetism at a temperature defined by a Curie temperature by composition adjustment to selectively create a heating region and a non-heating region of the heat generation layer. A degausser is made of a non-magnetic material having an electrical resistivity smaller than an electrical resistivity of the temperature sensitive magnetic body. The degausser is disposed opposite the exciting coil with an interval in a range of from about 4.2 mm to about 8.2 mm.
US09316975B2

A fixing device for thermally fixing a developing agent image to a sheet includes: a flexible tubular member having an inner peripheral surface and circularly moving in a moving direction while the developing agent image is thermally fixed; a heater; a nip member being in sliding contact with the tubular member; a backup member nipping the tubular member in cooperation with the nip member; a stay covering the heater and supporting the nip member; an electric component positioned opposite to the heater with respect to the stay; and a frame supporting the electric component. The frame includes: an isolating portion interposed between the tubular member and the electric component for isolating the electric component from the tubular member; and a guide portion guiding the inner peripheral surface of the tubular member while the flexible tubular member is moving in the moving direction.
US09316973B2

A fuser assembly for an electrophotographic imaging device which transfers heat from overheated portions of the fuser assembly to portions having lesser temperatures. The fuser assembly includes a heating member; a backup roll disposed proximate to the heating member so as to form a fuser nip therewith, wherein rotation of the backup roll causes the heating member to rotate; and a first roll in contact with one of the backup roll and the heating member such that rotation of the one of the backup roll and the heating member rotates the first roll, the first roll including a heat pipe disposed therein.
US09316971B2

A method for forming a toner image on a recording medium includes receiving a job, rotating a pressing rotary body in a predetermined direction of rotation, rotating a flexible endless belt disposed opposite the pressing rotary body to form a nip therebetween, turning on a belt heater disposed opposite to an inner circumferential surface of the flexible endless belt, conveying the recording medium bearing the toner image through the nip, turning off the belt heater for a predetermined first time period after the recording medium is discharged from the nip while the flexible endless belt and the pressing rotary body rotate, stopping the flexible endless belt and the pressing rotary body, turning on the belt heater when a predetermined second time period elapses after stopping the flexible endless belt and the pressing rotary body, and turning off the belt heater.
US09316967B2

An image forming apparatus includes: a sheet conveyance section; an image forming section; a fixing section; a driving section configured to rotate a back side supporting member; a pressure contact separation section; and a cooling section configured to cool down the back side supporting member. The sheet feeding path has a configuration in which a long sheet makes contact with the back side supporting member when the fixing side member and the back side supporting member are separated from each other. During cooling-down or warming-up of the fixing section, the pressure contact separation section separates the fixing side member and the back side supporting member from each other, the cooling section cools down the back side supporting member, and the driving section rotates the back side supporting member.
US09316965B1

A cleaning device includes a cleaning member and a collecting member. The cleaning member rotates while being in contact with a member to be cleaned that rotates or circulates, so that an object attached to the member to be cleaned is transferred to the cleaning member. The collecting member is made of a porous material having plural pores that are connected to each other, the collecting member rotating while being in contact with a surface of the cleaning member so that the object that has been transferred to the cleaning member is collected in the pores.
US09316959B2

A fixing device includes: a fusing member; a heater; a nip member; a reflection member; a stay; and a backup member. The fusing member has an inner peripheral surface defining an internal space and is circularly movable. The inner peripheral surface is in sliding contact with the nip member. The reflection member reflects a radiant heat from the heater toward the nip member. The reflection member includes a reflection portion and an extending portion. The stay covers the reflection portion and supports the nip member. The extending portion extends outside of the stay. The backup member provides a nip region in cooperation with the nip member upon nipping the tubular flexible fusing member between the backup member and the nip member. The extending portion extends between the nip member and the stay. The extending portion is positioned exclusively downstream of the reflection portion in a sheet feeding direction.
US09316952B1

A liquid supply device includes a rotating supply member that holds a liquid developer in concave portions formed on an outer peripheral surface, and supplies the liquid developer to a target supply member, a regulating member that regulates a liquid developer holding amount of the outer peripheral surface of the rotating supply member by contacting with the outer peripheral surface of the rotating supply member, and a movement unit that moves the regulating member to a retract position which is separated from the outer peripheral surface of the rotating supply member.
US09316951B1

A magnetic roll for transporting a dual component developer mix according to one embodiment includes a core having at least one permanent magnet that has a plurality of circumferentially spaced magnetic poles generating a magnetic field. A cylindrical sleeve is positioned around the core. The sleeve is rotatable relative to the core about a rotational axis in an operative rotational direction. At portions of the magnetic roll positioned axially inward from axial ends of the core, a magnitude of a total magnetic field strength of the magnetic field decreases by 1.5 mT/degree or less in the operative rotational direction at a radius of 0.5 mm beyond an outer circumferential surface of the sleeve throughout an area of ±15 degrees from an angular position of the magnetic roll at which a tangential component of the magnetic field is equal to zero at a release pole of the plurality of magnetic poles.
US09316950B2

A development device is operable in multiple different speed modes and includes a developer bearer to carry developer, a developer regulator to adjust an amount of developer carried on the developer bearer, and multiple developer conveyance members disposed facing the developer bearer to transport developer in a longitudinal direction to circulate developer inside the development device. The multiple developer conveyance members including a first developer conveyance member to supply developer to the developer bearer and a second developer conveyance member to transport developer collected from the developer bearer. The development device executes developer amount balance adjustment in which a driving velocity of at least the multiple developer conveyance members is increased from a driving velocity in a lower-speed mode for a predetermined period after image development in the lower speed mode is completed and before image development in a higher speed mode is started.
US09316946B2

There are provided a toner cartridge capable of suppressing generation of an aggregation or a lump of toner which may occur near a toner discharging port depending on toner keeping situation as well as capable of discharging a stable quantity of toner from the toner discharging port, and an image forming apparatus including the same. In a toner cartridge, a cover member is disposed so as to cover a part of an outer circumferential part of a spiral blade in an auger screw disposed inside a toner container. This cover member is able to move between a first position around the spiral blade and a second position, which is separated from the first position, on the opposite side to a toner discharging port across the spiral blade.
US09316940B2

A developing device and an image forming apparatus including the developing device are provided. The developing device includes a housing, a developer carrier which is rotatably supported by the housing, and which carries developer on a circumferential surface thereof, a layer thickness regulating member which includes, a blade contacting the circumferential surface of the developer carrier along a rotational axial direction of the developer carrier, and a support member supporting the blade, the layer thickness regulating member for regulating a layer thickness of the developer on the circumferential surface of the developer carrier. The support member includes: a contact part which contacts the blade; and a pair of attachment parts which are attached to the housing. The attachment parts are provide at both sides of the contact part in the rotational axial direction and are further protruded than the contact part in a direction away from the developer carrier.
US09316936B2

The disclosure describes a pigment of certain surface area for use in toner.
US09316933B2

An electrophotographic photoreceptor having a photosensitive layer formed on a conductive substrate, wherein the photosensitive layer contains oxygen-containing fluorinated fine particles in a surface layer thereof, and the oxygen-containing fluorinated fine particles have an oxygen composition ratio of 0.9 to 3.0% by atom based on the whole composition of the fine particles according to an X-ray fluorescence composition analysis.
US09316932B2

An electrophotographic photosensitive member includes a support and a photosensitive layer formed on the support. A surface layer of the electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a polymerized product of a composition that contains a charge transporting compound having a particular group (chain polymerizable functional group).
US09316931B2

A surface layer of an electrophotographic photosensitive member contains a polymerized product obtained by a polymerization reaction of a hole transporting compound having a first reactive functional group and a compound having a second reactive functional group reactable with the first reactive functional group, and a structure other than the first reactive functional group of the hole transporting compound is a structure having only a carbon atom and a hydrogen atom, or a structure having only a carbon atom, a hydrogen atom and an oxygen atom.
US09316930B2

An optical arrangement has a plurality of optical elements capable of transmitting a beam. A partial housing is provided which extends from a surface of an optical element in the direction of the beam emanating from the optical element, or of the beam incident on the optical element, and whose shape is adapted to the shape of the beam. The partial housing is surrounded at least partially by a measurement structure which is mechanically decoupled therefrom. The measurement structure has at least one sensor.
US09316921B2

An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate by irradiating exposure light on the substrate through liquid. The exposure apparatus has a substrate holder for holding the substrate, a substrate stage capable of moving the substrate held by the substrate holder, and a temperature adjusting system for adjusting the temperature of the substrate holder. The temperature of the substrate is controlled so that there is no difference in temperature between the substrate and the liquid, thereby preventing a reduction in exposure accuracy resulting from variation in temperature of the liquid.
US09316919B2

A lithographic apparatus is provided that has a sensor at substrate level, the sensor including a radiation receiver, a transmissive plate supporting the radiation receiver, and a radiation detector, wherein the sensor is arranged to avoid loss of radiation between the radiation receiver and a final element of the radiation detector.
US09316915B2

A negative resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units (a) of formula (1) and having a Mw of 1,000-500,000 as base resin is provided. R1 is H or methyl, X is a single bond or —C(═O)—O—R4—, R2 is a single bond or C1-C4 alkylene, R3 is C2-C8 alkylene, R4 is a single bond or C1-C4 alkylene, and 0
US09316912B2

A positive type resist composition for use in liquid immersion exposure comprises: (A) a resin having a monocyclic or polycyclic cycloaliphatic hydrocarbon structure, the resin increasing its solubility in an alkali developer by an action of acid; (B) a compound generating acid upon irradiation with one of an actinic ray and a radiation; (C) an alkali soluble compound having an alkyl group of 5 or more carbon atoms; and (D) a solvent.
US09316904B2

An imprint method includes, in the peeling step of peeling a mold off the material layer to be transferred, a region-of-contact recognition operation of recognizing and determining a region of contact of the mold with the material layer to be transferred, a center-of-gravity locating operation of determining a center of gravity of a morphology of the thus recognized region of contact on the basis of that morphology, and a peeling operation of determining a point of force for applying peeling force to the mold or the imprinting substrate in relation to the center of gravity determined by the center-of-gravity locating operation, thereby acting the peeling force on the point of force.
US09316900B2

A system of an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is disclosed. The system includes a mask having first and second reflective regions. The system also includes an illumination to expose the mask to produce a resultant reflected light form the mask. The resultant reflected light is constructed by a first reflected light reflected from the first reflective region and a second reflected light reflected from the second reflective region. The resultant reflected light contains mainly diffracted light. The system also includes a projection optics box (POB) to collect and direct resultant reflected light to expose a target.
US09316890B2

A method and apparatus is provided for identifying information to facilitate adjusting a projector's position to achieve a specified projected image on a projection surface. In an embodiment, a computing device comprising one or more sensors, which have a known spatial relationship with a projector, includes a position adjustment service configured to identify, based at least in part on the known spatial relationship between the one or more sensors and the projector, a current position of the projector relative to positions of a plurality of reference points that define a projection surface. The position adjustment service is further configured to determine a target position for the projector, determine differences between the current position of the projector and the target position for the projector, and perform one or more actions based upon the determined differences between the current position of the projector and the target position for the projector.
US09316888B1

A camera mount with a base and a cantilever platform for attaching a camouflage blind assembly to a camera. The camera may be secured to the platform, while the blind assembly may be attached to the base. The base may be mounted atop a tripod or other support device, or may be held by the user. The camera mount allows the user to take images of wildlife without the wildlife seeing the user or the camera. This allows the user to approach the wildlife closer than would otherwise be possible, resulting in closer, clearer images.
US09316886B2

A reflective color display pixel has a top surface for receiving ambient light, and a plurality of sub-pixels including a first sub-pixel and a second sub-pixel. The first sub-pixel has a luminescent layer for absorbing a portion of the ambient light and emitting light of a first color. The second sub-pixel has a color tunable reflector for reflecting the ambient light in a selected band.
US09316883B2

Electrochromic device laminates and their method of manufacture are disclosed.
US09316875B2

The present disclosure relates to an array substrate for a fringe field switching mode liquid crystal display device, and a fabricating method thereof, the array substrate including a gate line on an insulating substrate, an active layer on a gate electrode, a data line having a source electrode on one side of the active layer, the data line defining a pixel region, a large pixel electrode on another side of the active layer, a planarization layer on the data line and the source electrode, a passivation layer formed on the insulating substrate, and a common electrode on the passivation layer, and overlapping the pixel electrode and the data line.
US09316868B2

A liquid crystal display panel and a method for fabricating the same are disclosed. The liquid crystal panel comprises a first substrate (1), a second substrate (2) and a liquid crystal layer (3) sandwiched between the first substrate (1) and the second substrate (1), wherein protrusions (4) are respectively disposed on a side of the first substrate (1) adjacent to the liquid crystal layer (3) and a side of the second substrate (2) adjacent to the liquid crystal layer (3).
US09316866B2

The present invention discloses an array substrate, a display panel and a display device. A planarization layer is covered on the array substrate, forms a planar plane on the array substrate and an orientation film is set on the planarization layer, the planarization layer extends to a non-display area of the array substrate, and the thickness thereof in the position where a via hole is formed in the non-display area on the array substrate is not less than the depth of the via hole. The present invention has the following beneficial effects: avoiding that an orientation solution is influenced by the via hole during formation of an orientation layer, thus the orientation solution disperses uniformly, the problem that defects occur on the periphery of the orientation film is well alleviated, the formation effect of the orientation film is improved, thereby the display effect of the display device is improved.
US09316865B2

An optical shutter (10) includes a wavelength selective polarizing filter (12) in optical association with a liquid crystal polarization modulator (14) to rapidly switch between optical states to alternately transmit visible radiation and near infrared radiation. The wavelength selective polarizing filter is constructed to impart a polarization state to incident radiation and transmit polarized radiation within at least the visible wavelength region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The liquid crystal polarization modulator is positioned to receive incident radiation for internal propagation through the liquid crystal polarization modulator and is responsive to a first value and a second value of an applied control signal (32) to switch the internally propagating radiation to, respectively, a first polarization state and a second polarization state. The switching between the first and second polarization states produces, in cooperation with the wavelength selective polarizing filter, optical shutter output radiation in different wavelength regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
US09316862B2

A backlight device illuminates a transmissive liquid crystal panel from a rear surface thereof, and includes light source substrates, a reflecting sheet, a diffusing-guiding plate, and an optical-function-sheet layered body. The substrates have light-emitting elements for illuminating illumination light. The reflecting sheet has the substrates mounted to one surface thereof, has an opening formed in correspondence with the light-emitting elements, allows the light-emitting elements to be exposed at another surface of the reflecting sheet from the opening, and reflects the illumination light from the light-emitting elements by the another surface. The plate faces the another surface side of the sheet at a predetermined interval from the reflecting sheet, and diffuses in a layer thereof the illumination light incident from the reflecting sheet. The layered body is combined to the plate, includes laminated optical function sheets, and guides the illumination light to the panel.
US09316860B2

A display polarizer may have a polymer layer such as a polyvinyl alcohol layer coated with a dichroic dye such as iodine. A polymer layer such as a tri-acetyl cellulose layer may be formed on the polyvinyl alcohol layer so that the iodine is interposed between the polyvinyl alcohol layer and the tri-acetyl cellulose layer. To provide protection for the iodine layer, an additional polymer layer such as an additional tri-acetyl cellulose layer and a layer of adhesive may be formed on top of the polymer layer. A functional layer such as an antireflection layer may form an outermost layer in the polarizer. Compensation films may be formed beneath the polyvinyl alcohol layer. Additional display layers such as a lower polarizer layer and interposed layers such as a thin-film transistor layer, liquid crystal layer, and color filter layer may be formed below the compensation films.
US09316856B2

In a method of driving touch sensing display panel and a display apparatus for performing the method, image data are outputted to the touch sensing display panel during an active period of a frame, the touch sensing display panel comprising a display substrate including a switching element connected to a data line extending in a column direction and a gate line extending in a row direction, and a touch sensing substrate including a light sensing part connected to a read-out line substantially parallel to the data line and a scan line substantially parallel to the gate line. A sensing signal is read out through the read-out line during a blanking period of the frame.
US09316844B2

A 3D display apparatus and manufacturing method thereof are provided, and the 3D display apparatus comprises: a liquid crystal display panel; and a first polarizing filter and a second polarizing filter respectively attached to both sides of the liquid crystal display panel; a grating functional structure on the second polarizing filter, wherein a stripe direction of the grating functional structure may be controlled to form a different predetermined angle with a horizontal direction; a polarizing filter functional structure on the grating functional structure, wherein the functional states of the polarizing filter functional structure may be controlled to switch between effective and ineffective. The 3D display apparatus can achieve a compatible switching between a glasses type 3D displaying mode and a naked-eye 3D displaying mode on the same 3D display apparatus.
US09316839B2

At least one example embodiment discloses an image sensor with an improved light utilization efficiency based on reflective color filters. Since the image sensors may use most of an incident light for forming an image by using reflective color filters, light loss due to light absorption may be reduced. Therefore, light utilization efficiency of the image sensors may be improved while embodying color purity.
US09316823B2

A switchable high and low magnification lightweight microscope lens structure has a first microscope unit, a second microscope unit and a hinge. The first microscope unit has a first microscope lens having a first adhesive piece adhesively attached to an inner side of the first microscope unit with a hole formed through the first adhesive piece. The second microscope unit has a second microscope lens with a magnification higher than that of the first microscope lens having a second adhesive piece adhesively attached to an inner side of the second microscope unit. The hinge has two fixed arms, a pivoting block and a pivoting pin. The fixed arms are formed on and protrude from one edge of the first microscope unit. The pivoting block are formed on and protrudes from one edge of the second microscope unit, and mounted between the fixed arms.
US09316813B2

There is provided a lens module including: a first lens of which both surfaces are convex; a second lens having a meniscus shape concave toward an image; a third lens having a shape convex toward the image; a fourth lens having a meniscus shape convex toward the image; a fifth lens having a meniscus shape concave toward the image; and a stop disposed in front of an object side of the first lens, wherein when SD is a diameter of the stop and f is an overall focal length of the lens module, SD/f<0.45 is satisfied.
US09316812B2

Present embodiments provide for a mobile device and an optical imaging lens thereof. The optical imaging lens comprises five lens elements positioned sequentially from an object side to an image side. Through controlling the convex or concave shape of the surfaces and/or the refracting power of the lens elements, the optical imaging lens shows better optical characteristics and the total length of the optical imaging lens is shortened.
US09316811B2

A photographing lens assembly includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element, a fourth lens element, a fifth lens element, and a sixth lens element, which has a total of six non-cemented lens elements with refractive power. The first lens element with positive refractive power has an object-side surface being convex in a paraxial region thereof. The second lens element with refractive power has an object-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof. The third and the fourth lens elements have refractive power. The fifth lens element with negative refractive power has an object-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof and an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof. The sixth lens element with refractive power has an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof.
US09316809B2

An image capturing lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a first lens element, a second lens element, a third lens element and a fourth lens element. The first lens element with positive refractive power has an object-side surface being convex in a paraxial region thereof. The second lens element with refractive power has an object-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof and an image-side surface being convex in a paraxial region thereof. The third lens element with negative refractive power has an object-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof. The fourth lens element with refractive power has an image-side surface being concave in a paraxial region thereof, wherein an object-side surface and the image-side surface of the fourth lens element are aspheric. The image capturing lens system has a total of four lens elements with refractive power.
US09316800B1

An apparatus comprising a plurality of alignment couplers, wherein the alignment couplers are equally spaced a first length apart from each other along a first surface, a plurality of photodetectors optically coupled to the plurality of alignment couplers, a memory, and a processor coupled to the photodetectors and the memory, wherein the memory comprises computer executable instructions stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium that when executed by the processor cause the processor to receive an electrical signal in response to at least one of the photodetectors detecting a first light, and determine an edge coupling alignment based on the electrical signal, wherein the edge coupling alignment is aligned when the electrical signal indicates two photodetectors of the plurality of photodetectors detect the first light, and wherein the edge coupling alignment is misaligned when the electrical signal indicates only one photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors detects the first light.
US09316799B2

An optical module includes a flexible printed circuit board on which a light receiving element and/or a light emitting element is mounted face-down as an optical element, and having a part that transmits incoming light to the light receiving element and/or outgoing light from the light emitting element; a lens member disposed on a surface of the printed circuit board, on which the optical element is not mounted, and integrally formed to have within a predetermined area, a lens that transmits the incoming and/or the outgoing light, and a convex part abutting the printed circuit board; a bonding member disposed in an area other than the predetermined area, between the printed circuit board and the lens member, and that bonds the printed circuit board and the lens member; and a cooling member disposed to apply pressure to the optical element toward the printed circuit board and cool the optical element.
US09316795B2

An optical connection includes a male connector and a female connector, the connector offers electrical connections in the manner and the size of a USB connector, together with an integral and uncouplable optical connection. The first optical connector is shielded by a first shielding member from damage and pollution at all times until the connection between the connectors is made and the second opposing optical connector enjoys the same protection. Coupling precision between the optical connectors is achieved by magnetism holding the optical connectors together.
US09316790B2

A waveguide having a substrate, a first germanium sidewall and a second germanium sidewall. The waveguide is formed by growing the first germanium sidewall and second germanium sidewall on the substrate.
US09316789B2

A semiconductor device includes a single crystalline substrate, an electrical element and an optical element. The electrical element is disposed on the single crystalline substrate. The electrical element includes a gate electrode extending in a crystal orientation <110> and source and drain regions adjacent to the gate electrode. The source region and the drain region are arranged in a direction substantially perpendicular to a direction in which the gate electrode extends. The optical element is disposed on the single crystalline substrate. The optical element includes an optical waveguide extending in a crystal orientation <010>.
US09316788B2

A method and an apparatus for butt-coupling an input beam incoming from a photonic device of a second optical element to a primary photonic chip at an input interface of the primary photonic chip is disclosed. The primary photonic chip comprises a coupling apparatus. The light from the input beam is butt-coupled to the coupling apparatus. The coupling apparatus comprises a plurality of more than one single mode optical paths on the primary photonic chip. The single mode optical paths are strongly coupled to each other at the input interface of the primary photonic chip. Regions of strongly coupled single mode optical paths can correspond to one or both of distinct but highly coupled waveguides or waveguides fully merged into a multi-mode section.
US09316775B2

A light assembly is provided that includes a light guide, multiple light pipes, and multiple light sources. The light guide has an elongated body extending along a longitudinal axis. The light guide includes multiple segments arranged axially along a length of the body. Each segment has a light receiving region and a light emitting region. The light pipes are disposed along the light receiving regions and extend parallel to the longitudinal axis. Each of the multiple light sources is optically coupled to an attachment end of a corresponding light pipe. The light emitted by each light source is received by the corresponding light pipe at the attachment end and transmitted through the light pipe towards a distal end of the light pipe. Adjacent segments of the light guide receive light from different light pipes and emit such light from the light guide through the corresponding light emitting regions.
US09316764B2

A downhole tool and method for determining properties of a formation. The method comprising irradiating the formation with a nuclear source; performing both a resistivity and a sigma measurement at each of different radial depths into the formation with a plurality of detectors; and inputting the measurements into a predetermined model for determining the properties of the formation.
US09316754B2

A seismic acquisition system includes a distributed optical sensor (having an optical fiber) and an interrogation subsystem configured to generate a light signal to emit into the optical fiber. The interrogation subsystem receives, from the distributed optical sensor, backscattered light responsive to the emitted light signal, wherein the backscattered light is affected by one or both of seismic signals reflected from a subterranean structure and noise. Output data corresponding to the backscattered light is provided to a processing subsystem to determine a characteristic of the subterranean structure.
US09316719B1

A system suitable for determining a location of an emitter emitting a signal of interest from an unknown location has a vehicle with a location position determining apparatus to receive a location datum, so the location of the vehicle can be determined when the signal of interest is received. An antenna connected to a receiver is positioned on the vehicle to detect and receive the signal of interest at a plurality of locations. A processor having a program executing therein determines the power level of the signal of interest at each measurement location and determines the location of the emitter from the change in power level of the signal of interest between measurement locations.
US09316717B2

Methods and systems for determining and utilizing spatial correlative information relating to two or more devices to determine device positioning are described. Using audio signals emitted from stereo speakers, for example, associated with a first device and a microphone associated with the second device, the distance and angle between the two devices and as their relative positions can be determined. No other sensors or specialized accessories are needed on either device to calculate the distance and angles. The devices need only be loaded with the appropriate software which, when executed, is able to carry out steps of the present invention. The usefulness of one or both of the devices may be enhanced by knowing the distance and angle data between the devices. For example, one device may be a TV having stereo speakers and the other device may be a handheld device, such as a smartphone, having a microphone.
US09316716B2

The disclosure discloses a dynamic attitude measurement method of a star sensor based on gyro's precise angular correlation. On the basis that a dynamic compensation is performed on each of the measurement exposure frames of the star sensor and a fixed star matching vector matrix having dynamic error and noise influence is obtained in a prior art, a transform matrix between every two adjacent measurement frames of the star sensor is precisely measured by a unit including three gyros fixedly coupled with the star sensor. The transform matrix correlates the matched vector matrixes of the adjacent measurement frames of the star sensor. Finally, a correlated measurement equation is established with a series of correlated measurement frames, which is corresponding to processing a series of measurement frames as a single measurement frame.
US09316713B2

A magnetic resonance imaging apparatus includes a scan section for executing a navigator sequence which transmits an RF pulse to a subject to obtain each magnetic resonance signal as navigator data. Upon execution of the navigator sequence, the scan section excites both a navigator area having two regions from which intensities of different navigator data signals are obtained, the two regions containing a body-moved region of the subject, and a region different from the two regions simultaneously, and transmits the RF pulse in such a manner that the phase of navigator data obtained from the different region differs from the phase of at least one region of navigator data obtained from the two regions.
US09316710B2

A magnetic resonance sequence includes a repetitively applied radiofrequency pulse capable of causing a specific absorption rate (SAR) hot spot. The composition of the repetitive pulse is varied to generate versions of the repetitive pulse such that the SAR hot spot changes locations with subsequent applications of the repetitive pulse. To generate versions of the pulse, a pilot scan is performed to generate a patient model. A simulation of the SAR response to each of the versions of the repetitive pulse is performed to determine the location of SAR hot spot(s). A plurality of versions of the repetitive pulse is selected to be used in the magnetic resonance sequence.
US09316703B2

An apparatus for measuring a magnetic field is described, which comprises a core and an exciter coil for remagnetizing the core material. The remagnetizable core material is embodied as a layer or as multiple layers disposed at a distance from one another, and the core has a maximum total extension G where 2.5 mm≧G≧0.2 mm, a ratio of length to width that is greater than or equal to a value of twenty, and a thickness D where 2 μm≧D≧0.2 μm. Also described is a corresponding method for measuring a magnetic field.
US09316701B1

A novel method for real-time small-signal stability analysis for power electronic-based components in a power system. The method is based on impedance measurement techniques and Generalized Nyquist Criterion. The method is capable of real-time application. The method may be used to monitor a system in real-time by perturbing the system persistently and utilizing the system's responses to calculate source/load impedance in time-domain and based on d-q impedance measurement theory. Time-domain results may be transferred to frequency-domain results by taking advantage of a fast Fourier transform algorithm (or optionally discrete Fourier transformer for discrete systems) and monitoring the system's stability by obtaining a Nyquist contour and employing Generalized Nyquist Criterion or unit circle criterion.
US09316694B2

A battery is provided that includes a battery monitoring system integrated within the battery. The battery monitoring system includes a diagnostic system configured to monitor or store at least one parameter of the battery. Additionally, the battery monitoring system also includes a receiver communicatively coupled to the diagnostic system. Furthermore, the battery monitoring system includes a transmitter communicatively coupled to the diagnostic system and configured to activate upon receipt of a first wireless signal by the receiver and to transmit a second wireless signal indicative of the at least one parameter of the battery.
US09316685B2

A probe card, which is used to transmit power signals and test signals from a tester to a DUT, includes a pin base, a plurality of signal pins, a signal conducting circuit and at least one power conducting circuit. The signal pins are made of conductive materials, and each contacts the DUT with an end thereof; the signal conducting circuit has a first resistance, and electrically connects the tester and the other end of one of the signal pin to transmit the test signals to the DUT; the power conducting circuit has a second resistance which is much less than the first resistance, and electrically connects the tester and the other end of one of the signal pin which is not connected with the signal conducting circuit to transmit the power signals to the DUT.
US09316682B1

A fault diagnosis method for freewheeling diodes of power converter of switched reluctance motor with two main switches per phase, in which two current sensors are arranged on a power converter with two main switches per phase, wherein, one current sensor LEM1 detects the total current of the main switches connected to the DC bus, and the other current sensor LEM2 detects the total feedback current of the freewheeling diodes connected to the DC bus. By controlling ON/OFF of the upper and lower main switch tubes, short circuit fault of the upper freewheeling diode, short circuit fault of the lower freewheeling diode, short circuit fault of both the upper freewheeling diode and the lower freewheeling diode, open circuit fault of the upper freewheeling diode, open circuit fault of the lower freewheeling diode, or open circuit fault of both the upper freewheeling diode and the lower freewheeling diode can be determined.
US09316679B2

The method determines shunt caused residual voltages and fault caused residual voltages on the upstream bus and the downstream bus of the line segment within a faulty feeder section of a faulty feeder. The line segment is designated as a faulty line segment when a reference angle of a faulty phase is between a first angle of a difference between an angle of the fault caused residual voltage and an angle of the shunt caused residual voltage on the upstream bus and a second angle of a difference between an angle of the fault caused residual voltage and an angle of the shunt caused residual voltage on the downstream bus. The location of the fault is determined at a point on the faulty line segment with a difference between the angles of the fault and the shunt caused residual voltages in phase with the reference angle.
US09316674B2

A method for contactlessly checking the functionality of an antenna coil for a portable data carrier comprises the steps of exciting the antenna coil, detecting the free, damped oscillation of the antenna coil in response to the excitation, and evaluating the detected free, damped oscillation. The excitation of the antenna coil is effected inductively through a pulsed magnetic field, which may be generated by a single direct-current pulse, such as a Dirac pulse, by means of an exciting coil attached to a pulse generator. The detection of the oscillation of the antenna coil is effected through a measuring antenna, and the evaluation is effected by means of an evaluation device connected to the measuring antenna.
US09316667B2

In an aspect, in general, a system and method compensate for a misalignment characteristic of one or more acceleration sensors fixed to a sprung mass of a vehicle, each acceleration sensor having a location on the vehicle and a desired orientation relative to the vehicle.
US09316664B2

A disturbance correction device comprises a disturbance detector configured to detect and output a high frequency component of a measurement signal from an inertial sensor and a level converter coupled to the output of the disturbance detector. The level converter is configured to convert the high frequency component to a direct current (DC) signal. The disturbance correction device also comprises a compensator coupled to an output of the level converter and configured to compare the DC signal with a plurality of thresholds. When the DC signal passes one of the plurality of thresholds, the compensator is further configured to output a respective process noise increment to a Kalman filter. The respective process noise increment corresponds to the passed threshold.
US09316659B2

A sample tube transport system that includes a track adapted to provide a path for one or more carriers between a plurality of modules. The system includes at least one upper conveyor system having an upper belt configured to wrap around a first upper pulley and a second upper pulley, and a plurality of upper magnets affixed to the upper belt to move the one or more carriers along the track adjacent the upper belt. The at least one lower conveyor system includes a lower belt spaced vertically below the upper belt and configured to wrap around the first lower pulley and the second lower pulley, and a plurality of lower magnets affixed to the lower belt. Each of the plurality of lower magnets are positioned to attract and move the one or more carriers along the track adjacent the lower belt.
US09316657B2

What is disclosed are methods and apparatus for loading or removing samples for testing. The apparatus comprises a sample disk body for holding a sample for testing, a sample disk lid configured to cover at least a part of the sample disk body and comprising a fixed lid which is fixedly attached to the sample disk body and a movable gate which is movable relatively to the fixed lid, and a locking mechanism to lock the movable gate into a closed position. The opening and closing of the movable gate is controlled by the locking mechanism to prevent inadvertent opening of the sample lid while the sample disk is operating.
US09316650B2

The invention concerns the field of detecting and quantifying misfolded proteins/peptides. In particular the detection and quantification of misfolded proteins/peptides in body fluids, on cell surfaces of humans and mammals, the detection of misfolded proteins/peptides in reagents to be tested for scientific research and/or diagnostic use and in pharmaceutical medication or their additives and it concerns as well the removal of misfolded proteins/peptides from reagents to be tested for scientific research and/or for diagnostic purposes and from pharmaceutical medication or their additives. Furthermore the invention includes substances to identify and methods to detect bio-films, a method to examine hemocompatibility of materials and a method to optimize therapeutical products, and to provide reagents microorganisms to charge with for more reliable diagnostics and quality control of biopharmaceuticals and identification substances for the screening for preliminary stages of amyloids that can be used for technical purposes.
US09316648B2

A synthetic urine solution and method of its manufacture are disclosed. The solution includes water having a pH between about 3 and about 10. The solution further includes creatinine, a means for removing bacteria from the solution so as to control or eliminate sepsis of the urine solution, preferably through the use of a biocide, and a urea-based compound. The solution exhibits a specific gravity of from 1.005 g/cm3 to 1.025 g/cm3. Additional compounds may also be included to further enhance the aesthetics or apparent authenticity of the synthetic urine.
US09316647B2

The present invention provides aptamers that specifically bind to the EGF receptor in a sample, and diagnostic and analytical methods using those aptamers.
US09316646B2

The invention relates to antibodies having specificity for human ROR1, compositions thereof, and methods for using such antibodies, including in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders associated with aberrant ROR1 expression.
US09316642B2

The invention concerns soluble variants of Treponema pallidum antigen 47 (TpN47 antigen) comprising at least domain B, or at least domains A and B, optionally domain D of the complete TpN47 protein molecule with the proviso that all antigens lack domain C (amino acid residues 224 to 351) of TpN47. The Tpn47 antigens can be fused to a chaperone. Moreover, the invention covers DNA encoding the antigens, a method of producing these antigens as well as the use of these antigens in an immunodiagnostic assay for the detection of antibodies against Treponema pallidum in an isolated sample.
US09316641B2

The disclosure relates to methods and reagents for analyzing samples for the presence of JC virus antibodies. Disclosed is a method that includes obtaining a biological sample from a subject (e.g., plasma, serum, blood, urine, or cerebrospinal fluid), contacting the sample with highly purified viral-like particles (HPVLPs) under conditions suitable for binding of a JCV antibody in the sample to an HPVLP, and detecting the level of JCV antibody binding in the sample to HPVLP. In one embodiment, determining the level of anti-JCV antibodies in the subject sample provides a method of identifying PML risk in a subject.
US09316638B2

Methods and devices for reducing interference from leukocytes in an analyte immunoassay are provided. In one embodiment, a method is provided comprising the steps of amending a biological sample such as a whole blood sample with one or more leukocidal reagents that reduce or eliminate the metabolic activity of leukocytes, and performing an immunoassay on the amended sample to determine the concentration of analyte in the sample. Preferably, the sample is amended with one or more enzymes and optionally one or more enzyme substrates and cofactors.
US09316636B2

A method of determining kinetic parameters for a reversible molecular interaction between a ligand immobilized to a solid support surface and a binding partner to the ligand in solution, comprises sequentially, without intermediate regeneration or renewal of the immobilized ligand, flowing a plurality of fluid volumes containing different known concentrations of the binding partner over the solid support surface, monitoring the momentary amount of binding partner bound to the solid support surface related to time and solution concentration of binding partner and collecting the binding data, and determining the kinetic parameters by globally fitting a predetermined kinetic model for the interaction between the binding partner and the immobilized ligand to the collected binding data, which model allows for mass transport limitation at the solid support surface. An analytical system for carrying out the method, a computer program, a computer program product and a computer system for performing the method are also disclosed.
US09316634B2

Isolated transduced cells exhibiting FRDA characteristics in an inducible fashion are disclosed. Isolated transduced cells comprise an expression vector having a nucleic acid sequence encoding an shRNA for frataxin protein knockdown and a heterologous expression control sequence. Additionally, methods of screening for a candidate therapeutic agent for treating Friedreich's Ataxia using isolated transduced cells are disclosed. Further, a recombinant nucleic acid construct for frataxin knockdown is disclosed that comprises a nucleic acid encoding an shRNA operably linked to a heterologous expression control sequence and expressing an shRNA molecule in a dose-responsive fashion.
US09316618B2

An eddy current object testing system includes an EC probe and an acquisition channel which is configured to receive an EC signal from the EC probe and to generate a visual output, namely an impedance plane representation, of the output. A display is coupled to the acquisition channel to display the visual output. The at least one probe is provided with a test loop substantially surrounding it and has a series switch which can be selectively closed or opened to thereby cause the image plane to assume a state that is indicative of a fault, if any, in the EC probe.
US09316614B2

An alcohol-measuring device includes a mouthpiece (1), designed to enable a test subject to release breathing air into the mouthpiece, an electrochemical sensor (6), in fluidic connection with the mouthpiece (1) to measure alcohol in the breathing air of the test subject and a control unit. The sensor (6) has at least two heating elements (9, 10), one heating element arranged on the front side and one heating element arranged on the rear side of the sensor (6). The control unit (4) is electrically connected to the heating elements to supply electrical energy for the heating elements. The control unit (4) is set up to heat the heating elements each to a desired temperature. The control unit (4) is also electrically connected to the sensor (6) in order to determine the value of the alcohol concentration in the breathing air of the test subject.
US09316610B1

A method for detecting electromagnetic waves derived from bacterial DNA, including extracting and purifying nucleic acids from a sample; diluting the extracted purified nucleic acids in an aqueous solvent; measuring a low frequency electromagnetic emission over time from the diluted extracted purified nucleic acids in an aqueous solvent; performing a signal analysis of the low frequency electromagnetic emission over time; and producing an output, based on the signal analysis, in dependence on the DNA in the sample. The DNA may be extracted from at least one of blood, feces, urine, saliva, tears, seminal fluid, sweat, seminal and vaginal fluids of a patient, or water to determine, e.g., potability. The samples may be frozen. The extracting and purifying may include diluting the sample with an aqueous buffer and mixing; degrading proteins in the diluted sample; precipitating DNA from the buffer solution; and resuspending the precipitated DNA in an aqueous solution.
US09316588B2

Provided are a procedurally simple and safe method and kit for measuring the concentration in a biological sample of a physiologically active substance which binds to a receptor that causes a change in intracellular cAMP concentration. By providing a composition including genetically-modified cells which show co-expression of a receptor that causes a change in intracellular cAMP concentration, a cyclic nucleotide-responsive calcium channel, and aequorin luminescent protein, it is possible to measure how much of a physiologically active substance which binds to said receptor is included in a biological sample.
US09316583B2

A specimen analyzing method and a specimen analyzing apparatus capable of measuring interference substances before analyzing a specimen. The method comprises a step for sucking the specimen stored in a specimen container (150) and sampling it in a first container (153), a step for optically measuring the specimen in the first container, a step for sampling the specimen in a second container (154) and preparing a specimen for measurement by mixing the specimen with a reagent in the second container, and a step for analyzing the specimen for measurement according to the results of the optical measurement of the specimen.
US09316582B2

An information acquiring apparatus that acquires information of a sample includes an irradiation unit configured to irradiate an irradiation position of the sample with a terahertz wave through a transmission member being in contact with the sample; a detection unit configured to detect a terahertz wave reflected by the transmission member and a terahertz wave reflected by the sample; a waveform acquiring unit configured to acquire a time waveform of the terahertz wave reflected by the transmission member and a time waveform of the terahertz wave reflected by the sample, by using detection results of the detection unit; and an information acquiring unit configured to acquire the information of the sample by using the time waveform of the terahertz wave reflected by the transmission member, the time waveform of the terahertz wave reflected by the sample, and information relating to a thickness of the transmission member at the irradiation position.
US09316581B2

Sampling device geometry reduces specular reflectance, using lenses to focus electromagnetic energy to predominately return scattered rather than reflected electromagnetic energy to detector(s), reducing effect of non-matte surfaces and/or window. Sampling device includes inherent automatic optical calibration, and optionally thermal calibration. Calibration detectors are optically isolated with respective emitters.
US09316579B2

An optical sensor comprising a waveguide having a sensing layer which is molecularly imprinted such that it will receive and retain target entities to be sensed, the optical sensor further comprising a detection apparatus arranged to detect a change of an optical property of the waveguide which occurs when the target entities are received and retained in the sensing layer.
US09316578B2

An in-line holographic microscope can be used to analyze on a frame-by-frame basis a video stream to track individual colloidal particles' three-dimensional motions. The system and method can provide real time nanometer resolution, and simultaneously measure particle sizes and refractive indexes. Through a combination of applying a combination of Lorenz-Mie analysis with selected hardware and software methods, this analysis can be carried out in near real time. An efficient particle identification methodology automates initial position estimation with sufficient accuracy to enable unattended holographic tracking and characterization.
US09316564B2

A blade inspection apparatus has a borescope and a PC. The borescope has a distance sensor for detecting an insertion length when an insertion section of the borescope is inserted through a hole provided in a casing in which a rotor of an engine is housed, an acceleration sensor for detecting an attitude of the insertion section, and distance sensors for detecting two distances from the insertion section to two stator vanes on a stator. The PC compares the insertion length, attitude and two distances detected in the borescope with the insertion length, attitude and two distances relating to an inspection image stored in a HDD. When a match occurs therebetween, the PC outputs match information.
US09316554B1

A fiber optic analyte sensing needle employing an analyte-partial-pressure-sensitive photoluminescent probe, characterized by (i) a void volume channel extending axially along the length of the lumen between the inner surface of the tube and the outer surface of the fiber optic filament, and (ii) a total pressure sensor in pressure communication with the distal tip of the needle via the void volume channel, whereby total pressure of a volume sampled by the sensing needle can be routinely measured and used in pressure compensation of analyte-concentration values calculated from the analyte-partial-pressure readings taken from the analyte-partial-pressure-sensitive photoluminescent probe.
US09316550B2

A shock sensor includes: a supporting body; a bistable mechanism, configured to switch from a first stable mechanical configuration to a second stable mechanical configuration in response to an impact force applied along a detection axis and such as to supply to the bistable mechanism an amount of energy higher than a transition energy; and a detection device, coupled to the bistable mechanism and having a first state, when the bistable mechanism is in an initial stable mechanical configuration and a second state, after the bistable mechanism has made a transition from the initial stable mechanical configuration to a final stable mechanical configuration. The bistable mechanism includes at least one elastic element, constrained to the supporting body in at least two opposite peripheral regions and defining a first concavity in the first stable mechanical configuration and a second concavity, opposite to the first concavity, in the second stable mechanical configuration.
US09316540B1

A spectrometer for measuring a spectral signature of an object comprises fringe generating optics for use with a camera and a processor. The fringe generating optics are formed of front optics and birefringent optics. The front optics comprises a diffuser adapted to receive light from the object. The birefringent optics is adapted to receive light from the diffuser and to generate interference fringes. The camera is adapted to receive the interference fringes and the processor generates the spectral signature of the object. This spectrometer is an improved Fourier transform spectrometer suitable for use with digital cameras, such as cameras found in mobile devices.
US09316537B2

A system and method of sorting mineral streams, for example laterite mineral ores, into appropriately classified valuable and waste streams for maximum recovery of value from the mineral stream, e.g., a stream of minerals includes receiving response data indicating reflected, absorbed or backscattered energy from a mineral sample exposed to a sensor, where the mineral sample is irradiated with electromagnetic energy. The system determines spectral characteristics of the mineral sample by performing spectral analysis on the response data of the mineral sample and identifies a composition of the mineral sample by comparing the spectral characteristics of the mineral sample to previously developed spectral characteristics of samples of known composition. The system then generates a sort decision for the mineral sample based on the comparison, where the sort decision is used in diverting the mineral sample to a desired destination e.g. pyrometallurgical treatment stages, or to a waste stream.
US09316534B1

A reconfigurable photonic integrated circuit focal plane array (RPIC-FPA) includes detectors and photonic integrated circuit coupled to the detectors that are configured to mix a return signal beam with local oscillator (LO) beams to produce a combined beam and direct the combined beam to the detectors. The LO beams have reconfigurable optical properties enabled by the RPIC-FPA. The LO beams are individually addressed to switch the detectors between a direct detection mode and various coherent detection modes based on adjustments to the optical properties of the LO beams. In the coherent detection mode, the controller is configured to mix the return signal beam with the LO beam having adjusted optical properties to produce the combined beam, and, in the direct detection mode, the controller is configured to disable the LO beams based on adjustments to the optical properties and to direct the return signal beam to the detectors without mixing.
US09316527B2

A bidirectional sphere prover is used to check the accuracy of a custody transfer meter when fluids, such as crude oil or gasoline are bought and sold. The bidirectional sphere prover of the present invention uses a straight calibrated section of pipe between the detection switches, the straight calibrated section of pipe being free of welds, flanges and elbows.
US09316524B2

A fluid level gauge includes a housing having a first end and a second end, and a window disposed in the housing, proximate to the first end. The fluid level gauge further includes an optical sensor disposed in the housing, proximate to the second end. A prism is disposed in the housing, between the optical sensor and the window, such that the prism and the window define a fluid chamber therebetween. The housing further includes a plurality of through holes that provides a fluid path from outside the housing to the fluid chamber.
US09316514B2

A wafer-type electromagnetic flow sensor includes a single-piece chassis having a pair of faces and a flow conduit extending between the pair of faces. Each face of the chasses includes a feature configured to engage a metal sealing ring. A non-conductive liner is disposed in the flow conduit of the single-piece chassis. A plurality of electromagnetic coils is configured to generate a flux into process fluid flowing through the flow conduit. A pair of electrodes is configured to electrically couple to the process fluid. A feedthrough assembly is configured to maintain process fluid pressure while allowing a plurality of electrical conductors to pass therethrough.
US09316512B2

A method for inspecting an object. A support structure physically associated with a first sensor and a second sensor is moved to an area for inspection. The support structure is in a first configuration and the first sensor and the second sensor are positioned about an axis extending through the support structure when the support structure is in the first configuration. The support structure is changed from the first configuration to a second configuration. The first sensor and the second sensor are configured to generate information when the support structure is in the second configuration.
US09316509B2

A method of measuring direction of rotation of a tappet of an engine valve train. Two opposing notches are machined or otherwise formed in the outer surface of the tappet. Two sensors proximate the outer surface of the tappet are operable to detect the change in distance resulting from the notches as the tappet rotates. There is a predetermined difference angle of separation between the arc distance between the notches and the arc distance between the sensors. Each sensor outputs a square wave output having pulses whose width represents detection of the notches by the sensor. The location of the pulses of the two square wave outputs is compared to determine direction of rotation of the tappet.
US09316507B2

The invention relates to an angular encoder (10) for monitoring the angular position of a rotating shaft (32), with a modulator (34) which can be positioned on the rotating shaft in order to provide a signal which changes as a function of the angular position of the rotating shaft (32), and with a receiver (22) for the reception of the signal which changes as a function of the angular position of the rotating shaft (32), in which the receiver (22) and the modulator (34) are positioned in such a way as to be thermally insulated from each other, so that the transfer of heat from the modulator (34) to the receiver (22) is impeded, while thermal insulation is achieved at least in part by a thermally insulating separator (35), which is positioned between the modulator (34), on the one hand, and the transmitter (21) and/or the receiver (22), on the other hand.The invention further relates to a drive system (100) with an angular encoder (110) of the type described.
US09316502B2

An intelligent navigation device is provided for actively collecting data about a user and the surrounding environment, drawing helpful inferences, and actively aiding the user in navigation, environmental awareness, and social interaction. The intelligent navigation device may include cameras for detecting image data regarding the surrounding environment. The intelligent navigation device may include a GPS unit, an IMU, and a memory for storing previously determined user data. The intelligent navigation device may include a processor for determining a desirable action or event based on the image data, data detected by the GPS unit or the IMU, or a recognized object in the surrounding environment. The processor may further determine a destination and provide navigation assistance to the user for reaching the destination. The intelligent navigation device may convey output data using a display, a speaker, a vibration unit, a mechanical feedback unit, or an electrical stimulation unit.
US09316501B2

Disclosed is an apparatus caused to acquire information indicating a measured magnetic field vector and information relating to an uncertainty measure of the measured magnetic field vector in at least one known location inside the building, wherein the indicated magnetic field vector represents magnitude and direction of the earth's magnetic field affected by the local structures of the building, and to generate the indoor magnetic field map for at least part of the building on the basis of at least the acquired information and the floor plan.
US09316499B2

A module includes a first rigid substrate including an analog circuit; a second rigid substrate including a digital circuit; a third rigid substrate including an angular velocity sensor; a first connecting portion that connects the first rigid substrate and the second rigid substrate so as to electrically connect the analog circuit and the digital circuit, and that has flexibility; and a second connecting portion that connects the first rigid substrate and the third rigid substrate so as to electrically connect the analog circuit and the angular velocity sensor, and that has flexibility.
US09316496B2

Position determination method for a target point, using a geodetic measuring device, such as a total station or a theodolite, having a distance and angle measurement functionality, a sighting device, and a first radio module, and using a hand-held data processing device, such as a data logger for the measuring device, having a second radio module. The data processing device is positioned within a specified radius of the target point. As part of the method, a radio connection is established between the first and the second radio modules, and the position of the target point is determined. A rough distance between the first and the second radio modules is determined based on a propagation time of interrogation and/or response signals of the radio connection and is used to locate the target—as displaying, detecting, identifying, and/or sighting the target point—or to exclude further possible target point candidates.
US09316485B2

Embodiments of the invention relate to an apparatus and methods of using the apparatus wherein the apparatus includes a plurality of interferometers wherein the plurality of interferometers enable interference of an electromagnetic input signal, wherein the plurality of interferometers are configured to receive a plurality of sensor input signals from a plurality of sensors where the plurality of sensor input signals provide an indication of a plurality of sensed characteristics and the sensor input signals control the interference of the electromagnetic input signal by the plurality of interferometers, and wherein the plurality of interferometers are configured to provide a first output when the plurality of characteristics sensed by the sensors correspond to a first context and a second output when the plurality of characteristics sensed by the sensors correspond to a second context.
US09316478B2

A method and device are provided for detecting when a closing point of a hydraulic valve has been reached. The valve has a closing element operated by an electric actuator. A predetermined voltage for closing the valve is applied to the actuator. A profile of a current flowing through the actuator is detected. Based on a first increase in the profile corresponding to the valve being at least partially open, a subsequent decrease in the profile corresponding to the closing element carrying out a movement to close the valve, and a second increase in the profile following said decrease in the profile, a local minimum of the detected current is determined between the decrease and the second increase in the profile. Depending on the local minimum of the detected current, a closing point is then determined which corresponds to a time point of the local minimum of the detected current.
US09316475B2

A height measurement device, detachably disposed on an article, includes a body and a measurement unit. The body includes a clamping member, a height indicator, and a pivot member. The clamping member has a first joint portion and a clamping slit, wherein the clamping slit is capable of clamping the article. The height indicator has a first pivot portion. The pivot member has an adjacent portion and a second joint portion, and is pivotally jointed the height indicator to the clamping member through the first pivot portion, whereas the pivot member is moved to allow the second joint portion joint to the first joint portion, the adjacent portion abuts the height indicator onto the clamping member so as to fix the height indicator at a measurement position. The measurement unit disposed on the body is for use in measuring a height of the measurement position.
US09316472B2

A slide guide device includes: a guide body having a reference guide surface and a sub guide surface that are parallel to each other; a slider having a reference slide pad adapted to slide on the reference guide surface and a sub slide pad adapted to slide on the sub guide surface, the slider being adapted to be driven by a drive unit to move along the guide body. The sub slide pad includes a slide surface (sub slide surface) slidable on the sub guide surface and an air pocket that receives a load in a manner non-contact with the sub guide surface.
US09316453B2

A modified elongate ammunition magazine, the magazine being modified by modifying an elongate, single plane magazine by removing its end cap so as to provide an elongate modified magazine having an upper end for attaching to said magazine well of a firearm, a lower end, and a through passageway therebetween, and a clip leg base attached thereto and also attachable to a high capacity ammunition magazine housing, the clip leg base configured such that when it is attached to said modified magazine to construct a feed clip assembly, and when the clip leg base is also attached to a high capacity magazine, and when the upper end of the modified magazine is installed into a firearm, an ammunition passageway is defined from an ammunition outlet of a high capacity ammunition magazine housing, through the modified magazine, and to a firearm. Also provided is a last linked assembly including a loose or spreadable link.
US09316450B2

A heat exchanger is provided having a tube block having a plurality of essentially parallel tubes for carrying a temperature control fluid, wherein at least the ends of the tubes are connected to one another. In addition, the heat exchanger comprises at least one header box that is designed to receive a temperature control fluid from the tubes, wherein the at least one header box has an inside height that corresponds within a tolerance range to the height of the ends of the tubes and wherein the header box is placed over the ends of the tubes and is joined thereto in a material-to-material fashion.
US09316440B2

A laundry treatment apparatus includes a drum rotatably supported within a cabinet and configured to receive laundry therein, a connection duct into which air inside the drum is discharged, and a discharge duct that extends in a longitudinal direction of the drum and that is connected to the connection duct. The laundry treatment apparatus also includes a filter assembly including a filter unit located in the discharge duct to filter air and an impurity remover unit configured to remove and compress impurities remaining on the filter unit.
US09316438B2

Method for transfer of containers, such as vials (101), between a freeze dryer (1) that is located at a first location and a separate transport vehicle (30) that is mobile with respect to the freeze dryer, wherein the freeze dryer (1) comprises a freeze dryer housing (2) with an access opening (11) towards an inner freeze drying chamber (10) inside the freeze dryer housing (2), multiple shelves (21-24) that are arranged spaced apart above each other inside the freeze dryer chamber (10) and each provided with a horizontally extending first flat supporting surface (25) for supporting the containers, wherein the mobile transport vehicle (30) comprises a mobile undercarriage (31) supporting a storage housing (33) with an access opening (40) towards an inner storage chamber (39), a carrier provided with a second flat supporting surface (58) for supporting the containers inside the storage housing (33), and a container shifter (60) for pushing out containers away from the second flat supporting surface (58) in a pushing out direction parallel to the second flat supporting surface (58).
US09316436B2

A method of clearing precipitation from a surface of a window comprises ultrasonically vaporizing the precipitation. A vehicle windscreen, for example, has transducers distributed around the edge and bonded to the windscreen to insonify it. The transducers are energized by a drive system.
US09316433B2

Contemplated methods and configurations use a cooled ethane and CO2-containing feed gas that is expanded in a first turbo-expander and subsequently heat-exchanged to allow for relatively high expander inlet temperatures to a second turbo expander. Consequently, the relatively warm demethanizer feed from the second expander effectively removes CO2 from the ethane product and prevents carbon dioxide freezing in the demethanizer, while another portion of the heat-exchanged and expanded feed gas is further chilled and reduced in pressure to form a lean reflux for high ethane recovery.
US09316431B2

The present invention is a method of regulating a refrigeration device by storing thermal energy during non-peak hours for use during peak hours in order to shift refrigeration device operation to non-peak hours. In a first iteration, a real-time temperature of the refrigeration device is cooled to a target temperature over a first time duration. The refrigeration device compressor and fan are disabled over a second time duration and the real-time temperature is allowed to slowly rise, never exceeding an established maximum temperature. The real-time temperature is periodically monitored over the first time duration and the second time duration and adjustments are made for a subsequent iteration if the target temperature is reached before the end of the first time duration, if the target temperature is not reached during the first time duration, and if the maximum temperature is reached during the second time duration.
US09316430B2

A thermal insulating material that is superior to blown-in polyurethane foam that has vertical insulating properties and lateral thermal conducting properties, and is made of alternating layers of aluminum metal foil and insulating foam that causes the temperature of a cold spot to increase at least 3 degrees F. when compared to an equivalent amount of blown-in polyurethane foam. This material is suitable for increasing the temperature of cold spots of the exterior of refrigerator/freezer doors.
US09316424B2

A cooling system has a plurality of separate cooling stages including an upstream cooling stage having an upstream cooling circuit and a downstream cooling stage including a downstream cooling circuit, which are each a direct expansion cooling circuit including a tandem compressor. Each tandem compressor includes a fixed capacity compressor and a variable capacity compressor. A controller controls the fixed capacity compressor and variable capacity compressor of each tandem compressor based on a Call for Cooling, which of a plurality of ranges the Call for Cooling falls within, and whether the Call for Cooling is ramping up or ramping down.
US09316422B2

A heat pump includes a first portion for evaporating a working fluid at a first pressure, for compressing the evaporated working fluid to a second, higher pressure, and for liquefying the compressed working fluid within a liquefier, and a second portion for compressing liquid working fluid to a third pressure, which is higher than the second pressure, for evaporating the working fluid compressed to the third pressure, for relaxing the evaporated working fluid to a pressure, which is lower than the third pressure, so as to generate electrical current, and for liquefying relaxed evaporated working fluid within the liquefier.
US09316412B2

One embodiment includes a high capacity water heater assembly. The assembly includes a vessel with an inlet and an outlet, with water delivered to the vessel through the inlet. Also included is a heating element attached to the vessel for heating the water delivered to the vessel, an active mixing valve in fluid connection with the outlet of the vessel, and a water temperature sensor attached to the vessel to communicate data used for powering on and off the heating element.
US09316411B2

A heating, ventilation, and/or air conditioning (HVAC) furnace has a flat burner comprising an upstream side and a downstream side, the flat burner being configured to receive an air-fuel mixture therethrough, a first flow path located adjacent the flat burner and downstream relative to the flat burner, the first flow path configured to receive fluid exiting the flat burner, and a plurality of second flow paths located downstream relative to the first flow path, the plurality of second flow paths being configured to receive fluid from the first flow path.
US09316408B2

An energy supply module is configured to provide at least one of electricity and hot water to at least one load coupled thereto. The energy supply module includes a plurality of frame members that define an upper level and a lower level. The energy supply module also includes an engine positioned on the upper level and a generator coupled to the engine and also positioned on the upper level. The generator is configured to generate a supply of electricity for distribution to the at least one load. The energy supply module further includes a hot water heater positioned on the upper level, wherein the hot water heater is configured to provide a supply of hot water to the at least one load.
US09316401B1

A unit for grilling or enjoying the aesthetic qualities of a fireplace where the grilling portion of the unit is located above the fireplace portion of the unit, and above the grilling portion is a hood portion for containing heat near the grilling portion.
US09316394B2

A system for the recovery of heat from gases. A heat recovery system uses a wetted heat transfer surface to recover heat from a bulk gas, such as a flue gas. The system utilizes wetted heat transfer tubes which are sprayed in a manner to minimize the film thickness of the wetting on the heat transfer tubes. To improve efficiency, the contact liquid used to wet the heat transfer tubes is maintained at a temperature between the temperature of the exiting cooled gas and the temperature of the inlet (cool) process fluid to be heated. Such heat recovery system design criteria enhance performance, and thus enable more efficient heat recovery to be practiced, particularly in systems where combustion gases are encountered.
US09316385B2

A backlight device (lighting device) (12) according to the present invention includes a chassis (14) having an opened section (14b), optical members (15) disposed to cover the opened section (14b) in the chassis (14), LEDs (light source) (17) disposed outside of the chassis (14), and lens members (light guide members) (20) disposed in such a structure as to penetrate the chassis (14), the lens members guiding the light from the LEDs (17) into the chassis (14). An LED housing chassis (light source housing member) (19) that stores therein the LEDs (17) is attached to the chassis (14).
US09316383B2

A lighting device has a plurality of LEDs of at least two types connected in series. At least one of the LEDs of the first type and LEDs of the second type is connected in parallel to a resistor assembly, such that the temperature-dependent resistance of the resistor assembly stabilizes a ratio of luminous flux output at different junction temperatures of the LEDs.
US09316376B2

An apparatus for producing light signals in a vehicle. The same physical apparatus produces light signals of two different colors. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) of two different colors produce diverging light rays. These rays are captured by a transparent plate and conducted to an edge of the plate, which reflects and collimates the light into parallel beams. The parallel beams then reach an elongated lens running along another edge of the plate, which focuses, or de-focuses, the light and transmits it externally as a signal.
US09316375B2

A light for a vehicle having a contiguous reflector (3) having a plurality of reflector surface regions (A1, A2, B) and a first light source (1) that is arranged such that the light emission thereof is reflected by a first region (A1, B) of the reflector surface of the reflector (3). The reflector (3) has an opening (5) and there is a second light source that is arranged behind a part (4) of the reflector (3) relative to the light emission direction (L) of the light and the light emission thereof hits a second region (A2) of the reflector surface of the reflector (3) through the opening (5) and is there reflected.
US09316374B2

A vehicle headlight utilizes a rotationally asymmetric projection lens with its light emitting surface inclined with respect to the optical axis thereof, whereby the light emitted from the light source and projected forward through the light emitting surface of the projection lens is diffused substantially uniformly with respect to the optical axis of the projection lens, for example, uniform substantially in the right and left directions and/or the upper and lower directions. This can be achieved by designing the reflecting surface to have its optical axis inclined with respect to the optical axis of the projection lens by a predetermined angle so that light emitted from the light source and projected forward through the light emitting surface of the projection lens is made uniform with respect to the optical axis of the projection lens (for example, uniform substantially in the right and left directions and/or the upper and lower directions).
US09316354B2

Apparatus and methods to couple fuel components to a fuel tank are described. An example method includes forming a guide within a cavity of a fuel tank, positioning a carrier on the guide, and sliding the carrier along the guide.
US09316352B2

An electrical tool includes a trigger lock assembly having a trigger lock member, a detent assembly, and a return spring. The trigger lock member is movable relative to a trigger between a neutral position, in which the trigger is movable between an off position and an on position, a lock-off position, in which the trigger is prevented from moving from the off position, and a lock-on position, in which the trigger is maintained in the on position. The detent assembly is operable to releaseably retain the trigger lock member in each position and includes a recess associated with each position. The detent assembly also includes a projection selectively engageable in one of the recesses to releasably retain the trigger lock member in the associated position, and a biasing member biasing the projection into engagement. The return spring is operable to bias the trigger lock member toward the neutral position.
US09316351B2

A case construction encases an electronic device and enables a user to rotatably and linearly displace the electronic device relative to a select surface of the case construction. The case construction includes a case with a cradle-receiving surface, a cradle sized and shaped to removably receive an electronic device, and a device-to-surface anchor assembly. The cradle includes a centralized region having an oblong aperture and adjustable arm assemblies. The oblong aperture defines a cradle displacement zone segment. The device-to-surface anchor assembly secures the cradle device to the cradle-receiving surface and is cooperable with the oblong aperture for enabling a user to linearly and rotatably displace the centralized region along the cradle displacement zone segment. Certain methodology for displacing an electronic device relative to select surfacing so as to position the electronic device in a select orientation relative to the select surfacing is further provided.
US09316346B2

A mounting system for pivotally mounting a load such as display device to a support arm including a device mounting element for supporting a display, a hoop element defined by a portion of the circumference of a circle, and a support arm mount slidable along relative to, and rotatable about relative to, the hoop. A support system for supporting a load such as a display device includes a mount for a load, a base element and a support arm coupling the mount and base element at, respectively, distal and proximal portions of the support arm, and pivotally connected to at least the base element. A support arm for supporting a load such as a display device includes a balancing mechanism providing a force or torque operative to balance the weight of a display device on or near a first end of the support arm, an adjustment mechanism to adjust the magnitude of the force or torque provided by the balancing mechanism, and an indicator arrangement on the support arm for providing a visual indication of the magnitude of force or torque provided by the balancing mechanism.
US09316342B2

This invention pertains to a layered sheet comprising a flame resistant wet-laid nonwoven carrier having a first and second surface and an inorganic refractory layer adjacent to at least one surface of the carrier wherein the refractory layer has a dry area weight of from 15 to 50 gsm, the bond strength between the refractory layer and the surface of the carrier is at least 0.25 lb/in, wherein the carrier comprises from 40 to 70 weight percent of aramid fibers and from 30 to 60 weight percent of polymeric binder, is hydrophilic, has a smoothness on at least one surface of no less than 250 Sheffield units, a thickness of from 0.025 to 0.175 mm and a density of from 0.25 to 0.60 g/cc. Preferably the carrier is in the form of a paper.
US09316340B2

An actively driven spiral pipeline robot is disclosed, comprising: a body, a power device, a driving shaft, an axle, a driving wheel carrier mounted at one end of the body, and a variable diameter mechanism disposed on the driving wheel carrier. The axle is disposed on the variable diameter mechanism. A driving wheel is fixedly mounted on the axle. The driving shaft and the axle are connected via a connector. The driving shaft is further connected with an output shaft of the power device via a transmission device. The present invention has following beneficial effects: a scope of application of the robot is expanded, an operation is stable, and an axial force is large. In addition, an axial position of the robot is adjusted by controlling an operation of the driving wheel, and an adjustment precision is high.
US09316338B2

A working vehicle includes: a cabin; an air conditioning unit disposed at a rear upper portion of the cabin; and drain hoses connected to a drain portion of the air conditioning unit, water drained from the drain portion flowing through the drain hoses, wherein the drain hoses are respectively disposed at both left and right sides of the air conditioning unit in front and rear direction, and both front and rear portions of the drain hoses are provided with drain hose outlets from which the water flowing through the drain hoses is drained.
US09316323B2

A valve assembly includes a first piston member displaceably disposed within a first chamber. A second piston member is coupled to a valve closure element, such as a diaphragm, and the second piston member is disposed within a second chamber. A longitudinal displacement of the first piston member relative to the first chamber causes hydraulic fluid disposed within the first chamber to longitudinally displace the second piston member such that the valve closure element engages a valve seat to close the valve assembly. The area of the second piston member is greater than that of the first piston member to multiply the force provided by an actuator that displaces a valve stem coupled to the first piston member.
US09316319B2

A dynamic sealing mechanism for a machine assembly that includes a seal housing of generally cylindrical form having opposed ends, the seal housing axially positioned between a pressure housing and a retaining member and laterally translatable relative to the pressure housing. The dynamic sealing mechanism includes a shaft located at least partially within the seal housing, the shaft having a sealing surface of generally cylindrical form, relatively movable with respect to the seal housing, and having at least one radial bearing positioned radially by the shaft and locating the radial position of the seal housing. At least three fluid pressure-generated forces act axially on the seal housing to produce a net fluid pressure-generated axial force that is negligible.
US09316313B2

A piston ring formed of cast iron provides improved machinability and exceptional performance and minimum costs. The cast iron includes 2.2 to 2.9 wt. % carbon, 3.2 to 4.2 wt. % silicon, 0.75 to 1.25 wt. % copper, 1.0 to 1.5 wt. % manganese, 0.09 to 0.15 wt. % sulfur, not greater than 0.2 wt. % phosphorous, and an average carbon equivalent of 3.8. The cast iron preferably includes a matrix of martensite with MnS and carbides dispersed therein. The matrix is also preferably free of ferrite, austenite, and steadite. The cast iron is formed by casting, austenitizing, quenching, and tempering the alloy.
US09316307B2

A hydraulic pressure supply system may supply low hydraulic pressure generated at a low-pressure hydraulic pump to a low pressure portion through a low-pressure regulator valve, may supply a portion of the low hydraulic pressure to a high-pressure hydraulic pump, and may supply high hydraulic pressure generated at the high-pressure hydraulic pump to a high pressure portion through a high-pressure regulator valve.
US09316303B2

A first radial bearing and a second radial bearing are respectively disposed in two rows between the outer periphery of a pin and the inner periphery of a corresponding planet roller so as to face each other in the thrust direction. A first inner ring of the first radial bearing is fitted onto a first region of the pin by interference fit. A second inner ring of the second radial bearing is fitted onto a second region of the pin by clearance fit. The second region is closer to a carrier main body than the first region is. An elastic member is interposed between the second radial bearing and the carrier main body. The elastic member elastically presses the second inner ring in a first thrust direction.
US09316296B2

The present invention relates to a reducer including a planetary gear and a steering apparatus of a vehicle including the same, and more particularly to a reducer including a planetary gear which can compensate a gap generated by wear of gear teeth of planet gears, sun gears, and ring gears, and a steering apparatus of a vehicle including the same.
US09316289B2

A crown gear deceleration mechanism provided by the present invention includes: a stator including a crown gear; a rotor including another crown gear; and an output shaft coupled to the rotor. Stator includes a stator tooth row in which N1S stator teeth are circularly arranged. Rotor includes: a first rotor tooth row in which N1 teeth are arranged; and a second rotor tooth row in which N2 teeth are arranged. Output shaft includes an output tooth row in which N2S teeth are arranged. Rotor performs a precession while engaging the first rotor tooth row with the stator tooth row at places existing at both sides between which a devotion central line intervenes. Rotor transmits rotation to the output shaft while engaging the second rotor tooth row with the output tooth row at the places existing at both sides between which the devotion central line intervenes.
US09316287B2

A chain, wound to span between two pulleys each having facing conical surfaces able to change a distance therebetween and sandwiched by the facing conical surfaces, includes: link units each configured such that plate-shaped links, each having openings, are oriented in a chain circumferential direction and arranged in a chain width direction; and pins each extending through the openings of the links of the link units adjacent in the chain circumferential direction and each contacting the conical surfaces of sheaves at both ends thereof. A curvature radius of a shape curve representing a shape of each end face of each pin in a plane perpendicular to the chain circumferential direction is larger at an inner side in a pulley radial direction than at an initial contact point that is a contact point at the time when a load on each pin is 0.
US09316277B2

A combined vehicle brake having a hydraulically actuable driving brake and an electromechanically actuable parking brake device. In a brake housing, a hydraulic operating pressure space is bounded by a brake piston chargeable with hydraulic pressure medium to carry out normal braking. The brake piston is actuable along a longitudinal axis of the piston, and the parking brake device acts on the brake piston by a gearing converting the rotational movement of an electromechanical actuator into a translation movement and bringing about an actuation of the brake piston in order to carry out parking brake operations and keeping the brake piston in the actuated position. The gearing has a threaded spindle and a threaded nut which are in contact with each other via a plurality of rolling bodies. The frictional moment transmitted by the further axial bearing is higher than the returning torque of the threaded spindle.
US09316273B2

Provided is a torque converter (1) which comprises: a casing (10) coupled to an output shaft of an engine; a torus (T) defined by a pump (20), a turbine (30) and a stator (40) each disposed within the casing (10); a multi-plate lockup clutch (60) adapted to directly couple the turbine (30) and the casing (10); and a lockup damper (70) adapted to absorb shock during engagement of the lockup clutch (60). The lockup clutch (60) and the lockup damper (70) are arranged within a space between the torus (T) and a surface of the casing (10) on the side of the engine, in an axially overlapping relation. The lockup clutch (60) is disposed on a radially inner side with respect to a widest region (T1) of the torus (T), and the lockup damper (70) is disposed on a radially outer side with respect to the widest region (T1). This makes it possible to engage the lockup clutch (60) with excellent response while suppressing shock, and shorten an overall length of an automatic transmission.
US09316268B2

A clutch switching device for electric rolling doors contains: a housing, a rotating plate, and a shifting bar. The rotating plate is provided in the housing for connecting with the clutch pulling cord. The shifting bar is coupled with the rotating plate and is pulled to drive the rotating plate to move toward a manual mode position or an automatic mode position. The rotating plate has a wrenching portion for matching with a wrench tool so as to wrench the rotating plate. The housing includes a movable fixing element, the rotating plate has a first positioning aperture and a second positioning aperture, such that when the rotating plate is located at a manual mode position, the first positioning aperture aligns and retains with the movable fixing element; when the rotating plate is located at the automatic mode position, the second positioning aperture aligns and retains with the movable fixing element.
US09316267B2

A universal joint member for transmitting torque between two shafts of a drive mechanism includes a first pivot axis for pivoting connection to a first shaft of the drive mechanism, wherein the first pivot axis extends substantially perpendicular to a rotational axis of the first shaft; and a second pivot axis for pivoting connection to a second shaft of the drive mechanism, the second pivot axis extending substantially perpendicular to the first pivot axis and substantially perpendicular to a rotational axis of the second shaft. A cavity extends through the universal joint member for receiving a pivot pin along the second pivot axis, wherein the pivot pin is configured to connect the universal joint member to the second shaft. A universal joint assembly for a drive mechanism includes a first rotatable shaft, a second rotatable shaft, and a universal joint member for transmitting torque between the first and second shafts.
US09316259B2

Construction of a rolling bearing with seal ring can be achieved in which, while securing the required seal performance, the rotation support portion can be made more compact by shortening the dimension in the axial direction of the installation space for an inner ring 3a, and torque can be lowered. A sliding contact edge 23 of a seal lip 12a that is provided around the inner-circumferential edge portion of a seal ring 5a on one end side in the axial direction comes in sliding contact with one end surface 24 of the inner ring 3a. The tip-end edge of a protruding portion 20 closely faces the surface of the inner ring 3a, forming a labyrinth seal 19 in this portion. With this construction, a stopper ring 17 for regulating the position in the axial direction of the inner ring 3a with respect to a shaft 15 is located so as not to protrude from the end surface in the axial direction of the rolling bearing 1a with seal ring. The problem can be solved because the diameter of the sliding contact portion is kept small.
US09316257B2

A sealed spherical bearing includes a ball disposed in a race, an annular seal extending between the race and the ball, and a retainer secured to the seal. A retainer first leg axially outward facing surface is secured to a seal first leg axially inward facing surface, and a retainer second leg radially inward facing surface is secured to a seal first leg radially outward facing surface. The retainer and the seal are separately formed elements. The retainer and the seal secured thereto is press-fit into a first annular groove of the race such that a first groove radially inward facing surface engages a retainer second leg radially outward facing surface, a first groove axially outward facing surface engages a retainer first leg axially inward facing surface, and the retainer is fixed relative to the race.
US09316256B2

An outer lubricating liquid inflow passage that provides communication between an outside of a liquid-lubricated bearing and a rolling element arrangement chamber is formed between an outer ring and a cage, on the lubricating liquid inflow side. The outer lubricating liquid inflow passage has an annular axially extending outer passage portion that extends in the axial direction, and an annular radially extending outer passage portion. The radially extending outer passage portion communicates with a rolling element-side axial end portion of the axially extending outer passage portion. The radially extending outer passage portion extends from the axially extending outer passage portion to the rolling element arrangement chamber inward in the radial direction of the outer ring. A labyrinth is formed by the axially extending outer passage portion and the radially extending outer passage portion.
US09316249B2

An XY separate crank mechanism provided between a movable body reciprocating in a first direction and a rotatable crankshaft to mutually convert reciprocating motion of the movable body and rotational motion of the crankshaft, includes a support member provided freely reciprocatingly in the first direction, a crank connecting member mounted on the support member freely reciprocatingly in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and with which a crank of the crankshaft is rotatably engaged, and a connecting member configured to connect the piston and the support member and reciprocate in the first direction together with the piston and the support member.
US09316246B2

Fasteners are disclosed herein which resist loosening even when used in applications and environments where the fastener is exposed to vibration. In one form, a two piece fastener is used for connecting multiple workpieces. In another form, a simplified fastener is disclosed for quickly and easily connecting items. In yet another form, a plug type fastener is disclosed. Other fasteners and related methods are also disclosed herein.
US09316245B2

A nut assembly comprises a capture nut having a smooth bore adapted to fit around the threads of a threaded member such as a bolt or a threaded rod. The capture nut includes a tapered bowl which defines a hexagon in cross section, for example. The nut assembly further includes a split nut having a surface which snugly mates with the tapered bowl of the capture nut. The split nut engages the threads of the threaded member, but only after the split nut is brought into close proximity to the capture nut, thereby avoiding the need to thread the nut assembly the entire length of the threads of the threaded member. The split nut may be formed to two separable pieces, or it may be formed of two integral halves joined together by a thin membrane.
US09316244B2

A fiber reinforced plastic bolt (FRP) and a method for producing the same are disclosed. The FRP bolt is useful in the industrial areas which require a bolt having electric-insulation, anti-corrosive, thermal-insulation, and non-magnetic properties. The method for producing the FRP bolt includes the steps of: winding a prepreg around a surface of an internal body, wherein the internal body includes a first reinforcing fiber which is unidirectionally aligned along the axis of the bolt, and a synthetic resin which is impregnated into the first reinforcing fiber, and the prepreg includes a second reinforcing fiber and a thermosetting resin which is impregnated into the second reinforcing fiber; forming a fiber reinforced plastic round bar by heat-hardening the prepreg; and forming a screw thread on the surface of the fiber reinforced plastic round bar.
US09316238B2

There is provided an apparatus, method, computer program product, and a kit and method for upgrading, an apparatus for moving cargo. A bus for transmission of electrical energy, at least one load connected to the bus, said at least one load configured to transform electrical energy from the bus into movement of a cargo with respect to the apparatus energy transforming means configured to transform energy between electrical energy of the bus and potential energy of a hydraulic accumulator, wherein the apparatus is configured to store electrical energy from the bus as potential energy to the hydraulic accumulator and to supply the potential energy stored in the hydraulic accumulator as electrical energy to the at least one load.
US09316237B1

A multi-port servo valve includes a valve plug within a valve body bore, where the plug has multiple holes radially positioned at different axial positions, and the bore has multiple ports, where the valve plug may be controlled to (i) align a first set of plug holes with a first set of bore ports to a first open position, (ii) align a second set of plug holes with a second set of bore ports to a second open position, and (iii) preclude alignment of the plug holes with the bore ports to a valve closed position. The system also includes a servo motor configured to control the position of the valve plug within the bore, and a programmable controller in electrical communication with the servo motor and a sensor associated with the hydraulic cylinder for automated operation.
US09316235B2

A liquid lifting device includes: a liquid lifting tank storing liquid; an air pump pressurizing the interior of the liquid lifting tank; a liquid lifting pipe connecting the liquid lifting pipe to the liquid lifting tank having a liquid delivery port in the other end that stands upright; an air supply pipe in which one end portion of the air supply pipe connected to a branching section provided at a position halfway in the liquid lifting pipe and an upright section provided in the other end portion thereof; an air valve that is provided on the other end portion of the air supply pipe; and a liquid storage section that is formed in part of the liquid lifting pipe at a position between the liquid delivery port and the branching section and that is positioned below the branching section.
US09316234B2

A rotor wheel for a turbomachine, particularly a radial turbomachine, having a rotor wheel face and a shrink collar adjoining the rotor wheel face for shrinking onto a rotor of the turbomachine and a circumferential groove between the rotor wheel face and the shrink collar.
US09316233B2

A propeller fan molded by injection molding using a resin material containing a continuous fiber, includes a hub having an end surface wall and a peripheral wall; and a plurality of blades on an outer periphery of the hub, the propeller fan being molded by providing a plurality of injection positions for injecting the resin material containing the continuous fiber in a part of the end surface wall corresponding to a root portion of one of the blades of the hub.
US09316228B2

Hydrogen gas compression systems that each include a multistage centrifugal compressor in which each stage has an inlet-to-outlet pressure rise ratio of about 1.20 or greater. In one embodiment, the multistage compressor includes six high-speed centrifugal compressors driven at a speed of about 60,000 rpm. The compressor has an output of more than 200,000 kg/day at a pressure of more than 1,000 psig. The compressors for the compression stages are distributed on both sides of a common gearbox, which has gearing that allows axial thrusts from the compressors to be handled effectively. Each stage's compressor has a unique impeller, which is secured to a support shaft using a tension-rod-based attachment system. In another embodiment, the multistage compressor is driven by a combustion turbine and one or more intercoolers are provided between compression stages. Each intercooler is cooled by coolant from an absorption chiller utilizing exhaust gas from the combustion turbine.
US09316220B2

A method actuates a pumping device that has an optimal driving voltage. The pumping device includes a pumping chamber that has a pumping membrane, an inlet and an outlet chamber, a voltage controlled actuator connected to the pumping membrane, a stop position defined by a mechanical stop, and a sensor for determining whether the pumping membrane has reached the mechanical stop. The method performs a learning and working phase. The learning phase is adapted to determine the optimal driving voltage.
US09316211B2

Provided are an actuator that is small, superior in terms of high-speed response, and capable of large displacement, and a manufacturing method that can easily manufacture the actuator. The actuator is configured by a laminated body including multiple electrodes, multiple cation-exchange resin films, and multiple anion-exchange resin films. The cation-exchange resin films and the anion-exchange resin films are stacked alternately, and each of the cation-exchange resin films and the anion-exchange resin films is sandwiched between two of the electrodes. A voltage is applied such that the electrodes between adjacent ones of the cation-exchange resin films and anion-exchange resin films have the same polarity.
US09316205B2

A system and method for pressure based load measurement are provided. The system and method measure at least one pressure differential on an airfoil and determine at least one aerodynamic load associated with the at least one pressure differential. The determined at least one load is used to modify characteristics of the airfoil to increase efficiency and/or avoid damage. The determined at least one aerodynamic load may be further utilized to balance and/or optimize loads at the airfoil, estimate a load distribution along the airfoil used to derive other metrics about the airfoil, and/or used in a distributed control system to increase efficiency and/or reduce damage to, e.g., one or more wind turbines.
US09316198B2

Methods and systems are provided for pressurizing a transmission hydraulic circuit including a transmission mechanical pump coupled to an engine though a gearbox. One example method comprises, during an engine start, adjusting a speed ratio between the transmission pump and the engine between a first speed ratio and a second speed ratio, the pump rotating faster relative to the engine at the first speed ratio as compared with the second speed ratio. In this way, the pump may be driven at different speed ratios relative to the engine to provide better pressurization in the transmission.
US09316193B2

Disclosed is a high-pressure pump which can easily be installed in an internal-combustion engine. Specifically disclosed is a high-pressure pump 1 provided with a mounting member 100. The mounting member 100 is fixed to a pivot 70 so as to keep such an attitude of a rocker arm 60 that the protruding end part of the pivot 70 is positioned within a concave 65a formed on a second end 65 of the rocker arm 60 and that the outer circumferential surface of the protruding end part of the pivot 70 is apart from the inner circumferential surface of the concave 65a by coming in contact with an arm body 62 of the rocker arm 60 to resist a turn of the rocker arm 60 around a roller 61 under the weight thereof, before a plunger 50 is brought into contact with a first end 64 of the rocker arm 60, and so as to come out of contact with the arm body 62 when the rocker arm 60 turns in reverse to the turn under the weight thereof, after the plunger 50 is brought into contact with the first end 64.
US09316175B2

An engine includes a carburetor including a variable venturi having a fixed surface and an adjustable surface that form a constricted section, a throttle valve downstream of the variable venturi, a governor assembly including a governor configured to detect an engine speed of the engine, a governor arm coupled to the governor, the venturi, and the throttle valve, and a governor spring coupled to the governor arm to bias the throttle valve towards the fully open position, and a vacuum actuator including an actuator linkage coupled to the governor spring and also coupled to a pressure-sensitive member for movement with the pressure-sensitive member in response to an engine vacuum, and an actuator spring biasing the actuator linkage to increase the tension on the governor spring.
US09316170B2

A controller integrated fuel pump module for a vehicle, may include a reservoir cup configured to be fixed to an interior of a fuel tank, a fuel pump installed in an interior of the reservoir cup to pump fuel introduced into the interior of the reservoir cup, and a flange for fixing the reservoir cup and the fuel pump to the fuel tank, wherein a receiving part may be formed to an outer surface of the flange and may include an inner space, and wherein a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly configured to mount devices of a controller to a PCB may be molded in the receiving part, in a state in which the PCB assembly may be received in the receiving part, and a molding portion surrounds the PCB assembly in the receiving part.
US09316168B2

A control device for a fuel pump includes a power storage and a discharger. The fuel pump includes an electromagnetic valve. The power storage is configured to store surge current generated upon stopping supplying electric power to the electromagnetic valve. One end of the power storage is connected to a negative electrode terminal of the electromagnetic valve. Another end of the power storage is connected to a power supply. The discharger is configured to connect the power storage and a positive electrode terminal of the electromagnetic valve upon starting supplying electric power to the electromagnetic valve to discharge an electric charge stored in the power storage.
US09316156B2

An acoustic damper of the present invention is objected to obtain a sound absorption effect of a combustor in an extensive range of frequency band. The acoustic damper includes an acoustic pipe body attached to a combustor so as to communicate with an inside of the combustor, and the acoustic pipe body is provided with a plurality of passages whose extension lengths are different from each other inside the acoustic pipe body.
US09316153B2

A turbine exhaust casing having an outer casing, an inner casing, an annular exhaust gas path defined between outer and inner flow path walls, and a turbine exhaust casing cavity located radially outward and radially inward from the gas path. A plurality of structural struts support the inner casing to the outer casing, and a fairing surrounds each of the struts in an area extending between the outer and inner flow path walls. A first purge air path extends through at least one of the struts for conducting purge cooling air radially inward to the inner casing, and a second purge air path extends through the strut for further conducting the purge cooling air radially outward to provide a flow of purge air to a location of the exhaust casing cavity radially outward from the outer flow path wall.
US09316152B2

A cooling gas flow control device for a turbine rotor that is internally located between the compressor and the turbine section of a turbine is disclosed. The cooling gas flow control device has a shape memory material that is used to actively adjust the cooling gas flow to internal parts of the turbine section between, including the buckets.
US09316149B2

A method of operating a drive-train of a hybrid vehicle which comprises at least a hybrid drive with an internal combustion engine and an electric machine, an automatic or automated change-speed transmission connected between the hybrid drive and a drive output, and a clutch connected between the internal combustion engine and the electric machine. When starting the internal combustion engine from a purely electric driving mode, the clutch is initially disengaged. To start the internal combustion engine, the clutch is at least partially engaged and the internal combustion engine is drag-started by the electric machine, and, in parallel with starting the internal combustion engine, a downshift in the transmission is initiated once a rotational speed of the internal combustion engine reaches or exceeds an applicable threshold value.
US09316147B2

Various methods for determining the fully closed position of a wastegate valve are provided. In one example, a non-closed position command for a wastegate valve in a low-lift region relative to a valve seat is received. Prior to executing the position command, the wastegate valve is only temporarily closed to thereby determine a fully closed position.
US09316145B2

There is provided a two-stroke engine configured to effectively prevent blow-by of the scavenging air from the discharge port and to be able to improve the engine output while abating pollution. The two-stroke engine includes a cylinder having an exhaust port and a scavenging port, and a piston, wherein: the piston has a top surface; a piston concave portion is provided in the top surface in the discharge direction; an entire surface of the piston concave portion is formed in an approximately spherical shape; and a slope of the piston concave portion extending from an outer circumferential edge of the piston concave portion in the discharge direction to a deepest portion is steeper than a slope of the piston concave portion extending from an outer circumferential edge of the piston concave portion in the anti-discharge direction to the deepest portion.
US09316140B2

A cooling module, composed of at least one first and one second heat exchanger, are connected in a common frame or directly to one another, it being possible for cooling air to flow through both heat exchangers. The second heat exchanger has a greater structural depth than the first heat exchanger in the flow direction of the cooling air. The first heat exchanger and the second heat exchanger have a catalytic coating and the second heat exchanger is composed of at least one first and one second partial heat exchanger which are arranged one behind the other in the flow direction of the cooling air and which are operatively connected to one another. By means of the configuration according to the invention, the largest possible catalytically active coating surface area is attained.
US09316133B2

A rugged noise muffler system is configured to substantially surround sound-emitting openings in a working unit or structure, to absorb sound emitted from the sound-emitting openings. A barrier component, formed as a housing, covers a sound emitting opening to inhibit sound from emanating from the housing, except at an open end of the housing. Each sound emitting opening in the working unit or structure requires a housing positioned over same. The housing includes a hood portion and an elongate portion that includes the open end of the housing. The inner surfaces of the hood portion and an elongate portion are lined with sound absorbing material. The emitted sound first enters the hood portion, is partially absorbed therein and any unabsorbed sound passes into and is substantially absorbed in the elongate portion as the sound travels towards the open end of the housing.
US09316127B2

A camshaft drive includes a drive shaft having at least one cam for actuating a valve of an internal combustion engine. A shaft-in-shaft system is disposed parallel to the drive shaft and has an inner shaft and an outer shaft each having at least one cam for actuating a valve. The outer shaft is connected to an outer shaft transmission element in a manner fixed against relative rotation. A hydraulic transmission device includes a stator, a rotor, and an intermediate member. The inner shaft is coupled to the drive shaft via the hydraulic transmission device which is operatively connected to an adjusting device and to a control device for setting a desired phase angle between the inner shaft and the outer shaft. A drive element is coupled to the drive shaft. The drive element is directly coupled both to the outer shaft transmission element and to the stator.
US09316115B2

A system for cleaning gas turbine engines is described. More specifically, methods and apparatuses for cleaning stationary gas turbines and on-wing turbofan engines found on aircraft are disclosed that includes a trailer-mounted, automated low-pressure water delivery system, additive and detergent injection system, nozzle and manifold technology, and active waste water effluent collector system. The system will deliver the liquid cleaning medium at a specific pressure, temperature and flow rate to optimize the atomization that occurs at the nozzles.
US09316114B2

Aspects of the disclosure include apparatuses and program products for recovering speed in a driveline assembly. An apparatus in one embodiment may include: a sensor measuring a shaft speed of a rotatable shaft within a driveline assembly, wherein the driveline assembly includes: a load coupled to the rotatable shaft, a primary power source coupled to the load through the rotatable shaft to deliver a first power output to the load, and a secondary power source coupled to the load through the rotatable shaft to deliver a second power output to the load, wherein the second power output is less than the first power output; and a controller in communication with the secondary power source and the sensor, wherein the controller increases the second power output in response to the shaft speed being less than a minimum speed threshold.
US09316108B2

Gas turbine engine frames are disclosed. An example gas turbine engine frame may include a generally annular outer casing disposed coaxially about a hub; a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart struts joined to the hub and the outer casing, individual struts extending radially outwardly from the hub to the outer casing; and a stiffening rail monolithically formed with the outer casing circumferentially between two of the struts. The stiffening rail may extend radially inward beyond the inner surface of the outer casing between the struts.
US09316105B2

A blade for a rotor of a turbine includes an airfoil, a shroud and a platform. The platform includes a top plate, a shank and a fixing part. An upstream wall projects in the circumferential direction away from the shank and extends from the top plate toward the fixing part, the upstream wall at least partially covering an upstream side of the shank. A downstream wall projects in the circumferential direction away from the shank and extends from the top plate toward the fixing part, the downstream wall at least partially covering a downstream side of the shank. A recess is disposed in at least one of the upstream wall and the downstream wall. The recess has an open side facing in a same direction as a respective one of the upstream wall and the downstream wall, in which the recess is disposed, is projecting.
US09316100B2

A system for making bottom hole assembly (BHA) measurements in the 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 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 BHA has a first weight on bit (WOB) or revolutions per minute (RPM) measurement based on the detected plurality of vibration beats and the waveform is generated in a second configuration when the BHA has a second WOB or RPM measurement based on the detected plurality of vibration beats.
US09316099B2

A system, in certain embodiments, includes a spider configured to support multiple mineral extraction riser segments. The system also includes a gimbal disposed below the spider and configured to support the spider during operation. The system further includes one or more arcuate radio frequency identification (RFID) antennas disposed within the gimbal and/or the spider. The one or more arcuate RFID antennas are configured to communicate with one or more RFID tags coupled to each riser segment.
US09316091B2

A cementing port collar has an opening sleeve biased from a closed position to an opened position relative to the collar's exit port, and a first restraint temporarily holds the opening sleeve closed. The collar also has a closing sleeve biased from an opened position to a closed position, and a second restraint temporarily holds the closing sleeve opened. During cementing, the first restraint is electronically activated with a first trigger to release the opening sleeve opened so cement slurry can pass out of the collar's exit port to the borehole annulus. When cementing is completed, the second restraint is electronically activated with a second trigger to release the closing sleeve closed to close off the collar to the borehole so the cement can set. The restraints can include bands of synthetic fiber, which are burned by fuses activated by a controller of the collar responding to passage of RFID tags.
US09316090B2

A wellbore isolation device comprises: a first layer, wherein the first layer: (A) comprises a first material; and (B) defines a cavity containing a dissolution medium, wherein a chemical reaction of at least the dissolution medium causes at least a portion of the first material to dissolve. A method of removing the wellbore isolation device comprises: introducing the wellbore isolation device containing the dissolution medium into the wellbore; and allowing the chemical reaction to occur.
US09316089B2

A downhole fracturing system including a seat assembly having a plurality of like-sized openings therein. Each of the like-sized openings has a cross sectional area complementary to a corresponding plurality of objects such that each of the objects is matable therewith to substantially inhibit fluid flow through each like-sized opening. The objects have dimensions insufficient to mate with an opening in a next adjacent upstream seat assembly. A method of hydraulic fracturing is also included.
US09316087B2

In downhole treatments in the oilfield, ball sealers seated in perforations may not fully seal and may leak fluid through gaps and asperities between the balls and the perforations. A method is given for improving the sealing of ball sealers in perforations by adding a sealing agent that forms a plug in the gaps and severely restricts or eliminates fluid flow. The sealing agent is preferably degradable or soluble, malleable fibers slightly larger than the gaps. Optionally, the particles may be non-degradable, rigid, of different shapes, and smaller than the gaps but able to bridge them. Mixtures of sealing agents may be used. The sealing agent may be added with the ball sealers, after the ball sealers, or both.
US09316086B2

A composite member for a downhole tool that includes a resilient portion; and a deformable portion having at least one groove formed therein, wherein the resilient portion and the deformable portion are made of a first material, and wherein a second material is disposed around the deformable portion and at least partially fills into the at least one groove.
US09316083B2

Methods and systems for testing a subterranean formation penetrated by a wellbore are provided. A testing tool has a plurality of packers spaced apart along the axis of the tool, and at least a testing port. The testing tool is positioned into the wellbore and packers are extended into sealing engagement with the wellbore wall, sealing thereby an interval of the wellbore. In some embodiments, the wellbore interval sealed between two packers is adjusted downhole. In one embodiment, the location of the testing port is adjusted between two packers. The methods may be used to advantage for reducing the contamination of the formation fluid by fluids or debris in the wellbore.
US09316077B2

Methods and apparatus are presented for a hybrid downhole force generator (DFG) using a stroke amplifier driven by hydrostatic pressure for a low-force, long-stroke portion of setting a downhole tool and a DFG powered shaft for a high-force, short-stroke portion of setting the tool. The stroke amplifier has a piston slidable in a housing, movable in response to hydrostatic pressure. The DFG powered shaft is connected to the piston via one-way slips which allow relative motion of the piston and shaft in one direction. The amplifier housing is connected to the DFG housing. In use, the DFG shaft is powered by a power supply, such as an electric motor, etc. The shaft is powered to shear a shearing mechanism, freeing the piston to move in response to the hydrostatic pressure.
US09316075B2

A lock assembly including a plurality of dogs, each dog having a load bearing surface and a first interconnection feature. An extender body is operatively arranged for radially transitioning the plurality of dogs between a retracted configuration and an extended configuration. The load bearing surface of each dog is operatively arranged in the extended configuration for engaging against a shoulder of a radially adjacent structure for supporting the lock assembly. A mandrel is included having a second interconnection feature operatively arranged to dimensionally overlap the first interconnection feature of the dogs when transitioned to the extended configuration for enabling the mandrel to be supported by the dogs. A method of locking radially adjacent components is also included.
US09316074B2

A lock system works in combination with a mandrel to allow selective operation and disabling of a downhole tool. In the specific situation of a Smart Collet® the tool is locked from being able to find support when engaged to a mating profile as the tool is moved between landing locations. A lower housing features an external dog that in response to rotation takes with it a collet ring with circumferentially oriented fingers. An outer housing cams the collet heads into a respective groove in the mandrel. Reversal of such relative rotation between the upper and lower housings allows the collet heads to spring out of the mandrel groove for the unlocked position. The lock is adapted for use in a variety of tools. The rotation to unlock and then lock is accomplished by dog interaction with shaped internal profiles in a surrounding tubular assembly at strategic locations where needed.
US09316073B2

A slip device includes a housing forming an axial bore, an upper set of slips spaced axially above a lower set of slips, and a rack and pinion actuator radially moving the upper set of slips and the lower set of slips between a retracted position and an extended position to grip a tubular disposed in the bore. The upper set of slips and the lower set of slips can be oriented to resist downward movement of the gripped tubular and to permit upward movement of the gripped tubular. One of the upper set of slips and the lower set of slips can be oriented to resist upward movement of the gripped tubular and the other of the upper set of slips and the lower set of slips can be oriented to resist downward movement of the gripped tubular.
US09316066B2

A subsea manifold-riser system is redeployed from a first production location to a second production location. A manifold module is lowered to the ocean floor at the first production location using a marine riser as a running tool by adding threaded pipe sections to the upper end of the marine riser. The manifold module is raised from the ocean floor at the first production location for redeployment at the second production location using the marine riser as a retrieval tool by removing threaded pipe sections from the upper end of the marine riser.
US09316053B2

A computer-readable medium including program instructions for drilling a borehole. When the program instructions are executed by one or more processors of a computer system operatively associated with a drill rig, the program instructions cause the processor to carry out the steps of initiating a drilling phase and monitoring a drill parameter during the drilling phase. The drill parameter includes at least one of drill rotational speed, drill torque or number of drill retractions. The program instructions further cause the processor to carry out the step of determining whether the monitored drill parameter is within a predetermined specification for the monitored drill parameter in order to choose a drilling phase defect mitigation routine. After implementing the drilling phase defect mitigation routine, the processors carry out the step of resuming the drilling phase.
US09316046B2

There is disclosed a viewing panel unit, comprising: a first panel and a second panel; a drive mechanism for moving the first panel relative to the second panel; and an abutment member mounted so as to have a fixed spatial relationship relative to the second panel, wherein: the first panel comprises a coupling member; the drive mechanism comprises a drive member configured to engage with the coupling member such that rotation of the drive member imparts a linear motion to the first panel via the coupling member; and the drive mechanism is configured such that a first impact surface of the drive member is brought into contact with a surface of the abutment member to stop the drive member when the drive member is rotated through a maximum angle in a first sense.
US09316038B2

Disclosed herein is a process for pairing one or more wireless transmitters with a power head unit of a barrier opening system prior to delivering the system to the end user. In one facility, an authorization code of a wireless transmitter is received and passed to a printer that prints an encoded label with indicia corresponding to the authorization code. The so-encoded label is affixed to the wireless transmitter or its packaging or pallet. In another facility, the encoded label is thereafter scanned, and the authorization code is deciphered and stored in a database. The power head is programmed with the identical code by placing the power head into a learn mode, retrieving the deciphered authorization code from the database, and transmitting the retrieved code to the power head using a test transmitter while the power head is in the learn mode, with the power head thereafter moved out of the learn mode, thereby pairing the transmitter with the power head. The so-programmed power head and wireless transmitter are then packaged for sale and distribution to the end user of the barrier opening system.
US09316035B2

A blind hinge used for furniture, comprising a movable cup seat provided on the furniture door body, a regulating base provided on the main body of furniture, a rotary arm connected between the movable cup seat and the regulating base as well as an torsion spring designed to generate start-stop acting force on the movable cup seat at least, wherein two torsion springs are respectively mounted on the notches on both sides at the bottom of the movable cup seat; The torsion spring at least comprises a first supporting leg with one end extending into the cup body of the movable cup seat and being connected with it as well as a second supporting leg with another end being extended into the cup body of movable cup seat and being connected with the rotary arm.
US09316032B2

A door checker assembly includes a checker housing secured to the door. An elongated checker arm is dimensioned for and slidingly received through the checker housing so that a first end is received in the door and a second end is pivotally mounted to a body of the vehicle. An elongated cover is received in the door that overlies and extends along substantially an entire length of the checker arm for blocking water from falling thereon. The cover has a mounting portion at one end that is fastened between the checker housing and an inner face of the door with the same fasteners that secure the checker housing. The cover is preferably a stamped metal structure.
US09316023B2

A cylinder body for a cylinder for locks, including at least a first pin channel and a second pin channel for guiding body pins and at least one third pin channel for guiding a locking bar of a cylinder core.
US09316022B2

A lock assembly includes an exterior lockset that includes an exterior operator handle. An interior lockset includes an interior operator assembly and a control electronics module. An outer spindle is operatively coupled to a latch assembly and is drivably coupled to the interior operator assembly. A locking mechanism is operatively coupled to a drive assembly, and includes a coupling mechanism and a locking spindle assembly. The coupling mechanism is configured to selectively couple the exterior operator handle to the outer spindle. The locking spindle assembly is configured to operate the coupling mechanism to transition from a locked condition to an unlocked condition by an actuation of the drive assembly. A lock position sensor is located in the interior lockset and is communicatively coupled to the control electronics module. The lock position sensor is configured to sense whether the coupling mechanism is in the locked condition or the unlocked condition.
US09316019B2

A support apparatus includes a rectilinear central pole having axially opposed end portions. The pole includes a plurality of oppositely spaced female portions and a male portion slid ably engageable therewith. Each female portion has a plurality of apertures equidistantly spaced along a longitudinal length thereof. The male portion is medially nested between the female portions wherein the female portions are telescopically movable. The apparatus further includes first and second pairs of telescopically adjustable and rectilinear leg members connected to the opposed end portions of the pole and extending away therefrom, respectively. The apparatus also includes a mechanism for independently pivoting each of the first and second leg members about a fulcrum axis centrally registered with the pole and extending parallel thereto. The apparatus also includes a mechanism for independently pivoting the first and second members along a unique arcuate path and about a fulcrum axis.
US09316013B1

An apparatus and associated method contemplating an underground shelter having an open-top enclosure and a base. A linkage assembly selectively moves the base between an opened position and a closed position. A lifting mechanism lifts the base in opposition to a force of gravity on the base in the opened position. A concealment object is supported upon the base to conceal the existence of the underground shelter below.
US09316008B2

Described is a multi-directional roof anchor. The anchor is shaped so as to progressively distort under sudden load. The anchor has a generally planar structure, in which a first fixing region for fitment, either directly or indirectly, to a roofing material is provided. The anchor also includes a second attachment region for attaching devices, apparatus or equipment to the anchor, and a third shock absorbing region provided between, and integral with, the first and second regions. The third region includes one or more shock absorbing portions, shaped so as to provide gradual or progressive absorption of a sudden load applied to the anchor. The absorption is provided either by the third region alone or the third region in combination with one or both of the other two regions. Advantageously, the anchor has the ability to absorb such load when applied to it from any direction.
US09316006B2

Flooring material including sheet-shaped floor elements with a mainly square or rectangular shape. The floor elements are provided with edges, a lower side and an upper decorative layer. The floor elements are intended to be joined by means of joining members. The floor elements are provided with male joining members on a first edge while a second edge of the floor elements are provided with a female joining member. The male joining member is provided with a tongue and a lower side groove while the female joining member is provided with a groove and a cheek, the cheek being provided with a lip. The floor elements are provided with a male vertical assembly joining member on a third edge while a fourth, opposite, edge is provided with female vertical assembly joining member.
US09316005B2

A flooring is disclosed including a substrate having a coating composition thereon, the coating composition comprising a hardenable film-former and at least 0.5 weight percent of an oxidizing agent sufficient to decolorize a stain on the film-former is disclosed, wherein the oxidizing agent comprises hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, and organo-chlorine bleaches and will at least partially decolorize a plurality of stains when applied to the hardened coating, allowed to stand for one hour at room temperature, and evaluated by visual observation of the stain under average overhead fluorescent illumination. The oxidizing agent is not consumed as a catalyst or initiator to polymerize or otherwise cause a reaction in the floor coating before it is applied and before it has hardened. A coating composition of the invention may include from about 0.8 to about 5 weight percent oxidizing agent and the film-former forms a hardened film resistant to rinsing with tap water.
US09315997B2

Implementations of the present invention relate to systems, methods, and apparatus for protecting individual spaces formed by modular walls from unauthorized and/or undetected entry. More specifically, at least one implementation includes tamper evident panels that can indicate unauthorized removal thereof and/or indicate an occurrence of unauthorized entry into a protected individual space.
US09315994B2

Methods and systems for decorating at least one bevel surface or other surface of a laminated flooring are described. The bevel surface can be decorated by non-transfer printing such as digital printing. The digital printer can be an ink jet printer such as a piezoelectric drop-on-demand (DOD) printer that allows a color and pattern to be placed on the bevel surface that matches the print design (décor pattern or face design) of the laminated flooring. Other devices are provided such as a device that takes a picture of or scans an image of the print design, and modifies the taken picture or the scanned image so that the edge pattern thereof matches with an edge pattern of the print design.
US09315986B2

A structure is described that includes a central channel with first and second ledges on a first and second side, respectively, of the central channel. The ledges include a first cutout in the first ledge and a second cutout in the second ledge aligned with the first cutout. The structure also includes a first side channel and a second side channel that each include an outer wall. The outer wall on the first side channel includes a first outer wall cutout that is aligned with the first cutout and the outer wall on the second side channel includes a second outer wall cutout that is aligned with the second cutout.
US09315981B2

A separator module for a stormwater gully chamber is disclosed, the separator module comprising: a partition arrangement which, in use, divides the chamber into an upper region and a lower region, the partition arrangement comprising: an inlet chute having an opening which, in use, provides an inlet to the lower region from the upper region; an outlet chute having an opening which, in use, provides an outlet from the lower region to the upper region; and a weir separating the outlet chute from the inlet chute; wherein at least a portion of the partition arrangement is flexible so as to allow an external diameter of the partition arrangement to be adjusted to fit different sized chambers.
US09315973B2

A protective-fire-hydrant-cover comprising an operating-nut-extender and a protective-fire-hydrant-casing. The operating-nut-extender is firmly coupled with an operating-nut of a fire-hydrant such that when the operating-nut-extender rotates, the operating-nut rotates therewith, the operating-nut-extender includes an inner-groove exhibiting a substantially circular shape. The protective-fire-hydrant casing includes a lock-mechanism therein, which includes a latch. The latch moves between at least a locked and un-operable position and an unlocked position. The protective-fire-hydrant-casing fits over the operating-nut-extender such that it covers the operating-nut-extender and the latch aligns with the groove. When the latch moves to locked and un-operable position the latch enters the inner-groove thus internally locking the protective fire-hydrant-casing with the operating-nut-extender thus locking the protective fire-hydrant-cover onto the fire-hydrant. When the latch is in locked and un-operable position, the protective-fire-hydrant-casing may freely rotate about the operating-nut-extender. When the latch moves to the unlocked position, the protective-fire-hydrant-casing unlocks from the operating-nut-extender.
US09315952B2

A hollow paving block comprises a substantially planar member having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. The first surface of the planar member is a textured surface which functions as a top of the paving block. A side wall extends along and away from a periphery of the second surface of the planar member to define a cavity in the paving block. The side wall has a beveled edge which extends about a mouth of the cavity. At least one protrusion extends along the second surface of the planar member. The paving block is formed in part from crumb rubber and polyolefin.
US09315935B2

The present invention relates to a top loading household washer comprising a cabinet supporting a tub which houses a basket being driven by a motor mechanically coupled to an agitator and to said basket, a clutch, an electric control, a level sensor or pressure switch and a rotor position sensor within the motor (preferably a Hall sensor), a spraying system, characterized by a washing method comprising: check on the water level, initiate a load pre-sensing sequence to later initiate a reshuffling of load sequence, act followed by initiating a load sensing sequence, which determines the water level required to admit, once said water level is reached, a normal agitation sequence is begun; once the normal agitation sequence concludes, it is followed by a load reshuffling sequence to continue with the dehydrating and later rinsing.
US09315932B2

A sewing machine includes at least one ultrasonic wave detecting portion, a thickness detecting portion, a processor, and a memory. The at least one ultrasonic wave detecting portion is configured to detect an ultrasonic wave. The thickness detecting portion is configured to detect a thickness of a work cloth. The memory configured to store computer-readable instructions that instruct the sewing machine to execute steps that includes identifying a position, on the work cloth, of a transmission source of the ultrasonic wave, based on information pertaining to the ultrasonic wave that has been detected by the at least one ultrasonic wave detecting portion and on the thickness that has been detected by the thickness detecting portion, and controlling sewing on the work cloth based on the position of the transmission source that has been identified.
US09315929B2

A Nonwoven fibrous structures with a high interfacial pore size and substrates made therefrom are provided. The substrates may be used, for example, in wipes. In one embodiment, the wipes include a hydromolded pattern on one side. The hydromolded pattern has an average pore-size of the interface between two stacked wipes that is greater than 180 microns in radius. In addition, a method for manufacturing nonwoven fibrous structures with high interfacial pore size is also provided.
US09315927B2

A method for producing a solid part, including weaving a three-dimensional fibrous structure, the weaving being carried out with metal braids consisting of a plurality of metal strands mutually twisted about the longitudinal axis of the braid; and performing hot isostatic pressing on the fibrous structure causing the agglomeration of the metal braids of the fibrous structure so as to produce a solid part.
US09315926B2

A stretch fabric in which one yarn of warp and weft yarns is obtained from an inelastic yarn having a crimp ratio of 5% to 30% and at least a portion of the other is obtained from an elastic yarn having a crimp ratio of 0% to 5%, and characterized in that the extension percentage in a load direction along the former yarn is 5% to 30% when weighted with a 340N/5 cm load in the load direction. The stretch fabric has excellent cushioning properties and fatigue resistance, and can be used as a material that saves space and combines holding properties with cushioning properties.
US09315923B2

The present invention concerns processes for producing a yarn comprising polymer comprising imidazole groups, the process having the following steps: (a) spinning a solution of polymer in sulfuric acid to give rise to a plurality of dope filaments; (b) coagulating the plurality of dope filaments into a multi-filament as-spun yarn; and (c) washing the as-spun multi-filament yarn with an aqueous acid comprising a halide or an aqueous salt comprising a halide or combination thereof.
US09315920B2

A growth substrate including a substrate having a growth surface including a plurality of steps inclining in a first direction; a first layer disposed on the growth surface, the first layer including an A-plane or an M-plane in an upper part thereof, a plurality of protrusions having an inclined surface on an upper surface thereof, and nitride; a mask layer including a dielectric material and having at least a portion disposed on the protrusions; and a second layer disposed on the mask layer and including nitride.
US09315914B2

An electrochemical process for the production of light metals, particularly aluminum. Such a process involves contacting a light metal source material with an inorganic acid to form a solution containing the light metal ions in high concentration. The solution is fed to an electrochemical reactor assembly having an anode side containing an anode and a cathode side containing a cathode, with anode side and the cathode side separated by a bipolar membrane, with the solution being fed to the anode side. Light metal ions are electrochemically transferred through the bipolar membrane to the cathode side. The process further involves reducing the light metal ions to light metal powder. An associated processing system is also provided.
US09315909B2

New metal persulfido compositions of matter are described. In one embodiment the metal is molybdenum and the metal persulfido complex mimics the structure and function of the triangular active edge site fragments of MoS2, a material that is the current industry standard for petroleum hydro desulfurization, as well as a promising low-cost alternative to platinum for electrocatalytic hydrogen production. This molecular [(PY5W2)MoS2]x+ containing catalyst is capable of generating hydrogen from acidic-buffered water or even seawater at very low overpotentials at a turnover frequency rate in excess of 500 moles H2 per mole catalyst per second, with a turnover number (over a 20 hour period) of at least 19,000,000 moles H2 per mole of catalyst.
US09315907B2

An apparatus for collecting electrolytically formed gasses and a method for using the same are presented. A gas collection device comprises an inner vessel having an electrically conductive surface portion for allowing the electrolytic formation of a first gas; an outer vessel having an electrically conductive surface portion for allowing the electrolytic formation of a second gas; and a capture member for capturing one of the formed gasses; wherein: the inner vessel is disposed substantially within the outer vessel; both vessels are configured to allow a continuous fluid body to come into contact with the conductive surface portions; and the capture member allows the capture of one of the formed gasses without substantial contamination from the other formed gas.
US09315897B2

A showerhead for film-depositing vacuum equipment having an effect shortening the length of injection tubes for a reactive gas is presented. The injection tubes extend from the bottom of a reactive gas showerhead module, and two different kinds of reactive gases are mixed with an injection support gas within a reactive showerhead module so as to inject the mixed gas. The showerhead for film-depositing vacuum equipment includes the reactive gas showerhead module above a cooling jacket and a purge gas showerhead module above the reactive gas showerhead module. The injection tubes of the reactive gas showerhead module pass through the cooling jacket disposed below the reactive gas showerhead module, and the injection tubes of the purge gas showerhead module pass through the reactive gas showerhead module disposed below the purge gas showerhead module, thereby enabling the purge gas to flow into a purge gas redistribution space defined above the cooling jacket.
US09315894B2

The present application relates to atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes for producing metal phosphates such as titanium phosphate, aluminum phosphate and lithium phosphate, as well as to ALD processes for depositing lithium silicates.
US09315888B2

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to a nozzle insert which may be used with a thermal spray gun apparatus. A nozzle insert according to the disclosure may include a body having an outer surface, the outer surface of the body being configured to circumferentially contact and transfer heat to an inner face of a thermal spray gun nozzle of a thermal spray gun. The body of the nozzle insert may be removed from the thermal spray gun nozzle without disassembling the thermal spray gun, and includes an axial passage configured to communicate a plasma discharge from the nozzle insert. A thermal spray gun apparatus and a thermal spray gun system including the nozzle insert are also disclosed.
US09315883B2

A particle-reinforced high strength and low density steel with improved E-modulus and method for producing the steel.
US09315882B2

The present invention relates to a method for preparing an anode active material, comprising (S1) forming a shell being a coating layer comprising a carbon material on the surface of a core comprising silicon oxide particles, to obtain a silicon oxide-carbon composite having a core-shell structure; (S2) mixing the silicon oxide-carbon composite with an oxygen-containing lithium salt, followed by heat treatment to produce a silicon oxide-lithium alloy, thereby obtaining a (SiOx—Liy)—C (0
US09315878B2

Processing byproduct material from a direct reduction process of iron ore to reclaim iron and other materials from the byproduct. The systems and methods employ gravity separation tables to separate the iron from other byproduct material constituents. The byproduct material constituents may be size reduced, processed to remove dust, and sized prior to processing by the gravity separation.
US09315874B2

The present invention provides a mutant strain of Bacillus subtilis SFA-H31 and includes an optimized method for producing of acetoin using this strain. The advantage of this method to produce acetoin has been defined by its high-yield without mixture with diacetyl or 2,3-butanediol, both of which are usually accompanied with acetoin in other strain. This Bacillus subtilis mutant strain has been deposited in China General Microbiological Culture Collection (CGMCC) and the accession number is CGMCC No. 1869, in which the process of fermentation for acetoin production is composed of (1) strain activation, (2) seed culture, (3) fermentation, (4) quantification of substrates and products. Based on current method, the concentration of acetoin in the ferment broth can reach to 35-55 g/L and the conversion rate of glucose to acetoin is in the range of 40-50%.
US09315873B2

The invention relates to a marker vaccine for prophylactic treatment of classical swine fever comprising modified live attenuated classical swine fever virus. The viral amino acid sequence of the TAV-epitope of the E2 protein comprises a different sequence from that of a wild-type classical swine fever virus. The invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions of the marker vaccine. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing marker vaccines for prevention of classical swine fever using selective antibody pressure.
US09315863B2

Presented herein are methods and compositions for generating sequence-specific, secondary amplification products during Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP). Conventional LAMP produces a preponderance of high molecular weight DNA structures concatenated into self-complementary hairpins, which are not amenable to detection by routine probe-based hybridization methods, making multiplex detection of two or more targets or sequence variants in closed-tube formats extremely difficult. Provided herein, for example, are methods for generating secondary LAMP products bearing a fragment of the original target sequence embedded within low-molecular weight products that are devoid of competitive hairpin structures, the lack of which enhances probe-based detection of target sequences. These secondary products can, for example, be produced in real-time, during the LAMP process, and can provide the option of detecting multiple target sequences within a single tube using, e.g., a homogenous, real-time fluorescence format.
US09315857B2

Compositions, methods and kits are disclosed for high-sensitivity counting of individual molecules by stochastic labeling of a identical molecules in mixtures of molecules by attachment of a unique label-tags from a diverse pool of label tags to confer uniqueness to otherwise identical or indistinguishable events. Individual occurrences of target molecules randomly choose from a non-depleting reservoir of diverse label-tags. Labeled molecules may be detected by hybridization or sequencing based methods. Molecules that would otherwise be identical in information content are labeled to create a separately detectable product that can be distinctly detected. The disclosed stochastic transformation methods reduce the problem of counting molecules from one of locating and identifying identical molecules to a series of binary digital questions detecting whether preprogrammed label-tags are present. The methods may be used, for example, to count a given species of molecule within a sample.
US09315853B2

Provided herein is technology related to the chemical modification and purification of DNA. Specifically, the technology provides methods for performing a bisulfate conversion reaction on small amounts of single-stranded, fragmented DNA and performing the subsequent desulfonation and purification steps on magnetic beads.
US09315851B2

Described herein are methods of detecting a wound infection and for detecting the presence or absence of bacteria, for example, wound bacteria in a sample, by contacting a sample with a peptide substrate derived from the modification of the reactive site loop (RSL) domain of the α1-proteinase inhibitor. In the current invention, we have demonstrated that these peptide substrates without the alpha 1 protein can be efficiently used as peptide substrates. The modification or the absence of modification of this peptide substrate by the enzyme produced and/or secreted by the bacteria, can serve as an indicator for the presence or absence of the bacteria in the sample. The present invention also features a biosensor for detecting the presence or absence of bacteria in a sample.
US09315847B2

A method, system, and instrument for automatically measuring transient activity in cells uses image time sequences to identify transients in cells. Preferably, the transient activity is stimulated or provoked in synchronism with acquisition of the image time sequences. A cell mask is applied to each image of an image time sequence in order to localize the transient activity with respect to each cell. Localization enables cell-by-cell analysis of properties of the transient activity.
US09315844B2

The present invention pertains to a method for selecting at least one eukaryotic host cell expressing a product of interest. The method entails providing a plurality of host cells which are dependent upon folate uptake and contain polynucleotides encoding for the product of interest and a DHFR enzyme. The cells are cultured in a selective culture medium containing at least an inhibitor of DHFR and folate. The expressed cells are then selected.
US09315838B2

The invention provides a recombinant cell having a nucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide which is a lipase having at least 40% amino acid sequence identity to a polypeptide having SEQ ID NO:1, and methods of using the recombinant cell to produce triacylglycerols or to increase oil production by the cell.
US09315827B2

A method for constructing a subgroup B recombinant human adenovirus vector Ad11-5EP. The method includes substituting a 365 bp fragment including an enhancer and a promoter of an upstream coding sequence of Ad5 E1A for a corresponding region of a serotype Ad11 of the subgroup B human adenovirus vector by homologous recombination to construct the subgroup B recombinant human adenovirus vector Ad11-5EP. A subgroup B recombinant human adenovirus vector Ad11-5EP constructed by the method and the use thereof for treatment of tumors are also provided.
US09315820B2

This invention provides a metabolically enhanced cyanobacterium for the production of a chemical compound of interest, having at least two first production genes encoding first biocatalysts for the production of the first chemical compound. One of the two first production genes is under the transcriptional control of a first promoter for the first production gene, whereas the other of the two first production genes is under the transcriptional control of a second promoter for the first production gene. The first promoter and second promoter are separately inducible under different conditions and the at least two first biocatalysts catalyze the same chemical reaction. Metabolically enhanced cyanobacteria according to the present invention allow prolonged production of first chemical compounds. Further provisions of the present invention include, inter alia, a method for producing the metabolically enhanced cyanobacterium and a method for producing a first chemical compound by culturing the metabolically enhanced cyanobacterium.
US09315817B2

A live bacterium, having a DNA construct stabilized against transduction of other bacteria, having a promoter sequence and encoding a fusion peptide, comprising a bacterial secretion peptide portion and a non-bacterial immunogenic polypeptide portion, having a nucleotide sequence coding for the non-bacterial immunogenic polypeptide portion which has at least one codon optimized for bacterial expression. The bacterium has a secretion mechanism which interacts with at least the bacterial secretion peptide portion to cause a secretion of the fusion peptide from the bacterium, and a genetic virulence attenuating mutation. The bacterium is adapted to act as an animal vaccine, to transiently infect a tissue of the animal, and cause an immunity response to the non-bacterial immunogenic polypeptide portion in the animal to a non-bacterial organism associated with the non-bacterial immunogenic polypeptide portion.
US09315813B2

The invention relates to double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) targeting an APOC3 gene, and methods of using the dsRNA to inhibit expression of APOC3.
US09315808B2

A biologically inactivated cell-specifically effective molecule for biologically inactive transfection into a target cell to inhibit expression of genes in the target cell after biological activation of the molecule, by bonding to mRNA and with the formation of a RISC complex, the biologically inactivated cell-specifically effective molecule comprising siRNA coupled with at least one peptide via a linker which remains at the siRNA after biological activation of the molecule, the linker comprising an amino Cn linker wherein n is an integer of 1-6. Kits include the molecule or the constituents thereof and transfection reagents in ampoules and injection equipment for injecting mixtures of the ampoule contents into a medium containing a target cell.
US09315804B2

The present invention is a method for the identification of one or more aptamers to at least one target molecule, the method comprising: selecting candidate aptamer sequences that bind to a target molecule, assigning to the bound sequences a measure (fitness function) of each sequence's aptameric potential, allowing evolution of some or all of the sequences to create a new mixture of candidate sequences, and repeating the method with the newly created candidate aptamer pool until the aggregate aptameric potential of the candidate pool reaches a plateau, wherein sequences present in the final pool are optimal aptamers to the target molecule.
US09315793B2

The invention relates to nucleic acids encoding a zingiberene synthase that enables host cells and plants to make zingiberene that is useful in fragrances and for repelling or killing insects. The invention also relates to isolated zingiberene synthases and to methods for making zingiberenes.
US09315792B2

The invention relates to nitrilases and to nucleic acids encoding the nitrilases. In addition methods of designing new nitrilases and method of use thereof are also provided. The nitrilases have increased activity and stability at increased pH and temperature.
US09315789B2

Antibody/signal-generating moiety conjugates are disclosed that include an antibody covalently linked to a signal-generating moiety through a heterobifunctional polyalkyleneglycol linker. The disclosed conjugates show exceptional signal-generation in immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization assays on tissue sections and cytology samples. In one embodiment, enzyme-metallographic detection of nucleic acid sequences with hapten-labeled probes can be accomplished using the disclosed conjugates as a primary antibody without amplification.
US09315788B2

The present invention relates to a method for the generation of compact Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) that can efficiently target and process double-stranded DNA. More specifically, the present invention concerns a method for the creation of TALENs that consist of a single TALE DNA binding domain fused to at least one catalytic domain such that the active entity is composed of a single polypeptide chain for simple and efficient vectorization and does not require dimerization to target a specific single double-stranded DNA target sequence of interest and process DNA nearby said DNA target sequence. The present invention also relates to compact TALENs, vectors, compositions and kits used to implement the method.
US09315776B2

In one aspect, the invention is directed to methods of expanding hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) comprising culturing the HSCs with Wharton's Jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJSCs), a cell culture medium that has been conditioned with WJSCs, or a combination thereof, thereby producing a HSC culture; and maintaining the HSC culture under conditions in which the HSCs expand in the culture, thereby expanding the HSCs. In another aspect, the invention is directed to a method of transplanting the expanded HSCs in an individual in need thereof. In yet another aspect, the invention is directed to compositions comprising HSCs and Wharton's Jelly mesenchymal stem cells (WJSCs). The composition can further comprise a cell culture medium that has been conditioned with WJSCs.
US09315769B2

A incubator chamber comprises a base, lid and plurality of trays, each of which are stackable upon one another in an open or closed configuration. A clamp could be provided having an interior cavity sized and dimensioned to simultaneously receive a portion of a perimeter of each of a base and a lid.
US09315762B2

The present invention provides a chromatographic separation process for recovering a polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) product from a feed mixture which is a fish oil or which is derived from fish oil, which process comprises the steps of: (i) purifying the feed mixture in a chromatographic separation step, to obtain a first intermediate product; and (ii) purifying the first intermediate product obtained in (i) in a simulated or actual moving bed chromatographic separation step, to obtain a second intermediate product; and (iii) purifying the second intermediate product obtained in (ii) in a simulated or actual moving bed chromatographic separation step, to obtain the PUFA product; wherein an aqueous organic solvent is used as eluent in each separation step; saturated and/or monounsaturated fatty acids present in the feed mixture are removed in the first separation step; the PUFA product is separated from different components of the feed mixture in steps (ii) and (iii); and the PUFA product obtained in the third separation step contains EPA or an EPA derivative in an amount greater than 90 wt %.
US09315756B2

A composition that includes one or more compounds represented by the formula A(B)x wherein A is the residue of an aromatic compound, B is the residue of an unsaturated hydrocarbon ester, and x is a value of 1 or greater. The composition has a viscosity (Kv100) from 2 to 40 at 100° C., and a viscosity index (VI) from 100 to 200. The disclosure also relates to a process for producing the composition, a lubricating oil base stock and lubricating oil containing the composition, and a method for improving one or more of solubility and dispersancy of polar additives in a lubricating oil by using as the lubricating oil a formulated oil containing the composition. The lubricating oils containing the composition are advantageous as engine oils that can improve engine fuel efficiency.
US09315749B2

A liquid fuel composition includes alcohols of four carbon atoms and additives, the liquid fuel composition being for ignition by compression. Various examples pertain to a liquid fuel composition with alcohols of four carbon atoms and additives, with ignition by compression to a diesel cycle fuel engine where the fuel can be able to be produced by means of biotechnology from renewable biologic source, including processes of fermentation of sugars or materials available on sugar and ethanol plants. As an example, a produced fuel can be used conventionally as replacement of diesel in urban transportation vehicles or roads and can be an alternative to diesel fuel. The composition can be employed alone or mixed to fossil diesel oil (e.g., in the engine, etc.).
US09315740B2

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for vortex tube desulfurization of jet fuels. Also disclosed are processes for separation of closely boiling species in a mixture of miscible fluids.
US09315734B2

A method and system for the use of low quality fuel and solids-rich water, like fine tailings or lime sludge, for extracting bitumen from shallow and deep underground oil sand formations. The method includes the steps of combustion fuel and oxidizing gas, mixing hot combustion gas with solids-rich water, evaporating the liquid water to steam and solids, removing the solids from the gas phase to generate a solid lean gas, recovering the heat and condensing the steam to generate hot water, mixing the hot water with oilsands ore for extracting bitumen. The solid lean gas is mixed with saturated water to scrub the remaining solids and acid gases and produce saturated steam. The solids-rich saturated water is recycled and evaporated by being mixed with the combustion gases, and the saturated steam is condensed to generate heat and condensate for steam generation for use in enhanced oil recovery.
US09315730B1

A method of removing a target gas from a gas stream is disclosed. The method uses advanced, fire-resistant activated carbon compositions having vastly improved fire resistance. Methods for synthesizing the compositions are also provided. The advanced compositions have high gas adsorption capacities and rapid adsorption kinetics (comparable to commercially-available activated carbon), without having any intrinsic fire hazard.
US09315727B2

There is provided a liquid crystal composition containing the compound represented by the general formula (1) and a liquid crystal display device that uses the liquid crystal composition. The compound represented by the general formula (1) has high Δ∈, high Tni, and good miscibility with other liquid crystal compounds. Therefore, a liquid crystal composition that has high Δ∈ and exhibits a liquid crystal phase in a wide temperature range can be obtained by using the compound represented by the general formula (1) as a component of the liquid crystal composition. Thus, the compound is very useful as a constituent component of the liquid crystal composition for liquid crystal display devices.
US09315714B2

A method of treating a formation that includes exposing a region of the formation occupied by a hydrolysable gel to a hydrolyzing agent; and allowing sufficient time for the hydrolyzing agent to hydrolyze the gel. Various methods may also include the use of a swelling agent to allow for expansion of the gel.
US09315708B2

The invention relates to the use of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane for increasing the miscibility of 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene with a lubricating oil, and in particular with a polyalkylene glycol oil. In this regard, the invention provides heat-transfer compositions and also equipment and processes using these compositions.
US09315704B2

A pressure sensitive adhesive construct comprising: (a) a backing substrate; and (b) a pressure sensitive adhesive composition disposed on the backing substrate, wherein the pressure sensitive adhesive includes a product made from at least one epoxidized vegetable oil and at least one dibasic acid or anhydride, or a combination of a dibasic acid or anhydride and a monobasic acid or anhydride.
US09315701B2

Provided are two part hybrid adhesives that comprise an organoborane amine complex, a polyamine, a component polymerizable by free radical polymerization, and a polyisocyanate component. An isocyanate terminated prepolymer can advantageously be used in the practice of the invention. The adhesive is particularly well suited for low surface energy plastic bonding.
US09315697B2

Provided are a multi-block copolymer, a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition, a method of preparing a multi-block copolymer, a pressure-sensitive adhesive polarizing plate, and a liquid crystal display device. The pressure-sensitive adhesive composition including the multi-block copolymer may have excellent durability regardless of a temperature and/or humidity. In addition, the method of preparing a multi-block copolymer may prepare a multi-block copolymer increased in molecular weight which is structurally controlled with a simple process using a compound containing at least two halogen atoms. Accordingly, when included in a pressure-sensitive adhesive resin, the multi-block copolymer may have excellent cohesive strength in the resin, and a network structure during curing, and thus, when applied to a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition, the multi-block copolymer may be usefully applied to an optical member due to excellent durability regardless of a temperature and humidity.
US09315687B2

The invention relates to conductive inks obtained by combining AQCs and metal nanoparticles. Atomic quantum clusters (AQCs), which melt at temperatures of less than 150° C., are used as low-temperature “flux” for the formulation of conductive inks. The combination of AQCs with bimodal and trimodal mixtures of nanoparticles of various sizes guarantees the elimination of free volumes in the final sintering of the nanoparticles in order to achieve electronic structures with very low resistivity (close to that of the bulk material) with low-temperature thermal treatments (<150° C.).
US09315679B2

Disclosed is a transparent conductive film containing a single-walled carbon nanotube and a fullerene.
US09315678B2

One object of the present invention is to provide a method of improving the affinity of a solvent for the surface of a hardly soluble or insoluble substances. Further object of the invention is providing a molded article comprising a hardly soluble or insoluble substances using the solution of a hardly soluble or insoluble substances. A method for improving affinity of a substance surface for a solvent, comprising: bringing the substance surface into contact with water-soluble xylan and the solvent, wherein the substance is hardly soluble or insoluble in the solvent in the absence of the water-soluble xylan. A solution comprising an added water-soluble xylan, a substance, and a solvent, wherein the substance is hardly soluble or insoluble in the solvent in the absence of the water-soluble xylan. A molded article comprising the added water-soluble xylan and the hardly soluble substance.
US09315675B2

In an embodiment, a polycarbonate composition comprises: polycarbonate; 7 wt % to 20 wt % titanium dioxide, based upon a total weight of the polycarbonate composition; an optional flame retardant; and an optional UV stabilizer. A plaque formed from the polycarbonate composition has a reflectance of greater than or equal to 95%, as determined by reflectance measurements using a Gretag Macbeth Coloreye spectrophotometer (D65 light source, 10 degree observer, UV included) made at a wavelength of 680 nm. In an embodiment, a polycarbonate composition comprises: a polycarbonate; 7 to 20 wt % titanium dioxide; a flame retardant; and an optional UV stabilizer; wherein the polycarbonate composition has a maximum reflectance of greater than or equal to 95%. The melt volume rate as determined at 300° C. using a 1.2 kilogram weight, in accordance with ASTM D1238-04 is from 5 to 30 grams per 10 minutes.
US09315672B2

Provided are a colorant represented by the following Formula (I) which is excellent in a color intensity and a lightfastness, a microcapsule pigment including the colorant, a developer and a chromic temperature controller and an ink composition for writing instruments including the microcapsule pigment: wherein X and Y represent a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 4 carbon atoms or a halogen atom; and X and Y may be identical or different from each other, provided that a case in which both of X and Y are a hydrogen atom is excluded.
US09315665B2

Provided herein are a method for preparing a resin composition for an expandable polypropylene carbonate and an expandable polypropylene carbonate prepared therefrom. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for preparing a resin composition for an expandable polypropylene carbonate capable of using supercritical carbon dioxide as a foaming agent and preparing a foam having excellent moldability by an appropriate foaming method, and an expandable polypropylene carbonate prepared therefrom. The expandable polypropylene carbonate capable of having high magnification, excellent thermal stability, and dimensional stability may be prepared by using the resin composition according to the present invention.
US09315662B2

The objective of the present invention is to provide a resin composition for direct plating whose plating performance such as depositibility and appearance after forming a metal film including copper film and the like by electroplating in direct plating method is excellent, a molded article comprising this composition, and a plated article having a metal film or an alloy film, formed by direct plating. The present composition is a thermoplastic resin composition containing a rubber-reinforced vinyl-based resin and the rubber-reinforced vinyl-based resin comprises a diene-based rubbery polymer [a1] and an ethylene•α-olefin-based rubbery polymer [a2], the total amount of the diene-based rubbery polymer [a1] and the ethylene•α-olefin-based rubbery polymer [a2] is from 3 to 30% by mass based on the thermoplastic resin composition, and the ratio of the ethylene•α-olefin-based rubbery polymer [a2] to the total amount is from 0.01 to 0.4.
US09315660B2

The present invention relates to aqueous binder compositions obtainable by emulsion polymerization of (A) at least one C1-C10 alkyl (meth)acrylate, and/or a vinylaromatic compound having up to 20 C atoms, or mixtures thereof (monomers A), (B) and also, if appropriate, further monomers B, and (C) at least one water-soluble alkyd resin having a weight-average molecular weight between 5000 and 40 000 Da, wherein the polymerization of the monomers A and also, if appropriate, B and the alkyds C is carried out in the form of a parallel feed process, and also to their preparation and use in coating materials.
US09315658B2

Disclosed are an alkyl(meth)acrylate-based thermoplastic resin composition and a thermoplastic resin with modified scratch resistance and yellowness. The alkyl(meth)acrylate-based thermoplastic resin composition provides improved scratch resistance and low yellowness index while maintaining transparency, flowability, and impact strength, even when the total content of the vinyl cyan-based monomer contained in the resin composition is reduced to a level unattainable by conventional techniques, and the content of the alkyl(meth)acrylate-based monomer is increased.
US09315657B2

Disclosed are a propylene resin composition (A) composed of 0.5 to 10% by weight of a specific propylene homopolymer (a1), 40 to 98% by weight of a specific propylene polymer (a2), 1 to 25% by weight of a specific propylene-ethylene random copolymer (a3), and 0.5 to 25% by weight of a specific propylene-ethylene random copolymer (a4), where the total amount of (a1), (a2), (a3) and (a4) is taken as 100% by weight, and an olefin resin composition comprising 100 parts by weight of the propylene resin composition (A), 5 to 75 parts by weight of an ethylene-α-olefin copolymer (B), and 1 to 75 parts by weight of an inorganic filler (C). The propylene resin composition can afford a molded article excellent in scratch resistance and rigidity.
US09315653B2

A polyester resin composition including: a polyester resin; a titanium compound derived from a catalyst; and a phosphorous compound, wherein formula (1): 0.10
US09315652B2

The present disclosure is directed to compositions having lecithin and an organic acid and related methods. The disclosed compositions may also include one or more co-surfactants such as anionic surfactants and/or non-ionic surfactants, and may be used as a dispersant.
US09315649B2

The present invention relates to an additive composition including a counteragent, and more particularly, to an additive composition for preparation of polyolefins, which improve flowability of a nucleating agent and exhibits excellent transparency, by applying a counteragent of a specific structure to a sorbitol nucleating agent which is an additive used in preparation of polyolefins.
US09315646B2

A polyolefin graft polyamide composition incorporating lamellar nanofillers. Also, a tube, pipe or analogous formed from a multilayer at least one of the layers of which contains this composition. A thermoplastic composition having a polyolefin backbone containing a residue of at least one unsaturated monomer and a plurality of polyamide grafts, and also another component, wherein: the polyamide grafts are attached to the polyolefin backbone by the residue of the unsaturated monomer comprising a function capable of reacting via a condensation reaction with a polyamide having at least one amine end group and/or at least one carboxylic acid end group, the residue of the unsaturated monomer is attached to the backbone by grafting or copolymerization, wherein the other component consists of platy nanofillers, said nanofillers being phyllosilicates and representing from 1% to 6.5% by weight of the composition.
US09315645B2

An object of the present invention is to provide an aqueous poly(meth)acrylic acid (salt) solution having high dispersibility of inorganic substances and demonstrating dispersibility having sufficient stability over time, and a process for preparing the same.The present invention relates to an aqueous poly(meth)acrylic acid (salt) solution comprising a poly(meth)acrylic acid (salt) having a weight average molecular weight of 1000 to 10000 polymerized in the presence of a phosphorus compound containing hypophosphorous acid (salt), wherein the phosphorus compound contains 0 to 0.3% by mass of a phosphorous acid (salt) based on 100% by mass of the phosphorus compound, and the aqueous poly(meth)acrylic acid (salt) solution contains 0 to 10000 ppm of an inorganic anion and a process for the preparation thereof.
US09315632B1

One-pot reaction process for preparing epoxy-reinforced monolithic silica aerogels comprising the reaction of at least one silicon compound selected from the group consisting of alkoxysilanes, orthosilicates and combination thereof in any ratio with effective amounts of an epoxy monomer and an aminoalkoxy silane to obtain an epoxy monomer-silica sol in solution, subsequently preparing an epoxy-monomer silica gel from said silica sol solution followed by initiating polymerization of the epoxy monomer to obtain the epoxy-reinforced monolithic silica aerogel.
US09315626B2

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a polyamide based on dicarboxylic acids and diamines, comprising the following stages: A) providing an aqueous monomer mixture composed of dicarboxylic acids and diamines, where the molar ratio of dicarboxylic acids to diamines is adjusted such that, at the outlet of stage C), there is a molar deficiency of dicarboxylic acids or diamines of 1 to 10 mol %, based on the respective other component, B) transferring the aqueous mixture from stage A) into a continuous evaporator reactor in which diamines and dicarboxylic acids are converted at a temperature in the range from 100 to 370° C. and a pressure in the range from 1 to 50 bar, C) transferring the mixture from stage B) into a separator which is operated at a temperature in the range from 100 to 370° C. and a pressure in the range from 1 to 50 bar with removal of gaseous components, D) transferring the mixture from stage C) together with diamine or dicarboxylic acid in an amount suitable for compensation for the molar deficiency into a tubular reactor which is operated at a temperature in the range from 100 to 370° C. and a pressure in the range from 1 to 50 bar, for a residence time in the range from 10 seconds to 30 minutes, E) transferring the mixture from stage D) into an extruder which is operated at a temperature in the range from 150 to 400° C. for a residence time in the range from 10 seconds to 30 minutes with removal of gaseous components through venting orifices.
US09315620B2

The present invention relates to (per)fluoropolymer compositions, in particular to (per)fluoropolyether compositions comprising:—a (per)fluoropolymer having more than two carboxy groups and—a polyamine. The invention further relates to processes for preparing said compositions and to molded articles obtained from said compositions.
US09315618B2

Conjugated polymers (CPs) achieve directed alignment along an applied flow field and a dichroic ratio of as high as 16.67 in emission from well-aligned thin films and fully realized anisotropic optoelectronic properties of CPs in field-effect transistor (FET).
US09315616B2

The invention generally relates to blocked prepolymers. More specifically, the invention generally relates to plastisol compositions comprising the blocked prepolymers. The blocked prepolymer is the reaction product of at least an isocyanate terminated prepolymer and a blocking agent, wherein the blocking agent is a nitrogen containing blocking agent. The isocyanate terminated prepolymer is the reaction product of at least one or more polyols comprising at least one polyol having an amine initiator and a stoichiometric excess of one or more organic polyisocyanate components.
US09315610B2

The present invention provides a non-aqueous composition containing a particulate solid, an organic medium and polyurethane dispersant with a substantially linear anchoring segment pendant tertiary amine group(s) from said anchoring segment and terminally attached solvent-solubilising terminal chains of a polyester, polyether, or polyacrylate including mixtures of such terminal chains.
US09315608B2

A conjugated diene polymer rubber is provided that includes component (A) and component (B) below, component (A) having a content, with the total amount of component (A) and component (B) as 100% by weight, of from 5% to 90% by weight, and component (B) having a content of from 95% to 10% by weight, Component (A): a conjugated diene polymer rubber component modified with a carbonyl group- and substituted amino group-containing compound Component (B): a conjugated diene polymer rubber component modified with a compound represented by formula (IIa) below (R21O)mSi(R22A)nR234-m-n  (IIa) wherein m denotes a number from 1 to 3, n denotes a number from 1 to 3, m+n is from 2 to 4, R21 and R23 denote a hydrocarbyl group, R22 denotes a hydrocarbylene group, A denotes a substituted amino group or an optionally substituted hydrocarbyloxy group, when there are a plurality of R21s the plurality of R21s may be identical to or different from each other, when there are a plurality of R22s the plurality of R22s may be identical to or different from each other, when there are a plurality of R23s the plurality of R23s may be identical to or different from each other, and when there are a plurality of As the plurality of As may be identical to or different from each other.
US09315605B2

The present invention relates to a method of producing an elastomer. Specifically, the method of producing an elastomer according to the present invention comprises a step of polymerizing ethylene, propylene, and optionally, a diene monomer in the presence of a catalyst composition containing a transition metal compound. The method of producing an elastomer according to the present invention makes it possible to prepare a high molecular weight, ethylene-propylene or ethylene-propylene-diene, elastic copolymer at a high temperature.
US09315595B2

Disclosed is a method of preparing terminally functionalized telechelic polymers using a cationic living polymer product or a terminal tert-chloride chain end of a carbocationic quasiliving polymer product, which comprises quenching the polymer product with a functionalized N-substituted pyrrole to thereby introduce the functionalized N-substituted pyrrole at the terminal reactive polymer chain end(s). A method is also disclosed whereby the N-substituent may be derivatized to a basic amine containing functional group. Also disclosed are the terminal functionalized polyisobuyl N-substituted pyrrole compounds where the polyisobutyl group is substituted at the 2 and 3 position of the N-substituted pyrrole.
US09315589B2

Provided herein are organic solvent-based processes for the removal of rubber from non-Hevea plants such as guayule shrubs. By the use of the processes, solid purified rubber can be obtained that contains 0.05-0.5 weight % dirt, 0.2-1.5 weight % ash, and 0.1-4 weight % resin (when it has been dried so as to contain 0.8 weight % volatile matter).
US09315587B2

The invention relates generally to oligosaccharide compounds and the use of these compounds as pharmaceuticals for treating diseases or conditions in which it is desirable to inhibit β-secretase.
US09315584B2

Provided are a novel diabody type bispecific antibody, the function of which as a bispecific antibody is improved to provide a higher additional value, such as cost saving caused by a reduction in dose, to a drug; and a method for producing the same. A humanized diabody type bispecific antibody (LH-diabody type bispecific antibody) characterized in that an L-chain is located in the N-terminal side in each polypeptide (LH type); a humanized high-functional bispecific antibody which contains said LH diabody type bispecific antibody; a nucleic acid molecule encoding both of two kinds of single-stranded polypeptides constituting said bispecific antibody; and a method for producing said antibody which comprises culturing a host cell having been transformed by an expression vector containing said nucleic acid molecule.
US09315582B2

Provided are compositions and methods that relate to prophylaxis and therapy of angiogenesis associated disease and includes novel knockin mice which express novel human/mouse chimeric endoglin, vectors for use in making such mice, and murine embryonic stem cells comprising the novel human/mouse transgene. Also provided are anti-human endoglin monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which can be used as antiangiogenic agents for prophylaxis or therapy of human tumor angiogenesis and human angiogenesis-associated diseases having excessive vascularization. The mAbs do not cross react with murine endoglin. Also provides are methods for using the anti-human endoglin mAbs for prophylaxis or therapy of human tumor angiogenesis and for angiogenesis-associated diseases having excessive vascularization.
US09315577B2

The invention relates to monoclonal antibodies that bind hepcidin and methods of making and using such antibodies. Also provided are methods of treating hepcidin-related disorders.
US09315568B2

The present invention relates to Cadherin-11 antagonists and compositions comprising Cadherin-11 antagonists. The invention also relates to methods for treating inflammatory joint disorders, such as rheumaotid arthritis, in a mammalian subject by administering a therapeutically effective amount of a Cadherin-11 antagonist.
US09315565B2

The present invention relates to a recombinant host cell, wherein the cell is modified to increase the expression levels of Ero1 and XBP1 relative to the expression levels of Ero1 and XBP1 in an unmodified cell. The present invention also relates to a method of producing a recombinant protein of interest comprising expressing the recombinant protein of interest in the recombinant host cell.
US09315562B2

The object of the present invention is to provide a collagen fiber membrane, which has sufficient strength and can be used as a cell culture substrate, a scaffold material for regenerative medicine (for example, material for tissue engineering of cartilage, bone, ligament, corneal stroma, skin, or liver), an implantation material (for example, wound dressing material, bone grafting material, hemostatic material, anti-adhesive material) or a carrier for drug delivery. The object of the present invention can be solved by a fish-derived collagen fiber membrane, characterized in that (1) a tensile strength is 30 MPa or more, (2) a density determined by the gravimetric method, is 0.4 g/cm3 or more, and (3) an average membrane thickness is 1 μm to 2 mm, and a variation in membrane thickness is plus or minus 30%, relative to the average membrane thickness.
US09315555B2

The present invention relates to recombinant Clostridium difficile antigens based on a polypeptide, consisting of or comprising an amino acid sequence having at least 80% sequence identity with an amino acid sequence consisting of residues 1500-700 of a C. difficile Toxin A sequence or a C. difficile Toxin B sequence; though with the proviso that the polypeptide does not include one or more Repeat Unit (RU) located between amino acid residues 1851-2710 of C. difficile Toxin A and/or residues 1853-2366 of a C. difficile Toxin B protein that consists of or comprises a first amino acid sequence and a second amino acid. Also provided is the use of said antigens for the prevention/treatment/suppression of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), together with methods for generating said antigens, methods for generating antibodies that bind to said antigens, and the use of said antibodies for the prevention/treatment/suppression of CDI.
US09315554B2

The present invention concerns methods and compositions for treating or preventing a bacterial infection, particularly infection by a Staphylococcus bacterium. The invention provides methods and compositions for stimulating an immune response against the bacteria. In certain embodiments, the methods and compositions involve a non-toxigenic Protein A (SpA) variant.
US09315552B2

The subject of the present invention is a method of modifying proteinaceous toxins through the addition of an NLS motif. The resulting cytotoxin facilitates the selective elimination of proliferating cells, particularly tumor cells.
US09315551B2

The present invention is based on the ORF3 gene of Porcine Circovirus Type 2 (PCV2) and the identification of tis apoptotic role. This discovery has led to the development of an attenuated live vaccine against PCV2.
US09315548B2

Novel peptoid oligomers are disclosed that have a formula represented by the following formula I: The peptoids demonstrate antimicrobial activity and may be prepared as pharmaceutical compositions and used for the prevention or treatment of a variety of conditions in mammals including humans where microbial invasion is involved. The present cyclic and linear peptoids are particularly valuable as their effect is rapid, broad in spectrum and mostly indifferent to resistance provoked by standard antibiotics.
US09315546B2

The present invention provides novel peptides that can modulate the ghrelin receptor (growth hormone secretagogue receptor, GHS-R1a and sub-types, isoforms and variants thereof). These peptides are useful as antagonists of the ghrelin receptor as well as inverse agonist, partial agonist or a combination of these activities as medicaments for treatment and prevention of a range of medical conditions including, but not limited to, metabolic and/or endocrine disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular disorders, obesity and obesity-associated disorders, diabetes, central nervous system disorders, genetic disorders, and hyperpro-liferative disorders.
US09315542B2

This disclosure features compounds that are useful as pro-drugs of epoxy ketone protease inhibitors.
US09315541B2

Disclosed is a method for the conversion of a compound of formula 3 to a compound of formula 4, wherein R is an acetyl group or an alcohol-protecting group. The process involves reacting 3 with a triflating agent in the presence of a nicotinate (3-pyridinecarboxylate) of a C1-C4 alcohol, preferably methyl nicotinate (methyl 3-pyridinecarboxylate) or ethyl nicotinate (ethyl 3-pyridinecarboxylate), to give 4. The method can be conveniently used in a process for the preparation of Abiraterone or Abiraterone acetate.
US09315540B2

The present invention relates to an improved process for the preparation of Fulvestrant (I). Also, provided is novel intermediate of Fulvestrant and a process for the preparation of the same.
US09315539B2

The present invention relates to novel 11-β estradiol ester compounds and their use as locally active estrogens in the treatment of the symptomology of menopause and to treat estrogen sensitive cancers, including breast cancer.
US09315532B2

Described herein are fatty acid carbohydrate hybrid compounds and derivatives thereof, and methods of treating or preventing disease and disease symptoms using the compounds and compositions thereof.
US09315517B2

The invention provides novel imidazol-piperidinyl derivatives of formula (I) in which R1, R2, X1, X2, X3, X4 and n have the meanings indicated in above, and their manufacture and use for the treatment of hyperproliferative diseases, such as cancer.
US09315515B2

A process is provided for making isohexides such as isosorbide with reduced color and/or improved color stability on storage, wherein ionic species in the crude dehydration product mixture are chromatographically substantially separated from the remainder of the crude product mixture, then the remainder is refined to yield a finished product for further use or sale.
US09315514B2

The application is directed to compounds of Formula I and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, prodrugs, and solvates thereof, wherein G, R2-R5, and are defined as set forth in the specification. The invention is also directed to use of compounds of Formula I as synthetic intermediates or to treat disorders responsive to the modulation of one or more opiopid receptors. Certain compounds of the present invention are especially useful for treating pain.
US09315508B2

The present invention is directed to novel substituted dihydropyrrolopyrazoles of structural Formula I which are inhibitors of the dipeptidyl peptidase-N enzyme and which are useful in the treatment or prevention of diseases in which the dipeptidyl peptidase-IV enzyme is involved, such as diabetes and particularly Type 2 diabetes. The invention is also directed to pharmaceutical compositions comprising these compounds and the use of these compounds and compositions in the prevention or treatment of such diseases in which the dipeptidyl peptidase IV enzyme is involved.
US09315507B2

The present invention relates to novel compounds as HIF-1α inhibitors, manufacturing process thereof, and a pharmaceutical compositions. The compounds according to the present invention having inhibition activity against HIF-1α, can be used as a therapeutic prevention and/or treatment for various solid cancers such as colon cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer and breast cancer. Also, the compounds according to the present invention are useful in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy and rheumatoid arthritis, which are aggravated by HIF-1α-mediated VEGFA expression.
US09315506B2

The present invention is directed towards new 18F-folate radiopharmaceuticals, wherein the fluorine-18 is covalently linked to the aminobenzoyl moiety, which connects the condensed pyrimidine heterocycle to the amino acid portion within folate structures, as well as their precursors and their non-radioactive references, a method of their preparation, as well as their use in diagnosis of a cell or population of cells expressing a folate-receptor and monitoring of cancer and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases and therapy thereof.
US09315502B2

The present invention relates to compounds of general formula wherein Ar is phenyl or pyridinyl; X1 is N or CH, X2 is N or CH, with the proviso that only one of X1 or X2 is N and the other is CH; R1 is hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, lower alkyl substituted by halogen, cyano or S(O)2-lower alkyl; R2 is hydrogen, halogen, lower alkyl, lower alkoxy, lower alkyl substituted by halogen or cyano; n is 1 or 2; or to a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt, to a racemic mixture or to its corresponding enantiomer and/or optical isomers thereof. The compounds may be used for the treatment of schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, major depression, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, normal aging, epilepsy, retinal degeneration, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, Parkinson's disease, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment, chemotherapy-induced cognitive dysfunction, Down syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, hearing loss, tinnitus, spinocerebellar ataxia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease, stroke, radiation therapy, chronic stress, abuse of neuro-active drugs, such as alcohol, opiates, methamphetamine, phencyclidine and cocaine.
US09315497B2

The present invention relates to chemistry and pharmacy and, in particular, to the production of novel molecular entities, tricyclic and tetracyclic derivatives of benzodiazepine, pyridodiazepine and pyrimidodiazepine type fused with 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives, having an effect on the central-nervous and vascular systems. Derivatives containing a dihydropyridine ring are used, by means of reactions with compounds of the ortho-phenylenediamine, ortho-diaminopyridine and ortho-diaminopyrimidine type, and also subsequent conversions to some thereof, to obtain tricyclic and tetracyclic derivatives of general formula I-XII that contain a diazepine or diazepinone nucleus fused to a 1,4-dihydropyridine nucleus, in which the A ring is a substituted or unsubstituted benzene, pyridine or pyrimidine ring. These molecular entities exhibit GABAergica and modulating action in the case of calcium channels which can be used in the treatment of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders.
US09315493B2

The present invention provides: a compound represented by general formula (I) below, that has both angiotensin II receptor antagonism and a PPARγ activation effect and that is useful as a preventative and/or therapeutic agent for high blood pressure, cardiac disease, arteriosclerosis, type-2 diabetes, and the like; and a drug composition containing the compound. General formula (I) (in the formula: ring A represents a pyridine ring; ring B represents a tetrazole ring or an oxadiazol-5(4H)-one ring; X represents C—R5 or a nitrogen atom; R1 represents an alkyl group; R2 represents an alkyl group or a cycloalkyl group; and R3, R4, and R5 each independently represents a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group or similar.
US09315490B2

The invention relates to novel substituted condensed pyrimidine compounds of general formula (I) in which the chemical groupings, substituents and indices are as defined in the description, and to their use as medicaments, in particular as medicaments for the treatment of conditions and diseases that can be treated by inhibition of the PDE4 enzyme.
US09315488B2

Disclosed are compounds which inhibit the activity of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL proteins, compositions containing the compounds and methods of treating diseases during which are expressed anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein.
US09315479B2

Process for preparing pyrrolidine of the formula I by reacting 1,4-butanediol (BDO) of the formula II with ammonia in the presence of hydrogen and a supported, metal-containing catalyst, wherein the catalytically active mass of the catalyst, prior to its reduction with hydrogen, comprises oxygen-containing compounds of aluminum, copper, nickel and cobalt and in the range from 0.2 to 5.0% by weight of oxygen-containing compounds of tin, calculated as SnO, and the reaction is carried out in the liquid phase at an absolute pressure in the range from 160 to 220 bar, a temperature in the range from 160 to 230° C., using ammonia in a molar ratio to BDO used of from 5 to 50 and in the presence of 1.0 to 4.5% by weight of hydrogen, based on the amount of BDO used.
US09315476B2

A new antiviral water-soluble pharmacological product with anti-HIV effect, is based on ionic silver and methylene blue compound. The new substance is produced in the form of water-soluble powder that can be used for the preparation of finished dosage forms for treating viral infections, especially HIV infection. The product has a potential ability to radically suppress the infectious agents without leading to any mutations and resistance of viruses. The composition of the new product proposed under the conventional name Argothiazin-A™ corresponds to the chemical formula: C20H24AgN3O4S.
US09315472B2

The present invention provides novel 1,3,5-triazinane-2,4,6-trione derivatives, such as compounds of any one of Formulae (I) and (II), and salts thereof, and methods of preparing the compounds. Also provided are compositions including a compound of the invention and an agent (e.g., an siRNA, mRNA, or plasmid DNA). The present invention also provides methods and kits using the compositions for delivering an agent to a subject (e.g., to the liver, spleen, or lung of the subject) or cell and for treating and/or preventing a range of diseases, such as genetic diseases, proliferative diseases, hematological diseases, neurological diseases, liver diseases, and lung diseases.
US09315469B2

Wet bendamustine hydrochloride monohydrate may be dried by a two stage process wherein rapid drying is first carried out to provide a partially dried product, which is then further dried using an inert gas of controlled relative humidity to yield dry bendamustine hydrochloride monohydrate.
US09315468B2

Methods that include latent 1,3-dipole-functional compounds are disclosed herein. The latent 1,3-dipole-functional compound (e.g., an oxime) can be used to form an active 1,3-dipole-functional compound (e.g., a nitrile oxide) that can be used to react with a cyclic alkyne in a dipolar cycloaddition reaction.
US09315461B2

The invention relates to the compounds of formula I or its pharmaceutical acceptable salts, as well as polymorphs, solvates, enantiomers, stereoisomers and hydrates thereof. The pharmaceutical compositions comprising an effective amount of compounds of formula I, and methods for the treatment of neurologic diseases may be formulated for oral, buccal, rectal, topical, transdermal, transmucosal, intravenous, parenteral administration, syrup, or injection. Such compositions may be used to treatment of epilepsy, migraine, neuropathic pain, post herpetic neuralgia, pain, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, Batten disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease (PD), restless legs syndrome (RLS), cluster headache, depression, fibromyalgia, sexual dysfunction, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer's disease, autism, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder, trigeminal neuralgia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, neuropathic pain, seizures, bipolar disorder and mania.
US09315455B2

The present invention concerns a process of isomerizing trans fused bicyclic derivatives into cis fused bicyclic derivatives and the preparation of vitamin D or analogs thereof comprising said isomerization step.
US09315450B2

The invention relates to substantially pure Desfesoterodine salts, Desfesoterodine salts, solid state forms thereof and pharmaceutical compositions comprising one or more of the Desfesoterodine salts and/or solid state forms thereof.
US09315447B2

The invention relates to novel resolvin compounds and pharmaceutical preparations thereof. The invention further relates to methods of treatment using the novel resolvin compounds of the invention.
US09315434B2

The invention relates to a method for preparing a composition rich in lutein produced by microalgae, particularly microalgae belonging to the Chlorella genus, more specifically produced by Chlorella vulgaris, characterized in that said method includes the sequence of the following steps: 1) preparing a cell lysate from the microalgae biomass; 2) treating the lysed microalgae biomass with a polar solvent, preferably ethyl acetate, in order to obtain an oleoresin containing the lutein and the lipids from the initial biomass; 3) extracting the oleoresin obtained in step 2) by means of a non-polar solvent, here a fluid at supercritical pressure, in order to obtain a fraction rich in non-polar lipids, mainly consisting of triglycerides, and an insoluble fraction rich in lutein; and 4) recovering the thus lutein-enriched fraction.
US09315430B2

The present disclosure relates to reactor components and their use, e.g., in regenerative reactors. A process and apparatus for utilizing different wetted areas along the flow path of a fluid in a pyrolysis reactor, e.g., a thermally regenerating reactor, such as a regenerative, reverse-flow reactor, is described.
US09315424B2

A method for the joining of ceramic pieces with a hermetically sealed joint comprising brazing a continuous layer of joining material between the two pieces. The wetting and flow of the joining material is controlled by the selection of the joining material, the joining temperature, the time at temperature, the joining atmosphere, and other factors. The ceramic pieces may be aluminum nitride and the pieces may be brazed with an aluminum alloy under controlled atmosphere. The joint material is adapted to later withstand both the environments within a process chamber during substrate processing, and the oxygenated atmosphere which may be seen within the shaft of a heater or electrostatic chuck.
US09315419B2

The present invention relates to an additive for hydraulically setting compositions, comprising an aqueous, colloidally disperse preparation of at least one salt of a polyvalent metal cation and of at least one polymeric dispersant which comprises anionic and/or anionogenic groups and polyether side chains. The additive is suitable particularly as a slump retainer.
US09315418B2

Disclosed is a process for diminishing the adsorption capacity of coal ash comprising inter alia admixing a quantity of coal ash with a quantity of latex polymer, ultimately to form a cementitious mixture. The invention is useful inter alia for relieving an environmental burden of coal ash disposal and for imparting favorable properties to the cementitious mixture.
US09315415B2

The method for depositing a film of the present invention comprises the first film deposition step of depositing a first film 103 having hardness higher than hardness of a substrate 101 on a surface of the substrate 101, the first irradiation step of irradiating particles having energy on the first film 103, and the second film deposition step of depositing an oil-repellent film 105 on a surface of the first film 103 subjected to the first irradiation step. According to the present invention, a method for depositing a film enabling production of an oil-repellent substrate comprising an oil-repellent film having abrasion resistance of a practically sufficient level can be provided.
US09315407B2

A system for producing and supplying a coolant to a filtration sub-system, and for reconditioning and recombining a return flow of used coolant. A main reservoir is in two way communication with the filtration sub-system via a clean coolant outlet and a dirty coolant return. An inlet feeds an untreated water supply to a de-ionization canister. A mixing valve in communication with the inlet recombines a remaining untreated portion of the water supply with the de-ionized portion. A mixing pump intermixes the water supply with a chemical concentrate to produce a coolant delivered to a main reservoir. A volume of coolant is drawn through an outlet from the reservoir and communicates the coolant to a particle filter, a chiller, and prior to outputting to the filtration sub-systems. The used return coolant is filtered and reintroduced to the main reservoir.
US09315402B2

Disclosed is a system and method for treating wastewater. The system includes a bioreactor which defines a basin for receiving wastewater to be treated; a membrane module in fluid communication with the bioreactor; and a dissolution tank. The tank includes a pressure vessel that contains a portion of the wastewater to be treated and provides a regulated, pressurized gas head space above the wastewater. The tank also includes at least one liquid spray nozzle that permits passage of the wastewater into the gas head space of the pressure vessel and an outlet for discharging the wastewater having a desired gas concentration from the pressure vessel. The system also includes a pumping mechanism for supplying the wastewater to the spray nozzle of the tank such that fluid droplets are formed in the gas head space and the gas contained within the pressurized head space is dissolved into the wastewater.
US09315399B2

Process and apparatus is provided for making a solution of sodium carbonate (soda ash) and water by which the soda ash is delivered in dry, particulate form to a silo, while air is being exhausted from the silo, dehumidifying air from the silo and discontinuing the dehumidifying of air while soda ash is being delivered to the silo, delumping soda ash in the silo, and then delivering water to a mixing vessel and transferring particulate soda ash to the treating vessel, in which it is mixed and the resulting solution is then discharged. The solution can be delivered to a storage tank or vessel and then to either a single or multiple outlet dosing station and/or some of the solution can be returned to a storage silo.
US09315396B2

Synergies in recovery of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane process reject waste and forward osmosis (FO) membrane process water extraction, using such osmotic process byproducts in applications for makeup to evaporative cooling towers, concurrent with use of specific corrosion and scale inhibition methods that permit tower water discharge reduction to approach zero blowdown. Such synergies are derived from methods for application of subsequent RO feed water and reject wastewater with pre-treatment steps, and FO process optimization steps to permit water quality and economic performance efficiencies when used as makeup to evaporative cooling systems.
US09315389B2

The present invention relates to hydrogen surface-treated graphene, a formation method thereof, and an electronic device including the same. The graphene according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be useful in preparing hydrogen surface-treated graphene having a band gap using simple methods through indirect hydrogen plasma treatment. Also, the graphene according to one exemplary embodiment of the present invention can be useful in forming two regions having different band gaps through the indirect hydrogen plasma treatment, and thus can be useful in reducing the processing time and the processing cost since the graphene is directly applicable to electronic devices such as transistors, and touch panels.
US09315388B2

The invention provides a method of producing a graphene material from a starting graphitic material. In an embodiment, the method comprises: (a) dispersing the starting graphitic material in a liquid medium to form a graphite suspension; and (b) introducing the graphite suspension into a hydrodynamic cavitation reactor that generates and collapses cavitation or bubbles in the liquid medium to exfoliate and separate graphene planes from the starting graphitic material for producing the graphene material. The process is fast (minutes as opposed to hours or days of conventional processes), environmentally benign, and highly scalable. The reactor can concurrently perform the functions of graphene production, chemical functionalization, dispersion, and mixing with a polymer to make a composite.
US09315381B2

To provide a catalyst for dehydrogenation of formic acid which allows hydrogen, heavy hydrogen gas or heavy-hydrogenated hydrogen containing no carbon monoxide to be produced through dehydrogenation of formic acid in a highly efficient manner.A catalyst for dehydrogenation of formic acid, including: a multinuclear metal complex represented by the following Formula (1), a tautomer or stereoisomer thereof, or a salt thereof, where M1 and M2 denote transition metals and may be the same as or different from each other; Q1 to Q6 each independently denote carbon or nitrogen; R1 to R6 each independently denote, for example, a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, a phenyl group, a nitro group, a halogen group, a sulfonate group (sulfo group); L1 and L2 each independently denote an aromatic anionic ligand or an aromatic ligand, and may be substituted by one or more substituents; Y1 and Y2 each independently denote any ligand or are absent; and m denotes a positive integer, 0, or a negative integer.
US09315375B2

A bonding technology is disclosed that can form an anodic, conductive bond between two optically transparent substrates. The anodic bond may be accompanied by a metal alloy, solder, eutectic and polymer bond. The first anodic bond may provide one attribute such as hermeticity, whereas the second bond may provide another attribute, such as electrical conductivity.
US09315374B2

The adjustable frame for a riding saddle includes a saddle tree arranged on a portion of a riding saddle and having two longitudinal arms and at least one rotatable continuous part, passing through the saddle tree. An upper portion of the rail is easily accessible without requiring the disassembly of any component. The opening and closing of the reinforcement parts of the saddle tree, that are driven by the rotatable continuous part using a simple Allen wrench, are enabled.
US09315372B2

A grease pump unit has a metering valve 37 and a grease supplying device 50 in which a suction tube 16 on a pump device 11 extends through a follower plate 19 in a grease can 100, grease in the grease can 100 being sucked through the suction tube 16 and discharged through a discharge port 17 by activation of the pump device 11. Provided are a bubble dividing device 32 which supplies the grease discharged through the discharge port 17 through an supply pipe 24 to micronize bubbles in the grease and which supplies the grease through a supply pipe 36 to the metering valve 37, and a return pipe 47 which returns a portion of the grease not discharged through the metering valve 37 into the grease can 100 via the follower plate 19.
US09315369B2

A hand tool including a handle with a containing chamber, and a can opener that can be rotatably received in the containing chamber or unfolded connected pivotally to an end of the handle, and the can opener is made of metal material and used to open a paint can lid.
US09315368B2

A device for removing a pool or deck cover anchor includes a base having a front, a rear, and two sides; a swivel rotatably attached to the front of the base with dowel pins so that the swivel will rotate to stay level; a U-shaped gripping element on the swivel, adapted to grip the anchor; a handle attached to the rear of the base, the handle being substantially longer than the swivel; a handle stop on the handle; and wheels rotatably attached to the sides of the base; wherein the handle, base, and swivel form a lever and the wheels allow the tool to roll so that a generally downward force on the handle produces a straight vertical force on the anchor that lifts the anchor out of the ground. Methods for removing and replacing anchors utilize the tool as further described.
US09315354B2

An apparatus for feeding tissues or similar folded paper articles towards an automatic packaging system, comprises means for forming stacks of articles with one or more sets of separating wheels, and means for radially ejecting and feeding the stacks to the packaging system; the ejection means comprise at least one ejection device with two or more pushing members inserted between a wheel and the other; article stop means are adjustable in a direction that is substantially tangential with respect to the separating wheel, and orthogonal with an ejection direction.
US09315353B2

A glove stacking apparatus for preparing a stack of gloves prior to packing into a box, and a method of stacking gloves, particularly ambidextrous disposable hygienic gloves, preferably with the thumbs of each glove in a desired orientation with respect to each other are disclosed. A glove stacking apparatus for forming a stack of gloves comprises a packing recess for receiving the gloves to be stacked, and adjacent the recess at least one movable flap for folding towards the recess a portion of a glove overlapping said edge of the recess. The movable flap has a surface that is permeable to gaseous flow through the surface, and the glove stacking apparatus including a source of vacuum pressure and means to apply the vacuum air pressure through the permeable surface of the movable flap in order to pull the overlapping portion of the glove to the flap prior to folding of the overlapping portion. The source of vacuum pressure is separate from the flap so that as the flap folds towards the recess, the application of the vacuum air pressure through the permeable surface is automatically released.
US09315341B2

A conveyor system has a plurality of infeed staging conveyors configured to selectively feed batches of article arranged in a side by side configuration to a downstream merging conveyor. The merging conveyor is configured to merge batches of articles arranged in a side-by-side configuration and to singulate the individual articles of each batch while merging the batches as the articles are singulated while being advanced downstream as a flow of in-line separated articles. The merging conveyor includes a plurality of laterally spaced lanes of conveying surfaces which having a respective speed and each imparting an inward lateral force on the articles. A descrambling conveyor is disposed downstream of the merging conveyor.
US09315322B1

A system for moving pallets can include a rectangular grid, pallets, a shuttle device, a motive assembly, and one or more processors. The pallets can be arranged upon a matrix of cells of the rectangular grid. The one or more processors can be communicatively coupled to the shuttle device and the motive assembly. The one or more processors can execute machine readable instructions to activate a vertical actuator to urge the pallet engagement member of the shuttle device into engagement with a shuttle engagement member of a selected pallet of the pallets. The motive assembly can be actuated to slide the selected pallet along the rectangular grid, while the pallet engagement member of the shuttle device and the shuttle engagement member of the selected pallet are engaged.
US09315321B2

A support system includes a support, a root magnet, an object, and a cover magnet. The root magnet is fixedly attached to the support. The cover magnet is fixedly attached to the object. The root magnet and the cover magnet are configured to be magnetically attracted to one another such that the object is magnetically attached to the support when the root magnet and the cover magnet are aligned with one another in an attachment arrangement. The root magnet and the cover magnet are configured to magnetically repel one another such that the object is detached from the support when the root magnet and the cover magnet are unaligned with one another in a detachment arrangement.
US09315317B2

A container for eggs which uniformly orients eggs so that a substantial amount of surface area of the egg is uniformly presented for marking and viewing. The container has receptacles that may include one or more guidance features configured to automatically guide eggs to settle into a preferred resting orientation with the eggs uniformly centered and tilted slightly backward within their receptacles. The receptacles are designed to resist movement of the eggs from their resting orientation during marking, shipping or handling. Optionally, guidance and stabilizing features may cooperate to maintain eggs in a desired resting orientation.
US09315315B2

The present invention relates to a remainder reducing member with which a space with a circumference closed by a pressurized fluid is prevented from being generated and a final remaining amount of a discharged content is reduced. The remainder reducing member of the present invention has a simple structure, is manufactured with ease, easily installed at an inner side of an inner bag, and capable of discharging the content smoothly. The remainder reducing member, which is attached to the interior of the flexible inner bag disposed in aerosol container to reduce the final remaining amount of the discharged content, is constituted by a solid rod-shaped body and comprises an attachment portion attached to an inflow port of the inner bag such that said content can flow therein and a guiding portion provided with a plurality of guiding grooves formed in a lengthwise direction of an outer periphery thereof.
US09315297B2

An opening device for a flexible package having an opening portion defined by two side walls and a width, the opening device intended to be disposed in the opening portion of the package adjacent to an opening, formed upon initial opening of the package, for opening and closing thereof. The opening device comprises a thin-walled first body with a contact surface and a first application surface opposite thereto for allowing application of the first body in the opening portion to a first of the two side walls. The first body is maneuverable, by folding about a first folding axis, between a basic position and a sealing position. In the sealing position, the contact surface has sub portions directly facing each other. A locking member is designed for releasable locking of the body in the sealing position.
US09315296B2

A new package for storing bulky goods is disclosed. The package is formed from a bag having a width and depth at its base portion and meeting at a top edge, the top edge having no depth. Due to the top edge having no depth, the width of the material on the top portion of the package extends out further than the width of the material on the base portion. To create a package having streamlined aesthetic that looks nice on a shelf, the excess material in the top portion of the bag is folded into the interior of the bag to form a false side gusset. To allow for such folding the bag, in desirable embodiments, side edges of a first and second web forming the bag angle inward at between about 30 degrees and about 60 degrees at a top portion transition point on the bag.
US09315294B2

A transportable container apparatus includes an elongate container with a base. The container and base are substantially symmetrical about the central axis, typically cylindrical, and oriented substantially vertically when in a working position. The container has an upper container section and a lower container section, where the upper container section has an upper cross-sectional area that is greater than a lower cross-sectional area of the lower container section. Typically the upper section has a diameter 1.5-2.0 times the diameter of the lower section. The upper section includes a sloping hopper at a bottom thereof, configured to direct granular material into the lower container section. An outlet port is defined in a ported wall of the lower container section, and a floor of the container is sloped toward the outlet port such that granular material stored in the container slides down the floor to the outlet port.
US09315292B2

Various embodiments of flanged containers that can be stacked in a nested relationship are disclosed so as to provide uniform spacing between the containers to facilitate reliable denesting thereof. The flanges and/or sidewalls of the containers may be provided with features that facilitate alignment and uniform spacing of the nested containers so that a denesting apparatus can reliably denest the containers. Other containers include sidewalls divided into two sections that serve to stabilize stacked container.
US09315279B2

A container for transporting luggage items in an airport sorting system using a conveyor system for conveying the luggage items, includes a bottom region for coupling to a conveying unit of the conveyor system and a transporting region supported by the bottom region and receiving a luggage item to be transported. The bottom and transporting regions are each produced from x-ray transparent or radiolucent material. In order to provide a container which can be produced with low expenditure, is robust with regard to transport processes and is as homogeneous as possible with regard to being x-ray transparent or radiolucent, the bottom and transporting regions are formed from a basic body produced in one piece and from an x-ray transparent or radiolucent material and the basic body is formed from a foam perform or molded part. A sorting system for airport luggage items is also provided.
US09315276B2

An outer fuel access tank cover (FTAC) of an aircraft, a wing including such outer FTAC of an aircraft, and an aircraft are disclosed. The outer FTAC of an aircraft is related to designing auxiliary pieces in the wing of aircrafts to control the risk of gases from an explosion occurred in the FTAC entering the fuel tank.
US09315270B2

A passenger seating arrangement in an aircraft cabin, comprising a plurality of pairs of seat units, the pairs of seat units being located directly behind one another, and each seat unit having a longitudinal axis. Each pair of seat units comprises an aisle-seat unit and a non-aisle-seat unit. The longitudinal axes of the non-aisle-seat units are arranged in-line with one another, and the longitudinal axis of the aisle-seat unit of each pair of seat units is angled so as to provide a passenger access path linking the non-aisle-seat unit of a pair, with the aisle.
US09315262B2

The present invention relates to landing gear having a first skid, a second skid, a front cross-member, and a rear cross-member. The landing gear includes at least one stiffener arranged on a cross-member, said stiffener having two rockers each extending from an outer end secured to the cross-member, two hinge means for hinging each rocker to a carrier structure, and an elongate link member extending between a first link end hinged to the first rocker to a second link end hinged to the second rocker.
US09315251B2

An outboard motor includes an engine, a drive shaft, a drive gear, a propeller shaft, a forward gear, a reverse gear, a dog clutch, and a friction clutch. The drive shaft extends downward from the engine. The drive gear is fixed to the drive shaft. The propeller shaft extends in a direction to intersect the drive shaft. The forward gear is meshed with the drive gear. The reverse gear is meshed with the drive gear. The dog clutch is disposed on the propeller shaft, and changes between connecting the forward gear to the propeller shaft, and connecting the reverse gear to the propeller shaft. The friction clutch is disposed in sequence with the dog clutch along the axial direction of the propeller shaft, and transmits rotation of the drive shaft to the propeller shaft by frictional force.
US09315250B1

Systems and methods for maneuvering an underwater vehicle by generating vehicle maneuvering forces from a propulsor of the vehicle are provided. A post-swirl propulsor is configured such that pitch angles of downstream stator blades can be individually varied. The variation in pitch results in the generation of multiple forces and moments for vehicle control.
US09315247B2

A relief outlet in a wetsuit that is optionally substantially watertight consisting of a foldable funnel made of an elastic and optionally watertight material. Whereby said funnel is open at one and folded at least 1 time to close the opening when not in use.
US09315243B2

A buoy for automated collection and transmittal of data. Select embodiments allow calculation of mass balance using data collected from an ice floe. The buoy is adapted to be inserted into the water through an opening in ice so that the buoy floats with the ice floe, the top of the buoy protruding above the surface of the ice floe. The buoy walls are constructed of white PVC. One section of the buoy incorporates closed cell foam for maintaining buoyancy and a bottom section houses a counterweight for maintaining proper orientation of the buoy in the water, the buoy requiring no support from its surrounds while minimally impacting response of the surrounding ice to it. Multiple sensors are incorporated for gathering data and a satellite transmitter transmits the data to a remote user.
US09315241B2

A disconnectable buoyant turret mooring system for an FPSO is vulnerable to damage from collisions between the buoy and the buoy turret cage during mating and de-mating operations. It is therefore desirable that the buoy separate quickly from the turret of the FPSO vessel during a disconnect operation. A buoy turret cage is provided with a certain degree of porosity that allows a flow of seawater from the outside of the receptor to the inner surface of the receptor. Introducing water in this way relieves the suction forces and allows for a quicker separation of the buoy from the turret of the FPSO vessel, minimizing the time during which an uncontrolled collision between the buoy and the FPSO vessel is most likely. Filling a portion of the turret above the mooring buoy with water prior to releasing the buoy also decreases the separation time.
US09315237B2

Wakeboarding performance is improved using a vessel having an operator station located generally amidships, a vertical support unit fitted across a beam of the vessel near the operator station, and adjustable ballast. An upper portion of the vertical support is at a height substantially above a level of the operator station, and a container is onboard and proximate the starboard and port sides, wherein water from a body of water within which the vessel is operating is directed into the container for weighing down a stern of the vessel to provide the ballast so as to modify a wake created for a wakeboarder or the like being towed by the vessel using a tow rope attached to the upper portion of the vertical support.
US09315227B2

A housing structure for a saddle type vehicle wherein the housing structure is not limited by the size of an opening/closing lid (shelter lid) for a fuel tank. The housing structure can provide a space for storage wherein the shelter lid is easily opened even when a heavy item is stored in the space. A tank shelter is formed by a cover that can be divided into a plurality of covers. A housing pocket is fixed to the inside of the tank shelter. A loading and unloading opening in the housing pocket faces an opening portion of the tank shelter. A dimension in a direction of vehicle width of the housing pocket is larger than a width of the opening portion of the tank shelter.
US09315215B2

A center pillar outer, and a method of manufacturing a center pillar outer, may include an upper panel portion which forms an upper end portion of the center pillar outer, and a lower panel portion which forms a lower end portion of the center pillar outer. The upper and lower panel portions are molded using different methods. A lower end of the upper panel portion and an upper end of the lower panel portion are overlapped with each other, and the overlapping portions are coupled to each other, for example, through welding.
US09315211B2

Saddle type self-steer axle systems equipped wagons may include two or more axles and may be backed up due to reversing caster. Such systems may provide increased stability by providing four points of contact. Further, such systems may provide improved weight distribution in that weight may be distributed over four points as opposed to three points. In addition, such systems may provide increased safety by raising the rollover threshold to that of the tow vehicle. Such systems may allow a tow vehicle to carry its full allowable gross weight while towing its full allowable tow weight. In addition, a centrally pivoting saddle style hinge system may reduce the actuator force that may be needed to change the caster from forward to reverse and vice versa.
US09315210B2

A trailer includes a chassis having a hitch, an axle having a tractive element rotatably coupled to the chassis, and an actuator coupled to the chassis and positioned to steer the tractive element in response to an input, the input varying based on at least one of a speed, a transmission gear, and a steering mode of a tractor vehicle.
US09315202B2

A rail vehicle has a roof region. In a longitudinal direction of the roof region, an air-conditioning duct is laid and which is bounded with respect to a passenger compartment by an inner ceiling. When the air-conditioning duct is composed in its longitudinal direction of at least two air-conditioning duct elements, the two air-conditioning duct elements are connected to one another by a sealing frame which can be pre-positioned. Furthermore, a method for constructing the roof region for such a rail vehicle is specified.
US09315201B2

A rail car hopper gate opener is presented attached to a moving vehicle. A mechanized gate opener is attached to one end of the vehicle. The gate opener is attached in such as manner as to allow the gate opener to rise and fall with respect to the vehicle, to rotate with respect to the vehicle, to extend away and retract back toward the vehicle, and to pivot on a hinge on the vehicle attachment point.
US09315195B2

Disclosed are methods, systems, and software for operation a driver analysis system which includes receiving vehicle operation data corresponding to operation of vehicles by drivers from vehicle monitoring system, processing at least a portion of the vehicle operation data to determine driving performance of at least one driver, generating a driving report which identifies the driving performance of at least one driver, and presenting the driving report, where the driving report includes a driving score and/or eye movement index.
US09315194B2

The low-level consciousness determination system includes curved road determination means for determining whether a road on which the vehicle is traveling is a curved road and determining whether the vehicle is traveling on the outside of the curved road or on the inside of the curved road when the road is the curved road, threshold value setting means for setting different sudden steering determination threshold values when the curved road determination means determines that the road is not the curved road, when the curved road determination means determines that the vehicle is traveling on the outside of the curved road, and when the curved road determination means determines that the vehicle is traveling on the inside of the curved road, and sudden steering detection means for detecting the sudden steering on the basis of the threshold values set by the threshold value setting means after the non-steering state is detected.
US09315185B2

A control device for a transmission including m (m≧3) solenoid valves and configured to establish a plurality of shift speeds by engaging n1 (2≦n1
US09315174B2

An onboard perception system of a vehicle is contemplated. The system may include a state assessment unit adapted to at least assess a state of a first external object located in a vicinity of the vehicle hosting the onboard perception system, at least a first sensor assembly for assessing sound information, and an evaluation means adapted to evaluate a change in the state of the first external object by using the assessed sound information.
US09315161B2

A vehicle cargo bed storage system for a flatbed truck that raises a second platform of the flatbed truck to provide storage space between the second platform and the original first platform of the flatbed truck is provided. A plurality of support braces are affixed to the first platform and the second platform is affixed to the support braces so as to be spaced apart from the first platform to define a volume. The plurality of support braces define a plurality of storage compartments within the volume that are accessible about a periphery of the first and second platforms. A plurality of lockable doors about the periphery of the first and second platforms restricts access to the storage compartments.
US09315158B2

A housing to locate sunglasses or clip-on sunglasses directly in front of a driver by securing the sunglasses or clip-on sunglasses in a container clipped to the sun visor of an automobile. In addition, the sunglasses or clip-on sunglasses are held firmly in place in a compartment of different configurations such that the sunglasses or clip-on sunglasses are readily available in a position immediately in front of a driver. The container is secured to the visor by a wire clip or other appropriate connection to the sun visor. A portion of the compartment folds away from the portion of the container which is clipped or fixed to the visor. The movable portion of the container is held firmly in place in a closed position as well as in an open condition by a magnet or other secure connection device.
US09315157B2

A holding arrangement for a mobile device in a cabin of a vehicle has a cabin equipment component, a support device arranged on the cabin equipment component, a holding device for holding a mobile device and a covering pane. The support device is designed to receive the holding device and further has an access opening arranged on a side opposite the cabin equipment component. Furthermore, the support device is designed to slidably hold the covering pane for opening and closing the access opening arranged on the side opposite the cabin equipment component in such a manner that the covering pane is movable to a closed position and to an open position, wherein in its open position the covering pane extends beyond the support device. Hereby, an improved holding function and temporary theft prevention may be accomplished.
US09315153B2

A vehicle door assembly includes a door having a window and a mirror assembly. The mirror assembly includes a housing defining a cavity having an opening. A mirror is mounted with respect to the housing, disposed within the cavity, and has a reflective surface that is visible through the opening. The housing is mounted with respect to the door such that the housing is selectively movable between an extended position, in which the opening of the cavity is unobstructed, and a retracted position, in which the opening of the cavity is obstructed by the window.
US09315151B2

A driver assist system for a vehicle includes at least one non-visual sensor and a color video rear backup camera having a field of view rearward of the vehicle, with the field of view of the camera encompassing a ground area to the rear of the vehicle. An image processor processes image data captured by the camera. A video display screen is viewable by a driver of the vehicle. During a reversing or parking maneuver of the vehicle, images derived, at least in part, from image data captured by the camera are displayed by the video display screen to assist the driver in operating the vehicle. At least one indication is provided to a driver of the vehicle, at least in part, responsive to detection by the non-visual sensor of at least one object external of the vehicle.
US09315143B2

The present invention provides vertical mounting posts that include a plurality of spaced openings (either A or E slots) and a slider track with obliquely angled guide channels. Decking beams are selectively adjustable in height along the posts by engaging the openings with end assemblies slideably disposed within the ends of the beams. The posts can accommodate alternative beam end configurations. One configuration includes a foot with angled guide edges slideably captured within the guide channels. An alternate configuration comprises coupled plates that fit directly into the openings and a swivel latched to provide a retaining force. By using industry standard A or E slots, the mounting posts are also compatible with off-the-shelf beams and straps configured for A and E slots.
US09315136B2

A dump trailer comprising a U-shaped trailer body having a bottom wall and opposing side walls. The trailer includes a curved front wall and a pivotable tailgate. The front wall is U-shaped when viewed from the top and angles upwardly and forwardly from the bottom wall. A support structure provided adjacent the front wall operatively engages hitch and lift assemblies. The support structure includes spaced-apart supports secured to the front wall; and spaced-apart horizontal beams secured to the supports. The beams extend through apertures in the front wall and into the compartment. This enables the trailer body to be lowered relative to the ground, thus lowering the center of gravity of the trailer. A wheel assembly mounts to the rear end of the trailer via a mounting plate curved complementary to the bottom wall. Cut-outs in the plate reduce the overall weight of the trailer.
US09315135B2

A vehicle seat includes: a seat cushion; a seatback; and a headrest. The seatback includes an upper frame and side frames. The side frame includes a side face portion, a first flange portion formed by bending a front side of the side face portion toward a seat inward side, and a second flange portion formed by bending a rear side of the side face portion toward the seat inward side. The upper frame is placed between the first flange portion and the second flange portion so as to be fixed to the flange portions, and the upper frame is connected to the side face portion, so that a relative movement between the upper frame and the side face portion is regulated.
US09315134B2

A seat trim cover includes a flexible web and a plurality of molded clips spaced-apart at predetermined intervals along a distal edge of the web. Each of the clips includes a base attached to the web and one or more latch elements extending from the base to a point beyond the distal edge of the web. The latch elements of each clip are configured to clasp a cushion retainer when forced into engagement with the retainer.
US09315133B2

There is disclosed a heater for an automotive vehicle or other article of manufacture. The heater typically includes a first conductive medium and a second conductive medium disposed upon a carrier. In a preferred embodiment, the first conductive medium includes a first section and a second section that are electrically connected by a second conductive medium. The second conductive medium preferably exhibits a positive thermal coefficient.
US09315128B2

The invention relates to a vehicle seat with a seat part, with a backrest and with a height-adjustable armrest, in which the height-adjustable armrest has an arm support part and a lever mechanism to lift or lower the arm support part with a stationary base component, with one or two pivot lever parts articulated to the base component and with a height-adjustable lower component articulated to the pivot lever parts to carry the arm support part, wherein the height-adjustable armrest is distinguished by a locking device to lock the lever mechanism with a first locking part arranged on the side of the base component and having a first locking tooth system, with a second locking part arranged on the side of the lower component and having a further locking tooth system , and with locking means, which are displaceably arranged in relation to the two locking parts by means of an actuating element in such a way that counter-locking tooth systems of the locking means can engage in the locking tooth systems of the locking parts or can disengage in order to lock or unlock the lever mechanism.
US09315125B2

The invention discloses a baby car seat, which comprises a seat, a backrest with a lower portion being detachably connected with a rear portion of the seat, and a head support detachably connected with an upper portion of the backrest. The backrest comprises a backrest body and a pair of backrest wings extending forwards from a left end and a right end of the backrest body respectively. The head support comprises a head support body and a pair of head support wings respectively extending forwards from a left side and a right side of the head support. Two accommodating holes respectively are opened on a left part and a right part of the backrest body, and the shape and mutual distance of the two accommodating holes are matched with that of the two head support wings. When the head support is accommodated between the pair of backrest wings, the two accommodating holes respectively are used for inserting the corresponding head support wings therein. When it is desired to package and transport the car seat, the head support is located between the two backrest wings and the backrest body, and the two head support wings just are inserted into the two accommodating holes of the backrest body and further stacked up with the seat, thus, the height of the car seat is reduced, the volume of encasement is reduced and the quantity of encasement is increased.
US09315124B2

In one aspect, a child restraint includes: a safety seat having a base body positioned on a vehicle seat by a securing device; a foot coupled to a bottom of the base body; a first resilient member disposed between the base body and the foot to maintain a compressible distance between the foot and the base body; and an indicator device disposed on the base body and located above the foot. In one embodiment, a linkage assembly is movably mounted on the base body. When the safety seat is not secured by the securing device, the indicator device is not in contact with the foot, and the indicator device displays a first signal. When the safety seat is secured by the securing device, the base body is compressed toward the foot to trigger the indicator device, such that the indicator device displays a second signal.
US09315123B2

A child safety seat assembly comprises a base, two connector arms assembled with the base, at least one latch assembled with the base and operable to lock the connector arms in position with the base, and at least a release actuator disposed between the connector arms and operatively connected with the latch. The connector arms are provided with locking fasteners operable to engage with an anchorage bracket in a vehicle to lock the base in place, the connector arms being movable relative to the base to adjust a length of extension of the connector arms outside the base. The release actuator is operable to drive an unlocking displacement of the latch to allow adjustment of the connector arms relative to the base.
US09315117B2

In the method for producing a spindle drive of an adjustment device of a motor vehicle seat, the adjustment device comprises a spindle and a nut unit. The nut unit comprises a nut made from plastic and a retainer in which the nut is retained. The nut has an internal thread which is in engagement with the spindle and has recesses in its outer jacket. The method comprises the following steps: the tube section is pushed over the nut during assembly, the nut is located within the tube section, the tube section, in the areas in which the recesses of the nut are located, is deformed into the area of the recesses and a portion of material of the tube section is located in the recesses.
US09315116B2

Provided is an electric drive vehicle which can control wheel speed so as to achieve an appropriate slip ratio of the wheels even when pitching vibration of the vehicle is large. This electric drive vehicle is provided with electric motors (1, 4), drive wheels (3, 6), driven wheels (7, 8), an electric motor controller (50) for controlling the electric motors, and speed detectors (9-12) for detecting the wheel speed of the drive wheels and the driven wheels. The electric motor controller is provided with: a slip ratio calculation unit (21) which calculates the slip ratio of the drive wheels from the wheel speed detected values detected by the speed detectors; a torque command calculation unit (20) which calculates torque commands for the drive wheels; a drive force calculation unit (19) which, from the wheel speed detected values of the drive wheels and the torque commands of the drive wheels, calculates the drive force generated in the drive wheels; and filters (54, 55) which reduce the pitching vibration frequency components of the vehicle included in the slip ratio and the drive force.
US09315111B1

A method of charging an electric vehicle at a charging station may include driving the vehicle towards the charging station, and using a plurality of RFID tags and one or more RFID readers to determine a relative position of the charging interface of the vehicle with respect to the charge head assembly of the charging station. The method may also include engaging the charge head assembly with the charging head, and charging the vehicle.
US09315106B2

Circuit for evaluating resolver sensor signals (28) in a vehicle, having a resolver sensor (4), set up to pick up a rotary movement of a rotor (6) in an electrical machine (16), and a processor element (12), wherein the resolver sensor (4) is set up to output at least one sinusoidal or cosinusoidal amplitude-modulated analog signal that is characteristic of the rotary movement of the rotor (6), characterized in that the processor element (12) has a data processing unit (12a), a resolver sensor actuation unit (12b) and a resolver sensor evaluation unit (12c), wherein the analog signal from the resolver sensor (4) is connected directly to the resolver sensor evaluation unit (12c).
US09315105B2

A bidirectional charger subjects power supplied from an external power supply to voltage conversion and charges a main power storage device and an auxiliary power storage device. Furthermore, the bidirectional charger is configured to be able to convert power in a bidirectional manner so as to be able to subject power stored in the main power storage device or power stored in the auxiliary power storage device to voltage conversion and to output power to electrical outlet. The electrical outlet is configured to be able to output power to an electrical appliance including a home appliance. When a travel driving force increases during use of the electrical outlet, a PM-ECU controls the bidirectional charger in such a way that power stored in the auxiliary power storage device is subjected to voltage conversion and output power to the electrical outlet.
US09315104B2

A method for operation of a reference-speed-regulating cruise control and a reference-speed-regulating cruise control which demands from a vehicle engine system a reference speed vref which may differ from a chosen set speed vset. Adjustment of at least the set speed vset is allowed if the reference speed vref differs from the set speed vset, which adjustment is based at least partly on a current speed vpres of the vehicle and on input from a user of the reference-speed-regulating cruise control. Quick and simple user-controlled adjustment of the set speed vset is thus achieved.
US09315098B2

An urea solution venting system for a vehicle which passes an ammonia component produced from an urea solution supplied for post-processing on an exhaust gas of the vehicle may include an urea solution tank, an urea solution injection pipe that communicates with the urea solution tank to replenish the urea solution tank, a first venting pipe to send an ammonia component produced in the urea solution tank to the urea solution injection pipe, a valve module that has a first outlet for sending the ammonia component in the first venting pipe to the urea solution injection pipe, and has a second outlet through which the ammonia component in the urea solution injection pipe is discharged to the outside, an urea solution injection port to receive an injection gun for injecting an urea solution into the urea solution injection pipe, and a flap that closes the urea solution injection port.
US09315093B2

A battery module configuration structure for an articulated electric bus includes a vehicle body, a plurality of wheel shafts and a plurality of battery modules. The wheel shafts are respectively disposed on a bottom of the vehicle body. The battery modules are disposed in an interior of the vehicle body and correspondingly located at an upper area of at least one of the wheel shafts.
US09315090B2

A ventilation arrangement includes a console with a surface in which a receptacle is formed. An air outlet is moveably mounted on the console for movement between an opening and a closing position. In the opening position the air outlet protrudes from the receptacle and in the closing position is at least partially flush-mounted in the receptacle. Air guiding elements guide air flowing out of an airflow opening of the air outlet. The air guiding elements are at least partially displaceably mounted on a support structure of the air outlet between an opening and a closing position. The air guiding elements in the opening position are displaceable into working positions in which adjacent air guiding elements have a larger intermediate spacing, and in the closing position into rest positions wherein the elements have a smaller intermediate spacing than in the working positions or lie on one another.
US09315089B2

An air-conditioning unit for a vehicle that has an idling stop function includes a blower fan; first and second air-outlet ports configured to permit air blown from the blower fan toward first and second portions of a vehicle cabin, respectively; and an air-conditioning controller. The air-conditioning controller is configured to set a target air-outlet port temperature of the air blown from the ports on a basis of a preset temperature and an environmental condition of the vehicle; and, if the blower fan is operating to blow air from both of the ports before the vehicle is brought into an idling stop state, and then the vehicle is brought into the idling stop state, cause a controlled reduction in an air volume blown from at least one of the ports during the idling stop state; and cancel the controlled reduction when the idling stop state is cancelled.
US09315087B2

A torsion profile for a twist beam axle of a vehicle is provided and includes a base body having an open hollow cross section. The body comprises first and second end portions adjacent a central portion and a cross section having first and second limbs connected by a central web portion, the cross section having a U-shape or a V-shape. At least one of the limbs varies in length along the longitudinal axis of at least one of the first and second end portions. At least one of the limbs has a flange arranged on a free end thereof, the variation in length of the at least one limb providing the first and second end portions with a continuously varying cross section along the length of the base body.
US09315086B2

A recreational utility vehicle having an enclosure with a bottom wall and first and second side wall assemblies is provided. The first and second side wall assemblies and the bottom wall define an interior region. The vehicle further includes a first suspension assembly coupled directly to the first side wall assembly, having a first swing arm assembly with a first operational position in which a first portion of the bottom wall of the enclosure is at a predetermined distance from a ground level elevation. The first swing arm assembly has a second operational position in which the first portion of the bottom wall of the enclosure is at the ground level elevation. The vehicle further includes a second suspension assembly operably coupled directly to the second side wall assembly.
US09315067B2

A combined writing utensil and light emitter assembly ensures that various accessories are readily accessible for use during hunting. The assembly includes a tube having a first end, a second end and a hollow interior configured to receive objects therein. A writing implement is provided having a main body and a tip. The writing implement is positionable within the hollow interior of the tube through the first end of the tube wherein the tip is positioned proximate the second end of the tube when the writing implement is positioned within the hollow interior. An light emitter is coupled to the second end of the tube. A first end cap is coupled to a distal end of the main body with respect to the tip. The first end cap is removably couplable to the first end of the tube for securing the writing implement within the hollow interior.
US09315061B2

A tape cassette includes a cassette case, a tape roll housed in the cassette case, an arm portion that guides a tape, and a long hole extending in a left-right direction of the cassette case and formed straddling a center position of the cassette case in the left-right direction, wherein a first distance (a length of the long hole in the left-right direction) is larger than a second distance (a length from an end portion of the tape cassette in an opposite direction to a feed direction of the tape fed in the arm portion, to an end portion of the long hole in the opposite direction), and a center of gravity of the tape cassette is located in a specific area whose both end positions in the left-right direction are the same as those of the long hole, and which extends in a front-rear direction.
US09315058B2

According to an aspect of the present invention, temperatures at a plurality of different positions in an array direction in an ejection opening array are detected, and heating by a heating element is executed in a case where a temperature difference between the temperatures is higher than a predetermined threshold.
US09315056B2

A method is provided that is implemented on a control device connected with an inkjet printer, which includes an inkjet head having an ink discharging surface, a head scanning unit reciprocating the inkjet head relative to a recording sheet along a scanning direction parallel to the ink discharging surface, and a wave shape generating mechanism deforming the recording sheet in a predetermined wave shape that has tops of portions protruding in a first direction toward the ink discharging surface and bottoms of portions recessed in a second direction opposite to the first direction alternately arranged along the scanning direction, the method including acquiring gap information related to a gap between the ink discharging surface and each individual one of the tops and the bottoms on the recording sheet, and determining whether the gap information acquired for each individual one of the tops and the bottoms is abnormal.
US09315054B2

A self-adjusting paper bucket for a printer is provided, together with methods for providing such a self-adjusting paper bucket. The paper bucket may have a curved base portion for accepting paper rolls of varying widths. A guide may be movably mounted to each side of the base portion. The guides may be movable between a first position extending towards a center of the paper bucket and a second position folded against sides of the paper bucket. A biasing element may be provided for each of the guides for biasing the corresponding guide into the first position. In the first position, the guides may accept a first paper roll having a first width and may center the first paper roll in the base portion. In the second position, the guides may accept a second paper roll having a second width greater than the first width and may center the second paper roll in the base portion.
US09315053B2

A printing device has a guide roller that guides a print medium in a conveyance direction; an intersect roller pair that holds the print medium guided by the guide roller between a first roller that rotates on an axis of rotation in the conveyance direction of the print medium and a second roller that rotates on an axis of rotation that intersects the axis of rotation of the first roller; a conveyance roller pair that conveys the print medium held by the intersect roller pair in the conveyance direction by a conveyance drive roller driven by a drive means and a conveyance follower roller that rotates with the conveyance drive roller; and a print unit that prints on the print medium conveyed by the conveyance roller pair.
US09315049B2

A second roller is configured to move between a clamping position and a released position and to rotate in a forward rotation direction and a reverse rotation direction. An energizing portion is configured to move between a contact position and a separated position. A coupled portion protrudes from the second roller. A restricting portion is configured to move between a restricting position and a permitting position. A actuating portion is configured to cause the second roller to move from the released position to the clamping position, then to cause the energizing portion to move from the separated position to the contact position, and then to cause the restricting portion to move from the restricting position to the permitting position. A clutch is configured to permit the second roller to rotate in the forward rotation direction and to restrict the second roller from rotating in the reverse rotation direction.
US09315044B2

A label printer comprises input means operable by a user to input label data. The label printer also has display means and control means configured to receive said input label data from the input means. The control means is arranged to control the display to display an image of a label defined by said input label data in a label display area. The control means is configured to cause the display to display said image of the label such that a first dimension of the image of the label is decreased with respect to the corresponding dimension of said display area so that all of said image of the label is displayed in said display area.
US09315041B2

The present invention provides a pressure regulating unit capable of applying a stable pressure so as to supply liquid, a liquid supplying apparatus, and a liquid ejecting apparatus. An ink communication path allows an ink introducing chamber communicating with an ink inlet and a pressure chamber communicating with an ink outlet to communicate with each other. A valve including a valve body and a valve seat adjusts the opening degree of the ink communication path. An urging member applies, to the valve, an urging force that acts in a direction in which the ink communication path is closed and increases according to an decrease in pressure in the ink introducing chamber.
US09315029B2

System and methods for cleaning printheads and printhead wipers. One embodiment is an apparatus that includes a belt configured to rotate in a loop, and a wiper attached to the belt configured to wipe ink from a printhead. The apparatus also includes a tank configured as a reservoir for a cleaning solution, and a controller configured to drive the belt so that an end of the wiper drags across the printhead when in an upper portion of the loop and submerges in the cleaning solution of the tank when in a lower portion of the loop.
US09315027B1

A maintenance cart is configured so the maintenance units within the cart can be selectively moved to correspond to a scalable printhead array. The maintenance cart includes a body configured to selectively move along a path to the printhead array, the body having a recess; and a plurality of cleaning modules mounted within the recess, the plurality of cleaning modules being adjustably arranged within the recess to correspond to a plurality of printheads of the printhead array to enable each cleaning module in the plurality of cleaning modules to align with a corresponding printhead of the printhead array in response to the body being moved to the printhead array.
US09315020B2

A bifurcation path and a flow path which communicates with the head main body through the bifurcation path are provided. The bifurcation path includes an upstream-side path and a downstream-side path. In a plan view of a flow-path forming surface including the bifurcation path and the flow path, the flow path is disposed in a state where an angle between a flowing direction in the flow path and a flowing direction in the downstream-side path is an acute angle. In addition, an angle between a first wall surface of the flow path, which is the wall surface located downstream from the upstream-side path, and a second wall surface of the upstream-side path, which is the wall surface connected to the first wall surface, is equal to or less than 90°. Furthermore, the second wall surface of the upstream-side path has an R shape.
US09315014B2

In a screen printing apparatus, a squeegee is slid on a mask contacting a board to print paste onto the board via pattern holes formed in the mask. The screen printing apparatus includes: a box-like member including a top-plate portion in which first suction hole and a second section hole are formed and which is allowed to contact the board; a blower suction pipe communicating with an internal space of the box-like member and extending outside the box-like member; a blower suction source sucking air through the blower suction pipe to generate a blower suction force in the first suction hole; a vacuum suction pipe connected to the second suction hole and extending through the internal space to an outside of the box-like member; and a vacuum pressure supplying device supplying a vacuum pressure to the second suction hole through the vacuum suction pipe.
US09315002B2

Embodiments provide a lamination machine for laminating a membrane to a fabric of an article, such as to an inside surface of a backpack. The lamination machine may include an enclosure with a rotating air connection coupled to a top surface of the enclosure. The membrane may be mated with the article, and then a plug may be inserted in a top opening of the article. The plug may be coupled with the rotating air connection. The rotating air connection may pump compressed air into an interior portion of the article, through an inlet in the plug. A heater may heat the area surrounding the article to activate an adhesive disposed between the membrane and the inside surface of the article. Additionally, the rotating air connection may rotate the plug, thereby rotating the article assembly to facilitate distribution of heat.
US09315001B2

Provided are method and apparatus for transferring graphene. The graphene transferring method includes: a graphene synthesizing operation comprising forming at least one layer of graphene on at least one surface of a catalyst metal film; a substrate film attaching operation comprising contacting an adhesive first surface of the substrate film to the at least one layer of graphene and compressing the catalyst metal film and the substrate film by using a first roller; and a substrate film separating operation comprising separating the substrate film from the catalyst metal film such that the at least one layer of graphene is separated from the catalyst metal film together with the substrate film.
US09314998B2

Composite glass pane comprising at least a. one inner pane (1), b. one outer pane (2), and c. one intermediate layer (3) between the inner pane (1) and the outer pane (2), wherein the intermediate layer (3) contains at least one first thermoplastic film (3b) with a first luminescent pigment (3a), a second thermoplastic film (3d), and a barrier film (3c) between the thermoplastic films (3b, 3d) and wherein the luminescent pigment (3a) contains a hydroxyalkyl terephthalate having the formula: R1—COO—P(OH)x(0-4)-COO—R2, where R1, R2 is an alkyl or allyl residue having 1 to 10 C atoms, P is a phenyl ring, OH is hydroxyl groups bonded to the phenyl ring, and x is the number of hydroxyl groups bonded to the phenyl ring.
US09314988B2

Handle-forming machine for shaping and attaching strap handles to bags or carrier bags, and/or to continuous rolls of paper to make bags or carrier bags, said strap handles being formed by folding substantially into a U shape at least one strip or strap. The handle-forming machine comprises at least one carousel rotating around a main shaft, said carousel in turn comprising one or more cradles for gripping and folding the straps. Advantageously each cradle rotates around a main shaft at least from a feed station of said strap/s, to a folding station into a U shape of each strap and to a loading station of the folded strap, for attachment to the bag or to the continuous roll of paper which the bag will be made from. Moreover the cradle also rotates around its own axis radial to the main shaft, to rotate the position of the relative strap between the folding and loading feed stations.
US09314983B2

Provided is a system and method of making a door having first and second door skins and an internal frame. The top and bottom surfaces of the frame are coated with an adhesive and the frame is placed on a first door skin. The second door skin is then placed on the opposite surface of the frame. The assembled components are then pressed to bond the first and second door skins to the frame with a press having upper and lower dies configured to impart a larger compression force toward a central area of the door skins. Wear resistant belts or membranes are provided to protect the door skins from being marred by the upper and lower dies during the pressing process.
US09314981B2

An apparatus and method are provided for making a conduit divided into channels by one or more strip-shaped substrates. The channels may be used for cables, such as fiber optic cables, coaxial cables, electrical cables, electrical wiring, and the like. Each divided conduit provides channels that allow e.g., cables to be pulled through without snagging or excessive heat build-up due to friction. In addition, the divided conduits do not allow contact or alternation losses between adjacent cables in other channels of the conduit.
US09314976B2

Systems and methods for compacting a charge of composite material. These systems and methods may utilize a vacuum compaction device to compact the charge of composite material on a supporting surface. The vacuum compaction device may be reusable and may be configured to define an enclosed volume when positioned on the supporting surface and may include a barrier structure and a sealing structure that is configured to form a fluid seal when compressed between the supporting surface and the barrier structure. The vacuum compaction device also may include a vacuum distribution manifold that is in fluid communication with and configured to selectively apply a vacuum to the enclosed volume. Application of the vacuum to the enclosed volume may decrease a pressure within the enclosed volume and transition the vacuum compaction device from an undeformed configuration to a deformed configuration, thereby compacting the charge of composite material on the supporting surface.
US09314975B1

A method for fabricating a thermoplastic composite component comprises inductively heating a thermoplastic pre-form with a first induction coil by inducing current to flow in susceptor wires disposed throughout the pre-form, inductively heating smart susceptors in a molding tool to a leveling temperature with a second induction coil by applying a high-strength magnetic field having a magnetic flux that passes through surfaces of the smart susceptors, shaping the magnetic flux that passes through surfaces of the smart susceptors to flow substantially parallel to a molding surface of the smart susceptors, placing the heated pre-form between the heated smart susceptors; and applying molding pressure to the pre-form to form the composite component.
US09314969B1

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method of three-dimensional printing. The method includes a three-dimensional printer printing a first layer of an object onto a surface that is not part of the three-dimensional printer, wherein the first layer is printed while a printing platform of the three dimensional printer is in a first position. The printer is autonomously repositioned in a second position elevated above the first position by being supported either on the three-dimensional object itself or on a scaffold printed separate from the object. The printer prints a second layer of the three-dimensional object onto the first layer of the three-dimensional object while the printing platform is in the second position. The printer may have a plurality of legs for controllably repositioning the printing platform.
US09314962B2

A method of separating strands of a slit web is disclosed. The method includes providing a slit web having a length in a machine direction and running the slit web in the machine direction onto a stretchable surface. The slit web includes multiple strands provided by a plurality of slits extending in a first direction not parallel to a cross-machine direction. The slit web is in contact with the stretchable surface for a path length in the machine direction, and for at least a portion of the path length, the stretchable surface is stretching in the cross-machine direction. The traction between the slit web and the stretchable surface during the stretching at least partially separates at least some of the multiple strands of the slit web in a second direction transverse to the first direction. A method of increasing a width of a polymeric netting is also disclosed.
US09314953B2

In the present invention, a manufacturing process is provided in which a complete multi-component synthetic closure is achieved which incorporates printed indicia formed thereon, in a continuous, in-line manufacturing operation. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the core member of the synthetic closure is formed by a continuous extrusion process which enables the core to be manufactured as an elongated, continuous length of material. As the continuous elongated length of extruded material forming the central core is advanced from the extruder towards an outer skin forming station, the central core passes through a printing station for forming any desired indicia on the outer surface of the central core prior to the application of the outer skin layer.
US09314951B2

A simple injection molding machine structure including a stationary platen, a movable platen, and an injection unit, and an injection method for the simple injection molding machine structure are provided. The stationary platen and the movable platen each carry a mold core for defining a mold cavity. The movable platen is movable freely relative to the stationary platen. The injection unit is disposed on the movable platen and includes an injection barrel, a heating member, a screw rod and a driving member. The screw rod is coupled to the driving member, extended into, and received in the injection barrel. The heating member is disposed on the injection barrel. The screw rod pressurizes, injects, and delivers molten plastic. The simple injection molding machine operates by controlling the speed of advancement of the screw rod to stabilize pressure and thus allow the molten plastic to take shape easily.
US09314947B2

Adhesives, reaction systems, and processes for the production of lignocellulosic composites. The reaction system comprises a multi-component adhesive and a lignocellulosic substrate. The lignocellulosic substrate comprises a plurality of lignocellulosic adherends and is preferably a mass of wood particles. The multi-component adhesive comprises a multi-functional isocyanate, a hydrophilic polyahl, and an organotransition metal catalyst. The multi-component adhesive is characterized by being formulated into at least two mutually reactive chemical component streams. The process comprises the separate application of the mutually reactive chemical component streams of the multi-component adhesive to the lignocellulosic substrate, followed by forming and pressing the adhesive treated substrate under conditions appropriate for curing the adhesive and forming a lignocellulosic composite article. The adhesives, reaction systems, and processes are particularly well suited for the production of oriented strand board (OSB).
US09314938B2

The disclosure relates to compositions for wood preservation and methods of applying compositions for wood preservation. The compositions comprise nonionic surfactant mixtures and prepolymer. Compositions of nonionic surfactant mixtures and prepolymers can be used advantageously in methods to preserve wood by impregnation of the wood with preservatives at ambient atmospheric pressures.
US09314937B2

Embodiments provide a pre-cut infeed system for a machine center, such as an edger. A pre-cut infeed system may include an infeed, one or more saws arranged along the infeed, and a scanner optimizer system. The scanner optimizer system may scan a workpiece and determine whether greater value can be obtained from the workpiece by cutting the workpiece transversely into two or more pieces upstream of the machine center. If so, the workpiece may be cut transversely by the saw(s) positioned along the infeed, and the cut pieces may be fed sequentially into the machine center.
US09314934B2

An arm assembly for use in a robot to provide gravity counterbalancing of the robot arms. The arm assembly includes an arm and a drive assembly. The arm assembly includes a differential interconnecting the drive assembly with the arm link. The differential is attached to a torso-side or upper end of the arm link, and the differential is adapted to provide gravity counterbalancing for the predefined mass of the arm link. A pair of half counterweights are provided and arranged to each move in one degree of freedom and to provide two equal counterweights to the differential's two inputs such as input gears, pulleys, or the like. The drive assembly includes two motors that are grounded. In some embodiments, both the motors and the counterweights are spaced apart from the robot's shoulder, i.e., spaced apart from the differential near the robot's pelvis or low in the torso.
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