US09340055B2

Printing with a single colorant a security feature imperceptible to the naked eye. For a digital security image having a first region formed by a first pattern of binary pixels and a second region formed by a different second pattern of binary pixels, the first and second patterns are printed with the single colorant. A darker one of the first and second printed patterns is determined. The security image is printed with the single colorant, the region corresponding to the darker printed pattern printed at a reduced gray level such that the printed first and second regions appear substantially indistinguishable to the naked eye.
US09340033B2

A printing process for a wood-based flat element may involve a preliminary step of graphic composition using an electronic processor and relative software, and a printing step to print a surface of the wood-based flat element using an ink-jet printer of a single-pass type. The ink-jet printer may be controlled by the electronic processor. The ink-jet printer may be provided with print heads. For each color employed in the ink-jet printer, the number of print heads may be that required to cover the entire width of the surface to be printed. During the printing step, the wood-based flat element may be maintained at rest while the ink-jet printer performs a motion relative to the wood-based flat element to print the entire surface. The motion of the ink-jet printer may result in the wood-based flat element passing below the print heads, such that the entire surface of the wood-based flat element is printed in a single pass of the wood-based flat element below the print heads. Alternatively, during the printing step, the wood-based flat element and the ink-jet printer may perform a simultaneous motion relative to each other to print the entire surface. A production line for the manufacturing of a flat wood-based panel presenting a printed surface is also disclosed.
US09340032B2

There is provided a liquid ejection device including a head for ejecting a liquid, a liquid containing unit, a liquid filler, and a pressure adjusting unit, in which the liquid containing unit includes a sealed housing and a flexible member provided in the housing, the housing includes a first containing space communicating with the head and a second containing space partitioned from the first containing space through use of the flexible member, the first containing space contains the liquid, and the liquid filler is filled into the second containing space, the pressure adjusting unit communicates with the second containing space, and adjusts the pressure of the liquid filler filled into the second containing space so as to maintain a negative pressure with respect to the head.
US09340028B2

The present invention provides a liquid storing device that includes at least a tank for storing a liquid, a supply tube that supplies the liquid to the tank, and a discharge tube that discharges the liquid stored in the tank. The supply tube diverges at a T branch joint into an upper supply tube and a lower supply tube. The upper supply tube has an upper supply port in the tank, the upper supply port positioned above a level of the liquid stored in the tank. The lower supply tube has a lower supply port in the tank, the lower supply port positioned below the level of the liquid.
US09340027B2

An inkjet recording apparatus includes a recording head configured to discharge ink, a first waste ink retaining member configured to absorb ink discharged from the recording head, a second waste ink retaining member arranged below the first waste ink retaining member, a first inclined surface configured to flow waste ink overflowing the first waste ink retaining member downward, a waste ink receiving surface connected with a bottom end of the first inclined surface and including a porous body sheet for absorbing waste ink, and a second inclined surface configured to flow waste ink overflowing the porous body sheet to the second waste ink retaining member.
US09340024B2

In a method of manufacturing a liquid jet head, a laminated substrate is formed by bonding onto a base substrate piezoelectric substrates having side surfaces joined to each other. Discharge grooves serving as channels for discharging liquid and dummy grooves serving as dummy channels that do not discharge the liquid are formed on a surface of the laminated substrate. The discharge grooves and dummy grooves are alternately arranged relative one another and are parallel to a longitudinal direction of bonding surfaces formed by the joined side surfaces of the piezoelectric substrates. The dummy grooves are formed at the respective bonding surfaces. Drive electrodes are formed on side surfaces of the grooves.
US09340010B2

An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid discharge head in which a driver IC is not easily damaged at the time of assembling, and a recording device using the same. A liquid discharge head of the present invention is the liquid discharge head including a head main body, a casing, and a driver IC that drives the head main body. The casing has an opening and is in contact with the head main body at the opening so as to cover at least a part of the head main body, a part of an inner surface of a side plate of the casing continuing from the opening has an inclination portion inclined toward the inner side of the casing with respect to the opening, and the driver IC is in contact with the inclination portion of the inner surface.
US09340007B2

A device for replacing the printing rollers of a printing unit, particularly for in-line flexographic rotary machines is disclosed and includes a work station for a first, working printing roller, a holding station for a second printing roller, a removal station for a printing roller to be removed, movement means, for the movement of the first printing roller from the work station to the removal station and for the movement of the second printing roller from the holding station to the work station.
US09340004B2

A method of manufacturing a capsule 12 for holding a substance 14 includes providing a capsule body 2 having a closed end 5 and an opposed open end 6; providing a diaphragm 4 having a closed end 7 and an opposed open end 8; partially filling the body 2 with substance 14; providing a gas-tight chamber; providing a nitrogen gas environment within the chamber; applying a partial vacuum to the chamber; supporting an outer side 43 of the body 2; supporting an inner side 102 of the diaphragm 4; while supporting the body 2 and the diaphragm 4, inserting the closed end 7 of the diaphragm 4 into the open end 6 of the body 2 until regions of the body 2 and the diaphragm 4 overlap one another, thereby closing off the open end 6 of the body 2 and forming a chamber 104 within which the substance 14 is held; and heat welding the overlapping regions of the capsule body 2 and the diaphragm 4 to one another to hermetically seal the chamber 104.
US09340000B2

A method and an apparatus is capable of manufacturing a bonded member faster without a protrusion of the adhesive. An adhesive in an amount which becomes predetermined thickness when two rectangular members are bonded together is applied in advance on bonded surfaces of the two members, the applied adhesives of the two members are brought into contact with each other and one of the two members is made to slide along the bonded surface and the two members are overlapped, a portion of the adhesive which is likely to protrude from an end portion of the two overlapped members is cured before occurrence of a protrusion of the adhesive, and the two overlapped members are pressurized while the protrusion of the adhesive is prevented so as to manufacture a bonded member.
US09339994B2

Embodiments of a new foamed surface covering are disclosed, wherein a primary layer of polymeric foam features at least one coherent layer consisting of a water-resistant blend of styrene-maleic anhydride and acrylic resin. The coherent layer facilitates the secured and reusable application of the surface covering after repeated washings.
US09339991B2

A metal-ceramic joined body is provided in which the surface roughness of the metal is low, and the joined body is unlikely to break. Provided is a metal-ceramic joined body including a metal mainly composed of titanium and a ceramic, in which, regarding the X-ray diffraction peak intensity of a surface portion of the metal excluding a joining region to the ceramic, at least one of I110 and I012 is larger than I011, where I011 is the intensity of a peak attributable to a first plane of hexagonal α titanium, I110 is the intensity of a peak attributable to a second plane of hexagonal α titanium, and I012 is the intensity of a peak attributable to a third plane of hexagonal α titanium.
US09339985B2

A transfer layer is transferred well to a step portion. In a transfer mold body, a projection and indentation portion is formed to a front face of a bottom wall of a step portion. When covering a transfer film over a base member, air between the transfer film and the step portion is accordingly expelled from between indented portions of the projection and indentation portion and the transfer film at an edge portion of the bottom wall. The transfer film can accordingly be covered over the step portion whilst suppressing air from remaining between the transfer film and the step portion. A transfer layer of the transfer film can accordingly is transferred well to the front face of the step portion.
US09339978B1

Methods of operating a recording media press system are described. The method may include clamping, with a plurality of first tabs, an outer perimeter portion of a first embossing foil to a first die of a die press and clamping with a plurality of second tabs, an outer perimeter portion of a second embossing foil to a second die of the press. The method may also include receiving a magnetic recording disk in the die press, interleaving the plurality of first tabs with the plurality of second tabs to close the die press around the magnetic recording disk, and pressing the first and second embossing foils against the recording media disk to emboss a front and backside of the recording disk with a discrete track recording pattern.
US09339975B2

A three dimensional printer includes a work surface, an arcuate track disposed within in a track plane that is orthogonal to the work surface, a carriage slidably disposed on the track and translatable relative thereto, and a print head supported by the carriage. The track has a constant radius of curvature extending from a point on the work surface. The print head is translatable in a radial direction relative to the track, and includes a nozzle defining a print orifice, a mixing cavity disposed within the nozzle and in fluid communication with the orifice, and both a first and second filament feeder, each configured to controllably advance a respective filament into the mixing cavity at a respective feed rate. The print head further includes a heating element in thermal communication with the mixing cavity and configured to melt each of the first filament and the second filament.
US09339969B2

A method for the shaping of plastics material pre-forms into plastics material containers, wherein the plastics material pre-forms are introduced into a blow mould and are expanded to form the plastic bottles by being acted upon with a gaseous medium in the blow mould, includes the steps of: preliminary blow moulding by acting upon the plastics material pre-forms with a first pressure; intermediate blow moulding of the plastics material pre-forms at a second pressure which is higher than the first pressure; and final blow moulding of the plastics material pre-forms at a third pressure which is higher than the second pressure, wherein at least the second pressure is varied during a working operation.
US09339967B2

A bottle of one-piece integrally formed construction has a body with a closed base and a shoulder at an end of the body remote from the base, and a neck extending from the shoulder along an axis and terminating in a neck finish for attachment of a closure. The bottle neck includes at least one internal embossment for affecting flow of liquid from the body through the neck. In exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, the at least one internal embossment includes at least one internal annular rib or at least one internal rib coplanar with the neck axis or at least one internal spiral rib or at least one internal elliptical rib.
US09339963B2

A controller of an injection molding machine includes a power supply converter which supplies electric power from a power supply to a drive device which drives a servomotor, and an electric storage unit coupled between the power supply converter and the drive device. The controller detects abnormality of a voltage detection unit which detects voltage of the electric storage unit based on voltage of the electric storage unit, a supply electric energy to the electric storage unit, and electrostatic capacity of the electric storage unit.
US09339956B2

A method of molding a composition comprising a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP) comprising mesogens; providing a mold having a mold cavity, with a feature cavity (43) comprising a fine feature chamber; heating the composition to form molten composition; filling the fine feature chamber with molten composition moving at a flow velocity that causes flow alignment of at least a portion of the mesogens in the molten TLCP filling the fine feature chamber (49), relative to a flow direction of the moving molten composition; and solidifying the molten composition such that mesogens of at least the solidified TLCP in the fine feature chamber maintain their flow alignment. A molded article comprising a body and a 3-dimensional structural feature protruding out from the body and comprising a fine feature element having a minor dimension, with TLCP mesogens across the minor dimension being in a flow aligned state.
US09339950B2

The invention relates to a reprogrammable shape change sheet, a method of shaping a surface and a reprogrammable injection molding machine. The sheet comprises a plurality of muscle elements capable of changing shape upon electric stimulation, the elements being arranged in an array to define a surface. According to the invention, the muscle elements comprise two muscle material layers capable of changing shape upon electric stimulation and a flexible wiring layer sandwiched between the muscle material layers, the wiring layer being electrically connected to said muscle material layers for delivering electric stimulation signals to the muscle material layers for changing the shape of the muscle elements and further the topology of the surface. The invention provides a new shape change sheet structure, which can be made thin, accurate and durable for various uses.
US09339948B2

A bend stiffener comprises a (i) a flexible polymeric sleeve having an axial bore for receiving an elongated flexible member and (ii) attachment means for attaching the sleeve to a support. At least a portion of the flexible polymeric sleeve is a polyurethane elastomer produced in a reaction of an isocyanate-terminated prepolymer and a curing agent at an isocyanate index of 90 to 120. The isocyanate-terminated prepolymer has an isocyanate content of 7 to 15% by weight and is a reaction product of at least one aromatic polyisocyanate and at least one polyether polyol having a hydroxyl equivalent weight of 350 to 2000 and a nominal functionality of 2 to 2.3. The curing agent is one or more chain extenders having an equivalent weight per isocyanate-reactive group of up to 125 or a mixture of one or more such chain extenders and one or more polyether polyols having a hydroxyl equivalent weight of 350 to 2000 and a nominal functionality of 2 to 2.3. The hard segment content of the polyurethane elastomer is from 40 to 60% by weight.
US09339945B2

Systems and methods for gravity independent gripping and drilling are described. The gripping device can also comprise a drill or sampling devices for drilling and/or sampling in microgravity environments, or on vertical or inverted surfaces in environments where gravity is present. A robotic system can be connected with the gripping and drilling devices via an ankle interface adapted to distribute the forces realized from the robotic system.
US09339943B2

Compositions and devices for the production of treated wood products are disclosed. A moisture exchange container for treating a plurality of wood pieces with a chemical formulation of interest is described. Also, an adhesive suitable for gluing wood pieces that have been treated, or that are going to be treated, with a chemical formulation of interest is described. Also disclosed are methods and systems using the devices and compositions of the present invention, and treated wood products.
US09339941B2

A method punches a damper out from a damper material that is detachably attached on a flexible exfoliative member through an attaching surface of the damper material with use of a hollow punch. The method includes steps of setting the damper material on a supporting surface, positioning a projection part between the exfoliative member and the supporting surface, and punching the damper out from the damper material by cutting the damper material around the projection part by the hollow punch without punching the exfoliative member.
US09339938B2

A cutting tool includes a housing and a pair of cutting blades at least partially extending from the housing. At least a first of the cutting blades is movable. The cutting tool also includes a drive mechanism including a cam and a ratchet mechanism. At least a portion of the ratchet mechanism is drivably coupled to the first cutting blade. The cutting tool further includes a motor for providing torque to the cam to actuate the ratchet mechanism.
US09339933B2

A robot includes a base, a first arm rotatably connected to the base around a first rotating axis, a second arm rotatably connected to the first arm around a second rotating axis orthogonal to the first rotating axis, a third arm rotatably connected to the second arm around a third rotating axis parallel to the second rotating axis, and a three-axis inertial sensor provided in the third arm and including a first detection axis, a second detection axis, and a third detection axis orthogonal to each other, the first detection axis and the third rotating axis being parallel to each other.
US09339928B1

A creeper (10) includes a frame (11) having spaced side rails (12) and cross rails (13) extending between the side rails (12). A pad (28) is carried by the cross rails (13) and is spaced from each side rail (12). Each side rail (12) has end portions (14, 15) which carry a caster assembly (17), and the cross rails (13) are positioned closer to each other than the caster assemblies (17) are from each other. Each side rail (12) also includes a raised portion (26) which is higher than the end portions (14, 15) when the caster assemblies (17) are on a surface, and a lower portion (23) which is lower than the end portions (14, 15) when the caster assemblies are on a surface.
US09339923B2

Disclosed is a striking tool technology that contributes to reducing clutch sizes. The striking tool causes a tool bit to perform a striking operation in the long axis direction and to perform a rotational operation about the long axis, thereby causing the tool bit to carry out a predetermined machining operation. The striking tool comprises a tool body; a motor which is housed in the tool body and drives the tool bit; and a clutch which, on a route where the torque of the motor is transmitted to the tool bit, is disposed in a high rotational speed and low torque region that is a stage prior to where the rotational speed of the motor is reduced, which transmits the torque of the motor to the tool bit in a normal state, and which cuts off the transmission of torque generated about the tool bit long axis in the tool body if the torque exceeds a predetermined torque level.
US09339917B2

A tool for installing and removing an electrical power meter including a sleeve member defining a cavity therein with an opening to the cavity defined in the sleeve member's first end. An adjustment mechanism on the sleeve member is movable between a first position where the opening is enlarged to permit entry of a portion of the meter into the cavity; and a second position where the opening is reduced. An engagement assembly at the first end of the sleeve member grippingly engages the meter when the adjustment assembly is in the second position. The engagement assembly includes a pair of locking lips which each receive part of a peripheral edge of the meter's base therein. Gaps are defined between the locking lips to enable venting of any electrical discharge therethrough. A removable shield may be secured to the second end of the sleeve member.
US09339916B2

A holding tool for releasably securing a shaft from rotation relative to the holding tool. The holding tool may have a head including a pair of semi-cylindrical main bodies, each head having a hinge flange extending from a respective first end of the main body and a bolt flange extending from a respective, opposed second end of the main body, with each bolt flange including a fastener hole; a hinge pivotally securing the hinge flanges together; a fastener received through the fastener hole and selectively biasing the bolt flanges toward one another; a pair of semi-cylindrical shaped resilient inserts, each secured to an inner surface of the main bodies, defining a cylindrical channel to receive the shaft; and a handle extending generally radially outward from the head. The holding tool may be used to secure a propshaft to a vehicle.
US09339903B2

A rotary driving mechanism includes a support stand, an air feeding assembly, and a driver. The air feeding assembly includes a bearing base, a rotating member, two first ventilating joints, and two second ventilating joints. The bearing base is coupled to the support stand and defines an inner circular surface. The rotating member is rotatably received in the bearing base and resists the inner circular surface. The rotating member defines two circular grooves at an outer periphery thereof and two channels therein. Each circular groove is in fluid communication with one of the channels. The first ventilating joints are coupled to the bearing base and respectively in fluid communication with the circular grooves. The second ventilating joints are coupled to the rotating member and respectively in communication with the channels. The driver is coupled to the rotating member and in communication with the second ventilating joints.
US09339902B2

The invention concerns a device for dismantling of chosen parts of assembled pallets, said device including a support frame, that carries a first and a second dismantling station, into which pallets are insertable. The first dismantling station comprises at least one knife, which can be driven in between chosen outer parts of a base of a pallet in order to separate at least some of these parts. The second dismantling station comprises at least one knife, which can be driven in between chosen inner parts of a base of a pallet or between outer parts of a deck of a pallet in order to separate any of these parts. The device also comprises a multiple-axle robot, which is arranged to feed pallets into and out of the device and to position said pallets in relation to the knifes of both dismantling stations of the device.
US09339882B2

The present invention relates to a cleaning device for electrical-discharge machining fluid that cleans electrical-discharge machining fluid of an electrical-discharge machining device including a machining tank that is filled with the oil-based electrical-discharge machining fluid and in which a workpiece is machined by applying a pulse voltage between the workpiece and a machining electrode and a machining-fluid storage tank storing the electrical-discharge machining fluid to be used in the machining tank, the cleaning device including a cleaning-material storage container, which stores a cleaning material made of a granular porous material having a specific gravity equal to or higher than that of the electrical-discharge machining fluid and a grain diameter between 0.01 millimeters and 10 millimeters, in a flow channel that causes the electrical-discharge machining fluid to flow between the machining tank and the machining-fluid storage tank.
US09339881B2

A removable tip type rotary tool is provided in which a rotation stop key and a key groove each having a triangular shape are disposed on opposing surfaces of a body and a tip concentrically attached to a leading end portion of the body in a removable manner. A pair of side surfaces of the rotation stop key and a pair of side walls of the key groove are brought into surface contact by mounting screw. An angle for each of the pair of the side surfaces and the pair of side walls is between 60 to 100 degrees, a groove bottom of the key groove is rounded with a radius from 1.5 to 2.8 mm, corners of opening edges on both sides of the key groove and corners of both base-end side portions of the rotation stop key are rounded with radiuses, respectively, from 1.5 to 2.8 mm.
US09339877B2

Disclosed is an electric mitre saw, comprising a base (1), a work bench (2), a saw mechanism, and a swing arm (4), wherein a plurality of layers of slide rails (5, 11) extending in a horizontal direction are provided on the swing arm (4), with the plurality of layers of slide rails (5, 11) being able to slide horizontally relative to each other by means of a slide block (6), a rotary shaft (10) is provided on one layer of the slide rails (11) farthest away from the swing arm (4), and the saw mechanism is rotatably connected to the rotary shaft (10). By means of the arrangement of the plurality of layers of slide rails (5, 11), the length of each layer of slide rails is relatively short, the manufacturing difficulty is reduced, there is a saving in the working space of the miter saw, and the packaging volume is reduced. When one layer of slide rails (5, 11) is respectively arranged at both sides of a saw blade (15), the end parts of two slide rails of each layer of slide rails (5, 11) are able to be connected by a connecting seat (8, 14), thus facilitating the improvement of parallelism of the two slide rails (5, 11), and providing a greater cutting travel. A gripping space is also formed between the two layers of slide rails (5, 11), such that observation during cutting is convenient.
US09339875B2

The invention relates to a deep-hole drill, comprising a first coating extending over the effective length of the guide section and a second coating that is applied to the tip of the drill in the cutting region, the region of which extends over an axial length that, at a maximum, corresponds to double the nominal diameter of the drill. In such a way, when the bore tip is worn by use, said tip can be recoated after sharpening without the nominal diameter of the drill tip substantially increasing, in particular even after being sharpened several times.
US09339873B2

A cutting insert has a dovetail anti-slip arrangement for securing the cutting insert to a machine tool. The anti-slip arrangement includes first and second insert abutment surfaces having dovetail portions, each of which form an external and acute dovetail angle with an insert base surface. The dovetail portions are configured with one or more geometric features related to a cutting edge geometry of the cutting insert.
US09339872B2

A pair of pinching members pinching a workpiece stem portion, and a deburring tool performing deburring onto the workpiece stem portion pinched by the pair of pinching members are disposed under a pair of guide rails. The deburring tool has a recess so that an opening of the recess faces the other end face of the workpiece stem portion, and is capable of a displacement motion in an axis extension direction of the recess while rotating around the recess axis, and a recess inner circumferential surface is formed so as to reduce its diameter as it goes from the recess opening side toward a recess internal side, and a blade portion is provided on the recess inner circumferential surface. Thereby, it is possible to perform deburring without increasing the machining line length, and prevent abnormal wear of a rubbing stone due to the deburring.
US09339862B2

A machine for deforming the wires of grids for making electric accumulators, which comprises two lower molds, and two upper molds which are positioned above the lower molds and which are operable to shift between a raised position, in which they are separated from the underlying lower molds, and a lowered position in which they are pressed against the lower molds to deform the wires of the grids on a grid strip. The upper molds comprise respective projecting molding areas and respective seats which are positioned between the molding areas of the relative upper mold, and each housing a corresponding piece-detacher element which, when the upper molds are in the raised position, is suitable to interfere with the grid remaining attached to the corresponding upper mold to separate the grid from such upper mold.
US09339856B2

Devices for use in the disposal of pharmaceutical compositions are provided. Aspects of the devices include: a support having a surface; an activated carbon layer present on the surface; and an adhesive for stably associating a pharmaceutical composition with the activated carbon layer upon application of the pharmaceutical composition to the activated carbon layer. Also provided are methods of using the devices and kits containing the devices.
US09339853B2

Reversibly switchable (transformable) surface layer changeable from (super)hydrophobic to (super)hydrophilic surface states are described. Methods of decontamination of surfaces exposed to contaminate are provided. The reversibly switchable properties of the surface layer can be controlled by an external stimulus.
US09339851B2

A system for cleaning a component of a machine is provided. The system includes a cleaning head having a first reel and a second reel to store a cloth. The cleaning head also includes a first idler and a second idler placed in a spaced apart arrangement. The first idler and the second idler are configured to receive the cloth from the first reel. The second reel is configured to store the cloth received from the first idler and the second idler. A spray nozzle is provided to spray a cleaning agent on to the cloth. A robotic arm is attached to the cleaning head. A controller is configured to position the cleaning head relative to the component, activate a movement of the first reel and the second reel to effectuate a dry cleaning cycle, and selectively activate the spray nozzle to effectuate a wet cleaning cycle.
US09339850B2

A method and apparatus for sorting particles moving through a closed channel system of capillary size comprises a bubble valve for selectively generating a pressure pulse to separate a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles. The particle sorting system may further include a buffer for absorbing the pressure pulse. The particle sorting system may include a plurality of closely coupled sorting modules which are combined to further increase the sorting rate. The particle sorting system may comprise a multi-stage sorting device for serially sorting streams of particles, in order to decrease the error rate.
US09339849B2

The invention relates to a method for the processing of metal scrap, in particular steel scrap, wherein the metal scrap material is treated with at least one fluid with a view to removing surface coatings before a spectroscopic analysis of the metal scrap composition is performed. On the basis of this composition the metal scrap can then be sorted and further processed in a purposeful manner. Moreover, the fluid used for the removal of the surface coatings can be suitably treated to recover the metal constituents contained therein. On the one hand, a resource-conserving and economic recovery of metals, in particular zinc, contained in surface coatings is achieved by means of the inventive method and, what is more, the method also enables a purposeful sorting of metal scrap material to be performed for a variety of uses in the iron and steel producing industry.
US09339846B2

Provided is an ultrasonic sensor assembly. The present invention simplifies an assembly structure of the ultrasonic sensor assembly, and thus enables a process of the ultrasonic sensor assembly to be performed as an automation process.
US09339844B2

Method for the preparation of a catalysed particulate filter and a particulate filter prepared by the method.
US09339839B2

A dosing system for a liquid or viscous dosing material, including an actuator system, that has at least one actuating element and a nozzle with an outlet opening. The dosing system is designed so that during a movement in a closure direction the actuating element is initially moved in a first partial movement in such a way that the actuating element is separated from the closure element at a stop location, intended for that purpose, and then comes into contact with the closure element at the stop location and exerts an impulse on the closure element. This also relates to a corresponding dosing method.
US09339835B2

Overspray collection apparatus comprises an extraction duct (54) between two sloped floors (50, 52) with unobstructed inlet slots (88, 90) on either side thereof. The extraction duct (54) comprises two moveable panels (56, 58) pivotally mounted to the sloped floors (50, 52). Each moveable panel (56, 58) pivots about an axis that is offset from a lower portion of the moveable panel and a lower portion of the sloped floor. In another embodiment, the pivotal mount comprises an offset hinge. The overspray extraction duct (54) comprises a duct floor (60) and an air diffuser assembly (100) that extends at least partially across the duct floor. The air diffuser assembly (100) receives pressurized air and directs pressurized air into the extraction duct (54), whereby the pressurized air may be pulsed. The overspray extraction duct (54) comprises a suction hood (62) that includes moveable panels (56, 58). Optional actuators may apply a force impulse to one or more of the moveable panels (56, 58), and/or to open and close the suction hood (62) automatically.
US09339834B2

An improved system for application of liquid streams to a substrate. The system incorporates open face flow channels for carrying the liquid away from fully enclosed flow segments prior to discharge along an unconstrained flow path. The present invention further provides an improved, self-aligning modular assembly for delivery of impingement jet to the liquid streams for diverting the direction of the liquid streams. The present invention further provides an improved arrangement for collection of the deflected liquid in response to application of the impingement jet without excess residue build-up.
US09339832B2

Described is a method and an apparatus for producing cured coating films on a substrate surface. Specifically, a portable spraygun may be used to initiate radiation cure without the operative having to be protected from radiation. The spraygun comprises a supply channel for a radiation-curable coating composition, a needle, a reserve for the radiation-curable coating composition, and, optionally, a supply channel for a gas.
US09339826B2

A rolling spray applicator has a low profile so that it can be utilized between closely spaced upper and lower surfaces so that a spray coating can be applied thereto simultaneously. The spray applicator includes an elongated spray bar including a plurality of nozzles on upper and lower surfaces thereof. A fluid supply is connected to the elongated spray bar. A frame supports the elongated spray bar and includes a plurality of wheels for rollingly supporting the frame. A handle is attached to either one of the frame or the elongated spray bar so that the device can be rolled between closely spaced upper and lower surfaces for applying a spray coating thereon.
US09339825B2

A fluidic oscillator having independent frequency and amplitude control includes a fluidic-oscillator main flow channel having a main flow inlet, a main flow outlet, and first and second control ports disposed at opposing sides thereof. A fluidic-oscillator controller has an inlet and outlet. A volume defined by the main flow channel is greater than the volume defined by the controller. A flow diverter coupled to the outlet of the controller defines a first fluid flow path from the controller's outlet to the first control port and defines a second fluid flow path from the controller's outlet to the second control port.
US09339823B2

A microparticle sorting apparatus includes a detection unit which detects microparticles flowing through a flow path; an imaging device which images a droplet containing the microparticles which is discharged from an orifice provided on an edge portion of the flow path; a charge unit which applies a charge to the droplets; and a control unit which determines a delay time as from a time that the microparticles are detected by the detection unit to the time at which a number of bright spots in a standard region, which is set beforehand, of image information imaged by the imaging device reaches the maximum, making it possible for the charge unit to apply a charge to the microparticles once the delay time has lapsed after the microparticles are detected by the detection unit.
US09339816B2

The present invention relates to a reactor array for producing and/or analyzing products, comprising a plurality of vessels in which products can be produced on a preparative or analytical scale.
US09339815B2

Discussed are a diagnostic cartridge and a control method for the diagnostic cartridge. The cartridge includes a sample port through which a sample is injected, a first chamber moving the sample injected from the sample port, a second chamber moving a substrate solution, a first membrane formed at a distal end of the first chamber to function as a valve for preventing other substances from being injected into the first chamber after the sample is completely moved, and a second membrane formed at a distal end of the second chamber to function as a valve for preventing other substances from being injected into the first chamber after the substrate solution is completely moved.
US09339814B2

Provided is a microchip having a liquid supply mechanism which can supply a solution in a micro flow path with a simple construction in which a drive source utilizing an osmotic pressure is arranged within the microchip and which controls the osmotic pressure by a control unit utilizing temperature or the like, whereby it is possible to effect drive control such as intermittent driving and continuous driving at a fixed velocity. The liquid supply mechanism using osmotic pressure includes an osmotic pump utilizing the osmotic pressure of a liquid filling chambers separated from each other by a semipermeable membrane, and a unit which varies the osmotic pressure by changing a condition of the solution in at least one of the chambers on the basis of a timing of a pumping operation.
US09339812B2

A system and method for processing and detecting nucleic acids from a set of biological samples, comprising: a capture plate and a capture plate module configured to facilitate binding of nucleic acids within the set of biological samples to magnetic beads; a molecular diagnostic module configured to receive nucleic acids bound to magnetic beads, isolate nucleic acids, and analyze nucleic acids, comprising a cartridge receiving module, a heating/cooling subsystem and a magnet configured to facilitate isolation of nucleic acids, a valve actuation subsystem configured to control fluid flow through a microfluidic cartridge for processing nucleic acids, and an optical subsystem for analysis of nucleic acids; a fluid handling system configured to deliver samples and reagents to components of the system to facilitate molecular diagnostic protocols; and an assay strip configured to combine nucleic acid samples with molecular diagnostic reagents for analysis of nucleic acids.
US09339810B2

A hand-held, multi-channel pipettor has an electronically controlled motor to reposition pipette tips for different center to center spacing. Each repositionable tip fitting assembly has a cam following pin that is driven by cam tracks in a motor driven roller drum. Stationary ports for the multiple aspiration cylinders are strategically placed to simplify management of flexible tubes leading to the repositionable pipette tip fitting assemblies. The pipettor has a user interface that can be operated conveniently by one hand to reposition pipette tips. It has a pipette tip ejection mechanism with a sinusoidal stripper bar.
US09339798B2

The carrier of the present invention includes at least 85 wt percent alpha alumina, at least 0.06 wt percent SiO2 and no more than 0.04 wt percent Na2O. The carrier has a water absorption no greater than 0.35 g/g and a ratio of water absorption (g/g) to surface area (m2/g) no greater than 0.50 g/m2. Another aspect of the invention is a catalyst for the epoxidation of olefins which comprises the above described carrier and silver dispersed thereon, where the carrier has a monomodal, bimodal or multimodal pore distribution and where the quantity of silver is between 5 and 50 wt/%, relative to the weight of the catalyst. A reactor system for the epoxidation of olefins is also disclosed.
US09339792B2

The present invention relates to a photocatalyst for the generation of diatomic hydrogen from a hydrogen containing precursor under the influence of actinic radiation comprising semiconductor support particles comprised of SrTiO3 and TiO2 with one or more noble and/or transition metals deposited thereon. Further disclosed is a method for preparing such catalyst and a method for generating diatomic hydrogen by photolysis.
US09339790B2

This disclosure relates to graphene derivatives, as well as related devices including graphene derivatives and methods of using graphene derivatives.
US09339771B2

The present invention relates to novel pervaporation membranes comprising a porous support layer upon which a thin coating is applied. More specifically, the present invention provides pervaporation membranes with an improved performance by applying an aggregate filled PTMSP coating with a maximal thickness of 25 μm onto the porous support. The present invention further relates to methods of the manufacturing of such pervaporation membranes.
US09339766B2

A method of purifying an alcohol, such as isopropyl alcohol, includes a first ion exchange step of performing ion exchange treatment on an alcohol-containing liquid; a step of performing dehydration treatment using a dehydration membrane on the liquid treated in the first ion exchange step; a distillation step of performing distillation on the dehydration-treated liquid; and a second ion exchange step of further performing ion exchange treatment on the liquid obtained in the distillation step to obtain a purified alcohol.
US09339759B2

A gas separation system, comprising a buffer tank that stores therein a source gas and supplies the source gas; a pressurizing unit configured to receive the source gas from the buffer tank and pressurize the received source gas; a first refining unit configured to produce a first refined gas by refining the source gas pressurized by the pressurizing unit, and discharge a first waste gas; a second refining unit configured to produce a second refined gas by refining the first refined gas, and discharge a second waste gas; a third refining unit configured to produce a third refined gas by refining the first waste gas; a first collection line configured to guide the second waste gas to the buffer tank, and including a second flow rate control valve for controlling a flow rate of the second waste gas.
US09339758B2

Provided are a gas barrier resin composition, and a gas barrier composite film excellent in gas barrier properties with respect to oxygen, carbon dioxide gas, water vapor or the like, particularly in gas barrier properties even after hot water treatment. The gas barrier resin composition includes an oxazoline group-containing aqueous polymer (A), an aqueous acrylic resin (B) and/or an aqueous polyester resin (C) each at a specific concentration, wherein the ratio of the mole number of the oxazoline group to the mole number of the carboxyl group [the ratio of the mole number of the oxazoline group (x mmol) to the mole number of the carboxyl group (y mmol), which is indicated as (x/y)×100 (mol %)], is within the specific range. The gas barrier composite film uses this composition.
US09339753B2

A process for treating steam-saturated crude gases from an entrained flow gasification of fuels before entry into heat exchangers sited upstream of a crude gas converting operation. To avoid solid deposits in an entrance region of the heat exchangers, the crude gas is converted from a saturated into a superheated state by supply of a hot gas to the crude gas. Hot gas contemplated is superheated high pressure steam or recycled superheated converted crude gas.
US09339749B2

A cyclonic separator having an outer wall and an inner wall, and a shroud disposed between the outer wall and the inner wall, the inner wall having one or more outwardly projecting members, the shroud having upper and lower portions, and a mesh secured between the upper and lower portions, the lower portion having a flange that extends radially inward towards the inner wall, wherein the flange has one or more flexible portions, and the outwardly projecting members abut the flexible portions so as to bias the lower portion away from the upper portion to thus tension the mesh.
US09339742B2

In this respect, the present arrangement provides a density current baffle that employs a baffle that is dimensioned to balance the fact that larger horizontal projections of density current baffles improve performance while simultaneously recognizing that an overly large baffle would simply not correctly function, be unnecessarily large and complex and may in fact have a negative impact on the otherwise ordinary operation of flows within the clarifier tank. Thus, the present arrangement provides a baffle that improves performance while satisfying the desire to remain conservative in defining an upper limit for the projection. The horizontal projection of the baffle is structured according to the following equation: HP=24″+0.4 inches/foot×(Diameter−30).
US09339741B2

A mechanical separator for separating a fluid sample into first and second phases is disclosed. The mechanical separator includes a float having a first portion and a second portion, a ballast circumferentially disposed about a section of the float, and a deformable bellows defining an open passageway extending between a first end and a second end. The ballast is longitudinally moveable with respect to the float and engaged with the deformable bellows between the first end and the second end. At least a portion of the float is transitionable from a restraint position to a sealed position through the first end of the bellows. The first portion of the float can be positioned within the interior of the deformable bellows in the restraint position, and the first portion of the float can be positioned at an exterior location longitudinally displaced from the deformable bellows in the sealed position.
US09339737B2

A bubble generating device and a method for producing bubbles. In one aspect, the invention can be an apparatus for generating bubbles comprising: a housing; a motor; an air flow generator operably coupled to the motor; a trough containing a bubble solution; a cam surface comprising a raised portion and a valley portion; a follower member comprising a bubble generating device, the follower member in operable cooperation with the cam surface; the motor operably coupled to the follower member to drive the follower member along the cam surface such that: (1) upon the follower member being located along the valley portion of the cam surface, the bubble generating device is in the trough; and (2) upon the follower member being located along the raised portion of the cam surface, the bubble generating device is aligned with an air flow generated by the air flow generator for producing bubbles.
US09339732B2

A wearable display device, system and method are described. The display system includes a wearable display to be worn by a person; a display buffer to receive display data from a graphics engine, which data includes data regarding position of a wearer in a virtual environment; a display processor unit to process vision direction data using the display data from the graphics engine, wherein the display processor unit sends the display data to the wearable display. In an example, the display system is a component to a gaming system or environment.
US09339729B2

There is provided a system and method for playsets using tracked objects and corresponding virtual worlds. There is provided an object for use with a physical environment and connectable to a virtual world corresponding to the physical environment, the object including a processor and a plurality of sensors including a position sensor. The processor is configured to establish a first connection with the virtual world, wherein the virtual world contains a virtual object corresponding to the object, determine a position of the object using the position sensor, and send the position of the object using the first connection. There is also provided a physical environment having similar capabilities as the object.
US09339728B2

A computer-implemented system and method are described for managing audio chat for an online video game or application. For example, a system according to one embodiment comprises: an online video game or application execution engine to execute an online video game or application in response to input from one or more users of the video game or application and to responsively generate audio and video of the video game or application; and a chat subsystem to establish audio chat sessions with the one or more users and one or more spectators to the video game or application, the chat subsystem establishing a plurality of audio chat channels including a spectator channel over which the spectators participate in audio chat and a user channel over which the users participate in audio chat.
US09339720B2

Devices and methods of transport are disclosed. Various embodiments include structural aspects related to steering and changing the direction of conveyances including features which utilize leaning or shifting of weight as part of turning.
US09339718B2

The present invention relates to a system for helping the movements of a user's foot, said foot being able to be received in a footwear portion, the front end of which is pivotably mounted relative to a sliding board or to walking equipment, with the system comprising a spring which can be secured to the sliding board or to the walking equipment so as to be applied to a bearing zone of the footwear portion by exerting a pressure on said bearing zone when the bearing zone is moved closer to the sliding board or to the walking equipment, characterized in that it comprises a binding device which can be removed from the spring, with the binding device being able to be fastened to a binding zone of the sliding board or of the walking equipment.
US09339712B2

An exercise equipment including a support, a first footboard and a second footboard for supporting the feet of the user, arranged alongside one another and able to slide along the support according to a substantially rectilinear direction (A), and articulated connection elements for connecting the first footboard to the second footboard.
US09339699B2

A racquet includes polyester, monofilament racquet string and a frame extending along a longitudinal axis and including a head portion coupled to a handle portion. The head portion includes a hoop having inner and outer peripheral walls. The hoop defines a head size having maximum longitudinal and transverse dimensions, a, and, b, respectively. The dimension a is at least 1.2 times the dimension b. The inner peripheral wall includes string holes. The string has a diameter within the range of 1.10 to 1.55 millimeters. The string forms a string bed of interlaced main and cross string segments. Each of the cross segments transversely extends from one of the string holes to another, and each of the main segments longitudinally extends from one of the string holes to another. The string bed has at least one more main segment than cross segment. At least one of the main segments contacting the tennis ball exhibits a snap back velocity of at least 1 meter per second.
US09339682B2

An exercise apparatus that is mountable to a substrate, having a channel, a belt, and at least one buckle. The buckle has a bottom portion that is adapted to fit within the channel such that the buckle can move along the channel and resist moving in either perpendicular direction. The buckle has a top portion that includes an opening for attaching exercise equipment and at least one cam. The cam is selectively engaged with the belt such that when the cam is disengaged, the buckle can be moved along the belt and when engaged, the buckle resists movement with respect to the belt.
US09339680B2

A physical therapy and exercising apparatus comprising an upper surface configured to fit a person's foot or hand, and a bottom surface, wherein, when the apparatus is placed on a flat surface, only a portion of the bottom surface touches the flat surface, such that low-friction gliding on the flat surface, of the person's foot or hand and apparatus, together, is facilitated.
US09339676B2

A fence surrounds a trampoline and extends above the rebounding surface, reducing the risk of injury. Shock absorption is aided in the preferred embodiment by a support system of independent poles, linked at their tops by a flexible strap or line. An impact anywhere on the fence causes the posts to flex inwardly, absorbing the force. Much of this impact injury is stored in system components and is subsequently returned, helping propel an errant jumper back onto to the rebounding surface. Numerous other embodiments and accessories are also detailed. Similar arrangements are suitable for use with above ground pools.
US09339668B2

The invention relates to an aerial part extract of oats excluding grains, to its preparation method and to its uses.
US09339666B2

Method for coloring hair wherein a non-diluted hair coloring composition is applied to the hair, e.g. the hair roots and a diluted hair coloring composition is applied to the hair, e.g. the hair lengths and tips, wherein a dilutant composition comprising a non-aqueous liquid is added to the non-diluted hair coloring composition to obtain the diluted hair coloring composition.
US09339665B2

A ultrasonic wave heating instrument includes a housing inside which a ultrasonic wave emitting circuit in electric connection with a power source and a ultrasonic oscillating sheet in electric connection with said circuit are configured, and a ceramic massage head is configured on the housing. The ultrasonic wave generated from the ultrasonic oscillating sheet is passed through the ceramic massage head to act on human bodies. Besides, a switch is configured between the power source and ultrasonic wave emitting circuit. Furthermore, a heating membrane in electric connection with the power source is configured inside the housing, and the heat emitted from the heating membrane is passed through the ceramic massage head to act on human bodies.
US09339657B2

Techniques are described for selectively enabling and disabling a pre-stimulation passive recharge pacing mode for an implantable medical device (IMD) depending on whether the IMD is operating in an electromagnetic interference (EMI)-safe mode. In some examples, the IMD may enable the pre-stimulation passive recharge pacing mode when the IMD is operating in the EMI-safe mode, and disable the pre-stimulation passive recharge pacing mode when the IMD is not operating in the EMI-safe mode. The EMI-safe mode may be, in some examples, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-safe mode.
US09339656B2

The present disclosure pertains to cardiac pacing methods and systems, and, more particularly, to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). In particular, the present disclosure pertains to determining the efficacy of CRT through use of an effective capture test (ECT). One or more embodiments comprises sensing a signal in response to a ventricular pacing stimulus. Through signal processing, a number of features are parsed from the signal. Exemplary features parsed from the signal include a maximum amplitude, a maximum time associated with the maximum amplitude, a minimum amplitude, and a minimum time associated with the minimum amplitude. The data is evaluated through use of the ECT. By employing the ECT, efficacy of CRT is easily and automatically evaluated. In one or more other embodiments, the reason for ineffective capture is displayed to the user. Exemplary reasons for ineffective capture include pseudo-fusion pacing and lack of capture of the ventricle.
US09339651B2

A system for controlling a position of a patient's tongue includes attaching at least one electrode to the patient's Hypoglossal nerve and applying an electric signal through the electrode to at least one targeted motor efferent located within the Hypoglossal nerve to stimulate at least one muscle of the tongue. The system may also include the use of more than one contact to target more than one motor efferent and stimulating more than one muscle. The stimulation load to maintain the position of the tongue may be shared by each muscle. The position of the patient's tongue may be controlled in order to prevent obstructive sleep apnea.
US09339645B2

Stimulation of the facial nerve system (e.g., electrically, electromagnetically, etc.) in stroke patients will cause dilation of occluded arteries and dilation of surrounding arteries, allowing for blood flow to circumvent the obstruction and reach previously-deprived tissue. The device approaches the facial nerve and its branches in the vicinity of the ear. In use, the device can be inserted into the ear canal or placed in proximity to the ear in order to stimulate the facial nerve system without puncturing the tympanic membrane (e.g., using an electromagnetic field). The device can also be advanced into the middle ear through a puncture created in the tympanic membrane. Branches of the facial nerve in the middle ear can then be stimulated directly (e.g., by application of electrical current). The device can be used in the emergency treatment of acute stroke or as chronically-implanted/inserted variations for long-term maintenance of blood flow to the brain and stroke prevention.
US09339640B2

A body is disclosed that includes a tubular portion with an internal bore and an external surface and a first opening wherein the internal bore terminates at the first opening. The body has a second opening and a fluid passage extending through the body from the internal bore to the second opening. The internal bore is configured to couple to an external surface of a first tube and the external surface is configured to couple to an internal surface of a second tube.
US09339637B2

A balloon dilation catheter includes a substantially rigid inner guide member and a movable shaft coupled to a balloon that is slidably mounted on the substantially rigid inner guide member. To treat a sinus cavity of a subject using the balloon dilation the substantially rigid inner guide member is advanced into a drainage pathway of the sinus (e.g., frontal recess) of the subject via a nasal passageway. The shaft and balloon are advanced in a distal direction over the substantially rigid inner guide member to place the balloon in the drainage pathway. The balloon is inflated to expand or otherwise remodel the drainage pathway.
US09339635B2

A non-compliant fiber-reinforced medical balloon comprises a first fiber layer and a second fiber layer embedded in a continuous matrix of thermally-weldable polymer material defining a barrel wall, cone walls and neck walls. The fibers of the first fiber layer have a pattern of different lengths and are divisible into a first group and a second group based on length. The length of the fibers of the second group varies progressively in accordance to their proximity to the fibers of the first group; the fibers of the second group closest to the fibers of the first group being longer than the fibers of the second group further from the fibers of the first group. The fiber of the second fiber layer winds circumferentially around the longitudinal axis of the balloon substantially over the entire length of the balloon.
US09339631B2

A locking mechanism for a medical device to selective lock a first elongate member from longitudinal movement relative to a second elongate member of the medical device. The locking mechanism includes a flexible tubular member disposed in a bore of a handle assembly of the medical device, and an actuator, such as a cam member having a cam or eccentric surface. Pivotable movement of the actuator from a first position to a second position compresses or deforms the flexible tubular member against the first elongate member to lock the first elongate member from longitudinal movement relative to the handle assembly.
US09339629B2

A catheter includes a main body and a distal end tip. The main body includes an inner layer having a first lumen, a coil body wound around an outer periphery of the inner layer and made of a metal, and an outer layer that covers an outer periphery of the coil body. The distal end tip is made of metal and has a second lumen that communicates with the first lumen. The distal end tip is provided at a distal end of the main body, and is bonded to a distal end of the coil body and is bonded to an inner peripheral surface of a distal end portion of the coil body.
US09339618B2

A method for controlling narrowing of at least one airway and associated apparatus are provided. The method includes positioning a needle-less injection assembly in an airway of a patient, and introducing a medication from at least one port of the needle-less injection assembly across an epithelium of a wall of the airway and into collagenous and smooth muscle layers of the airway wall such that the medication controls at least one mechanism of airway narrowing.
US09339614B2

A filtering powdered medicament inhaler comprising a base (1) and an upper base (2). The upper base (2) has arranged therein a separator (62), which is connected at the bottom to a pressure groove (63). The upper base (2) has arranged thereon a hollow tube exterior connector (10) matching a suction tube (131). The hollow tube (19a) and a cavity (9) on one side of the separator (62) are interconnected via conduit (18), or, the hollow tube (19a) is extended for about 8 centimeters to form a mouthpiece. The upper base (2) has arranged in the cavity (9) thereof a filter (121). The base (1) is provided with an external base cover (72) which covers a press-button (5a) so as to reduce air flow into the cavity (9). The medicament inhaling conduit of the inhaler is relatively sealed and allows for rapid entrainment of a sufficient dosage of powdered medicament.
US09339606B2

A conventional syringe includes a syringe barrel having a syringe barrel flange laterally extending from an open proximal end of the syringe barrel and a syringe plunger for advancement into the syringe barrel through the open proximal end. A foldable finger flange for such a syringe comprises an attachment member configured to be removably mounted onto the syringe barrel flange, and a flange member pivotably attached to the attachment member. At least a portion of the flange member is pivotable between a use position, wherein said portion of the flange member extends generally perpendicular to the syringe barrel, thereby providing a flange having a greater extent than the syringe barrel flange, and a non-use position, wherein said portion of the flange member does not extend generally perpendicular to the syringe barrel.
US09339593B2

The present invention relates to a combination of agents, including an anti-proliferative agent, an anti-inflammatory agent, an anti-growth factor, and an extracellular matrix (ECM) molecule coated on a stent to prevent acute and subacute thrombosis, enhance endothelial in-growth, and prevent neointimal hyperplasia, and/or suppress neovascularization, and thereby reduce restenosis rates for drug eluting stents. The present invention also relates to methods of using such multiple drug eluting stents for the treatment of heart disease and other vascular conditions.
US09339588B2

A substrate has an electron donating surface, and metal particles on its surface, the metal particles including palladium and at least one metal selected from the group consisting of gold, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, wherein the amount of the metal particles is from about 0.001 to about 8 μg/cm2. Examples of coated objects include contact lenses, pacemakers, pacemaker electrodes, stents, dental implants, rupture nets, rupture mesh, blood centrifuge equipment, surgical instruments, gloves, blood bags, artificial heart valves, central venous catheters, peripheral venous catheters, vascular ports, haemodialysis equipment, peritoneal dialysis equipment, plasmapheresis devices, inhalation drug delivery devices, vascular grafts, arterial grafts, cardiac assist devices, wound dressings, intermittent catheters, ECG electrodes, peripheral stents, bone replacing implants, orthopaedic implants, orthopaedic devices, tissue replacing implants, intraocular lenses, sutures, needles, drug delivery devices, endotracheal tubes, shunts, drains, suction devices, hearing aid devices, urethral medical devices, and artificial blood vessels.
US09339584B2

A biogel, and kits, agents, and methods for formation of the biogel are described. The biogel can be used for a variety of applications, including haemostasis, wound sealing, tissue engineering or localized drug delivery.
US09339582B2

In order to provide an absorbent, which contains no wood pulp and wood pulp and has improved liquid absorbability and improved liquid retention ability, and an absorptive article provided with the absorbent, no wood pulp having a settling time in water of 2-5 sec is used in an absorbent that contains no wood pulp and wood pulp.
US09339579B2

A contamination control system for ductless air conditioners is disclosed. The contamination control system may be formed from one or more decontamination lamps contained within a tubular housing that is hollow and includes an internal cavity extending from the first end to the second end with at least one longitudinally extending sight window positioned between first and second tubular end regions. The decontamination lamp may be positioned within the internal cavity in the tubular housing. The tubular housing may be held in place with a mounting system including at least one tubular housing receiver in which the tubular housing is secured. The tubular housing is slidably held within the mounting system such that the tubular housing is slidable longitudinally relative to the tubular housing receivers and is rotatable within the tubular housing receivers. The decontamination lamp may be activated with a photo activated sensor.
US09339576B2

A personal electronic device (PED) sanitization device comprises a compartment configured to receive a plurality of PEDs and one or more emitters configured to emit electro-optical (EO) radiation into the interior of the compartment. The compartment may comprise a support member configured to maintain the plurality of PEDs such that substantially an entire surface of each of the plurality of PEDs is exposed to EO radiation emitted by the one or more emitters.
US09339575B2

Medical devices, including medical adhesives, need to be sterile before application to a patient. A dry heat sterilization process can sterilize medical adhesives for patient application. The dry heat sterilization process can be validated for particular equipment arrangements and medical adhesives being utilized.
US09339574B1

Provided herein is a method of reducing a microbial infection of a heparinized surface wherein heparin precipitation is reduced as compared to a control. In some embodiments a composition comprising ethanol and isopropanol is applied to the surface. In other embodiments, two or more ethanol compositions are applied and removed sequentially from the surface prior to contacting the surface with a biological fluid, tissue or vessel, wherein the composition in each successive administration comprises an increased amount of ethanol. Also provided is a method of reducing a microbial infection of a surface comprising applying a mucilage extract from an Opuntia ficus indica species to the surface.
US09339569B2

A system and method for sterilization of medical devices includes methods for reducing the variance in dose levels over the medical device by either varying the dose levels for each pass before a radiation source, such as an electron beam, or by increasing the number of passes before a radiation source.
US09339564B2

Methods and compositions utilizing ether and alkyl phospholipid ether analog compounds for treating cancer and imaging, monitoring, and detecting cancer stem cells in humans.
US09339562B2

Nanoparticles are used as a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. Each of the nanoparticles includes a metal alloy core and a plurality of hydrophilic molecules covalently bound to the surface of the metal alloy core. Also disclosed is a method for using the contrast agent.
US09339560B2

The present invention relates to a method for determining the anti-tumor efficacy of monoclonal antibodies in pre-clinical rodent testings and the use of said method for the reduction of side testings.
US09339559B2

A contrast agent having a contrast protein have contrast properties and at least one targeting moiety, wherein the at least one targeting moiety is operatively linked to or incorporated within the contrast protein. Methods for targeting contrast agents and for preparing such agents are included.
US09339558B2

Provided herein are micellic assemblies comprising a plurality of copolymers. In certain instances, micellic assemblies provided herein are pH sensitive particles.
US09339550B2

The present invention relates to a solid composition containing ivabradine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof. Further, the invention relates to a method for the preparation of such a composition as well as a pharmaceutical product comprising such a composition.
US09339547B2

Radiopaque, iodinated, absorbable polyesters, polyester urethanes, and polyether-ester-urethanes with and without inorganic iodide micro-/nanoparticles dispersed or solubilized therein, and composite inorganic iodide micro-/nanoparticles in an absorbable polyester, polyester-urethane, polyester-ester, or polyether-ester urethane matrix are employed in medical devices and therapeutic compositions.
US09339545B2

Stable formulations for parenteral injection of peptide drugs and methods of using such stable formulations are provided. In particular, the present invention provides stable formulations for parenteral injection of glucagon and methods of using such glucagon formulations to treat hypoglycemia, especially severe hypoglycemia in emergency situations.
US09339543B2

Pharmaceutical formulations comprising solid pharmaceutically acceptable organic acids, such as maleic acid or tartaric acid, that inhibit the disproportionation of pharmaceutically acceptable acid salts of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and methods of manufacturing such pharmaceutical compositions. The pharmaceutically acceptable acid salt of the active pharmaceutical ingredient has a pKa of less than about 6.0, and wherein the solid pharmaceutically acceptable organic acid has a pKa of less than about 4.0 and an aqueous solubility in the range of about 500 to about 2000 milligrams per milliliter. A pharmaceutical formulation comprising a pharmaceutical acceptable acid salt of pioglitazone, a solid pharmaceutically acceptable organic acid selected from the group consisting of maleic acid or tartaric acid, and an excipient that promotes disproportionation, wherein the ratio by weight of the solid pharmaceutically acceptable organic acid to excipient is from about 1:6 to about 1:1.
US09339530B2

Process for separating proteins fibrinogen, Factor XIII and biological glue from a solubilized plasma fraction and for preparing lyophilized concentrates of said proteins.
US09339529B2

Injectable insulin loaded microgels that are capable of modifying the amount of insulin released based on the patient's tissue glucose levels, methods for making and using these compositions have been developed. The microgels contain insulin, glucose oxidase entrapped in or bound to the microgels, and an agent that reduces hydrogen peroxide, entrapped in or bound to the microgels, wherein the polymeric microgel expands when pH decreases from physiological pH and shrinks when pH increases towards physiological pH, thereby releasing insulin at a rate corresponding to the glucose concentration. In one embodiment, the glucose oxidase and/or the agent reducing hydrogen peroxide are encapsulated in nanogels, then encapsulated within the microgel.
US09339527B2

The present invention relates to compounds suitable for use in mediating hypoxia inducible factor and for treating erythropoietin-associated conditions by increasing endogenous erythropoietin in vitro and in vivo.
US09339525B2

The present invention relates to a product comprising at least two antibiofilm agents wherein at least one of the antibiofilm agents is an antimicrobial peptide. The second antibiofilm agent is cysteamine. There is also provided the use of the product in the treatment of a microbial infection.
US09339521B2

The present invention relates to the use of an extract of a Vernonia plant from Madagascar in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food supplements for improving the skin status, more specifically by strengthening the dermal-epidermal junction and/or by activating fibroblasts synthesis of dermis and extracellular matrix compounds.
US09339518B2

The present invention relates to mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) genetically modified to express sST2 or parts thereof for use in the treatment of airway immune inflammatory and lung diseases, wherein said mesenchymal stem cells are not human embryonic stem cells. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising said mesenchymal stem cells.
US09339509B2

Oral and topical pharmaceutical compositions, kits and methods of treatment thereof for treating various skin disorder including acne, psoriasis, ichthyosis, photoaging, photodamaged skin, and, skin cancer. Exemplary vitamin D analogs as active pharmaceutical ingredients include 2-methylene-19-nor-20(S)-1α-hydroxy-bishomopregnacalciferol, 19-nor-26,27-dimethylene-20(S)-2-methylene-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, 2-methylene-1α,25-dihydroxy-(17E)-17(20)-dehydro-19-nor-vitamin D3, 2-methylene-19-nor-(24R)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D2, 2-methylene-(20R,25S)-19,26-dinor-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, 2-methylene-19-nor-1α-hydroxy-pregnacalciferol, 1α-hydroxy-2-methylene-19-nor-homopregnacalciferol, (20R)-1α-hydroxy-2-methylene-19-nor-bishomopregnacalciferol, 2-methylene-19-nor-(20S)-1α-hydroxy-trishomopregnacalciferol, 2-methylene-23,23-difluoro-1α-hydroxy-19-nor-bishomopregnacalciferol, 2-methylene-(20S)-23,23-difluoro-1α-hydroxy-19-nor-bishomopregnancalciferol, (2-(3′hydroxypropyl-1′,2′-idene)-19,23,24-trinor-(20S)-1α-hydroxyvitamin D3, 2-methylene-18,19-dinor-(20S)-1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, a stereoisomer thereof, a prodrug thereof in oral compositions, a salt thereof, and/or a solute thereof. Compounds that activate retinoic acid receptors, such as retinoyls and retinoyl esters, include 13-cis-retinoic acid, all-trans-retinoic acid, (2E,4E,6Z,8E)-3,7-dimethyl-9-(2,6,6-trimethyl-1-cyclohexeneyl)nona-2,4,6,8-tetraenoic acid, 9-(4-methoxy-2,3,6-trimethyl-phenyl)-3,7-dimethyl-nona-2,4,6,8-tetraenoic acid, 6-[3-(1-adamantyl)-4-methoxyphenyl]-2-napthoic acid, 4-[1-(3,5,5,8,8-pentamethyl-tetralin-2-yl)ethenyl]benzoic acid, retinobenzoic acid, ethyl 6-[2-(4,4-dimethylthiochroman-6-yl)ethynyl]pyridine-3-carboxylate, retinoyl t-butyrate, retinoyl pinacol, retinoyl cholesterol, an isomer thereof, a prodrug thereof for oral compositions, an ester thereof, a salt thereof, and/or, a solute thereof. Combinations of such active ingredients demonstrate synergistic efficacy.
US09339505B2

The present invention provides a combination product comprising a component A and a component B, wherein component A is a compound of formula (I) wherein A1, A2, L, p, R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 are as defined in claim 1 and component B is a further therapeutic agent; wherein the combination product is for use in a method of therapeutic treatment.
US09339500B2

The present invention relates to methods for treating, preventing or controlling vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes comprising administering specific norepinephrine/serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
US09339488B2

Cervical cancer is one of the most common malignancies and is associated with a dismal prognosis. The most common therapeutic option for cervical cancer consists of surgery in early stages, and chemotherapy or radiotherapy in more advanced stages of the disease. Although treatment options have increased for some patients, overall progress has been modest. This invention relates to a method for treating cancer comprising administering an anti-cancer compound. More particularly, the present invention relates to an anti-cervical-cancer compound for treating human cervical cancer and tumor.
US09339481B2

The present invention provides, among other things, compositions and methods suitable for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia based on phosphate-binding magnesium salts. In some embodiments, the present invention provides compositions and methods suitable for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia based on the combination of phosphate-binding magnesium and calcium salts.
US09339480B2

Provided herein are methods of utilizing bile acid transport inhibitors for the treatment of obesity and diabetes.
US09339469B2

The subject invention provides R(+)-N-methyl-propargyl-aminoindan or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof and a composition containing R(+)-N-propargyl-1(R)-aminoindan or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and a compound of R(+)-N-methyl-propargyl-aminoindan or a salt thereof.
US09339460B2

The invention relates to a self-emulsifiable liquid composition intended to be diluted in an aqueous intermediate solution and then incorporated into the drinking water of livestock animals, and also to the use of such a composition. The invention is characterized in that the composition comprises at least—between 1% and 12% by weight of the florfenicol active ingredient, relative to the total volume of the composition; —at least 50% by weight, relative to the total volume of the composition (p/v), of a mixture of C8-C10 saturated polyglycosylated glycerides having an HLB (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance) of less than 16; and—at least 5% by weight, relative to the total volume of the composition (p/v), of a surfactant.
US09339456B2

The present invention provides an inhalation-type pharmaceutical composition for arthritis and preparation method thereof, comprising a first gas and an atomized medicine. The first gas comprises hydrogen. The gas volume concentration of hydrogen in the inhalation-type pharmaceutical composition is between 2 to 96%. The atomized medicine is selected from a group comprising indomethacin, flurbiprofen, celecoxib, and any combination thereof. The inhalation-type pharmaceutical composition of the present invention can remove harmful radicals in the body of the patient through the use of hydrogen while also increases the absorption effect of the medicine for the patient by using an atomized medicine. At the same time, because the use of the small amount of the vaporized pharmaceutical liquid can indirectly reduce the side effects on the user.
US09339447B2

Agent for obtaining a stable aqueous composition comprising a polymer constituted of: at least one A monomer of acrylic acid and/or methacrylic acid and/or any of their salts, at least one B monomer of alkyl acrylate and/or methacrylate, and at least one C monomer corresponding to the following formula (I): T-[(EO)n(PO)n′(BO)n″]-Z   (I)  in which: T represents one end enabling the co-polymerization of the C monomer, [(EO)n(PO)n′(BO)n″] represents a polyalkoxylated chain constituted of alkoxylated units, distributed into blocks, alternatively or statistically, chosen from among EO ethoxylated units, PO propoxylated units and BO butoxylated units, representing, independently from each other, 0 or a whole number between 1 and 150, the sum of n, -n′ and n″ not being null, and Z represents a fatty chain, linear or branched, of at least 16 carbon atoms, at least one crosslinked monomer D.
US09339444B2

A single-piece ceramic dental implant is provided, with a distal enossal threaded region, a gingival intermediate region and a proximal region. A thread is arranged in the threaded region and has a core radius and an outer radius of the thread. A proximally accessible insertion geometry for screwing the threaded region into a bone tissue is arranged in the intermediate region, wherein the insertion geometry is designed as a non-rotationally-symmetrical outer structure. The proximal region includes at least one structure for fastening a single-part or multi-part attachment element. An implant diameter in every section perpendicular to the implant axis, in the intermediate region is equal to or larger than the double of the core radius of the thread. Thus each implant diameter through the insertion geometry is equal to or larger than the double of the core radius of the thread.
US09339440B2

Compositions and methods for making a pharmaceutical dosage form include making a pharmaceutical composition that includes one or more active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable excipients by thermokinetic compounding into a composite. Compositions and methods of preprocessing a composite comprising one or more APIs with one or more excipients include thermokinetic compounding, comprising thermokinetic processing the APIs with the excipients into a composite, wherein the composite can be further processed by conventional methods known in the art, such as hot melt extrusion, melt granulation, compression molding, tablet compression, capsule filling, film-coating, or injection molding.
US09339437B2

A lockable storage container and delivery device is provided that exposes the access port of liquid medicinal vials (such as for insulin) while maintaining identification, security, organization and inventory data access, for easy and documented administration of such medicine. The container has individual compartments for various types of medication, or variants of a similar medication (such as various types of insulin) in one convenient and secure container that provides optimal, efficient, cost-saving and safe delivery of medicine to patients.
US09339436B2

A method of automatically determining which type of treatment is most appropriate for (or the physiological state of) a patient. The method comprises transforming one or more time domain measurements from the patient into frequency domain data representative of the frequency content of the time domain measurements; processing the frequency domain data to form a plurality of spectral bands, the content of a spectral band representing the frequency content of the measurements within a frequency band; forming a weighted sum of the content of the spectral bands, with different weighting coefficients applied to at least some of the spectral bands; determining the type of treatment (or physiological state) based on the weighted sum.
US09339432B2

There is provided a walker apparatus having a pair of spaced-apart, upright frame members. The walker apparatus includes a seat operatively connected to the upright frame members. The walker apparatus has a backrest cantilevered from the frame members. The backrest has at least one opening extending therethrough for permitting a user's vision past the backrest when the user grips the upright frame members.
US09339431B2

A vehicle with at least three stable bearing points on the ground, of which at least one at the front and at least one at the rear of the vehicle, comprises an arm fixed to the front of the vehicle, at a free first end of which arm are mounted a steering unit, and a seat situated at the rear of the vehicle. The arm is movable relative to the seat between a first remote and lockable position, relating to a self-support mode, wherein a first distance is provided between the steering unit and the seat in order to receive a person in seated or semi-seated position on the seat, and a second closer and lockable position, relating to a walking assistance mode, wherein a second distance smaller than the first is provided between the steering unit and the seat. The steering unit forming a support means in this second position.
US09339429B1

A body transfer assembly for moving a user on a bed includes a stand that may be positioned on a support surface. A housing is coupled to the stand. A motor is coupled to the housing. A processor is coupled to the housing. The processor is operationally coupled to the motor. A timer is coupled to the housing. The timer is operationally coupled to the processor so the timer controls a speed of the motor. An actuator is coupled to the housing. The actuator is operationally coupled to the processor. An arm is movably coupled to the housing. The arm is operationally coupled to the motor so the motor alternatively raises and lowers the arm. A rod is coupled to the arm. A bed is coupled to the rod so the bed may support the user. A mattress is positioned on the bed so the user lies on the mattress.
US09339427B2

A container (100) is provided with a container body (101) having a base (103) and a plurality of sidewalls (104,105) extending from the base to define a receiving cavity (200). A first container body part (201) is coupled to the container body to pivot between a closed position and an open position. One or more first aid items (203) are disposed within the receiving cavity. A sensor (207) detects the first container body part in or transitioning to open position. A sounder (208), operable with the sensor, emits one or more audible sounds (209) when the sensor detects the first container body part in or transitioning to the radially displaced open position.
US09339422B2

An absorbent article includes a body side liner, a back sheet, an absorbent body positioned between the body side liner and the back sheet, and a body conforming structure positioned in direct facing relation with the body side liner. The body conforming structure length is at least 50% the absorbent body length and is aligned with a longitudinal centerline of the absorbent article. The median anterior portion width of the body conforming structure is greater than the median central portion width of the body conforming structure which is greater than the median posterior portion width of the body conforming structure. The anterior portion includes a well, the central portion includes a channel, and the posterior portion includes a taper. The well transitions into the channel via a first convex transition and a concave transition. The channel transitions into the taper via a second convex transition.
US09339413B2

A drainage device for discharging a liquid retained in a palpebral fissure to the outside of the palpebral fissure includes a hook portion that is bent into a hook to be hooked on a lid margin or a medical drape and comes into contact with the liquid in the palpebral fissure or overflowing from the palpebral fissure to form a start point of a flow path for the liquid, and a body portion that extends from the hook portion and discharges the liquid guided by the hook portion. The distal end of the hook portion is formed into a spatula shape. The body portion includes an abdominal portion and a tail portion and discharges the liquid after arrival thereof at a surface of the tail portion by making the liquid run along a gap between a lid margin side surface of the abdominal portion and the lid margin or the medical drape.
US09339408B2

A clasp is configured to permanently interlock around a flexible strip of material and includes first and second interlocking members. Each interlocking member includes two hooks and two recesses. Each of the hooks of the first side are arranged to engage and interlock with one of the recesses of the second side and each of the hooks of the second side are arranged to interlock with one of the recesses of the first side, so as to prevent movement between the interlocking members when interlocked.
US09339407B2

Apparatus and methods for conforming a support to a body are described in which a portable support assembly may be worn by a bed-stricken individual around particular regions of the body where pressure ulcers tend to form. The portable support assembly may generally include adjustable supports which conform the assembly to the patient's body and which also help to distribute one or more fluid pad assemblies relative to the body.
US09339401B2

Medical devices that include a Ni—Ti ternary alloy and methods for their manufacture. The medical devices described herein include at least one part fabricated from the Ni—Ti ternary alloy. In the Ni—Ti alloys, the ternary alloying element is selected to be compatible with Ni—Ti. Example Ni—Ti ternary alloys include nickel (Ni), titanium (Ti), and one or more of tantalum (Ta), hafnium (Hf), vanadium (V), zirconium (Zr), scandium (Sc), or yttrium (Y). By virtue of their compatibility with Ni—Ti, additions of the ternary alloying element(s) may substitute for titanium in the Ni—Ti phase up to the solubility of the ternary element and the remainder can exist as a second phase whose mechanical properties resemble that of the pure ternary element and whose elastic modulus exceeds that of the Ni—Ti matrix.
US09339399B2

A device and method for endovascular repair of a patient's aorta is disclosed. The device includes a frame component that has a balloon-expandable frame and a self-expanding frame secured to the balloon-expandable frame. The device also includes a valve element positioned at the proximal end of the frame component. The device may include another prosthetic component that may be secured to the frame component. The prosthetic component may include at least one conduit configured to receive a covered stent.
US09339396B2

System and method for operating a robotic exoskeleton involves using a control system (107) to monitor an output one or more electrical activity sensors (202) disposed on a human operator. The control system determines if an output of the electrical activity sensors corresponds to a predetermined neural or neuromuscular condition of the user. Based on the determining step, the control system automatically chooses an operating mode from among a plurality of different operating modes. The operating mode selected determines the response the control system will have to control inputs from the human operator.
US09339394B2

Superior and/or inferior facets of one or more facet joints may be replaced by superior and/or inferior facet joint prostheses. In one embodiment, a kit of superior or inferior prostheses is provided, in which the prostheses have at least two dimensions that vary among members of the kit independently of each other. Each prosthesis may have a bone engaging surface having a surface that is polyaxially rotatable against a corresponding resection of a vertebra. Each prosthesis may also have an articulating surface shaped such that, after attachment to the spine, the replaced or partially replaced facet joints provide a larger medial-lateral range of motion when the spine is flexed than when the spine is extended. Crosslinks may be used to connect left and right prosthesis together in such a manner that they are stabilized in a position in which they are seated directly against the vertebra.
US09339390B2

Adjustable base piece (1) that can be incorporated into a prosthesis replacing the corpus vertebrae and comprising—a plate (11) positioned in contact with an internal face of the adjacent corpus vertebrae; —a curved panel (12) that can be adjusted in multiple directions by virtue of a ball stem (120) housed in a head (111) of the plate (11) which allows it to adopt the optimal angle with respect to this fixed plate (11), so that the said curved panel (12), thanks to its possibilities of multi-axis adjustment, can press espousing the external shape of the corpus vertebrae adjacent to the prosthesis, —a clamping plug (13) which, once tightened, fixes the panel (12) to the plate (11) in the desired position, thus allowing this adjustable base piece (1) to be simultaneously in contact with an internal surface of the adjacent corpus vertebrae, thus giving this base piece, once attached to the corpus vertebrae, great bearing stability, with good adaptation to suit all shapes of vertebra encountered in real life.
US09339387B2

A porous, self-sustaining body useful as a scaffold for bone grafting is provided. The scaffold comprises a carbonaceous matrix comprising a continuous phase having a surface and defining a plurality of open spaces throughout the matrix. The internal and external surfaces of the matrix are coated with a layer or film selected from the group consisting of osteogenic materials, therapeutic agents, and combinations thereof. The porous body comprises organic materials and is substantially free of metals. Methods of making and using the porous self-sustaining body are also provided, along with kits for facilitating the same.
US09339373B2

A polymeric material with a molecular response time that makes it suitable for use near fragile body tissues. The polymeric material is useful for both low modulus and high modulus applications thereby simplifying the multi-part polymeric article manufacturing process and creating better integrated multi-part polymeric articles. Cross-linked polymers with different moduli may be obtained utilizing the same or similar starting materials but modifying the amount of catalyst, the amount of cross-linking agent, and/or the amount of methyl vinyl cyclics.
US09339370B2

An apparatus for anchoring elongate strands within a longitudinal tunnel is disclosed. At least two cams are arranged longitudinally adjacent each other along a longitudinal axis. A first anchor member includes a first cam-contacting surface and a first strand-contacting surface. The first cam-contacting surface is selectively operatively connected to a first cam. A second anchor member includes a second cam-contacting surface and a second strand-contacting surface. The second cam-contacting surface is selectively operatively connected to a second cam. An elongate strand is positioned between the tunnel wall and the first or second strand-contacting surfaces. Rotation of a selected cam causes the selected cam to selectively apply a force to a corresponding first or second cam-contacting surface to urge the corresponding first or second strand-contacting surface away from the longitudinal axis to produce frictional engagement of the elongate strand with both a tunnel wall and the first or second strand-contacting surface.
US09339369B2

The present invention provides for an implantable medical device comprising a hybrid composite material including a first biological component such as an acellular tissue matrix and a second non-biological component for strengthening the device after implantation.
US09339360B2

The invention relates to a straw for cryopreservation that improves the chance of conception of semen after cryopreservation. The straw is produced by introducing a partitioning layer into a straw for artificial insemination to separate layers, thereby forming a semen storage layer containing an aqueous solution containing semen and an anti-freeze agent on one side and a dilution layer containing no anti-freeze agent on the other side, wherein a dilution solution containing an aqueous solution containing tris(hydroxymethyl aminomethane), citric acid, glucose and sodium chloride is used in the dilution layer.
US09339358B2

A medical membrane, in particular a dental membrane for regeneration and/or inducing of tissue, in particular of periodontal tissue and for use in direct contact with bone tissue or connective tissue along with a tooth implant.
US09339356B2

A powered dental and interdental cleaning tool includes a body, an interdental cleaning member, and a drive member. The drive member extends from the body at an angle to a longitudinal axis of the body. The drive member is connected to the interdental cleaning member. A neck extends from the body and defines a drive member shaft for containing and supporting the drive member.
US09339355B2

A device for deflecting mechanical oscillations, at an oscillation receiver location may be set into oscillation along a first axis, and transmits such an oscillation into an oscillation along a second axis at an oscillation output location, wherein the first and the second axis form an angle to one another. The device includes an elongate, bent oscillation element, on whose one end a coupling-in point and at whose other end a coupling-out point is arranged, wherein the device is designed such that the oscillation element oscillates transversally at the coupling-in point and at the coupling-out point, when the oscillation receiver location is subjected to an oscillation.
US09339335B2

Ultra-short pulsed laser radiation is applied to a patient's eye to create a row of bubbles oriented perpendicular to the axis of vision. The row of bubbles leads to a region of the eye to be ablated. In a second step, a femtosecond laser beam guided through the row of bubbles converts it to a channel perpendicular to the axis of vision. In a third step, a femtosecond laser beam is guided through the channel to ablate a portion of the eye. Using a femtosecond laser with intensity in the range of 1011-1015 W/cm2 for the second and third steps facilitates multi-photon ablation that is practically devoid of eye tissue heating. Creating bubbles in the first step increases the speed of channel creation and channel diameter uniformity, thereby increasing the precision of the subsequent multi-photon ablation.
US09339331B2

Catheter systems and methods are disclosed. An exemplary catheter includes an outer tubing housing and an inner fluid delivery tubing, the inner fluid delivery tubing having at least one fluid delivery port. The catheter also includes a deployment member movable axially within the inner fluid delivery tubing. A plurality of splines are each connected at a proximal end to the outer tubing and at a distal end to deployment member. A seal is provided between the outer tubing and the inner fluid delivery tubing. A gasket is provided between the deployment member and the inner fluid delivery tubing. Both the seal and the gasket are configured to prevent blood or other fluid from ingressing into the outer tubing.
US09339330B2

A wall of a uterus is ablated by expanding a structure in the uterus and applying energy across the wall of the structure into the uterine wall. An exterior surface of the structure conforms to an inner wall of the uterus, and the energy may cause vapor to collect between the wall and the structure. The vapor is released by providing a barrier to release which is inflated at a pressure above which the barrier at least partially collapses to allow the vapor to leave the uterus.
US09339328B2

An energy delivery device for treating a patient includes a probe body and a plurality of elongate electrode elements that extend radially away from the probe body when deployed into tissue of the patient. The electrode elements are adapted to receive electrical treatment energy such as irreversible electroporation (IRE) pulses from an energy source. In one embodiment, each electrode element has a longitudinally varying electrical resistance at the electrode-tissue interface along the electrode so as to provide a uniform electric field along the length of the electrode. The uniform electric field allows a more uniform ablation of tissue within a treatment zone.
US09339322B2

Cryotreatment devices and methods of ablating tissue within the body are disclosed. A cryotreatment device in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes an elongated member having one or more needle-like ablation tips configured to induce necrosis at a target site within the heart. A cooling fluid such as a cryogen may be injected through a lumen extending into the distal portion of the device. The ablation tips can be configured to pierce and ablate surrounding tissue, blocking electrical stimuli that can cause fibrillations or other arrhythmias of the heart. The device may also include means for controlling the transmural depth at which the ablation tips are inserted into the cardiac tissue. Methods of forming a contiguous line of conduction block in accordance with the present invention are also disclosed.
US09339302B2

A polyaxial bone anchoring device is provided, comprising a bone anchoring element having a shank, a head, a receiving part for pivotably receiving the head, and a channel for receiving a rod; a pressure member configured to be arranged in the receiving part and to exert pressure onto and lock the head; a locking assembly insertable into the channel, the locking assembly comprising a first locking member having a bore; a second locking member to be provided in the bore, wherein, when the second locking member is rotated, in a first configuration, the first locking member and the second locking member are rotationally fixed relative to each other and the first locking element is advanced to contact the pressure member and in a second configuration, the second locking member is rotatable within the first locking member and the second locking member is advanced to contact the rod.
US09339299B2

A vertebral column correction system for correcting a spinal deformity without fusing the joint segments is disclosed. The vertebral column correction system may have first and second vertebral anchors secured to first and second vertebrae. The vertebral column correction system may further comprise one or more intermediate vertebral anchors secured to vertebrae between the first and second vertebrae. A connection member may be disposed within a head portion of the vertebral anchors. At least a portion of the connection member may be a flexible member, such as a flexible cord, configured for tensioning between at least two vertebral anchors for providing a desired amount of tension to apply a correctional force to the spinal column. A spring member, or other tensioning member, may maintain the tension of the connection member.
US09339296B2

An external fixation system for adjusting a load occurring at a joint connecting a first bone to a second bone. The external fixation system includes a first bone clamp to connect to the first bone, a second bone clamp to connect to the second bone, and a pivot assembly to operatively connect the first bone clamp and to the second bone clamp. The pivot assembly includes a first pivot body pivotably coupled to a second pivot body at a pivot axis, wherein one of the first pivot body and the second pivot body includes an adjustment mechanism configured to adjust the position of one of the first pivot body and the second pivot body with respect to the other of the first pivot body and the second pivot body at other than the pivot axis.
US09339291B2

A cutting or scoring balloon (10) of elongate shape and provided at its periphery with a plurality of scoring elements (12) extending longitudinally along the balloon. The scoring elements (12) are formed integrally with the balloon wall (14) and in the preferred embodiment are of the same material. A raw material form (20) for producing the balloon (10) is provided with a series of zones (26, 28) of greater thickness compared to the remainder of the balloon wall (24). These zones (26, 28) are located adjacent respective ribs (22) and extend longitudinally along the balloon wall for substantially the same distance as the ribs (22). The zones (26, 28) ensure that these will expand (stretch) preferentially compared to the remainder of the raw material form (20) and in particular the ribs (22), with the effect that the ribs (22) will not tend to be stretched.
US09339284B2

An apparatus includes a generator including a control module that is operably coupled to a power module. The power module is configured to produce an electronic signal to be received by an ultrasonic energy delivery assembly. The ultrasonic energy delivery assembly is characterized by a natural frequency, and the electronic signal is characterized by a frequency. The control module is configured to send a control signal to the power module to randomly vary the frequency of the electronic signal within a range defined at least in part by the natural frequency.
US09339272B2

A surgical device (1) for temporary protection of an anastomosis (5) in the colon (12, 13, 14), the rectum (11), or the anal passage (10), including: a) a semi-rigid hollow longitudinal temporary anchor element (2), a first wall of which includes a substantially cylindrical main portion (2a) with a substantially circular section having a length (L1) of at least 50 mm, preferably in the range 70 mm to 150 mm, said first wall having an outside diameter that may be varied in a controlled manner; and b) a flexible sheath (3) fixed to said anchor element (2) against, preferably around, said first wall and having a length (L3) downstream of said anchor element (2) of at least 50 cm, preferably at least 1 m, and an outside diameter when at rest in the range 20 mm to 40 mm, preferably in the range 25 mm to 33 mm, and said sheath is made from a biocompatible elastomer material having a wall thickness in the range 0.05 mm to 1 mm.
US09339269B2

An explantation device for explanting implanted leads, having a distal end pointing in the direction of the explantation site and a proximal end pointing in the direction of the surgeon. The explantation tool comprising a locking sheath comprising a hose-like or tubular body having a lumen along a longitudinal axis and at least one clamping device at or in the vicinity of the distal end; and a cutting sheath for removing adhering tissue, having a proximal and a distal end and comprising a hose-like or tubular body having a lumen along a longitudinal axis and a detaching unit at or in the vicinity of the distal end; wherein the cutting sheath comprises at least one receptacle for the clamping device of the locking sheath.
US09339267B2

Sutures can be placed in difficult to access areas of the human body with devices, and related methods, utilizing a suture carrier with a sharpened tip and a notch for holding a formed suture tip. The devices and methods can be used in conjunction with both endosurgical and traditional open surgery
US09339265B2

Medical devices, systems and related methods for delivering a tissue anchor. The medical devices generally comprise a needle and a sheath that assist in retaining the tissue anchor at the distal end of the need during manipulation of the medical device. The medical systems include one or more tissue anchors in conjunction with one of the medical devices.
US09339264B2

A medical system generally comprises a camera head, a beam, and a guide sheath. The camera head is connected to the beam which is bendable in a first direction and resists bending in a second direction opposite the first direction. The guide sheath slidably receives the beam, the beam extending through a distal end of the guide sheath such that the camera head projects from the distal end of the guide sheath. The guide sheath includes first and second sheath portions, and in an operative configuration the first sheath portion is angled relative to the second sheath portion to define a first bend. The beam is oriented relative to the guide sheath such that, as the beam is slid relative to guide sheath, the beam bends in the first direction through the first bend, and a projecting portion of the beam resists bending in the second direction.
US09339258B2

There is provided an ultrasonic diagnosis apparatus capable of reducing an unnecessary signal component in a reception signal. A plurality of sign bits arranged in the channel direction are extracted from a plurality of element reception signals. A binarization circuit applies binarization processing to the plurality of sign bits to thereby generate a sign data array. An evaluation value computing unit computes an evaluation value (GSCF) based on a DC vicinity component contained in the sign data array on the frequency axis. This evaluation value is used to adjust the gain of the reception signal in a multiplier. With application of the binarization processing, excessive reduction of the reception signal can be prevented. Further, as the DC vicinity component is referenced, the side-lobe component can be appropriately reduced even if a certain degree of fluctuation exists in the main-lobe component.
US09339252B2

According to an X-ray imaging device for performing CT imaging, a main body control section controls at least one of an X-ray revolution plane formed by an X-ray cone beam along with the revolution of a revolving arm and a revolution range of the revolving arm in accordance with a CT imaging area accepted by an imaging area setting screen. Such control is performed in order to decrease X-ray radiation to a high sensitivity site in the area that revolves during the CT imaging, the high sensitivity site being positionally set in a biological body as a site that is sensitive to X-rays.
US09339249B2

The medical image processing apparatus according to the embodiment comprises a photographing unit that scans the flexible sites of the living body including the plurality of components and obtains the projected data, a reconstruction processing unit that carries out reconstruction processing on the projected data and generated first image data of the plurality of timing points of the flexible sites, and an analyzing unit that compares the first image data of the plurality of timing points and the second image data showing the flexible sites, thereby specifying the data with the timing point shown in the second image data from among the first image data of the plurality of timing points.
US09339239B2

MRI techniques are widely and successfully applied in medicine and biophysics because MRI provides good contrast between different soft tissues without ionizing radiation. MRI protocols are optimized in four aspects: imaging parameters, k-space strategies, RF system calibration and contrast inhomogeneity correction. The signal intensities of normal and disease tissues are simulated, for example, using Bloch equations for an imaging sequence with tissue MR parameters. The relationships between imaging parameters and tissue contrasts are calculated using the numerically simulated signal intensities. The optimal imaging parameters and/or k-space strategies are determined to maximize image contrast and minimize artifacts with acceptable spatial-temporal resolution based on characterization of the imaging hardware. The RF system is optionally calibrated to improve the accuracy of the imaging parameters and reduce inter-scanner variability. Additionally, contrast-to-noise inhomogeneity caused by transmit field and receive sensitivity is optionally corrected by optimal flip angle and measured receiver sensitivity.
US09339237B2

Various embodiments of methods and systems for continuous transdermal monitoring (“CTM”) are disclosed. One exemplary method for CTM begins by monitoring an output signal from an accelerometer. The accelerometer output signal may indicate acceleration and deceleration of a body part of a user, such as the user's wrist. Based on the accelerometer output signal, it may be determined that the body part of the user has decelerated to a minimum, e.g., substantially zero. With a determination that the body part has decelerated to the minimum, e.g., substantially zero, or has not accelerated beyond the minimum, e.g., substantially zero, the method may determine a reading from a pulse oximeter associated with the accelerometer. Advantageously, the pulse oximetry reading, or a reading from other sensors associated with the accelerometer, may be optimally accurate as motion artifact may be minimized. The pulse oximetry reading may be recorded for later query and/or rendered for the benefit of the user.
US09339229B2

On-body units are provided and include a transcutaneous analyte sensor, electronic circuitry electrically coupled to the sensor, and an on-body housing having electrical contacts disposed thereon. The on-body housing comprises a substantially flat surface and a curved and convex surface opposite the substantially flat surface. Systems and methods including the on-body units are also provided. Methods for performing continuity measurements using on-body units are also provided. The methods include positioning an on-body unit (OBU) on a skin of a subject, contacting a continuity test instrument to the OBU; and performing a continuity measurement with the continuity test instrument. An AC signal may be provided across two electrical contacts, or a DC signal may be provided across two electrical contacts in opposite directions for the same amount of time. The measurement may be performed with one electrical contact, or with isolated electrical contacts.
US09339227B2

A method for analysis of the extent of conscious awareness and likelihood of recovery of a patient includes the steps of applying to the patient a sensory stimulus sequence which is typically auditory; carrying out an EEG to generate waveform signals to record changes in the electromagnetic fields generated by the patient's neural activity; using software provided in a processor to process the waveform signals in order to locate waveform peaks, identify the event-related potential (ERP) components obtained in the waveform and to obtain quantitative measures of those components; and using the software to generate and communicate scores indicative of the extent of conscious awareness and likelihood of recovery of the patient.
US09339225B2

Various method embodiments for performing a sweat test include triggering sweating in a test area of a test subject, drying the test area, and applying a test device on the test area. The test device is used to monitor sweat production of individual SGs within the test area to provide test results for each functional SG in the test area. The test results for each functional SG in the test area are recorded.
US09339217B2

The present disclosure provides methods of processing data provided by a transcutaneous or subcutaneous analyte sensor utilizing different algorithms to strike a balance between signal responsiveness accompanied by signal noise and the introduction of error associated with that noise. The methods utilize the strengths of a lag correction algorithm and a smoothing algorithm to optimize the quality and value of the resulting data (glucose concentrations and the rates of change in glucose concentrations) to a continuous glucose monitoring system. Also provided are systems and kits.
US09339200B2

Embodiments include a system for determining cardiovascular information for a patient which may include at least one computer system configured to receive patient-specific data regarding a geometry of an anatomical structure of a patient; create a model representing at least a portion of the anatomical structure; create a physics-based model relating to a blood flow characteristic within the anatomical structure; determine a first blood flow rate at at least one point of interest in the model; modify the model; determine a second blood flow rate at a point in the modified model corresponding to the at least one point of interest in the model; and determine a fractional flow reserve value as a ratio of the second blood flow rate to the first blood flow rate.
US09339195B2

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for detecting seizure symptoms in an individual 102. A sensor module 202 receives physiological data for an individual 102 from one or more sensors 110, 112, such as a heart activity sensor. A feature detection module 204 detects a predefined feature 500, 520, 530, 540 in the physiological data. The predefined feature 500, 520, 530, 540 is associated with a seizure or another medical condition. An alert module 206 broadcasts an alert in response to the feature detection module 204 detecting the predefined feature 500, 520, 530, 540.
US09339194B2

In medical imaging, a fiducial marker facilitates tissue image correlation that allows for image analysis, normalization and correction of the optical exposure and spectral and spatial distribution in order to compensate for the surface reflections, sub surface tissue interactions and spatial orientation of the excitation and imaging axes to the subject tissue. Using a cross comparison, clinicians can model tissue image data in different forms in order to reference and compare data from various spectral components and or from different images. This may enhance human interpretation between images including the variations between images even when the spectral, spatial and optical conditions or the image resolution or sensitivity are compromised. Such may be used to assess cosmetic, moisturizing, therapeutic materials and treatments.
US09339188B2

A method is provided for obtaining monitored information about an individual to create life activity data. Individual information is detected or measured. The individual information is selected from of at least one of, an individual's activities, behaviors and habit information, and an individual's health. A monitoring device is used to detect or measure the individual information. The monitoring device includes ID circuitry with an ID storage that contains a unique individual ID, a communication system which reads and transmits the unique individual ID from the ID storage, a power source and a pathway system. The individual information is received from the monitoring device at a telemetry system that includes a database. The individual information is analyzed using life activity data with one or more analysis tools at the telemetry system. Life activity data is created for the individual.
US09339187B2

An IOP monitoring device for implantation in an eye of a patient may include a first tube having a first opening, the first tube being configured to extend into an anterior chamber of the eye and extend to a first sensor outside the anterior chamber. The first sensor may be in fluid communication with the first opening of the first tube. The device also may include a second tube having an opening spaced from a second sensor. The opening of the second tube may be configured to be exposed to a pressure representative of atmospheric pressure, with the second sensor being in fluid communication with the second opening. In one aspect, a patch is attachable to a globe of the eye and configured to lie over the opening of the second tube and secure the opening in place in the eye.
US09339185B2

In order to reduce a measurement range of an aberration of an eye to be inspected, provided is an imaging apparatus, including: a first image acquiring unit for acquiring a first image of the eye based on first return light from the eye irradiated with first measuring light via a first focus unit for focusing the first measuring light on the eye; a second image acquiring, by using an aberration correction unit, unit for acquiring a second image of an area corresponding to a part of the first image of the eye based on second return light from the object to be inspected irradiated with second measuring light via a second focus unit for focusing the second measuring light on the eye; and a focus adjustment unit for adjusting a focus condition of the second focus unit based on a focus condition of the first focus unit.
US09339183B2

A fundus image photographing apparatus with adaptive optics generally corrects an aberration by feedback control using a wave front sensor and a wave front correction device. The reduction in the time required to correct the aberration to a high-resolution photographing level is demanded. Aberration correction information of last photographing is stored for each subject, and a stored correction value is used to correct the aberration to reduce the time before the completion of the aberration correction. If there is no stored information, a correction value for a preset reference aberration amount is used.
US09339168B2

An endoscope operation portion structure includes: a frame member inserted from an opening portion on an operation portion main body and arranged; a first fixing portion formed such that a length between a first apex protruded from one side of the frame member and a point on another side opposed to the first apex is longer than a long side of the opening portion; and a second fixing portion formed such that a length between a second apex protruded from the other side of the frame member and a point on the one side opposed to the second apex is longer than the long side of the opening portion, wherein the length between the first apex and the point on the other side and the length between the second apex and the point on the one side portion are shorter than a diagonal direction of the opening portion.
US09339166B2

A method for operating a dishwasher appliance is provided. The method includes operating a first pump and a second pump of the dishwasher appliance during a wash cycle of the dishwasher appliance, working the second pump of the dishwasher appliance during a soil collection cycle of the dishwasher appliance, and running the first pump of the dishwasher appliance during a drain cycle of the dishwasher appliance. The first pump of the dishwasher appliance is deactivated during the step of working, and the second pump of the dishwasher appliance is deactivated during the step of running. A related dishwasher appliance is also provided.
US09339160B2

The present invention relates to a silencer system for a vacuum motor in a suction cleaner, which may be constructed using only one or two parts to form a housing for the vacuum motor including the silencer system. The system may have a main fan silencer system for the main fan and a second motor cooling silencer system for the motor cooling fan. The main fan is encapsulated in a housing surrounded by a substantially circular first wall part in such a way that a first cavity is formed between the housing and the first wall part. The system further includes two ducts, each duct connected at one end with a serpentine shaped exhaust air duct and at the other end with a second cavity connected with the first cavity by an opening in the first wall part.
US09339159B2

A vacuum cleaner is described, the vacuum cleaner having a vacuum head with a housing, a suction port, a motor, and a brush. The brush is connected to a drive pulley, the motor has a motor pinion, and a belt extends from the motor pinion to the drive pulley the belt having teeth with a rounded profile.
US09339148B2

A supply assembly for a food homogenizer includes a cartridge defining a hollow interior for a food product. The supply assembly includes a force application device that applies a force to the food product. As such, the food product is movable with respect to the cartridge towards a blade assembly of the food homogenizer. A plunger movably supported within the hollow interior of the cartridge can be provided. As such, the plunger and the food product are movable with respect to the cartridge towards the blade assembly of the food homogenizer.
US09339141B2

A coffee beverage system is described including a coffee bean packaging cartridge and a coffee brewing apparatus. The packaging cartridge includes a container holding coffee beans and transportation component for transporting the coffee beans towards an exit opening of the cartridge. The coffee apparatus comprises a grinder for grinding the coffee beans from the cartridge and a brewing device for brewing coffee on the basis of ground coffee obtained by means of the grinder. The system is further provided with a metering chamber for receiving coffee beans which are transported with the aid of the transportation component into the metering chamber. In use, the metering chamber will hold a predetermined amount of coffee beans. The metering chamber comprises a bottom portion which forms a part of the grinder, said bottom portion being arranged in the coffee apparatus for rotating around an axis extending in a vertical direction.
US09339136B2

A dimensionally stable floor covering comprises a tufted textile substrate and a reinforcement layer attached to the textile substrate. The reinforcement layer includes an adhesive backing compound and reinforcement fibers surrounded by the adhesive backing. The fibers may form a continuous layer on the back side of the floor covering or may be dispersed within the adhesive backing compound. The adhesive backing compound may be hot water-soluble to facilitate recycling of the floor covering. The floor covering may optionally include additional backing layers (including cushions) and may be used as a broadloom carpet, a carpet tile, or other modular floor covering products. Methods of manufacturing, installing, and recycling the present floor coverings are also provided.
US09339134B1

An insulated beverage holder comprises a cylindrical body to receive a beverage container and a lid hingedly connected to the body. The body comprises a bottom, cylindrical side wall, and open top. The lid comprises two sections. A first section of the lid is hingedly connected to the body. The second section of the lid is hingedly connected to the first section. The lid is movable between a closed position, partially open position, and fully open position.
US09339128B2

A display fixture includes a base, a platform, a lattice structure, a raised shelf and a plurality of bins. The base includes an open top, a bottom floor and walls that define an interior space that is divided into sections using a plurality of partitions. The platform is located on top of the base. The raised shelf is located over the lattice structure and on top of a portion of the platform. The plurality of bins are located on the platform and on the raised shelf and are configured to display merchandise. The lattice structure and the raised shelf provide structural support for bearing a weight of merchandise located on the raised shelf. The base and the partitions dividing the base provide structural support for bearing a weight of merchandise located on the raised shelf and the platform.
US09339102B2

The tactical dress belt assembly allows a wearer to readily and comfortably carry a variety of tactical items, while maintaining a conventional dress appearance. The tactical dress belt assembly is a two or three component system, including an inner belt, and either a combined outer utility belt with an integral front dress belt section or separate dress belt over an outer utility belt. The inner belt is worn to hold up the wearer's trouser and typically is run through the belt loops of the wearer's trousers. The outer belt fits over the inner belt and provides a comfortable load bearing platform for a variety of carried items. The integrated front dress belt section or separate dress belt covers the front of the inner belt so that only the outer dress belt is visible when a coat or jacket is worn.
US09339101B2

A fixation module is disclosed, which is disposed in a groove at a corner of an electronic device casing. The fixation module includes a buckle and a fixation element with both ends serving as a first elastic fixation portion and a second elastic fixation portion respectively. A junction is disposed between the first elastic fixation portion and the second elastic fixation portion and connected to the buckle. The first elastic fixation portion and the second elastic fixation portion are clamped at a position corresponding to the junction, so as to keep a relative distance between the first elastic fixation portion and the second elastic fixation portion smaller than an interval between two opposite ends of the groove. By utilizing an elastic restoring force between the first elastic fixation portion and the second elastic fixation portion, the fixation element can be engaged onto a sidewall of the groove.
US09339100B2

A lanyard attachment assembly has a sleeve with an inside surface and an outside surface. The inside surface defines a passageway through the sleeve. A strap passes through the passageway and forms a closed loop to link the closed loop to the sleeve. The assembly optionally includes a connector with a connector opening therethrough. When the assembly includes a connector, the strap passes through the connector opening where the closed loop links the connector to the sleeve.
US09339096B2

An applicator system for dispensing a product and/or operating on a cuticle of a user includes a housing having a reservoir for storing a product, such as a cosmetic product or a medicinal product and a cuticle care tip. The cuticle care tip comprises one of a variety of surfaces configured to operate on a user and/or apply the product. The applicator system also includes a product delivery mechanism for dispensing the product.
US09339091B2

A jewelry article having an elongated strand with a first section and a second section, a small-hole bead assembly, and a small-hole bead. The small-hole bead assembly includes a first mount, a second mount and a connecting bar. The small-hole bead assembly being positioned on the elongated strand between the first section and the second section with the small-hole bead being positioned on the connecting bar between the first mount and the second mount of the small-hole bead assembly.
US09339090B1

A magnetic badge attachment device removably attaches badges to clothing. The device includes a cover having a back face, a front face, and an open end. The front face of the cover is transparent. A cover magnet is coupled to the back face of the cover. A backing magnet is engageable to the cover magnet wherein the backing magnet is configured for securing a garment between the cover magnet and the backing magnet such that the front face of the cover is attached to and visible on the garment.
US09339077B2

A shoe, or shoe sole, with integral storage chamber is claimed. The invention may comprise a carriage that is in sliding engagement with the sole of a shoe, wherein the carriage further comprises a storage chamber for storing personal objects. The sliding engagement of the invention may comprise tongue and groove complementary surfaces. The carriage containing the storage chamber may translate in a direction along a longitudinal axis of the shoe and may be further retained onto the shoe by use of a retaining pin located on the shoe sole that is engaged in a press fit with retaining pin receiving recess on the carriage such that the carriage is securely retained in a closed position. A user may safely store objects in the storage chamber without detection and may access the objects quickly if needed. The invention may further comprise a mirror and closable heel storage chamber.
US09339076B2

An article of footwear includes a sole structure and an upper that is connected to the sole structure. The upper includes a flat knitted component formed of unitary knit construction. The flat knitted component includes a trim region that defines a trimmed outer edge of the flat knitted component. The trimmed outer edge is disposed proximate to the sole structure. The trimmed outer edge defines a first dimension of the flat knitted component that corresponds to a first foot size. The trim region further defines a trim line that is spaced from the trimmed outer edge in an inboard direction on the flat knitted component. The trim line defines a second dimension of the flat knitted component that corresponds to a second foot size.
US09339075B2

A cap hearing protection system that includes a cap; a band secured within an interior of the cap; first and second rotating arms positioned on either side of the cap and pivotally connected to the band; and a respective hearing protection means mounted to each of the rotating arms.
US09339061B2

A smoking and drinking apparatus includes a body member defining an air chamber. A drink reservoir is situated in the air chamber defining a liquid impermeable drink chamber. The drink reservoir is inwardly displaced from the body member to form an air chamber therebetween. A bezel is mounted to the upper edge of the body member that defines a bore in communication with the inner reservoir. The bezel includes an inhalation port through which air is selectively inhaled from the air chamber and an exhalation port through which air is selectively exhaled by a user into the air chamber. The inhalation port is configured to receive a cigarette into the air chamber. A lighting element is positioned in the air chamber for lighting the cigarette when energized. A filter and fan assembly are positioned in the air chamber to filter and exhaust air from the air chamber.
US09339043B1

A spreading tool comprises a first arm having a pivot end and an engagement end and a second arm having a pivot end and an engagement end. A connector combines the pivot end of the first arm with the pivot end of the second arm for rotational movement between a closed position and an open position. A handle is combined to the second arm and positioned apart from the connector so that the connector is positioned between the handle and the engagement end of the first arm and the engagement end of the second arm for the entire path of travel between the open and closed positions.
US09339040B2

A bread maker has a base disposed with a power member, a container, an upper rotating shaft and a lower rotating shaft. The power member is in driving connection with the lower rotating shaft. The lower rotating shaft is in driving connection with the upper rotating shaft. The upper rotating shaft is in driving connection with a mixing and kneading blade situated inside the container. A transmitting plate is disposed in the base with an optical signal transmitting lamp and an optical signal receiver. A through hole perpendicular to an axis disposed on the lower shaft and running through the lower rotating shaft is disposed on the lower rotating shaft. The receiver is in signal connection with the power member. The transmitting lamp and the receiver are respectively located at two sides of the lower rotating shaft. The receiver is in signal connection with the power member.
US09339039B1

Disclosed are biocontrol agents for the control of insects (e.g., moths, and mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti), in particular Chromobacterium vaccinii strains capable of killing insects such as mosquitoes and moths. More specifically, disclosed are Chromobacterium vaccinii strains MWU205 (NRRL B-50840), MWU300 (NRRL B-50841) and MWU328 (NRRL B-50842). Also disclosed is a biocontrol strategy whereby insects (e.g. mosquitoes, moths) are exposed to the Chromobacterium vaccinii strains MWU205, MWU300 or MWU328 as a method for killing insects, including insect larvae in more than one taxonomic order.
US09339037B2

The present invention relates to novel active compound combinations having good fungicidal properties comprising a carboxamide of the general formula (I) (group 1) in which A, R1 and R2 are as defined in the disclosure, and the active compound groups (2) to (24) listed in the disclosure.
US09339036B2

The present invention relates to inhibiting or preventing infection and protecting against patency complications after a blood catheter has been inserted in a patient comprising administering to the device a pharmaceutically effective amount of a composition comprising (A) at least one taurinamide derivative, and (B) heparin at a low concentration.
US09339030B2

Ready-to-use foamable pesticide compositions that contain a pesticide dispersed in a composition containing water, a co-solvent, surfactant and propellant. Methods for treating pests such as arthropods by contacting pests with such compositions are also provided.
US09339028B2

The present invention provides a method for inhibiting microorganisms or plant pests using exfoliated clay/surfactant complex. The weight ratio of the exfoliated clay to the surfactant can range from 99/1 to 1/99. Preferably, the exfoliated clay is an inorganic layered clay on a nano scale and the surfactant is cationic, nonionic, anionic or amphoteric.
US09339027B2

Novel methods and systems for electromagnetic freezing are disclosed. An oscillating magnetic field can be applied in conjunction with a static magnetic field in order to align magnetic particles inside biological tissues. Such chains may be naturally present or artificially introduced. Needle-shaped electrodes may be used to produce ions and disturb the air layers insulating the tissues to be frozen.
US09339026B2

A single-use round flexible mixing bag for use in bioprocessing in which a fluid is received and agitated using an internal fluid-agitating element comprising a radial flow impeller driven by an internal pneumatic vane motor is disclosed. The bag may include an integral sparger and sensor receiver. Related methods are also disclosed.
US09339023B2

This control system for an agricultural spraying machine (1), of which the boom (5) is equipped with a plurality of multi-nozzle units (9), is characterized in that it comprises means (15a to 15, 17a to 17e, 23) for piloting each multi-nozzle unit (9) according to data representative of the cartography of the plants to be treated.
US09339018B2

The present invention relates to bacteria which specifically target infarcted tissue and use thereof. The present invention provides a selective infarcted tissue-targeting bacterium for the first time, and can be used in selectively delivering drugs to the infarcted tissue or in selectively imaging the infarcted tissue. The infarcted tissue-targeting bacterium of the present invention can finish treatments by using antibiotics, and therefore, have remarkable advantages as compared to gene therapy using recombinant viruses. The infarcted tissue-targeting bacterium of the present invention have a significantly high affinity and specificity to infarcted myocardium or infarcted brain, thereby significantly reducing undesired transfections in the organs or tissues other than the heart. The gene expression by the infarcted tissue-targeting bacterium of the present invention in infarcted myocardium or infarcted brain is remotely controllable.
US09339012B2

The present invention is a method and apparatus for safely and securely holding and supporting an animal while it is being groomed. The disclosed apparatus can have multiple support members that wrap around an animal, passing under the animal's belly, around the hips and shoulders, and up over the back where it can be secured to a frame or post to keep the animal stable and supported, without restraining the animal by the neck, while undergoing a grooming procedure. The cutouts and support members that make up the leg holes in the apparatus can be lined with a soft material, such as fleece, to provide comfort and prevent chafing to the animal's skin during the procedure.
US09339008B1

A hay bale holder is provided having a shelter that selectively positions a chain link enclosure to hold a large hay bale. Openings in the fencing allow animals to remove portions of hay from a comfortable height without removing too much at once. The apparatus applies a spring tension to the chain link fencing allowing the fence to automatically reduce in diameter as the hay bale is consumed.
US09338998B1

The present invention provides an inbred corn line designated IAX4438, methods for producing a corn plant by crossing plants of the inbred line IAX4438 with plants of another corn plant. The invention further encompasses all parts of inbred corn line IAX4438, including culturable cells. Additionally provided herein are methods for introducing transgenes into inbred corn line IAX4438, and plants produced according to these methods.
US09338973B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01046401. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01046401. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01046401 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01046401 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09338964B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01045693. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01045693. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01045693 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01045693 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09338963B2

The invention relates to the soybean variety designated 01045684. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the soybean variety 01045684. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the soybean variety 01045684 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing soybean plants by crossing the soybean variety 01045684 with itself or another soybean variety and plants produced by such methods.
US09338955B1

A novel maize variety designated X13D101 and seed, plants and plant parts thereof, produced by crossing Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. proprietary inbred maize varieties. Methods for producing a maize plant that comprises crossing hybrid maize variety X13D101 with another maize plant. Methods for producing a maize plant containing in its genetic material one or more traits introgressed into X13D101 through backcross conversion and/or transformation, and to the maize seed, plant and plant part produced thereby. This invention relates to the maize variety X13D101, the seed, the plant produced from the seed, and variants, mutants, and minor modifications of maize variety X13D101. This invention further relates to methods for producing maize varieties derived from maize variety X13D101.
US09345184B2

Magnetic field shielding material with high relative permeability incorporated into a build-up package, for example to restrict a field of a magnet integrated with the build-up to a target device configured to operate in the field. In embodiments, a first device is physically coupled to the build-up. In embodiments, a magnetic field shielding material is disposed in contact with the build-up and in proximity to the first device to restrict a magnetic field either to a region occupied by the first device or to a region exclusive of the first device. A field shielding material may be disposed within build-up near a permanent magnet also within the build-up to reduce exposure of another device, such as an IC, to the magnetic field without reducing MEMS device exposure.
US09345180B2

Edge portions are formed on a shell fixing portion, disposed in upper and lower positions on the shell fixing portion and formed extending horizontally. Crimp pieces are continuously formed on the edge portions, and the crimp pieces are folded back at the edge portions therealong so as to extend towards a distal end of a cylindrical shell portion. The crimp pieces each have a rectangular flat plate-like shape and disposed facing oppositely corresponding external flat surface portions of the cylindrical shell portion with a predetermined space defined therebetween. The crimp pieces are formed as a crimping applied portion and the cylindrical shell portion is formed as a crimping bearing portion.
US09345174B2

The present invention provides a container-type data center having an air conditioning facility, which enables to effectively cool IT equipment by applying the arrangement to an existing container. A system ceiling 50 is attached to a ceiling surface 25 to send out cooling air to a cooling area 2 from a vent 31a of an indoor unit 31 of an air conditioning device disposed in a container 1, and a draft air duct is defined by the system ceiling 50, a down-wall 51 and the ceiling surface 25. A vinyl curtain 60 is provided on an upper portion of a rack 40 so as to prevent cooling air having reached the cooling area 2 from flowing out to a heat exhaust area 3 without passing through the rack 40 loading the IT equipment, and a vinyl curtain 70 in a form of a shop curtain is disposed at an area used as a path for operators entering the cooling area 2. According to this arrangement, all the cooling air sent to the cooling area 2 is discharged through racks 40 lading IT equipments to the heat exhaust area 3, enhancing the effect of cooling the IT equipment loaded in the racks 40.
US09345173B2

A modular computing system for a data center includes one or more data center modules including rack-mounted computer systems. An electrical module is coupled to the data center modules and provides electrical power to computer systems in the data center modules. One or more air handling modules are coupled to the data center modules. The data center module may include two pre-fabricated portions, each portion including a row of racks of computer systems. The two computing module portions of the data center module may combine to form a computing space when coupled to one another.
US09345165B1

A system for providing computing resources includes a mounting bar and one or more computing devices supported on the mounting bar. The computing devices are coupled to the mounting bar such that the computing devices can slide along the mounting bar from one position to another while the computing devices remains in service and installed on the mounting bar.
US09345162B2

A mounting structure in a power supply chassis includes a mounting portion and a securing portion. The mounting portion is located on a first sidewall of the power supply chassis. The mounting portion includes a first protruding plate for supporting a circuit board, a second protruding plate parallel to the first protruding plate, and a positioning portion to receive the circuit board. The positioning portion is located between the first protruding plate and the second protruding plate. The securing portion includes a resilient portion extending into the positioning portion. When the circuit board is installed in the power supply chassis, the circuit board is received in the positioning portion and supported by the first protruding plate, with the resilient portion engaged in a securing hole defined in the circuit board.
US09345160B2

Provided is an electronic device that is provided with a filter circuit that suppresses the effects of electromagnetic noise propagated through space from a circuit board and reduces parasitic inductance, and can output a voltage with adequately reduced noise. To solve the above problem, in an electronic device provided with a cabinet (101), a circuit board (132) provided in the cabinet, an output terminal (122) that passes through a through hole provided in the cabinet and outputs the output of the circuit board to the outside, the present invention constructs a loop composed of a filter means (142) having a filter capacitor (142a), an output terminal, a cabinet, and wires (142b, 142c) for connecting these parts. The wire (142c) connected to the cabinet is connected to a position close to the output terminal, and reduces the size of the loop. In addition, a shield (102) is provided between the filter means and the circuit board.
US09345156B2

A power supply device includes a main body, a cover member, a rechargeable battery, and an inverter device. The main body is configured of box-shape formed with an opening. The cover member is configured to open and close the opening. The rechargeable battery is accommodated in the main body. The inverter device is configured to be accommodated in the main body. The inverter device converts a direct voltage from the battery to an alternating voltage and outputs the alternating voltage.
US09345148B2

A semiconductor device has a semiconductor die having a plurality of bumps formed over a surface of the semiconductor die. The bumps can include a fusible portion and non-fusible portion. Conductive traces are formed over the substrate with interconnect sites having an exposed sidewall and sized according to a design rule defined by SRO+2*SRR−2X, where SRO is an opening over the interconnect site, SRR is a registration for the manufacturing process, and X is a function of a thickness of the exposed sidewall of the contact pad. The bumps are misaligned with the interconnect sites by a maximum distance of X which ranges from 5 to 20 microns. The bumps are bonded to the interconnect sites so that the bumps cover a top surface and side surface of the interconnect sites. An encapsulant is deposited around the bumps between the semiconductor die and substrate.
US09345146B2

A secondary battery and to a circuit board for the secondary battery. The circuit board having a structure for enhancing the safety of a secondary battery, and a secondary battery with the same. The circuit board for a secondary battery includes an insulation layer, a terminal pad layer formed on the insulation layer, and a plating layer formed on the terminal pad layer. The thickness of the plating layer is greater than 20 micrometers. The plating layer is made of nickel. The secondary battery further includes a circuit protection device, and a bare cell electrically connected to the circuit protection device, wherein circuit protection device including a first lead plate electrically connected to the plating layer of the circuit board, the plating layer of the circuit board being made of the same material as that of the first lead plate of the circuit protection device.
US09345145B2

An electroless gold plating solution with which one or more openings formed in a resist overlying a substrate can be filled in a short time, the openings having a width on the order of micrometer, in particular, 100 μm or smaller, in terms of the width of the exposed substrate area, and having a height of 3 μm or larger. The electroless gold plating solution contains a deposition accelerator for deposition in fine areas, and a microfine pattern of 100 μm or finer is formed therefrom.
US09345141B2

The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor and a printed circuit board including the same that can minimize thickness deviations of an external electrode and a multilayer ceramic. A multilayer ceramic capacitor according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a multilayer ceramic and external electrodes formed on both sides of the multilayer ceramic, wherein |Tmax−Tmin| may be less than 10 μm, and |CTmax−CTmin| may be less than 20 μm. (Here, Tmax is a maximum thickness of the external electrodes in a via processing area, Tmin is a minimum thickness of the external electrodes in the via processing area, CTmax is a maximum thickness of the multilayer ceramic capacitor in the via processing area, and CTmin is a minimum thickness of the multilayer ceramic capacitor in the via processing area.)
US09345138B2

A method of manufacturing a laminated substrate, the method includes: forming a first diameter hole to a first surface of a first substrate so as not to penetrate the first substrate; forming a second diameter hole to a second surface of the first substrate so as to communicate with the first diameter hole; plating the first substrate to block the second diameter hole without blocking the first diameter hole; and laminating a second substrate on the second surface of the first substrate.
US09345133B2

A printed circuit board on which a component having a plurality of terminals is to be mounted by using a reflow soldering process, includes wiring patterns that are arranged in correspondence with the plurality of terminals and have a size which is smaller in wiring patterns for terminals near the central portion of the component than in wiring patterns for terminals near each end portion of the component.
US09345132B2

The present invention discloses a package substrate layout design to achieve multiple substrate functions for engineering development and verification. The substrate layout contains a connection structure to connect to a plurality of power/ground domains on the package substrate. With different combination of the cutting lines on the package substrate, the invention can achieve multiple substrate functions without impacting the customer's PCB or system board design and provide cost effective and fast cycle time for engineering development phase.
US09345100B2

A no-load detection circuit includes an inductance device, an impedance device and a switch circuit. The inductance device is interposed between a choke coil and a first output terminal, which is at a high potential side, so as to be magnetically coupled to the choke coil. The impedance device is connected in series with the inductance device between the inductance device and the first output terminal. The switch circuit is configured to be turned on when a value of electric potential at the first output terminal exceeds a predetermined reference value. The control circuit is configured to stop the switching control if the switch circuit is turned on.
US09345097B1

A method and illumination device are provided for interference-resistant compensation in light emitting diode (LED) illumination devices. In one embodiment, the method includes bringing to a level insufficient to produce illumination the respective drive current of all except one of multiple emission LED elements for the duration of a first measurement interval and a later-occurring second measurement interval. The first and second measurement intervals are within respective first and second series of measurement intervals interspersed with periods of illumination, and the first and second series of measurement intervals are separated by respective first and second offsets from a timing reference. An embodiment of an illumination device includes multiple emission LED elements, one or more photodetectors, and a lamp control circuit, where the lamp control circuit is adapted to perform steps of the method.
US09345096B2

In comparison with thermal light sources, LED lighting has the advantage that it is very small and at the same time commercially available in different colors, so that colored lighting can be produced inexpensively and at the same time in a manner that saves installation space. It is an object of the present invention to equip an LED lighting apparatus with a color mixing functionality that is distinguished by high efficiency and at the same time a small number of components.
US09345093B2

A controller for controlling the illumination state of a light source of solid state lighting devices such as LED or OLED assemblies, is presented. The controller controls the light source according to a plurality of illumination states subject to determine an event of a plurality of events. The controller controls a power converter that converts power derived from an input voltage waveform of line voltage power supply into a drive signal for the light source. The controller determines an event of a plurality of events encoded within the input voltage waveform of the line voltage power supply. A first state processor determines a next illumination state of the plurality of illumination states, based on the determined event and based on the current illumination state. Line voltage Switch event detection is performed while no power is available at the line voltage terminals.
US09345092B2

In a single lighting device including a large number of light-emitting elements (LEEs), the LEEs are divided into separately powered groups, and different combinations of the groups are fully energized to achieve the desired overall brightness. In some embodiments, the number of LEEs in each group has a binary relationship to the other groups. The resolution of the dimming is the brightness of the smallest group. In one example of five binary weighted groups of LEEs, 32 brightness levels can be achieved while the LEEs in the energized groups are fully ON. Thus, since there is no high frequency switching, there is substantially no power dissipation by the dimming control system, and there is limited noise or EMI created. The dimming control can be easily implemented with a logic circuit controlling a transistor switch for each group.
US09345090B2

The present invention relates to a lighting system (10) arranged to control a light intensity and a color temperature of light in a room (1). The lighting system comprising: a light source (12) arranged to emit light, the light source (12) comprising a first and second light emitters (13, 14) each being adjustable between a number of light intensity levels and arranged to emit light having a first and second color temperature, respectively. The light source (12) is arranged to provide an output signal (OS) comprising information pertaining to a light intensity level of said first and second light emitters (13, 14), respectively; a light sensor (16) arranged to measure the light intensity and the color temperature of the light in the room, and to provide a sense signal (SS) comprising information pertaining to the measured light intensity and color temperature; and a controller (18) arranged to control the color temperature and the light intensity of the light in the room (1) by adjusting the light intensity level of said first and second light emitters (13, 14), based on said sense signal (SS) provided by the light sensor (16) and said output signal (OS) provided by the light source (12).
US09345081B2

A LED driver system includes a LED converter converting an input voltage to an output voltage to drive a LED load via a main switch; a sensing circuit generating a feedback signal on the output terminal according to a load current through the LED load; an over-shoot detecting circuit generating an over-shoot signal according to the load current and a second reference signal; a logic circuit generating a switching signal according to a control signal and the over-shoot signal to control the main switch. The control signal is generated according to the feedback signal and a first reference signal, and the second reference signal is larger than the first reference signal.
US09345080B2

A LED light source comprises a first rectifier (DB1) having input terminals coupled to an AC voltage source and output terminals connected by a first series arrangement comprising N LED loads and further comprises circuitry (I1, I2, I3, CC) for making the LED loads one by one carry a current when the momentary value of the AC voltage increases and one by one stop carrying a current when the momentary value of the AC voltage decreases. The LED light source also comprises a second rectifier (DB2) having input terminals coupled to the AC voltage source via a reactive element and output terminals connected by a second series arrangement comprising M LED loads and further comprises circuitry (I4) for making the LED loads one by one carry a current when the momentary value of the AC voltage present at the input terminals of the second rectifier increases and one by one stop carrying a current when the momentary value of the AC voltage decreases.
US09345078B2

Recently, there has been a growing emphasis on the importance of green industries for reducing energy consumption. As part of the reduction in energy consumption, LED lamps have been widely distributed and used, but conventional fluorescent lamps made of glass tubes have not been actively replaced with LED fluorescent lamps because the replacement of conventional fluorescent lamps is too difficult, for instance, in order to replace the conventional fluorescent lamps with LED fluorescent lamps, a conventional fluorescent lamp stabilizer provided within the light of the fluorescent lamp has to be removed and an LED converter must be installed again. The LED fluorescent lamp of the present invention is driven by continually using an alternating current power source outputted from a fluorescent lamp stabilizer, and thus the installation of the LED fluorescent lamp can be completed by replacing only a fluorescent lamp made of glass tubes with the fluorescent lamp of the present invention while the conventional light of the fluorescent lamp including the fluorescent lamp stabilizer is used. Furthermore, the LED florescent lamp of the present invention provides the advantage of allowing power consumption to be constant even though an inputted alternating current voltage is considerably increased up to AC 250-260V.
US09345070B2

A heater is provided that includes a resistance coil assembly defining a first end portion having a first conducting pin and a second end portion having a second conducting pin, and a resistance coil disposed between the first end portion and the second end portion, and a first zone adjacent the first end portion with a constant pitch. The resistance coil further defines a continuously variable pitch extending along a length of the resistance coil from the first zone to the second end portion. The continuously variable pitch provides a variable watt density such that a predetermined temperature profile is provided along the sheath.
US09345055B2

A method and apparatus for establishing, by a first device, a device-to-device (D2D) connection with a second device in a wireless communication system is provided. When the D2D connection is initiated by a network, the first device receives a D2D broadcast configuration message including information on the second device, from the network, and determines whether to establish the D2D connection with the second device or not. Or, when the D2D connection is initiated by the first device, the first device determines whether to establish the D2D connection with the second device or not, based on at least one of a proximity between the first device and the second device based on a profile of the second device obtained through a neighbor discovery procedure.
US09345041B2

Examples of methods, systems, and computer program products relating to supervising data in a wireless network are disclosed. At least part of a system may be located between a packet data network and a base station, and/or may be at least logically separate from the base station. The system may be capable of evaluating the service provided by the base station, and may be capable of determining whether or not any action should consequently be performed. Examples of an action may include an action which may not necessarily affect en-route data packets such as outputting a report, and/or an action which may affect en-route data packets such as delaying packets, not delaying packets, and/or stopping the delaying of packets. An action which affects data packets may or may not affect data packets uniformly. An action may or may not result in an improvement in quality of user experience.
US09345034B2

A method and apparatus for transmitting a downlink reference signal in a wireless communication system supporting multiple antennas is disclosed. A method for transmitting Channel State Information-Reference Signals (CSI-RSs) for eight or less antenna ports includes selecting one of a plurality of CSI-RS Resource Element (RE) groups defined on a data region of a downlink subframe and mapping CSI-RSs for the eight or less antenna ports to the selected CSI-RS RE group, and transmitting the downlink subframe in which the CSI-RSs for the eight or less antenna ports are mapped. The plurality of CSI-RS RE groups is defined such that a transmission diversity RE pair for data transmitted on the downlink subframe is not broken.
US09345033B2

A wireless communication device determines user interface activity initiated by a user application. The wireless communication device determines a timer setting based on the user interface activity initiated by the user application. The wireless communication device wirelessly transfers the timer setting to a wireless communication network. The wireless communication device exchanges wireless communications initiated by the user application with the wireless communication network. The wireless communication network uses a dormancy timer based on the user interface activity initiated by the user application.
US09345026B2

Systems, methods, and devices for communicating data in a wireless communications network are described herein. In some aspects, a first wireless device may request to transmit data during a transmission opportunity of a second wireless device. The request may also indicate a duration of time for which permission to transmit is requested. In some aspects, the second wireless device may send a response message to the first wireless device indicating the first wireless device has been granted permission to transmit during a transmission opportunity of the second wireless device. The response may include an indication of a period of time for which permission to transmit has been granted. In an embodiment, the response may include an indication of a period of time the first wireless device may delay or sleep before an opportunity to transmit during a transmission opportunity of the second wireless device will be available.
US09345022B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and a device for allocating a backhaul link resource. The method includes: selecting, by a first base station, at least one subframe in an uplink (UL) frequency band in a frequency division duplex (FDD) wireless communication system; and allocating the selected at least one subframe as a backhaul link resource between the first base station and a second base station. With the method, the device and the system for allocating a backhaul link resource according to the embodiments of the present invention, a subframe is selected in an unexhausted frequency band in existing bandwidth resources and allocated to a wireless backhaul link. Therefore, the existing bandwidth resources are released, resources are allocated to wireless backhaul links, and costs of the communication system are saved.
US09345021B2

A method in a wireless communication device including receiving control signaling from a base station in a control region of a downlink carrier spanning a first bandwidth, receiving a signaling message from the base station indicating a second bandwidth, receiving a first control message within the control region using a first Downlink Control Information (DCI) format size, the first DCI format size based on the first bandwidth, and receiving a second control message within the control region using a second DCI format size, the second DCI format size based on the second bandwidth, wherein the second bandwidth is distinct from the first bandwidth and the first and second control messages indicate downlink resource assignments for the downlink carrier.
US09344994B2

A mobile device application and process provides real-time notifications to a user whenever imaging satellites are positioned in the vicinity of the user, such that the imaging satellite is in a position to capture imagery of the user's location or a user-specified location. The user may access and purchase, via the mobile device application, available satellite imagery. In certain embodiments, the user may also be provided with the opportunity to issue, via the mobile device, a satellite tasking request such that a satellite will be tasked to capture imagery of a specific location.
US09344988B2

A method and apparatus are described for managing a mass registration scenario in a two-way radio system. A site controller in a trunked radio system detects a mass registration condition in which registration requests by subscriber units are likely to collide on an inbound control channel. During the mass registration condition, the site controller initiates a restriction period by instructing subscriber units that are members of particular talkgroups to temporarily cease registration requests. Those talkgroup members are permitted to resume their registration requests when a predetermined delay time has passed since the members were instructed to cease registration, or when a particular silence time has passed without registration activity over the control channel.
US09344980B2

System and method embodiments are provided for efficient channel synchronization. The embodiments enable a reduction in a stations power consumption and reduce network overhead for transmitting synchronization frames by refraining from sending the synchronization frame when it is not needed. In an embodiment, a method in an access point (AP) for synchronizing a station (STA) associated with the AP includes sending, by the AP, a first management frame that indicates a time slot that is allocated for the STA and sending a synchronization frame at a boundary of the time slot allocated for the STA if the AP determines that a channel is idle at the boundary of the time slot allocated for the STA and if the time slot that is allocated for the STA is longer than a first threshold value.
US09344973B2

Interference that occurs during wireless communication may be managed through the use of fractional reuse and other techniques. In some aspects fractional reuse may relate to HARQ interlaces, portions of a timeslot, frequency spectrum, and spreading codes. Interference may be managed through the use of a transmit power profile and/or an attenuation profile. Interference also may be managed through the use of power management-related techniques.
US09344966B2

Methods and systems for powering-off a wireless communication device from a linked device are provided. A device can transmit a wireless communication signal to a linked device to instruct the linked device to power-off. In this manner, the user need only turn off one device manually which results in all linked devices being powered off. This process can be initiated by a user through a device directly linked with the device to be powered-off or through a device that is indirectly connected, through one or more wireless communication networks, with the device to be powered-off. This process can also be automatically initiated by a device when a set of predetermined conditions exist. Once instructed to do so, a device can initiate a predetermined power-off process which can involve terminating any ongoing functions and turning off various subsystems. In accordance with the present invention, a user can initiate a power-off of all the devices on a wireless communication network through a single device.
US09344960B2

in one aspect, the present invention provides a method for selecting a GGSN. The method may include obtaining a network address for a home agent; transmitting a request to a name server for a name associated with the network address; receiving from the name server in response to the request a name associated with the network address; initiating a GPRS attachment; and after initiating the GPRS attachment, initiating a PDP context activation, wherein the step of initiating the PDP context activation comprises transmitting the name to an SGSN, and the SGSN is configured to use the name to lookup an IP address of a GGSN.
US09344958B1

A system including a first home agent and a proxy mobility agent. The first home agent receives a first binding update message from an attachment point configured to communicate with a wireless terminal, and generates a trigger signal in response to receiving the first binding update message. In response to receiving the trigger signal from the first home agent, the proxy mobility agent transmits a second binding update message to a second home agent; receives, in response to transmitting the second binding update message, a first binding acknowledgement message from the second home agent including an internet protocol (IP) address assigned to the wireless terminal by the second home agent; and forwards the IP address from the first binding acknowledgement message to the first home agent. The first home agent transmits a second binding acknowledgement message to the attachment point including the IP address assigned to the wireless terminal.
US09344945B2

A system, method, and apparatus are presented for coordinating handover. A first controller that is associated with a first RAN cell determines a first handover parameter value that is for use in determining whether to cause handover from the first RAN cell to a second RAN cell having a different RAT. The first controller transmits, to a second controller associated with the second RAN cell, information relating to the first handover parameter value. The first controller further transmits, to the second controller, a value of a QoS parameter or a UE capability parameter associated with the information. The first controller receives, from the second controller, an indication of whether the second controller has adjusted a second handover parameter value based on the transmitted information, where the second handover parameter value is for use in determining whether to cause handover from the second RAN cell to the first RAN cell.
US09344932B2

Provided is a method for moving carried out by a terminal in a wireless communication system. The method comprises estimating mobility status of the terminal, detecting a neighboring cell, calculating an expected dwell time in the neighboring cell which is detected, determining whether to set an adaptive mobility condition on the basis of the expected dwell time, and moving on the basis of the adaptive mobility condition when the adaptive mobility condition is determined to be set.
US09344930B2

A method for performing tune away in a wireless communication device includes: tuning away the wireless communication device from a first communication network for a first tune away period to receive a first page burst from a second communication network, and during the first tune away period sequentially tuning to a plurality of neighbor cells of the second communication network and performing signal quality measurements on signals received from each of the plurality of neighbor cells.
US09344928B2

The disclosure provides a neighboring cell optimization method and a mobile communication system, which belong to the communication field. The method comprises: establishing an IUR connection between a first Radio Network Controller (RNC) and a second RNC; after the IUR connection is established successfully, the first RNC sending neighboring cell information to the second RNC; and the second RNC performing automatic neighboring cell optimization according to the neighboring cell information. With the disclosure, the neighboring cell information between two RNCs is updated in time, therefore the RNC is enabled to optimize the neighboring cell in time, and a timely cell handover performed by User Equipment (UE) is ensured, which provides a basis for ensuring call continuity of the UE.
US09344925B2

Example embodiments presented herein are directed towards a target Mobility Management Entity (MME) or a target Serving General Packet Radio Service Support Node (SGSN) network node, and method, for handling a mobility procedure or session procedure within the same operator. The roaming agreement handling may comprise comparing a Quality of Service (QoS) parameter associated with a source system, a maximum QoS associated with a target system and a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) or Policy and Changing Rules Function (PCRF) capability. The mobility procedure or session procedure handling may further comprise providing instructions for the roaming procedure based on the comparison.Example embodiments may further comprise a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW) network node, and method, for adjusting Quality of Service (QoS) during a mobility procedure or session procedure. The adjustment may be based on a received target maximum QoS.
US09344922B2

A radio communication system has a user equipment, a first base station, a second base station, and a gateway device. The first base station is capable of executing radio resource control of the user equipment, whereas the second base station does not execute radio resource control of the user equipment. The first base station, based on a measurement report message, determines whether a user-plane path is to be established between the first base station and the second base station. In a case in which it is determined that a user-plane path is to be established, the first base station establishes a user-plane path between the first base station and the second base station. Also, the first base station controls the user equipment to establish a user-plane path between the user equipment and the second base station.
US09344919B2

A method and apparatus for accessing a random access channel (RACH) during handover are disclosed. A handover procedure is initiated and a maximum handover interruption timer is activated. A dedicated preamble is transmitted in an attempt to access the RACH on a condition that the dedicated preamble is reserved in a current random access opportunity and the maximum handover interruption timer has not expired. A contention-based preamble is transmitted in an attempt to access the RACH on a condition that a dedicated preamble is not reserved in a current random access opportunity. If the maximum handover interruption timer has expired, a contention-based preamble is transmitted in an attempt to access the RACH.
US09344916B2

A first access node of a first network utilizes code sequences, assigned to different user devices, to distinguish at least acknowledgements received in parallel or sequentially from those user devices. The first access node determines from received signaling that a root sequence of the code sequences is in use by a second access node of a second network, then changes that root sequence of the code sequences assigned to the different user devices. In certain examples the access nodes are WLAN access points APs and the acknowledgements are received in response to a group probe/poll. In various embodiments the first AP monitors its neighbors' group probes/polls to learn the root sequences/basic service sets in use in those neighbor networks, or the AP's own stations monitor and send the information in neighbor reports. This latter option can be initiated by the stations themselves, or by the AP.
US09344905B2

The present invention relates to a method and terminal for detecting a physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel (PHICH) in a wireless access system that supports enhanced inter-cell interference coordination. In particular, the method includes: determining whether the PHICH exists in only a 0th orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol if a subframe transmitted by a neighboring base station is an almost blanked subframe (ABS); determining whether a common reference signal (CRS) of the neighboring base station collides with a CRS of a serving base station if the PHICH exists outside of the 0th OFDM symbol; determining whether CRS power of the neighboring base station does not collide with the CRS of the serving base station; and determining whether an acknowledgement/negative-acknowledgement (ACK/Negative-ACK) is detected by replacing a symbol of the PHICH, overlapped with the CRS power of the neighboring base station is greater than the preset threshold.
US09344901B2

Methods and apparatus for processing data received at a user equipment comprises determining a protocol data unit (PDU)-specific Layer 1 decoding metric of a Layer 1 decoded PDU. The methods and apparatus further comprises determining whether to perform a Layer 2 decoding of the Layer 1 decoded PDU based on the PDU-specific Layer 1 decoding metric.
US09344894B2

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatuses for handling malicious attacks. In one aspect, the methods and apparatuses are configured to identify packets received from a malicious source based at least in part on packets received by a wireless device that change a state of the wireless device from a dormant state to a connected state, selectively disconnect the wireless device from a packet data network (PDN) by releasing a first Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect the wireless device to the PDN when a number of packets identified as received from the malicious source reaches a threshold number within a monitoring period, and reconnect the wireless device to the PDN using a second IP address that is different from the first IP address. In another aspect, a connection to an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) PDN is maintained after the PDN is disconnected.
US09344889B2

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to pair devices to an in-body network. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes a device capability manager to identify remote sensors associated with a candidate medical device, an encryption engine to provide the candidate medical device with hashing instructions to be applied to input values from selected ones of the remote sensors, a measurement engine to acquire input values from local sensors corresponding to the selected ones of the available remote sensors during a measurement schedule, the encryption engine to apply the hashing instructions to the input values from the local sensors, and a pairing engine to authorize the candidate medical device when an encryption key associated with the remote sensors includes a threshold indication of parity with an encryption key associated with the local sensors.
US09344884B2

At least a method for verifying the authenticity of one or more authentication messages in an authentication procedure between a network and a mobile device is described wherein the method comprises: sending an authentication request through a first radio access node to a said mobile device, said radio access node being associated with first location information; said mobile device generating second location information associated with the location of said mobile device; and, verifying the authenticity of the origin of said authentication request by checking if said second location information comprises said first location information.
US09344882B2

The present application is directed to apparatuses and methods for preventing information disclosure. According to example embodiments of the present application, after a mobile terminal of a user is lost, a first short message may be sent to the mobile terminal through a short message network. When the mobile terminal determines that the received short message is the first short message, user information stored in the mobile terminal may be erased by the mobile terminal.
US09344876B2

A time a user of a client application is likely to access a preferred network connection is predicted. A pre-download index for one or more multimedia content items is calculated, where the pre-download index represents how likely the user is to interact with the one or more multimedia content items at approximately the predicted time. The indexed multimedia content items are ranked based on the pre-download index of each of the one or more multimedia content items. The ranked multimedia content items are provided to the client application at the predicted time.
US09344874B2

An access gateway (GW) receives, from a mobility management node, a transmission-path control signal for changing a route of only part of a data packet flow that pertains to a mobile terminal and is originally relayed through the access GW and a first mobility anchor. In response to receiving the transmission-path control signal, the access GW establishes a logical transmission path with a second mobility anchor for transferring the part of the data packet flow, and transfers the part of the packet flow to the second mobility anchor and also transfers a remaining part of the packet flow to the first mobility anchor by distinguishing a data packet received from the mobile terminal.
US09344871B2

A method for supporting an emergency service by a mobility management entity (MME) and a base station in a mobile communication system, and a MME and base station, are provided. The method for supporting an emergency service by a MME includes receiving, by the MME, a first message including information associated with an attach request of a terminal from a base station, determining, by the MME, whether the attach request is accepted based on information indicating an emergency service included in the first message, and transmitting, by the MME, a second message to the base station if the attach request is accepted, wherein if the information associated with the attach request includes the information indicating the emergency service, the attach request is accepted, and wherein the information indicating the emergency service is included in the first message using information included in a third message received from the terminal.
US09344869B2

A method and apparatus provide enhanced navigational alerts for a vehicular two-way radio operating in a dispatch communication system. The integration and prioritization of navigational alerts with dispatch voice communication ensures that navigational alerts do not compromise mission critical voice communications. Navigational alerts in the form of navigational voice instructions and navigational tones are selectively prioritized based on predetermined parameters associated with the dispatch call.
US09344867B2

Methods, systems, and products provide called party identification to a calling party. A communication is processed from a calling communications address to one of a plurality of communications addresses associated with a simultaneous ring. When an answer is detected at one of the plurality of communications addresses, an answering communications address is sent to the calling communications address.
US09344865B1

A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and network traffic management apparatus that selects a first one of a plurality of Short Message Service Center (SMSC) servers based on a load balancing decision in response to an external short messaging entity (ESME) SMPP request message received from a first one of a plurality of ESMEs. A first sequence number is generated for the ESME SMPP request message. The first sequence number is stored in a first entry of a mapping table as associated with a sequence number included in the ESME SMPP request message and an indication of the first one of the plurality of SMSC servers. The sequence number included in the ESME SMPP request message is replaced with the first sequence number. The ESME SMPP request message is sent to the first one of the plurality of SMSC servers.
US09344864B2

The present invention relates to the field of communication technology. Disclosed are a redirection method and a redirection apparatus under policy and charging control (PCC) for improving user's service experience. The redirection method under PCC comprises: acquiring a user's service status change information and the current scenario information; determining whether to issue a redirection task to a policy and charging enforcement function (PCEF) according to the current scenario information; when a redirection task needs to be issued to the PCEF, then generating a redirection indication message according to the service status change information and the current scenario information, the redirection indication message comprising redirection indication information; and sending the redirection indication message to the PCEF so that the PCEF performs a redirection operation according to the redirection indication information in the redirection indication message.
US09344862B2

Provided is a system and method for providing a converged messaging service, which can be compatibly used with or replace various services, such as an Instant Messaging (IM) service, a Short Message Service (SMS), a Multimedia Message Service (MMS), a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, and a PTT over Cellular (PoC) service. To do this, there are defined an architecture and interfacing of a Converged Messaging Client (CMC) and a CM Server (CMS), which are elements of a converged messaging service for being compatibly used with or replacing the various services. In particular, there is suggested a method of enabling interworking between heterogeneous messaging services in an application layer by expending IP Multimedia Core Network (CN) Subsystem (IMS) technology. There is also suggested a method of defining a CM data storage for supporting the converged messaging service and managing a message and metadata stored in the defined CM data storage.
US09344861B1

A method and apparatus for delayed talk-back behavior in a communication device associated with a Push-to-Talk (PTT) system include presenting talk-burst audio to a user at the communication device, wherein the talk-burst audio is delayed; receiving a PTT request from the user; determining a delay time interval between the PTT request and a time when the talk-burst audio was originated; and performing an action for the PTT request based on the delay time interval, wherein the time interval is utilized to determine if the action is a standard PTT response or an alternative PTT response to the PTT request.
US09344846B2

This disclosure relates generally to location services, and more particularly to systems and methods for effective identification of geo-location in mobile HetNet environments. In one embodiment, a device geo-location method is disclosed, comprising: receiving one or more wireless signal strengths associated with connectivity of a user device to one or more wireless access points; calculating, via a processor, one or more distances of the user device from the one or more wireless access points using the one or more wireless signal strengths; triangulating a user device location coordinate using: a pre-determined wireless access point location coordinate associated with at least one of the one or more wireless access points; and the calculated one or more distances of the user device from the one or more wireless access points; and storing the user device location coordinate.
US09344844B2

A mobile IP location server that retrieves the location of a mobile device based on the public IP address that a mobile device is using. A mobile IP location server comprises a mobile location protocol interface, an identifier resolver, and a location manager. The mobile location protocol interface interacts with location applications and receives and responds to location requests. The identifier resolver converts a device's public IP address to a real mobile identifier (e.g. MSISDN) and performs address conversion by either interacting with an HTTP proxy server or querying a network address translation (NAT) table. The location manager retrieves the location of a mobile device given the device's real mobile identifier (e.g. MSISDN). A web application requests mobile IP location services by transmitting an IP request to the mobile IP location server. An IP location request contains a mobile device's public IP address, port number, and any application specific information.
US09344843B2

Technical solutions for providing context sensitive service bundles are provided. In some implementations, a method includes identifying location information associated with a user. The location information identifies a first location area. The method further includes, in accordance with (1) a first determination that a first service is available within a predefined proximity to the first location area; (2) a second determination that the second service is also available within predefined proximity to the first location area; and (3) a third determination that the first service relates to the second service to a predefined degree; using a single application, causing a service bundle to be offered to the user by: causing the first service and the second service to be concurrently offered to the user in the single application.
US09344842B2

A system and method for viewing artificial reality (AR) messages on a golf course, where the messages are geo-referenced artificial reality words or symbols to indicate distances, tips, targets or other information to the golfer. Typically, the AR messages are geo-referenced to a fixed location on the golf hole, such as a hazard or green. Using the spectator's chosen location as the viewing origin, an artificial reality message or object is inserted into the golfer's perspective view of the golf hole. Outings and contests can be held even if the matches are separated by hours or days, and outcomes and information published to select groups or individuals.
US09344827B2

Method and apparatus for audio output, and electronic device. The method applies to the electronic device including first and second speakers at left and right sides of the device placed in a horizontal state, respectively, and third and fourth speakers at left and right sides of the device placed in a vertical state, respectively, the method including: detecting placement state of the device when it is under a speaker output mode; and switching, according to the placement state of the device, a stereo output and/or a bass output of audio data to be outputted to a speaker or speakers corresponding to the placement state, and outputting the audio data in the form of stereo output and/or bass output through the speaker or speakers corresponding to the placement state. Stereo output effect can be obtained when the device is in speaker output mode, regardless of whether placed horizontally or vertically.
US09344824B2

A method for conversion of a n-channel audio signal (L, R, Ls, Rs) into a two-channel audio signal (Ro, Lo), where n≧4 and integer, includes the step of generating either one of the two-channel audio signals, right (Ro) or left (Lo), by a combination of: a front (R, L) and rear (Rs, Ls) signal components of the n-channel audio signal of the same side (right or left), and a front (L, R) signal component of the n-channel audio signal of the other side (left or right), and a term dependent of n.
US09344813B2

Method for operating a hearing device (1) that is worn by a hearing device user (2), the method comprising the steps of receiving a transmission signal (4) comprising an audio signal (4) of a sound sources (S), determining a distance (d) between the sound source (S) and the hearing device (1), and generating an output signal supplied to an output transducer (8) of the hearing device (1) by at least taking into account the audio signal (4) of the transmission signal (3) and the distance (d). Further embodiments are directed to determining an angle (α) defined by a sagittal plane (5) of the hearing device user (2) and a line drawn between the hearing device (1) and the sound source (S). The angle (α) is additionally used to generate the output signal supplied to the output transducer (8) of the hearing device (1).
US09344809B2

A system and method for controlling and adjusting a low-frequency response of a MEMS microphone. The system comprising the MEMS microphone, a controller, and a memory. The MEMS microphone includes a membrane and a plurality of air vents. The membrane configured such that acoustic pressures acting on the membrane cause movement of the membrane. The plurality of air vents are positioned proximate to the membrane. Each air vent of the plurality of air vents are configured to be selectively positioned in an open position or a closed position. The controller determines an integer number of air vents to be placed in the closed positioned, and generate a signal that causes the integer number of air vents to be placed in the closed position and causes any remaining air vents to be placed in the open position.
US09344807B2

A capacitance-type transducer has a substrate having a cavity, a vibrating electrode plate disposed above the substrate, a back plate disposed on the substrate, a fixed electrode plate disposed on the back plate opposite the vibrating electrode plate, a plurality of holes formed in the back plate and the fixed electrode plate, and a protrusion disposed on the back plate at a location opposing the vibrating electrode plate. In a view from a direction perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate, a shortest distance from a cross-sectional center of the protrusion to an edge of a hole adjacent to the protrusion is larger than a shortest distance from a center of a region that is surrounded by the holes but not provided with the protrusion to an edge of a hole in the periphery.
US09344803B1

A loudspeaker assembly preferably, but not necessarily, structured to be operative as a tweeter and including a base which may be formed of a magnet in conformance with the operability of a tweeter. One or more terminals are connected to the base and at least a corresponding number of recesses are formed in an exterior sidewall surface thereof. Each of the one or more terminals is disposed in aligned relation with a correspondingly disposed one of said recesses, wherein aligned ones of said terminals and said recesses are cooperatively disposed and structured to facilitate conformance of the one or more terminals with the circumferential configuration of the exterior sidewall of the base.
US09344795B2

Provided is an active vibration noise suppression apparatus having good robustness without determining a secondary transfer function while not performing adaptive control. A first control unit generates a control signal by a first adaptive algorithm as a direct adaptive algorithm. A storing unit stores an equivalent value Gh of a secondary transfer function G which is adaptively updated as an adaptive filter by the first control unit. A second control unit uses a second adaptive algorithm which uses the equivalent value Gh of the secondary transfer function G stored in the storing unit as a feedforward coefficient and updates a filter coefficient C2 of the control signal as an adaptive filter based on the feedforward coefficient. The second control unit generates the control signal by the second adaptive algorithm when the first control unit does not generate the control signal.
US09344792B2

An electronic device may be coupled to an accessory such as a pair of earphones. The earphones may have noise cancellation features that may be implemented using noise cancellation circuitry in the earphones or in the electronic device. The earphones may have ear presence sensor structures that determine whether speakers in the earphones are present at the ears of a user. In one suitable embodiment, control circuitry in the earphones may be used to adjust noise cancellation circuitry in the earphones based on information from the ear presence sensor structures. For example, the control circuitry may deactivate noise cancellation circuitry in response to receiving information from the ear presence sensor structures indicating that the earphones have been removed from a user's ears. In another suitable embodiment, control circuitry in the electronic device may adjust noise cancellation circuitry in the electronic device based on information from the ear presence sensor structures.
US09344778B2

The Cone Penetrometer Technology (CPT) has evolved over the last several decades as a low cost technique for performing subsurface evaluation for environmental and structural interest. The basic CPT system consist of the push system, cone module, pushrods, tether cable and the data acquisition system. The tether cable is the communication and power interface between the cone and the acquisition system. The Wireless Magnetic Mutual Induction system will replace the need for the tether cable by implementing a battery pack and a wireless communication scheme by using the pushrods, specially made solenoids, and by applying the principle of mutual induction and Faraday's Law.
US09344747B2

A secure element operating in conjunction with a secure partition of a system-on-a-chip (SoC) having set top box (STB) functionality allows for digital rights management (DRM) key handling in a mobile platform. The secure element can include a secure processing system (SPS) to be implemented as a hard macro, thereby isolating the SPS from a peripheral processing system (PPS). The secure element and the secure partition of the SoC may be operatively connected by a secure cryptographic channel.
US09344745B2

Systems and methods for generating group portraits using video chat systems are provided. A communications system can generate a group portrait that includes an image of two or more users. For example, a communications system can generate a group portrait that includes an image of each user participating in a video conference, and the group portrait may serve as a memento from the video conference.
US09344737B2

A video encoder generates, based on a reference picture set of a current view component, a reference picture list for the current view component. The reference picture set includes an inter-view reference picture set. The video encoder encodes the current view component based at least in part on one or more reference pictures in the reference picture list. In addition, the video encoder generates a bitstream that includes syntax elements indicating the reference picture set of the current view component. A video decoder parses, from the bitstream, syntax elements indicating the reference picture set of the current view component. The video decoder generates, based on the reference picture set, the reference picture list for the current view component. In addition, the video decoder decodes at least a portion of the current view component based on one or more reference pictures in the reference picture list.
US09344736B2

Systems and methods for compressive sense imaging are provided. In one aspect, a system and method is provided for determining at least one kernel matrix based on the relative motion of an object during a time period corresponding to the acquisition of one or more compressive measurements of the object. An uncompressed image of the object is generated using the compressive measurements using a reconstruction basis matrix that is different from the compressive basis matrix used to acquire the compressive measurements of the object. To compensate for the relative motion of the object, the reconstruction basis matrix is determined based on the at least one kernel matrix and the compressive basis matrix.
US09344735B2

Embodiments are directed towards employing distributed computing concepts such as peer-to-peer processing to distribute across a plurality of peer client devices, or swarm, the computations of Shape Encoding Schemes (SES) for encoding digital video content. As more peer client devices receive the content, progressively more iterations of a SES encoding is performed on various frames within the video content, thereby improving the encoding of the overall video content. Optionally, such distributed progressive processing or swarming approach may include other encoding, such as scaling corrections, scene transitions corrections, and the like.
US09344733B2

A method for shape compression and physics processing is provided. One embodiment includes providing a volume model including a shape with one or more complex portions. The volume model is preprocessed based on: processing a surface of the volume model for obtaining a global structure, and mapping surface elements to a cube surface. The global structure and a result of the mapping is synchronized between a first electronic device and a second electronic device. The second electronic device performs shape modeling using the global structure and the result of the mapping, physics computing for shape deformation based on the shape modeling, and coding deformed shape features for generating surface shape characteristic elements.
US09344727B2

A method for determining a macroblock (MB) coding mode for a current MB in a dependent view. A window around a co-located MB in a base view is determined, wherein the co-located MB is a MB in the base view having a same location as the current MB in the dependent view. A coding mode complexity value (CMCV) is determined for each MB in the window, wherein the CMCV is based on a coding mode used to encode the MB. Rate distortion optimization (RDO) is performed for the current MB using a reduced number of coding modes if a total CMCV for all MBs in the window is less than a threshold, or using all supported coding modes if the total CMCV for all MBs in the window is greater than the threshold. A coding mode for the current MB is determined based on the RDO results.
US09344722B2

A video codec comprising a processor configured to generate a prediction block for a current block, compute a difference between the current block and the prediction block to generate a residual block, scan a plurality of prediction residuals located in the residual block following a scanning order, and if the plurality of residual values comprise at least one non-zero prediction residual, entropy encode the at least one non-zero prediction residual. A method comprising generating a prediction block for a current block, computing a difference between the current block and the prediction block to generate a residual block, scanning a plurality of prediction residuals located in the residual block, and if the plurality of residual values comprise at least one non-zero prediction residual, entropy encoding the at least one non-zero prediction residual.
US09344721B2

The present invention relates to flow control of a digital data stream that is to be transmitted with limited bit rate. The present invention provides a mix between CQ and CB. This in order to, in real time, ensure best possible quality of a data stream given a maximum available band with. This is useful both when saving a data stream to a data storage with a limited size and when playing the data stream in real time. In particular the invention relates to a method for flow control of a digital data stream that is to be sent with a limited transmission bit rate R. The method comprises encoding each data frame of a digital data stream into an encoded data frame comprising n quality layers and thereafter balancing the output of the encoder in order to achieve a constant bit rate on the output. The invention also relates to a corresponding data recorder and computer program.
US09344716B2

A filtering method and apparatus for adaptively performing deblocking filtering are provided. The method includes: obtaining a parameter indicating how close pixel values of pixels adjacent to a block boundary are with respect to a predetermined line; determining a filtering strength at the block boundary based on the parameter; and performing filtering based on the filtering strength.
US09344714B2

A moving picture coding apparatus for performing inter-picture predictive coding for pictures constituting a moving picture is provided with a coding unit for performing predictive error coding for image data; a decoding unit for performing predictive error decoding for an output from the coding unit; a reference picture memory for holding output data from the decoding unit; and a motion vector detection unit for detecting motion vectors on the basis of the decoded image data stored in the memory. When coding a B picture as a target picture, information indicating whether or not the target picture should be used as a reference picture when coding another picture is added as header information. Therefore, in a decoding apparatus for decoding a bit stream Bs outputted from the moving picture coding apparatus, management of a memory for holding the reference picture can be facilitated on the basis of the header information.
US09344713B2

A projector includes a lamp that emits projection light to project 3D picture, in which a right eye image and a left eye image are represented in a time division manner, to an object, a synchronization signal transmission section which transmits shutter synchronization signal to glasses having a right eye shutter and a left eye shutter to control the opened state or the closed state of the right eye shutter and the left eye shutter, based on the signal indicating a displaying period of the right eye image and the left eye image of 3D picture, and a lamp drive section that supplies AC current having peak overlapping with a period when the right eye shutter of the glasses is in the opened state and peak overlapping with a period when the left eye shutter of the glasses is in the opened state to the lamp, based on the signal.
US09344711B2

An image display apparatus includes an image display unit that displays an image for a stereoscopic image, a light-source control unit that controls a light source of the image display unit, a content discriminating unit that discriminates whether the image displayed on the image display unit is a limited image requiring viewing limitation or an unlimited image not requiring the viewing limitation, and a shutter control unit that controls shutter of shutter devices. The light-source control unit controls the light source to reduce light emission in a second period compared with light emission in a first period. The shutter control unit controls, during the display of the limited image, the shutter device set in a viewing limitation mode for limiting viewing of the limited image, to close the shutter in the first period and open the shutter in the second period.
US09344707B2

A depth sensor obtains images of articulated portions of a user's body such as the hand. A predefined model of the articulated body portions is provided. Representative attract points of the model are matched to centroids of the depth sensor data, and a rigid transform of the model is performed, in an initial, relatively coarse matching process. This matching process is then refined in a non-rigid transform of the model, using attract point-to-centroid matching. In a further refinement, an iterative process rasterizes the model to provide depth pixels of the model, and compares the depth pixels of the model to the depth pixels of the depth sensor. The refinement is guided by whether the depth pixels of the model are overlapping or non-overlapping with the depth pixels of the depth sensor. Collision, distance and angle constraints are also imposed on the model.
US09344703B2

A recording medium in which a left-view video stream and a right-view video stream are recorded in an interleaved transport stream file. The interleaved transport stream file is identified by a combination of (i) an equivalent identification number being equivalent with the file reference information and (ii) a file extension indicating that video streams are stored in the interleaved manner, the equivalent identification number. Among Extents that constitute the interleaved transport stream file, Extents constituting the left-view or right-view video stream are identified as a normal-format transport stream file by a combination of (i) the equivalent identification number being equivalent with the file reference information and (ii) a file extension indicating that video streams are stored in a normal manner.
US09344697B2

A method for transitioning between an image of a first video sequence and an image of a second video sequence, wherein an image of the video sequences corresponds to one sub-region of a respective image of the other video sequence, receiving one image from the first video sequence; providing, from the one image, one pre-transition image; for each one pre-transition image: determining a confidence region within the one pre-transition image based on a set of confidence values, each confidence value representing, for a respective block of the one pre-transition image, the level of reliability of determining one or more blocks of a corresponding image in the second video sequence; computing a transition image corresponding to the second video sequence, the transition image being a function of the determined confidence region of the pre-transition image; and displaying the transition image for a duration upon the reception of the second video sequence.
US09344696B2

A system for displaying a high resolution video image utilizing multiple spatial light modulators includes at least one illumination source configured to provide illumination to multiple spatial light modulators; a video data image processor coupled to receive video image data at a first visual resolution of X by Y pixels; and multiple spatial light modulators each having an image resolution lower than the first visual resolution, each configured to project an image sub-frame onto a focal plane using an image projection system; wherein the image projection system is configured to project a first sub-frame image of a first color portion while simultaneously projecting at least a second sub-frame image of a second color portion onto the focal plane, and the first and second sub-frame images are offset from one another, so that when viewed together a viewed image has at least the first visual resolution. Methods are disclosed.
US09344692B2

A projector includes a light source module, a collimation element, a liquid crystal unit, and a combination element. The light source module includes a red light source, a green light source, and a blue light source. The collimation element includes an optical portion, the optical portion includes three collimation lenses aligned with the red light source, the green light source, and the blue light source respectively. The liquid crystal unit includes three information-loading areas aligned with the three collimation lenses respectively. The combination element includes three parallel reflecting surfaces, the three reflecting surfaces incline 45 degrees toward the liquid crystal unit, and are aligned the three information-loading areas respectively.
US09344683B1

A system for capturing an event comprises a processor and a memory. The processor was configured to a) determine that a vehicle is approaching a location of interest; b) capture an image of the location; c) analyze the image to determine a state of the location; and d) modify an event criterion based at least in part on the state of the location. The memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to provide the processor with instructions.
US09344673B1

An orientation of a computing device within three dimensional space can be determined. The position of a camera integrated within the device relative to the device screen. The camera can be a front facing camera or a rear facing camera. The camera can include an image sensor, a lense, and/or a shutter. A live view of a real world environment can be received from the camera and presented within the device screen within real-time. An eye guide can be simultaneously presented on the device screen to assist a user interacting with the device to focus the eyes of the user on the camera. The eye guide can be a graphical symbol and/or a text indicating a direction associated with the camera in relation to the orientation of the screen or the device. An image can be recorded within a computer readable storage medium associated with the device. The image can lack the eye guide.
US09344671B2

A method and apparatus provide for improving signal quality. The method includes receiving a first media signal, such as a video signal, in a first format, such as 1080p. The provided video signal is one that is created by upsampling a video signal recorded in a format having a lower sampling rate. The method also includes obtaining a second signal indicative of error within the first media signal. The second signal is in a second format, such as the format having a lower sampling rage in which the video signal was recorded. The signal is processed to place the second signal in the format of the first signal. Then, the estimated error signal is combined with the original signal to arrive at an error corrected output.
US09344670B2

The present invention is directed to a system, method and computer program for enabling a user (an auditor or a viewer) to access complementary information related to one or a plurality of sequences or topics of interest in a recorded program previously broadcast on the radio or television and played back on a device, such as an audio or video tape or disk recorder/player. The preferred embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for enabling a person listening to or watching a recorded program, to select one or a plurality of topics drawing his or her attention and for immediately receiving further information related to these topics from the World Wide Web. The system is based on the synchronization of local times of transmitters and recorders. The flow of information transmitted, received and recorded is always synchronized, independently of the relative positions of recorders and transmitters.
US09344669B2

A method and system that configures an HDMI source device to use initial output parameters for communicating with an HDMI sink device, detects an abnormal operation performed by the HDMI sink device, selects a test of the HDMI sink device, applies the test, evaluates a result to determine whether the test produces a desired result, and modifies the initial output parameters to create revised output parameters. When the test produces the desired result, the revised output parameters will enable the HDMI sink device to produce the desired result. When the test fails to produce the desired result, the revised output parameters are conservative parameters that fail to produce the abnormal operation. The method reconfigures the HDMI source device to use the revised output parameters for communicating with the HDMI sink device, and saves the revised output parameters.
US09344651B2

An imaging element 5 includes an imaging pixel cell 30 and focus detecting pixel cells 31R and 31L. The digital signal processing unit 17 determines which one of interpolation processing and gain correction processing is to be performed using at least the F value at the time of imaging. The interpolation processing corrects the output signal of the focus detecting pixel cell through signal interpolation using the output signals of the surrounding imaging pixel cells, and the gain correction processing amplifies and corrects the output signal of the focus detecting pixel cell by a gain.
US09344641B2

A master camera sets temporary conditions at the time of executing photographing by a plurality of cameras, determines whether photographing by the plurality of cameras can be executed under the temporary conditions, sets actual conditions at the time of executing photographing by the plurality of cameras in accordance with this determination result, and executes control such that photographing by the plurality of cameras is executed under the actual conditions.
US09344637B2

An apparatus and a method that can efficiently generate a wide dynamic range image to which each piece of pixel information of a high sensitivity pixel and a low sensitivity pixel is applied are realized. High sensitivity pixel information obtained by adding pixel values of a plurality of high sensitivity pixels and low sensitivity pixel information obtained by adding pixel values of a plurality of low sensitivity pixels are output as output pixel signals from pixels of different sensitivities from a pixel unit, these pixel information are combined in a pixel information combining unit, an output pixel value is determined, and an output image of a wide dynamic range is output. In the pixel information combining unit, a weight for the high sensitivity pixel information or the low sensitivity pixel information is changed according to brightness of a subject, weight addition of the high sensitivity pixel information and the low sensitivity pixel information is performed, a pixel value of an output image is determined, and the pixel value is output.
US09344613B2

Certain aspects of this disclosure relate to an image signal processing system that includes a flash controller that is configured to activate a flash device prior to the start of a target image frame by using a sensor timing signal. In one embodiment, the flash controller receives a delayed sensor timing signal and determines a flash activation start time by using the delayed sensor timing signal to identify a time corresponding to the end of the previous frame, increasing that time by a vertical blanking time, and then subtracting a first offset to compensate for delay between the sensor timing signal and the delayed sensor timing signal. Then, the flash controller subtracts a second offset to determine the flash activation time, thus ensuring that the flash is activated prior to receiving the first pixel of the target frame.
US09344611B2

To provide an automotive camera mounting apparatus that has a simplified, lightweight configuration with a minimum increase in weight, is vibration-free during running, and can be steadily mounted on a vehicle body, an automotive camera mounting apparatus 10 for mounting on an inside of a windshield 3 of a vehicle 1 an automotive camera 6 that images a forward view of the vehicle 1 through the windshield 3 includes a taper plate 11 as a support plate disposed along the windshield 3. The taper plate 11 has a first fixing portion 12 on a first end thereof fixed to a front rail 2 disposed on a periphery of the windshield 3 and a second fixing portion 13 on a second end thereof fixed to the windshield 3 via a mirror base 4. The automotive camera 6 is supported by a stay 7 that has a fixing portion 8 fixedly disposed on a third fixing portion 14 formed at an intermediate portion of the taper plate 11.
US09344607B2

A method and a device for synchronizing an image display, a first image signal being provided by a first device and a second image being provided by a second device being brought together for display, the first device and the second device being time-controlled independently of each other. The second image signal is synchronized with the first image signal by modifying a blanking interval of the second image signal.
US09344606B2

A system and method including retrieving a multi-channel video file with a first video segment and a second video segment; assigning a rank to the first video segment and second video segment; and rendering at least the first and second video segment in a player interface, synchronized to a timeline of the multi-channel video file, and comprising: playing the first video segment in an active stream, progressing a timeline of the multi-channel video file when video is played in the active stream, when the timeline progresses to a synchronized time of the second video segment, playing the second video segment in the active stream and displaying the first video segment as a selectable video channel if the rank of the second video segment is greater than the rank of the first video segment, and otherwise displaying the second video segment as a selectable video channel.
US09344590B2

An embodiment of this invention is directed to a technique capable of appropriately performing a charging process for recharging in an apparatus which is wirelessly rechargeable during communication. According to the embodiment, a mobile terminal which operates by a rechargeable battery, includes a recharge unit configured to recharge the rechargeable battery by wireless power supply, and can transmit a job to an information processing apparatus by short distance wireless communication is operated as follows. An inquiry message for inquiring of a user whether to recharge the rechargeable battery by wireless power supply, which is subject to a paid system, is displayed at the time of transmission of the job. At this time, transmission of the job by short distance wireless communication and display of the inquiry message are controlled to be performed at different timings.
US09344587B2

An information processing apparatus acquires communication setting information for communicating with an image processing apparatus by a second communication unit via a first communication unit. In accordance with the acquired communication setting information, communication by the second communication unit is established to execute, via the second communication unit, an image processing service provided by the image processing apparatus. When establishment of communication is detected, an operation window display request for executing the image processing service is transmitted via the second communication unit. The image processing apparatus receives the operation window display request from the information processing apparatus via the second communication unit. In accordance with the received operation window display request, an operation window for executing the image processing service is displayed. Image processing for input image data is executed on the basis of the settings set via the displayed operation window.
US09344583B2

A method for displaying wireless service usage information and account information using an account management application operating on a wireless device includes receiving, at the account management application operating on the wireless device and from a tracking module locally stored on the wireless device, wireless service usage information for a wireless subscriber associated with the wireless device, the wireless service usage information including one or more units of wireless services that the wireless subscriber has used, receiving, at the account management application operating on the wireless device and from a service provider over a wireless network, account information associated with the wireless subscriber associated with the wireless device, the service provider being different from the wireless device and the wireless network, and enabling presentation, on a display of the wireless device, of the account management application including the wireless service usage information and the account information for the wireless subscriber associated with the wireless device.
US09344581B2

Disclosed are a VoIP client and a call implementation method thereof, and a user terminal. The VoIP client comprises: an access module, configured to make, through a preset high-speed wireless network, the VoIP client access the Internet; a sending module, configured to send a call request to a call controller; a receiving module, configured to receive at least one called number and a rate for calling the called number that are returned by the call controller, the called number comprising: one or more numbers registered by or bound to the called party of the call request; a selection module, configured to select one from the called number as a called number of the current call according to at least one called number and the rate for calling the called number, and an execution module, configured to perform call proceeding by using the selected called number.
US09344576B2

An Internet telephony system (ITS) comprising an enclosure, an interface to a packet switched computer network; a communications processor, configured to implement a voice over Internet Protocol communication, to execute at least a client portion of a telephony control application supporting at least a coordinated delivery of data presented to the user through a user interface and a conversation using the voice over Internet Protocol communication; and to execute a web browser; and at least one manual control input.
US09344574B2

Briefly, a variety of embodiments, including the following, are described: a system embodiment and methods that allow random access to voice messages, in contrast to sequential access in existing system embodiments; a system embodiment and methods that allow for the optional use of voice recognition to enhance usability; and a system embodiment and methods that apply to the area of voicemail.
US09344571B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a call processing method and control apparatus, an automatic call distribution apparatus, and an agent terminal. The call processing method, which executed by the call control apparatus, includes: receiving, a processing request for a call, and extracting a media connection address and a media capability of an automatic call distribution apparatus; performing, media negotiation based on a media capability of an agent terminal and the automatic call distribution apparatus; and establishing, a media session between the agent terminal and the automatic call distribution apparatus according to a media connection address of the agent terminal, the media connection address of the automatic call distribution apparatus, and a media negotiation result. The embodiments of the present invention can reduce the processing load of an entire cloud server, which effectively ensures the service quality of a call center constructed based on cloud computing technologies.
US09344570B2

A campaign strategy manager (CSM) component for a hosted communications campaign system allows users to define more granular and specific campaign strategies, including pass escalation for alternative channels (e.g., text and email) and/or based upon attempt results, contact attributes and response group data. The campaign strategy manager allows users to define pass strategies statically and dynamically, to manage lists across multiple campaigns, and to view results in real-time. A defined strategy is a static strategy created by a user for a particular campaign that, once created, typically is not modified. A dynamic strategy is one where, during the course of a day (e.g., as a sub-campaign is running), a user may alter the defined strategy, preferably just for that day (or portion thereof). The CSM may be used to implement a recovery strategy using a dialer pass.
US09344549B2

The disclosure relates to accessing computer resources by sensing audio with a microphone. One claim recites a system comprising a software module including instructions for causing a wireless device with cell phone communication capability to: i) extract identifying data from microphone-captured audio, the microphone-captured audio captured by the wireless device; ii) obtain device information for a class of devices associated with the wireless device; iii) control communication of the identifying data and the device information; and iv) control a user interface to provide access to a computer resource based on a service provided by said software module in response to communication of the identifying data and the device information, in which the service is configured to provide access in response to audio prompting, and in which said software module is configured to direct access of the wireless device according to the service; and a network resource comprising a data registry, the data registry providing a correlation between identifying data, device information and response information, the network resource configured to provide the service to said software module including providing the response information to said software module, the response information being associated with the identifying data and the device information. Of course, other claims and combinations are provided as well.
US09344548B2

An image is saved to a contact record or set as a home screen directly from a camera application of a portable electronic device. The method includes: capturing an image using a camera that is integrated into the portable electronic device, selecting at least a portion of the image, selecting a contact record from an address book application or selecting a set as home screen option.
US09344546B2

In one embodiment, a method for generating a message to a friend of a user is provided, comprising: processing activity data of a first user measured by an activity monitoring device to update a value of an activity metric for the first user; identifying a change in an inequality relationship between the value of the activity metric for the first user and a value of the activity metric for a second user; in response to identifying the change in the inequality relationship, prompting the first user to generate a message to the second user.
US09344536B2

Attachment mechanisms that may be employed to attach accessory devices to electronic devices are provided. The attachment mechanism may include a displaceable post that is moveable between deployed and stored configurations. In the deployed configuration an accessory may be attached to the displaceable post, whereas in the stored configuration the displaceable post may be at least partially inaccessible. Movement of the displaceable post may be controlled by cam surfaces, a spring, and a follower. The spring may be conical and configured to fold flat to reduce the height of the attachment mechanism.
US09344532B2

A method and apparatus are provided by which a radio communication device relays emergency signals across different channels using dual-watch. A dual-watch primary receiver of the radio communication device is allocated to a user selected home channel, while a dual-watch secondary receiver continually scans a pre-stored list of secondary channels for the purpose of detecting a possible emergency signal. The radio communication device upon detecting an emergency signal in either the home channel or any of the scanned secondary channels, relays the emergency signal to all the channels present in the radio communication device's channel list, except for the originating channel.
US09344531B2

A conversion device is designed for converting message units of a first communications protocol, which are received by the conversion device on the input side, to container messages of a second communications protocol. A predefined maximal dwell duration in the conversion device is assigned to each message unit. The conversion device is designed for assigning message units with an identical recipient address received on the input side to a container message for the respective recipient address, and to forward the respective container message when the maximal dwell duration of one of the message units assigned to it has expired or a predefined maximal data volume is assigned to the respective container message, induced by the message units assigned to it.
US09344511B2

A control method, a control device, and a processor in a software defined network (SDN). In the control method, the control device, and the processor in the SDN provided by the embodiments of the present invention, location information of a network device registered in another control device in the SDN is obtained, so that a remote object proxy of the network device can be established according to the location information, and the network device is controlled using the remote object proxy. Therefore, it is unnecessary to send a control or operation request to device objects of all network devices in other control devices, thereby avoiding a step that the device objects of all the network devices in the other control devices receive a service control request and perform determining, and improving service processing performance.
US09344506B2

When managing of a set of parameters for the delivery of spontaneous contents to a user of a terminal, at least one content is delivered to the user, a determination is made as to whether the user generates on his/her terminal a reaction that is favorable or otherwise to the content delivered. Within the set of parameters for delivery of the spontaneous contents, at least one parameter representing the said reaction on the part of the user, and at least one contextual parameter associated to the said content delivered are stored to memory so as to adapt the said set of parameters, and a schedule is established via the terminal to deliver at least one spontaneous content selected based on the said adapted set of parameters so as to determine an appropriate moment to deliver the said selected content.
US09344505B1

Disclosed are various embodiments for transferring cookie data between different domains. A first network data request is obtained from a client through a first domain. The first network data request includes a first cookie set by the first domain. Data from the first cookie is stored in a cache in association with a unique identifier. A second network data request, which presents the unique identifier, is obtained from the client through a second domain. A second cookie is set in the client through the second domain based at least in part on data from the first cookie. The first cookie is inaccessible to the second domain.
US09344495B2

A peer-to-peer network system provides at least one peer with information for configuration of a peer-to-peer network to optimize the configuration of the peer-to-peer network by using at least one of information about a status of the at least one peer, information about a status of an underlying network and information about a user in respect of services.
US09344494B2

A method, system, and medium are disclosed for performing failover data replication with colocation of session state data. In servicing a client request, a first session is created on a primary server. A first portion of session data comprises a state of the first session and is stored on the primary server. An identifier of the first session is stored on the primary server. One or more backup servers are selected for backup of the first portion of session data. A second session is created on the primary server. A second portion of session data comprises a state of the second session and is stored on the primary server. The same backup server(s) are selected for backup of the second portion based on the stored identifier of the first session. The primary server replicates the first and second portions of session data into memory space of the backup servers.
US09344489B2

An electronic data sharing device facilitates sharing of user related information with other users without requiring users to enter that information into their device. The device can detect another user's initiation of a data exchange request and generate a transactionally unique tag to exchange with the other user's device. The exchanged tags, when transferred to a server, enable users to access user related information held on the server.
US09344488B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide an application test method based on a service delivery platform, and a service delivery platform. The method includes: receiving a service request message sent by an application server; determining whether the service request is a test request; if the service request is a test request, parsing the test request and obtaining a test instruction; and performing, according to the test instruction, a corresponding action and returning a corresponding response to the application server. With the method and the service delivery platform provided in the embodiments of the present invention, tests of all interfaces and service logic of an application can be covered without a test blind spot; and application test costs are decreased in the light of operators and application developers.
US09344487B2

Various exemplary embodiments relate to a method and related network node including one or more of the following: receiving, by a cloud management system, a request for application deployment; provisioning a new application manager within a cloud computing system based on the request; configuring the new application manager to belong to a first virtual private network (VPN), wherein the cloud management system also belongs to the first VPN; and configuring the new application manager to belong to a second VPN, wherein the new application manager is configured to send and receive data messages via the first VPN and the second VPN.
US09344486B2

A system for collaborative decision-making and more efficient disaster management, in which multiple geobrowsers can communicate over local networks and/or the Internet to create a real collaborative experience when dealing with geospatial information, distributed using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant KML/KMZ formats, WMS (Web Mapping Service), or and geospatial data files. All manipulation functions (dataset loading, layer stacking, layer visibility changes, Point of View (POV) changes, map extent changes, looping and animation settings, geospatial file creation and annotation drawing, and other functions) are replicated across all connected geobrowsers to create a true collaborative geospatial Common Operating Picture (COP). The leadership role can be handed over to other users if desired to build upon all the datasets and annotations sent by previous leads. Additionally the designated lead user can record the current state of the map and reproduce this on demand or automatically on other geobrowsers.
US09344484B2

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for data migration among a plurality of cloud-based storage networks. In aspects, an administrator of a data payload may wish to migrate the data payload from a host cloud network to a target cloud provider to leverage cost, security, redundancy, consolidation, or other advantages. A data distribution service can identify data sets replicated from the data payload and located on the data distribution service or other staging sites. The data distribution service or other logic can examine consistencies and/or differences between the data payload in the host cloud network and the replicated data payloads. Depending on the consistencies and/or differences, the data distribution service can directly transport a replicated data payload from the respective staging site to a target cloud in lieu of migrating the data payload out of the host cloud network to the target cloud.
US09344481B2

A communication system is adapted to provide access to application information on an application server utilizing a specific one of multiple radio access types. Access is provided via an access network using an access bearer. The capability of the specifically requested access bearer is sent to the application server to tailor the application information content according to the capability of the specific access bearer. The information content is then transmitted to the requesting device.
US09344478B2

A method and an apparatus for managing content distribution over multiple terminal devices in collaborative media system are provided. In the collaborative media system, a first media data is transmitted over a first channel path to a first media terminal and a second media data relevant to the first media data is transmitted over a second channel to a second media terminal. The method comprises: detecting a quality of the first media data on the first channel path and that of the second media data on the second channel path; upon detection the quality of the first media data being lower than a first predetermined value and that of the second media data being greater than a second predetermined value, transmitting the second media data over the second channel path, instead of the first media data over the first channel path, to the first media terminal (S204).
US09344474B2

Methods and systems for supplying media over communication networks are described. In one embodiment, a media supplier determines whether a media object hosted on a web server will be supplied to a client by streaming or not by streaming. Preferably, if the determination is to stream, the media supplier streams the media object to the client. In some cases, the same media supplier may be capable of supplying clients with media objects hosted on any of at least two web servers.
US09344468B2

Provided is a method for controlling information shared in a virtual world by a server and a plurality of users' client terminals connected to each other through a network. In this information control method, a computer creates a third object between a first object and a second object in the virtual world when the first object and second object transmit communication information therebetween, and filters the information with the third object. In addition, when an object transmits visual information, the third object can be created around the object transmitting the visual information. The third object can be created as a pseudo wall.
US09344466B1

Improved methods, systems, and software for facilitating online collaboration and distribution of geospatial data are provided. Geospatial data available over a network can be updated in real-time and provided to one or more clients. User-accessible views of the geospatial data can be dynamically built by the clients and presented to users of the clients. Various methods of online collaboration between users of the clients can also be supported. The geospatial data can be provided in an XML format, thereby providing for efficient communication of data over the network. In various embodiments, the geospatial data can be an annotation prepared by a user of a second client, thereby allowing the user of the second client to collaborate with a user of the first client. Functionality can also be provided for converting geospatial data between flat and spherical formats.
US09344463B2

A method and apparatus for service control in which a service centralization and continuity application server (SCC AS): receives a first SIP message for establishing an IMS centralized service session; receives early session media information; and sends a second SIP message carrying the early session media information to a media gateway control device. The early session media information is carried in the second SIP message in a form of regular session media information, thus the media gateway control device uses an existing circuit switched bearer to transmit early session media to a first user equipment. The existing circuit switched bearer is established under control of the media gateway control device for a session between the first user equipment and a third user equipment. The SCC AS receives an off-hook signal from the second user equipment, and sends the regular session media information to the media gateway control device.
US09344458B2

Methods and apparatuses, including computer program products, are described for providing unified communication services for communication sessions between client devices. A plurality of globally-distributed computing device clusters are coupled to each other over a communication network. Each cluster is configured to receive, from a client device, a transaction request associated with a communication session, including a presence event. Each cluster comprises a SIP server configured to process the transaction request, an event queue configured to extract the presence event from the transaction request for storage in the event queue, and a session state handler configured to retrieve the presence event from the event queue and notify an XMPP server of the presence event. The SIP server, XMPP server, and session state handler each stores and retrieves data associated with the communication session in a database shard at the cluster. The shards of each cluster collectively comprise a single logical database.
US09344446B2

Systems and methods are provided for malware scanning and detection in a computing system. In one exemplary embodiment, the method includes launching, in a computing device of the computing system, a virtual machine, and launching, in the virtual machine of the computing device, an internet browser. The method also includes requesting, by the internet browser, data from a web page, and performing, using one or more analysis tools, analysis on the web page. In the method, performing analysis on the web page includes performing monitoring and recording of system application programming interface (API) calls, and creating software objects associated with the web page. The method also includes performing antivirus scanning of the software objects, de-obfuscating JavaScript associated with the software objects, and correlating data associated with the performed analysis to determine if the web page is a malicious web page.
US09344438B2

A multi-party commitment method is provided whereby a joining node uses contributions provided by contributor nodes in a peer-to-peer overlay network to generate a node identifier. The joining node generates a first contribution and sends a join request to an introducer node (or a plurality of contributor nodes), where the join request seeks to obtain one or more contributions for generating the node identifier within an identifier space of the overlay network. A hash of the first contribution may be included as part of the join request. In response, the joining node may receive a plurality of contributions, wherein the contributions are bound to each other and the first contribution by a prior external multi-node commitment operation. The joining node can then generate its node identifier as a function of the first contribution and the received contributions. Consequently, collusion between nodes and malicious manipulation during ID generation can be frustrated.
US09344432B2

Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for basing access control decisions at the network layer at least in part on information provided in claims, which may describe attributes of a computer requesting access, one or more resources to which access is requested, the user, the circumstances surrounding the requested access, and/or other information. The information may be evaluated based on one or more access control policies, which may be pre-set or dynamically generated, and used in making a decision whether to grant or deny the computer access to the specified resource(s).
US09344424B2

Systems and methods are provided for authorizing third-party access to a specific service from a service provider. In an example embodiment, a server system identifies a shared service from multiple services provided by the server system. The shared service is specified by an authorizing entity. The server system provides a credential associated with the shared service and the authorizing entity. The server system receives a request to access the shared service from a requesting entity that is separate from the authorizing entity. The server system verifies that the request includes the credential and that the credential is associated with the shared service and the authorizing entity. The server system provides access to the shared service to the requesting entity based on verifying that the request includes the credential. The requesting entity is restricted to accessing the shared service identified by the credential as authorized by the authorizing entity.
US09344420B2

Systems and methods for deploying rich internet applications in a secure computing environment. An example distributed computer system may comprise: a first computer system comprising a run-time environment executing one or more rich internet applications; a second computer system communicatively coupled to the first computer system, the second computer system executing an administration server; wherein the run-time environment is configured to query the administration server to perform at least one of: authenticating a user of the first computer system, determining whether an application is allowed to be executed within the run-time environment, or determining whether an application being executed by the run-time environment is allowed to access a certain function exposed by an application-programming interface (API) of the run-time environment.
US09344415B2

Disclosed is an electronic device and an authentication method performing therein. The authentication method includes transmitting a first address to a service providing node, receiving a first response to the transmission of the first address from the service providing node, transmitting a second address to the service providing node, receiving a second response to the transmission of the second address from the service providing node, and determining whether it is necessary to perform authentication for accessing a data network as a result of comparing the first response with the second response.
US09344403B2

A private overlay network is introduced into an existing core network infrastructure to control information flow between private secure environments. Such a scheme can be used to connect a factory automation network linking operations devices to a corporate network linking various business units, with enhanced network security. Such a connection can be facilitated by introducing into the existing infrastructure a set of industrial security appliances (ISAs) that work together to create an encrypted tunnel between the two networks. The set of ISAs can be scalable to overlay differently sized core networks, to create the private overlay network. Connections to the private overlay network can be managed by the ISAs in a distributed fashion, implementing a peer-to-peer dynamic mesh policy. The industrial security system disclosed may be particularly advantageous in environments such as public utility systems, medical facilities, and energy delivery systems.
US09344401B2

A method for providing translations of data retrieved from a storage system in a cloud computing environment includes receiving, by an interface object executing on a first physical computing device, a request for provisioning of a virtual storage resource by a storage system. The interface object requests, from a storage system interface object, provisioning of the virtual storage resource. The interface object receives, from the storage system interface object, an identification of the provisioned virtual storage resource. The interface object translates the identification of the provisioned virtual storage resource from a proprietary format implemented by the storage system interface object into a standardized format by accessing an interface translation file mapping each of a plurality of proprietary formats with the standardized format. The interface object responds to the request received from the second physical computing device, with a translation of the received identification.
US09344399B2

A relay server stores a routing apparatus belonging to a VPN group to which the relay server itself belongs, a second routing object address that is an address of the routing apparatus, and the like. The relay server stores a relationship of assignment of a virtual address to the second routing object address. The virtual address is an address that does not overlap with addresses of any other apparatuses. The relay server, upon receipt of a packet from a routing session, converts a source of the packet from an actual address into the virtual address and forwards the packet to a routing object device of the relay server itself. The relay server, upon receipt of a packet from the routing object device of the relay server itself, converts a destination of the packet from the virtual address into an actual address and forwards the packet to the routing session.
US09344398B2

A method of automatic hostname configuration includes receiving a request from a client device. A location detection module may be utilized for determining a location identifier representing a location at which the client device is located. A hostname is formed including at least the location identifier, and a control server assigns the hostname to the client device by sending an acknowledgement including the hostname to the client device. The request and acknowledgement may be communicated using DHCP. Simple network management protocol messages may be sent to one or more switches to query for a MAC address of the client device to determine the source switch and port from which the request originated. The switch-port-to-location table may include several ports that map to a same location identifier. The hostname may further be formed by including a device type identifier associated with the client device.
US09344397B2

The management of DHCP address leased based on client properties is described. According to a method of operation, clients are managed in a wireless digital network by modifying a requested lease time for an assigned Internet Protocol (IP) address based on properties of a client requesting the lease time. The assigned IP address is released if (i) no communication activity is detected by the client for a prescribed duration or (ii) upon detecting a DHCP Release message from the client. When the DHCP server receives a renewal request, it checks if the client has generated more than a predetermined amount of traffic. If the client has generated traffic exceeding this threshold level, the lease is renewed for a longer period. If the client traffic has not met the threshold level, the lease is renewed with the short lease time.
US09344391B2

Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate migrating message for a messaging service. In aspects, a determination is made that messages need to be migrated based on a threshold being crossed. In response, an agent is instructed to migrate data associated with the messages to another location. The agent uses various factors to determine one or more queues to migrate. While a queue is being migrated, during a first portion of the migration, messages may be added to and removed from the queue as senders send new messages and receivers consume messages. During a second portion of the migration, the queue is frozen to disallow the queue to be used for receiving new messages and delivering queued messages. The migration may be orchestrated to attempt to achieve certain goals.
US09344389B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to messaging and provide a method, system and computer program product for business object integration with messaging. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for messaging integration of a business object can be provided. The method can include embedding a business object in message text in a chat session provided by a messenger, and applying an action to the business object from within the messaging session of the instant messenger. The method further can include generating a message transcript for the messaging session with a split view of the message text and the business object and applied action.
US09344387B1

A system and method for message analysis, including: receiving, from a client device, a reporting request identifying a first broadcasted message authored by a context account of a messaging platform; identifying, by a computer processor, engagement data corresponding to engagement with the first broadcasted message by a set of engaging accounts of the messaging platform that engaged with the first broadcasted message; generating, using the engagement data and by the computer processor, propagation data representing propagation of the first broadcasted message in a connection graph of the messaging platform; and providing the propagation data for the client device in response to the reporting request, where the client device is operable to display a visual representation of the propagation data.
US09344380B2

The workload profiler and performance interference (WPPI) system uses a test suite of recognized workloads, a resource estimation profiler and influence matrix to characterize un-profiled workloads, and affiliation rules to identify optimal and sub-optimal workload assignments to achieve consumer Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and/or provider revenue goals. The WPPI system uses a performance interference model to forecast the performance impact to workloads of various consolidation schemes (e.g., consolidation strategies) usable to achieve cloud provider and/or cloud consumer goals, and uses the test suite of recognized workloads, the resource estimation profiler and influence matrix, affiliation rules, and performance interference model to perform off-line modeling to determine the initial assignment selections and consolidation strategy to use to deploy the workloads. The WPPI system uses an online consolidation algorithm, the offline models, and online monitoring to determine virtual machine to physical host assignments responsive to real-time conditions to meet cloud provider and/or cloud consumer goals.
US09344372B2

An interface device includes a first connector to connect to a port of a switch, where the switch sends data packets at a first rate and a second connector to connect to a port of a device, where the device sends data packets at a second rate slower than the first rate. A physical control layer connects to the first connector and the second connector to control a flow of data packets. The physical control layer throttles down the flow of data packets to the second connector when the data packets are travelling from the first connector to the second connector, and matches a speeds of the flow of data packets to the first connector when the data packets are travelling from the second connector to the first connector.
US09344361B2

A network includes a plurality of endpoint routers and intermediate routers. When a new data stream is detected at any endpoint router, the first packet is sent to a virtual routing server with knowledge of the entire network topology. Based on the topology, current usage, and historical usage, the virtual routing server determined a path for the data stream and begins to update the routing tables of the intermediate routers to reflect the determined path. Until the update is complete, all packets in the data stream are routed first to the virtual routing server and then to their destination. Once the update is complete, packets in the data stream are routed directly along the determined path.
US09344352B2

A transfer device that is installed in a unit network that includes a gateway includes a sending/receiving unit that sends/receives a frame to/from a transfer device that is installed in another unit network in a network that includes the unit network, a determining unit that determines, based on destination address or source address in a packet in the frame sent/received by the sending/receiving unit, whether the packet is related to communication between an internal device that is installed in the network and an external device that is installed outside the network, and a notifying unit that notifies, when the determining unit determines that the packet is related to the communication between the internal device and the external device, the external device of an instruction to switch a gateway.
US09344349B2

Some embodiments provide a method for a first network controller that manages a set of logical forwarding elements implemented in several managed forwarding elements. The method receives a request to trace a specified packet having a particular source on a logical forwarding element. The method generates the packet according to the packet specification. The generated packet includes an indicator that the packet is for a trace operation. The method sends the packet to a second network controller that manages a managed forwarding element associated with the particular source. The method receives a first set of messages regarding operations performed on the packet from a set of network controllers that receives a second set of messages regarding operations performed on the packet from a set of managed forwarding elements that process the packet.
US09344342B2

A method, system, and computer program product for monitoring similar data in stream computing are disclosed. The method may include, monitoring at least one input stream of tuples to be processed by an application. The application may comprise one or more processing elements operating on one or more computer processors and each tuple is an instance of data. The method may also include, identifying a first tuple in the input stream and the first tuple is a first instance of first data. Also, the method may include, identifying a second tuple in the input stream and the second tuple is a second instance of first data. Furthermore, the method may include, determining that the second tuple satisfies criteria for superseding the first tuple and eliminating the first tuple from the application.
US09344339B2

Techniques for discovering and/or advertising services are described herein. A first bitmask is received from a remote device over a wireless network, the first bitmask having one or more bits that have a predetermined logical value. Each bit represents a particular service provided by the remote device. A logical operation is performed between the first bitmask and a second bitmask locally generated within a local device, where the second bitmask represents a service being searched by the local device. It is determined whether the remote device is potentially capable of providing the service being searched by the local device based on a result of the logical operation.
US09344338B2

A stand-alone icon (i.e., an icon that is not part of an application interface) is provided to facilitate communications across a network between users of at least one communications program. The icon represents a contact or a set of contacts. Status information regarding the contact or set of contacts is received and displayed using the icon or in response to an operation performed on the icon. The icon additionally may provide an interface for performing actions related to the contact or set of contacts. The actions may generally include, for example, retrieving profile information about the contact, setting an alert to indicate that the contact's network/login status (e.g., login, logout, or idle) has changed, or performing communications with the contact.
US09344332B2

A method is provided for assisting in the installation of a home automation system, including a plurality of communicating packages suitable for exchanging information with one another via a local home automation network, at least one of the communicating packages being a driver package suitable for exchanging information with a central platform of the Internet network via a wireless packet-telephony connection. The method includes a step of connection (120) of a portable installation driver package and automatic searching (130) in situ for the best mobile operator to set up the wireless connection from the installation driver package from a predefined list of possible mobile operators The method includes automatic pairing (160) of each communicating package with a driver package and different steps (142-145, 150, 171, 172) for testing the operation of each communicating package.
US09344331B2

A network device includes an execution engine having an implementation of a network device component to process data received by the network device, and a compiler to dynamically generate the implementation of the network device component through compilation of a general representation using network device data for compiler optimization.
US09344327B2

Embodiments of network systems, computing systems, devices, components, modules, routines, and processes are described herein. In one embodiment, a network system includes a computing unit and a management controller configured to control a device operation of the computing unit. The device operation includes at least one of an operation to power up, an operation to power down, an operation to reset, an operation to power cycle, or an operation to refresh the computing unit. The network system also includes a wireless element configured to allow wireless communication between the computing unit and the management controller.
US09344326B2

A communication relay apparatus in which when an operation state of a first board is an active system and a fault in the first board is detected, a first transmission control circuit gives an instruction to an IF unit as to whether usage of a first transmission path is allowed and notifies a second transmission control circuit and a first communication state control unit that the fault is detected, the second transmission control circuit gives an instruction to the IF unit as to whether usage of a second transmission path is allowed, and when an evaluation is made to switch the operation state of the first board to the standby system, the first communication state control unit starts to take over the communication state of the communication data, which has passed through the first transmission path, to the second communication state control unit.
US09344319B1

Systems and methods can provide for Edge-QAM and M-CMTS timing lock. In some implementations, an Edge-QAM can provide for timing lock with an M-CMTS core by observing DOCSIS-SYNC MAC messages. In other implementations, an Edge-QAM can provide for timing lock with an M-CMTS core by observing per-modem ranging MAC messages. In other implementations, an EQAM can provide for timing lock with an M-CMTS core by performing timing lock check and adjustment. Using existing protocol messages defined in the M-CMTS architecture, the EQAM can intercept, snoop, and extract timing values from the M-CMTS core thereby reducing or even eliminating the need for a DTI server.
US09344316B2

An adaptable orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing system (OFDM) that uses a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) to having OFDM signals transmitted either in accordance with time diversity to reducing signal fading or in accordance with spatial diversity to increase the data rate. Sub-carriers are classified for spatial diversity transmission or for time diversity transmission based on the result of a comparison between threshold values and at least one of three criteria. The criteria includes a calculation of a smallest eigen value of a frequency channel response matrix and a smallest element of a diagonal of the matrix and a ratio of the largest and smallest eigen values of the matrix.
US09344309B2

A decision circuit includes: a first decision block to distinguish a first bit of bits using an amplitude of an analog signal as a discrimination point, the analog signal being an amplitude shift keyed signal; a superposition block to acquire an absolute value of a difference of the analog signal in respect to an amplitude center value of the analog signal by superposing divided analog signals; an inversion block to control inverting of the signal based on a first distinction result of the first decision block; a second decision block to distinguish a second bit of the bits based on an amplitude of an output signal from the inversion block and the discrimination point; and an output buffer to output the first distinction result and a second distinction result of the second decision block in synchronization with a clock.
US09344299B2

The present invention relates to a user equipment to perform an estimation operation in a wireless communication system. In more detail, the method includes: receiving configuration information of CSI-RSs (channel status information-reference signals) defined by a plurality of antenna ports from a base station; combining CSI-RSs defined by specific antenna ports among the plurality of antenna ports; and performing the measurement based on the combined CSI-RSs. Here, performing the measurement comprises measuring at least one of a RSRP (reference signal received power), a RSRQ (reference signal received quality) and a pathloss based on the combined CSI-RSs.
US09344295B2

A wireline communication system and method are provided that utilize a military standard 1553 bus to transmit both military standard 1553 communication signals and other communication signals, such as those transmitted in accordance with another communications protocol. A wireline communication system may include a military standard 1553 bus and a military standard 1553 node configured to communicate with military standard 1553 communication signals at a first predefined range of frequencies. The wireline communication system further includes a first interface node configured to communicate via the military standard 1553 bus with second communication signals having a second predefined range of frequencies, different than the first predefined range of frequencies. The second communication signals are transmitted along the military standard 1553 bus at less than a predetermined decibel level. The second predefined range of frequencies and the predetermined decibel level are selected to limit interference between the different signals.
US09344291B2

A conferencing system and method that allows participants to review recorded conference information and to join the conference live are disclosed. Exemplary systems and methods continuously record or buffer at least a portion of a conference, such that participants joining late or that otherwise miss a portion of the conference can review a recording of the portion of the conference and catch up to the live portion of the conference.
US09344285B2

A computer implemented method, computer program product, server and clients for preserving privacy and accountability. The server receives from a first client computer pseudonymous, encrypted data and stores the pseudonymous, encrypted data. The -server further receives receiving at from a second client computer a data request for the pseudonymous, encrypted data and provides the pseudonymous, encrypted data to the second client computer in response to the data request. The server receives from the second client computer a signed key request for at least one key, wherein the at least one key is configured to decrypt the pseudonymous, encrypted data and wherein the signed key request comprises a public key of the second client computer. The server receives from the first client computer the at least one key, wherein the at least one key is encrypted with the public key of the second client computer and provides the at least one encrypted key to the second client computer in response to the signed key request.
US09344283B2

Particular embodiments determine a modified image for a CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA may include an original image, a challenge based on the original image, and/or a correct response based on the original image. The modified image may be a scrambled version of the original image. Web-browser-executable code is determined for unscrambling the modified image back to the original image. The modified image and the web-browser-executable code are then provided to a computing device. Upon receiving the modified image and the web-browser-executable code, the computing device then displays the original image based on the modified image and the web-browser-executable code.
US09344281B2

A secure provisioning manifest used to authenticate and securely communicate with peripherals attached to a computer is provided with techniques to withdraw the authentication and terminate the secure communications with any peripheral when operating parameters for the peripheral indicate that there is a security threat associated with the peripheral. A secure I/O module, that is separate from an operating system and transaction software executed by a processor of the computer, uses the secure provisioning manifest to establish a secure encrypted session for communicating with each peripheral attached to the computer when a peripheral is authenticated and able to establish a secure encrypted session. The secure I/O module uses current and known operating parameters for each peripheral to periodically determine if a peripheral has been compromised by a security threat.
US09344279B2

An authentication channel is established between a mobile device and a transaction terminal that uses a keypad for access control. The terminal keypad is assumed to be untrusted, whereas the mobile device has a trusted interface that only the device user can access and use. The transaction terminal includes a short-range communication device, and a keypad interface application configured to communicate with an external keypad device in lieu of the transaction terminal's own keypad. The mobile device includes a mobile app. In response to detecting a user access request, a handshake protocol is performed between the keypad interface application in the transaction terminal and the keypad interface function in the mobile device. If the handshake protocol succeeds, the user is notified that the transaction terminal is trusted. The user then enters his or her password and/or PIN on the mobile device in lieu of direct entry via the terminal keypad.
US09344271B1

A hybrid analog-digital, dual path, delta-sigma modulator (DSM) based fractional-N phase-lock-loop (PLL) that includes an integral path and a proportional path is provided. The integral path is implemented in the digital domain. The proportional path may be implemented in either the digital or analog domain. A feed-forward error correction signal generator is used to generate a feed-forward signal for attenuating in-band spurs generated by the quantization error of the integral path phase detector.
US09344264B2

Disclosed is a reversible Time Division Duplex (TDD) and/or Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) radio architecture between Transmission (Tx) and Reception (Rx) functions in a mobile communication system. Accordingly, all of the blocks/components in a Tx/Rx Radio Frequency unit are reversible between Tx and Rx functions. As such, the blocks/components are adapted to bi-directionally process a signal, either in a Tx or Rx direction, based on switching.
US09344250B2

The present document provides a method, a multi-point transmission system, a base station and a terminal for transmitting data in a multi-point transmission system. The method includes: for a User Equipment (UE) enabling multi-point transmission, a base station to which a secondary serving cell of the UE belongs adjusting a time when a High Speed Shared Control Channel (HS-SCCH) and a High Speed Dedicated Physical Control Channel (HS-PDSCH) are transmitted to the UE according to frame offset information of the primary and secondary serving cells of the UE, so that a subframe boundary offset between the HS-PDSCHs of the primary and secondary serving cells received by the UE is within a specified range, and a subframe boundary offset between the HS-SCCHs of the primary and secondary serving cells received by the UE is within the same specified range.
US09344238B2

Systems, methods, and devices for wireless communication are disclosed herein. One aspect of the disclosure provides a method of transmitting on a wireless communication network. The method includes transmitting to one or more first devices in a first portion of a bandwidth, the one or more first devices having a first set of capabilities, simultaneously transmitting to one or more second devices in a second portion of the bandwidth, the one or more second devices having a second set of capabilities, and wherein the transmission comprises a preamble which includes an indication for devices with the second set of capabilities to locate a frequency band in the bandwidth for symbols containing a set of transmission parameters for devices with the second set of capabilities, and where the indication is sent so as to have no substantial impact on a preamble decoding of devices with the first set of capabilities.
US09344225B2

Systems and methods for providing distributed Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) in a wireless communication system are described herein. In one embodiment, a relay station interconnects a base station of the wireless communication system and one or more mobile stations. A first ARQ process is performed for a first connection between the base station and the relay station. A separate second ARQ process is performed for a second connection between the relay station and a mobile station. In this manner, rather than having end-to-end ARQ between the base station and the mobile station, a distributed ARQ process is provided.
US09344224B2

A method and apparatus are described. A wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) generates data bits and piggybacked acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (PAN) bits and generates a plurality of symbols based on the data bits and the PAN bits. Each symbol of the plurality of symbols represents a plurality of bits and has a least significant bit (LSB) position, and no PAN bits are present in the LSB position of each of the plurality of symbols. The plurality of symbols are transmitted.
US09344218B1

An error resilience method comprising: using a computer, creating and storing, in computer memory, one or more FEC filter tables for use by the FEC filter for selectively forwarding a FEC packet; selectively forwarding a request for the FEC packet through a FEC filter based on the FEC table and a dynamic packet loss level at a receiver; limiting a re-transmission request for a particular packet through the FEC filter based on a number of re-transmission requests for the particular packet; and selectively skipping a key frame request based on a number of key frame requests received from a plurality receiver devices, wherein the method is performed by one or more special-purpose computing devices.
US09344217B2

UEs are adapted to facilitate reconstruction of a segment of corrupted bits. According to one example, a UE can receive a control channel transmission such as a HS-SCCH transmission. The control channel transmission may include a plurality of information bits and a plurality of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) bits. The UE may further determine that a contiguous segment of the received information bits is corrupt. The UE may accordingly utilize the uncorrupted information bits and CRC bits to reconstruct the corrupt information bits. In some instances, the UE may utilize the uncorrupted bits to reconstruct the corrupt information bits using a new generator polynomial. In other instances, the UE may utilize the uncorrupted bits to reconstruct the corrupt information bits using the original generator polynomial.
US09344216B2

The invention relates to a method of reconstructing pixel values of a video frame for concealing corrupted pixel values. The method comprising receiving, by a receiving unit, of a signal from a communication channel and delivering by the receiving unit of video packets comprising pixel values possibly corrupted with errors; associating confidence levels with pixel values comprised in the video packets as delivered by the receiving unit; and reconstructing pixel values usable for display from the received pixel values, wherein a reconstructed value for a given pixel is obtained from the received values of a set of pixels, including the given pixel, weighted by their associated confidence levels.The invention allows for better reconstruction of corrupted pixel values and reduces the perceived distortion when displaying the video frame.
US09344215B2

Systems and methods are provided for customer premises equipment (CPE) on a passive optical network (PON). A system includes a packet processor having at least an active mode and a sleep mode, the packet processor configured to processes streams of data packets received in a data plane from an optical line terminal (OLT) through the PON when in an active mode and to enter the sleep mode when not receiving data packets in the data plane. A system further includes a micro-controller, separate from the packet processor, configured to receive from an OLT operation and management (OAM) messages that are transmitted in a control plane, and to process the OAM messages by, selectively transmitting to a central office, without waking up the packet processor, an acknowledgement message, or waking up the packet processor to receive data packets in the data plane.
US09344213B2

An optical WDM transmission system including a plurality of first optical transceivers at a first end of an optical WDM transmission link, each including a tunable optical transmitter being adapted to create a first digital optical channel signal within the bandwidths of a set of first optical channels of the system according to tuning control information. The first channels are multiplexed in to a first WDM signal and supplied at the first end of the WDM link. Second optical transceivers at a second end link each include a transmitter adapted to create a second digital optical channel signal within a channel bandwidth of a second set of optical channels of the system. The second channels are multiplexed into a second WDM signal for transmission to the first transceivers, and demultiplexing there. A central tuning device creates the tuning control information for the first optical transceivers by tapping off an optical WDM detection signal from the first signal, extracting tuning status information from the optical WDM detection signal and determining tuning control information for at least one of the first transceivers. The central tuning device also supplies the tuning control information to the at least one first transceiver by modulating the second signal according to the tuning control information applying an amplitude modulation of the second signal using a dedicated WDM tone frequency.
US09344212B2

To solve a problem that unless all of a plurality of AICH signature states are correctly decoded, the contents of reception results cannot be recognized and the error rate of signature decoding will be high. In this embodiment, a base station uses, out of a signature combination, the signature of at least one predetermined position to indicate information containing a preamble reception result and uses the signature of a position other than the predetermined position to indicate a transmission profile information number of an uplink channel for notification to a user equipment. Thus, the error rate related to reception results can be reduced as compared with the case where a single signature combination is used to notify all pieces of information.
US09344211B2

A method and apparatus for allocating subcarriers in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises allocating at least one diversity cluster of subcarriers to a first subscriber and allocating at least one coherence cluster to a second subscriber.
US09344205B2

Methods and apparatus to count persons in a monitored environment are disclosed. An example apparatus to count the number of people in a monitored environment is described, which includes an image sensor to collect a plurality of pixels, a pseudorandom number generator to pseudorandomly select at least one of a row of the pixels or a column of the pixels, a reader to read first pixel data generated by first pixels of the image sensor at a first time, the first pixels located in at least one of the row of the pixels or the column of the pixels, a comparator to compare the first pixel data with second pixel data generated by the first pixels at a second time different than the first time to generate first change values, and a counter to generate a count of persons based on the first change values.
US09344202B2

The invention generally relates to a method of indicating signal quality at an input to a radio receiver, and to a radio receiver. In particular, such a method is described, wherein a receiver comprises first (RF) and second (IF) gain control loops respectively using first and second gain control signals, and comprising indicating signal quality dependent on said first gain control signal and said second gain control signal. In an embodiment, a difference between the first and second gain control signals is used to indicate presence of interference and/or received signal strength.
US09344197B2

A millimeter wave transmission device, the millimeter wave transmission device with (a) a first signal processing board for processing a millimeter wave signal; (b) a second signal processing board signal-coupled to the first signal processing board to receive the millimeter wave signal and perform signal processing with respect to the millimeter wave signal; and (c) a member provided between the first signal processing board and the second signal processing board and having a predetermined relative dielectric constant and a predetermined dielectric dissipation factor. The member constitutes a dielectric transmission path via which the millimeter wave signal is transmitted between the first signal processing board and the signal processing board.
US09344196B1

A monolithic integrated optical transmitter comprising (a) an optical source including two output optical paths and (b) a modulator section that includes an interferometric optical signal combiner is described. Each of the two output optical paths of the optical source includes a reflector. The optical source is configured to output a first light beam through the first optical path and a second light beam through the second optical path. The optical transmitter is capable of generating advanced modulation format signals based on amplitude and phase modulation.
US09344194B2

A system includes an optical power meter operable to generate an optical power signal corresponding to the optical power of a received output signal generated by an optical IQ-modulator. The system further includes a processor operable to receive the optical power signal and determine, based on a minimization algorithm and the received optical power signal, a first bias voltage to be applied to a first sub-modulator of the optical IQ-modulator and a second bias voltage to be applied to a second sub-modulator of the optical IQ-modulator. The system may also include a peak power meter operable to generate a peak power signal corresponding to the peak power of the received output signal generated by the optical IQ-modulator, wherein the processor is further operable to determine, based on a minimization algorithm and the received peak power signal, a third bias voltage to be applied to a phase shift component of the optical IQ-modulator.
US09344183B2

A customer premises installation has a wireless multimedia center (WMC) for reception from one or more signal sources and for distribution of segments of signals from signal sources through the wireless multimedia center to a plurality of end units, in which the signals include video signals and broadband data. The wireless multimedia center receives all the signals and distributes segments of said signals via a transmitter. The video signals are transmitted by orthogonal frequency division multiplexing in which all signals are added together and summed as an orthogonal array having dimensions of time, frequency and amplitude, to transmit spread spectrum multiplexed signals. Each pulse has sufficiently long individual pulse widths to defeat multi-path, reflection and absorption phase induced losses. The video signals are distributed to one or more end units. The end units communicate with the wireless multimedia center, controlling which segments of which signals are distributed to each end unit.
US09344181B2

Devices and methods are provided for directionally receiving and/or transmitting acoustic waves and/or radio waves for use in applications such as wireless communications systems and/or radar. High directional gain and spatial selectivity are achieved while employing an array of receiving antennas that is small as measured in units of the wavelength of radio waves being received or transmitted, especially in the case of spatially oversampled arrays. Frequency/wavenumber, multi-dimensional spectrum analysis, as well as one-dimensional frequency spectrum analysis can be performed.
US09344174B2

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for mobile transmit diversity. In one aspect, a wireless communication apparatus is provided. The wireless communication apparatus includes a plurality of antennas. The wireless communication apparatus further includes a plurality of transmit circuits, each transmit circuit of the plurality of transmit circuits being configured to transmit according to a different radio access technology. The wireless communication apparatus further includes a controller configured to selectively switch each of the transmit circuits of the plurality of transmit circuits to transmit wireless communications via a corresponding one of the plurality of antennas based on priority levels of data for each of the transmit circuits and a detected operating mode of the wireless communication apparatus.
US09344173B2

A method for transmitting channel state information (CSI) on multiple base stations (BSs) in a wireless communication system. A user equipment (UE) receives information on periodic reporting configuration of CSI including a rank indicator (RI) and a first type precoding matrix indicator (PMI) with respect to a first BS and information on periodic reporting configuration of CSI including a RI and a first type PMI with respect to a second BS. The UE transmits CSI on the first BS and the second BS on the basis of CSI reporting configuration with respect to the first BS and the second BS. Additional CSI including aggregated CSI generated by aggregating signals from the first BS and the second BS is transmitted at the time when a report on one of a first type PMI and the RI is omitted.
US09344167B2

Embodiments provide approaches for sub-sampling a two-component precoder codebook to reduce the overhead associated with signaling the codebook in periodic Channel State Information (CSI) reports from a user equipment (UE) to a base station. In one embodiment, a first component of the codebook is sub-sampled to accommodate a payload capacity of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) CSI Report of Type 1. In another embodiment, both the first component and the second component of the codebook are sub-sampled to accommodate a maximum payload capacity associated with a PUCCH CSI report.
US09344157B2

A method for communication by means of a transformer, which has at least a primary coil and a secondary coil, which are parts of an oscillatory circuit, wherein the oscillatory circuit is supplied on the primary side with an exciter frequency. For transmission of a signal from the secondary side to the primary side, the inductance of the secondary coil is modulated. A corresponding apparatus for performing the method is likewise provided.
US09344156B2

A method for protecting communication between an electromagnetic transponder and a terminal, wherein the transmission of an acknowledgement for a request received from a terminal by the transponder is only allowed when the transponder is in mechanical contact or in quasi-mechanical contact with the terminal.
US09344152B2

A communication apparatus includes a communication unit configured to communicate in a first communication mode in which a memory of the communication apparatus is accessed by another communication apparatus, a detection unit configured to detect an access from the another communication apparatus to the memory of the communication apparatus, and a shift unit configured to shift an operation mode of the communication apparatus in response to a condition including at least the access to the memory detected by the detection unit.
US09344151B2

A method of deployment of a power monitor system includes: coupling a monitor device that has a measurement component to a power line communication device for communicating a physical quantity measured by the measurement component across a power line; inserting a connection tap of an electrical access device into the power line through an insulation sheath to a conductor within the power line; attaching the electrical access device to the power line; and coupling electrically the electrical access device to the monitor device and the power line communication device.
US09344146B2

Methods, apparatus and systems for de-correlating training pattern sequences for high-speed links and interconnects. The high-speed links and interconnects employs multiple lanes in each direction for transmitting and receiving data, and may be physically implemented via signal paths in an inter-plane board such as a backplane or mid-plane, or via a cable. During link training, a training pattern comprising a pseudo random bit sequence (PBRS) is sent over each lane. The PBRS for each lane is generated by a PBRS generator based on a PRBS polynomial that is unique to that lane. Since each lane employs a different PRBS polynomial, the training patterns between lanes are substantially de-correlated. Link negotiation may be performed between link endpoints to ensure that the PBRS polynomials used for all of the lanes in the high-speed link or interconnect are unique. Exemplary uses include Ethernet links, Infiniband links, and multi-lane serial interconnects.
US09344142B2

A communication system that includes a transmit antenna, a radio frequency (RF) phase shifting module, an RF combiner, a first receive antenna and a second receive antenna; wherein the first and second receive antennas are located at a same distance from the transmit antenna; wherein the first and second receive antennas are arranged to receive first and second leakage signals resulting from a transmission of RF radiation by the transmit antenna; wherein the RF phase shifting module is configured to receive signals from the first and second receive antennas, to phase shift signals from at least one of first and second receive antennas to provide intermediate RF signals; wherein the phase shift caused by the RF phase shifting module introduces a destructive phase shift between the first and second leakage signals; wherein the RF combiner is configured to add the intermediate RF signals to provide combined RF signals.
US09344141B2

The disclosure provides an electronic device including a coupler, a transceiver, and a control circuit. The coupler generates a coupled downlink signal according to a downlink signal from a head-end unit. The transceiver switches between the transmission of a downlink signal and the reception of an uplink signal according to a control signal. The control circuit receives the coupled downlink signal, generates a status counting signal according to the power status of the coupled downlink signal, and generates the control signal according to the status counting signal. Only when the level of the coupled downlink signal is lower than an amplitude threshold level with a duration longer than a status counting time, the control circuit converts the status counting signal from a first logic level to a second logic level opposite to the first logic level. Otherwise, the control circuit maintains the status counting signal on the first logic level.
US09344128B2

A method of decoding a radio signal by an electronic device is provided. The method includes receiving the radio signal, digitizing the radio signal, auto-correlating the radio signal to generate a first signal and determining periodic information of the radio signal using the first signal. An electronic device, such as a software defined radio, is also provided. The electronic device includes a radio frequency front end, a processing unit and memory. The processing unit may also include a field programmable gate array and a graphics processing unit.
US09344122B1

Adaptive filtering is used to substantially cancel distortion in radio frequency (RF) signals. Such adaptive filtering can be used in an RF transmitting module to pre-compensate an RF signal with compensation (inverse) distortion to cancel inherent transmission path distortion from the RF signal. Adaptive filtering can also be used in a multi-carrier RF receiving module to cancel from a given carrier signal distortion due to cross talk from adjacent carrier signals. Adaptive filtering in an RF transceiver can be used to cancel from a received RF signal distortion arising from leakage of a transmit signal into the receive path.
US09344120B2

Example apparatus and methods control the number of rateless erasure codes (e.g., fountain codes) stored in an object store for an item (e.g., file stored as object). The codes for the item may be generated according to an M/N policy. A first safety factor that controls how many codes are stored initially in the object store is identified. A first number of codes are then stored in the object store, where the first number is selected as a function of the first safety factor. A second safety factor for the item and a condition under which the second safety factor is to be used to control the number of codes to be stored in the object store is also identified. When the condition is detected, a second number of codes are stored in the object store, where the second number is selected as a function of the second safety factor.
US09344111B2

An n-order noise shaper has an order n≧3, wherein a first set of polynomial coefficients are optimized with respect to a useful band and wherein a second set of polynomial coefficients are optimized with respect to an optimization aim depending on an overall out of band noise and/or on a maximum out of band noise.
US09344108B2

A delta-sigma modulator for a switching amplifier, which achieves a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the multi-MHz range and keeps the noise-transfer function over the useful frequency range as low and as flat as possible. A series connection of a parallel-serial converter and a downstream swap element for the serial output signal ya2 of the parallel serial converter is connected to the multi-bit output of the delta-sigma-modulator. The swap element swaps, based on the last bit value 0 or 1 of a preceding word in the resulting output signal ya3, the sequence of the binary zeroes and ones of the current word, where present, and then an input signal is fed to the delta-sigma-modulator. The signal is capable of having a frequency range above 25 kHz, and is prepared with a low oversampling ratio and a high SNR. And, 1-0 or 0-1 transitions are largely eliminated at the word boundaries.
US09344101B2

In order to reduce power consumption, a semiconductor device includes an RTC for generating a piece of time information and a first activation signal SW3, a comparator for determining whether the value of an analog input signal exists within a predetermined range, an AD conversion circuit for converting the analog input signal to a digital signal in response to a common activation signal, and a CPU for processing the digital signal in response to the common activation signal. When the analog input signal does not exist within the predetermined rang, the comparator generates the common activation signal. Then, the CPU stores the piece of digital information corresponding to the digital signal as well as the piece of time information from the RTC into a storage circuit.
US09344100B2

A transceiver for multi-standard operation (usable, for example, to communicate signals both of a first wireless communication standard and of a second wireless communication standard) has a mixer that receives a local oscillator signal generated by a local oscillator. A PLL of the local oscillator involves a VCO, a digitally programmable analog loop filter, a digitally programmable VCO supply voltage circuit, and a digitally programmable VCO varactor bias control circuit. In one aspect, the bandwidth of the analog loop filter is adjusted depending on the communication standard of the signal being communicated. In other aspects, the VCO supply voltage circuit and/or the varactor bias control circuit are configured in different ways to optimize PLL performance depending on the communication standard of the signal being communicated.
US09344093B2

A counter including a state determination unit and a counter reset unit is provided. The state determination unit is for receiving a current count value to calculate a next count value. The counter reset unit compares a reset counter value and a delay cycle value to determine using a first comparator or a second comparator, and compares the reset counter value and the current count value to output a counter reset signal to the state determination unit to reset the current count value, wherein a bit number of the first comparator is smaller than a bit number of the second comparator.
US09344091B2

A die-stacked memory device incorporates a reconfigurable logic device to provide implementation flexibility in performing various data manipulation operations and other memory operations that use data stored in the die-stacked memory device or that result in data that is to be stored in the die-stacked memory device. One or more configuration files representing corresponding logic configurations for the reconfigurable logic device can be stored in a configuration store at the die-stacked memory device, and a configuration controller can program a reconfigurable logic fabric of the reconfigurable logic device using a selected one of the configuration files. Due to the integration of the logic dies and the memory dies, the reconfigurable logic device can perform various data manipulation operations with higher bandwidth and lower latency and power consumption compared to devices external to the die-stacked memory device.
US09344087B2

A clock tree unit cell circuit includes a first input terminal configured to receive a clock signal from an upstream side of a clock tree; a first output terminal configured to output a clock signal to a downstream side of the clock tree; a second input terminal configured to receive a standby signal from the upstream side of the clock tree; a third input terminal configured to receive a standby signal from the downstream side of the clock tree; a logic circuit configured to perform a predetermined logical operation on the clock signal inputted to the first input terminal and output the clock signal to the first output terminal; and a control circuit that is connected to the second input terminal, the third input terminal, and an output control terminal of the logic circuit.
US09344081B2

Embodiments of the invention are generally directed to a line driver with separate pre-driver for feed-through capacitance. An embodiment of an apparatus includes a differential pair of transistors to generate an output signal on a first output node and a second output node; a pass-through capacitance coupled with the first output node and the second output node; a first pre-driver to drive an input signal for the differential transistors; and a second pre-driver to drive the input signal for the pass-through capacitance.
US09344074B2

In a first clock frequency multiplier, multiple injection-locked oscillators (ILOs) having spectrally-staggered lock ranges are operated in parallel to effect a collective input frequency range substantially wider than that of a solitary ILO. After each input frequency change, the ILO output clocks may be evaluated according to one or more qualifying criteria to select one of the ILOs as the final clock source. In a second clock frequency multiplier, a flexible-injection-rate injection-locked oscillator locks to super-harmonic, sub-harmonic or at-frequency injection pulses, seamlessly transitioning between the different injection pulse rates to enable a broad input frequency range. The frequency multiplication factor effected by the first and/or second clock frequency multipliers in response to an input clock is determined on the fly and then compared with a programmed (desired) multiplication factor to select between different frequency-divided instances of the frequency-multiplied clock.
US09344063B2

Drive circuit and method for a gated semiconductor switching device A drive circuit and method for a gated semiconductor switching device (10) comprising providing coupling such as a mutual inductance between a gate drive circuit (21) for the device and a drain to source current supply circuit (22) for the device in order to change a gate voltage provided by the gate drive circuit dependent on a rate of change of a current in the drain to source current supply circuit. The change in gate voltage has a magnitude and phase arranged to increase or decrease a switching speed of the gated semiconductor switching device.
US09344062B2

To achieve low power consumption of a semiconductor device including a plurality of function blocks capable of being in either an operating state or a not-operating state, by effective use of electric charge discharged from a not-operating function block. In a semiconductor device including a plurality of function blocks, a capacitor is electrically connected to the plurality of function blocks so that electric charge discharged from a not-operating function block is accumulated in the capacitor. Then, the electric charge accumulated in the capacitor is supplied to a function block to be in an operating state, and then power is supplied from a power source to the function block.
US09344054B2

A common mode filter includes, between ports, a differential transmission line including a first signal line and a second signal line. The first signal line includes a first inductor arranged in series, and the second signal line includes a second inductor arranged in series. In addition, a first resonant circuit is provided between the first end of the first inductor and the ground, and a second resonant circuit is provided between the first end of the second inductor and the ground.
US09344047B2

In aspects of the invention, an operational amplifier circuit includes: an N-MOS auxiliary current source connected in parallel to the N-MOS differential pair, the N-MOS auxiliary current source turning ON when the N-MOS differential pair turns OFF caused by a decreased common mode input voltage given to the pair of voltage input terminals, drawing a current from the active load for the P-MOS differential pair. Aspects of the invention also include a P-MOS auxiliary current source connected in parallel to the P-MOS differential pair, the P-MOS auxiliary current source turning ON when the P-MOS differential pair turns OFF caused by an increased common mode input voltage given to the pair of voltage input terminals, delivering a current to the active load for the-N-MOS differential pair.
US09344040B2

Disclosed is an amplifier circuit with cross wiring of direct-current signals and microwave signals. The circuit includes a circuit network unit formed of a direct-current feeding circuit and a microwave power signal circuit. The direct-current feeding circuit comprises a high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) drain power-up bonding point, a corresponding line, a feeding end of a tail-level HEMT transistor core, a first Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor, a first micro-strip inductor, symmetrical branch micro-strips, a second MIM capacitors. The microwave power signal circuit comprises a signal end of the tail-level HEMT transistor core, two third MIM capacitors, other electrode of the second MIM capacitors, a ground micro-strip inductors, a second micro-strip inductors, a third micro-strip inductor, a fourth MIM capacitor.
US09344036B1

Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to automatic amplitude control of an oscillating signal output from a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using feedback from an amplitude adjustment circuit. The VCO may comprise cross-coupled metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors coupled to a resonant tank circuit. Gates of the cross-coupled transistors are configured to control an amplitude of the oscillating signal generated by the resonant tank circuit. In certain aspects, the amplitude adjustment circuit may comprise a peak detector that generates a signal that is representative of the amplitude of the oscillating signal. The signal generated by the peak detector may be compared to a reference voltage by an amplifier. The amplifier may generate a feedback signal to control the gates of the cross-coupled MOS transistors based on the comparison, thereby adjusting the amplitude of the oscillating signal.
US09344028B2

A traction motor system calculates motor flux by generating a real time effective resistance of a resistance grid calculated from motor torque and measured voltage on a DC link. Calculating effective resistance avoids solely relying on DC link voltage, which can be influenced by conditions such as wheel slip and drop out of one or more resistance grids. The effective resistance calculation is based on nominal motor values using known power levels and conditions. From these nominal values and the effective resistance, various scaling factors based on actual motor power can be generated and used to adjust a nominal flux reference to more accurately reflect actual motor flux. The scaling factors include power and torque scaling factors and a resistance scaling factor that is active during conditions such as wheel slip.
US09344025B2

A method for operating a wind farm and to a wind farm is disclosed. When a wind farm and the wind energy installations involve target values for the reactive power being prescribed by a farm regulatory device, said target values for the reactive power ignored by the control units when controlling the respective wind energy installation in the event of a power supply system fault in the power supply system. Only when the power supply system fault has been rectified are said target values considered by the control units again for controlling the respective wind energy installation.
US09344024B2

Apparatus are provided for motor control systems and related medical devices. In one embodiment, a control system includes a motor having a rotor, a modulation module coupled to the motor, and a control module coupled to the modulation module. The modulation module generates a modulated voltage that is applied to the motor and rotates the rotor to deliver fluid via a fluid path. The control module adjusts a duty cycle of the modulated voltage to achieve a commanded rotation of the rotor and detects an occlusion condition in the fluid path based on the duty cycle.
US09344019B2

Provided is a control device for an AC rotating machine, for controlling the AC rotating machine including a plurality of sets of windings. The control device includes: a plurality of inverters each including, in respective phases, switching elements for controlling voltages to be applied to respective phases of the windings; current control portion for issuing voltage commands corresponding to the voltages to the respective inverters to control currents flowing through the windings; and failure detection portion for detecting at least one of a short-circuit failure or an open-circuit failure in each of the switching elements. The current control portion sets, in accordance with the failure detected by the failure detection portion, the same potential side of the respective phases of a faulty-side inverter in the same state as in the detected failure, and continues control on a normal-side inverter except for the faulty-side inverter.
US09344015B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided a variable speed control apparatus applied to a variable speed system of secondary excitation including a double feed synchronous machine and a frequency converter. The variable speed control apparatus includes a secondary current controller configured to control an output current from the frequency converter, and a secondary current limiter configured to limit an effective component current command and a reactive component current command of a secondary current for the secondary current controller by using a given secondary current limit value and output a limited result to the secondary current controller.
US09344013B2

A motor vehicle seat comprising an adjustable part, a fixed part, and an adjustable mechanism comprising a traveling wave piezoelectric motor having a rotor and a stator, the stator comprising two distinct power terminals connected to an electronic control unit adapted to operate according to three operating modes comprising: a locked operating mode in which the power terminals are not supplied power; a motorized operating mode in which two AC voltages are applied to the two power terminals; and a free operating mode in which an AC voltage is applied to one power terminal while the other is not supplied with power.
US09344007B2

A resonant power converter is provided. The resonant power converter comprises a balancing circuit for balancing the voltage in a feeding connection. The balancing circuit comprises: a first positive control means in series with an inductor, wherein the first positive control means and the inductor is coupled between the positive DC conductor and the feeding connection, and a second negative control means in series with the inductor, wherein the second negative control means are coupled between the negative DC conductor and the feeding connection. The first positive and second negative control means are adapted to be alternatingly switched on and off for balancing the resonant power converter, such that the voltage in the feeding connection is substantially the mean voltage of the positive DC conductor and the negative DC conductor.
US09344006B2

In various embodiments, a driving circuit for a transistor is provided, wherein the transistor may include a transistor having a control terminal, a diode, a capacitance with a first terminal and a second terminal, wherein the first terminal may be coupled to the control terminal and the second terminal may be coupled to a reference potential via the diode, and a resistor, which is coupled in parallel to the capacitance.
US09344000B2

There are provided a power module in which a bias voltage is varied and supplied to a control circuit controlling power conversion when an idle mode is switched to a normal mode, and a distributed power supply apparatus having the same. The power module includes: a power factor correction stage; a DC/DC conversion stage switching power to convert the power into pre-set DC power in a powering mode in which normal power is output; a standby stage converting the power into pre-set standby power in a cold standby mode in which the DC/DC conversion stage outputs power having a level lower than that of normal power; and a variable bias supply unit varying a voltage level of bias power for controlling DC/DC power conversion and supplying the same to the DC/DC conversion stage in the cold standby mode and the powering mode.
US09343996B2

For transmitting voltage and current between a source and a load, a magnetic amplifier with a power winding connectable with the source and the load and with at least one control winding is provided, and current and voltage difference between the source and the load are controlled by applying a portion of a rectified source voltage to the at least one control winding of the magnetic amplifier, and applying a portion of a rectified load voltage to the at least one control winding of the magnetic amplifier to prevent the current from exceeding a level which can endanger the source and/or the load and to minimize the voltage difference between the source and the load.
US09343992B2

A power converter for converting an AC input of between frequency F1 at voltage V1 and frequency F2 at voltage V2 into a stable AC output of frequency F3 and voltage V3 comprises an AC/DC/AC/AC/DC converter (100) that converts the AC input power (between F1, V1 to F2, V2) into a DC output DC1 as a function of the input (F1, V1 or F2, V2) and an inverter (200) that converts the DC output DC1 into an AC output AC2 of frequency F3 and voltage V3.
US09343990B2

The invention provides a low current consumption control switch device and method related thereto. The control switch device includes a switch control component, a microprocessor, a wireless signal receiver for receiving control signal and a DC power supply. The DC power supply draws an AC current from the AC power supply to power the wireless signal receiver, the microprocessor and the switch control component. The switch control component has a control input for receiving control instructions to control current supply from the AC power supply. The microprocessor is operatively connected to the switch control component for providing control instructions to alter its switching state. The control signal comprises a preamble and a message portion. The wireless signal receiver is configured to alternate between at least two current consumption modes and to remain in a higher current consumption mode upon detection of the preamble.
US09343981B2

A charging device for charging a battery pack, having a control circuit for a switched-mode power supply transformer assigned to the charging device, the transformer having at least one primary winding switchable using a power switch and at least one first secondary winding for generating an electrical output voltage for charging the battery pack, the output voltage having a first amplitude which is predefinable by a control unit and adjustable using a first voltage limiting control loop. The transformer has at least one second secondary winding for generating at least one electrical auxiliary voltage having a second amplitude which is predefinable by the control unit and adjustable using a second voltage limiting control loop in order to at least reduce an energy feed assigned to an operation of the control circuit from the primary winding to the secondary windings in a standby mode of the control circuit.
US09343977B2

A power conversion apparatus and an over power protection method thereof are provided. A number of times a detection voltage being greater than a first reference voltage and a number of times the detection voltage being greater than a second reference voltage are counted, so as to obtain a first count value and a second count value, in which the detection voltage is a voltage on a resistor in response to a current flowing through a power switch. Stop switching the power switch when the first count value is greater than or equal to a first threshold value or when the second count value is greater than or equal to a second threshold value.
US09343973B2

A power conversion apparatus includes a switch circuit which activates switching elements on the basis of a control signal, a feedback means which performs feedback control, a signal output means which outputs the control signal on the basis of a control variable of the feedback control, and a mode switching means which controls switching operation of the switch circuit by switching an operation mode between a normal mode and an intermittent mode in which the number of operations is less than that in the normal mode. The mode switching means changes timing of switching from the normal mode to the intermittent mode, on the basis of either or both of a first detection value which is an input value inputted to the switch circuit and a second detection value which is an output value outputted from the switch circuit.
US09343971B2

A capacitor is charged synchronously with the beginning of an ON portion of a pulse width modulated (PWM) signal to generate a voltage across the capacitor using charging current sourced from an inductor on a primary side of a transformer. The voltage is supplied as a supply voltage to control circuitry in an integrated circuit used to generate the pulse width modulated signal. The charging is stopped when either the charging current goes above a predetermined charging current level or when the capacitor voltage goes above a predetermined capacitor voltage.
US09343952B2

The present disclosure provides a system and a method for controlling a charge pump circuit, and a display device. The system includes the charge pump circuit configured to output a driving voltage to a gate driver circuit; and a controlling device in communication with the charge pump circuit and a timer and configured to, when a working time of the gate driver circuit is equal to a predefined working time threshold, reset the working time of the gate driver circuit to an initial value, acquire a compensating voltage corresponding to the working time of the gate driver circuit in accordance with a correspondence between the working time and the compensating voltage, output a compensating voltage signal and increase the driving voltage outputted by the charge pump circuit by the compensating voltage.
US09343943B2

A rotary electric machine includes a rotor that is arranged such that an axis of rotation of the rotor extends in a horizontal direction, a stator that is provided with an coil end on which coolant is supplied from a position above the coil end in a direction of gravitational force, and a temperature sensor that is arranged on an outer peripheral face of the coil end at a position near a horizontal plane that includes the axis of rotation of the rotor. When the flow rate of the coolant is below a threshold the temperature sensor measures the coil temperature. When the flow rate of the coolant is above a threshold, so that coolant is in direct contact with the temperature sensor, it measures the coolant temperature.
US09343939B2

An electric motor is configured with a stator core assembly that includes a stator core having a plurality of winding slots. A plurality of stator windings pass through the plurality of winding slots that include slot liners configured to provide electrostatic shields surrounding the plurality of stator windings. The electrostatic shields are referenced to an electrical location to reduce common mode currents associated with the electric motor.
US09343938B2

According to one embodiment, there is provided a 3-phase 2-pole 2-layer armature winding, housed in 72 slots provided in a laminated iron core, a winding of each phase including six parallel circuits separated into two phase belts. Upper coil pieces of first and fourth parallel circuits are placed at 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 12th positions, and lower coil pieces of the first and fourth parallel circuits are placed at 1st, 6th, 9th, and 10th positions, upper and lower coil pieces of second and fifth parallel circuits are placed at 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 11th positions, and upper coil pieces of third and six parallel circuits are placed at 1st, 6th, 9th, and 10th positions, and lower coil pieces of the third and six parallel circuits are placed at 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 12th positions, from the center of a pole.
US09343934B2

An electric motor has a wound stator and a permanent magnet rotor. The rotor includes a shaft, a hub fixed on the shaft, a plurality of rotor core segments and magnets fixed around the hub. The rotor core segment includes at least two rotor blocks inwardly extending from the innermost portion thereof. The hub includes a plurality of hub blocks equidistantly and outwardly extending from the outer surface thereof. The rotor blocks of each rotor core segment engage with at least one hub block to fix the rotor core segment to the hub. The number of rotor blocks is greater than the number of hub blocks.
US09343924B2

A device and a method for an energy sharing network may include an energy store configured to store energy; an energy transmitter-receiver configured to transmit energy and energy related information to at least one neighbor device and to receive energy and energy related information from at least one neighbor device; and a controller configured to control the energy transmitter-receiver based on a predetermined condition.
US09343915B2

The semiconductor device includes the charging system including: electric power generating unit for supplying electric power; electric power storing unit for storing electric power generated by the electric power generating unit; switch unit provided in a charging path for charging the electric power storing unit with the electric power generated by the electric power generating unit; a comparator driven by the electric power generated by the electric power generating unit for comparing a reference voltage and a stored voltage of the electric power storing unit; and a level converter provided between the comparator and the switch unit for, based on a result of a comparison made by the comparator, converting a level of a generated voltage to a level of the stored voltage and outputting a resultant signal to the switch unit.
US09343914B2

The invention relates to a method for charging the energy storage cells of an energy storage device, which comprises: n first output connections, wherein n>1, for issuing a supply voltage at each of the output connections, a second output connection, wherein a charging device can be connected between the first output connections and the second output connection, and n parallel-connected energy supply branches, which are each coupled between a first output connection and the second output connection, wherein each of the energy supply branches comprises a plurality of series-connected energy storage modules, which each comprise an energy storage cell module comprising at least one energy storage cell, and a coupling device having coupling elements that are designed to selectively connect or bridge the energy storage cell module in the respective energy supply branch. The method according to the invention comprises the following steps: determining a maximum possible charging voltage of a charging apparatus, which provides a charging voltage for the energy storage device; determining the maximum number of the energy storage cell modules of an energy supply branch at which the sum of the output voltages of the energy storage cell modules, which is dependent on the instantaneous charge states of the energy storage cells of all the energy storage cell modules of an energy supply branch, is still lower than the maximum possible charging voltage; and selecting and controlling the coupling elements of energy storage modules of the energy supply branch, such that in each case only the maximum number of energy storage cell modules is coupled into the energy supply branch.
US09343909B2

A wireless power transmission apparatus 1 includes a power-supplying module 2, a power-receiving module 3, a phase detector 4, and a control device 5, and is set so that its transmission characteristic with respect to the power-source frequency has a double-hump characteristic. The control device 5 determines whether to supply power to the power-supplying module 2, based on variation in the phase of the input impedance Zin in the power-supplying state and that in the standby state, which is detected by a phase detector 4.
US09343903B2

A system for creating an energy performance and predictive model includes a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium which performs the steps of obtaining parametric information objects that represent actual physical objects and modifying the parametric information by embedding data related to energy performance characteristics unique to the device represented. The system further performs the steps of grouping the modified parametric information objects that define actual real world interrelationships to create a complete virtualized project and parsing the virtualized model data set to create a first parsed data set and a second parsed data set. The first parsed data set creates the project system control application, which acts upon and coordinates the actions of the real device through the virtual field bus. The second parsed data set creates the project's virtualized energy performance project and represents the subset of the virtualized performance environment where other virtualized devices can act upon it.
US09343899B2

An intrinsically safe redundant regulator circuit includes a plurality of voltage limiting regulators between a regulated rail and a ground rail. Each of the plurality of voltage limiting regulators includes: (i) a shunt regulator component configured to clamp a voltage across the regulated rail and the ground rail to a safety clamp voltage value; and (ii) one or more components, where a property of each of the one or more components is selected to configure the safety clamp voltage value.
US09343891B2

The present invention relates to a gel sealing device for sealing a passage of elongate parts through an opening. Such gel sealing device is preferably arranged in a housing used in telecommunication technology. The present invention solves the problem of providing a gel sealing device having improved cable access properties. The inventive gel sealing device comprises a gel sealing block (5) which provides a sealing section (22) through which the elongate parts (13, 14) extend, wherein the gel sealing block (5) comprises an upper flange (11) and a lower flange (12) with a support section (11a, 12a, 12b) disposed therebetween. The upper and lower flanges (11, 12) sandwiches in direction of extension of the elongate parts (13, 14), a gel inner ring (7) supported by said support section (2) and a gel outer ring (6, 10a) covering the gel inner ring (7) in a radial direction extending transverse to said extension direction. The gel inner ring (7) and the gel outer ring (6, 10a) are made of a gel sealing material, wherein the sealing section (22) is formed therebetween. The gel outer ring (6, 10a) comprises a first circumferential segment (6) and at least one second circumferential segment (10a) which is adapted to be detachable from the first circumferential segment (6) to provide a separate accessible sealing section.
US09343890B2

A cable fitting includes a gland nut, a body, and a chuck. The gland nut includes first threads, an axial gland bore, and a first sloped surface along a portion of the axial gland bore. The body includes second threads to receive the first threads, an axial body bore, and a second sloped surface along a portion of the axial body bore. The chuck includes multiple segments joined in a hinged fashion to create a ring. Each of the multiple segments includes a distal end tapered surface and a proximal end tapered surface. When the gland nut is advanced onto the body, the first sloped surface applies a first compressive force to the distal end tapered surfaces, and the second sloped surface applies a second compressive force to the proximal end tapered surfaces. The compressive forces cause inward deformation of the chuck to secure a cable within an axial pathway.
US09343884B2

A mounting unit (10) for mounting an electrical component (16) to a panel has a first member (12) arranged to engage a first side of said panel and a second member (14) arranged to engage the first member and a second, opposite side of said panel, so as to secure the first and second members to opposite sides of the panel through a hole in the panel. The first and second members define a space for receiving the electrical component. The mounting unit is particularly suitable for mounting the electrical component to a ceiling tile.
US09343875B2

A spark plug for an internal combustion engine includes a housing, an insulation porcelain, a center electrode and a ground electrode. Both of a tip portion of the center electrode and an opposing portion of the ground electrode are provided with respective projection portions which are projected toward a spark discharge gap. At least one of the projection portions has an opposing face that confronts the spark discharge gap and is inclined with respect to a plane perpendicular to an axial direction of the plug. The spark discharge gap is configured to be gradually enlarged, in one direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the plug, from a narrow gap on one end side toward a wide gap on the other end side.
US09343874B2

A semiconductor device comprising a silicon substrate on which is grown a <100 nm thick epilayer of AlAs or related compound, followed by a compound semiconductor other than GaN buffer layer. Further III-V compound semiconductor structures can be epitaxially grown on top. The AlAs epilayer reduces the formation and propagation of defects from the interface with the silicon, and so can improve the performance of an active structure grown on top.
US09343873B2

It is the object of the present invention to specify a light source with high efficiency and high eye safety at the same time.For this purpose, the active layer (10), the first cladding layer (14), the first waveguide layer (12), the second waveguide layer (16), and the second cladding layer (18) should be designed such that 0.01 μm≦dwL≦1.0 μm and Δn≧0.04, where dwL is the sum total of the layer thickness of the first waveguide layer (12), the layer thickness of the active layer (10), and the layer thickness of the second waveguide layer (16) and Δn is a maximum of the refractive index difference between the first cladding layer (14) and the first waveguide layer (12) and the refractive index difference between the second waveguide layer (16) and the second cladding layer (18).
US09343868B2

A system is provided for combining laser light sources. The system includes: a stack of laser diode bar arrays, comprising two or more laser diode bar arrays, each laser diode bar array having multiple laser diodes; a multimode optical fiber; and a plurality of optical elements disposed between the stack of laser diode bar arrays and the multimode optical fiber, configured to direct light from the stack of laser diode bar arrays to the multimode optical fibers, the plurality of optical elements further including: a plurality of fast-axis collimating (FAC) lenses, wherein at least one FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses corresponds to each laser diode bar array. At least one FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses is misaligned with respect to the corresponding laser diode bar array. At least one misaligned FAC lens has at least one of a translational position and a orientation relative to its corresponding laser diode bar array different from another FAC lens of the plurality of FAC lenses relative to its corresponding laser diode bar array.
US09343862B2

An electrically conductive bearing system including a support member having an inner surface, a bearing element provided at the inner surface of the support member, and an electrically conductive element provided in the bearing element forming an electrically conductive flow path to the support member.
US09343859B2

Disclosed is a micro universal serial bus (USB) connector. The micro USB connector according to the present disclosure may include a receptacle contact including a plurality of pins, a receptacle insulator coupled to one surface of the receptacle contact, a support plate disposed on an opposite side to the receptacle contact across the receptacle insulator, and being clear of a part opposite to a pin as a power terminal of the receptacle contact, and a receptacle shell covering an exterior of the receptacle insulator where the receptacle contact and the support plate are supported.
US09343855B2

A spring has a first resilient tab configured to be radially outward bent at a first angle when the spring is in an expanded position, wherein when a coaxial cable connector is tightly screwed with a threaded connector of an electronic device, an inner flange of a nut of the coaxial cable connector is configured to press the first resilient tab such that the spring is in a contracted position and the first resilient tab is radially between the inner flange and an inner sleeve of the coaxial cable connector, wherein the spring has a plate configured to be arranged between opposing surfaces of an outer flange of the inner sleeve and the inner flange, wherein the plate is integral with the first resilient tab.
US09343853B2

A clip installation seat of a holder, which is installed to an outer surface of a yoke, includes a recessed slope surface that is sloped in such a manner that an amount of recess of a radially-inner-side section of the recessed slope surface is larger than an amount of recess of a radially-outer-side section of the recessed slope surface. A clip includes an engaging hole, which is press fitted to an outer peripheral surface of a positioning projection projected from the outer surface of the yoke, and a radially-inner-side engaging portion, which resiliently contacts the outer peripheral surface of the positioning projection. The clip includes a radially-outer-side engaging portion that is configured into a form of a loop and is placed at a radially-outer-side area of the clip. The radially-outer-side engaging portion resiliently contacts the recessed slope surface.
US09343850B2

An AC-to-DC power adapter comprises a single-piece insulator unit. The various components of the power adapter such as a transformer, other circuitry, etc. are attached to the single-piece insulator unit. The single-piece insulator unit has embedded channels to provide electrical connectivity between the circuitry, The entire assembly is placed in housing and a cap assembly having prongs to connect to a AC wall outlet is ultrasonically welded to the housing.
US09343848B2

A lever-fit-type connector includes: a first connector; a lever provided on the first connector; and a second connector configured to be fitted with the first connector by an operation of the lever, wherein the lever includes a U-shaped elastic member including: a proximal end portion fixed to the lever; a distal end portion projecting in a vertical direction; a projecting portion projecting in a horizontal direction in the vicinity of the distal end portion; a U-shaped portion disposed between the proximal end portion and the distal end portion; and an engaging portion disposed between the distal end portion and the U-shaped portion, the U-shaped elastic member has a clearance between the proximal end portion and the distal end portion in the horizontal direction, and one of the first and second connectors includes an engaging portion operable to be engaged with the engaging portion of the U-shaped elastic member.
US09343844B2

Based on a result of repeated analysis of stress caused by application of an external impact in a circuit board, which is rectangular or substantially rectangular in plan view and includes mounting electrodes, included in an electronic component, the mounting electrodes near four corners of the circuit board, of the mounting electrodes provided on a back surface of the circuit board included in the electronic component, are provided at positions shifted from diagonal lines of the back surface. Hence, the stress produced near the four corners of the circuit board is reduced, and this can effectively prevent a fracture, a chip, and a crack from being caused in the circuit board.
US09343840B2

An interface connector includes a housing, a plurality of contacts, and a square tube shaped shell. The housing integrally forms a header portion and a frame portion. The plurality of contacts is arranged in parallel on one face of the header portion, the shell is attached so as to cover an outer face of the housing. The shell includes a highly solderable layer formed on an inner face and an outer face including a plate-thickness face thereof, a pair of locking strips soldered to the printed circuit board, and an opening portion that is exposed outward and through which a counterpart housing is inserted and extracted, the opening portion including an end part (a plate-thickness face) of the opening portion which is turned black by laser irradiation.
US09343832B2

To make it possible to connect a flat signal-transmission medium to a plug connector efficiently and surely with a simple configuration where the number of components are reduced. In a conductive shell having a medium receiving space in which a terminal portion of the flat signal-transmission medium is inserted, a retaining engaging pawl which is engaged with a part of the flat signal-transmission medium inserted into the medium receiving space and holds the flat signal-transmission medium is made to be provided in a manner where elastic displacement is possible, and the retaining engaging pawl is configured to be engaged with a part of the flat signal-transmission medium owing to an elastically returning bias force of the retaining engaging pawl, and thereby, only by inserting the flat signal-transmission medium into the medium receiving space of the conductive shell, the flat signal-transmission medium is held without a backlash in the conductive shell owing to a engagement force of the retaining engaging pawl, and attaching of the flat signal-transmission medium is performed easily and satisfactory.
US09343830B1

A contact for testing an integrated circuit includes a contact body with multiple embedded links within the body having at least two axes of rotation. The contact body is hollow with cavities that house tubular resilient members to bias the embedded links in a first preferred orientation and position.
US09343820B2

Cable assembly including an electrical wire and a crimp contact engaged to a terminal end of the electrical wire. The crimp contact has a centerline and first and second sidewalls that extend from the centerline in opposite directions. The centerline extends parallel to a longitudinal axis of the crimp contact. Each of the first and second sidewalls has a base section and a leg section. The leg section extends a lateral distance from the centerline to a longitudinal edge of the leg section. The base section extends a lateral distance from the centerline to a longitudinal edge of the base section. The lateral distance of the leg section is greater than the lateral distance of the base section for each of the first and second sidewalls. The leg sections of the first and second sidewalls are located opposite the base sections of the second and first sidewalls, respectively.
US09343819B2

A family of swaged connectors has particular application for joining segments of copper cable that make up a subterranean grounding grid in an electrical utility substation. The connectors have a body member with at least one swage region having a trough for receiving an electrical conductor. The swage region has an opening extending the length of the trough to allow insertion, in a radial direction, of the electrical conductor into the trough. An insert is configured for mating engagement with the opening in the swage region, such that, when the insert is mated with the body member, an electrical conductor disposed within the trough is radially entrapped in the connector. The connector body and insert have a cylindrical outer surface in the swage region to facilitate swaging the connector to secure it to the electrical conductor. The connector may be configured as a lap splice, tee or elbow.
US09343814B2

A broadband antenna element for RF transmission and reception over cellular frequencies. The antenna element is formed of conductive material on a substrate surface of conductive material in the form of a pair of half portions extending in opposite directions to distal tips defining the widest distance of a mouth of a cavity. The mouth converges to reduce in cross-section to a narrowest point at a plurality of different flare angles defined by the edges of the two half portions in between the pair of half portions forming the element. The resulting antenna element radiates and receives a wide band cellular frequencies enabling a single element to serve different providers operating on different frequency bands in the cellular spectrum between 680 MHz to 1900 MHz.
US09343812B2

A communication device includes a ground element and an antenna element. The antenna element includes a loop metal element and a branch metal element. The loop metal element is adjacent to an edge of the ground element. The loop metal element has a feeding end and a grounding end. The grounding end is coupled to the ground element. The feeding end is coupled through a capacitive element and a first inductive element to a signal source. A closed region is enclosed by the loop metal element and the edge of the ground element. The branch metal element is coupled through a second inductive element to a connection point on the loop metal element. The connection point is at the front-half portion of the loop metal element. The front-half portion includes the feeding end. The branch metal element substantially extends along an outer periphery of the loop metal element.
US09343810B2

A very low profile wideband antenna adapted to operate from 30 MHz to 300 MHz or in another desired range. The maximum diameter and height of one embodiment of this antenna is only 60.96 cm and 5.08 cm, respectively. This design is comprised of a fat grounded metallic plate placed 5.08 cm over a ground plane. In one embodiment, ferrite loading strategically placed between the plate and ground plane improves the low frequency gain and the pattern at high frequencies. A minimal amount of ferrite may be used to keep weight low.
US09343803B2

The invention relates to a rearview mirror device for vehicles incorporating a radio-frequency reception system. The rearview mirror device comprises: a light-reflective surface made of an electrically conductive material, and at least one planar conductive element lying on a plane substantially parallel to said reflective surface. The light-reflective surface and said conductive element are capacitively coupled and are used in combination for the reception of radio-frequency signals. The invention provides a rearview mirror with great simplicity and very-low cost.
US09343801B2

An electronic device having a radiation part and a metallic frame is provided. The radiation part is L-shaped, and includes a feeding branch and an open branch. The metallic frame includes a first metallic part and a second metallic part. The first metallic part is L-shaped, wherein a first side of the first metallic part is near the open branch of the radiation part, and a first gap exists therebetween. The second metallic part is L-shaped, wherein an open terminal of a first side of the second metallic part is aligned with an open terminal of the first side of the first metallic part, and a second gap exists therebetween. The radiation part and the metallic frame forms an antenna to transceive a plurality of radio frequency signals.
US09343792B2

A band-pass filter for microwave is provided that can be frequency-tuned the filter comprising an input resonator comprising a metal input cavity and an input dielectric element, an output resonator comprising a metal output cavity and an output dielectric element, an input excitation means (S1) of elongate shape, an output excitation means of elongate shape, the input resonator and the output resonator being coupled, characterized in that the input dielectric element and the output dielectric element have a recess, the input excitation means penetrates the recess of the input dielectric element the output excitation means penetrates the recess of the output dielectric element, the input dielectric element is capable of carrying out a rotation about an input rotation axis, the rotations of the dielectric elements allowing the modification of the central frequency of the filter.
US09343782B2

The present disclosure discloses a battery safety apparatus. The battery safety apparatus according to the present disclosure measures a voltage of a battery in the event of vehicle collision, and when the voltage is higher than a reference voltage value, that it, when the battery is charged over a reference charge amount, discharges the battery and at the same time cools the battery using a cooling device.
US09343776B2

An electrolyte for electrochemical device and the electrochemical device thereof. The electrolyte comprises 9.95˜19.95 wt % of a salt; 80.0˜90.0 wt % of a non-aqueous solvent; 0.05˜10.00 wt % of an additive comprising a compound represented by below formula (I) or (II): wherein X1, R1, and R4˜R10 is defined as herein. Besides, the present invention also provides a method for enhancing cycle life of electrochemical device which accomplished by adding above additive to an electrolyte of electrochemical device.
US09343771B2

An energy storage device for a reversible storage of energy has a reversibly designed metal/metal oxide storage unit for indirectly storing energy in form of a fluid material and a reversibly designed electrolysis device for providing and using the fluid material in an electrolysis reaction. The metal/metal oxide storage unit is disposed spatially separated from the electrolysis device. A fluid exchanging unit is provided for exchanging the fluid material between the reversibly designed metal/metal oxide storage unit and the electrolysis device, and a heat exchanging unit is provided for exchanging thermal energy between the metal/metal oxide storage unit and the electrolysis device. Further, a method for a reversible storage of energy is provided.
US09343766B2

The present invention relates to a fuel cell system, and comprises: a hot box for accommodating a fuel cell and a fuel reformer; a start burner for heating the temperature of the hot box to a reaction temperature during an initial drive; a first heat exchange portion for heating outside air which is aspirated by using heat from the start burner or heat from the exhaust gas, and supplying the air to the fuel cell; and a second heat exchange portion for supplying steam which is generated by using the heat from the exhaust gas, and maintaining the reaction temperature by cooling the fuel cell with the exhaust gas of which the temperature has been lowered.
US09343762B2

The present invention provides a relative humidity and condensed water estimator for a fuel cell and a method for controlling condensed water drain using the same. Here, the relative humidity and condensed water estimator is utilized in control of the fuel cell system involving control of anode condensed water drain by outputting at least two of signals comprising air-side relative humidity, hydrogen-side relative humidity, air-side instantaneous or cumulative condensed water, hydrogen-side instantaneous or cumulative condensed water, instantaneous and cumulative condensed water of the humidifier, membrane water contents, catalyst layer oxygen partial pressure, catalyst layer hydrogen partial pressure, stack or cell voltage, air-side catalyst layer relative humidity, hydrogen-side catalyst layer relative humidity, oxygen supercharging ratio, hydrogen supercharging ratio, residual water in a stack, and residual water in a humidifier.
US09343747B2

Disclosed is an electrode catalyst comprising: (a) a support with a specific surface area of at least 1200 m2/g; and (b) platinum or platinum-containing alloy particles on the support, wherein the platinum is supported on the electrode catalyst in an amount of 56˜90 wt % based on the total weight of the electrode catalyst. A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) comprising the electrode catalyst and a fuel cell using the MEA are also disclosed. The electrode catalyst comprises platinum or platinum-containing alloy particles highly dispersed on a support with a large surface area in an amount of 56 wt % or more, and thus has an extended catalytically active region, resulting in improvement in the quality of a fuel cell.
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