US09502045B2

In general, techniques are described for coding an ambient higher order ambisonic coefficient. An audio decoding device comprising a memory and a processor may perform the techniques. The memory may store a first frame of a bitstream and a second frame of the bitstream. The processor may obtain, from the first frame, one or more bits indicative of whether the first frame is an independent frame that includes additional reference information to enable the first frame to be decoded without reference to the second frame. The processor may further obtain, in response to the one or more bits indicating that the first frame is not an independent frame, prediction information for first channel side information data of a transport channel. The prediction information may be used to decode the first channel side information data of the transport channel with reference to second channel side information data of the transport channel.
US09502036B2

The present invention relates to voice processing and provides a method and system for correcting a text. The method comprising: determining a target text unit to be corrected in a text; receiving a reference voice segment input by the user for the target text unit; determining a reference text unit whose pronunciation is similar to a word in the target text unit based on the reference voice segment; and correcting the word in the target text unit in the text by the reference text unit. The present invention enables the user to easily correct errors in the text vocally.
US09502030B2

Methods and systems are provided for adapting a speech system of a vehicle. In one example a method includes: logging data from the vehicle; logging speech data from the speech system; processing the data from the vehicle and the data from the speech system to determine a pattern of context and a relation to user interaction behavior; and selectively updating a user profile of the speech system based on the pattern of context.
US09502029B1

Described herein are systems and methods for context-aware speech processing. A speech context is determined based on context data associated with a user uttering speech. The speech context and the speech uttered in that speech context may be used to build acoustic models for that speech context. An acoustic model for use in speech processing may be selected based on the determined speech context. A language model for use in speech processing may also be selected based on the determined speech context. Using the acoustic and language models, the speech may be processed to recognize the speech from the user.
US09502010B1

A tremolo bridge for a guitar comprising a body, a neck attached to said body, a headstock attached to said neck, a plurality of tuners disposed on said headstock and adjacent the neck, at least one post extending from said body, each of said at least one post further comprising a V-shaped notch, and a plurality of strings, whereby each string of said plurality of strings is attached to the tremolo bridge, extends along the neck of the guitar, and is attached to a corresponding one of said plurality of tuners disposed on the headstock, said tremolo bridge comprising: a base plate, a block extending from said base plate, a tremolo arm attached to said base plate, and a locking mechanism for locking the position of the tremolo bridge.
US09502006B1

A load displacement assembly is disclosed herein. The load displacement assembly includes a saddle member, the saddle member configured to receive a load from one or more strings of a musical instrument; at least one upper load displacement component coupled to the saddle member in a load carrying manner, the at least one upper load displacement component configured to transfer the load from the saddle member to one or more connecting members; and a lower load displacement component coupled to the one or more connecting members in a load carrying manner, the lower load displacement component configured to transfer the load from the one or more connecting members to a monopole area of the soundboard of the musical instrument. A stringed musical instrument, which includes the load displacement assembly, is also disclosed herein.
US09502001B2

A display control method and an apparatus for power saving of a display unit are provided. The method includes, determining a display mode in response to input of external illumination data, detecting input of a Red-Green-Blue-White (RGBW) data frame, applying a weight corresponding to the determined display mode to at least a White (W) sub-pixel value among pixel values of the RGBW data frame, determining luminance control data using the pixel values to which the weight is applied; and controlling the lighting system to output light based on the determined luminance control data, and controlling the display panel to transmit the light based on the determined luminance control data.
US09501990B2

A scan driving circuit is disclosed and used to execute a driving operation for cascaded scan lines. The scan driving circuit has a pull-down control module, a pull-down module, a pull-up module, a pull-up maintaining module, a bootstrap capacitor, a constant low-level voltage source and a constant high-level voltage source; the scan driving circuit uses a PMOS type transistor to control the pull-down control module, the pull-down module, the pull-up module and the pull-up maintaining module. The scan driving circuit has a simple overall structure and lower energy consumption.
US09501986B2

A semiconductor device includes a plurality of sets of external drive terminals in a marginal region along one long side of a rectangular semiconductor substrate, a plurality of sets of ESD protection circuits arranged in the marginal region and coupled to corresponding sets of the drive terminals, and a plurality of output circuits coupled to corresponding sets of the drive terminals. Each set of drive terminals in a plurality of n columns along a Y direction is laid out in a staggered arrangement with drive terminals in adjacent columns shifted relative to each other. Each output circuit includes n output units associated with n drive terminals of each set and arranged in one column in an X direction. By the arrangement, the drive terminals can be arranged at a narrower pitch, and the total width for n output units can be compacted into that of one output circuit.
US09501984B2

A driving device includes a driving module, for generating a plurality of driving signals according to a plurality of next channel data and adjusting coupling relationships of the plurality of driving signals according to a charge sharing control signal; and a timing control module, for generating the plurality of next channel data and selecting one of a plurality of charge sharing control commands as the charge sharing control signal.
US09501969B2

There are disclosed a DC-DC converter and an organic light emitting display including the same. The DC-DC converter includes a first voltage generator that has an inductor and a plurality of transistors, and converts an input voltage into a first voltage and outputs the first voltage to a first output terminal. The DC-DC converter also includes a controller that controls driving of the first voltage generator by supplying a first driving pulse to each transistor of the first voltage generator. In the DC-DC converter, the amplitude of the first driving pulse is adjustable. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a DC-DC converter and an organic light emitting display including the same, which can achieve high power conversion efficiency by change a driving pulse used in a DC-DC converter.
US09501968B2

An organic light emitting display includes: a display region including: a plurality of data lines, a plurality of scan lines, and a plurality of pixels coupled to corresponding ones of the data lines and corresponding ones of the scan lines; a timing controller configured to: divide input data into frames, select a set of a plurality of subfields having different time-weighted values for a plurality of gray levels of the input data to generate conversion data, and convert the input data into image data based on the conversion data; a scan driver configured to supply a plurality of scan signals to the scan lines; and a data driver configured to generate a plurality of data signals using the image data and to supply the data signals to the data lines.
US09501958B2

A sealing label suitable for sealing a package made of varnished cardboard comprises: a carrier layer, and an adhesive layer, wherein the thickness of the carrier layer, the material of the carrier layer, and the composition of the adhesive layer have been selected such that: a minimum deformation force of the label is smaller than a first breaking force needed to break the cardboard material of the varnished cardboard, a minimum detaching force of the label is greater than the first breaking force, and the minimum detaching force is smaller than a second breaking force needed to break the label, wherein the first breaking force is a first pulling force which causes breaking of the cardboard material in a situation where the label is separated from the varnished cardboard by pulling the label with said first pulling force, and the minimum detaching force is a second pulling force which is needed to separate the adhesive layer of the label from the surface of the varnished cardboard in a situation where the label is pulled with said second pulling force.
US09501955B2

A method and a system to simulate ultrasound images and hence for simulating the evaluation of a subject with such images as a diagnostic tool. For the purpose of simulating ultrasound images, these images may be considered to be planar slices of a given geometry. These slices are generated from the surface geometry of the portion of the subject which would receive the ultrasound waves if the ultrasound diagnostic procedure was actually be performed. Simulating such ultrasound images may therefore be performed by determining such images from surface models, and then rendering those ultrasound images at the desired position. The rendering of such simulated ultrasound images also optionally and preferably includes the simulation of the “grainy” quality of such images.
US09501951B2

Embodiments for using structured communications to quantify social skills and social behavioral factors. Communications between at least two devices are intercepted and/or relayed by a computer system wherein a portion of the communications correspond to an audible source and wherein the forwarding or processing of communications is based on a combination of historical, contextual and/or commanded information derived from current and past communications by the computer system. Primary statistics are measured based on the communications and contextual information. Secondary statistics are derived related to a user wherein the secondary statistics quantify social skills and behavioral factors of the user in one or more dimensions against one or more profiles or roles.
US09501948B1

A system for associating an action of a user with a message corresponding to the action, where the message is visually displayed on a series of sequentially disposed discrete mats. The message is uttered by the user and the message is verified using a speech analyzer. The system includes at least two mats, each mat having a display, a transmitter, a receiver, and a presence sensor indicating the presence of the user and configured to indicate the intention of the user to add an answer to a composite answer. The system also includes an audio receiver that receives an audio input from the user and an indicator device that indicates whether the mat is a head mat.
US09501942B2

Systems and methods are disclosed that facilitate visualizing how a user will appear in response to adhering to a health and fitness program. In an aspect, a system includes a reception component configured to receive information corresponding to a user's physical appearance and physical health, an analysis component configured to determine or infer one or more changes to the user's physical appearance based on predicted performance of a health and fitness program by the user and the user's physical health, and a visualization component is configured to generate a visual representation of the user based on the information and the one or more changes to the user's physical appearance.
US09501937B2

A method of controlling airport traffic is provided. The method includes routing a plurality of aircraft towards a runway and selecting a runway approach vector for each of the plurality of aircraft. First approach legs of each runway approach vector are separated from each other by a distance.
US09501931B1

A device may detect a trigger associated with a vehicle. The device may determine registration information, associated with the vehicle, based on detecting the trigger. The registration information may include information associated with a user device associated with the vehicle. The device may determine that the user device is not within a particular distance of the vehicle. The device may provide, to the user device and based on determining that the user device is not within the particular distance of the vehicle, an alert associated with the vehicle. The alert may be provided via a communications network. The device may determine, after providing the alert to the user device, that an action, associated with the vehicle, is to be performed. The device may cause the action, associated with the vehicle, to be performed.
US09501929B2

A movement assistance device includes a provided information acquirer that acquires, traffic signal cycle data in which traffic signal data comprised of identification information of a traffic light, which is stored in an SNS server, and an image capture date and time and a lighting duration time of the traffic light is organized for each light color pattern of the traffic light, and that specifies, from the identification information of the traffic light of the traffic signal cycle data, a traffic light which a moving object will pass, and calculates a remaining lighting time which will elapse until the lighting of each light color of the specified traffic light is ended from both the time difference between the image capture date and time of each light color of the traffic signal cycle data and the current time, and the lighting duration time of the traffic signal cycle data.
US09501925B2

The present invention provides methods and systems for a modular alert system that includes at least one module having a top portion and a bottom portion. The at least one module provides an alarm for one or more monitored conditions, and the bottom portion and the top portion of the at least one module contains mating features. A mounting plate that has a top portion and a bottom portion contains mounting features, and the mounting features of the bottom portion correspond to the mounting features of the top portion of the module for forming a selectively secured arrangement. The system may also include at least one speaker housed within the module, and a smoke detector.
US09501914B1

A surveillance method includes capturing media by a media capturing device of a sensor device according to a trigger event; the sensor device sending a media ready notice to a host; the host sending a media size request to the sensor device to request a size of the captured media; the sensor device sending a media size response to the host to notify the host of the size of the captured media; the host determining a number of packets to be transmitted in burst mode according to the notified size of the captured media, followed by sending a corresponding burst mode packets transmit request to the sensor device; and the sensor device transmitting the determined number of packets in a continuous manner to the host according to the burst mode packets transmit request.
US09501912B1

A haptic element having a rotating element at least partially fixed to the rotating shaft of a motor. The rotating element dynamically reconfigures its center of mass to provide at least a first concentric rotation state and second eccentric rotation state. The transition between the concentric state and the eccentric state may be at least partially defined by a threshold angular velocity of the rotating shaft of the motor. As the motor approaches the threshold, the rotating element may be concentrically aligned with the axis of rotation of the rotating shaft of the motor. Once the threshold is reached, the mass element may be eccentrically aligned with the axis of rotation, initiating an immediate and perceivable haptic feedback.
US09501906B2

A gaming system is disclosed which comprises a plurality of display positions disposed in a display area, a symbol selector arranged to select a plurality of symbols for display at respective display positions, and an outcome evaluator arranged to determine whether the selected symbols correspond to a winning outcome with reference to at least one of a plurality of defined win lines. Each of the defined win lines comprises at least one display position, and at least some of the win lines comprise differing numbers of display positions. A corresponding method of gaming is also disclosed.
US09501898B1

Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a gaming system and method providing a game having a sub-symbol award evaluation. Generally, in various embodiments, if an outcome of a play of the game includes a set of one or more displayed designated symbols that are each associated with a same one of a plurality of different characteristics and that are collectively associated with a quantity of sub-symbols that is at least a designated quantity, the gaming system determines an award based on that particular characteristic and that particular quantity of sub-symbols. Put differently, the determined award varies based on the particular characteristic associated with each of those displayed designated symbols and the particular quantity of sub-symbols collectively associated with those displayed designated symbols.
US09501897B2

Methods and apparatus are described relating to allowing authorized personnel to customize rake options for one or more electronic games. In one embodiment, a processor-readable media is described, comprising instructions for receiving an indication by a processor, from a user interface, of a desire to customize rake options associated with an electronic game by the authorized personnel, providing a selection of rake options available for customization to the authorized personnel by the processor via the user interface, receiving, by the processor, a selection of one or more rake option settings chosen by the authorized personnel from the user interface, and reducing an account balance of a game player in accordance with the rake option settings chosen by the authorized personnel as the electronic game is played by the game player.
US09501892B2

A gaming system for conducting a wagering game includes a wager input device and a display for displaying a randomly selected outcome. The randomly selected outcome is selected from a plurality of outcomes including at least one winning outcome. The gaming system further includes a controller operative to (i) display the at least one winning outcome, and (ii) provide an award modifier to the player, wherein the award modifier is dependent on a quantity of symbols which comprises the at least one winning outcome.
US09501889B2

A product storage device includes: a product rack including a plurality of product storage columns, the product storage column having a product storage path; a main gate member provided the product storage columns to be rotatable in a form of moving into or out of the product storage path; and a restraining unit including a guide member extending along a direction of arranging the product storage columns, and a plurality of piece members slidably housed in a housing region of the guide member. The restraining unit in a normal state restrains all the main gate members from being retreated from the product storage path. The restraining unit allows any one main gate member to be retreated from the product storage path and restrain the other main gate members from being retreated from the product storage path when extraction of a product in the product rack is allowed.
US09501869B2

A system and method for presenting vehicle component information includes storing voxel data in a computerized database. The voxel data represents a plurality of voxels spatially arranged to encompass a shape representing at least part of a vehicle. A plurality of component records is stored in the database, wherein each component record corresponds to a component of the vehicle. Each component record is associated with voxel data representing at least one voxel. A graphical representation of at least one of the components is displayed on a display.
US09501860B2

An importance map indicates, for each of a plurality of pixels, whether the pixel is considered important enough to be rendered. A hierarchical tree for pixels is created to generate a hierarchical importance map. The hierarchical importance map may be used to stop traversal of a primitive that does not overlap a pixel indicated to be important.
US09501859B2

Techniques are disclosed for deriving a list of pixels contained within a projected triangle in a way that is computationally efficient. In particular, the recursive techniques disclosed herein are particularly well-suited for implementation on modern multi-processor computer systems, and enable a list of pixels contained within a projected triangle to be derived quickly and efficiently. For example, in certain embodiments a network of projected triangles is overlaid by a plurality of tiles, which are subsequently divided into an array of sub-tiles, each of which can be processed in parallel by a multi-processor computer system. This recursive process advantageously allows three-dimensional objects to be rendered in a computationally efficient manner.
US09501858B2

A display device converts an animation file into first binary data in a data format which can be processed by a first graphics library of a first display, the binary data including a DL, and converts the converted first binary data into second binary data in a data format which can be processed by a second graphics library of a second display.
US09501854B2

A color sample image generator, a color-sample generator, and a color sample generation method are provided. The color-sample image generator produces a color sample, and lightness of every pixel of a first area of a first image from which the color sample is to be extracted is measured and all the pixels are arranged in a second area of a second image that is different from the first area based on lightness level. The color-sample generator and the color-sample generation method includes obtaining all pixels of a first area of a first image from which a color sample is to be extracted, measuring a level of lightness of each of the obtained pixels of the first area, and rearranging each of the pixels whose lightness has been measured in a second area of a second image that is different from the first area.
US09501853B2

The present disclosure is directed toward systems and methods for assisting users in correcting OCR errors. For example, systems and methods described herein involve identifying the position of a cursor within a machine-readable document. Systems and methods described herein also involve identifying corresponding position co-ordinates in a source image, as well as, capturing an image preview from the source image based on the corresponding position co-ordinates. Systems and methods described herein may also involve providing the preview of the source image within the machine-readable document.
US09501852B2

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for image fusion. A method for image fusion according to the embodiments of the present invention comprises: obtaining multiple images for a same scene; and calculating a fused image of the multiple images based on Bayes analysis by using a kernel function.
US09501849B2

A user interface that allows administrators of a virtualized computing environment to easily navigate to and/or search for specific objects, determine relationships between selected objects, and have visibility into the health status of objects in the virtualized computing environment. Objects within a column may be displayed with names, displayed as bars, or aggregated into groups based on the number of objects in the column. Also, in some embodiments, when a user selects one object, objects in other columns that are related to the selected object may be visually distinguished from the other objects, allowing an administrator to easily navigate to related objects.
US09501848B2

Parametric curve fitting using maximum curvature techniques are described. In one or more implementations, a parametric curve is fit to a segment of a plurality of data points that includes a first data point disposed between second and third data points by setting a point of maximum curvature for the segment of the curve at the first data point. A result of the fitting is output by the computing device.
US09501846B2

An average image producing means 52 produces an average image from all or some of a plurality of images captured at the same location. A noise extracting means 53 extracts a noise pixel on the basis of the result of a comparison between the pixel values of the pixels in the captured images and the pixel values of the pixels at the same position in the average image. An interpolating means 54 interpolates the pixel value of the noise pixel included in the captured images using the pixel values of other pixels to produce a noise-eliminated image.
US09501843B2

The present invention provides a fast face beautifying method for digital images. Gaussian blur is performed to an original image to extract a green channel value which is then subject to linear light blending and hard light blending, and a blended green channel value is recalculated. Meanwhile, skin recognition and whitening are performed to the original image, and finally, by using a product of the recalculated green channel value by a probability obtained by skin recognition as a transparency, transparency blending is performed to the original image and the whitened image to compose a beautified image. Moreover, by performing skin recognition to the original image, black pixels will be prevented from being processing by an algorithm, so that hairs, eyes and other non skin parts will be prevented from being processing. Consequently, the final effect of beautification will become better and more natural.
US09501840B2

According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes an interface and a control part. The interface receives an image which is transmitted from a first terminal and in which a person and an object as a reference of magnitude of one pixel are photographed. The control part calculates a size of clothes suitable for the person based on the image and a magnitude of the object in the image, and transmits information relating to the clothes with this size to the first terminal through the interface.
US09501832B1

The aspects described herein include receiving a request for available images depicting a user. One or more time and location indicators indicating one or more locations visited by the user are determined. Based on at least in part the one or more time and location indicators, a set of candidate images may be identified. The set of candidate images depict one or more locations at a time corresponding to at least one of the time indicators. Pose data related to the user may be obtained based on the location indicators. The pose data indicates a position and orientation of the user during a visit at a given location depicted in the set of candidate images. One or more images from the set of candidate images may be selected based on the pose data and the 3D reconstruction. The selected images include at least a partial view of the user.
US09501825B2

A method and associated systems for real-time subject-driven functional connectivity analysis. One or more processors receive an fMRI time series of sequentially recorded, masked, parcellated images that each represent the state of a subject's brain at the image's recording time as voxels partitioned into a constant set of three-dimensional regions of interest. The processors derive an average intensity of each region's voxels in each image and organize these intensity values into a set of time courses, where each time course contains a chronologically ordered list of average intensity values of one region. The processors then identify time-based correlations between average intensities of each pair of regions and represent these correlations in a graphical format. As each subsequent fMRI image of the same subject's brain arrives, the processors repeat this process to update the time courses, correlations, and graphical representation in real time or near-real time.
US09501817B2

Image data is adjusted for display on a target display. Maximum safe expansions for one or more attributes of the image data are compared to maximum available expansions for the attributes. An amount of expansion is selected that does not exceed either of the maximum safe expansion and the maximum available expansion. Artifacts caused by over expansion may be reduced or avoided.
US09501805B2

Methods and systems for optimizing a building design. A geographic location and a human comfort zone are identified. It is determined whether to adjust the building design based on information comprising building simulated delivered energy data and whether the building design meets pre-determined comfort conditions.
US09501803B2

Certain exemplary embodiments can provide a system, which can comprise a set of electrical energy monitoring devices. Each of the set of electrical energy monitoring devices can be adapted to be mounted in a circuit breaker panel substantially adjacent to a corresponding circuit breaker. The system can comprise an energy monitoring master controller adapted to be communicatively coupled to each of the set of electrical energy monitoring devices.
US09501801B2

A mass change of values of a specified attribute (e.g., buyer identity) of multiple purchase orders can be performed automatically in conjunction with additional automatically performed operations, and all in response to a single user activation of a button control, without requiring any further human intervention. The additional operations can include the creation of change orders for each changed purchase order; the logging of each change made to each purchase order in an audit history; the requesting of change approvals for purchase orders; and the preparation of the created change orders for communication to suppliers to whom the changed purchase orders pertain. Thus, each supplier can made aware via an automated process that he is now dealing with a different entity than before.
US09501800B2

Methods and systems according to one or more embodiments are provided for storing online transaction records associated with user-merchant transactions. In an embodiment, a system comprises one or more processors. The system also comprises one or more memories adapted to store a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors are adapted to cause the system to: receive transaction information captured and passed from a client device in response to the client device determining that information or content provided by a merchant server comprises transaction information, wherein the transaction information is associated with a user-merchant transaction; and store the received transaction information in a searchable machine-readable transaction record associated with a user account.
US09501797B2

System and methods for a price feed generation are described. According to an example method described herein, upon receiving market information including a plurality of linear prices and order quantities, a reference price level is selected and a price feed message is generated to include the reference price level and the plurality of order quantities. The price feed message is then provided to client terminals.
US09501795B1

Methods and systems for performing risk checks on electronic orders for securities. According to one embodiment, the method comprises performing risk checks on an electronic order for a security, the electronic order being issued from a client computer to an exchange computer via a network, wherein a risk check engine is logically interposed between the client computer and the exchange computer on the network. According to the illustrative method, at the risk check engine, the electronic order is received and parsed into one of more fields and data within the fields is identified at a network layer. The risk check engine performs one or more risk checks on the data using a processing element at the network layer. If the risk checks are passed, the risk check engine permits the electronic order to be transmitted to the exchange computer. If one or more of the risk checks are violated, the risk check engine rejects the order.
US09501791B2

An online marketplace system generates an online marketplace for seller-financed transactions. The system includes a plurality of listings of transaction offerings that are available. The transaction offerings are listed by a plurality of users and are from a plurality of different categories of products and services. The transaction offerings include a plurality of transaction terms, including payment and seller-financing terms. A transaction engine facilitates the negotiation of transaction terms between users and the formation of agreement between users. Transaction coins are awarded during the successful performance of a transaction according to the agreed upon transaction terms. A reputation engine generates trust profiles and trust scores for users. The trust profiles and trust scores are used by parties to evaluate the trustworthiness of the other party. A user interface engine generates a user interface that includes listings from users and trust scores of those users.
US09501790B2

A method and system for dynamic service support is presented. A portal-page service and an interface bundle are installed at the gateway. A customer service at the gateway, based on the interface bundle, is installed at the gateway. The portal-page service searches for the customer service and generates a user interface for the customer service based on the customer service. The portal-page service generates a portal-page based on the user interface and the portal-page service.
US09501789B1

A method and system for controlling real-time bidding for online advertisements is disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises communicating with a bidder and an impression server and an event tracking server. The bidder receives a real-time bidding (RTB) request containing an available impression from an exchange and places a bid corresponding to the RTB request. The impression server receives impression requests from a browser and responds to the impression requests from the browser. The event tracking server receives event requests from the browser and responds to event requests from the browser. Campaign performance data is retrieved from one or more of the impression server and the event tracking server and compared to the campaign target. The bidder is notified whether to bid for online advertisement impressions based on the campaign performance data.
US09501786B1

An interactive display system is described. The interactive display system comprises a display, a server and a wireless handset communicatively coupled to a wide area network. The system further comprises at least one transmitter configured to transmit a signal. The wireless handset is configured to receive a signal from the at least one transmitter and send signal strength information for the at least one transmitter to the server. The server is configured to determine whether the wireless handset is within a predefined viewing area of the display. The display is configured to present a content item when the wireless handset is within the predefined viewing area.
US09501782B2

A system for remote monitoring of conditions at a site and transmitting alerts to interested parties' mobile devices via a social networking service is described. The system employs a wireless communications device, partially exposed outside a small, metal enclosure, to transmit SMS (text message) alerts to a social networking site. Interested parties, including other devices, receive the alerts by simply subscribing to the ‘user’ device, and alarm threshold conditions are established autonomously by the device. Thus, no configuration of the device by interested parties is required. Temperature alerts are generated by the device without user-configured or fixed thresholds. A wall-mounted installation of the device conceals the external antenna within the wall cavity.
US09501774B2

Method and apparatus for using at least a portion of a one-time password as a dynamic card verification value (CVV) are disclosed. A credit/debit card is able to generate a dynamic card verification value (CVV). Such a card may also include an indication that the dynamic CVV is to be used as a security code for purchasing or other transactions. A card-based financial transaction can be authorized in accordance with the use of a dynamic CVV by receiving a transaction authorization request for a specific credit/debit card, wherein the transaction authorization request includes a dynamic CVV. The dynamic CVV can be compared to at least a portion of a one-time password generated for the specific credit/debit card, and a transaction authorization can be sent to the merchant or vendor when the dynamic CVV matches all or a portion of the one-time password.
US09501771B2

A first mobile device receives a request to send information updates from the first mobile device to the second mobile device, the request specifying a predefined geographical region. In response to the request, the first mobile device checks its current location and determines whether the current location is within the predefined geographical region. After determining that the current location of the first mobile device is within the predefined geographical region, the first mobile device sends a first information update to the second mobile device. Subsequently, the first mobile device sends a second information update to the second mobile device after determining that the current location of the first mobile device is outside the predefined geographical region.
US09501763B2

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to message prioritization and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for social collaborative prioritization of messages in a messaging system. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for social collaborative prioritization of messages can be provided for a messaging system. The method can include receiving a message from a sender as directed to a recipient, determining a value for a different social collaborative criterion based upon a temporal factor between the sender and the recipient, transforming the value into a priority for the message, and associating the priority with the message in the messaging system.
US09501757B2

A method and system for identifying remote objects on a client system is provided. A client system (101) has a connection means (302) to access a component (310) on a remote system (103). The client system (101) has a graphical user interface (308) including a user interface object (306) representing the component (310) at the remote system (103). Means (304) are provided for applying a theme to the object (306) to distinguish it as representing a remote component (310). The graphical user interface (308) also includes user interface objects (307) for components local to the client system (101), and the means for applying a theme (304) applies distinguishing themes to the local objects (307) and the remote objects (306).
US09501754B2

Methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided for arranging for shipping a package without the customer needing to generate or apply a shipping label, or any other information, to the package. In one embodiment, a system may comprise a carrier server and a carrier device. The carrier server may receive and store a smart code and shipping information associated with the package, which it may link together. The carrier device may capture the smart code from the package and send a request, including the smart code, to the carrier server for related shipping information. The carrier server may receive the request from the carrier device, retrieve the shipping information based on the smart code, and send the shipping information to the carrier device. The carrier device may receive the shipping information and generate a shipping label for the package based on the shipping information.
US09501747B2

Systems and methods allow formulation of embeddings of problems via targeted hardware (e.g., particular quantum processor). In a first stage, sets of connected subgraphs are successively generated, each set including a respective subgraph for each decision variable in the problem graph, adjacent decisions variables in the problem graph mapped to respective vertices in the hardware graph, the respective vertices which are connected by at least one respective edge in the hardware graph. In a second stage, the connected subgraphs are refined such that no vertex represents more than a single decision variable.
US09501742B2

Assessment of selectivity of categorization rules. One or more categorization rules are applied to a set of un-categorized objects to produce a categorization result set representing assignment of objects the set into at least two categories. A selectivity score for the at least one categorization rule is obtained based on statistical information. The numerical selectivity score represents an estimation of accuracy of the at least one categorization rule, and is produced as a result of application of at least one trained selectivity determination algorithm, which is based on application of a plurality of specially-selected categorization rules to a set of pre-categorized training data, with the application of each one producing a uniform grouping of objects.
US09501739B2

According to one embodiment, a neuron learning type integrated circuit device includes neuron cell units. Each of the neuron cell units includes synapse circuit units, and a soma circuit unit connected to the synapse circuit units. Each of the synapse circuit units includes a first transistor including a first terminal, a second terminal, and a first control terminal, a second transistor including a third terminal, a fourth terminal, and a second control terminal, a first condenser, one end of the first condenser being connected between the second and third terminals, and a control line connected to the first and second control terminals. The soma circuit unit includes a Zener diode including an input terminal and an output terminal, the input terminal being connected to the fourth terminal, and a second condenser, one end of the second condenser being connected between the fourth terminal and the input terminal.
US09501731B2

The invention concerns a multi-frequency transponder for communicating at a first frequency according to a first communication protocol and at a second different frequency according to a second communication protocol. The transponder comprises a first physical memory for storing a first data of the first communication protocol; a second physical memory for storing a second data, different from the first data, of the second communication protocol; and a logic unit for accessing the first and second physical memories. The logic unit comprises a first control unit for handling communications according to the first protocol, and a second control unit for handling communications according to the second protocol. The transponder comprises a mapping memory to store a logical memory map of the first or second physical memories. The logical memory map comprises mapping information for the first or second control unit to access data items in first and second physical memories.
US09501729B2

There is provided a stored value card comprising a physical accessory being a portion of the stored value card and being detachable from the stored value card, wherein the physical accessory is configured to be attached to a physical primary; and a unique identification code, wherein the unique identification code is associated with the stored value card, the physical accessory and a virtual accessory, and wherein a virtual primary and the virtual accessory are stored in a network server and correspond to the physical primary and the physical accessory, respectively.
US09501728B1

A method for minimizing power consumption of a laser printer includes receiving page description language (PDL) data corresponding to a printing task, identifying commands corresponding to the received PDL data, computing a total predicted rendering time corresponding to the identified commands, computing a print deferral time according to the total predicted rendering time wherein the print deferral time corresponds to an amount of time by which printing drum initialization can be deferred without delaying completion of the printing task, and configuring a printing drum to begin operation according to the print deferral time. A computer program product and computer system corresponding to the method are also disclosed.
US09501717B1

A method reconstructs and an uncompressed signal by first obtaining an encoded signal corresponding to the uncompressed signal, wherein the encoded signal includes universally quantized dithered linear measurements of the signal, and wherein each universally quantized dithered linear measurement is a quantized dithered linear measurement of the signal missing one or more significant bits. Side information about the signal is obtained, and the side information is used to obtain a prediction of the signal. The missing one or more significant bits are determined from the encoded signal using the prediction of the signal and the missing one or more significant bits are combined with the encoded signal to produce quantized dithered linear measurements of the signal. Then, the signal can be reconstructed as a reconstructed signal using the quantized dithered linear measurements.
US09501703B2

A method and apparatus for detecting and recognizing a traffic sign using a modified census transform (MCT) feature are disclosed. The traffic sign recognizing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes detecting a traffic sign candidate region from an input image using a modified census transform (MCT) feature; verifying whether the candidate region corresponds to a traffic sign using the MCT feature histogram for the candidate region; and lassifying a region of interest into the corresponding traffic sign step by step using the MCT feature histogram for the verified candidate region.
US09501702B2

The invention relates to a method of processing video data, a device (102) and a computer program product for implementing said method, and a data construct including video data processed by said method. The method processes unprocessed video data into processed video data, said unprocessed video data being provided by picking up (112) sequential images of a situation or scene (100), and includes the steps of: applying a motion and gesture recognition technology (114) in real time to said situation or scene; identifying undesirable image contents contained in said unprocessed video data, based on a result of said motion and gesture recognition, said undesirable image contents preferably including inappropriate body expression (128-132) such as obscene gestures or indecent exposures, and providing content information relating to any identified undesirable image contents; and using said content information to produce said processed video data.
US09501697B2

A method for authenticating and/or identifying a security article that includes a transparent or translucent substrate and, on a side of a first face of the substrate, a first image. The method includes superimposing at least partially the first image of the article with a second image. The second image may be produced by an electronic imager. The second image may be situated on the side of a second face of the substrate that is opposite to the first face. The method permits observation of an authentication and/or identification information item of the security article during a change of the angle of observation of the first and second superimposed images.
US09501696B1

The present disclosure provides a system and method for mapping zone-based metadata into one or more reference-able objects. The system and method extracts and/or generates metadata from a document according to custom zones defined in a document type. Each custom zone is associated to actions such as generating events, invoking triggers and/or invoking callback methods. One or more of these actions may be triggered when pre-processing or post-processing a document. According to an inventive concept of the present application, when a document is stored in a data storage and placed in a process queue to be processed by a suitable processing plugin according to the custom zones defined in the document. For instance, an image file comprising textual custom zones may be processed by an OCR plugin which extracts text metadata from the document. Other processing plugins include plugins to extract metadata from proprietary document formats such as CAD, PPTX, PDF, PSD, or others. Plugins are also available for generation of metadata by interpreting an image (i.e. detection or identification of objects and/or scenery in an image) through artificial intelligence and computer vision means. The process queue can be used for scalability of the quantity of actions to process.
US09501685B2

A fingerprint sensor and fingerprint sensor system especially for integration in a device having an overlay made of an insulating material comprises a plurality of sensing elements positioned on a first side of the overlay; a plurality of probes positioned in a predetermined pattern defining a fingerprint sensing area on a second side of the overlay, the plurality of probes extending from the first side of the overlay at least partially through the overlay; a plurality of conductor leads on the first side of the overlay interconnecting the plurality of probes with the plurality of sensing elements; a plurality of amplifiers connected to the plurality of sensing elements, the number of amplifiers being less than the number of sensing elements; and an activation circuit connected to the plurality of sensing elements, the activation circuit being adapted to output at least one activation signal.
US09501683B1

A system and method for reading a machine readable code associated with an object moving relative to an imaging device may include capturing a first image of the machine readable code at a first resolution. A second image of the machine-readable code with a non-integer pixel shift in alignment at the first resolution may be captured. An interleaved image may be formed from the first and second images. An image of the machine-readable code may be generated at a second resolution using the interleaved image, where the second resolution is higher than the first resolution.
US09501670B2

A system for decoding energy peaks of an identifier includes an interface and a processor. The interface is configured to receive a reference peak position associated with an identifier, wherein the identifier comprises a rugate microtag, and receive a set of data pattern peak positions associated with the identifier. The processor is configured to determine a set of adjusted data pattern peak positions based on the reference peak position.
US09501668B2

Systems and methods for secure delivery of output surface bitmaps to a display engine. An example processing system comprises: an architecturally protected memory; and a processing core communicatively coupled to the architecturally protected memory, the processing core comprising a processing logic configured to implement an architecturally-protected execution environment by performing at least one of: executing instructions residing in the architecturally protected memory and preventing an unauthorized access to the architecturally protected memory; wherein the processing logic is further configured to provide a secure video output path by generating an output surface bitmap encrypted with a first encryption key and storing an encrypted first encryption key in an external memory, wherein the encrypted first encryption key is produced by encrypting the first encryption key with a second encryption key.
US09501667B2

A data processing apparatus supports operation in both a secure domain and a less secure domain. The secure domain has access to data that is not accessible when operating the less secure domain. Prediction circuitry generates a domain prediction indicating whether a given processing action (such as a memory access) is to be performed in association with the secure domain or with the less secure domain. In this way, an appropriate set of memory permission data for controlling access by different privilege levels in the domains may be selected and applied by an appropriate memory protection unit. If the domain prediction is incorrect, then the processing is stalled and the given processing action retried.
US09501666B2

Polymorphic computing architectures can support and control separate, independently executable domains and other components on a computing platform. In some embodiments, the architectures may control the different domains and/or components according to different purposes. In some embodiments, the architectures can control domains and/or components to enforce a desired “purpose” of a domain/component while simultaneously denying a corresponding “anti-purpose”.
US09501665B2

A virtual security coprocessor is created in a first processing system. The virtual security coprocessor is then transferred to a second processing system, for use by the second processing system. For instance, the second processing system may use the virtual security coprocessor to provide attestation for the second processing system. In an alternative embodiment, a virtual security coprocessor from a first processing system is received at a second processing system. After receiving the virtual security coprocessor from the first processing system, the second processing system uses the virtual security coprocessor. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
US09501662B2

Customer online data is collected via script on customer computers and is communicated to a server hosted by an organization, such as a card issuer. The customer online data communicated to the server is non-personally identifiable information (non-PII). In turn, the server aggregates the non-PII customer online data from the set of participating merchants. The server associates the received non-PII customer online data with non-PII demographic data. Other non-PII transaction data, such as previous transactions processed at a card issuer, also can be associated with the non-PII customer online data and non-PII demographic data. These associations are, in turn, used to create reports and to provide services to help merchants or other requesting organizations develop online strategies to drive click thru and conversion rates.
US09501653B2

A method and an apparatus of verifying a usability of a biological characteristic image are disclosed. The method includes: receiving a biological characteristic image uploaded by a terminal; verifying a digital watermark included in the biological characteristic image; and if verification is passed, determining that the biological characteristic image is usable. The technical solution of the present disclosure can ensure that a biological characteristic image generated in a device can only be used in that device, thus avoiding a security problem which may be caused by the theft and interception of a biological characteristic image of a user when storing or transmitting the image using a biological recognition technology.
US09501651B2

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of providing an automated public Turing test to a client display system. The method includes providing an image having a plurality of random characters, as well as providing a browser code to the client, whereby the browser code is adapted to restrict display of the image to only a predetermined portion of the image. The method further includes detecting a client response to receiving the predetermined portion of said image.
US09501642B2

A method and system to verify active content at a server system include receiving, at the server system a communication (e.g., an e-mail message or e-commerce listing) that includes active content that is to be made accessible via the server system. At the server system, the active content is rendered to generate rendered active content. The rendered active content presents a representation of information and processes to which an end user will be subject. At the server system, the rendered active content is verified as not being malicious.
US09501638B2

A device includes a memory and a processor coupled to the memory. The processor is configured to execute a management program, an application program, and a first security module. The management program presents a first list associated with the first security module to a user that includes a first item that represents the application program. The application program is executed in a security mode that is governed by the first security module when the first item is selected.
US09501631B2

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for a biometric imager that can be integrated into a touch enabled computing device, and may be used to interact with the device. Upon touching the touch-enabled surface of the device, an image of at least a portion of the touch object can be captured and used in conjunction with identification of the user and/or for input to the device. The systems or techniques, described herein, may be integrated into a portion of the surface of such a device, and may comprise a luminescent layer that can emit photons upon touch, and an image capture component that can generate data indicative of an image of at least a portion of the touch object.
US09501630B2

One embodiment of the invention is a method utilizing a CAPTCHA to generate a human likeness score including blocks: a) receiving a user solution to the CAPTCHA; b) receiving a user interaction pattern descriptive of an interaction undertaken by the user, through a graphical interface of the CAPTCHA, to achieve the user solution; c) determining the accuracy of the user solution; d) comparing the user interaction pattern against an interaction model generated from interaction patterns of previous users; e) calculating the human likeness score based upon the determination of block c) and the comparison of block d), wherein the human likeness score lies within a continuum of human likeness scores.
US09501624B2

Methods and systems for automatically establishing an enhanced electronic health record (EHR) for a patient include an automatic data collection facility that collects data of a medically related event in proximity to a patient upon occurrence of the event. The collected data may include medication administration data such as medication, time of administration, administration of a dosage of medication, reaction data, and the like. The collected data is communicated to a real-time data integration facility that automatically integrates the data with a patient's electronic health record to establish an enhanced electronic health record.
US09501616B2

The present invention relates to a virtual machine (VM) for processing digital data (MD), in particular medical data by executing a digital data processing application program, in particular a medical data application program called MeDPAP, the virtual machine (VM) being a simulation of a computer, the virtual machine comprising at least the following components: • a MeDPAP controller (MC) which is constituted —so that it can be addressed by a Uniform Resource Identifier called VM-URI via a wide area network (WAN), —to support direct interoperable interaction with a client application (MCA) over the wide area network (WAN), —to assign a Uniform Resource Identifier called MeDPAP-URI to the MeDPAP, and —to send the assigned MeDPAP-URI to the client application via the wide area network (WAN); and • the MeDPAP which is constituted —to process the digital data (MD), —so that it can be addressed by the client application via the wide area network (WAN) by using the MeDPAP-URI, and —to support direct interaction with the client application over the wide area network for receiving instructions from the client application (MCA) to process the digital data.
US09501615B2

A system for managing drug labeling information includes a repository comprising a network accessible database, the repository having an upload portion and a download portion, the repository being accessible to a plurality of users via client computers coupled to a wide area network. The repository includes drug labeling information on a plurality of drugs stored therein. The upload portion of the repository is accessible by a first set of users while the download portion of the repository is accessible by a second set of users. In one preferred aspect of the invention, drug manufactures are able to upload new or revised PDF files containing drug labeling information. The new or revised PDF files are then available for download by pharmacists or other authorized users.
US09501614B2

Virus-like particle (hereinafter sometimes VLP)-based strategies for developing vaccines against human viruses. Computer models of the VLPs are modified by the addition to the computer models of computer models of viral materials of the viruses against which the vaccines are being developed.
US09501613B1

Health and wellness management technology, in which events that relate to activity within the monitored property are sensed based on output from sensors located at a monitored property. Behaviors are detected based on the sensed events that relate to activity within the monitored property and, in accordance with the detected behaviors, one or more models are created based on a likelihood of similarly expressed events happening at similar times with similar characteristics. Additional behaviors detected after creation of the one or more models are evaluated against the one or more models to determine whether the additional behaviors are consistent with the one or more models. At least one action is performed based on the determination of whether the additional behaviors are consistent with the one or more models.
US09501610B2

Methods and systems for integrated circuit design using dynamic voltage scaling may comprise (a) designing an IC to meet a voltage dependent frequency specification, the IC design including feedback circuitry for controlling a power supply voltage to a fabricated instance of the IC design, (b) characterizing a fabrication process for corner lots for the IC design at a range of power supply voltage levels achievable by the feedback circuitry; (c) validating the IC design against the fabrication process if the frequency specification is achievable for essentially all instances of the IC design fabricated, wherein the feedback circuitry in each IC resulting from the IC design is operable to respectively adjust the power supply voltage of each IC resulting from the IC design by reducing the power supply voltage if the IC is from a fast corner lot and increasing power supply voltage if from a slow corner lot.
US09501609B1

Examples of techniques for statistical static timing analysis of an integrated circuit are disclosed. In one example according to aspects of the present disclosure, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method comprises performing an initial statistical static timing analysis of the integrated circuit to create a parameterized model of the integrated circuit for a plurality of paths using a plurality of timing corners to calculate a timing value for each of the plurality of paths, each of the plurality of timing corners representing a set of timing performance parameters. The method further comprises determining at least one worst timing corner from the parameterized model for each of the plurality of paths based on the initial statistical static timing analysis and calculated timing value for each of the plurality of paths. The method also comprises performing a subsequent analysis of the integrated circuit using the at least one worst timing corner.
US09501603B2

A method for adding an electrical interconnection within a three-dimensional integrated circuit (3-D IC) is disclosed. The method may include creating, within a design file of a 3-D IC that specifies a layout for a first chip of the 3-D IC, design data corresponding to a set of through-silicon via (TSV) reservation areas. The method may also include receiving an engineering change order (ECO) and releasing, in response to the ECO, at least one TSV reservation area for reuse. The method may also include adding, by re-using at least one TSV reservation area, an electrical interconnection within the design file of the first chip of the 3-D IC.
US09501595B2

A graphical tool creates design-verification environments. The tool includes a graphical environment builder that allows for the drag and drop addition of verification IP (“VIP”) modules to a graphical verification environment. The tool assigns connector signals associated with source code that simulates a connection between a VIP module and the device under test (“DUT”). The tool learns which connection signals are suitable to connect a VIP to the DUT and facilitates selecting of the suitable signals in the environment development process. The tool converts the graphical environment to source code that can be executed to simulate testing on the DUT. The tool also allows a user to navigate between view modes that display the verification environment graphically, and that display the source code associated with components of the verification environment.
US09501592B1

Some embodiments provide support for real number modeling in SystemVerilog by defining built-in nettypes with real data type and resolution functions natively in SystemVerilog and allow a simple path for porting Verilog-AMS wreal modeling to SystemVerilog modeling. Some embodiments provide support for incompatible nettypes and for net coercion in SystemVerilog. Some embodiments provide support for SystemVerilog reals net connecting to electrical nets and support for SystemVerilog real signals connecting to Verilog-AMS wreal signals. Some embodiments combine the strengths of Verilog-AMS and SystemVerilog languages to build a solution for value conversion between incompatible nets and an effective way to configure, simulate, or verify mixed-signal designs that are written in SystemVerilog language.
US09501590B1

A CoDec in a design for test integrated circuit. In embodiments described herein, portions of the CoDec are distributed over the area of the IC. In particular, both the compressor and the decompressor may be distributed over the IC. To this end, XOR gates are located locally to the scan chains over the area of the chip to reduce wire length back to the input/output test pins. The compressor and decompressor may be distributed in a 2-dimensional grid. The compressor may XOR each scan chain in two different directions such that a fault may be resolved back to a specific region of the IC.
US09501589B2

Aspects of the disclosed techniques relate to techniques for identifying power sensitive scan cells. Signal probability values for signal lines in a circuit design are first computed, wherein the signal lines comprise signal lines associated with scan cells in the circuit design. Toggling probability values are then computed based on the signal probability values, wherein the toggling probability values comprise toggling rate values for the scan cells. Toggling rate reduction values are then computed based on the toggling probability values, wherein the toggling rate reduction values comprise toggling rate reduction values for the scan cells. Finally, scan cells having high toggling rate reduction values are identified.
US09501585B1

The methods and systems for providing real-time business intelligence using search-based analytics engine facilitate a user to input a natural language query with regard to business analytics and obtain an analytics report in response without the user aggregating or processing raw data from a database query. Such business intelligence platform may receive a data analytics request including a user-desired data variable via a user interface; receive, via the user interface, user-configured parameters identifying a user-selected data source and a user-defined data set; form the user-defined data set based on user-configured parameters; query the user-defined data set to obtain a query result of the user-desired data variable; and generate a user interactive graphical representation of the query result of user-desired data variable.
US09501584B2

Separate key processing units generate different search keys based off of a single master key received at a ternary memory array chip. A reference search key and selection logic are provided to reduce power dissipation in a global search key bus across the chip. The reference search key is the output of one of the key processing units and its bytes are compared with the output from each of the other key processing units. A select signal from each unit indicates which bytes match. Each matching byte at each key processing unit is blocked from changing corresponding bit line logic values across the chip, reducing the number of voltage switches occurring in the global search key bus. The select signal causes a selection module local to each superblock to select the matching byte(s) from the reference search key and non-matching byte(s) from the global search key bus to reconstitute the entire search key.
US09501576B2

Systems and methods for identifying content in electronic messages are provided. An electronic message may include certain content. The content is detected and analyzed to identify any metadata. The metadata may include a numerical signature characterizing the content. A thumbprint is generated based on the numerical signature. The thumbprint may then be compared to thumbprints of previously received messages. The comparison allows for classification of the electronic message as spam or not spam.
US09501572B2

Systems and methods of providing information via a computer network are provided. A data processing system can identify a cluster that includes a plurality of online content items having a semantic or user similarity. The data processing system determines a plurality of cluster placement criteria of the cluster, and receives content configured for display with a web page. The content can be associated with the cluster based on the semantic or user similarity. A cluster placement criterion of the plurality of cluster placement criteria can be selected based on a quality metric of the selected cluster placement criterion, and the selected cluster placement criterion can be provided as a supplemental criterion used to select the content for display with the web page.
US09501566B1

A computing device identifies concept terms related to an input phrase based on data in a data set. The input phrase defines an initial scope of a concept search. The computing device presents the concept terms in a graphical user interface (GUI) and a GUI element in the GUI to represent the input phrase. Upon a selection of at least one concept term, the computing device presents a visual representation of a relationship between the selected concept term(s) and the input phrase in the GUI using the GUI element, and a count of documents available to be retrieved in the GUI based on the relationship.
US09501563B2

A server includes an input information database (14) that stores input information where position information indicating a geographic position, a word given to the position, and a user ID identifying a user having given the word to the position are associated with one another, a dictionary database (15) that stores dictionary data indicating associations between words, and an association unit (17) that extracts a plurality of input information where the geographic positions are included in one geographic range and the words are associated with each other by referring to those databases, associates the extracted plurality of input information with each other by assigning a common identifier to the plurality of input information, and enters the plurality of input information into the input information database (14).
US09501561B2

An Internet or other online service is personalized or customized based on data collected for a user of a computing device. In one embodiment, a method includes: storing a plurality of person profiles for persons associated with communications received by a user of a computing device; receiving data associated with an online service; and filtering, using at least one processor, the data based on the plurality of person profiles, wherein the filtered data is for display to the user on the computing device.
US09501560B2

The systems and methods described herein generally relate to increasing user productivity in reviewing query results by visually depicting the presence/absence of a set of query terms in a set of paragraphs across a set of documents.
US09501557B2

A computer-readable recording medium stores a program causing a computer to execute an information generating process that includes tabulating an appearance frequency for each designated word in an object file group in which character strings are described; identifying for each designated word and based on the appearance frequency tabulated for the designated word, a rank in descending order up to a target appearance rate for the designated words; detecting in an object file selected from the object file group, specific designated words among the identified ranks; and generating for each of the detected specific designated words, index information that indicates the presence/absence of the specific designated word in each object file among the object file group.
US09501556B2

First metadata for a first version of a computer program product and a first metadata schema is converted into second metadata for a second version of the computer program product and/or a second metadata schema. The converting may be performed by recursively processing an object class structure representing the second metadata, to construct objects and their contents pursuant to a set of ID references for the second metadata. The recursive processing may be performed by repeatedly calling methods of an object in the object class structure to populate the content of the object using the set of ID references. The repeatedly calling may be performed using object reflection. Related methods, systems and computer programs are described.
US09501545B2

Systems and methods are provided for caching hashes for deduplicated data. A request to read data from the deduplication data store is received. A persist header stored in a deduplication data store is identified in a first hash structure that is not stored in memory of the computing device. The persist header comprises a set of hashes that includes a hash that is indicative of the data the computing device requested to read. Each hash in the set of hashes represents data stored in the deduplication data store after the persist header that is co-located with other data represented by the remaining hashes in the set of hashes. The set of hashes is cached in a second hash structure stored in the memory, whereby the computing device can identify the additional data using the second hash structure if the additional data is represented by the persist header.
US09501540B2

Systems and processes are disclosed for advanced text analysis in the field of big data analytics and visualization: Users can now factor text into their predictive models, alongside regression, time/date and categorical information. This is ideal for building models where text content may play a prominent role (e.g., social media or customer service logs). Multiple data types, including text fields, may be combined together in datasets and models, and may be presented in various interactive visualization displays.
US09501534B1

Determining an extremum value of an attribute of a first data table. The first data table includes a set of data blocks. Assigning each data block of the set of data blocks an attribute value information indicative of a range of values of the attribute. Assigning the attribute value information results in an extremum set of indicative maximum and minimum values of the attribute. Determining a reference value as the infimum or supremum of the extremum set. If the extremum is a minimum, selecting a subset of the set of data blocks, each having a respective minimum value of the attribute smaller than the reference value. If the extremum is a maximum, selecting a subset of the set of data blocks, each having a respective maximum value of the attribute higher than the reference value. Processing at least part of the subset of data blocks for identifying the extremum value.
US09501524B2

The present disclosure discloses an example method and server for searching and determining an active area. A search request is received by a server. An active area corresponding to the search request is searched in accordance with the search request. Information of the active area is returned. According to the present techniques, the active area found by the server is determined objectively based on the obtained related information. The present techniques avoid increasing search times of the server, prevent waste of resources and bandwidth of the server, and improve the accuracy and reliability for searching the active area.
US09501522B2

This disclosure describes a method, system and computer-program product for parallelized feature selection. The method, system and computer-program product may be used to access a first set of features, wherein the first set of features includes multiple features, wherein the features are characterized by a variance measure, and wherein accessing the first set of features includes using a computing system to access the features, determine components of a covariance matrix, the components of the covariance matrix indicating a covariance with respect to pairs of features in the first set, and select multiple features from the first set, wherein selecting is based on the determined components of the covariance matrix and an amount of the variance measure attributable to the selected multiple features, and wherein selecting the multiple features includes executing a greedy search performed using parallelized computation.
US09501516B2

An upgrade of a first version of a database application to a second version of a database application that both have a same data schema is initiated. The first database application has a first access schema such that at least one table in the data schema is linked to the first access schema. The second version of the database application has a second access schema such that at least one table in the data schema is linked to the second access schema. Subsequently, concurrent access is provided for each access schema to at least one database table in the data schema to the first and second versions of the database application. The concurrent access is enabled by a respective at least one table link object in each of the first access schema and the second access schema that is used by database views or stored procedures such access schema.
US09501515B2

Improved data governance solutions to enterprise-level master data storage hubs are provided by implementing data governance functionality with regard to a master data hub. Data governance functionality is provided by providing visibility into the data quality the data of an enterprise.
US09501505B2

Disclosed is a system for, and method of, determining whether records and entity representations should be delinked. The system and method need no human interaction in order to calculate parameters and utilizing formulas used for the delinking decisions.
US09501493B1

A method for adjusting roles of nodes in a distributed clustered file system can include receiving a first computation operation and profiling the first computation operation according to one or more metrics. The method can also include determining, based on the profiling of the first computation operation, a first file system attribute of the first computation operation. The method can also include identifying that the first computation operation serves a first file system role and identifying a first hardware characteristic of hardware on which a first node of a plurality of nodes is hosted. The method can also include receiving an identification that the first node can utilize additional computation of the first file system role and instantiating a virtualization unit on the first node.
US09501487B1

Implementations are provided herein for incremental backup using a change tree. A change tree is a database file for tracking file system changes of a specific dataset, such as a directory of a file system. A backup process can create and/or initiate a change tree when creating a backup snapshot of a dataset. After the change tree is created, all file system changes inside the dataset can be tracked. The next incremental backup can then take advantage of the change tree to backup changes without traversing the entire dataset. Thus, incremental backups can be more efficient and are better able to keep up with tape streaming speed.
US09501482B2

An exemplary method includes an on-demand content management system detecting a user request for a content library view and displaying, in response to the request, the content library view in a graphical user interface, the content library view including a list of entries graphically representing a plurality of on-demand content instances included in a library of on-demand content, the list of entries comprising a first set of one or more entries representing one or more on-demand content instances included in the library and in a download queue and a second set of one or more entries representing one or more other on-demand content instances included in the library but not in the download queue, wherein a position of the first set of entries is prioritized over a position of the second set of entries in the list of entries. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
US09501480B2

In a process for creating media content, media submissions are requested and electronically received from end users and stored in a computer database. The submissions are searched for material to be included in the media content, and cross-checked against the other submissions for originality and timeliness. After the material is selected from one or more submissions, the content is developed and released to an audience for review. The end users whose submission material was included in the released content are rewarded. In one embodiment, third parties are permitted to access and search the submissions on an open exchange. The third parties can bid for rights in submissions on the open exchange. After receiving these bids, they are forwarded to the particular submission's end user for acceptance or rejection. Appropriate billing and payment processes are used to bill and pay the parties involved.
US09501471B2

A method for generating a context for translating strings for a graphical user interface. The method includes receiving a string to be translated and associated source code, the string identified by a unique key within the associated source code. The method includes identifying a first logical section of the associated source code corresponding to a unique key of the string. The method includes identifying one or more graphical user interface components within the identified logical section of the associated source code. The method then includes creating a mockup image presenting the one or more graphical user interface components and the string.
US09501468B2

Techniques for providing quotations obtained from text documents using natural language processing techniques are described. Some embodiments provide a content recommendation system (“CRS”) configured to provide quotations by extracting quotations from a corpus text documents, and providing access to the extracted quotations in response to search requests received from users. The CRS may extract quotations by using natural language processing-based techniques to identify one or more entities, such as people, places, objects, concepts, or the like, that are referenced by the extracted quotations. The CRS may then store the extracted quotations along with identified entities, such as quotation speakers and subjects, for later access via search requests.
US09501456B2

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for an automatic fix for extensible markup language (XML) errors. A method includes detecting a location causing an error in a markup language document, displaying the location and the error on the display unit, analyzing the error and underlying causes of the error, computing a set of possible actions to remedy the error, displaying information about the error and its underlying causes on the display unit, and displaying the set of possible actions to remedy the error on the display unit.
US09501449B2

An apparatus, computer-readable medium, and computer-implemented method for parallelization of a computer program on a plurality of computing cores includes receiving a computer program comprising a plurality of commands, decomposing the plurality of commands into a plurality of node networks, each node network corresponding to a command in the plurality of commands and including one or more nodes corresponding to execution dependencies of the command, mapping the plurality of node networks to a plurality of systolic arrays, each systolic array comprising a plurality of cells and each non-data node in each node network being mapped to a cell in the plurality of cells, and mapping each cell in each systolic array to a computing core in the plurality of computing cores.
US09501440B2

A slave control device for use in a master/slave bus system having at least two programs that are stored in the slave control device, wherein the programs are matched to different masters that differ in schedule tables, at least one distinguishing feature of the schedule tables is stored in the slave control device, the respectively connected master is detected as a function of the distinguishing feature and the associated program is loaded into a program memory or remains loaded. Also disclosed is a method for programming a slave control device.
US09501439B1

Embodiments herein describe a switchboard coupled to a system bus in an integrated circuit for managing the flow of data between different entities coupled to the bus (e.g., processing cores, accelerators, memory controllers, input/output (I/O) interfaces, and the like). The switchboard is a hardware module that may be tasked with assigning different system bus addresses (or range of addresses) to each of the entities coupled to the bus. These addresses may be unique such that each entity can be uniquely identified by its assigned address. The address space of the system bus also includes managed address that are reserved—i.e., are not assigned to any particular entity. The switchboard is tasked with assigning the managed addresses (also referred to as virtual channels) to an entity which can be used to enable direct communication between hardware entities using the system bus.
US09501436B1

In an embodiment of the invention, a method for to use a two level linked list descriptor mechanism to pass information among flash, memory, and IO controller modules is presented. The method includes creating a first level data structure for one or more first level descriptors; creating a second level data structure for one or more second level descriptors, each second level descriptor having a pointer to tracking information that includes start information, running information, and rewind information for a data DMA; using the one or more second level descriptors, the one or more first level descriptors, and the tracking information for a data DMA; updating the tracking information during the data DMA; and updating the tracking information at the end of the data DMA.
US09501434B2

A rewriting area of a flash ROM stores a main program, which includes a user vector with respect to each of interrupt factors that are different from each other in respect of types. The user vector with respect to a subject interrupt factor indicates an address, which stores an interrupt processing program that is executed when the subject interrupt factor arises. This user vector is stored in a predetermined address dedicated for the subject interrupt factor. The predetermined address of the user vector is enabled to be specified by an interrupt vector or interrupt changeover program, both of which are stored in a non-rewriting area of the flash ROM. Even when an address of the interrupt processing program is changed, the changed address is enabled to be indicated by using the user vector.
US09501433B2

A semiconductor memory system includes a first semiconductor memory die and a second semiconductor memory die. The first semiconductor memory die includes a primary data interface to receive an input data stream during write operations and to deserialize the input data stream into a first plurality of data streams, and also includes a secondary data interface, coupled to the primary data interface, to transmit the first plurality of data streams. The second semiconductor memory die includes a secondary data interface, coupled to the secondary data interface of the first semiconductor memory die, to receive the first plurality of data streams.
US09501428B2

A managing server includes a predicting unit and a controlling unit. The predicting unit predicts either a time or a time period at which frequency of accesses from a plurality of apparatuses to a storage device storing data therein will exceed a predetermined threshold value, on a basis of a status of the accesses from the plurality of apparatuses to the storage device. The controlling unit controls the storage device so as to transmit the data stored therein to at least one of the plurality of apparatuses, prior to the predicted time or time period.
US09501422B2

Large pages that may impede memory performance in computer systems are identified. In operation, mappings to selected large pages are temporarily demoted to mappings to small pages and accesses to these small pages are then tracked. For each selected large page, an activity level is determined based on the tracked accesses to the small pages included in the large page. By strategically selecting relatively low activity large pages for decomposition into small pages and subsequent memory reclamation while restoring the mappings to relatively high activity large pages, memory consumption is improved, while limiting performance impact attributable to using small pages.
US09501419B2

The present disclosure relates to apparatus, systems, and methods that implement a less-recently-used data eviction mechanism for identifying a memory block of a cache for eviction. The less-recently-used mechanism can achieve a similar functionality as the least-recently-used data eviction mechanism, but at a lower memory requirement. A memory controller can implement the less-recently-used data eviction mechanism by selecting a memory block and determining whether the memory block is one of the less-recently-used memory blocks. If so, the memory controller can evict data in the selected memory block; if not, the memory controller can continue to select other memory blocks until the memory controller selects one of the less-recently-used memory blocks.
US09501414B2

A storage control device capable of avoiding a decrease in performance related to accesses to a storage device from a start time of a certain time zone is provided. A schedule information storing unit 130 stores schedule information indicating target data in an access to a storage device in a predetermined time zone. The target data is a target of a cache control using a cache memory. A cache processing unit 120 performs the cache control for the access to the target data and an access to data other than the target data in a time zone except the predetermined time zone, and performs the cache control for the access to the target data in the predetermined time zone. A preprocessing unit 140 performs a preprocessing to make the cache memory available for the cache control of the target data by a start time of the predetermined time zone.
US09501413B2

A cache controller controls data input/output of the storage device and causes the semiconductor storage device to function as a cache memory of the storage device. A staging controller performs, when data is staged from the storage device to the cache memory, first staging amount control until a staging amount to the cache memory exceeds a first threshold after the storage apparatus starts up; performs second staging amount control until a variation per unit time of a read amount from the cache memory falls within a predetermined range after the first period; and performs third staging amount control after the second period. With this configuration, the semiconductor apparatus can be efficiently used.
US09501408B2

A method of testing cache coherency in a computer system design allocates different portions of a single cache line for use by accelerators and processors. The different portions of the cache line can have different sizes, and the processors and accelerators can operate in the simulation at different frequencies. The verification system can control execution of the instructions to invoke different modes of the coherency mechanism such as direct memory access or cache intervention. The invention provides a further opportunity to test any accelerator having an original function and an inverse function by allocating cache lines to generate an original function output, allocating cache lines to generate an inverse function output based on the original function output, and verifying correctness of the original and inverse functions by comparing the inverse function output to the original function input.
US09501405B2

Systems and methods of memory cell wear management that can achieve a more uniform distribution of write cycles across a memory cell address space. The systems and methods allow physical addresses of memory cells subjected to a high number of write cycles to be swapped with physical addresses of memory cells subjected to a lower number of write cycles. The physical address of a group of memory cells is a “hot address” if the write cycle count for that memory cell group exceeds a specified threshold. If the write cycle count for a group of memory cells does not exceed the specified threshold, then the physical address of that memory cell group is a “cold address”. The systems and methods allow the specified threshold of write cycle counts to be dynamically incremented to assure that cold addresses are available for swapping with hot addresses in the memory cell address space.
US09501394B2

Apparatus, method and systems for managing reference data, which can prevent duplicated data loading of reference data and eliminate redundancy of I/O operations for loading of the same reference data required by different virtual machines present in the same physical node to reduce use memory and I/O through sharing virtual machine leveled memories, are provided.
US09501389B1

A computer-implemented method includes creating a test suite, wherein the test suite includes a plurality of test cases for execution on a plurality of test agents. The method distributes a first portion of test cases to any available test agents, wherein each test case out of the first portion of test cases does not have any associated preconditions. The receives test results and event information for a first test case out of the first portion of test cases from a first test agent. Responsive to determining the event information for the first test case includes a satisfied condition for a second test case with one or more associated preconditions, the method determines whether the satisfied condition for the second test case relates to a global variable or local variable.
US09501383B2

A method for securing a first program, the first program including a finite number of program points and evolution rules associated to program points and defining the passage of a program point to another, the method including defining a plurality of exit cases and, when a second program is used in the definition of the first program, for each exit case, definition of a branching toward a specific program point of the first program or a declaration of branching impossibility, defining a set of properties to be proven, each associated with one of the constitutive elements of the first program, said set of properties comprising the branching impossibility as a particular property and establishment of the formal proof of the set of properties.
US09501381B2

Various methods for application costing based on the hardware of a client device are provided. One example method may comprise receiving a message comprising an indication of one or more hardware requirements associated with a service. The method of this example embodiment may further comprise determine one or more hardware attributes related to the one or more hardware requirements. The method of this example embodiment may further comprise evaluating whether the one or more hardware attributes satisfy the one or more hardware requirements. Similar and related example methods, example apparatuses, and example computer program products are also provided.
US09501371B2

A method and system permit a backup entity of a redundant apparatus of a communication system that shares control of hardware resources or other network resources with an active entity to indirectly determine a status of the active entity based upon behavior and reaction to actions it takes in connection with resources it shares control of with the active entity. Such a method and system permit the backup entity to deduce the state of the active entity without having any a hardware connection or other communication connection with the active entity.
US09501358B2

A method includes storing a first subset of encoded data slices of a set of encoded data slices in one local memory, LAN memory, and/or WAN memory. The method further includes storing a second subset of encoded data slices in a different one of the local memory, the LAN memory, and the WAN memory. The method further includes determining to make a change in storage of the set of encoded data slices. The method further includes determining to make an adjustment to the pillar width number based on the determined storage change. The method further includes generating adjusted encoded data slices for the set of encoded data slices based on the adjustment to the pillar width number. The method further includes storing the updated set of encoded data slices in accordance with the determined change in the storage of the set of encoded data slices.
US09501356B2

Back-up of data to flash memory. Data to back up is written into stripes, which are sets of pages across flash memory backup devices having the same block and page address. First metadata is embedded in each stripe indicating any blocks of the flash memory known to be bad. In response to encountering a new error in a block of flash memory during writing data to back up to a stripe, re-writing the stripe starting at the next available stripe excluding pages on the block of flash memory having the new error, writing subsequent stripes excluding pages on the block of flash memory having the new error, and embedding second metadata in the re-written and subsequent stripes indicating the location of the block having the new error. Responsive to finding no bad blocks indicated in the first metadata, initiating a write to two or more stripes simultaneously.
US09501353B2

Example apparatus and methods selectively generate and store erasure codes differently based on priorities associated with the erasure codes or based on conditions in a data storage system (DSS) that protects messages using erasure codes. Producing a systematic erasure code (EC) may be prioritized over producing a non-systematic EC. Producing an EC associated with correcting X erasures may be prioritized over producing an EC associated with correcting Y erasures, X and Y being numbers, X
US09501349B2

A method begins with a processing module of a dispersed storage network (DSN) maintaining, over time, a continuum of time-to-repair information regarding a plurality of storage units of the DSN and maintaining, over time, a continuum of time-to-failure information regarding the plurality of storage units. When the continuum of time-to-repair information and the continuum of time-to-failure information are each below undesired levels, the method continues with the processing module changing dispersed storage error encoding parameters of a logical storage vault of the DSN by lowering a decode threshold number with respect to a current decode threshold number and increasing a pillar width number with respect to a current pillar width number. The method continues with the processing module re-encoding stored encoded data of the logical storage vault based on the increased pillar width number and the decreased decode threshold number.
US09501343B2

A method of operating a non-volatile memory device including first buffer memory cells and main memory cells, where the first buffer memory cells store first data, the main memory cells store second data, which is read from the first buffer memory cells, or recovered first data, which is recovered from the second data through a correction process, includes reading data, which is stored in sample buffer memory cells included in the first buffer memory cells, as sample data when an accumulated number of read commands, which are executed on the non-volatile memory device, reaches a reference value. The method includes counting the number of errors included in the sample data based an error correction code, and determining whether the main memory cells store the second data or the recovered first data based on the number of the errors relative to the first threshold value.
US09501336B2

A method at a computing device having a plurality of concurrently operating domains for providing a unified home screen, the method sending a request for package information from a home screen application on the computing device; receiving the request for package information at a unified package manager on the computing device; requesting, from the plurality of concurrently operating domains, package information; receiving package information from at least one of the plurality of concurrently operating domains at the unified package manager on the computing device; decorating the received package information with domain information for a domain from which the package information was received at the unified package manager on the computing device; and providing the decorated package information to the home screen application.
US09501334B2

A system and method are provided for communicating information in a data structure between applications. According to the method, a description of a data structure is sent from a first application to a second application, and there is received from the second application an identification of at least one portion of the data structure that is requested by the second application. The first application marshals a subset of the data structure consisting of the at least one portion that was identified, and there is sent from the first application to the second application the marshalled subset of the data structure.
US09501330B2

Implementations of the disclosure provide for controlling capacity in a multi-tenant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) environment in a cloud computing system. A method includes obtaining, by a resource control module executed by a processing device, an active capacity metric of each node in a multi-tenant Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) system, the active capacity metric determined in view of a number of containers that are currently executing in the node and a maximum number of active containers allowed to execute in the node, comparing, by the resource control module, the active capacity metric of the each node to an active capacity threshold associated with the each node, and when the active capacity metric exceeds the active capacity threshold in all of the nodes in a district of the multi-tenant PaaS system and when a maximum actual capacity of containers in the district is not exceeded, adding a new node to the district.
US09501316B2

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for efficiently processing information. In some embodiments, this includes selecting a service to add to a storage array, determining a virtual appliance associated with the service, and instantiating the virtual appliance. In some embodiments, instantiating the virtual appliance includes instantiating an image of the virtual appliance.
US09501314B2

A system and method for reducing the number of aborts caused by a runtime helper being called during the execution of a transaction block. When a runtime helper is called during the execution of a transaction block while a program using hardware transactional memory is running, the runtime helper passes ID information indicating the type of runtime helper to an abort handler. When there is an abort caused by a call to a runtime helper, the abort handler responds by acquiring the ID information of the runtime helper that caused the abort, disables the transaction block with respect to a specific type of runtime helper, executes the non-transactional path corresponding to the transaction block, and re-enables the transaction block when predetermined conditions are satisfied.
US09501308B2

A method, system and computer program product are provided for implementing coherent accelerator function isolation for virtualization in an input/output (IO) adapter in a computer system. A coherent accelerator provides accelerator function units (AFUs), each AFU is adapted to operate independently of the other AFUs to perform a computing task that can be implemented within application software on a processor. The AFU has access to system memory bound to the application software and is adapted to make copies of that memory within AFU memory-cache in the AFU. As part of this memory coherency domain, each of the AFU memory-cache and processor memory-cache is adapted to be aware of changes to data commonly in either cache as well as data changed in memory of which the respective cache contains a copy.
US09501305B2

A system for virtualization monitoring is provided as a hardware interface provided on a physical machine supporting a virtualization layer. The interface comprises an indication of the state of virtualization on the physical machine to monitor any virtual machines running on the physical machine. The interface also comprises means for interacting with the virtualization layer, for example for activating a maintenance mode by a migration of virtual servers running on a physical machine.
US09501301B2

A method for protecting computer software code is disclosed. In the embodiment, the method involves receiving instructions corresponding to computer software code for an application, the instructions including a first section of instructions to protect that is indicated by a first indicator and a second section of the instructions to protect that is indicated by a second indicator, rewriting the first section of instructions into a first section of virtual instructions, and rewriting the second section of instructions into a second section of virtual instructions, wherein the first section of instructions includes a first virtual instruction that corresponds to a first handler and the second section of virtual instructions includes a second virtual instruction that corresponds to a second handler, the first handler having different properties than the second handler.
US09501298B2

A schema is provided that logically represents a nodal hierarchy relating to execution of an application. The hierarchy includes multiple nodes, including one or more category nodes and one or more content nodes. An executable script is provided with the schema. The script may be associated with at least one node of the hierarchy. Each of multiple user inputs from the computing device are processed using the schema. The individual user inputs may be selective of nodes of the hierarchy. In response to processing each of multiple user inputs, user interface content is provided to the computing device. The user interface content for each user input corresponds to one of (i) one or more nodes, or (ii) a script content, generated as an output of an executed script that is associated with a selected node.
US09501296B2

An automation manager configured to manage a plurality of sessions of operating systems implemented in a hypervisor. The automation manager includes a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions when executed by the processor cause the automation manager to perform: generating a compact disk image containing customization data; instructing the hypervisor to mount the compact disk image to an operating system created from an operating system template; and instructing the hypervisor to start the operating system to which the compact disk image is mounted and execute a native boot time application to read the customization data from the compact disk image and store the customization data in a predetermined location of the operating system designated for a system preparation process, which customizes the operating system based on the customization data, before the system preparation process is executed. Ejecting the compact disk image when the customization is complete.
US09501291B2

In an example, in a method for providing a shutdown process for a computer system including an operating system (OS), basic input/output system (BIOS) firmware may capture a request from the OS to hardware of the computer system to enter into a hibernate state. In addition, the BIOS firmware may determine whether a hybrid-shutdown process is in process and in response to a determination that the hybrid-shutdown process is in process, may turn off the computer system instead of entering the computer system into the hibernate state.
US09501290B1

Techniques are described for generating a unique identifier by a first processor using a plurality of values including a shared value, the first processor's identifier, a container identifier and a time value. The shared value is a common value used by a plurality of processors including the first processor. The container identifier identifies a memory location. The time value denotes an amount of time that has elapsed since the first processor was last booted.
US09501288B2

A power-on method for a server device includes generating a stand-by power to a server module of the server device when a blade enable signal is asserted; asserting, by the server module, a power-on signal to a storage module of the server device; performing, by the storage module, a first boot-on process when the storage module receives the asserted power-on signal; transmitting, by the storage module, an asserted ready signal to the server module when the first boot-on process finishes; and performing, by the server module, a second boot-on process via a normal power when the server module receives the asserted ready signal.
US09501282B2

An arithmetic processing device includes: an arithmetic unit configured to execute an arithmetic operation; and a stream engine configured to execute stream processing, wherein a data bus of the arithmetic unit and a data bus of the stream engine are tightly coupled with each other.
US09501281B2

Method and apparatus for performing a shift and XOR operation. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes execution resources to execute a first instruction. In response to the first instruction, said execution resources perform a shift and XOR on at least one value.
US09501278B2

The present disclosure discloses a method and device for data transmission between register files. The method includes that: data in a source register file are read at a Stage i of a pipeline; and the read data are transmitted to a destination register file using an idle instruction pipeline. With the method of the present disclosure, data and mask information are transmitted using an idle instruction pipeline, without addition of extra registers for data and control information buffering, thus reducing logic consumption as well as increasing utilization of an existing functional unit.
US09501274B1

A computer receives one or more partitions of application code and one or more tags associated with each partition. The computer identifies feedback corresponding to the application and determines whether terms contained within the feedback correspond to the tags associated with the partitions of code. Based on determining that the terms within the feedback correspond to the tags associated with a partition, associating the feedback with the corresponding partition of code. Based on determining that the terms within the feedback do not correspond to the tags associated with a partition, improving correlating accuracy through techniques such as machine learning, text analytics, natural language processing, and developer feedback to determine additional terms and additional tags.
US09501270B2

A system and methods for customizing operating system and application resources on an electronic device are described. Methods of operation include checking for an optimization tag in an application file prior to installing the application file on an electronic device, checking properties of the electronic device in response to detecting the optimization tag, purging resource files that are not necessary for the electronic device based on the electronic device properties, and installing the application on the device. The system and methods, among other advantages in addition to providing customization, reduce file storage in a memory of an electronic device by eliminating resource file duplications.
US09501252B2

An image processing apparatus includes an image data acquiring unit that acquires image data, and a transmitting unit that, if a first destination specified as a destination of the image data by a user is not safe, transmits the image data to a second destination different from the first destination, and transmits information indicating the second destination to the first destination.
US09501244B2

A method of applying scheduling policies is provided. The method includes distributing user data throughout a plurality of storage nodes through erasure coding, wherein the plurality of storage nodes are housed within a single chassis coupling the storage nodes as a cluster. The method includes receiving operations relating to a non-volatile memory of one of the plurality of storage nodes into a plurality of operation queues. The method includes evaluating each of the operations in the plurality of operation queues as to benefit to the non-volatile solid-state storage according to a plurality of policies. For each channel of a plurality of channels coupling the operation queues to the non-volatile memory, the method includes iterating a selection and an execution of a next operation from the plurality of operation queues, with each next operation having a greater benefit than at least a subset of operations remaining in the operation queues.
US09501240B2

For efficient free-space management of multi-target peer-to-peer remote copy (PPRC) modified sectors bitmap in bind segments, maintaining a list of bind segments having a free slots for each storage volume. Each one of the bind segments includes a bitmap of the free slots. Those of the bind segments having more than an predetermined number of the free slots are freed.
US09501237B2

An automatic mutual exclusion computer programming system is disclosed which allows a programmer to produce concurrent programming code that is synchronized by default without the need to write any synchronization code. The programmer creates asynchronous methods which are not permitted make changes to shared memory that they cannot reverse, and can execute concurrently with other asynchronous methods. Changes to shared memory are committed if no other thread has accessed shared memory while the asynchronous method executed. Changes are reversed and the asynchronous method is re-executed if another thread has made changes to shared memory. The resulting program executes in a serialized order. A blocking system method is disclosed which causes the asynchronous method to re-execute until the blocking method's predicate results in an appropriate value. A yield system call is disclosed which divides asynchronous methods into atomic fragments. When a yield method call is made, shared memory changes are committed if possible or reversed and the atomic fragment is re-executed.
US09501234B1

A system and method is disclosed for performing a backup of electronic data. An example method includes storing a first incremental data backup portion of a dataset in an electronic memory where the first incremental data backup includes both modified and unmodified portions of the dataset. Once stored, the method includes determining whether the first incremental data backup is a complete backup of the dataset. If the first incremental data backup is not a complete backup of the dataset, the method stores one or more additional incremental data backups of the dataset in the electronic memory that include additional modified and unmodified portions of the dataset until a full backup of the dataset is created.
US09501224B2

A method for oversubscribing a host memory of a host running a virtual machine monitor (VMM), comprising, examining a virtual machine (VM) memory for a VM for metadata associated with the VM memory, the metadata maintained by a guest OS running on the VM, collecting the metadata for the VM memory, and managing the VM memory using the metadata for oversubscribing a host memory.
US09501215B2

Methods and apparatus provide for: displaying on a screen a partial area image indicating a given area within an image to be displayed; moving the given area in response to a predetermined operation performed by a user; and determining whether or not the given area is located at an end portion of the image to be displayed, where, when the given area is located at the end portion of the image to be displayed, in response to the predetermined operation performed by the user, instead of moving the given area, changing an appearance of the partial area image displayed on the screen and displaying the partial area image on the screen.
US09501207B2

External constraints with respect to at least one input field of at least one application are generated. Context-aware input data is provided to at least one input field of a currently used application, based on the external constraints.
US09501193B2

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method and apparatus that is configured to reduce the effects of interference that is undesirably provided to a transmitter signal that is delivered from a transmitter signal generating device to a sensor processor to determine if an input object is disposed within a touch sensing region of a touch sensing device. In one embodiment, the sensor processor includes a receiver channel that has circuitry that is configured to separately receive a transmitter signal delivered from a display processor and a sensor processor reference signal that is based on a display processor reference signal to reliably sense the presence of an object. Embodiments of the invention described herein thus provide an improved apparatus and method for reliably sensing the presence of an object by a touch sensing device.
US09501192B2

The present invention relates to the touch control technology filed. Provided are a single-layer capacitive touch sensor and a touch control terminal, wherein a substrate of the single-layer capacitive touch sensor is distributed with several rows of induction electrode and drive electrode pairs with electrode extension parts mutually interlocked, and several ground electrodes located between saturated surfaces of adjacent induction electrodes. According to the present invention, two types of electrodes are designed into an interlocking shape, a capacitive structure is formed through interlocked parts, making wiring simpler, and furthermore, the ground electrodes are added on the substrate, and an area to the ground is enlarged, thereby reducing a suspension effect.
US09501189B2

An electronic device includes a control unit (60) that performs processing associated with an object displayed on a display unit (20) in accordance with a contact position of a contacting body in an input acceptance region, of a contact detection unit (10), corresponding to the object and in accordance with data based on pressure detected by a pressure detection unit (30). When the contact position of the contacting body detected by the contact detection unit (10) changes from being inside the input acceptance region to outside the input acceptance region along with an increase in the data based on pressure detected by the pressure detection unit (30), the control unit (60) performs control to consider the contact position to be inside the input acceptance region, thereby preventing operations not intended by the operator when a contact position shifts due to the start of pressure.
US09501188B2

The present invention discloses a noise-shielded capacitive touch device, which includes a first sensor region, a second sensor region and a shielding layer. Each of the first sensor region and the second sensor region includes plural sensing lines and driving lines. The sensing lines are in parallel with each other and extend along a first direction. Each sensing line has an extension portion at its end near the other sensor region. The driving lines are in parallel with each other and extend along a second direction, wherein the second direction intersects the first direction. The extension portions and the shielding layer form an electric field wall to avoid cross interferences between the two sensor regions.
US09501183B2

There are disclosed a method, apparatuses and a computer program product for sensing a movement of an object in proximity of a sensing panel. In some embodiments of the method proximity data indicative of existence of one or more pointing objects in proximity of a sensing panel is formed. It is also determined from the proximity data whether at least one of the pointing objects touches the sensing panel. If the determining indicates at least one touch of at least one pointing object, it is determined if a probability that movement of one or more of the pointing objects in proximity of the sensing panel illustrates a predetermined gesture. The probability is compared to a predetermined threshold; and a touch event is sent, if the probability is less than the predetermined threshold.
US09501168B2

A method and apparatus determine a plurality of regions, each of the plurality of regions having a detected change in capacitance value that meets or exceeds a threshold value. In an embodiment, the method and apparatus fit a shape to the plurality of regions and determine another region, the other region being within the fitted shape and not having the detected change in capacitance value that meets or exceeds the threshold value. The method and apparatus may assign an assigned change in capacitance value to the other region.
US09501166B2

An electronic device, including circuitry to detect, based on an output of a touch panel, a kind of finger that operates the touch panel; determine, based on the detected kind of the finger, an arrangement of display elements on a display formed on or integrally with the touch panel; and control the display to display the elements in accordance with the determined arrangement.
US09501163B2

A method and apparatus for activating a trigger mechanism at a data capture device having a touch display, and a data capture module is provided. In operation, a first region associated with a first application and an input region is provided on the touch display. An input is received at the device, including at least a touch sensor input from the touch display. Based on the input, an obtained input pattern may be identified. The identified input pattern may include at least one of a spatial pattern, a temporal pattern, a touch size and a hard-tap. When the identifying is successful, either an input may be provided to the first application or the trigger mechanism may be activated to initiate a data capture at the data capture module. Alternatively, when the identifying is successful, an operation associated with the first application may be performed or a mode of operation of the data capture device may be changed to a second mode.
US09501160B2

A coordinate detection system that detects a coordinate pointed by a pointing operation on a board face includes at least two light receiving units that receive a light emitted from a peripheral light emission part provided in a periphery of the board face; and a coordinate detecting unit that detects the coordinate pointed by the pointing operation based on a comparison between a first intensity distribution and a second intensity distribution, wherein the first intensity distribution is obtained by the at least two light receiving units of receiving the light emitted from the peripheral light emission part without an interruption of the light caused by the pointing operation, wherein the second intensity distribution is obtained by the at least two light receiving units of receiving the light emitted from the peripheral light emission part when the pointing operation points the board face.
US09501159B2

A wireless power transfer system is disclosed. A mouse system includes a mouse pad for wirelessly transmitting power and a wireless mouse for wirelessly receiving power. The mouse pad receives control information related to control of the position of a mouse pointer from the wireless mouse through wireless communication and transmits the received control information to a computer to control the position of the mouse pointer.
US09501158B2

A data obtaining unit repeatedly obtains acceleration data. An acceleration vector generation unit generates first acceleration vector in accordance with first acceleration data obtained by the data obtaining unit, and generates second acceleration vector in accordance with second acceleration data time-sequentially obtained by the data obtaining unit following the first acceleration data. A cross product direction calculation unit calculates a direction of a cross product between the first acceleration vector and the second acceleration vector. A swing direction identification unit identifies a swing direction in which the input device is swung in accordance with the direction of the cross product.
US09501156B2

An adjustable ergonomic keyboard includes keyboard segments coupled by a joint allowing the keyboard segments to pivot relative to one another. A retainer secures a corresponding keyboard segment with respect to a base support and allows the corresponding retained keyboard segment to rotate thereabout and to travel laterally with respect to the base support. The base support may be part of a portable laptop chassis or body or may be a stand-alone base for use of the keyboard as a peripheral data input device.
US09501152B2

During control of a user interface via free-space motions of a hand or other suitable control object, switching between control modes may be facilitated by tracking the control object's movements relative to, and its penetration of, a virtual control construct (such as a virtual surface construct). The position of the virtual control construct may be updated, continuously or from time to time, based on the control object's location.
US09501142B2

The invention enables users to virtually attach information to situations in the real world, and also enables users to quickly and easily find out desired information. An IR sensor receives an IR signal transmitted from an IR beacon, and supplies the received signal to a sub-notebook PC. A CCD video camera takes in a visual ID from an object, and supplies the inputted visual ID to the sub-notebook PC. A user inputs, through a microphone, a voice to be attached to situations in the real world. The sub-notebook PC transmits position data, object data and voice data, which have been supplied to it, to a server through a communication unit. The transmitted data is received by the server via a wireless LAN. The server stores the received voice data in a database in correspondence to the position data and the object data.
US09501138B2

A method for operating a real-time gesture based interactive system includes: obtaining a sequence of frames of data from an acquisition system; comparing successive frames of the data for portions that change between frames; determining whether any of the portions that changed are part of an interaction medium detected in the sequence of frames of data; defining a 3D interaction zone relative to an initial position of the part of the interaction medium detected in the sequence of frames of data; tracking a movement of the interaction medium to generate a plurality of 3D positions of the interaction medium; detecting movement of the interaction medium from inside to outside the 3D interaction zone at a boundary 3D position; shifting the 3D interaction zone relative to the boundary 3D position; computing a plurality of 2D positions based on the 3D positions; and supplying the 2D positions to control an application.
US09501126B1

A computer readable storage medium or media stores machine readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to, while a device in a communication network is operating in a first power management mode, simultaneously monitor for an expiration of a first period of time during which no message traffic is observed at all on a communication channel of the communication network, and an expiration of a second period of time during which no message traffic destined for the device is received by the device via the communication channel of the communication network. The instructions also cause the one or more processors to, responsive to the expiration of the first or second period of time, whichever comes first, initiate operation of the device in a second power management mode.
US09501124B2

An optimized placement of virtual machines may be determined by optimizing an energy cost for a group of virtual machines in various configurations. For various hardware platforms, an energy cost per performance value may be determined. Based on the performance usage of a group of virtual machines, a total power cost may be determined and used for optimization. In some implementations, an optimized placement may include operating a group of virtual machines in a manner that does not exceed a total energy cost for a period of time.
US09501114B2

Provided is an apparatus and method for managing power based on data. The apparatus may include a code segment searching unit configured to search for at least one code segment in which a power type is inserted, a block determining unit configured to determine at least one block based on the at least one found code segment, and a power mode control unit configured to control the at least one determined block to operate in a power mode corresponding to the power type.
US09501112B2

Mobile platforms and methods may provide for an integrated circuit such as a system on chip (SoC), a first heat spreader thermally coupled to the integrated circuit and a phase change material configuration thermally coupled to the first heat spreader. The integrated circuit may include logic to operate the integrated circuit in a performance burst mode according to a duty cycle, wherein the performance burst mode causes a phase change material to enter a liquid state within a graphite matrix of the phase change material configuration.
US09501109B2

A detachable guiding mechanism is selectively disposed inside an electronic device and located above a half-height expansion card of the electronic device. The detachable guiding mechanism includes a bridging component and a guiding component. The bridging component includes at least one connecting portion. The guiding component is detachably assembled with the bridging component. The guiding component includes a contacting surface, a first guiding surface, a second guiding surface and at least one fixing portion. The contacting surface contacts against or abuts adjacent to an upper edge of the half-height expansion card since the detachable guiding mechanism is located above the half-height expansion card. The first guiding surface and the second guiding surface are connected to the contacting surface to respectively form a first angle and a second angle. The fixing portion is disposed on the connecting portion to detachably assemble the guiding component with the bridging component.
US09501108B2

An example electronic display system including a housing with a recess, a top side, and a bottom side opposite the top side and a kickstand having a first end and a second end opposite the first end, the first end being rotatably coupled to the housing proximate the bottom side, and the second end being rotationally biased away from the housing. A variable friction assembly is coupled to the first end. The kickstand has a first position in which the second end is received within the recess, and a second position in which the second end is substantially rotatably separated from the recess. Further, the variable friction assembly applies a first friction load to the first end when the kickstand is the first position, and a second friction load when the kickstand is in the second position, wherein the first friction load is greater than the second friction load.
US09501102B2

A method manufactures a front panel including a front panel body formed of a single transmissive resin layer and a sensor film attached thereto, using a first mold having a molding recessed portion and a second mold having a molding projecting portion. The first and second molds are joined together such that a cavity is formed between the molding recessed portion and the molding projecting portion, by placing the sensor film between the first mold and the second mold, on the molding projecting portion in the cavity. A melted resin is injected into the cavity to form the single transmissive resin layer having a front surface formed in a shape of the molding recessed portion, and a back surface formed along the sensor film in a shape of the molding projecting portion, thereby laminating the sensor film to the back surface of the transmissive resin layer.
US09501084B1

A wearable electronic device provides force feedback that acts on a controller of the device. At least one actuator coupled to the controller receives inputs from a host computing system and applies forces in at least one of two allowed degrees-of-freedom to the movable controller. The actuator includes an axle that is rotatably driven by an electric motor, and a force transmission gear assembly for transmitting the torque from the motor to the controller via the axle.
US09501073B2

A method and voltage regulator comprises a generator that generates an error difference between a reference and regulated voltage. A clocked ADC samples the voltage as a digital stream. A DAC converts the stream to analog signal(s). A current source driven by the signal(s) generate(s) the regulated voltage. The generator may be an op-amp or comparator comprising a buffer and/or a latch. The N-bit ADC may be a Σ-Δ modulator or N 1-bit ADC latches. The N-bit DAC may comprise 1-bit DACs comprising a switched-capacitor summer and a one stage RC LPF. Sampling the error up-converts flicker noise to the clock frequency which the DAC filters out. The current source may comprise N transistors with gates driven by a signal and sources tied to an independent power supply. Each signal may be weighted by a DAC weight. The apparatus may comprise a decoupling capacitor between the regulated voltage and ground.
US09501071B2

A method for establishing a set back temperature for an environmental control system includes entering an energy saver control phase having a predetermined time period, determine an effective thermal load for an environmental control zone, calculating a set-back temperature based on the effective thermal load for the environmental control zone and the predetermined time period, operating an environmental control device to establish and maintain the set-back temperature for a portion of the predetermined time period, and operating the environmental control device to establish a desired temperature substantially by an end of the predetermined time period.
US09501066B2

A display for displaying the condition of an air mattress. The display comprises a plurality of arrays of elements organized in a hierarchy. Each element represents a pressure increment. Each array comprises a plurality of rows and a plurality columns. The elements in each row of an array being distinctive in appearance from the elements in the other rows of the array. A control that operates the elements to indicate the pressure beginning with the first column, of the first row, of the lowest array in the hierarchy.
US09501063B2

An electric linear motion actuator includes an electric motor, a motion converting mechanism that converts the rotational motion of the electric motor into a linear motion of a linear moving member, a load sensor that detects the magnitude of the load applied to the brake disk from the linear moving member, and a controller that performs feedback control on the electric motor based on the difference between the load detected by the load sensor and a load command value. The controller reduces the number of revolutions of the electric motor when the linear moving member moves into a predetermined zone immediately before the position where the clearance between the linear moving member and the brake disk becomes zero.
US09501061B2

Methods, devices, systems, and non-transitory process-readable media for evaluating operating conditions of an autonomous aircraft before performing a mission by executing brief near-flight testing maneuvers at a low elevation. A processor of the autonomous aircraft may receive near-flight testing maneuver instructions that indicate a near-flight testing maneuver to be executed by the autonomous aircraft. The processor may control motors to cause the aircraft to execute a near-flight testing maneuver within a testing area, obtain data indicating stability and performance information while executing the near-flight testing maneuvers, and take an action in response to the obtained data. Actions may include adjusting a position of a payload, a weight, or a portion of the aircraft based on the obtained data, and adjusting a flight plan. The near-flight testing maneuvers may include a sequence of moves for testing stability of the aircraft and payload executing a flight path under anticipated flying conditions.
US09501052B2

A die cushion force control method and a die cushion apparatus generates a die cushion force on a cushion pad based on a die cushion force command value set in advance. A die cushion force command value equal to or larger than a target die cushion force command value is outputted initially in order to suppress an initial die cushion force overshoot generated when the target die cushion force command value configured to be stepwise is used as the die cushion force command value, then a die cushion force command value decreased continuously (gradually) so as to be smaller than the target die cushion force command value is outputted, and subsequently a die cushion force command value increasing gradually so as to be equal to the target die cushion force command value is outputted.
US09501050B2

A battery powered thermostat senses a battery voltage drop to a low-battery voltage level. At that point, the thermostat microprocessor provides a LOW BATTERY alert message, visible on the thermostat display. If the occupant fails to replace the power cells or does not notice the LOW BATTERY message, when the battery voltage drops further the microprocessor alters the thermostat set points. This reduces the number of heating or cooling cycles per day, and reduces the number of actuations of the latching relays in the thermostat, conserving remaining battery life. At a further drop in battery voltage the set points are changed additionally. Additional functions, such as second level heat, second level cooling, and fan speed, are disabled. The change in heat or cooling cycles induces the occupant to check the thermostat where he or she will notice the LOW BATTERY message.
US09501048B2

A computer-based system and method for the customized, on-demand production of minted metal pieces or minted metal assemblies is presented herein. Particularly, the system includes an on-demand management system and data storage device comprising a plurality of selectable metal data and/or selectable housing data for ordering, customizing and the on-demand production of minted metal and/or housings thereof.
US09501043B2

A flexible portable electronic device capable of generating information includes a flexible body configured to be attached to a part of a user's body, the flexible body including a lower flexible band that gives the flexible portable electronic device thickness and mechanical resistance and an upper flexible band fixed to the lower flexible band, and an electronic assembly to generate information, the electronic assembly being housed between the lower flexible band and the upper flexible band. At least two successive bellows each including at least one fold are separated from each other by a transverse reinforcing element at one location on a length of the lower flexible band. The reinforcing element extends transversely to a longitudinal axis of symmetry of the flexible body and is secured to the lower flexible band. The bellows are configured to compress and relax along the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the flexible body.
US09501041B2

In a duty cycle error detection device, a first digital code generator is configured to generate high and low codes corresponding to a lengths of high level low level periods, respectively, of a clock signal, generate a sign signal representing the longer period between the high level period and the low level period, and output one of the high and low digital codes corresponding to the shorter period as a first digital code. A clock delay circuit is configured to generate a delay clock signal by delaying the clock signal for a time corresponding to the first digital code, and a second digital code generator is configured to generate a duty error digital code corresponding to a length from a start of the longer period of the delay clock signal to an end of the longer period of the clock signal based on the sign signal.
US09501036B2

A holographic display and more particularly an apparatus and method for a curved electro-holographic display are disclosed. The apparatus mainly includes at least one light source for providing lights, at least one axially symmetric mirror for reflecting the lights coming from the light source, at least one spatial light modulation system having one or more than one spatial light modulators for modulating the lights reflecting from the axially symmetric mirror and forming a desired optical reconstruction above the axially symmetric mirror by reflecting the lights which is seen from a viewing zone by the user.
US09501027B2

The one end portion and the other end portion of the support member have tapered portions, respectively, and thickness of each tapered portion is gradually reduced toward a center side from an end side of the support member in a longitudinal direction.
US09501025B2

A gear transmission device includes a first external gear driven by a drive motor attached to a first side of a frame and a first internal gear driven by the first external gear. The first internal gear includes an outer cylinder portion, an end plate, an annular opening, and an inner cylinder portion including a shaft hole. The outer cylinder portion includes internal teeth formed on an inner circumferential surface thereof. The inner cylinder portion is formed concentrically inside the outer cylinder portion. The end plate connects the outer cylinder portion, the inner cylinder portion, and the shaft hole at one end in an axial direction. In a state in which the annular opening faces a second side of the frame opposite the first side thereof, the first external gear is inserted to the annular opening to mesh with the internal teeth of the outer cylinder portion.
US09501022B2

An apparatus for reducing registration errors in a media handling device. The apparatus including an image-bearing member having sheets individually pass across the image-bearing member. Each sheet pass corresponds to one of a series of iterations between the image-bearing member and the sheets. The image-bearing member is operatively coupled to a controller for regulation motion of the image-bearing member. The controller receives input signals representing at least one measured disturbance. Each disturbance being defined by a pattern of image-bearing member movement away from and substantially returning to a reference state of motion. A repetition of the pattern being coincident with at least one of the iterations, wherein based on the measured disturbance, the reference state and an indication associated with when the pattern will repeat, a modified signal is generated for the actuator to adjust the image-bearing member motion in coordination with the indication.
US09501015B2

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a heating unit, and a fixing unit. The image forming unit uses a toner including a flat pigment. The heating unit heats a recording medium. The fixing unit allows the recording medium to pass therethrough so as to cause an image formed on the recording medium to be fixed onto the recording medium by heat. In the image forming apparatus, the heating unit heats the recording medium on which the image has not been formed, the image forming unit forms the image on the recording medium having been heated, and the fixing unit fixes the image having been formed onto the recording medium.
US09501011B2

A fixing device to fix a toner image on a sheet includes a first rotary member that rotates in a predetermined direction and a second rotary member that contacts an outer circumferential surface of the first rotary member. A stationary member is fixed inside the first rotary member to press the first and second rotary members together to form a nip portion between the rotary members. A reinforcement member is fixedly provided inside the first rotary member and pressed against the stationary member. The fixing device includes heat source to heat the first rotary member and a reflector to reflect heater light emitted from the heat source toward the first rotary member.
US09501003B2

The image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a fixing unit including a heater, a necessary integral power calculation unit configured to calculate a necessary integral power required for the fixing unit to reach a predetermined fixable temperature, a suppliable integral power calculation unit configured to calculate a suppliable integral power capable of being supplied to the heater in a time elapsing until the recording material reaches the fixing unit, a power source condition detection unit configured to detect a power source condition of a power source for supplying power to the heater, and a controller configured to control a timing to start conveyance of the recording material according to the necessary integral power and the suppliable integral power, wherein the suppliable integral power calculation unit calculates the suppliable integral power according to a resistance value of the heater and the power source condition.
US09501000B2

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms an image by consecutively superposing toner images that have been formed on a plurality of photosensitive drums, on an intermediate transfer member or a transfer medium. The image forming apparatus is made compact and operates at a low cost. Since a current supply member supplies a current in a rotational direction of an intermediate transfer belt, multiple first transfer portions do not need corresponding voltage sources. Even in the case where a charging member supplies a current, the potential of the intermediate transfer belt is maintained at a predetermined potential by a constant-voltage element connected to support rollers.
US09500999B2

An image forming apparatus includes a door movably holding a transfer unit; a first roller movably held by the door and a second roller provided on the main body for conveying a recording material; a transfer positioning member provided on the main body to be interlocked with rotation of the door, the transfer positioning member positioning the transfer unit with respect to the main body with the transfer member being in contact with the image bearing member; and a roller positioning member provided on the main body to be interlocked with rotation of the door, the roller positioning member positioning the first roller with respect to the main body with the first roller being in contact with the second roller.
US09500997B2

A development rotating member for liquid development includes a base material, an elastic layer that is provided on the base material, and a surface layer that is provided on the elastic layer and contains a polyimide resin, wherein a JIS-A hardness of the development rotating member is in a range of 40 degrees to 80 degrees.
US09500992B2

A developing device includes a housing to store a powder, a developing roller to hold the powder, a supplying roller to supply the powder to the developing roller, a regulator to regulate the powder held by the developing roller, a powder conveyer to convey the powder for image forming, a first powder storing chamber, and a second powder storing chamber. The powder conveyor includes a first conveying part that includes a rotating axis, and a conveying surface inclined with respect to the rotating axis along a direction of the rotating axis. The powder conveyor further includes a second conveying part that includes a conveying surface parallel to the rotating axis along the direction of the rotating axis, and the first conveying part and the second conveying part are disposed alternately along the direction of the rotating axis.
US09500982B2

The detection sensitivity of a variation in resonant frequency is increased, and thus a toner concentration is accurately detected. In a sensor device that includes an LC resonant circuit which outputs a pulse signal having a frequency corresponding to the toner concentration, a multiplier portion which multiplies the pulse signal output from the LC resonant circuit and a concentration detection portion which detects the toner concentration based on the pulse signal multiplied by the multiplier portion, the LC resonant circuit includes a detection coil and a capacitor and outputs a pulse signal having a frequency corresponding to the toner concentration. The multiplier portion multiplies the frequency of the pulse signal output from the LC resonant circuit. The concentration detection portion subtracts a predetermined offset pulse number from the pulse signal multiplied by the multiplier portion and detects the toner concentration based on the subtracted pulse number.
US09500971B2

A toner is described containing low melt wax and having a core and shell, which toner exhibits improved fusing performance as compared to a toner produced with a high melt wax in the core; having a core resin with a Tg equal to or lower than that of the shell resin; or both.
US09500966B2

An electrophotographic photosensitive member, comprising a support, a charge generating layer on the support and a charge transporting layer on the charge generating layer, wherein the charge generating layer comprises a gallium phthalocyanine crystal, a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound and a compound represented by Formula (1), wherein a nitrogen atom in a heterocyclic ring of the nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound has a substituent.
US09500960B2

An immersion exposure apparatus and method exposes a substrate with a light beam via an optical element and immersion liquid. A table holds the substrate and is movable relative to the optical element. A pad member is movable relative to the table and is movable away from being opposite the optical element. While the table is arranged opposite the optical element, the pad member is movable relative to the table so that the pad member can be arranged adjacent to the table, and when the pad member is arranged adjacent to the table, the adjacent table and pad member are movable to locate the pad member opposite the optical element in place of the table such that the immersion liquid is maintained below the optical element during the movement.
US09500944B2

A user interface for controlling an ultrasound system comprises a display for displaying ultrasound data and a plurality of physical controls. At least one of the physical controls is configured to control multiple functions of the ultrasound system and has a user operable member providing physical actions that are associated with system parameters. The physical actions comprise rotational and translational movements, and each of the system parameters is associated with an ultrasound system action.
US09500940B2

The invention provides a projector and a brightness adjusting method thereof. The projector includes a light source module, a color wheel module, a brightness adjusting device, and a brightness processing module. The light source module is used for emitting a light beam. The color wheel module is used for being excited to generate at least one color light beam by the light beam emitted from the light source module. The brightness adjusting device includes a light sensor and a brightness processing module, wherein the light sensor is disposed on a transmission path of a portion of the color light beam and the brightness processing module is electrically connected to the light sensor for adjusting the brightness value of the color light beam. The brightness adjusting method of projector is also provided.
US09500932B2

The present invention provides a fast-response photorefractive polymer element (1) including two insulating substrates (2, 2) arranged substantially in parallel with each other, ITO electrodes (3, 3) provided on inner surfaces (2a, 2a) of two insulating substrates (2, 2), dark current control layers (4, 4) provided on inner surfaces (3a, 3a) of ITO electrodes (3, 3), and a photorefractive composite material (5) provided between two insulating substrates (2, 2) with ITO electrodes (3, 3) and dark current control layers (4, 4). The photorefractive composite material (5) contains polytriarylamine (PTAA) which is a photorefractive polymer, and a dark current control layer (4) is a single-layered monomolecular film or multi-layered monomolecular films. With these configurations, a fast-response photorefractive polymer element achieves significantly improved responsiveness.
US09500931B2

Provided is a nonlinear optical device manufactured with 4H silicon carbide crystal. The nonlinear optical crystal may be configured to alter at least a light beam (12) at a frequency to generate at least a light beam (16) at a further frequency different from the frequency. The nonlinear optical crystal comprises a 4H silicon carbide crystal (13). The nonlinear optical device is more compatible with practical applications in terms of outputting mid-infrared laser at high power and high quality and thus are more applicable in practice, because the 4H silicon carbide crystal has a relatively high laser induced damage threshold, a relatively broad transmissive band (0.38-5.9 μm and 6.6-7.08 μm), a relatively great 2nd-order nonlinear optical coefficient (d15=6.7 pm/V), a relatively great birefringence, a high thermal conductivity (490 Wm−1K−1), and a high chemical stability.
US09500923B2

Discussed are a liquid crystal display device and a method of fabricating the same in which a single common line is formed at the center of a substrate, which results in an enhanced aperture ratio and transmittance. The liquid crystal display device includes a single common line located at a center of a substrate; a first group of unit pixels located in a right portion of the substrate on the basis of the common line and a second group of unit pixels located in a left portion of the substrate on the basis of the common line, each unit pixel defined by a plurality of gate lines and data lines orthogonally intersecting each other; and a plurality of thin film transistors formed at a right side of the respective unit pixels of the first group and at a left side of the respective unit pixels of the second group.
US09500917B2

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display including: a lower electrode including a unit pixel electrode; an upper electrode including an upper unit electrode facing the unit pixel electrode; and a liquid crystal layer between the lower electrode and the upper electrode and including a plurality of liquid crystal molecules aligned approximately perpendicular to the surfaces of the lower electrode and the upper electrode in the absence of an electric field, wherein the unit pixel electrode includes a stem forming a boundary between a plurality of sub-regions and a plurality of minute branches extending in different directions in two different sub-regions, the upper unit electrode includes an opening facing the stem and extending parallel to the stem, any alignment aid to pretilt the liquid crystal molecules is absent, and a length of the minute branches is equal to or less than about 53 μm.
US09500908B2

A display panel comprises a first substrate, a second substrate and a liquid crystal layer. The first substrate includes a first transparent conductive layer and a first alignment layer. The first transparent conductive layer includes a first surface and has at least a first notch, the first alignment layer includes a first part and a second part, the first part is disposed in the first notch, the second part is disposed on the first surface, and the surface roughness of the first part of the first alignment layer is greater than that of the second part. The second substrate is disposed opposite to the first substrate. The liquid crystal layer is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. A display device having the display panel is also disclosed.
US09500904B2

The present invention discloses a light valve device, an infrared display apparatus, dedicated spectacles and a system, to realize with naked eyes, only a black picture plane without any information can be seen on a display screen, but with spectacles, effective image information can be seen on the display screen; as a result, the image display is more concealed. The light valve device comprises a first liquid crystal cell and a second liquid crystal cell that are oppositely disposed to each other; the first liquid crystal cell and the second liquid crystal cell are both formed by two substrates that are oppositely arranged, and alignment films with parallel or antiparallel alignment directions are formed on the inside the two substrates respectively; cholesteric liquid crystals with opposite arrangement and rotation directions are filled in the first liquid crystal cell and the second liquid crystal cell respectively.
US09500900B2

A micro lens array substrate includes a substrate having optical transparency and a lens layer having optical transparency and a different refractive index from that of the substrate, which is formed in such a manner as to fill in a concave portion arranged in one surface of the substrate in the X-direction, the Y-direction, and the W-direction. A through-hole is provided in the lens layer, between the adjacent concave portions in the W-direction in the lens layer, and the lens layer is continuous between the adjacent concave portions in the X-direction or in the Y-direction.
US09500898B2

A liquid crystal display according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a first substrate; a plurality of color filters formed on the first substrate and arranged in a matrix with an island shape; a plurality of pixel electrodes formed on the color filters; and a capacitor disposed between neighboring color filters in a column direction among the color filters, wherein two terminals forming the capacitor are disposed at a portion outside a position overlapping the color filters.
US09500897B2

A display device includes a display section in which a plurality of pixels are arrayed in a matrix, a plurality of scan lines which select pixels, a plurality of signal lines which supply image signals to the selected pixels, and color filters that are arranged so as to correspond to color displays of the pixels. In the device, the display section includes an effective pixel portion and a frame portion that surrounds the effective pixel portion, and the frame portion and a wiring circuit of the effective pixel portion are covered with light-shielding layers, the light-shielding layers being separated from each other at a certain separation location in the display section, and a plurality of color filters having different colors are arranged by being stacked at the separation location.
US09500896B2

The exemplary embodiments herein provide a transparent liquid crystal display (LCD) assembly having a glass panel with an LCD panel placed in front of the glass panel. A light guide may be positioned between the LCD panel and the glass panel and the light guide may have an edge. A substrate containing a plurality of LEDs is preferably positioned adjacent to the edge of the light guide and a thermal plate is preferably attached to both the substrate and the glass panel. The thermal plate may contain two portions which are substantially perpendicular to each other, where one of the portions is substantially parallel to the glass panel. In some embodiments, the LCD may be sandwiched in between a pair of glass panels, held opposite one another by a spacer.
US09500894B2

A first substrate includes a gate line extending in a first direction, a first interlayer insulating film covering the gate line, a first common electrode formed on the first interlayer insulating film extending in a second direction crossing the first direction, a second interlayer insulating film covering the first common electrode, a source line extending in the second direction, and a third interlayer insulating film covering the source line. A pixel electrode includes a main pixel electrode extending in the second direction on the third interlayer insulating film. A second common electrode includes a second main common electrode extending in the second direction on the third interlayer insulating film and facing the source line. The second common electrode is set to the same potential as the first common electrode. A first alignment film covers the pixel electrode and the second common electrode.
US09500881B2

A contact lens and a method for treating an eye with myopia is described. The contact lens includes an inner optic zone and an outer optic zone. The outer optic zone includes at least a portion with a first power, selected to correct distance vision. The inner optic zone has a relatively more positive power (an add power). In some embodiments the add power is substantially constant across the inner optic zone. In other embodiments the add power is variable across the inner optic zone. While in some embodiments the inner optic zone has a power designed to substantially eliminate lag of accommodation in the eye with myopia, in other embodiments, the add power may be higher.
US09500880B2

Ophthalmic lenses for the treatment of presbyopia may be improved to enhance the visual experience of the patient. By adjusting the optical design of presbyopic lenses to account for changes in pupil size due to the degree of myopia or hyperopia, an enhanced visual experience may be achieved independent of the level of ametropia.
US09500879B2

Eyeglasses include lens elements (2, 3), sidepiece elements (4, 5) for supporting the eyeglasses and connecting elements (9) between the lens elements (2, 3) and the sidepiece elements (4, 5). The connecting elements (9) include a pin portion (10, 11) extending from the sidepiece elements (4, 5), and the lens elements (2, 3) have a hole (12, 13) for insertion of the pin portion (10, 11), the pin portion (10, 11) being inserted into the insertion hole (12, 13) to form elements for rotating the sidepiece elements (4, 5) relative to the lens element (2, 3).
US09500877B2

A lens driver moving a lens perpendicularly to optical axis, the lens driver including: fined member; movable member holding the lens; spacer interposed therebetween with the members being movable to each other perpendicularly to optical axis; biasing unit biasing the movable member toward the fixed member; detector for detecting position of the movable member relative to the fixed member in plane perpendicular to optical axis; driver driving the movable member relative to the fixed member perpendicularly to optical axis; controller controlling the driver based on position of the movable member; and range definer defining: movable position having large movable range between the members in the perpendicular plane; and fixed position having small movable range between the members in the perpendicular plane based on rotation position about optical axis where sliding friction is generated between the spacer and one of the members, or between the driving unit and the movable member.
US09500854B2

A beam steering mirror device includes a mirror having an optical part with a reflecting or optical surface and a mirror body. The optical part is essentially thermally de-coupled from the body. A biaxial suspension of the mirror body has two rotation axes arranged essentially perpendicular with respect to each other and being located in a common plane. The suspension includes a set of four flexible pivots with a pair of pivots assigned to each rotation axis. The mirror is arranged with regard to the biaxial suspension such that its center of mass is approximately located in the intersection point of the two rotation axes. The device also includes motors for moving of the mirror body around the two rotation axes, sensors for determining the tilting angle of the mirror, and a housing for the mirror, the biaxial suspension, the motors and the sensors.
US09500853B2

A display apparatus incorporating electromechanical light modulators and a layer of material including apertures corresponding to the electromechanical light modulators that results in the display apparatus having lower power-consumption.
US09500850B2

Provided is a culture microscope including a culturing space that is provided with a stage on which a specimen is mounted; an adjacent space that is adjacent to the culturing space and in which a driving mechanism of the stage is disposed; a stationary partition that divides the adjacent space and the culturing space and that is also provided with a first through-hole; a tabular movable partition that is disposed at a position where the movable partition closes the first through-hole, that has a second through-hole that is smaller than the first through-hole, that is supported so as to be movable parallel to the stationary partition, and that is larger than the first through-hole; and a lid member that is disposed at a position where the lid member closes the second through-hole of the movable partition and that is supported so as to be movable parallel to the movable partition.
US09500844B2

A lens system for use with photoacoustic microscopy apparatus has a collimated single mode optical fiber to which a toroidal ultrasound transducer is operatively attached. The transducer is located inside a tank. A lens housing is located inside the tank adjacent the transducer and has flexible optically transmissive entrance and exit ports made of polydimethysiloxane. The lens housing is filled with cinnamaldehyde. The cinnamaldehyde can be introduced into the lens housing and withdrawn from it so as to flex its entrance and exit ports, and the tank is filled with a mixture of glycerol and water.
US09500841B2

The zoom lens comprises, from an object side, a first lens group, a second lens group that includes an aperture stop moving integrally therewith, a third lens group, and a fourth lens group having, respectively, negative, positive, negative, and positive refracting power, and during zooming from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, a spacing between the first and second lens groups becomes narrow, between the second and third lens groups changes, and between the third and fourth lens groups grows wide, and the first lens group includes a first lens having negative refracting power, a second lens having a reflective surface for bending a light ray coming out of an object and a third lens having positive refracting power, and in said second lens group, a most image-plane-side surface of a lens having negative refracting power is configured in a concave shape on an image plane side.
US09500836B2

An optical mount and mounting system including an optical device, a housing, and a plurality of optical mounts that couple the optical device to the optical housing. Each mount includes a sleeve attached to the optical device and each sleeve includes a bore. Studs are attached to the optical housing and each stud includes an outer bonding surface extending through the bore of each sleeve. Once the optical device is aligned properly, a curable material is deposited into the sleeve and cured between the sleeve and the stud, such that the curable material couples the sleeve and the stud to each other to provide a robust structural joint that minimizes self-induced stresses into the optic. A series of annular conical portions and corresponding surfaces are provided to retain registration of the optical device against dynamic shearing and bending forces. A method of aligning and mounting an optical device is provided.
US09500834B2

An apparatus for compensating an image of a display, includes a light incident surface, a light emitting surface, and a plurality of light guiding channels. An area of the light emitting surface is greater than an area of the light incident surface. The plurality of light guiding channels is independent from each other, each light guiding channel extends from the light incident surface to the light emitting surface, and light from the light incident surface is extended to the light emitting surface by the light guiding channels. The present invention further discloses a method for manufacturing the same.
US09500831B2

A payout cassette for a cable, which extends between first and second ends, stores and pays-out the cable. The cassette includes a storage area and a transitioning area. The storage area stores a stored portion of the cable between first and second generally parallel cable constraining surfaces that are spaced a distance from each other. The distance is sufficiently large to allow a single cable thickness to slide between the cable constraining surfaces and is sufficiently small to prevent another cable thickness from crossing over the signal cable thickness within the storage area. Thus, the storage area includes a single cable layer and thereby keeps the cable from becoming tangled. The transitioning area is adapted to transition the cable from the stored portion within the storage area to a paid-out portion of the cable that is external to the storage area. The transitioning area is at least partially positioned within an interior of the storage area.
US09500827B2

Techniques and mechanisms for a monolithic photonic integrated circuit (PIC) to provide spectrometry functionality. In an embodiment, the PIC comprises a photonic device, a first waveguide and a second waveguide, wherein one of the first waveguide and the second waveguide includes a released portion which is free to move relative to a substrate of the PIC. During a metering cycle to evaluate a material under test, control logic operates an actuator to successively configure a plurality of positions of the released portion relative to the photonic device. In another embodiment, light from the first waveguide is variously diffracted by a grating of the photonic device during the metering cycle, where portions of the light are directed into the second waveguide. Different wavelengths of light diffracted into the second waveguide may be successively detected, for different positions of the released portion, to determine spectrometric measurements over a range of wavelength.
US09500823B2

An opto-electric integrated circuit includes an optical waveguide formed using a portion of an insulation layer on a silicon substrate to form a lower clad and using a portion of a semiconductor layer formed on the insulation layer to form a core. The opto-electric integrated circuit also includes an optical device connected to the optical waveguide, an electrical circuit connected to the optical device, a mesa-shaped connection section interconnecting the optical device and the electrical circuit, and an electrically conductive film formed in a region at least containing a flank surface of the connection section. The electrically conductive film is grounded while contacting the silicon substrate.
US09500819B2

An optical module includes: a light emitting element; an optical waveguide configured to guide light emitted from the light emitting element; and an optical fiber configured to be optically coupled to the optical waveguide, wherein, when an aperture angle of light incident into a core of the optical waveguide is NA1, a core diameter of the optical waveguide is w1, a core diameter of the optical fiber is w2, and a ratio of w1 to w2 is R, an optical system performance index a represented by a=NA1×(w1/w2)=NA1×R meets a condition of a<0.15, and the range of the ratio R meets a condition of 4.38a2+1.63a+0.16
US09500815B2

A fiber optic connector is provided for a multi fiber cable includes a housing, a strain relief, a ferrule, two guide arrangements configured to accept guide pins from an opposing connector, and a conductor coupled to each of the guide pin arrangement, configured to conduct electricity to the guide pin arrangements.
US09500810B1

A method of fabricating a silicon photonic device and a system including a silicon photonic device are described. The method includes forming a photoresist layer on a silicon layer and patterning a mask formed on the photoresist layer. The patterning defines a primary optical waveguide region, a first evanescent perturbation grating region on a first side of the primary optical waveguide region and a second evanescent perturbation grating region on a second side, opposite the first side, of the primary optical waveguide. The first evanescent perturbation grating region and the second evanescent perturbation grating region are defined as continuous regions along a length of the silicon photonic device. The method also includes etching the photoresist layer and the silicon layer according to a pattern of the patterned mask.
US09500806B2

An optical printed circuit board having at least one optical interface on a surface, and a deformable dam structure provided on the optical printed circuit board adjacent to the at least one optical interface. The deformable dam structure has an absorbent portion for absorbing adhesive and a method or forming the same.
US09500801B2

A transparent liquid crystal display (LCD) assembly is disclosed. The assembly has an LCD panel and a light guide placed behind the LCD panel. The light guide ideally contains a front and rear surface. The assembly preferably has a front bracket that contacts the front surface of the light guide and a rear bracket that contacts the rear surface of the light guide. While the light guide is constrained from movement towards or away from the LCD panel by the front and rear brackets, the light guide is generally permitted to move parallel to the LCD panel.
US09500800B2

Provided are a light source device and a display device capable of preventing the user from recognizing unevenness in luminance due to reflection, by a reflection sheet, of the unevenness in luminance occurring at a cut-out part of a light guide plate. For cut-out parts formed on a light guide plate and a reflection sheet, respectively, to correspond to a positioning part which is located in a housing accommodating, in a stacked manner, the light guide plate and the reflection sheet for reflecting light entering the light guide plate to one surface side, the reflection sheet being located on another surface side of the light guide plate, and which determines a position of the light guide plate and the reflection sheet in the housing, the cut-out part of the light guide plate is configured to be included in the cut-out part of the reflection sheet in the direction of stack, thereby preventing unevenness in luminance occurring at the cut-out part of the light guide plate from being reflected to the side of one surface of the light guide plate.
US09500799B2

Disclosed herein are a backlight assembly and a liquid crystal display (LCD) having the same, wherein the backlight assembly includes a light guide panel having a plurality of lateral sides; and a plurality of light source units each emitting light to a respective lateral side of the plurality of lateral sides, wherein at least two lateral sides of the plurality of lateral sides, which receive light emitted from two respective light source units of the plurality of light source units, are neighboring lateral sides, and wherein at least one lateral side is longer than an incident surface which receives light emitted from the light source unit.
US09500798B2

There is provided a liquid crystal display device including: a light source; a light guiding plate which takes in light generated from the light source, from a light incident surface, and emits the light from an emission surface as planar light; a plate-shaped member which has a surface perpendicular to an emission direction of the light of the light source and is disposed at least on the periphery of the light source; and a reflection member which covers from the emission surface of the light guiding plate to the plate-shaped member, the reflection member being made of a material that reflects the light.
US09500792B2

A method for manufacturing the hemispherical light emitting portion of an artificial smoldering scent-stick comprises the steps of providing a light guide pipe and a light emitting element. The light guide pipe includes a bottom end and a top end opposite to the bottom portion. The light emitting element is fixed on the bottom end. A colloid is dripped on an end face of the top end and the colloid cured, to obtain the shape of the required light-emitting portion.
US09500785B2

A grating structure and a solar cell assembly. In one aspect, the grating structure suppresses the zero order transmission to near 0%. In another aspect, the solar cell assembly has improved absorption due to coupling with a grating structure.
US09500784B2

Optical devices using double-groove diffraction gratings having periodic sets of TiO2 elements on one or more surfaces of an SiO2 substrate are disclosed. First order components of incident polarized light coupled into the substrate are reflected so as to propagate through the substrate to terminus points where they either change direction for further propagation or exit the substrate. A windshield display system using the principles of the invention is disclosed.
US09500783B2

Provided is a light guide prism including: an incident surface; one or more reflection surfaces, the reflection surfaces including at least an emission side reflection surface; and an emission surface, in which the light guide prism has a tip face positioned between the emission side reflection surface and the emission surface, the tip face most protruding from an end of the emission side reflection surface and from an end of the emission surface in a direction in which a width between the emission side reflection surface and the emission surface narrows, the tip face being a curved face. Further provided is an image display apparatus including: a display device; the light guide prism; and a support.
US09500778B2

An optical element having an antireflection effect includes an incident plane and an emission plane and a conical microstructure formed on at least one plane of the incident plane and the emission plane. The conical microstructure includes a first structure formed of a plurality of conical microprojections with an average height H1 and a second structure formed of a plurality of conical microrecesses with an average height H2. The average height H1 satisfies an inequality H1≦1/3*λ/n and the average height H2 satisfies an inequality H2≦1/3*λ/n. An average pitch P between the first structure and the second structure satisfies following conditions: H1/2≦P≦1/3*λ/n, and H2/2≦P≦1/3*λ/n, in which the use wavelength is defined as λ and the refractive index relative to the use wavelength is n.
US09500770B2

Methods and apparatus are provided herein for sensing rain fall for use in irrigation control. In one embodiment, a wireless rain sensor comprises a housing at least partially covering a first sensor, a controller and a wireless transmitter. The first sensor comprises a moisture absorptive material located to be contacted by rain fall and configured to expand in response to the contact with the rain fall and contract in response to an absence of the rain fall. The controller is coupled to the first sensor and configured to output signals corresponding to a variable amount of expansion and contraction of the moisture absorptive material. The wireless transmitter is configured to transmit wireless signals, at least one wireless signal comprising data corresponding to the variable amount of expansion and contraction of the moisture absorptive material.
US09500763B2

The present disclosure introduces a downhole tool conveyable within a tubular within a wellbore extending into a subterranean formation. The downhole tool includes a body and a member having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is rotatably coupled to the body. A spectrometry sensor is disposed proximate the second end of the member. Embodiments also include a fluid separating component shaped such that a heavier fluid from the fluid flowing along the downhole tool is drawn away from the spectrometry window to reduce window contamination from fluid droplets, particles, and/or liquids.
US09500762B2

A resistivity imager uses discrete energy pulsing to determine resistivity of a borehole. The imager has pulse generation circuitry that generates discrete energy pulses. An electrode array exposed to the borehole emits or discharges the discrete energy pulses into the formation. The variations of the formation subject the electrode to impedance levels in response to the discrete energy pulses, and measurement circuitry measures the discharge of the pulsed energy subjected to the impedances. From the measurements, control circuitry determines resistivity parameters of the formation around the borehole. These resistivity parameters can be stored in memory downhole or can be telemetered to the surface. When analyzed, the resistivity measurements can produce an image of the borehole's features, indicate borehole structures, direct geosteering of drilling, or the like.
US09500753B2

Systems and methods for measuring natural gamma rays in a wellbore are disclosed that involve using a downhole gamma ray detector that provides signals that scale with energy deposited by gamma rays in the downhole gamma ray detector and storing digital signals in channels. A derivative of the digital signals is taken and the location of the maximum value of the derivative is used to stabilize the gamma ray detector by adjusting the threshold or gain based on the maximum value of the derivative or adjusting an amplifier or variable high voltage source. Other systems and methods are presented.
US09500750B2

A stacked crystal array includes a plurality of crystal slices and a plurality of interconnects. The interconnects have electrically conductive, spaced-apart and generally parallel elements joined by electrically conductive spacers extending generally orthogonally therebetween, the spacers being rotationally offset from each other by a predetermined angle. The array further includes a plurality of electrical insulators and an electrically insulative housing having a plurality of slots. The crystal slices, insulators and interconnects are arranged in the housing to form an assembly wherein the crystal slices are coupled together in a parallel electrical circuit. The assembly provides photon absorption comparable to a monolithic crystal having a thickness generally equivalent to the sum of the thicknesses of the crystal slices, but at a lower bias voltage.
US09500747B2

A travel distance measurement device includes a transmitting antenna that is disposed in a vehicle and emits a transmission signal, as a radio wave, toward a ground surface, a receiving antenna that is disposed in the vicinity of the transmitting antenna, and receives a radio wave reflected from the ground surface and acquires a reflection signal, and a distance calculator (an IQ demodulator and a phase conversion integrator) that calculates the travel distance of the vehicle on the basis of the phase of the acquired reflection signal.
US09500743B2

A system and method for locating lost golf balls is described. In one embodiment, a plurality of small RFID chips are applied to or embedded in a ball. When the ball is to be located, a user uses a ball finder to receive RF signals from the RFID chips and locate the ball. The ball finder may have useful additional features such as overlaid maps to help and GIS data to help the user find the ball. In an alternative embodiment, a ball is prepared by applying a highly-reflective paint, such as a metallic paint, or a highly-absorbent paint such as a black iron ball paint, to create a characteristic radar signature for the ball. The ball finder may then be configured to locate the ball using the characteristic radar signature.
US09500742B2

The present invention relates to a vehicle radar system (2) arranged to detect objects outside a vehicle (1). The radar system (2) a radar detector (3) and a processing unit (4). The processing unit (4) is arranged to obtain values for detected target angle (θerr) and detected target Doppler velocity (vd) relative the radar detector (3) for each detected object (10a′, 10b′, 10c′, 10d′, 10e′) during a certain time interval. If there is a zero crossing (14) for a derivative (13) of a function (12) describing the progression of detected target Doppler velocity (vd) as a function of detected target angle (θerr), the processing unit (4) is arranged to detect the zero crossing (14). This zero crossing (14) is indicative of a radar system misalignment (θm). The present invention also relates to a corresponding method.
US09500741B2

A radar apparatus is installed in a vehicle that moves along its direction of travel. A radar transmission unit transmits a high frequency radar transmission signal from a transmit antenna in each transmit period. In a radar reception unit, antenna system processing units each generate a correlation vector by computing the correlation between reflected wave signal from a stationary object or a moving object and the radar transmission signal. A Doppler frequency-azimuth conversion unit converts Doppler frequencies into the components of an azimuth in which the stationary object is present using an estimated vehicle speed vector for the vehicle. A stationary object azimuth estimation unit generates the power profile of the reflected wave signal using the correlation vector and a direction vector corresponding to the components of the azimuth in which the stationary object is present.
US09500729B2

A magnetic resonance apparatus is proposed. The magnetic resonance apparatus has a magnet unit and a housing unit surrounding the magnet unit. The housing unit has a first housing shell unit and a second housing shell unit. The second housing shell unit is arranged between the magnet unit and the first housing shell unit.
US09500722B2

Gas cells allow first detection light and second detection light to pass therethrough and rotate the polarization plane of linearly polarized light in accordance with a magnetic field. A first detection section and a second detection section detect the polarization planes of the linearly polarized light that has passed through the gas cells. A third detection section and a fourth detection section detect the polarization planes of the linearly polarized light that has not passed through the gas cells. A measurement section uses detection results from the first detection section and the third detection section to remove influence of optical noise contained in the first detection light, uses detection results from the second detection section and the fourth detection section to remove influence of optical noise contained in the second detection light, and measures the difference in the magnetic field between the gas cells.
US09500712B2

A battery voltage monitor circuit for monitoring a voltage of plural secondary batteries includes first and second logic circuit parts that select first and second secondary batteries from the plural secondary batteries according to first and second command signals supplied from an external device, first and second reference voltage generation parts that generate first and second reference voltages, first and second AD conversion parts that digitalize a voltage of both ends of the first and second secondary batteries into first and second digital signals by using the first and second reference voltages, first and second communication parts that transmit the first and second digital signals to the external device.
US09500683B2

An arbitration device comprises a determining unit that determines priority of each of a plurality of electrical devices according to at least either a position or an action status of a person present in a target area for control; and a calculating unit that calculates electrical power to be allotted to each of the electrical devices in such a way that a total of electrical power allotted to a plurality of the electrical devices is within a limit value and the electrical devices having the priority at high levels are allotted with electrical power on a priority basis.
US09500681B2

An FET RF signal detector circuit comprising two unbalanced differential transistor pair circuits is disclosed. A current mirror output circuit is included for generating an output current derived from currents flowing in the differential transistor pair circuits. The first unbalanced differential transistor pair circuit comprises two branches, each with a respective tail, and a first variable resistor between the branch tails. The first unbalanced differential transistor pair circuit connects to a first current source tail arrangement. The second unbalanced differential transistor pair circuit comprises two branches, each with a respective tail, and a second variable resistor between the branch tails. The second unbalanced differential transistor pair circuit connects to a second current source tail arrangement.
US09500676B2

A test and measurement instrument includes a display having a time domain graticule and a frequency domain graticule. A processor is configured to sample an input signal to generate a time domain waveform for display in the time domain graticule. The processor is also configured to generate a frequency domain waveform for display in the frequency domain graticule, the frequency domain waveform being correlated to a selected time period of the time domain graticule. The processor is also configured to generate a spectrum time indicator configured to graphically illustrate a location and the selected time period of the time domain graticule with respect to the frequency domain waveform.
US09500675B2

A probe module, which supports loopback test and is provided between a PCB and a DUT, includes a substrate, a probe base, two probes, two signal path switchers, and a capacitor. The substrate has two first connecting circuits and two second connecting circuits, wherein an end of each first connecting circuit is connected to the PCB. The probe base is provided between the substrate and the DUT with the probes provided thereon, wherein an end of each probe is exposed and electrically connected to one second connecting circuit, while another end thereof is also exposed to contact the DUT. Each signal path switcher is provided on the probe base, and respectively electrically connected to another end of one first and one second connecting circuits. The capacitor is provided on the probe base with two ends electrically connected to the two signal path switchers.
US09500673B2

Terminals of a device under test are connected to corresponding contact pads or leads by a series of electrically conductive contacts. Each terminal testing connects with both a “force” contact and a “sense” contact. In one embodiment, the sense contact partially or completely laterally surrounds the force contact, so that it need not have its own resiliency. The sense contact has a forked end with prongs that extend to opposite sides of the force contact. Alternatively, the sense contact surrounds the force contact and slides laterally to match a lateral translation component of a lateral cross-section of the force contact during longitudinal compression of the force contact. Alternatively, the sense contact includes rods that have ends on opposite sides of the force contact, and extend parallel.
US09500665B2

A sample processing apparatus comprises an aspirating member which comprises a pump at one side and which is configured to aspirate a sample from the other side, a sensor which is configured to sense the presence or absence of a liquid at a predetermined position of the aspirating member, and a controller which is programmed to execute operations. The operations comprise controlling the aspirating member to aspirate a sample, obtaining a first sensing result by the sensor when the aspirating member aspirates a sample, controlling the aspirating member to aspirate air after aspirating a sample, obtaining a second sensing result by the sensor when the aspirating member aspirates air, and detecting an error in the aspirating operation, based on the first sensing result and the second sensing result.
US09500664B2

A system, including method and apparatus, for generating droplets suitable for droplet-based assays. The disclosed systems may include either one-piece or multi-piece droplet generation components configured to form sample-containing droplets by merging aqueous, sample-containing fluid with a background emulsion fluid such as oil, to form an emulsion of sample-containing droplets suspended in the background fluid. In some cases, the disclosed systems may include channels or other suitable mechanisms configured to transport the sample-containing droplets to an outlet region, so that subsequent assay steps may be performed.
US09500657B2

Systems, techniques and methods for estimating the metabolic state or flux, e.g., the body energy state (“BES”) of a patient, are disclosed. The BES provides deep insight into the nutritional needs of the patient, thus allowing for a sort of exquisite glycemic control with regard to the patient. The invention discloses systems and methods for estimating fractional gluconeogenesis, which is the % of glucose production that comes from gluconeogenesis (“GNG”), as opposed to glycogenolysis (“GLY”), the other form of glucose production. Nutritional formulations, materials, cocktails and methods for feeding patients by parenteral and other means are disclosed. The amount, type and rate of such nutritional feeding are typically based upon the above estimating. The invention discloses formulations that contain labels, such as deuterium, for medical diagnostics, such as for estimating BES and fractional gluconeogenesis. The invention is suitable for any sort of patient, including those who are injured, such as with traumatic brain injury, ill, or have other conditions that stress the metabolic system.
US09500652B2

A monoclonal antibody against the Duck Tembusu virus and a hybridoma cell line secreting the monoclonal antibody, a reagent kit and method for detecting a Duck Tembusu virus antibody, and application of the monoclonal antibody in preparing products for diagnosing the Duck Tembusu virus disease. The monoclonal antibody may bind specifically to E protein of Duck Tembusu virus and has an activity of neutralizing Duck Tembusu virus.
US09500643B2

Ectoparasite infestation of a substrate like bedding is detected by contacting a sample from the substrate with a polyclonal ectoparasite antibody generated from a whole ectoparasite immunogen, under conditions wherein the antibody specifically binds ectoparasite antigen in the sample.
US09500640B2

An assay for Alzheimer's disease pathology (AD) in a living patient is disclosed wherein an amount of α7nAChR-FLNA, TLR4-FLNA and/or α7nAChR-Aβ42 complex present as a protein-protein complex in a sample is determined and compared to the amount in a standard sample from a person free of AD pathology. Use of one or more of those ratios provides an assay predictive of prognosis for treatment with a medicament in which the amount of an above protein complex is determined and compared to an amount determined in the presence of a medicament that binds to a FLNA pentapeptide and contains at least four of the six pharmacophores of FIGS. 7-12. An amount of protein complex determined in the presence of the medicament less than the first determined amount indicates a favorable treatment prognosis.
US09500634B2

A system and method for using near-infrared or short-wave infrared (SWIR) light sources between approximately 1.4-1.8 microns, 2-2.5 microns, 1.4-2.4 microns, 1-1.8 microns for active remote sensing or hyper-spectral imaging for detection of natural gas leaks or exploration sense the presence of hydro-carbon gases such as methane and ethane. Most hydro-carbons (gases, liquids and solids) exhibit spectral features in the SWIR, which may also coincide with atmospheric transmission windows (e.g., approximately 1.4-1.8 microns or 2-2.5 microns). Active remote sensing or hyper-spectral imaging systems may include a fiber-based super-continuum laser and a detection system and may reside on an aircraft, vehicle, handheld, or stationary platform. Super-continuum sources may emit light in the near-infrared or SWIR. An imaging spectrometer or a gas-filter correlation radiometer may be used to identify substances or materials such as oil spills, geology and mineralogy, vegetation, greenhouse gases, construction materials, plastics, explosives, fertilizers, paints, or drugs.
US09500626B2

A system and method for non-destructive monitoring a component including a guided wave sensor positioned around a surface of the component, wherein the component has a perimeter. A first spring mounting clamp positioned around the component perimeter and a second spring mounting clamp positioned around the component perimeter, wherein the first and second mounting clamps are positioned a distance of 0.1 inches to 5.0 inches on either side of the guided wave sensor. A plurality of elongated springs is attached at a first end to the first spring mounting clamp and attached at a second end to the second spring mounting clamp. The central portion applying a pressure of at least 10 psi to the guided wave sensor.
US09500623B2

The invention generally relates to methods and devices for synchronization of ion generation with cycling of a discontinuous atmospheric interface. In certain embodiments, the invention provides a system for analyzing a sample that includes a mass spectrometry probe that generates sample ions, a discontinuous atmospheric interface, and a mass analyzer, in which the system is configured such that ion formation is synchronized with cycling of the discontinuous atmospheric interface.
US09500619B2

A sensor element mainly contains an oxygen ion conductive solid electrolyte. By applying, across a first electrode formed on a surface of an internal space into which a measurement gas is introduced from an outside and a second electrode formed on an external surface of the element, a predetermined voltage determined based on a potential difference between the first electrode and a reference electrode provided inside the element, oxygen in the internal space can be pumped out. In a case where pump reference processing is performed, a DC voltage having a maximum value of 1.4 to 2.0 V inclusive is applied across the reference and second electrodes for 10 to 1200 seconds inclusive in a state in which the reference and second electrodes are respectively electrically connected to negative and positive terminals of an external DC power supply, and an element temperature is set to 700 to 850° C. inclusive.
US09500612B2

Discussed generally herein are systems, apparatuses, techniques, and software for determining if a temperature sensor is properly located. In one or more embodiments, a technique can include receiving a series of temperature readings from a temperature sensor, determining if the temperature sensor is properly located as a function of the received temperature readings, and in response to determining that the temperature sensor is not properly located, recording data indicating that the temperature sensor is not properly located.
US09500609B1

A method for detecting target material or explosives using Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance, comprises the steps of providing a sample material to test for a target material. The sample material is then irradiated with a first frequency from a continuous wave signal generator to create at least one sample material return frequency. A return frequency is then measured and it is determined whether the sample material contains the target material by comparing the return frequency to a known target material frequency in a library. The method allows for simultaneous irradiation of sample material and measuring the return frequency of the sample material. The method utilizes NQR to detect explosive material using a power safe for human scanning and testing.
US09500605B2

Methods and systems are provided to improve prompt gamma neutron activation substance analyzers. In one aspect, a detector unit for prompt gamma neutron activation analysis includes: a scintillator configured to fluoresce when impacted by gamma rays generated by absorption of neutrons by a substance to be analyzed; a photosensor configured to receive fluorescence from the scintillator; electronics coupled with the photosensor, the electronics configured to receive and process analog signals from the photosensor and output digital detection signals for the substance; and a housing containing the scintillator, the photosensor, and the electronics; wherein the housing includes interfaces configured to receive cables capable of providing power, temperature control, and digital communication signals.
US09500594B2

A method to automatically quantify dendrite arm spacing in dendritic microstructures. Once a location of interest in a cast material specimen has been identified, the information contained in it is automatically analyzed to quantify dendrite cell size information that is subsequently converted into a quantified dendrite arm spacing through an empirical relationship or a theoretical relationship. In one form, the relationship between DCS and DAS is such that the DAS in dendritic structure of cast aluminum alloys may be automatically determined from the measurement of one or more of dendrite cell size and the actual volume fraction of the eutectic phases in the local casting microstructure. Non-equilibrium conditions may be accounted for in situations where a theoretical volume fraction of a eutectic phase of the alloy in equilibrium condition is appropriately modified. Thus, in situations where equilibrium conditions—such as those where the casting is cooled very slowly during solidification—does not apply (such as during rapid cooling and consequent solidification), the eutectic measured in the non-equilibrium condition, which can be smaller than the theoretical value in equilibrium, can be accounted for.
US09500592B2

The disclosure provides a surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate, including: a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active substrate; a patterned hydrophilic region and a patterned hydrophobic region formed on the SERS-active substrate, wherein a water contact angle difference between the patterned hydrophilic region and the patterned hydrophobic region is in a range from about 29 degrees to about 90 degrees.
US09500588B2

A liquid sample analyzer includes a liquid sample source, a flow cell, an optical device and a plurality of optical fibers. The flow cell is configured to receive a flow of a liquid sample from the liquid sample source. The plurality of optical fibers optically connect the flow cell to the optical device to transmit light between the flow cell and the optical device.
US09500584B2

An apparatus for examination of a sample includes at least one sample chamber in which the sample can be provided, where the sample chamber has a detection surface; at least one light source for emitting a first input light beam which is totally internally reflected at the detection surface of the sample chamber into a first output light beam, and for emitting a second input light beam which is at least partially transmitted through the sample chamber into a second output light beam. The apparatus further includes at least one light detector for detecting the first and the second output light beams. The sample chamber is elongated and traversed in longitudinal direction by light of the second input light beam.
US09500583B2

A sensing apparatus (and corresponding method) for monitoring carbon dioxide dissolved in a liquid solution employs a crystal surrounded in part by a sample chamber such that, in use, the liquid solution is in direct contact with the crystal.
US09500581B2

A blood analyzer comprises a flow cell, a first light source, a second light source, a first light receiving part, a second light receiving part, and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured to make determinations related to the types of microcytic anemia based on a first scattered light information based on the signals output from the first light receiving part, and a second scattered light information based on the signals output from the second light receiving part.
US09500578B2

Corrosion effects in a solar cell are measured by means of a conduit with electrolytic fluid. The rim of an open end of the conduit is placed against the surface of the solar cell to expose a selected area of the solar cell to the electrolytic fluid, leaving a free part of the planar surface of the solar cell outside the exposed area. Current and/or voltage fluctuations are measured in an electric circuit that contains the electrolytic fluid, an interface between the electrolytic fluid on the exposed area and a conductor layer on the planar surface, and a contact to the conductor layer in the free part.
US09500572B2

The invention generally relates to a sample dispenser including an internal standard and methods of use thereof. In certain embodiments, the invention provides a fluid dispenser that includes a fluid chamber. A portion of an inner wall of the chamber includes an internal standard. The chamber is configured such that fluid introduced to the chamber must interact with the portion of the chamber wall that includes the internal standard prior to flowing through an outlet of the chamber. The dispenser additionally includes a member coupled to the chamber such that it can control movement of fluid within the chamber.
US09500569B2

The invention relates to low flow rate cascade impactors for sampling aerosols, notably but not limited to pharmaceutical aerosols. The impactor stages serve as both orifice plate and collecting cup, simplifying collection and analysis. The impactor is designed to operate at flow rates approximating the inspiratory flow rates of young children and infants. Also presented is a method of and apparatus for applying a coating material to the collection surface of the stages after an impactor is assembled for use. The method entails generation of a polydisperse aerosol and sampling into the impactor. The coating substance improves the trapping of particles on the stages. The apparatus and method of application limit the amount of coating material applied and confines it to the regions of particle impact opposite the stage orifices.
US09500568B1

The present invention is directed to an air intake for an aerosol sampling device, the air intake being inflatable and deflatable.
US09500565B2

A spare tire monitoring system is provided. The spare tire monitoring system includes a controller programmed to output a signal indicating that a spare tire is currently being used in response to a difference between a radius of a first tire and a radius of a second tire exceeding a threshold.
US09500559B2

Apparatus and methods related to damping testing are disclosed. For example, some embodiments may contain a testing platform supported on wheels and moveable by hydraulic cylinders, and two fasteners for fastening the testing sample, one fixed on the testing platform and the other moveable along the testing platform by another hydraulic cylinder, and may be used for the damping testing of slender structures such as umbilicals and flexibles used in oil and gas underwater field development.
US09500554B2

System and method for detecting a leak in a pipeline with a sensing cable including an optical fiber sensor array aligned with a heating element. At least one heat pulse is propagated through the heating element along at least a portion of the sensing cable to affect an exchange of thermal energy between the heating element and fluid exposed to the sensing cable. A temperature profile of the sensing cable corresponding to the heat pulse at each of a plurality of sensor locations on the optical fiber sensor array is measured over time. A leak in a pipeline is detected by determining one or more properties of the fluid exposed to the sensing cable at each of the plurality of sensor locations based on the temperature profile corresponding thereto.
US09500552B2

A method and apparatus for calibrating a force sensing touch screen panel includes determining calibration factors for the position sensing layers of the touch screen panel, and applying those calibration factors to adjust nominal resistance values for resistance components of the position sensing layers when force is applied to the touch screen panel. The calibration factors result in a more accurate determination of the resistance of a force sensing layer which changes resistance as a function of force applied to the touch screen panel. The resistance of the force sensing layer can be used to determine the force applied based on a curve relating force to resistance.
US09500541B2

A method and a device for determining the pressure distribution for bonding of a first substrate to a second substrate, with the following steps, especially with the following sequence: placing a measurement layer between a first tool for holding the first substrate and an opposite second tool which is aligned to the first tool for bonding of the substrate, deformation of the measurement layer by bringing the tools closer to one another, measurement of the deformation of the measurement layer and computation of the pressure distribution.
US09500539B2

A directional slug calorimeter is provided to enable accurate non-isotropic heat flux measurement in a high-temperature environment. The slug calorimeter includes a tubular member; a plurality of slots formed along a portion of an axial length of the tubular member, insulation disposed within the tubular member and within the plurality of slots; and thermocouples disposed with a thermocouple junction. The plurality of slots divide the tubular member into discrete segments. The thermocouples are disposed in a central region of each of the discrete segments.
US09500538B2

An electronic system, or its battery thermal management system, determines a thermal state of a battery used in the electronic system. A temperature at a position proximate the battery's cell is sensed during operation of the electronic system to produce a sensed value. Additionally, a temperature offset value is determined based on an aging factor for the battery. The sensed value is then adjusted based on the offset value to produce an adjusted value representative of the thermal state of the battery. According to one embodiment, a relationship between temperature offset value and battery aging factor is prestored in a memory of the electronic system. In such a case, the offset value may be retrieved from memory periodically or in response to a trigger event based on a determined aging factor. According to another embodiment, the offset value may be computed in real time based on a determined aging factor.
US09500534B2

A method of programming a ring oscillator for use as a temperature sensor comprises selecting an initial number of delay elements for use in a ring oscillator. The method further comprise starting a system clock counter and counting pulses of the ring oscillator until the system clock counter reaches a programmed value. The method also comprises determining whether a number of counted ring oscillator pulses is between lower and upper count thresholds and changing the number of delay elements for the ring oscillator as a result of the number of counted ring oscillator pulses being less than the lower count threshold or greater than the upper count threshold.
US09500532B2

An environmental monitoring system that processes at least one report from at least one environmental sensor in the environment. The system comprises a computing device configured to compute, based on values of physical properties of a simulated object and the at least one report, a simulated condition of the simulated object within the environment. The computing device is also configured to compare the simulated condition to a criterion. The computing device is further configured to selectively output an indication of an alarm condition based on the comparing. The computing device may also be configured to receive through a user interface an input of the values of the physical properties of the simulated object. The environment may be managed by a user, and the computing device may be further configured to associate input with an account based on credentials issued to a user for the account. A method for operating the computing device.
US09500527B2

Improved methods are provided for calibrating color on a color display coupled to a computer, which are useful for obtaining calibrated data in a virtual proof network for enabling different color devices to render consistent color. Methods involve user interactions with screens on the display to set color display parameters. An apparatus is also provided for calibrating a sensor which may be used for measuring color of a display in one or more of these methods.
US09500525B2

In a multi-angle colorimeter, a light detecting portion 40 includes a main light receiving window disposed in a predetermined position on a main geometry plane, and first and second auxiliary light receiving windows disposed on a secondary geometry plane, and a main photoelectric conversion element for converting a main component light received by the main light receiving window in a light reflected from a measurement point into an electrical main signal and first and second auxiliary photoelectric conversion elements for converting first and second auxiliary component lights received by the first and second auxiliary light receiving windows in the reflected light respectively into first and second electrical auxiliary signals. A calculating portion corrects the electrical main signal based on the first and second electrical auxiliary signals to obtain color information about the measurement point.
US09500517B2

A passive infrared motion detection sensor that includes a Fresnel focusing arrangement that creates at least a first infrared sensing region, a second infrared sensing region, and a third infrared sensing region, in which target detection in one or more infrared sensing regions is weighted to be distinguishable from target detection in remaining infrared sensing regions. The Fresnel focusing arrangement creates the weighted infrared sensing regions using a lenslet region, an optically opaque region and a plurality of extruded cylindrical lenslets that extend across a portion of both the lenslet region and the optically opaque region. The signal detection in at least the second weighted infrared sensing region, for example, an infrared sensing range between 6 and 10 feet, is weighted to easily distinguish between a pet within the second infrared sensing range and a person at any infrared sensing range.
US09500513B2

A magnetic liquid level gauge for measuring a boiler drum water level comprises an external cylinder body having a first upper portion and a first lower portion, and an internal cylinder body having a second upper portion and a second lower portion, the first upper portion and the second upper portion are connected to the boiler drum through a steam side sampling pipe, the second lower portion is connected to a water portion of the boiler drum through the water side sampling pipe, the external cylinder body and the internal cylinder body define a steam heat tracing chamber therebetween. A float inside the internal cylinder body is connected to a magnetic component in a magnetic component cylinder body. A display indicator is connected to a magnetic transmitter and a boiler drum pressure transmitter. A waveguide tube is disposed outside the magnetic component cylinder body and connected to the magnetic transmitter.
US09500512B2

A probe unit comprising a probe housing, an at least sectionally rod-shaped, probe electrode, a supplemental electrode, which surrounds the probe electrode at least sectionally coaxially and is isolated from the probe electrode by an electrical insulation. A first securement means, by means of which the supplemental electrode is secured in the probe housing is included, and a contacting module, which is mountable on a rod-shaped section of the probe electrode arranged in the probe housing, and which has a flexible circuit board having at least one first conductive trace for electrically contacting the probe electrode and at least one second conductive trace for electrically contacting the supplemental electrode, and a second securement means for securing the contacting module on the probe electrode are provided.
US09500504B2

A measuring tube for a flow measuring device, wherein the measuring tube has a lining, wherein the lining has at least one sealing lip, which sealing lip serves to provide a sealing action between the measuring tube and a pipeline section adjoining the measuring tube in the installed state.
US09500503B2

There is provided a differential pressure type flowmeter that includes an orifice provided in a main flow channel, a first pressure sensor configured to detect pressure of fluid on an upstream side of the orifice, a second pressure sensor configured to detect pressure of fluid on a downstream side of the orifice, a first pressure introduction flow channel configured to guide the fluid on the upstream side of the orifice to the first pressure sensor, and a second pressure introduction flow channel configured to guide the fluid on the downstream side of the orifice to the second pressure sensor, wherein a flow channel length and a flow channel diameter of the first pressure introduction flow channel coincide with those of the second pressure introduction flow channel, respectively, and a ratio of the flow channel length to the flow channel diameter is not less than 20 times and not more than 30 times.
US09500500B2

The number of turns and the winding direction of a cosine-phase coil wound around an i-th tooth and the number of turns and the winding direction of a sine-phase coil wound around the i-th tooth are set according to Tc,i=TSmax cos(msξi+θ2)+T2c cos(meξi+θ1) and Ts,i=TSmax sin(msξi+θ2)+T2s cos(meξi+θ1), respectively, where TSmax: a first reference number of turns of each of the detecting coils of each phase, T2c: a second reference number of turns of each of the cosine-phase coils, T2s: a second reference number of turns of each of the sine-phase coils, me: a pole pair number in a magnetic flux distribution formed by the exciting coils, ms: a pole pair number in each magnetic flux distribution formed by the detecting coils of each phase, θ1: the phase of the exciting coils, θ2: each phase of the cosine-phase coils and the sine-phase coils, and ξi: a mechanical angle of the i-th tooth.
US09500491B2

A method for position determination, in particular of a motor vehicle, includes optically capturing an object having a known geographic position and matching the geographic position of the object with stored map data. The object may be a road sign having distance information, which is optically recognized at the vehicle. The distance information is subsequently evaluated using optical character recognition.
US09500490B1

A method for determination of vehicle characteristics in reference to an optimum path and determination of machine performance adjustment based on a calculated time of arrival relative to an optimum time of arrival. The method provides a resultant instantaneous display of modified vehicle settings to the operator.
US09500486B2

An approach is provided for formulating a positioning extent for map matching. The positioning extent platform processes and/or facilitates a processing of a plurality of position data points acquired by at least one positioning system to determine one or more variations in the plurality of position data points with respect to one or more thoroughfare segments. Next, the positioning extent platform determines one or more positioning extents associated with the one or more thoroughfare segments for the at least one positioning system based, at least in part, on the one or more variations.
US09500482B2

A system and method for flight planning determines an optimal route by setting an initial departure weight or range of such weights for an aircraft traveling from a departure airport to a destination airport, defining a network of nodes for potentially legal routes, labeling each node with a graph of fuel needed to reach that node either as a function of flight duration or as a function of flight duration and departure weight, selecting or discarding routes when conditions at a node of that route are favorable or violated, selecting a preferred route, departure weight and duration for the desired payload and minimizing fuel for the desired route and payload.
US09500481B2

A rotation rate sensor for detecting a rotation rate about a rotational axis parallel to a main extension plane of a substrate of the sensor includes: a first oscillating mass; and a second oscillating mass mechanically coupled to the first oscillating mass. The first oscillating mass is (i) deflectable along a first oscillations plane parallel to the main extension plane, (ii) extends in a planar manner parallel to the first oscillations plane in a rest position, and (iii) deflectable out of the first oscillations plane into a first deflection position. The second oscillating mass is (i) deflectable along a second oscillations plane parallel to the first oscillations plane, (ii) extends in a planar manner parallel to the second oscillations plane in a rest position, and (iii) deflectable out of the second oscillations plane into a second deflection position.
US09500473B2

An instrument system that includes an optical fiber and a controller is provided. The optical fiber is coupled to an external structure of a patient and has a strain sensor provided thereon. The controller is operatively coupled to the optical fiber and adapted to receive a signal from the strain sensor and to determine a property of respiration of the patient based on the signal.
US09500472B2

An instrument system that includes a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber and a controller is provided. The first optical fiber is operatively coupled to an elongate body that is adapted to be placed inside a patient. The second optical fiber is operatively coupled to the patient, to an actuating element adapted to actuate the elongate body, or to a portion of an imaging system adapted to identify a location of the portion relative to the elongate body. The controller is operatively coupled to the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber and is adapted to receive a first signal from the strain sensor provided on the first optical fiber, receive a second signal from the strain sensor provided on the second optical fiber; and determine a position or orientation of the elongate body based on the first signal and based on the second signal.
US09500467B2

For managing a sound system, a method is disclosed that includes identifying a location for measuring sound, directing light from a light emitter to the location, determining a speckle pattern at the location based on data received from an optical interferometer, and adjusting a sound producer based on the determined speckle pattern.
US09500462B2

A brake pad lining thickness measurement gauge tool includes a grip handle end with a projecting probe having two substantially dimensionally identical measurement surfaces at a measurement or terminal opposite end of the gauge tool, one surface extending axially from the grip handle end and the other interesting surface extending transversely to the axial surface. A set of the gauge tools includes distinctively dimensioned terminal measurement ends.
US09500459B1

Embodiments relate to safing logic and fire set systems with a dual-mode pulse gate driver device and method of use. An aspect includes a device for a circuit having a switch, the device comprising: a gate driver including a trigger input to receive a trigger signal to initiate a test of the circuit in a first mode or a pulse through the circuit to cause a pyrotechnic chain reaction in a second mode, a power supply input and an output for driving the switch in response to receiving the signal. The device includes a trickle charge capacitor coupled to the power supply input. The device includes a high impedance coupled to the capacitor and input power circuitry, the high impedance trickle charging the capacitor and preventing a high voltage through the switch from being applied to the power circuitry in the first mode for subsequent operation in the second mode.
US09500455B2

The invention relates to a projectile having a projectile base (1), an adjoining cylindrical rear region (2), and a front region (3), which is implemented as an ogive, and the projectile having one or two projectile cores (4, 5) and a projectile jacket (6).In order that when the projectile strikes a game carcass, the projectile core and the projectile jacket begin to deform simultaneously up to twice or three times the projectile diameter, it is proposed that the projectile core (4) be soldered in the cylindrical rear region (2) to the projectile jacket (6) over its entire axial length.
US09500444B2

The present invention relates to target acquisition and related devices, and more particularly to telescopic gunsights and associated equipment used to achieve shooting accuracy at, for example, close ranges, medium ranges and extreme ranges at stationary and moving targets.
US09500426B2

A sound suppressor for a firearm includes a generally cylindrical housing having a proximal end and a distal end, a plurality of baffle elements removably and slidably received within the housing, the baffle elements defining a plurality of expansion chambers within the housing, and an end closure element received on the distal end of the housing.
US09500423B2

A gas system includes a gas block having a gas port for directing propellant gases received from a gas port of a barrel of a firearm into the gas system to cycle an auto loading feature of the firearm. A spring-loaded plunger assembly positioned within the gas block includes a plunger component having a plurality of gas ports and a plunger cap at a forward end, wherein the position of the plunger component within the gas block automatically controls an amount of gas that is allowed to enter the gas system. Mounting a suppressor to the muzzle of the barrel depresses the plunger cap and drives it linearly rearward causing the plunger component to rotate to automatically restrict the volume of propellant gases directed into the gas system through a restricted flow gas port in the plunger component.
US09500419B2

One or more ram accelerator devices may be used to form one or more holes in geologic or other material. These holes may be used for drilling, tunnel boring, excavation, and so forth. The ram accelerator devices propel projectiles which are accelerated by combustion of one or more combustible gasses in a ram effect to reach velocities exceeding 500 meters per second.
US09500410B2

An electric arc furnace has a chamber suitable for containing molten steel, a roof covering the chamber and for containing a mass of scrap steel, electrodes for melting the mass of scrap, and a supporting base. The base permits the chamber to oscillate around a horizontal axis of rotation. The roof and the chamber are counterprofiled in correspondence to the respective interface walls to create a rotary coupling with regard to the axis of rotation. The roof, during oscillation of the chamber, remains fixed with regard to the base as well as in a closed position with regard to the chamber.
US09500401B2

A refrigerator includes a secondary cooling path for circulating liquid coolant through the refrigerator wherein the liquid coolant is cooled by the freezer compartment and wherein the liquid coolant cools the ice maker and the ice bin as the liquid coolant circulates through the secondary cooling path. A pump is positioned along the secondary cooling path for pumping the liquid coolant through the secondary cooling path. A tube having a first end proximate the pump and an opposite end exposed to atmosphere may control suction pressure associated with the pump. The refrigerator reduces frost build up through configuration of the secondary cooling path or performing ice harvesting operations which melt frost. The secondary cooling path may be used to provide for circulating hot liquid. The secondary cooling path may be used to provide for circulating liquid coolant during a power outage.
US09500400B2

An exemplary modular cooler system is provided that includes couplings that may, in one embodiment, be implemented as integrated or interfaced receptacles and corresponding inserts that allow accessory items to couple with an insulated compartment, which may be referred to as a “wet box”, and used as an insulated cooler that holds ice. The accessories may include, for example, a second compartment or “dry box” for holding items that need to be kept dry, a fishing rod holder, a shelf, a cutting board, a cup holder, a chair or seating platform, one or more dollies, or virtually any needed accessory. In one embodiment the thermal properties of the insulated compartment are enhanced with the use of one or more radiant barrier members, such as one positioned adjacent the lid of the insulated compartment.
US09500398B2

An ice maker assembly includes an ice making apparatus for an appliance with an ice making tray having a water basin formed by a metallic ice forming plate and at least one perimeter sidewall extending upwardly from a top surface of the ice forming plate. The ice making tray also has a grid with at least one dividing wall. The at least one perimeter sidewall and the at least one dividing wall and the top surface of the ice forming plate form at least one ice compartment having an upper surface and a lower surface. An ice body is formed in the at least one ice compartment. Moreover, the at least one perimeter sidewall and the at least one dividing wall form a draft angle with the top surface of the ice forming plate, of about 17° to about 25° degrees.
US09500395B2

A refrigeration circuit is disclosed circulating a refrigerant and comprising in the direction of flow of the refrigerant a compressor (2); at least one condenser (14, 16) for rejecting heat to ambient air; an expansion device (8); and an evaporator (10). The refrigeration circuit further comprises a collecting container (12), the output of which being connected to the expansion device (8); a heat rejecting heat exchanger (4) for heat exchange of the refrigerant to a heat pump system, the output of the heat rejecting heat exchanger (4) being connected to the collecting container (12); and means (V1, V2) for connecting the heat rejecting heat exchanger (4) or at least one of the condenser(s) (14, 16) to the output of the compressor (2) depending on the availability of cooling power at the heat rejecting heat exchanger (4).
US09500382B2

Methods and systems for automatically calibrating one or more damper positions of a demand control ventilation system are disclosed. In one illustrative embodiment, a demand control ventilation system includes a damper for controlling a flow of outside air into a building. A controller may be programmed to automatically execute a calibration algorithm from time to time to calibrate one or more calibration damper positions such that a predetermined flow of outside air is drawn through the damper and into the building at each of the one or more calibration damper positions. This calibration can, in some instances, help increase the efficiency and/or utility of the demand control ventilation system.
US09500378B2

The present invention discloses an electric fireplace having a humidifying device. The electric fireplace includes a casing. A flame imitation device, a heating device, an air purifying device, the humidifying device, and a touch control panel are provided in the casing. The electric fireplace is combined with the flame imitation device, the air purifying device, and the heating device to provide multiple functions. The user can watch the realistic flame and inhale fresh but not dry warm wind. The humidifying device includes a water container, a cotton rod, a fixing knob, an atomization plate, a hollow pipe, and a fog output box. The humidifying device delivers the water to the atomization plate through the cotton rod to generate atomized particles. The present invention has a simple structure and can be produced easily.
US09500368B2

A gas turbine combustor for producing hot gas by burning a fuel in compressed air comprising a combustor central axis and multiple main swirlers with respective swirler axes disposed about and parallel to the combustor central axis, each main swirler delivering an air fuel mixture flowing through it and about its swirler axis, wherein each swirler imparts rotation to the air fuel mixture flowing through it in a direction opposite that of adjacent swirlers. This combustor configuration reduces shear where the outer edges of adjacent flows meet, allowing for greater tuning of the combustion chamber and reduced NOx and CO emissions.
US09500363B2

An apparatus and method for extracting and recovering water-soluble gas and waste heat from an oven is provided. The method employs a gas-gas heat exchanger for cooling hot stack gas from the oven to a temperature higher than the dew point of the hot stack gas, a double-film-wise heat exchanger for receiving the cooled stack gas from the gas-gas heat exchanger, a condenser/heat exchanger for receiving and further cooling the stack gas from the double-film-wise heat exchanger to ambient temperature by heating a utility water stream, which can then be used for hot water and steam process services, and an ethanol recovery unit for receiving the cooled stack gas from the condenser/heat exchanger.
US09500346B2

A light dispersing flashlight cover adapted for selective attachment to a flashlight having an articulating head. The cover includes a platform supported in resilient cantilevered relation such that the platform is disposed in overlying, raised relation to at least a portion of the flashlight lens when the cover is in place. A light beam emitted through the lens is at least partially blocked by the platform and is dispersed radially relative to the lens.
US09500328B2

The light fixture includes a frame, an optically transmissive panel assembly, a set of light emitting diodes (LEDs), and driving circuitry. The frame has a frame length measured along a length axis and a frame width measured along a width axis, wherein the frame length is greater than the frame width. The optically transmissive panel assembly receives light from the set of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and emits light from an emission area in a patterned luminous intensity, using patterning optics adjacent a light guide plate. The driving circuitry is disposed within the frame and is operatively coupled to the set of LEDs and to a power supply external to the light fixture. The driving circuitry may include a first circuitry segment disposed within a first edge channel of the frame, and a second circuitry segment disposed within a second edge channel of the frame.
US09500327B2

A light-emitting arrangement (100) is disclosed, which is adapted to produce white output light enhancing the color perception of e.g. food in retail environments. The light-emitting arrangement comprises at least one blue light-emitting element (102) adapted to emit light having an emission peak in a first wavelength range of from 440 to 460 nm, and at least one deep blue light-emitting element (101) adapted to emit light having an emission peak in a second wavelength range of from 400 to 440 nm. Further, the light-emitting arrangement comprises at least one narrow band wavelength converting material (104) arranged to receive light emitted by said deep blue light-emitting element, and at least one broadband wavelength converting material (105) arranged to receive light emitted by at least one of said blue light-emitting element and said deep blue light-emitting element. A spotlight comprising such a light-emitting arrangement, and an illumination device comprising a plurality of the light-emitting arrangements, is also disclosed.
US09500326B2

LED lighting device in which color-mixed light according to a mixture of a blue optical emission spectrum according to the emission from an LED element, a red optical emission spectrum according to the emission from a red phosphor, and a green optical emission spectrum according to the emission from a green phosphor is emitted, wherein in the spectrum for the emitted color-mixed light, letting the relative spectral area for the principal-wavelength peak of the blue optical emission spectrum be AB and the peak emission intensity be IB, letting the relative spectral area of the green optical emission spectrum be AG and the peak emission intensity be IG, and letting the relative spectral area of the red optical emission spectrum be AR and the peak emission intensity be IR, then IB
US09500325B2

An LED lamp or bulb is disclosed that comprises a light source, a heat sink structure and a remote planar phosphor carrier having at least one conversion material. The phosphor carrier can be remote to the light sources and mounted to the heat sink so that heat from the phosphor carrier spreads into the heat sink. The phosphor carrier can comprise a thermally conductive transparent material and a phosphor layer, with an LED based light source mounted to the heat sink such that light from the light source passes through the phosphor carrier. At least some of the LED light is converted by the phosphor carrier, with some lamp embodiments emitting a white light combination of LED and phosphor light. The phosphor arranged according to the present invention can operate at lower temperature to thereby operate at greater phosphor conversion efficiency and with reduced heat related damage to the phosphor.
US09500324B2

Color mixing optics for a multi-color LED lamp comprise an outer reflector having a paraboloidal surface of revolution and a total inner reflection (TIR) lens having an outer contour with a paraboloidal surface of revolution. The outer reflector and the TIR lens are centered around a common center axis. A common focal point of the outer reflector and the TIR lens is provided for placing a LED assembly. Such LED lamps produce uniform color throughout the entire light beam while the outer dimensions are such that the optics fit into conventional lamp housings.
US09500315B2

An over-the-door knob holder hook provides a user with a multitude of hooks which includes interchangeable knobs. The apparatus includes a bracing bridge, a first hook assembly, and a second hook assembly. The bracing bridge attaches the first hook assembly and the second hook assembly to a door. The first hook assembly and the second hook assembly each include an elongated leg portion, an interchangeable accessory knob, a lateral portion, and a lip portion. The interchangeable accessory knob is removably mounted to a front surface of the elongated leg portion. The lateral portion is adjacently and perpendicularly connected to the front surface. The lip portion is adjacently and perpendicularly connected to the lateral portion, opposite the elongated leg portion. The elongated leg portion is adjacently and perpendicularly connected to the bracing bridge to position the first and second hook assemblies on opposite sides of the bracing bridge.
US09500302B2

The present invention relates to a method for attenuating noise produced by steam flowing through a pipe, comprising the steps of providing a pipe arrangement (10), which comprises an inner pipe (12) that defines in its inside an inner flow channel (14) which progresses in pipe direction (16) of the inner pipe (12), and an outer pipe (18) that surrounds the inner pipe (12) and progresses substantially parallel thereto, thereby defining an outer flow channel (20) between the two pipes (12, 18) which is substantially parallel to the inner flow channel (14), establishing a steam flow (22) in and along the inner flow channel (14), and establishing a water flow (28) in and along the outer flow channel (20), said water flow (28) being adapted to attenuate a noise produced by said steam flow (22) flowing through the inner flow channel (14).
US09500301B2

A stinger extends away from an end of a vessel, and a pipeline passes over the stinger as the pipeline is laid from the vessel. The inclination of the pipeline increases as the pipeline passes along the stinger and after leaving the stinger until the pipeline reaches an inflection point beyond the end of the stinger at which inclination is at a maximum. Inclination of the pipeline thereafter reduces until the pipeline touches down on the seabed. A method of S-laying the pipeline includes providing guides on the stinger that limit lateral movement of the pipeline relative to the stinger and moving the vessel and the stinger during S-laying to an orientation in which the longitudinal axis of the stinger is inclined to the path of the pipeline just laid. The vessel and the stinger are rotated about a vertical axis passing through or adjacent to the inflection point.
US09500295B2

Sleeve valves include a valve body having an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface and the outer surface defining an inlet, an outlet, and a body cavity between the inlet and the outlet; a sleeve disposed at least partially within the body cavity, the sleeve including at least one opening fluidly connecting the inlet to the outlet; a gate proximate to the sleeve and movable over a portion of the sleeve including the at least one opening, the gate including a front stop and a back stop; and a drive assembly including a pair of drive lines, each drive line having a drive shaft, a first drive line of the pair of drive lines including a sync cam, the sync cam of the first drive line movably positioned on the drive shaft of the first drive line and between the front stop and the back stop.
US09500289B2

Embodiments of a safety device that provides a failsafe mechanism on valve actuator assemblies. This failsafe mechanism operates in the event of power loss, or other problems and/or failures, that prevent operation of the drive components. In one embodiment, the safety device is configured to couple the drive components with the valve stem. During normal operation, this configuration changes the position of the valve stem in response to motive action of the drive components. In the event of power loss, the safety device is configured to operate independent of the drive components to change the position of the valve stem and, thus, move the valve to a closed or “safe” position.
US09500287B2

A valve is provided with multiple ports joining multiple fluid conduits leading between fluid sources and fluid destinations. A central hub manifold or other control element resides within a body supporting the ports, and can rotate relative to the valve body. Fluid flow paths within the central hub or other control element are selectively aligned or not aligned with the ports. The valve indicates which ports are open or closed by providing unique marks adjacent the ports corresponding with being open or closed. When the positive marks are visible, such as through windows in a rotating structure fixed to the central hub or other control element, the corresponding ports are open. When the negative marks are visible, such as through other windows in the rotating structure, the corresponding ports are closed.
US09500286B2

A valve apparatus includes a sleeve which is a hollowed tubular shape, a valve member which is disposed in the sleeve, and a filter. The sleeve includes a ring-shaped groove in an outer wall of the sleeve and a port penetrating the sleeve from a bottom surface of the ring-shaped groove. The valve member opens and closes the port. The filter is wound around the bottom surface. The filter is formed by a belt-shaped member which is wound as a ring shape such that a first end part of the belt-shaped member overlaps a second end part of the belt-shaped member. The belt-shaped member includes the first end part, the second end part, and an intermediate part. The intermediate part is disposed between the first end part and the second end part. The second end part and the intermediate part include a meshed part. The first end part includes a release portion corresponding to an opening having an opening area greater than an opening area of a sieve opening of the meshed part. The sieve opening of the meshed part of the second end part is released by the release portion of the first end part. Therefore, a deterioration of a filtration efficiency of an overlapped part between the first end part and the second end part can be restricted.
US09500281B2

A piston is provided displaceably in the interior of a cylinder tube that constitutes a fluid pressure cylinder, and a piston cover made from an elastic material is disposed so as to cover one end surface of the piston. The piston cover comprises a main body portion confronting a head cover of the cylinder tube, a guide portion covering an outer circumferential surface of the piston and disposed in sliding contact with an inner circumferential surface of a cylinder hole, and a hook portion folded toward an inner circumferential side with respect to the guide portion. Upon displacement of the piston toward the head cover, shocks are absorbed by abutment of the main body portion against the head cover. When the piston is displaced along the cylinder tube, the guide portion serves to guide the piston in the axial direction by sliding contact with the cylinder hole.
US09500277B2

A hydraulic pressure supply system of an automatic transmission for a vehicle may include a hydraulic pump receiving oil stored in an oil pan through an input line, generating hydraulic pressure, and discharging the generated hydraulic pressure in the oil through a low-pressure discharge port and a high-pressure discharge port, a first switch valve switching a first switch hydraulic line in order to supply the hydraulic pressure discharged from the low-pressure discharge port of the hydraulic pump selectively to the low pressure portion or the high pressure portion, a second switch valve switching a second switch hydraulic line in order to selectively supply the hydraulic pressure supplied from the first switch valve to the low pressure portion or to return the hydraulic pressure supplied from the first switch valve to the oil pan, a low-pressure regulator valve, and a high-pressure regulator valve.
US09500275B2

A flap type electronic automatic transmission lever apparatus may include a console, a shift flap unit electrically connected to a transmission control unit (TCU) of a vehicle at a center of the console, and having at last four or more shift flaps, touch sensor units, each including a shift sensor disposed at a center of a corresponding shift flap, a forward-turn sensor disposed at an upper portion of the corresponding shift flap, and a rearward-turn sensor disposed at a lower portion of the corresponding shift flap, a shafts, each connected to a bottom of the corresponding shift flap to enable the corresponding shift flap to turn, step motors, each connected to one end of corresponding shaft, and shaft-fixing portions, each connected to an opposite end of the corresponding shaft.
US09500268B2

A locking differential assembly having a locking dog that is mounted in a differential case in a manner that permits the locking dog to be translated along an axis between a first position, in which the locking dog is disengaged from a side gear in the differential case, and a second position in which the locking dog is engaged to the side gear. The locking dog is coupled to the differential case in a manner that permits an increasing range of rotation of the locking dog relative to the differential case with axial movement of the locking dog toward the second position. An axle assembly with the locking differential assembly and a related method for forming a locking differential assembly are also provided.
US09500264B2

A drive pulley for a CVT has a fixed sheave, a movable sheave, a spider, a biasing member biasing the movable sheave axially away from the fixed sheave, at least one centrifugal actuator and at least one roller assembly. The at least one roller assembly has first and second rollers rotationally connected to one of the movable sheave and the spider and abutting another one of the movable sheave and the spider, the first roller rolling along the other one of the movable sheave and the spider as the movable sheave moves axially, the second roller rolling along the other one of the movable sheave and the spider as the movable sheave moves axially. The first and second rollers transfer torque between the movable sheave and the spider.
US09500257B2

A fluid-filled vibration damping device including: a primary fluid chamber which gives rise to internal pressure fluctuations based on deformation of a main rubber elastic body at times of vibration input; an auxiliary fluid chamber which gives rise to pressure differentials relative to the primary fluid chamber at times of vibration input; an orifice passage which permits a non-compressible sealed fluid filling the primary fluid chamber and the auxiliary fluid chamber to flow between the two fluid chambers; and an insoluble powder mixed in the sealed fluid filling the primary fluid chamber which provides a bubble nucleus and accelerates dispersed generation of bubbles when pressure within the primary fluid chamber is decreased.
US09500254B2

A damper for a bicycle, having a primary unit including a damper tube, a piston rod that supports a main piston, a reservoir tube that is outside of the compression chamber of the primary tube, and an inertial valve within the reservoir tube. The damper also includes a flow path connecting the reservoir fluid chamber and the compression chamber of the primary tube. The damper also may have a damping valve in the reservoir tube. When the inertia valve is open, the damping valve opens before flow through the inertia valve is maximized. The main piston and the damper tube at least partially define a compression chamber and a rebound chamber. The main piston is movable within the damper chamber of the primary unit. The reservoir tube includes a reservoir fluid chamber. The inertial valve is responsive to terrain-induced forces and not responsive to rider-induced forces when the shock absorber is assembled to the bicycle.
US09500252B2

An elastic seal member fixedly attached to a back surface side of a disk valve is fitted in a recessed portion of a pilot body, by which a pilot chamber is formed. A valve opening of the disk valve is controlled by an inner pressure in the pilot chamber. The elastic seal member includes a thick proximal portion and a thin lip portion. A seal portion protruding on an outer circumferential portion of the lip portion is in sliding contact with an inner circumferential portion of an outer cylindrical portion of the pilot body. Deflection of the thin lip portion can reduce sliding resistance while ensuring a sealing performance of the seal portion.
US09500240B2

A disk brake (1) including a connector portion (35) provided at a housing (30). The connector portion (35) includes supply terminals (131) for supplying power to a motor (32). The supply terminals (131) of the connector portion (35) and motor terminals (32C) of the motor (32) are connected to each other via bus bars (130) made of metallic plate. Further, the bus bars (130) are held in a loosely fitted state on another-side surface (138B) of a plate-like portion (138) of a support member (135) attached to the housing (30).
US09500232B2

A ball bearing includes: an inner ring having an inner ring raceway surface on its outer circumference; an outer ring having an outer ring raceway surface on its inner circumference; a plurality of balls are disposed between the inner and outer ring raceway surfaces; and a cage. In the outer circumference of the inner ring, an inner ring shoulder portion is provided on a first axial side of the inner ring and a counter bore is provided on a second axial side of the inner ring. A tapered surface extending radially outward toward the ball is formed in a portion that is in a circumferential wall of each pocket hole, and that is in an end on a first axial side of the cage.
US09500231B2

A turbocharger ball-bearing assembly incorporates a cageless set of ceramic bearing balls operating within outer and inner bearing raceways, wherein the outer bearing raceway is on the inside of a fractured outer race. The fractured outer race is located in a counterbore of a center body of a turbocharger. The center body, in cooperation with the ball-bearing assembly, provides for rotationally supporting, and axially restraining, a rotor shaft of the turbocharger. The outside diameter of the fractured outer bearing race is less than a corresponding inside diameter of the counterbore, and the center body provides for supplying lubricant to an isolation annulus therebetween, so as to provide fir squeeze-film damping the ball-bearing assembly within the counterbore.
US09500224B2

A linear motion screw assembly is provided herein which comprises (a) at least a first end support, (b) a screw shaft rotatably mounted to the first end support and defining a longitudinal direction, (c) a linear guide means mounted to the first end support and oriented parallel to the screw shaft, (d) a follower assembly mounted to the screw shaft and, associated therewith, an anti-rotation means in translatable contact with the guide means and movable in a longitudinal direction along the guide means, and (e) a cartridge non-rotatably mounted within said follower assembly, said cartridge including a guide nut having an axial bore through which the screw shaft is rotatably disposed.
US09500217B2

A method for producing a threaded part, includes the following steps: preparing a wire (54) with a rectangular cross-section; winding-up the wire (54) to form a helical spring with tightly wound windings, the wire being fed such that the sides of the rectangle defining the cross-section extend obliquely to the axis of the helical spring; and connecting the windings to each other at their mutually adjoining contact surfaces.
US09500216B2

Fixing apparatus includes a pressing cover, a base facing to the pressing cover, a movable arm coupled between the pressing cover and the base, a chassis, an elastic element located between the pressing cover and the base, and a positioning shaft extending through the chassis, the base, and the elastic element to insert to the pressing cover. The positioning shaft forms a supporting portion away from the pressing cover. The chassis defines a first slot. When the chassis moves towards the pressing cover, the movable arm is pressed to open outwardly, the elastic element is compressed to press the chassis away from the pressing cover, the positioning portion moves towards the first slot until locks in the first slot. The fixing apparatus can press the device to the plank to fix the device on the plank.
US09500215B2

Provided are a link mechanism which is variously combined, assembled and disassembled, and a universal coupler including the same. The link mechanism according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a plate and a coupling piece. The plate has a flat plate shape and a thickness and includes a plurality of coupling holes formed to pass therethrough, the coupling holes have the same size and shape and are disposed at a interval in at least one of a column direction and a row direction. The coupling piece is inserted into the coupling holes of two or more plates to couple two or more plates to each other.
US09500210B2

An anchoring clip assembly is configured to securely anchor to a structure. The assembly may include a main body, a plurality of anchoring members extending from the main body, wherein the plurality of anchoring members are configured to securely anchor to the structure, and at least one verification member configured to provide verification when the plurality of anchoring members are securely anchored to the structure. The verification member(s) may provide visual verification when the plurality of anchoring members are securely anchored to the structure, and/or may include at least one separable portion that is configured to separate from the main body after the plurality of anchoring members are securely anchored to the structure.
US09500206B2

A fluid pump for a linear actuator is provided. The pump causes a rod in the actuator to extend or retract by controlling the flow of fluid to and from portions of a fluid chamber on either side of a piston disposed within the fluid chamber and supporting the rod. The pump includes a valve structure that enables the pump to redistribute fluid obtained from one portion of the fluid chamber on one side of the piston to the other portion of the fluid chamber on the other side of the piston without first returning the fluid to a fluid reservoir thereby increasing the efficiency of the pump.
US09500187B2

A method, system and program product comprise receiving an activated signal from a first motion detector. The activated signal indicating an object is detected by the first motion detector. A source of heat is applied to a heatable object for a first predetermined period of time in response to the receiving. The applying is conveyed by a terminal device. The heatable object is positionable within a sensing range of a second motion detector. The applying of the heat source is stopped for a second predetermined period of time. The stopping enables the heatable object to cool in which a cycle of the applying and the stopping with motion of said heatable object is detectable by the second motion detector wherein the detection by the first motion detector is relayed to the second motion detector.
US09500180B1

In one aspect, the invention is a novel and non-obvious design for wind fan or wind turbine that 1) can adjust to changes in wind direction and 2) is collapsible or retractable when desired. Further, the invention relates to a novel and non-obvious design for a fan blade assembly that allows for the ability of the wind turbine to adjust to changes in wind direction and allows for the wind turbine to collapse or retract into a housing when not in use.
US09500178B2

A wind turbine rotor assembly comprises: a rotor support; a rotor which is rotatably mounted to the rotor support; and a base support; wherein the rotor support and base support are provided with an engagement mechanism which allows the rotor support and base support to engage with each other so that when the rotor support and base support are moved together a hinged connection is formed between the rotor support and base support, which hinged connection allows the rotor support to rotate relative to the base support during installation or decommissioning of the rotor.
US09500174B2

An internal combustion engine includes a ring gear, a speed sensor operatively associated with the ring gear, and a change of mind (COM) starter motor mechanically linked to the internal combustion engine. The COM starter motor includes an armature and a pinion operatively connected to the armature. A solenoid is operatively connected to the COM starter motor. The solenoid selectively moves the pinion into engagement with the ring gear. An electronic control unit (ECU) is operatively connected to the speed sensor and the solenoid. The ECU is configured and disposed to indirectly detect a rotational speed of the pinion and selectively energize the solenoid to axially shift the pinion into engagement with the ring gear when the pinion reaches a particular rotational speed relative to a rotational speed of the ring gear.
US09500166B2

Provided is an intake noise reduction device that can suppress an occurrence of noise in an intake pipe. An intake noise reduction device (100) disposed on a downstream side of a throttle valve in an intake pipe and including a flow-guiding net (110) that guides an air flow, wherein the flow-guiding net includes a mesh that is configured to be fine in a vicinity of a center of a flow passage in the intake pipe and to become coarser with distance from the vicinity of the center. For example, the mesh flow-guiding net (110) is formed of a plurality of radial portions (111) extending radially outward from the vicinity of the center of the flow passage in the intake pipe and a plurality of concentric portions (112) provided concentrically from the vicinity of the center.
US09500159B2

An electricity generation unit 1A includes a combustor 11, a heater 13, and a Rankine cycle circuit 20. The combustor 11 combusts a solid fuel. A combustion gas generated in the combustor 11 passes through a flue 12. The heater 13 contains a heat storage material, and heats the heat storage material by allowing heat exchange to take place between the combustion gas in the flue 12 and the heat storage material. The Rankine cycle circuit 20 has an evaporator 21 that evaporates a working fluid in the Rankine cycle by allowing heat exchange to take place between the heat storage material heated in the heater 13 and the working fluid. With this configuration, stable operation of an electricity generation unit using a combustion gas of a solid fuel is achieved.
US09500149B2

Provided is an engine power estimation apparatus for estimating an engine power at a gear shift completion time when making a speed change of a vehicle. The engine power estimation apparatus includes a gear shift detection unit configured to detect the speed change of the vehicle; an axle speed estimation unit configured to calculate a target axle speed at the gear shift completion time, using an axle speed and a gear shift time learning value, when the speed change of the vehicle is detected; and an engine power estimation unit configured to calculate a target engine power at the gear shift completion time, using the target axle speed and engine load information.
US09500136B2

A system includes a controller configured to receive one or more inputs associated with an operation of a turbine system, derive a set of ramp rates for the turbine system based at least in part on the one or more inputs, and to select a ramp rate from the set of ramp rates. The ramp rate includes a variable ramp rate. The controller is further configured to generate an output signal based on the selected ramp rate.
US09500135B2

A fuel feed circuit for an aeroengine, the circuit including a high-pressure pumping system for delivering fuel at high pressure to combustion chamber injectors, the high-pressure pumping system including first and second positive displacement gear pumps driven simultaneously by the engine. A hydraulic switch member is interposed between respective outlets of the pumps, which makes it possible, in one state, to combine outlet flows from the two pumps to deliver fuel at high pressure to the combustion chamber injectors, and in another state, to discharge some or all of outlet flow from the first pump to a low-pressure feed line, an electrical control member serving to cause the hydraulic switch member to pass from one state to the other.
US09500127B2

The power plant includes a gas turbine unit adapted to feed flue gases into a diverter where they are divided into a recirculated flow and a discharged flow. The recirculated flow is fed into a mixer together with fresh air to form a mixture that is fed to the gas turbine unit. The gas turbine unit includes a combustion chamber where a fuel is burnt together with the mixture. A control unit is provided, that is supplied with information regarding the fuel C2+ and/or H2 content and is connected to at least the diverter to drive it and online regulate the recirculated flow mass flow rate in relation to the fuel C2+ and/or H2 content.
US09500122B2

The method includes moving at least one of a first support and a second support to vary a position of the plurality of main blades and tandem blades relative to each other to control one or more flow control characteristics across the turbine. The turbine includes a nozzle having the plurality of main blades and tandem blades. The plurality of main blades are coupled to the first support and the plurality of tandem blades are coupled to the second support disposed spaced apart from the first support.
US09500121B2

A turbocharger includes: a turbine housing which houses a turbine impeller; an introduction hole provided in the turbine housing and configured to guide an exhaust gas, which flows into the introduction hole from an exhaust manifold of an engine, to the turbine impeller; a valve provided inside the introduction hole and configured to open and close an exhaust-gas discharge hole in the exhaust manifold; and a restriction portion configured to restrict a turn of the mounting plate in order to make part of an outer peripheral surface of a stem, which is exposed through an exposure hole of the mounting plate, visible from outside of the turbine housing.
US09500114B2

A work vehicle display device included in a work vehicle including an internal-combustion engine that generates power and an exhaust gas processing device that processes exhaust gas discharged from the internal-combustion engine using urea water, the work vehicle display device includes: a display unit configured to display an image; and a display control unit configured to display either a first image or a second image different from the first image in the display unit, wherein the display control unit displays device information having a same content related to a state of the exhaust gas processing device in the first image and the second image.
US09500112B2

An exhaust gas purifying apparatus which can reduce or prevent the shifting of a honeycomb catalyst member relative to a cushion member, even if hard vibrations are applied to the exhaust gas purifying apparatus, for example, during operation of a vehicle. In some embodiments, there can be no increase of the radial pressure of the cushion member applied to the honeycomb catalyst member. In some embodiments, an exhaust gas purifying apparatus can comprise a honeycomb catalyst member carrying metallic catalyst, wherein the member can be contained in a cylindrical container via a cushion member. The catalyst structural member can be formed of a sheet-like catalyst structure and can be manufactured by a wet paper-making method. The structural member can be secured to the cushion member by press-fitting the structural member into the cushion member.
US09500106B2

A valve stem seal utilizes a multi-piece construction to reduce the required manufactured tolerances and/or improve the stress handling capabilities. The valve stem seal can include a first member or can which can be assembled to a second member or spring seat. The can and/or spring seat can have a plurality of axially extending resilient fingers that are biased such that when assembled the fingers are bent against the bias due to the engagement between the can and the spring seat. The fingers on the spring seat allow the spring seat to bend or move relative to the can to accommodate the loading of a valve spring on the spring seat. The use of resilient fingers on the can and/or the spring seat reduces the manufacturing tolerances required for the valve stem seal.
US09500095B2

A segmented shroud ring surrounds a circumferential array of blades of a gas turbine engine rotor. The shroud ring has a plurality of shroud segments disposed circumferentially one adjacent to another. The circumferentially adjacent shroud segments have confronting sides defining an inter-segment gap therebetween. The inter-segment gaps are sealed by a sealing band mounted to the radially outer surface of the segmented shroud ring so as to extend across the inter-segment gaps around the full circumference of the shroud ring. Impingement jet holes may be defined in the sealing band for cooling the shroud segments.
US09500087B2

A turbine component includes a hollow aerofoil and an impingement tube located within the hollow aerofoil. The impingement tube is formed from at least two separate sections each extending span wise through the hollow aerofoil. Adjacent sections of the impingement tube are connected together by a locking device. The locking device is insertable into the hollow aerofoil and locks the impingement tube into place in the hollow aerofoil. The locking device is a roll pin being located in an axially direction between said sections and has a main extension which extends in a radial direction of the hollow aerofoil.
US09500080B2

A method is provided of replacing a damaged blade of an integrally bladed rotor assembly including a disc and a plurality of blades extending outwardly from a rim of the disc. The method includes the steps of: removing the damaged blade to leave a blade repair stub projecting from the rim; locating sacrificial supports at the underside of the rim beneath the repair stub, the supports projecting axially beyond the trailing and leading edges of the rim; depositing metal around the trailing and leading edges of the repair stub, the deposited metal, supported by the sacrificial supports, projecting axially beyond the trailing and leading edges of the rim; attaching a replacement blade to the repair stub by linear friction welding; and removing excess deposited metal, upset metal from the linear friction welding, and the sacrificial supports.
US09500073B2

An apparatus for metering fluid in a subterranean well includes an electric submersible pump having a motor, a seal section and a pump assembly and a metering assembly. The metering assembly includes an upper pipe section with an outer diameter, the upper pipe section having an upper pressure sensing means, and a lower pipe section with an outer diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the upper pipe section, the lower pipe section having a lower pressure sensing means. A power cable is in electronic communication with the electric submersible pump and with the metering assembly.
US09500067B2

A system and method are provided for improving hydrocarbon production from gaseous wells, and in particular improving hydrocarbon production using pumping systems employing artificial lifts. The pumping system of the well is controlled so as to cyclically decrease and increase gas pressure in the casing annulus, thus cyclically decreasing PBHP in response to the decrease in the casing annulus pressure and permitting the PBHP to increase in response to the increase in casing annulus pressure. Production of fluid from the reservoir is therefore increased during the cyclical decrease in casing annulus pressure, and production of fluid from the downhole pump is increased during the cyclical increase in casing annulus pressure. In addition, gas interference due to production of foam in the casing surrounding a downhole pump can be mitigated by forcing liquid from the foam during the period of increased casing annulus pressure.
US09500066B2

One disclosed sleeve assembly disposed within a base pipe includes a first sleeve portion having a first shear resistance for resisting movement of the sleeve assembly with respect to the base pipe, and a second sleeve portion moveable with respect the first sleeve portion and having a second shear resistance for resisting movement of the second sleeve portion with respect to the first sleeve portion, the second shear resistance being greater than the first shear resistance.
US09500060B2

A remotely operated lifting top drive cement head is provided having a high tensile strength, as well as the ability to swivel or rotate about a central vertical axis. The cement head permits selective launching of darts, setting plugs, balls or other objects which can be held in place within the cement head without being damaged or washed away by slurry flow, but which can be beneficially launched into said slurry flow at desired point(s) during the cementing process. The internal components of the cement head can be easily accessed using interrupted thread connections that can be quickly and easy connected and disconnected in the field without requiring specialized equipment. The cement head can be rigged up and remotely operated without requiring the lifting of personnel off the rig floor to actuate the tool or observe tool status.
US09500059B1

A water pump pipe cutoff tool provides a means to cut and retrieve an existing original water pipe from within an existing well in such cases where a faulty submersible pump is trapped within said well. By cutting and removing the original water pipe, a new submersible pump can be installed into the well, thereby avoiding the expense of drilling a new well.
US09500056B2

A weight down collet includes a mandrel that provides an outer diameter feature and a shoulder, and a collet sleeve assembly movably disposed about the mandrel. The collet sleeve assembly includes a body, a primary collet provided on the body and defining an upper detent and a lower detent having a gap defined therebetween, and a secondary collet provided on the body and axially spaced from the primary collet. The upper and lower detents extend radially outward from the body and are engageable with one or more restrictions provided on an inner wall of a completion string, and the secondary collet defines an inner detent that extends radially inward and is engageable with the shoulder. The collet sleeve assembly is movable between an unsupported position, where the primary collet is radially unsupported, and a supported position, where the primary collet is radially supported on the outer diameter feature.
US09500052B2

This application relates to an apparatus and method for cleaning drill cuttings recovered from a wellbore. Specifically, the apparatus includes an effective system for handling and washing drill cuttings at a well site to remove hydrocarbon contaminants. The system successively washes hydrocarbon contaminated drill cuttings in organic solvent and water to remove and recover the hydrocarbon contaminates, and produce cleaned drill cuttings that may enable disposal of clean drill cuttings without further treatment.
US09500047B2

A spider and method for supporting a tubular within a well bore. Radial dogs, controlled by cylinders that extend and retract simultaneously, are operable to support the tubular by the lower lip of a box connector. When a tubular connector is set down upon the dogs so as to depress one or more triggers located thereon, an interlock in a control system is actuated to prevent movement of the dogs. However, even while the spider is thus loaded, the dogs may nevertheless be retracted via an emergency override mechanism thereby allowing the tubular to be dropped into the wellbore. When the tubular has been lifted off of the triggers, the interlock is deactivated, and the dogs of the spider can be operated once again. The triggers may actuate sensor valves located within the dogs, which in turn actuates an interlock valve isolating the flow path of the cylinders.
US09500046B2

The riser system of the present invention includes an external production riser for floating structures with interfaces to the dry and subsea wellheads, internal tieback riser with a special lower overshot/slipping connector for elevated temperatures. The seals can be metallic and/or non-metallic dynamic seals. Special centralizing pipe connectors and a special subsea wellhead tubing hanger are also included. This riser system avoids the penalty of pipe within pipe differential thermal growth and the resulting unwanted effects on the floating structure. This is accomplished by allowing an overshot sealing slipping connector to swallow an expanding polished rod as thermal conditions cause pipe elongation axially. When elevated temperatures fall to ambient the opposite occurs as the pipe shrinks axially. Alternatively, a system is possible where a two pipe drilling riser is needed. The internal pipe in this case would be an inner riser rather than a tubing string.
US09500038B2

An auger bit includes an elongated shaft, a cutting bit, a feed screw, and a locking fastener. The shaft includes a flute extending in a helical manner with respect to a longitudinal axis along at least a portion of the shaft. The shaft further includes a first slot and a second slot. The first slot extends parallel to the longitudinal axis proximate the first end and is aligned with the axis. The cutting bit is removably received in the second slot and includes a first edge. The feed screw includes a shank and a threaded portion. The shank is removably received in the first slot. The feed screw engages the cutting bit to secure the cutting bit relative to the shaft. The locking fastener is coupled to the shaft and engages the shank of the feed screw to secure the feed screw relative to the shaft.
US09500036B2

Implementations of the present invention include drilling tools having axially-tapered waterways that can increase flushing and bit life, while also decreasing clogging. According to some implementations of the present invention, the drilling tool can have a single notch extending into the cutting face and a plurality of bores extending from the cutting face to an interior space of the drilling tool. Implementations of the present invention also include drilling systems including drilling tools having a single notch and a plurality of bores.
US09500033B2

A technique facilitates downhole drilling applications by providing a universal joint. The universal joint has a high load carrying capability presented in a compact and simple configuration. The high load carrying capability is achieved by techniques employing unique load transfer mechanisms. For example, higher load capability may be provided by a load sharing principal in which torque loads are jointly transmitted through universal joint pins and the side faces of a universal joint cross. The higher load capability also may be achieved by transferring loads through a monolithic cross having integral pins and a split yoke/clevis assembly. In another embodiment, higher load capability results from using universal joint pins inserted from the inside of the universal joint and screwed outwardly until full engagement with the joint yokes is achieved. Each of the universal joint embodiments also may be designed to enable pressure-sealed flow of drilling mud through the joint.
US09500031B2

A rotary steering apparatus for a drill string in which a bending section induces a bend in a portion of the bottom hole assembly of the drill string by using the rotation of the drive shaft that drives the drill bit during normal drilling, while operating at a reduced or zero drilling mud flow rate, to drive a reduction gear that rotates a nut or cam so as to place a tension tube into tension. The tension tube abuts a flexible housing and places the flexible housing in compression. The flexible housing has a local weakening formed in it that causes it to preferentially bend in a predetermined direction. Compression in the flexible housing causes the housing to bend, which bends a portion of the bottom hole assembly so as to alter the direction of drilling. Rotation of the drive shaft at reduced or zero mud flow rate also causes the drive shaft to drive rotation of a second reduction gear the output of which rotates the bent portion of the bottom hole assembly thereby altering its tool face angle.
US09500020B2

If closing operation to the passenger's seat sub switch continues for not less than a prescribed time period Tb, a passenger's seat relay contact on a close side is turned ON. If the closing operation to the passenger's seat sub switch thereafter ends before a prescribed time period Tc elapses, the passenger's seat relay contact on the close side is kept ON. If opening operation to the passenger's seat sub switch continues for not less than the prescribed time period Tb, a passenger's seat relay contact on an open side is turned ON. If the opening operation to the passenger's seat sub switch thereafter ends before the prescribed time period Tc elapses, the passenger's seat relay contact on the open side is kept ON. The invention is applicable to an automatic window system and the like.
US09500018B2

A hinge for the controlled rotatable movement of at least one closing element, such as a door, a door leaf or the like, anchored to a stationary support structure, such as a wall, a floor, a frame or the like, includes a hinge body and a pivot defining a first axis and reciprocally coupled to allow rotation of the at least one closing element between an open position and a closed position. The hinge further includes a working chamber defining a second axis substantially perpendicular to the first axis and a plunger element sliding in the working chamber along the second axis between a position proximal to the bottom wall of the working chamber and a position distal therefrom.
US09500017B2

The inner surface of one side section of a frame has the base-end section of a rotation arm of a rotation-biasing element that is rotatable. A roller is provided on the tip-end section of the rotation arm. The roller is pressed against and contacts the rear surface of a door as a result of the biasing by the rotation-biasing element. The rear surface of the door is equipped with a damper element. The damper element has a contact member for pressing against and contacting the roller when the door is in the closed position or in a prescribed intermediate position. The contact member minimizes the speed at which the roller moves forward.
US09500016B2

A position adjusting mechanism of a soft-closing device for a sliding door has a bracket with a mounting panel and at least one positioning rack, a cover panel mounted on the bracket, and a positioning hook, a torsion spring and a driving element pivotally mounted on the cover panel. At least one first fastener is mounted through the cover panel and the mounting panel and is fastened to a door track. The bracket can slide relative to the cover panel to allow the positioning hook to selectively engage in different engaging recesses of a corresponding positioning rack. Thus, moving distance of the bracket and a door panel suspended from the bracket can be estimated. Accordingly, positions of the bracket and the door panel on the door track can be adjusted to allow the door panel to close a doorway completely.
US09500015B2

A drive device for a flap of a piece of furniture including at least one actuating arm which is activated by a spring device and is intended for moving the flap. A pushing-out device can move the flap from the closed position the opening direction toward the open position over a first opening-angle range (M1). The spring device exerts substantially no force on the flap in the first opening-angle range (M1), and the spring device moves the flap in the opening direction only in a second opening-angle range (M2), wherein the second opening-angle range (M2) adjoins the first opening-angle range (M1) or, at most, slightly overlaps the first opening-angle range.
US09500014B2

The present disclosure includes a hinge assembly for use in a hinged attachment of a panel relative to a frame and providing movement of the panel relative to the frame. A link which provides an extension or reach motion and positioning of the assembly, shown for purposes of illustration and not limitation in the form of a gooseneck arm, is provided in the hinge assembly to facilitate an extended range of motion of the hinge assembly. A first spherical bearing assembly and a second spherical bearing assembly are operatively associated with a bearing end of the link to provide multiple degrees of motion while securely retaining the panel relative to the frame. The hinge is intended to provide universal application of a single version of a hinge which can be used in multiple locations as facilitated by the multiple degrees of motion provided by the bearing end of the link.
US09500013B2

Examples disclosed herein provide a hinge assembly for a computing device. The hinge assembly includes a first barrel coupled to a second barrel. The first barrel has a first groove that extends circumferentially and longitudinally along at least a length of the first barrel, and the second barrel has a second groove that extends circumferentially and longitudinally along at least a length of the second barrel. The hinge assembly includes a first hinge pivot shaft that rotates about a first axis via the first barrel, and the first shaft includes a first guide pin to follow the first groove along the first barrel. The hinge assembly includes a second hinge pivot shaft that rotates about a second axis via the second barrel, and the second shaft includes a second guide pin to follow the second groove along the second barrel. The hinge assembly includes a bracket that aligns a point along a length of the first shaft with a point along a length of the second shaft.
US09500005B2

A gear structure for an electronic lock contains: a housing including an accommodating chamber, a power supply, a first connecting seat, a second connecting seat, a guiding mount, a shaft, and a motor holder; a driving motor including a worm rod; a driving gear including a through aperture, a toothed rim, and a driving tooth portion; a first rotating gear including an opening, a rotary disc, positioning blocks, and an external toothed periphery; a second rotating gear including a pore, two flexibly recessed areas, each having a sliding trench and a horizontal slot, the horizontal slot having two opposite notches, the resilient piece having two elastic elements; a fitting member including a fitting opening; a first sensing unit including at least two first coupling feet; a second sensing unit including at least two second coupling feet; a rotatable knob including a grip portion, a bar portion, and a cross hole.
US09500002B2

A handle assembly for a vehicle door includes a backplate, operable to be mounted to a portion of the vehicle door, and the backplate including a recessed region displaced away from the exterior surface of the vehicle door. A handle aperture is provided within the recessed region of the backplate with at least one pin mount extending from the recessed region of the backplate. The pin mount includes a void and a slot that is narrower than the void. Pins extend from a handle body portion into the voids and pivotally mount the handle to the backplate. The handle further includes a spring locator retaining a handle spring prior to mounting the handle to the backplate. The spring is compressed between the handle and the backplate and biases the handle to an un-actuated position.
US09499999B2

A car roof tent includes base, an expandable/collapsible tent frame, a rigid top cover, and a ladder. The tent frame is fixed to the base. The top cover is pivotally connected to the tent frame and is movable in unison with the tent frame so as to be set on and covering the tent after the collapse of the tent frame. The ladder has a top end pivotally connected to one side edge of the base and is upward rotatable to be positioned on the top cover. The rigid top cover is included and the ladder and the tent base are coupled such that the top cover and the ladder are movable with the operation of the tent frame. The operation is simple and the use is easy.
US09499994B2

Disclosed are tools for use in the building construction industry to apply coatings to surfaces. A trowel is disclosed for shaping a wet coating mixture on a surface. The trowel includes channels in the trowel head. Each channel forms a crest in the wet coating mixture in response to the trowel being passed over the wet coating mixture. Also disclosed is a tool for leveling a coating on a surface. The tool includes a screed bar, a screed bar coupling device, and a handle. The one or more than one screed bar coupling device removeably couples the screed bar to a substrate that includes the surface that the coating is to be applied to. The screed bar provides a level screed reference for the wet coating mixture. After the wet coating mixture is leveled, the screed bar is removed from the substrate.
US09499971B2

A low-emittance material having improved energy efficiency protection against air infiltration and moisture build-up in buildings is disclosed. The aforementioned low-emittance material utilizes existing framing openings or without increasing the wall profile of a building. The present invention provides a low-emittance material which may be implemented on traditional 2×4 framing having R-15 mass insulation material within existing or newly constructed framing cavities. The material of the present invention also meets requirements for serving as a water resistive barrier as defined by ICC AC38.
US09499969B2

The present invention describes a system (1) for recovering liquid or free-flowing chemicals in a chemical plant (3), comprising at least two plant sections (3a, 3b), for each plant section (3a, 3b) at least one connecting device (5a, 5b) arranged at the lowest point, at least one common collecting line (7) which runs beneath the connecting devices (5a, 5b) and connects them to one another, at least one collecting vessel (9) arranged at the same height as or higher than the at least two plant sections (3a, 3b) and above the collecting line (7), at least one pump (11) provided in the collecting line (7) between the connecting devices (5a, 5b) and the collecting vessel (9) for drawing off the at least one liquid or free-flowing chemical combined in the collecting line (7) and introducing it into the collecting vessel (9).
US09499965B2

A multi flush volume flush valve is in communication with an automatic flush control. The flush control determines the presence of a user and the amount of time the user uses the toilet. The usage time is compared to a predetermined time value to determine the appropriate flush volume based on an assumption regarding usage time and flush volume needs. The comparative value statistically adjusts to the restroom traffic.
US09499963B2

An under-sink waste processing appliance includes a waste separator which extracts liquid from organic waste and a composting aid and passes such extracted liquid to a residential drain line. The remaining solid, in the form of organic pulp, is dried in a dryer and deposited in a removable collection receptacle.
US09499958B2

A wear member of a mechanically attached wear plate system having a mounting base for attachment to a wear surface and a retainer member adapted to retain the wear member in an engaged position on the mounting base. The wear member is coupled to the mounting base by a rotary movement to engage an engagement surface of a dovetail flange extending from a wear member mounting side with a mounting base engagement surface. Abutment surfaces of the wear member and mounting base are disposed abutting opposite sides of the retainer member positioned in the retainer opening of the mounting base.
US09499956B2

In an embodiment, a hydraulic jack is provided having a first portion and a second portion. The first portion attached to a first section of a structure and the second portion attached to a second section of the structure. When a pressurized fluid is forced between the first portion and the second portion, a load is transferred to the first section and the second section by the pressure of the fluid on the first portion and the second portion. The first section and the second section are forced apart by the load, thus creating or enlarging at least one void in the structure. The pressurized fluid fills or partially fills one or more of the at least one void, thereby increasing the surface area effectively normal to the direction of the load in contact with the pressurized fluid.
US09499948B2

A hot applied thermoplastic pavement composition and method of using, wherein the composition comprises; a modified polyamide resin in the range of between 3 and 10 percent by weight, wherein the composition contains rosin-modified esters, a copolymer, 30-70 percent by weight of a glass bead intermix, a range of between 1 and 15 percent by weight of either white or yellow pigment, the balance of the composition being selected from the group consisting of; one or more plasticizers, inorganic fillers, waxes, antioxidants and light stabilizers.
US09499944B2

A process for improving the wet strength of paper or paperboard is disclosed, and compositions, methods, and products related to improved wet strength paper or paperboard are provided. The process includes, for example, contacting at least one side of the paper or paperboard with water or an aqueous composition to wet the paper or paperboard, contacting the wet paper or paperboard with a wet strength resin composition followed by drying the paper or paperboard. The resulted treated or coated paper or paperboard has comparable wet strength properties to that of paper or paperboard containing wet strength resin from a conventional wet end application.
US09499942B2

In general, the present disclosure is directed to creped tissue webs, and products produced therefrom. The creped webs and products are strong, soft, and have fine crepe structure, such as less than about 12, measured as % COV at a STFI wavelength of 16 to 32 mm, using the test method set forth herein. Fine crepe structure is achieved even at basis weights in excess of 16 gsm per ply.
US09499939B2

Biomass (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) is processed to produce useful intermediates and products, such as energy, fuels, foods or materials. For example, systems and methods are described that can be used to treat feedstock materials, such as cellulosic and/or lignocellulosic materials, in a vault in which the equipment is protected from radiation and hazardous gases by equipment enclosures. The equipment enclosures may be purged with gas.
US09499931B2

Disclosed is a fully automatic washing machine for easily unloading washed laundry on a bottom surface of a washing tub, and more particularly, to a full automatic washing machine for easily unloading laundry by lifting the laundry from the bottom of the washing tub by lifting a pulsator at the bottom of the washing tub.
US09499928B2

A polyester fiber suitable for an airbag fabric has an elongation of 0.8 to 2.0% under a tensile strength of 1.0 g/d at the room temperature, and an additional elongation of 1.5 to 5% under a tensile strength of 8.8 g/d to the maximum. The polyester fiber secures low initial Young's modulus and good mechanical properties and can be used in an airbag fabric not only to provide excellences in air sealing effect as well as packing property and dimensional stability but also to minimize collision impacts on occupants, thereby protecting the occupants with safety.
US09499916B2

New metal persulfido compositions of matter are described. In one embodiment the metal is molybdenum and the metal persulfido complex mimics the structure and function of the triangular active edge site fragments of MoS2, a material that is the current industry standard for petroleum hydro desulfurization, as well as a promising low-cost alternative to platinum for electrocatalytic hydrogen production. This molecular [(PY5W2)MoS2]x+ containing catalyst is capable of generating hydrogen from acidic-buffered water or even seawater at very low overpotentials at a turnover frequency rate in excess of 500 moles H2 per mole catalyst per second, with a turnover number (over a 20 hour period) of at least 19,000,000 moles H2 per mole of catalyst.
US09499913B2

A solution for electroless deposition of platinum is provided. The solution comprises Co2+ ions, Pt4+ ions, and amine ligands. A ratio of Co2+ to Pt4+ ion is between 100:1 and 2:1. The solution allows for electroless deposition of platinum without requiring high temperatures and high pH. The solution allows for the deposition of a pure platinum layer.
US09499910B2

A process of pretreatment for selective application of electroless metallization to a surface of a non-conductive material and a solution useful for the pretreatment are provided. The process achieves good coverage in areas to be plated on the surface of non-conductive materials without skip plating or over plating.
US09499907B2

A method of forming a material over a substrate includes performing at least one iteration of the following temporally separated ALD-type sequence. First, an outermost surface of a substrate is contacted with a first precursor to chemisorb a first species onto the outermost surface from the first precursor. Second, the outermost surface is contacted with a second precursor to chemisorb a second species different from the first species onto the outermost surface from the second precursor. The first and second precursors include ligands and different central atoms. At least one of the first and second precursors includes at least two different composition ligands. The two different composition ligands are polyatomic or a lone halogen. Third, the chemisorbed first species and the chemisorbed second species are contacted with a reactant which reacts with the first species and with the second species to form a reaction product new outermost surface of the substrate.
US09499905B2

Methods and apparatus for deposition of materials on substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, an apparatus may include a process chamber having a substrate support; a heating system to provide heat energy to the substrate support; a gas inlet port disposed to a first side of the substrate support to provide at least one of a first process gas or a second process gas across a processing surface of the substrate; a first gas distribution conduit disposed above the substrate support and having one or more first outlets disposed along the length of the first gas distribution conduit to provide a third process gas to the processing surface of the substrate, wherein the one or more first outlets are substantially linearly arranged; and an exhaust manifold disposed to a second side of the substrate support opposite the gas inlet port to exhaust the process gases from the process chamber.
US09499901B2

Methods for depositing a layer on a substrate are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method of depositing a metal-containing layer on a substrate in a physical vapor deposition (PVD) chamber may include applying RF power at a VHF frequency to a target comprising a metal disposed in the PVD chamber above the substrate to form a plasma from a plasma-forming gas; optionally applying DC power to the target; sputtering metal atoms from the target using the plasma while maintaining a first pressure in the PVD chamber sufficient to ionize a predominant portion of the sputtered metal atoms; and controlling the potential on the substrate to be the same polarity as the ionized metal atoms to deposit a metal-containing layer on the substrate.
US09499897B2

Provided is a thin film forming apparatus for reducing operation time and cost by forming a film only on a specific portion on substrates. A substrate holding mechanism provided in the apparatus includes: substrate holding members holding substrates in a manner that a part of a non-film forming portion of a substrate overlaps the other substrate and a film forming portion is exposed, a support member supporting the substrate holding members, and a rotation member which rotates the support member. The substrate holding members include: holding surfaces holding the substrates and disposed between a film forming source and the substrates, step portions formed between the holding surfaces in a manner that ends of the substrates respectively contact with the step portions, and opening portions formed on the holding surfaces of the portion corresponding to the film forming portion when the ends of the substrates contact with the step portions.
US09499894B2

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention can provide a method for producing hot dip galvannealed steel sheet which exhibits high strength, high ductility, and a significant degree of alloying. Such exemplary method can be applied to, e.g., a pickled hot rolled steel sheet or an annealed and pickled cold rolled steel sheet containing between about 0.02% and about 0.2% C and between about 0.15% and about 2.5% Mn, and may include one or more procedures for rinsing the sheet, preplating the sheet with Ni, rapidly heating the sheet in a nonoxidizing atmosphere to a sheet temperature of about 430° C. to 500° C., then hot dip plating the sheet in a galvanizing bath containing between about 0.05% and about 0.2% Al, and then immediately heating the sheet rapidly for an alloying treatment. Such exemplary method can provide an improved alloying speed, improved plating appearance and better plating adhesion.
US09499891B2

A class of alloys is provided that form metallic glass upon cooling below the glass transition temperature Tg at a rate below 100° K/sec. The alloys have a high value of temperature difference (DT) between the crystallization temperature (Tx) and the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the intermetallic alloy. Such alloys comprise zirconium in the range of 70 to 80 weight percent, beryllium in the range of 0.8 to 5 weight percent, copper in the range of 1 to 15 weight percent, nickel in the range of 1 to 15 weight percent, aluminum in the range of 1 to 5 weight percent and niobium in the range of 0.5 to 3 weight percent, or narrower ranges depending on other alloying elements and the critical cooling rate and value of DT desired. Furthermore, methods are provided for making such metallic glasses.
US09499885B2

A Cu—Co—Si alloy having an improved balance between electrical conductivity and strength is provided. Disclosed is a copper alloy for electronic materials, which contains 0.5% to 4.0% by mass of Co and 0.1% to 1.2% by mass of Si, with the balance being Cu and unavoidable impurities, and in which the mass % ratio of Co and Si (Co/Si) is 3.5≦Co/Si≦5.5, an area ratio of discontinuous precipitation (DP) cells is 5% or less, and an average value of a maximum width of discontinuous precipitation (DP) cells is 2 μm or less.
US09499881B2

Hydrometallurgical systems, methods, and compositions are described in which organic amine-based lixiviants are utilized in the selective recovery of rare earth elements. The lixiviant can be regenerated in situ, permitting the organic amine to be used in substoichiometric amounts.
US09499877B2

The present invention provides a method for producing high-purity calcium, the method being characterized by the following: performing first sublimation purification by introducing calcium starting material having a purity, excluding the gas components, of 4N or less into a crucible of a sublimation vessel, subjecting the starting material to sublimation by heating at 750° C. to 800° C., and causing the product to deposit (evaporate) onto the inside walls of the sublimation vessel; and then, once the calcium that has been subjected to first sublimation purification is recovered, performing second sublimation purification by introducing the recovered calcium again to the crucible to the sublimation vessel, heating the recovered calcium at 750° C. to 800° C., and causing the product to similarly deposit (evaporate) on the inside walls of the sublimation vessel thereby recovering calcium having a purity of 4N5 or higher It is an object of the present invention to provide a technology with which calcium that has been brought to a high-purity can be obtained with stability to be used for the production of high-purity lanthanum, as well as to be used as a reducing agent for other rare earth elements, a desulfurizing or deoxidizing agent for metals, or a getter for high-vacuum pumps.
US09499872B2

Iron production furnace equipment includes a melting reactor into which iron oxide-containing raw material and slag formers are added. A melter arrangement melts the iron oxide-containing raw material and transforms the melted raw material into liquid slag. A smelting reduction reactor is connected to the melting reactor by a slag transfer arrangement. The smelting reduction reactor includes a heater arrangement for heating the slag, a port for supplying a reductant for reducing the iron oxide in the slag into a liquid iron melt and produces a combustible gas mixture including at least one of CO and H2. A gas connection is provided between the smelting reduction reactor and the melter arrangement. The melter arrangement in turn comprises a combuster combusting the gas mixture for purpose of melting the raw material.
US09499867B2

This document features method related to variants in the Inverted Formin 2 (INF2) gene that are susceptibility to focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). For example, methods of using such variants for risk assessment and for diagnosing and optimizing treatment of FSGS are provided.
US09499866B2

Described herein are nucleic acid based probes and methods for discriminating and detecting single nucleotide variants in nucleic acid molecules (e.g., DNA). The methods include use of a pair of probes can be used to detect and identify polymorphisms, for example single nucleotide polymorphism in DNA. The pair of probes emit a different fluorescent wavelength of light depending on the association and alignment of the probes when hybridized to a target nucleic acid molecule. Each pair of probes is capable of discriminating at least two different nucleic acid molecules that differ by at least a single nucleotide difference. The methods can probes can be used, for example, for detection of DNA polymorphisms that are indicative of a particular disease or condition.
US09499854B2

The claims describe a process for designing and validating peptide-based substrates for a specified kinase. The process uses a rational approach to design peptides with a specific amino acid that is phosphorylated by a target tyrosine kinase, and upon phosphorylation shows an increased affinity for a lanthanide ion that results in an enhanced fluorescent signal. The process uses kinase specific input data sets, encodes the input into positional scoring matrices, analyses the positional scoring matrices in order to generate a candidate list of peptide sequences, compares the peptide sequences in the candidate list, substitutes residues at non-selective positions in selections from the candidate list with terbium binding residues, and then screens the substituted selections with different kinases in vitro.
US09499839B2

A method for fermenting carbohydrate-rich crops is provided. Sugar beet, sugar cane, sweet sorghum, tropical maize hybrids and fruits are rich in simple sugars; potato, sweet potato, cassava and yam are rich in starch; and Jerusalem artichoke is rich in inulin. This method uses vacuum infusion to infuse yeast into the intercellular space (apoplast) of the parenchyma tissue. The simple sugars diffuse into the apoplast, come into contact with the yeast and produce ethanol. Ethanol can be extracted from the crop by vacuum stripping or crushing or can be left inside the starchy crop to preserve it. In some variants, pectinase enzymes degrade the parenchyma cell walls to speed up diffusion of simple sugars to the yeast, speed up diffusion of amylase to starch granules or speed up diffusion of inulinase to insoluble inulin.
US09499833B2

The present invention is directed to wheat plants having increased resistance to an imidazolinone herbicide. More particularly, the present invention includes wheat plants containing one or more IMI nucleic acids such as a Gunner IMI 205, Gunner IMI 208 and Madsen IMI cultivar. The present invention also includes seeds produced by these wheat plants and methods of controlling weeds in the vicinity of these wheat plants.
US09499825B2

The present invention provides a dual inducible system for single protein production, as well as a method of inducing high level protein expression using amino acids.
US09499822B2

A simple and inexpensive method for selectively culturing a microorganism which method makes it possible to selectively culture a microorganism of interest even without using a sterilization operation or an antibiotic substance is provided. The method according to the present invention selectively culturing a microorganism includes the step of culturing, in a culture medium containing phosphorous acid as a sole phosphorous source, a recombinant microorganism into which a phosphite dehydrogenase gene has been introduced.
US09499819B2

The present invention provides pharmaceutical formulations for oral administration of antisense oligonucleotides, such as antisense oligonucleotides against SMAD7. The pharmaceutical formulations can be used to treat Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis and chronic inflammatory bowel disease.
US09499818B2

The invention relates to a method where a molecule is used for inducing and/or promoting the skipping of at least one of the exons 51-53, 55, 57 and 59 of the DMD pre-mRNA in a patient, preferably in an isolated cell of a patient. The method comprising providing the cell and/or the patient with a molecule. The invention also relates to the molecule and its composition that is being used for inducing exon skipping.
US09499816B2

The present invention discloses multiple treatment regimens for vascular-related diseases and disorders. The present invention provides for methods of treating vascular-related disorders based on gene expression studies from samples collected from individuals having symptoms of vascular-related disorders. Additionally, methods are disclosed involving diagnostic techniques to focus treatment regimens. Finally, methods of treating vascular-related disorder involving targeting microRNAs are also disclosed.
US09499814B2

The invention provides products of manufacture for screening for compositions that can modify a cell's gene expression profile, and methods for making and using them. In one embodiment, the invention provides products of manufacture and methods comprising a high content, high throughput screening for a composition (e.g., chemicals, small molecules) that can modify a cell's physiology based on the composition's ability to modify the cell's gene expression signature.
US09499812B2

The present invention includes methods, devices and systems for isolating a nucleic acid from a fluid comprising cells. In various aspects, the methods, devices and systems may allow for a rapid procedure that requires a minimal amount of material and/or results in high purity nucleic acid isolated from complex fluids such as blood or environmental samples.
US09499810B2

Thrombopoietic compositions are provided comprising tyrosyl tRNA synthetase polypeptides, including truncations and/or variants thereof. Also provided are methods of using such compositions in the treatment of conditions that benefit from increased thrombopoiesis, such as thrombocytopenia.
US09499806B2

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having cellulolytic enhancing activity and isolated polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides.
US09499805B2

The present invention provides sequence specific restriction enzymes for site-specific cleavage of RNA, as well as methods of their use.
US09499802B2

The present invention relates to isolated polypeptides having peroxygenase activity, and polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the polynucleotides as well as methods of producing and using the polypeptides. A polynucleotide encoding a peroxygenase was isolated from Pestalotiopsis virgatula.
US09499796B2

The invention relates to an isolated multipotent glomerular mesenchymal stem cell derived from adult human kidney (hGL-MSC), which is characterized by the marker profile CD133−, CD146+, CD34− and CD105+. A method of preparing the hGL-MSC of the invention form decapsulated glomeruli is also disclosed, as well as the uses of the hGL-MSC of the invention in the regenerative treatment of the kidney, particularly for the treatment of injuries or diseases affecting renal glomeruli.
US09499795B2

Disclosed herein are cell cultures comprising dorsal and/or ventral PDX1-positive foregut endoderm cells and methods of producing the same. Also disclosed herein are cell populations comprising substantially purified dorsal and/or ventral PDX1-positive foregut endoderm cells as well as methods for enriching, isolating and purifying dorsal and/or ventral PDX1-positive foregut endoderm cells from other cell types. Methods of identifying differentiation factors capable of promoting the differentiation of dorsal and/or ventral PDX1-positive foregut endoderm cells, are also disclosed.
US09499794B2

The present disclosure describes methods of maintaining the phenotype of differentiated cells. Generally, the natural environment of the body is replicated for the differentiated cell. The differentiated cell is plated on a cell culture substrate comprising a laminin, such as laminin-521 or laminin-511. The substrate may also contain a cadherin. This maintains the phenotype of the differentiated cell.
US09499777B2

A process for producing malt-based beverage, in which any components, affecting flavor, foam quality, flavor stability and haze stability, of the malt-based beverage can be regulated by separating dried germinated barley as a raw material for malt-based beverage by tissues. In particular, the process for producing malt-based beverage comprises separating dried germinated barley into endosperm, endothelial layer, husk, acrospire, malt rootlets and unseparated part fractions and preparing a starting material of malt-based beverage from each or blend of the thus obtained by-tissue fractions, the each or blend optionally further mixed with wholegrain malt not subjected to fractioning, so that any components, affecting flavor, foam quality, flavor stability and haze stability, of the malt-based beverage can be regulated.
US09499763B2

A lubricating oil comprising a major amount of base oil and a minor amount of an additive package, wherein the additive package comprises:(A) a friction modifier component selected from: (a) one or more a reaction products of an alcohol with a compound of the formula IV: and (b) one or more compounds of the Formulae II-III: wherein R is a linear or branched, saturated, unsaturated, or partially saturated hydrocarbyl having about 8 to about 22 carbon atoms, R2 and R3 are independently selected from hydrogen C1-C18 hydrocarbyl groups, and C1-C18 hydrocarbyl groups containing one or more heteroatoms; X is an alkali metal, alkaline earth metal or ammonium cation and n is the valence of cation X, and reaction products of amines, amino alcohols, alkali or alkaline earth metal hydroxides, alkali or alkaline earth metal oxides and mixtures thereof with compounds of the Formula IV: Where R is as defined above; and (B) at least one friction modifier that is different from the one or more compounds (A).
US09499759B2

A multilayer paper-based wet friction material of an automotive auto transmission may improve noise and vibration characteristics, heat resistance, wear resistance, compression resistance, and oil absorbency. The paper-based wet friction material of an automotive auto transmission includes: a first layer using cellulose pulp as a matrix and including a first functional additive; a second layer stacked on the first layer, using the cellulose pulp as the matrix, and including the second functional additive; and a hydrogen bonding layer mediating between the first layer and the second layer. The cellulose pulp of the first and second layers is cotton linter.
US09499757B2

The present disclosure provides a novel method and machine for the production of a biomass composition from waste materials including the steps of evaluating the waste material for emissions related factors, treating the evaluated waste material with the additive composition to form a low emissions biomass composition and shaping the biomass composition into solid fuel formations. The present invention further provides an additive composition used in the treatment of the waste materials that comprises an emission sponge, a filler and optional BTU modifier. The treating step includes the steps of sizing selected waste materials, blending the sized waste materials with the additive composition formulated specifically for the waste material and forming with a press the blended waste materials into solid fuel formations. The resulting biomass solid fuel formations produce lower emissions than typically produced by coal and may be combined with, or used in place of coal in fuel burning structures and devices.
US09499752B2

Systems and methods are provided for slurry hydroconversion of a heavy oil feed, such as an atmospheric or vacuum resid. The systems and methods allow for slurry hydroconversion using catalysts with enhanced activity. The catalysts with enhanced activity can be used in conjunction with demetallization catalysts or catalysts that can be recycled as a side product from a complementary refinery process.
US09499747B2

A method for cracking hydrocarbon, comprises: providing steam and hydrocarbon; and feeding steam and hydrocarbon into a reactor accessible to hydrocarbon and comprising a perovskite material of formula AaBbCcDdO3-δ, wherein 0
US09499746B2

An alignment material composition, a flattening material composition, a liquid crystal display device and a process for adjusting the display color of the liquid crystal display device. The alignment material composition or the flattening material composition each includes 0.5-20 wt % of an organic additive, which is one or more of spiropyran compounds, Schiff base compounds, and heterocyclic diarylethene compounds. By way of adding the aforesaid organic additive in the orientation layer or the flat layer of the liquid crystal display device, the display color is allowed to be adjusted in a broad color range without affecting other display performances of the liquid crystal display device.
US09499744B2

A liquid crystal compound is provided that satisfies at least one physical property, including high stability to ultraviolet light and heat, a high clearing point, low minimum temperature of a liquid crystal phase, small viscosity, suitable optical anisotropy, large dielectric anisotropy and excellent compatibility with other liquid crystal compounds. A liquid crystal composition containing the compound, and a liquid crystal display device including the composition is also provided. The composition contains the compound, and the liquid-crystal display device includes the composition: wherein, for example, Ra and Rb are alkyl; rings A1, A2, A3 and A4 are 1,4-cyclohexylene or 1,4-phenylene; and P is a divalent group represented by formula (pr-1) or (pr-2): wherein, for example, Z1, Z2, Z3 and Z4 are a single bond or alkylene; and a, b, c and d are 0, 1 or 2, and a sum of a, b, c and d is 5 or less.
US09499730B2

A rubber composition based on at least one diene elastomer, a filler that contains carbon black and an inorganic filler, and a crosslinking system, wherein the inorganic filler content is greater than or equal to 5 parts by weight per hundred parts by weight of elastomer, phr, and represents at most 50% as a weight fraction of the whole of the total filler of the composition, and wherein the carbon black includes at least one acetylene-derived carbon black, with a content of greater than 3 phr, the amount of acetylene-derived carbon black representing more than 50% of the carbon black present in the composition as a weight fraction, and wherein the composition contains a plasticizing oil or a plasticizing resin with a total content of plasticizing oil and plasticizing resin of less than 30 phr.
US09499725B2

The present invention relates to an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition, and more particularly, to an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive composition, which comprises (a) 100 weight parts of an acrylic copolymer, (b) 0.001 to 30 weight parts of an antistatic agent; and (c) 0.01 to 10 weight parts of a corrosion inhibitor, thereby being optically transparent, causing durability and reliability not to change, and simultaneously improving antistatic performance and preventing generation of corrosion although the adhesive composition comes into contact with a metal surface.
US09499719B2

A process allowing the encapsulation of a polymerization accelerator comprising the steps of: a) providing an reverse emulsion containing, in an oil phase, a water solution/dispersion containing the polymerization activator, the oil phase including a heat curable mixture of an isocyanate and a polyalkyldiene hydroxylated or polyol, b) pouring the reverse emulsion in a water phase to make a multiple emulsion water/oil/water, containing drops of activators as the internal water phase, and then, c) heating the multiple emulsion obtained in step b) at a temperature of between 50 and 95° C., in order to cure the polyisocyanate in polyurethane and obtain drops of activator enclosed in shells of polyurethane dispersed in water.The invention also relates to aqueous gelling systems comprising the encapsulated polymerization accelerator with water soluble or dispersable monomers and a polymerization initiator dispersed in said monomers, useful i.a. for sealing subterranean environments or consolidation of a soil or sealing of a subterranean structure.
US09499713B2

A resin particle aggregate is the resin particle aggregate formed by aggregating a plurality of resin particles including a polymer of a vinyl monomer, includes 100 parts by mass of the resin particles and 1 to 5 parts by mass of a surfactant. The resin particles are cross-linked by a cross-linkable monomer in an amount of 10 to 50% by mass relative to the total mass of the resin particles, the resin particle aggregate contains an inorganic component in an amount of 0.5% by mass or less, the resin particles have a volume average particle diameter D1, particles contained in a dispersion liquid of the resin particle aggregate in water have a volume average particle diameter D2, and the ratio of D2/D1 is 15 or less.
US09499708B2

The present disclosure provides an encapsulated dye dispersion and an inkjet ink comprising an ink vehicle and an encapsulated dye dispersion thereof. In particular, the encapsulated dye dispersion includes a fluorescent and/or photochromic dye. The present disclosure also provides a process for producing the encapsulated dye dispersion.
US09499695B2

The present invention provides a polycarbonate resin composition for molding a molded article having a thin-walled section and exhibiting a high level of flame resistance and impact resistance, and an excellent surface appearance (low-gloss property). More specifically, the present invention is a polycarbonate resin composition for molding a polycarbonate resin molded article having a thin-walled section with a wall thickness of 0.6 mm or less, the polycarbonate resin composition being characterized in that the resin composition contains an oligomeric phosphoric acid ester flame retardant (B1) and/or a phosphazene flame retardant (B2), and the content of flame retardant with respect to 100 parts by mass of polycarbonate resin (A) is: i) 5 to 20 parts by mass when the resin composition contains only the oligomeric phosphoric acid ester flame retardant (B1); ii) 10 to 30 parts by mass when the resin composition contains only the phosphazene flame retardant (B2); or iii) a total of 5 to 30 parts by mass when the resin composition contains both the oligomeric phosphoric acid ester flame retardant (B1) and the phosphazene flame retardant (B2), with the content ratio thereof being 1 to 49 mass % of (B1) and 99 to 51 mass % of (B2), the resin composition additionally contains 3 to 15 parts by mass of a siloxane-based core/shell elastomer (C) and 0.8 to 10 parts by mass of carbon black (D) with respect to 100 parts by mass of polycarbonate resin (A), the siloxane-based core/shell elastomer (C) has a silicon content of 9.1 to 30 mass % and a number-average particle size in the range of 50 to 1,000 nm, and the flow rate per unit time of the resin composition is 15 to 50 ×10−2 cm3/sec.
US09499686B2

‘Green’ composites are fabricated using resins, such as soy-based resins, and reinforced with crystalline high strength bacterial cellulose (BC) fibers. Bacterial cellulose is produced by providing a bacterial cellulose-producing bacterium such as Acetobacter xylinum; providing an inexpensive bacteria nutritional medium; culturing the bacterium in the bacteria nutritional medium under conditions to produce bacterial cellulose; and isolating bacterial cellulose produced by cultured bacteria from the bacteria nutritional medium. The bacteria nutritional medium comprises an inexpensive carbon source that is a plant-based seed extract. The seed extract is derived from a plant-based seed comprising soluble sugars.
US09499683B2

A process for treating a polymer having a hydrolyzable functionality, the method comprising: (i.) providing a polymer having hydrolyzable functionality; and (ii.) introducing a stabilizing agent to the polymer, where the stabilizing agent is defined by the formula (I) where ÷ is a hydrolyzable group that forms an acidic species upon hydrolysis, where R2, R3, and R4 are each independently a halogen atom, a hydrocarbyl group, a hydrocarboxylate group, or a hydrocarbyloxy group.
US09499682B2

A polybutylene terephthalate resin composition which is free from bleeding and other problems, and improves the flowability (melt-flowability) while maintaining the characteristics such as mechanical strength or toughness. To 100 parts by weight of a composition composed of 50 to 90% by weight of (A) a polybutylene terephthalate resin and 10 to 50% by weight of (B) inorganic filler, is blended 0.05 to 5 parts by weight of (C) a glycerin fatty acid ester being composed of glycerin and/or a dehydrated condensate thereof and a fatty acid having 12 or more carbon atoms and having 200 or more hydroxyl value determined by a method specified in the description.
US09499681B2

Epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters and methods for making epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters. Such epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters can be prepared by epoxidizing fatty acid alkyl esters with an acid and a peroxide. Epoxidation can be performed under controlled reaction conditions to provide epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters having an iodine value in the range of from 4 to 15 g I2/100 g of epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters. Epoxidized fatty acid alkyl esters can be employed in plasticizer compositions, either alone or in combination with other plasticizers, such as epoxidized natural oils. Such plasticizers in turn may be used in the formation of polymeric compositions.
US09499673B2

Method for producing a nanocomposite material reinforced by unidirectionally oriented pre-dispersed alumina nanofibers. The process is suited for industrial-scale production of the nanocomposite materials. The nanocomposite production process involves, synthesis of unidirectionally oriented pre-dispersed alumina nanofibers, casting a mat of pre-dispersed nanofibers with a predetermined orientation in the atmosphere of air or other gas(es) by saturating the nanofibers with liquid polymer matrix. Polymer matrix may include thermosets or/and thermoplastics. The material forming the polymer matrix may be heated to its melting point temperature to transform it to liquid phase. After saturation, the polymer matrix is hardened by lowering its temperature or by means of exposing the polymer matrix to UV radiation, electron beam and/or chemical hardeners. The nanomaterial is composed of polymer composite with homogeneously dispersed uniformly oriented reinforcing nanofibers. Subsequently, the nanofibers in the nanocomposite are dispersed by means of subjecting to hydrodynamic stress, mechanical or/and ultrasound coarse dispersing.
US09499670B2

The present invention relates to a catalyst for the cross-linking of silicone rubber materials. In particular, the present invention provides a composition for the production of a silicone rubber material, wherein the composition comprises a catalyst, which comprises at least two compounds, which are different from each other and which are selected independently of each other from metal salts of carboxylic acids. In addition, the present invention provides a use of the catalyst according to the invention for the cross-linking of a silicone rubber material, as well as a use of the composition according to the invention for the production of a silicone rubber material, especially for the use as a sealant, an adhesive, or a coating agent.
US09499664B2

A polyimide polymer, polyimide film and polyimide laminate plate including the same are provided. The polyimide polymer includes Formula (I), Formula (II) and Formula (III). In Formula (I), Formula (II) and Formula (III), A is an aromatic group with fluorine, B, B′, and B″ are aromatic groups different from one another. B/(B+B′+B″), B′/(B+B′+B″), and B″/(B+B′+B″) are larger than 0. The polyimide film includes a film layer which includes the above polyimide polymer. The film layer optionally includes colorants or inorganic nanoparticles. Therefore, the thermal resistance and the transparency of the polyimide film are improved, and a polyimide film with high thermal resistance and different colors is available. The polyimide solution can also be applied on metal film to form polyimide laminate plate.
US09499659B2

The present invention relates to novel latent curing agents for curing curable polymer resins, in particular epoxy resins, and to epoxy resin compositions and the use thereof in the production of fiber composites.
US09499654B2

To provide an aqueous urethane resin composition with high reactivity, excellent drying characteristics, and the like, even under low-temperature environment.Provided is an aqueous urethane resin composition consisting mainly of the following (A) component and containing the following (B) and (C) components:(A) Hydrophilic polyol,(B) Water dispersible polyisocyanate,(C) Aspartic acid ester having a secondary amino group
US09499649B2

The present invention relates to a photoreactive compound for the preparation of a photoalignment material comprising thioether units, wherein the photoreactive compound is comprising at least one ene group and at least one photoalignment group, and further to a composition comprising at least one photoreactive compound and at least one polythiol, the use of this composition for the preparation of photoalignment materials, and their use for the alignment of liquid crystals or liquid crystal polymers, in electro-optical and optical elements, systems and devices.
US09499639B2

The present invention provides a method of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) extraction from gram negative bacterial cells comprising the step: extracting LPS from the cell culture in a composition (LPS extraction composition) comprising water, an alcohol and a further organic solvent.
US09499635B2

Provided is a system for localizing and optimizing harvesting of woody biomass by providing a plurality of portable pretreatment units at harvesting or mill sites. The sugars derived from woody waste products can be transported to plants for processing or processing directly by plants located at mill sites to generate biofuels and other chemicals.
US09499629B2

The present invention provides compositions and methods for treating cancer in a human. The invention includes relates to administering a genetically modified T cell to express a CAR wherein the CAR comprises an antigen binding domain, a transmembrane domain, a costimulatory signaling region, and a CD3 zeta signaling domain.
US09499624B2

The present invention relates to antibodies against human CSF-1R (anti-CSF-1R antibody), methods for their production, pharmaceutical compositions containing said antibodies, and uses thereof.
US09499614B2

The present invention relates to the field of protein production, and in particular to methods and compositions for modulating glycosylation of proteins expressed in host cells.
US09499611B2

The present invention is directed to antibodies and fragments thereof having binding specificity for NGF. Another embodiment of this invention relates to the antibodies described herein, and binding fragments thereof, comprising the sequences of the VH, VL and CDR polypeptides described herein, and the polynucleotides encoding them. The invention also contemplates conjugates of anti-NGF antibodies and binding fragments thereof conjugated to one or more functional or detectable moieties. The invention also contemplates methods of making said anti-NGF antibodies and binding fragments thereof. Embodiments of the invention also pertain to the use of anti-NGF antibodies, and binding fragments thereof, for the diagnosis, assessment and treatment of diseases and disorders associated with NGF.
US09499609B2

The present invention provides antibodies useful as therapeutics for treating and/or preventing diseases associated with cells expressing CLD1 8, including tumor-related diseases such as gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, hepatic cancer, head-neck cancer, and cancer of the gallbladder.
US09499592B2

Provided herein are compositions, kits and methods useful in the construction of designer transcription activator-like effector (dTALE) polypeptides.
US09499588B2

This invention provides flavivirus vaccines that comprise live-attenuated flaviviruses and methods of making and using these vaccines. The flavivirus vaccines described herein possess higher potency due to in situ production of additional immunogens in a way that mimics viral infection and the vaccines have potential for higher potency, reducing costs for production and delivery.
US09499587B2

The present invention is directed to a novel class of antimicrobial agents called γ-AApeptides. The current invention provides various categories of γ-AApeptides, for example, linear γ-AApeptides, cyclic γ-AApeptides, and lipidated γ-AApeptides. γ-AApeptides of the current invention are designed to exert antimicrobial activity while being stable and non-toxic. γ-AApeptides also do not appear to lead to the development of microbial resistance in treated microorganisms. Thus, the disclosed γ-AApeptides can be used for the treatment of various medical conditions associated with pathogenic microorganisms.
US09499586B2

A compound having formula (I) or formula (II): for use in anticancer or anti-obesity.
US09499582B2

Compositions and methods utilizing thiol-containing short peptides having the sequence Cys-Lys-Met-Cys (SEQ ID NO: 1) and optionally N- and C-terminal modifications are described, for increasing carnitine level in muscle tissues, and treating or preventing diseases or disorders affecting muscle tissue.
US09499579B2

The present invention provides a particular branched chain-containing aromatic compound. The branched chain-containing aromatic compound of the present invention is easily-soluble in isopropyl acetate superior in liquid-separation operability, and can be used for a production method of peptide and the like, which provides a final product simply by extraction separation, without crystallization and isolation of each intermediate in each step.
US09499576B2

The present invention relates to a compound represented by Formulas 1, 2 or 3 as described herein, and a nucleic acid each of which contains a dye exhibiting an exciton effect, a method of producing such a nucleic acid by using the compound, and a kit for producing the nucleic acid.
US09499554B2

Disclosed are novel compounds comprising an imino-ribose derivative covalently linked to a carbocycle or heterocycle. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising the compounds of the invention are also described. Methods of inhibition, treatment and/or suppression of viral infections with the compounds of the invention are also described. The compositions or methods may optionally comprise one or more additional anti-viral agents.
US09499553B2

The present invention provides a dihydropyridazine-3,5-dione derivative or a salt thereof, or a solvate of the compound or the salt, a pharmaceutical drug, a pharmaceutical composition, a sodium-dependent phosphate transporter inhibitor, and a preventive and/or therapeutic agent for hyperphosphatemia, secondary hyperparathyroidism, chronic renal failure, chronic kidney disease, and arteriosclerosis associated with vascular calcification comprising the compound as an active ingredient, and a method for prevention and/or treatment.
US09499550B2

Hepatitis C virus inhibitors having the general formula (I) are disclosed. Compositions comprising the compounds and methods for using the compounds to inhibit HCV are also disclosed.
US09499549B2

This invention concerns pyrrolo[3,2-d]pyrimidine derivatives, processes for their preparation, pharmaceutical compositions, and their use in treatment and/or therapy of diseases.
US09499548B2

This application discloses compounds according to generic Formula I: wherein all variables are defined as described herein, which inhibit Btk. The compounds disclosed herein are useful to modulate the activity of Btk and treat diseases associated with excessive Btk activity. The compounds are further useful to treat inflammatory and auto immune diseases associated with aberrant B-cell proliferation such as rheumatoid arthritis. Also disclosed are compositions containing compounds of Formula I and at least one carrier, diluent or excipient.
US09499547B2

The present invention relates to amino-substituted imidazopyridazine compounds of general formula (I): in which A, R1, R3 and n are as defined in the claims, to methods of preparing said compounds, to pharmaceutical compositions and combinations comprising said compounds and to the use of said compounds for manufacturing a pharmaceutical composition for the treatment or prophylaxis of a disease, in particular of a hyper-proliferative and/or angiogenesis disorder, as a sole agent or in combination with other active ingredients.
US09499546B2

The invention relates to an improved process for preparing enantiomerically pure 8-(3-aminopiperidin-1-yl)-xanthines.
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